Emeli Sandé “selling her soul” to the elite?

Emeli Sandé’s “Clown”: A Song About Selling Out to the Music Industry?

Emeli Sandé’s video “Clown” is simple, subtle and artistic but nevertheless conveys a very clear and disturbing message about the music industry and those that rule it. Is “Clown” about Emeli Sandé “selling her soul” to the elite? We’ll look at the meaning of the song and music video. Emeli Sandé is an English-born Scottish singer whose album Our Version of Events became the best selling album of 2012 in the UK. With three number one singles and widespread critical acclaim, Sandé is set to win a slurry of awards in 2013 and possibly more recognition “across the pond”. Did her recent success come with a hefty price tag? Judging by the message conveyed in her single Clown, yes, yes it did.

ASCAP Launches New PLAY MUSIC Licensing Campaign

Simple, Low-Cost, No Reporting License for Websites and Mobile Apps

New York, NY, January 10, 2012: The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers(ASCAP) is pleased to announce the launch of theASCAP PLAY MUSIC License for Websites and Mobile Apps. Designed to make obtaining an ASCAP license easier and more affordable for individuals and small businesses, the new agreement is available now at www.ascap.com/licensing/digital.

In just three easy steps, owners of qualifying websites and mobile apps can purchase a license online for $240 per year. And with no annual reporting, the license is virtually maintenance free.

"At ASCAP, we want to make it as simple and cost-effective as possible to encourage the use of our members' music," commented ASCAP Vice President of New Media Licensing Matt DeFilippis. "Music adds tremendous value to websites and mobile apps. We're excited to offer a convenient way for individuals and small businesses to benefit from the use of ASCAP music while fairly compensating our songwriter, composer, lyricist and music publisher members."

ASCAP licenses its catalog of over 8.5 million music works to thousands of new and established services, ranging from start-ups to the biggest players on the Internet and mobile platforms, as part of its mission to obtain fair compensation for its more than 450,000 songwriter, composer and music publisher members.

For more information, please visit www.ascap.com.

About ASCAP
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a professional membership organization of songwriters, composers and music publishers of every kind of music. ASCAP's mission is to license and promote the music of its members and foreign affiliates, obtain fair compensation for the public performance of their works and to distribute the royalties that it collects based upon those performances. ASCAP members write the world's best-loved music and ASCAP has pioneered the efficient licensing of that music to hundreds of thousands of enterprises who use it to add value to their business - from bars, restaurants and retail, to radio, TV and cable, to Internet, mobile services and more. The ASCAP license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. With 450,000 members representing more than 8.5 million copyrighted works, ASCAP is the worldwide leader in performance royalties, service and advocacy for songwriters and composers, and the only American performing rights organization (PRO) owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. www.ascap.com

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Press Contacts:
Bobbi Marcus
Bobbi Marcus PR & Events, Inc.
(310) 889-9200
bobbi.marcus@bobbimarcuspr.com

Tim Hayes
ASCAP
(212) 621-8414
thayes@ascap.com

ASCAP Daily Briefing

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

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 ofASCAP.com and in the ASCAP RSS Feed. Tech companies 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. ASCAP Launches New PLAY MUSIC Licensing Campaign By ASCAP -- Simple, low-cost, no reporting license for websites and mobile apps. The Copyright Policy Reality Gap By The Trichordist -- Now is the time to have a serious and meaningful conversation about the future of a fair and ethical internet that does not punish the innovative artists and creators who enrich our lives. Hotfile, Megaupload, and the Future of Copyright on the Internet: What can Cyberlockers Tell Us About DMCA Reform? By Ross Drath -- How would a body of copyright law built to regulate tangible objects apply in the digital realm? The safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, intended as a compromise between the interests of copyright owners and webhosts, have instead introduced legal uncertainty and allocated the costs of online enforcement both inefficiently and disproportionately. [Thanks to Terry Hart for the link.] Facebook: Want to Message Ceo Mark Zuckerberg? That Will Be $100 By Jessica Guynn -- Facebook is testing a new feature that would let average Joes and Janes pay cash to get their messages into the inboxes of Facebook users they don't know. (Pay nothing and your message ends up in the dreaded "other folder.") Tumblr More Popular than Facebook Among Young People, Survey Says By Salvador Rodriguez [Yeah. but...Where's the cash, Flash?] Pandora's Tim Westergren Offers Artists Tour Support By Jon Healey -- Speaking to a room full of technology executives and policymakers, Pandora founder Tim Westergren pitched his online radio service as a ladder into the middle class for working musicians. How Money-Losing Pandora Could Become Profitable...If It Wanted To By Jim Edwards Looking For Radio's Future? Check The Car By John Paul Titlow -- You'd think terrestrial radio would be at death's door by now...But FM radio is going strong and Internet services comprise only a tiny percentage of total listening time. Now, though, more and better in-car integrations are about to give Internet radio a huge shove into the future. Music Site This Is My Jam Could Spin Out From Echo Nest By Bobbie Johnson -- A year after it launched as a skunkworks project inside music data company The Echo Nest, trendy social music site This Is My Jam is "looking at options" for going independent - as well as getting ready to launch some fun new site exploration features. Rock & Pop Still Dominate U.S. Digital Music Sales By Bruce Houghton Pay TV Will Shrink for First Time in History, Study Says Cable Watching Peaked in 2011 By Jeff John Roberts -- For the first time ever, the number of U.S. households paying for TV service will go down. The news comes as a tipping point in consumers' struggles to break away from a TV industry that forces them to buy bundles of channels. Five Best Desktop Media Servers By Alan Henry -- Getting your music and movies from one computer to another computer across the house or across the world has never been easier. There are tons of apps designed to make the process simple and painless so you can watch movies on your smartphone when you're out, or just listen to the music on your desktop downstairs in your upstairs bedroom. Dithering - Adding "Good Noise" to Improve Your Home Recordings By Izotope -- What is dithering? In your English class, to "dither" means to act nervously or indecisively. When we're talking about digital audio and home studio recording, dithering is the process of adding noise to the audio signal. Your Friends Are Liars: What People REALLY Think of Your Music! By Chris Robley -- Look, your parents and your partner and your neighbors are not going to tell you that your music sucks. Neither will your co-workers, your church friends, or the people you play rugby with on Wednesdays. Your cousins, your counselor, your drinking-buddies, your favorite barista - nope, can't trust them either...Your friends are not true fans! Winner! The Worst Product At CES 2013 By Jon Mitchell

ASCAP Daily Brief powered by The Dean's List

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 ofASCAP.com and in the ASCAP RSS Feed. 

Tech companies 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.

A Better Look at the Digital Pie
By Glenn Peoples -- Digital download sales were up in 2012 in the United States. Track sales set a record. Digital album sales set a record. In fact, sales were so healthy the gains nearly offset the decline in physical sales...So what does the U.S. digital market look like when subscription and performance revenues are added?

Facebook's Ime Archibong On 2013's Music Strategy, Timeline Grumbling
By Alex Pham -- It's been a hectic year for Facebook, which spent $1 billion buying Instagram in April, then raised $16 billion from its initial public offering a month later...Facebook manager of strategic partnerships Ime Archibong is the person most responsible for the social network's music and video strategy...Here then are his six answers to our commensurate questions.

Reading Between The Lines Google Tells The Truth On Ad Supported Piracy, Now Let Markets Do Their Work.
By The Trichordist -- The four read-between-the-lines admissions are as follows...

Indie Music Grabs 32.6% Of U.S. Album Sales In 2012
By Bruce Houghton

[Good article about the trials and tribulations of starting a small indie label. Word of caution: don't forget to pay the songwriters!]
UK: Simon Dunmore: Defected Founder On Surviving The Digital Music Revolution And His Guilty Pleasures 
By Charlie Thomas -- Simon Dunmore founded Defected records, one of the UK's best known dance labels, with Ministry of Sound in 1999. Nearly 14 years on, he's seen off two recessions, the digital revolution and the threat of file sharing, and he shows no sign of stopping.

[I love the vinyl cartel.]
It's Official: Vinyl Sets Another Sales Record In 2012...
By Paul Resnikoff

Global Gadget Spending Projected to Hit $1.1 Trillion in 2013
By Chris O'Brien

Forget the Internet: Americans Still Glued to TV sets in 2012
By Neil McAllister -- Wasting time on the internet has become a popular concept in recent years, but even in 2012 nothing wasted time like the idiot box.

Hulu Achieved What the Networks Wanted. The Problem Was the Unlikely Success it Found Along the Way
By Sarah Lacy -- What a five-plus years it's been for a venture that never should have even been remotely interesting to begin with.

How MP3.com's Artist-Friendly IPO Apparently Changed the SEC
By Eliot Van Buskirk -- This is not earth-shattering news, but it's an interesting footnote to digital music history: An attempt to make the internet pay musicians apparently caused the Security and Exchange Commission to alter its rules for how many people can join an initial public offering.

The Tyranny of Choice
By Suzanne Spector -- So many choices amongst tech devices, and yet so few - once you choose your ecosystem...Mobile is now the tipping point for the rest of what you will buy. Or at least that's the picture that Apple, Google and Microsoft want to paint.

Creating Great Music on a Budget
By Jenny Beswick

How to Get Rejected in the Music Business
By Music Marketing [dot] com -- There are some things about the music business, or any creative profession, that are accepted by pros, but scare the hell out of amateurs. In fact, these things are so terrifying that they actually keep people from attaining "amateur" status.

Tom Kelly, Acclaimed Songwriter, Speaks on Writing "Like a Virgin" for Madonna
By Steve Rennie -- Back in the 1980s, Tom Kelly formed one half of a formidable songwriting tandem with Billy Steinberg. For several years running, they wrote #1 hit songs for artists like Cyndi Lauper, Whitney Houston, Heart, and Madonna.

All Robot Band Plays Motorhead 
By Bobby Owsinski

ASCAP Daily Briefing

]

Wednesday, January 9, 2013



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 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.


A Better Look at the Digital Pie
By Glenn Peoples -- Digital download sales were up in 2012 in the United States. Track sales set a record. Digital album sales set a record. In fact, sales were so healthy the gains nearly offset the decline in physical sales...So what does the U.S. digital market look like when subscription and performance revenues are added?

Facebook's Ime Archibong On 2013's Music Strategy, Timeline Grumbling
By Alex Pham -- It's been a hectic year for Facebook, which spent $1 billion buying Instagram in April, then raised $16 billion from its initial public offering a month later...Facebook manager of strategic partnerships Ime Archibong is the person most responsible for the social network's music and video strategy...Here then are his six answers to our commensurate questions.

Reading Between The Lines Google Tells The Truth On Ad Supported Piracy, Now Let Markets Do Their Work.
By The Trichordist -- The four read-between-the-lines admissions are as follows...

Indie Music Grabs 32.6% Of U.S. Album Sales In 2012
By Bruce Houghton

[Good article about the trials and tribulations of starting a small indie label. Word of caution: don't forget to pay the songwriters!]
UK: Simon Dunmore: Defected Founder On Surviving The Digital Music Revolution And His Guilty Pleasures
By Charlie Thomas -- Simon Dunmore founded Defected records, one of the UK's best known dance labels, with Ministry of Sound in 1999. Nearly 14 years on, he's seen off two recessions, the digital revolution and the threat of file sharing, and he shows no sign of stopping.

[I love the vinyl cartel.]
It's Official: Vinyl Sets Another Sales Record In 2012...
By Paul Resnikoff

Global Gadget Spending Projected to Hit $1.1 Trillion in 2013
By Chris O'Brien

Forget the Internet: Americans Still Glued to TV sets in 2012
By Neil McAllister -- Wasting time on the internet has become a popular concept in recent years, but even in 2012 nothing wasted time like the idiot box.

Hulu Achieved What the Networks Wanted. The Problem Was the Unlikely Success it Found Along the Way
By Sarah Lacy -- What a five-plus years it's been for a venture that never should have even been remotely interesting to begin with.

How MP3.com's Artist-Friendly IPO Apparently Changed the SEC
By Eliot Van Buskirk -- This is not earth-shattering news, but it's an interesting footnote to digital music history: An attempt to make the internet pay musicians apparently caused the Security and Exchange Commission to alter its rules for how many people can join an initial public offering.

The Tyranny of Choice
By Suzanne Spector -- So many choices amongst tech devices, and yet so few - once you choose your ecosystem...Mobile is now the tipping point for the rest of what you will buy. Or at least that's the picture that Apple, Google and Microsoft want to paint.

Creating Great Music on a Budget
By Jenny Beswick

How to Get Rejected in the Music Business
By Music Marketing [dot] com -- There are some things about the music business, or any creative profession, that are accepted by pros, but scare the hell out of amateurs. In fact, these things are so terrifying that they actually keep people from attaining "amateur" status.

Tom Kelly, Acclaimed Songwriter, Speaks on Writing "Like a Virgin" for Madonna
By Steve Rennie -- Back in the 1980s, Tom Kelly formed one half of a formidable songwriting tandem with Billy Steinberg. For several years running, they wrote #1 hit songs for artists like Cyndi Lauper, Whitney Houston, Heart, and Madonna.

All Robot Band Plays Motorhead
By Bobby Owsinski



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







© 2013 ASCAP

Estelle Axton - Memphis Songwriters Association Founder

Estelle Axton (September 11, 1918 – February 25, 2004)

Estelle was the co-founder, with her brother Jim Stewart, of Stax Records. Born in Middleton, Tennessee, Estelle Stewart grew up on a farm. She moved to Memphis as a school teacher, married Everett Axton, and was working in a bank. In 1958, her brother Jim Stewart asked for help to develop Satellite Records, which he had set up to issue recordings of local country and rockabilly artists. She convinced her husband that they should remortgage their house and, in 1959, joined Satellite as an equal partner. The following year, Axton and Stewart turned the Capitol Theatre, in a black Memphis neighborhood, into a recording studio and record shop, and began making hit records with predominantly black artists. Satellite was forced to change its name after it was discovered that a Los Angeles label already owned the title, and it changed its name to Stax, taking its name from Axton and Stewart's surnames. Axton was actively involved with selecting and developing the artists on the label, who included Rufus Thomas, Otis Redding, Booker T & the MGs, and Isaac Hayes. She sold her interest in the company in 1970. After the non-compete agreement expired, Axton formed Fretone Records whose biggest hit, "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees was licensed for distribution to RSO Records. In December, 2006, The Recording Academy announced that Estelle Axton will be honored with a Trustee's Award as part of the upcoming Grammys.

Estelle was the founder of the Memphis Songwriters Association in 1973. The Memphis Songwriters Association was formed in order to foster the education and advancement of local area songwriters. There was a focus on the development of the songwriting craft with the intentions of producing commercially viable songs and improving performance skills. MSA has consecutively maintained membership for over 35 years. Estelle's formation of the Memphis Songwriters Association led to the motivation of many local songwriters and singer/songwriters publishing their original material. Some of these songs and artists met with some surprising success. Unfortunately, historical records are fragmented and scarce, however, there is a number of MSA alumni that could still tell the stories.

Estelle went on with friend and founder of Moon Records, Cordell Jackson to work with the Music Industries of Memphis, later named the Memphis Music Association to assist in the development of local Memphis music as a global force once again. Their collaboration and guidance helped launch the first Memphis Demo Derby, the brainchild of PR Director Brett Hamilton, which was designed to present and showcase any and all Memphis musical talent to A&R reps, studio heads, producers and the like. The event was such a huge success, it continued for several years. Joe Savarin, founder of the Handy Awards and Wanda Freeman of Tenant Laboratories lent a hand in spite of public opposition. The MMA was the umbrella organization for all Memphis music and still exists today.

The Memphis Songwriters Association is still consistently holding meetings, songwriter workshops, open mics, song critiques and singer/songwriter showcase events to this day. Each and every meeting and event is held in remembrance of "Lady A" that sweet inspirational force with a heart of gold and a million-dollar smile who was ever searching for that next big hit.

MSA Founder Estelle Axton WIKIPEDIA