ASCAP Daily Brief

Friday, March 21, 2014

We are pleased to offer you the ASCAP Daily Brief powered by The Dean's List This daily email, compiled by ASCAP Board member, music publisher and songwriter Dean Kay, cuts through the media clutter to bring you links to the most relevant news and commentary on the rapidly evolving music industry and how it affects your future livelihood. Now the ASCAP Daily Brief can be accessed on the Headlines page of ASCAP.com and in the ASCAP RSS Feed. Tech companies and criminals have made billions supporting the illegal exploitation of our cultural past while ruthlessly pursuing the dismantling of incentives creators need to fashion our cultural future We're Being Royalty Screwed! Pandora Blames Price Rise on Musos Wanting Money By Shaun Nichols -- Streaming music biz Pandora will raise the price of its One subscription service, blaming a jump in royalties it has to pay out to record labels. What ASCAP Members Need to Know About the Pandora Rate Court Decision By ASCAP -- While the court rightly recognized the need for Pandora to pay a higher rate than the rate being paid by most radio stations – the rate that Pandora was seeking – ASCAP continues to believe that songwriters deserve more. STATEMENT: NMPA President and CEO David Israelite Re: ASCAP / Pandora Ruling By David Israelite -- "This ruling confirms what we already knew - songwriters will never be paid fairly as long as they must labor under World War II era consent decrees..." Turntable Officially Closes By Clyde Smith -- As Billy Chasen points out in his Turntable postmortem, startups that require music licensing are in a tough spot..."We spent more than a quarter of our cash on lawyers, royalties and services related to supporting music." [Note to Billy: Real business models take the cost of doing business into account.] Beats Music Added 1000 Subscribers Daily In First Month [Report] By Bruce Houghton -- Five million subscribers needed to be profitable. [In magic, politics and business they call this the "misdirect." Look over there while I do something sneaky over here.] At TED, Google's Larry Page Says NSA Spying Threatens Democracy By Jeff Bercovici -- In an on-stage Q&A at the TED conference in Vancouver, Page said he considers the NSA's far-reaching data collection regime a threat to democracy and an obstacle to technological innovation. [Say what? Not even common sense, morals or the law have been obstacles to Google's technological innovation.] [Here's where you should have been looking.] Google's Widespread Wiretapping Could Have Snowden-esque Repercussions By Scott Cleland -- A shocking new legal fact set recently came together in public as a result of a Gmail wiretapping case, Fread v. Google. Revelations of Google's secret widespread wiretapping of hundreds of millions of people over the last three years, using a NSA-PRISM-like device called "Content One Box" could have Snowden-esque repercussions. How the Bluebird Cafe Is Dealing With Its 'Nashville' Star Turn By Tom Roland -- The Bluebird, which seats no more than 100 people, has long been a difficult place to get a table. Now, thanks to its central role in the ABC drama Nashville, it's close to impossible. Steve Lillywhite, John Beasley, Jackie Boyz and The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Benjamin Weinman Among ASCAP EXPO AdditionsBy ASCAP -- The ASCAP EXPO draws near and we have exciting panelist additions. Don't miss your chance to network and learn from a wide range of music industry leaders. Want to Avoid Friends in Real Life? Get Cloak, a New 'Antisocial' App By Salvador Rodriguez -- A new iPhone app wants to help you avoid running into people you don't like by showing you their latest check-ins on one big green map. Social Media Secrets for Indie Musicians  By Dave Kusek Ambrose Akinmusire: 'Music Can Tell You What It Wants To Be' By NPR Staff -- For a jazz trumpet player, you couldn't be more on top of the world than Ambrose Akinmusire...Akinmusire spoke with NPR's Arun Rath about the unlikely influences — string quartets, documentary films, Joni Mitchell — that have molded him into one of the most talked-about names in contemporary jazz. Listen: Real Bands Cover Classics From Fictional TV and Movie Groups By Devon Maloney -- Some of the greatest bands in history weren't real bands at all. From Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem to Cattanooga Cats, history is full of fictional TV and movie bands that performed classic tunes we will never stop loving. World's Biggest Aircraft Is Funded by Iron Maiden's Frontman By Alexander George Famous People and the Many Actors Who've Portrayed Them, in Photos What Are the Acoustic Wonders of the World? By Joseph Stromberg -- Acoustic engineer Trevor Cox was inspired to embark on his life's grandest quest when he climbed down to the bottom of a sewer. DEAN KAY Dean Kay has been at the helm of some of the most highly respected and forward thinking music publishing companies in the world, first as COO of the Welk Music Group, then as President/CEO of the US division of the PolyGram International Publishing Group, and now as President/CEO of his own precedent setting venture, Lichelle Music Company. Prior to his involvement in publishing, he was a successful songwriter, having had hundreds of his compositions recorded - including "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra. Mr. Kay has been a member of the Board of Directors of ASCAP since 1989 and is Chairman of its New Technologies Committee. He is also on the Board of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA). The ASCAP Daily Brief-Powered by The Dean's List is intended as a guide to direct music professionals to key articles about issues facing the entertainment industry. Recipients are encouraged to read further about the issues by accessing the complete article through the links provided. Author attribution is provided with each article, and none of the links allow readers to by-pass subscription archive gateways. Please note that all editorial comments are indicated in brackets. Questions? Comments? Please Contact Us

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