Vivendi Feeling The Heat Over UMG Music Vault Fire As Shares Tumble

Despite a valiant effort to brush off the UMG music vault fire as just “noise,” parent company Vivendi is feeling the effects of the story as shares dropped 2.8% today on fears that the company’s plans for a partial sale of the major record label are in jeopardy. Universal Music Group (UMG) had been valued […]

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Amoeba Music In Hollywood To Be Torn Down And Redeveloped

It looks like it’s really happening. After a few years of persistent rumors, word now comes that Amoeba Music and its iconic Sunset Boulevard location will be redeveloped into a new complex with 200 residential units and retail space. The Los Angeles City Council approved changes to the zoning for the spot earlier in the […]

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7 Steps To Planning Your Music Release Campaign

You’re in the studio hard at work on your next group of songs and it’s been taking up all of your time. That’s all well and good but the problem is that if you don’t begin to plan your release strategy in advance you may be caught with a bunch of songs with no idea […]

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Merlin Collected Almost $900 Million For Indie Labels In 12 Months

Probably more than ever before, being on an indie label is actually good for an artist. Where in the past an indie label was looked on as the only alternative after being turned down by a major label, today an indie can have as much clout as a major, thanks to Merlin – the organization […]

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Music Publishing Revenue, Universal Vault Fire, And Female Musician’s Academy’s Bree Noble On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Bree Noble, who is a champion for women in music thanks to her Female Entrepreneur Musician Podcast and Female Musician Academy.  Bree quit her corporate job as a Director of Finance at a top opera company to pursue a successful run as a touring singer/songwriter where she won several songwriting and artist awards […]

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Spotify Claims That It Overpaid Songwriters And Wants The Money Back

It’s not enough that songwriters and publishers make about 1/6th of what artists make per stream on Spotify, or that the company is opposing an impending songwriter royalty increase, now the company claims that it overpaid songwriters and publishers in 2018 and wants that money back. The Copyright Royalty Board has ruled that songwriters would […]

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If An Artist Doesn’t Hit #1 Should They Sue?

When an artist sells a lot of product these days, they expect to be compensated for it via a high Billboard chart position, especially if that number is north of 100,000 units. But it really depends how the albums were sold, and that’s what led to a dispute by DJ Khaled and Billboard that might […]

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The Latest Best Practices For Instagram Hashtags

Hashtags are an essential part of Instagram, but the rules of how they’re best used has changed over the last year or so. What worked in the recent past may now be ancient history, so dig in as we look over the latest data and make some suggestions. First of all, its best to understand […]

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AI Finishes Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, But Who Owns The Copyright?

Whenever a new technology comes into play it may solve problems suffered by previous generations, but it also usually opens up new legal territory as well. Such is the case with artificial intelligence being used to help complete Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, which the composer abandoned in 1822 after writing the first two movements. […]

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Spotify vs. Radio, Playlists Replace The Album, And Rocketsongs Jonathan Stone On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Jonathan Stone has had a long career as a director of creative services in music publishing at heavyweight companies like ATV Music, MCA Music, Quincy Jones Qwest Music Publishing, and Windswept.  He now runs the disruptive music service Rocketsongs, that not only helps artists to find and license songs, but […]

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Universal Music Vault Fire Story May Change The Company’s Valuation

Last week a bombshell of a story from New York Times contributor Jody Rosen revealed that a 2008 media storage vault fire on the Universal Studios Hollywood lot resulted in well over 100,000 music master tapes being lost forever. This included music from some of the greatest artists of all time across all modern eras, […]

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The Days Of The Viral YouTube Video Appear To Be Over

It wasn’t that long ago when a YouTube video that caught fire and went viral seemed like an almost every day occurrence. Those days appear to be over though and the analytics firm Pex has the data to prove it. According to the latest Pex report, only 0.64% of all videos posted on YouTube ever […]

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An Artist’s Guide To Pandora AMP

It used to be that in order to have your songs posted on a major streaming network then you had to use a distributor like TuneCore or CD Baby, but no more. Many of the major services now allow an artist to directly post on its network, and while it may take more time to […]

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Music Superstars Aren’t Getting Streamed As Much Anymore

The music streaming services have provided what seems to be unfair payouts for some time, with superstar acts reaping all the benefits due their oversized track counts. That may still the case, but the tables may have turned a bit as music superstars are no longer getting as many streams as they once have in […]

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YouTube Copyright Mistakes, Losing 50 Million Songs, And Producer Zubin Gadhoke On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Zubin Gadhoke, who’s a co-founder and producer for Olympus Projects, which is a management and consulting agency that provides artists with help in the day-to-day operations and development of their businesses. In the interview we talked about artist branding, building social authority, creating a new industry sound, the power of […]

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