The “Stairway To Heaven” Copyright Lawsuit Headed Back To Court Yet Again
Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven” is certainly one of the the era’s most iconic rock songs but it’s been wrapped up in a lawsuit that can’t seem to come to a close. The estate of the late Randy California of the band Spirit sued the members of Led Zep for stealing parts of “Stairway To Heaven” from […]
Continue readingSony Music Sued For Under-Reporting Streaming Revenue
Here’s one to keep an eye on as it can open up a whole new set of artist/label lawsuits. The estate of the late 60s pop start Ricky Nelson has filed a class action lawsuit against Sony Music over streaming royalties. The suit alleges that Sony assessed an intercompany charge on international streaming royalties, and as […]
Continue reading5 Tips For Making Low-Budget Music Videos
A music video for a song is pretty much a requirement these days since YouTube is such an important tool for getting music out to both current and potential fans. That said, video production can get crazy expensive, especially if you’re hiring pros, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can do it […]
Continue readingLooking At What Artists Get Paid In A Spotify Direct Deal
As previously posted, Spotify is now doing both direct deals with artists, and allowing them to directly upload their content onto the platform. There have been a lot of announcements to that effect, but not much on exactly what an artist receives when it comes to royalty payout – until now. Music Business Worldwide did […]
Continue readingAuthor And Musician Craig Anderton Is The Guest On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
Craig Anderton is an icon in the music industry, known to musicians everywhere for his extraordinarily helpful articles in magazines like Guitar Player, Keyboard, Sound on Sound, Electronic Musician, Pro Sound News, Mix, among many others. He’s also the author of more than 35 books, including his highly influential Electronic Projects For Musicians, which touched off […]
Continue readingThere’s More Behind Spotify’s Artist Direct Upload Strategy Than Meets The Eye
In a surprise announcement, Spotify will now allow indie artists to bypass distributors like CD Baby and TuneCore and directly upload their songs to the platform. Best of all, there will be no charge to do so, relieving artists from paying the nominal fees that distributors charge for the service. The upload feature will be available via the […]
Continue readingTicketmaster Wants You To Buy From The Secondary Ticket Market
We all love to go to concerts but a lot of us don’t go as much as we’d like to primarily because of the prices. While the face value of a concert ticket might be reasonable, the fact of the matter is that we usually can’t find good tickets available as they’re purchased before we […]
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3 Steps To Prove Your Song Was Plagiarized
Many songwriters live with a paranoia of their songs being stolen. This is usually more of concern for beginning songwriters, and all content creators for that matter, than for those with some experience. The fact of the matter is that intentional copying of one’s work is actually more difficult than you think, as is what […]
Continue readingMusic Modernization Act Passage Averts An Artist Boycott Of Sirius XM
The Music Modernization Act overhaul of music copyright passed the Senate unanimously yesterday, following the House of Representatives previous unanimous vote as well. While this is excellent news for the industry, the bill must now go back to the House for approval since it was changed quite a bit from the original bill, then go to […]
Continue readingAll About Music Metadata With Veva Sound’s Drew Waters On My Latest Podcast
If you’ve ever wondered why musical metadata is so important you’re about to find out in this excellent conversation with this week’s podcast guest. Drew Waters has gone from high school dropout to PhD all in the name of music. Starting out as a working electric bass player as a teenager, he switched to upright […]
Continue readingAmazon Music Making More Of Its Own Exclusive Recordings
Amazon Music has introduced a new series of exclusive recordings called “Produced By…” with the first batch coming from Grammy-winning artists that include Al Green, John Prine and Margo Price. The twist is that Amazon doesn’t actually own these recordings, as the original label retains all the rights. The premise of the “Produced By..” series […]
Continue readingThis Huge Online Platform Isn’t Paying Any Music Royalties
The music industry constantly beats up YouTube because of its puny royalty stream, but it consistently overlooks another huge service that isn’t paying anything – Twitch. The Amazon-owned platform has 2.2 million broadcasters and 15 million daily active users who are all consuming music, but unfortunately, artists, songwriters, labels and publishers aren’t seeing a dime […]
Continue readingHow The European Union Copyright Reform Could Change The Music Business For The Worse
As much as artists, managers, labels and publishers rail against YouTube, there’s no denying that it’s been beneficial to the industry in at least two ways. First, it’s the foremost place for new music discovery, and secondly, it provides an additional revenue stream. The major complaint against YouTube has always been about the royalty amount […]
Continue readingSpotify And Nielsen Deal Could Mean More Money For Artists
One of the things that’s most valuable to artists, management and labels is the demographic information of exactly who is listening. In these days of targeted advertising, the more we know about an audience the better we can serve them. While artists really need this info, the fact of the matter is that advertisers might […]
Continue readingSweetwater’s Mitch Gallagher, Spotify Video War, And Neumann Logo Badge Color On My Latest Podcast
My guest this week on Episode #230 of my Inner Circle Podcast is Sweetwater’s editorial director Mitch Gallagher, who started his career as a guitarist/vocalist with various rock and country bands while earning a degree in music from Moorhead State University and studying with various classical guitar masters. After making his living as a touring […]
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