From Entrepreneur: What You Need to Know About Music Licensing for Your Business
Music licensing is a daily part of film and broadcast production, but have you thought about how it also affects small businesses? A lot of people don’t. Businesses playing music for their patrons may be responsible for paying for the right to use that music, and Entrepreneur published a great article about this the other day. Here’s an excerpt, and we hope you’ll click the link at the bottom of the post to read the full article. Music is protected by copyright law, which provides exclusive rights to copyright owners to perform or play their songs. If someone plays music without permission, they are infringing on the copyright, and copyright [...]
From CNET- How YouTube could ignite streaming music: Go mobile, go free
YouTube is moving into streaming music, and it’s news we should all be paying attention to. Here’s an excerpt from today’s article on the topic from CNET by Paul Sloan. Click the link below the excerpt for the full article. Google’s YouTube, the entertainment industry’s longtime “frenemy,” is emerging as an important component of record label plans to adapt to consumers who are taking their music mobile. A part of the streaming-music service that Google is aiming to launch this summer is a new YouTube product that would be designed for the desktop and mobile devices, according to a person familiar with the negotiations between Google and the major labels. Such a [...]
See you tomorrow at the PMA’s “The Future of Production Music: Opportunities, Challenges & Threats”
Megatrax will be attending the Production Music Association‘s event in Studio City tomorrow, and we hope you will, too. Here are the major details, and you can learn more by clicking the link at the bottom of this post. The Future of Production Music: Opportunities, Challenges & Threats Join the discussion with representatives from the PMA, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and others as we cover the most pressing issues facing our industry. Learn about the DMX case, the carve-out license, copyright challenges, foreign royalties, direct licensing, and more. We offered this event in New York and, due to the great feedback and many requests, we are bringing it to Los Angeles. [...]
Congratulations to Guild of Music Supervisors Nominees!
Megatrax Production Music is a proud sponsor of the Guild of Music Supervisors, and we’re so excited about the Guild of Music Supervisors Awards coming up later this month! Congratulations to all the nominees, and for those who haven’t seen the list yet, here it is: BEST MUSIC SUPERVISION – STUDIO FILMS OVER $25 MILLION The Twilight Saga – Breaking Dawn Part 2 – Alexandra Patsavas Rock of Ages – Matt Sullivan Django Unchained – Mary Ramos This is 40 – Jonathan Karp 21 Jump Street – Karen Glauber Hope Springs – Julia Michels Step Up: Revolution – Buck Damon Argo – Linda Cohen American Reunion – Jojo Villanueva BEST MUSIC SUPERVISION – STUDIO FILMS UNDER $25 MILLION [...]
From the New York Times: As Music Streaming Grows, Royalties Slow to a Trickle
The effects of new media on working composers and musicians is something we’ve addressed from a variety of perspectives on this blog, and we aren’t the only ones thinking about it. Monday, the New York Times featured a compelling article featuring some revealing data that illustrates just how little many artists are making through the new streaming channels. Here’s an excerpt we found particularly interesting, and we hope you’ll click the link below to read the whole article. Late last year, Zoe Keating, an independent musician from Northern California, provided an unusually detailed case in point. In voluminous spreadsheets posted to her Tumblr blog, she revealed the royalties she gets [...]
50 Years of ‘Monster Mash’: The Story Behind the Halloween Hit
It’s Halloween, and we’re enjoying all the great fun & spooky music that goes with the holiday– and so are the folks at Billboard! We loved this story behind the hit song “Monster Mash,” and we wanted to share part of Billboard’s article here. Enjoy this excerpt, and click the link at the bottom of this post to read the full story! Fifty years since its initial release, Bobby “Boris” Pickett‘s “Monster Mash” has long since entered the pantheon of holiday evergreens, the Halloween equivalent of “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” or “Frosty The Snowman.” This is in itself an impressive feat. The song’s chart history is equally notable: After spending [...]
Look for us at the Billboard/THR Film & TV Music Conference– We’ll be there with Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera is making the news with her Keynote address at the Billboard/The Hollywood Reporter Film & TV Music Conference later this month, but perhaps you’ll be equally excited to know that we’ll be hosting a Round Table (Production Music 101: Making Music That Sells, moderated by our own Wendie Colter) on the 24th, and we hope to see you there! The Examiner ran a super preview of the Conference overall yesterday. Here’s a taste, and you can click the link at the bottom for the full article! Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter are hosting their annual Film & TV Music Conference at The W Hollywood in Hollywood, CA on [...]
From Wired: Broadcasters Defeat TV Streaming Service
The latest on Aereo from Wired: A federal appeals court is dealing a death blow to an upstart service that streams broadcast television over the internet, ruling that ivi Inc. is not a cable system and therefore is not protected by the Copyright Act. In a case brought by the major over-the-air U.S. broadcasters ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and others, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said those broadcasters do not have to automatically license their content to internet streaming services because ivi is not a traditional “cable” company. The U.S. Copyright Act requires that broadcasters license their content to satellite and cable companies under a regulated pricing scheme known as compulsory licensing [...]
ogilvy notes & huffington post bring you the panels of sxsw 2012
The Huffington Post has compiled a series of amazing panel-at-a-glance illustrations created by the Ogilvy advertising agency at SWSX this year. The “Future of Music” panel illustration (part of which is featured here) is especially good. See a short piece about the illustrations & the full slideshow at the Huffington Post by clicking HERE.
now’s the perfect time for investors to target music
Here’s an excerpt from a great article from the Financial Times- see the rest via the link at the bottom. The days when record companies physically manufactured vinyl are long gone but A&R – Artists & Repertoire, the almost mythical process of divining new talent – is as vital as ever. Finding talent, providing investment to support recording, production and, most importantly, marketing are even more crucial, now that the routes to market for new artists are so diverse. However, a key part of our growth will come from external investment in new digital services. In 2011, 32 per cent of recorded music sales were in a digital format, with [...]
