GM Magazine: November 2013

Saturday, November 23, 2013

ASCAP Inside Music

November 2013 | Essential News, Notes and Opportunities for Your Music Career

Grammy Winners Ne-Yo and Paul Williams Urge Congress to Update Music Licensing Regulations for the Digital Age

Creative Rights Caucus Co-Chairs Rep. Howard Coble and Rep. Judy Chu welcomed ASCAP to Capitol Hill for a special performance and panel discussion focused on changes to the outdated licensing system in today's digital landscape.

The 51st Annual ASCAP Country Music Awards

ASCAP's Country Music Awards were held on November 4th at Nashville's new Music City Center. Josh Kear(pictured above with ASCAP's LeAnn Phelan and Michael Martin) was named Songwriter of the Year and special tribute was paid to George Strait, who was presented with the ASCAP Founders Award in a segment that included a musical homage from Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and Lee Ann Womack.

Click here for full coverage of the ASCAP Country Music Awards

ASCAP100.com: 100 Years in 100 Days

ASCAP EXPO Price Jumps December 1st

Registration for the 2014 ASCAP "I Create Music" EXPO is now open. Early Bird Pricing is available for the entire month of November. On December 1st, the price will increase. Register now to get into our special Lunch Roundtable networking workshop. But hurry - it's nearly sold out!

Upcoming Deadlines

November 26 - ASCAP/DreamWorks Musical Theatre Workshop

December 1 - The Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards

December 15 - Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Awards

Upcoming Events

December 4-5 - Sync Summit - Hollywood

December 5 - Songs for Sound: Nashville's Storytellers in the Round - New York

Check out our full calendar for even more!

For Members

MusicPro and Disc Makers Have Teamed Up To Offer Free Musician Guides

Looking for tried-and-true home studio tips or advice from the experts on how to improve your vocal technique? These musician guides are the perfect way to energize your music career and MusicPro Insurance and Disc Makers are pleased to offer them to you. Download their free instructional PDFs and get a Free Single Song Submission from CD Baby (a $12.95 value).

Get Your Musician Guides

Connect with Us

Video

Why I'm ASCAP - Garth Brooks

Country music superstar, Songwriters Hall of Fameinductee and ASCAP member Garth Brooks explains why ASCAP is so important and that "content will always be king."

Audio Portrait

Bryce Dessner'sAheym

Composer-guitarist Bryce Dessner is best known for his work with The National. In Aheym, the renowned Kronos Quartet plays four pieces composed by Dessner, who weaves sonic tapestries that pull listeners along a subtle, satisfying and deepening journey. Listen to Dessner discuss Aheymin this ASCAP Audio Portrait.

Playback

On the Road and On Record, UK-Born Songwriter Greg Holden Explores the American Dream

After the success of “The Lost Boy” and “Home,” rising folk rocker Greg Holden readies a new record, hits the road with The Lone Bellow and embraces a new musical optimism.

"We Create Music" Blog

Soundtracking the Life and Death of JFK

The assassination of John F. Kennedy continues to occupy a central place in America's collective memory, even for those of us who weren't alive when it happened. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death, we look back at some of the ASCAP members who have provided a soundtrack to JFK's fascinating story and tragic end.

ASCAP Answers

Cue Sheets

If you write songs or underscore for film, TV or other audio/visual media, ASCAP uses cue sheets to find out about your music. ASCAP Manager, Strategic Services Alisha Hall gives an overview of how we use cue sheets.

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Thursday, November 21, 2013

Songwriters Target Lyrics Websites RapGenius, StLyrics, LyricsTranslate

Songwriters demand 50 top sites stop displaying their lyrics

HOLLYWOOD, D.C. | By Ira Teinowitz on November 11, 2013 @ 12:59 pm

Songwriters want websites that publish their lyrics for free to duet with them on the profits.

The industry group the National Music Publishers’ Association demanded at a news conference Monday that 50 top lyrics sites immediately pull down their lyrics, posted without permission. The group says the sites are violating copyrights and illegally profiting from their work.

The group says 5 million people Google lyrics each day, and that half of all online lyrics searches lead to sites posting them without permission.

“These lyric sites have ignored the law and profited off the songwriters’ creative works, and NMPA will not allow this to continue,” said NMPA president and CEO David Israelite in a statement.

He clarified that the group is targeting sites that earn money through ads — not fans who post lyrics, for example, to express how they feel about a breakup.

“This is not a campaign against personal blogs, fan sites, or the many websites that provide lyrics legally,” he said. “NMPA is targeting fifty sites that engage in blatant illegal behavior, which significantly impacts songwriters’ ability to make a living.”

One of the sites targeted — RapGenius.com — had a defense others are likely to offer as well: It does much more than just post others’ lyrics.

“The lyrics sites the NMPA refers to simply display song lyrics, while Rap Genius has crowdsourced annotations that give context to all the lyrics line by line, and tens of thousands of verified annotations directly from writers and performers,” RapGenius founder Ilan Zechory told TheWrap.

The other 50 sites include lyricsmania.com, lyricstranslate.com, stlyrics.com, lyricsreg.com, lyricstime.com, lyrster.com, parolesBmusique.com, kovideo.net, songonlyrics.com, indexBofBmp3s.com, and lyricstranslations.com, among others.

Israelite said the notices were filed on behalf of Sony, NBC Universal and seven independent companies. Sites that don’t respond will face legal action, he said.

David Lowery, a veteran of the bands Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker who has tracked the sites in his research for the University of Georgia, says they are big business.

“Unlicensed lyric sites are largely ignored as copyright infringers, but in fact these sites generate huge web traffic and involve more money than one might think,” he said. “The lyric business is clearly more valuable in the Internet age.”

NMPA earlier sued LiveUniverse and LyricWiki for copyright violations and won judgments of more than $7 million.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

ASCAP Daily Brief

Monday, November 18, 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 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

The High Cost of Free
By Kathleen Richards -- A new documentary takes a hard look at how the digital age has eroded the value of music and the ability of musicians to make a living..."Thirteen years since the Internet Revolution, I watched all of the artists around me make less and less while their popularity increased"
Technology Didn't Kill the Music Industry. The Fans Did...
By Sahpreem A. King -- The ideology behind music freemium has destroyed the working class musician and independent labels.
NMPA Shows That Standing Up For Your Rights is a Good Thing for Everyone
By Chris Castle
The Hybrid Album: A Music Product Strategy Proposal
By Mark Mulligan -- ...what follows is a product strategy proposal that puts streaming into the very heart of download experiences while simultaneously driving download spending.
Who's Afraid of the TPP?
By David Newhoff -- Let's be clear, the internet industry lobbies for and tries to sell the public a world view in which all activity online exists outside any law...
YouTube commenters bring in text art tanks to fight Google+ integration
By Andrea Peterson
Watch Where You Write
By Len Kendall -- If you house your creative work on a platform you don't own, you could be in for disappointment.
Welcome To Twitter, Now What Can You Do?
By Selena Larson -- ;Let's take a look at what makes Twitter great, from hashtags, tobreaking news, to poetry.
Connected Air: Smart Dust Is The Future Of The Quantified World
By Dan Rowinski -- They call it Smart Dust, but these microscopic sensors could change the way we interact with the world.
[The flame of mischievous fun that used to light up Music Row has one less torchbearer. Bob Beckham was a great music publisher.]
Bob Beckham Dead: Singer, Publisher and Mentor to Dolly Parton Passes Away at 86
By Billy Dukes -- Bob Beckham scored two country hits early in his music career, but soon found his niche on the other side of the radio. The 86-year-old is remembered as a friend and mentor to songwriters like Kris Kristofferson and Dolly Parton.
Why You Aren't as Creative as You'd Like to Think
By Jeffrey Marlow -- You're a smart person: a believer in science, an acolyte of technology, a 21st century citizen. So answer this: Could you, and you alone, make something as simple as a pencil?
[If you missed this on 60 Minutes last night, here's your chance to get your heart warmed. Trash, kids and music: an unbeatable combination.]
VIDEO: The Recyclers: From Trash Comes Triumph
By Bob Simon -- The residents of Cateura, Paraguay, don't just make a living from the massive garbage heap in their town. They also make music - crafting ingenious instruments from the trash.TOKYO: Giant Fembots Dance With Dinosaurs in the Weirdest Show on Earth
By Cade Metz -- Outside, the city is bracing for the most violent typhoon of the past decade, a storm with winds topping 75 mph that's already dumping endless sheets of rain from the night sky. Yet it all seems mild compared to what's happening inside a bunker of a theater two floors below the wind and the rain.

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