news.nationalpost.com – 

It’s no secret that the music business is changing. With physical sales hitting all time lows, many — including Apple, Google, and a slew of big name music superstars — have pinned their hopes of a viable business on streaming. But the services, which include Spotify, Rdio and Jay Z’s Tidal, have not been without criticism, specifically about compensation to the artists and, most recently, public flame wars. We asked Jim Rondinelli, a former record producer who now works as Rdio’s Global Head of Content Licensing and Catalog to weigh in on how the industry must adapt in order to survive.

In the nineties, I had the pleasure—an honour really—of working with some of the most influential North American bands in Rock and Roll. My career as a producer and mixer brought me into the creative spheres of Weezer, Wilco, Matthew Sweet, and Canadian treasures like Sloan, Odds, and The Tragically Hip.

Back then, people listened to music on cassette tapes and compact discs sold in physical stores. As much as I loved shopping for tapes and CDs, there was nothing worse than traipsing out to a store only to find that the record I’d been searching for was out of stock. Those days are long over.

The music industry, as with so many other industries, has been undergoing a radical transformation. Thanks to the internet and widespread broadband access, people around the world can access every song ever recorded, anywhere within reach of a data connection.

In 1999, I made a decision to take a break from producing and mixing records. I could see that the music industry would be disrupted by the emergence of new digital distribution technologies. Now, as Global Head of Content Licensing and Catalog at Rdio, I am focused on making music legally available to fans in the 85 countries in which we operate, while also making sure that artists are being fairly compensated for their efforts.

We’ve now arrived in an unprecedented era of music discovery and distribution, where music fans can find virtually every piece of music ever recorded instantly via their mobile phone. Distribution barriers have collapsed. Artists can offer their music to a wider audience than ever before. Artists and fans alike benefit from instant distribution. If I create a song this afternoon, it can be available globally within hours. This would have been inconceivable twenty years ago.

Artists are now compensated by people choosing to listen their music

But, as the earlier years of illegal file sharing showed us, availability did not mean that artists were being compensated for their efforts. Rights holders saw first hand the damage that was being done to their businesses by piracy.

As subscription and ad-supported music streaming services grow, people ask me how artists can continue to make money in the new digital landscape. The fact is that it’s possible and it’s happening today, even during this transitional period for the industry. However, we all must be mindful that this transformative period for the music industry is still at a very nascent stage, and many rights owners have had to undergo painful transformations of their businesses to support the pace of change demanded by a rapidly evolving marketplace.

In the meantime, the barriers to entry for music production have vanished. Many new computers come preinstalled with software offering greater functionality than was available in a $200,000 recording studio some 20 years ago. Similarly, as our economy moved from one based on purchasing to one based on attention, music consumption patterns have changed. Few music fans have the time or the willingness to listen to a 12-song album in a single sitting. The result is that more artists are regularly releasing and promoting music than ever before.

The industry is transitioning from the purchase of physical goods to a business model based on access to music. This change requires a fundamental shift in thinking from the people who are marketing music. Artists are now compensated by people choosing to listen their music.

More than ever before, music is about connection. Not only do fans connect to each other, they also connect with artists via social media. The barrier between artist and fan has broken down, creating an opportunity for artists to engage with fans directly and market themselves. The most successful new artists were once found at the back of the venue, selling merchandise and establishing a personal connection to people who came to see them. Now, they extend their interaction by connecting to their audience on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat. Audiences are responding with gratitude and scads of attention, and we are only a few years into this journey.

There can be no doubt that rights holders must be fairly compensated for their work. As the digital music market continues to grow, there will inevitably be differences between the industry’s many stakeholders. However, if everyone in the industry works together, we can make something very special for music fans, recording artists, and songwriters alike. We shouldn’t miss the opportunity to do so.

Jim Rondinelli is Global Head of Content Licensing and Catalog at Rdio

bizjournals.com – 

Among the dozens of panels at the Music Biz conference in town this weekend, one stood out more to me than others. The panel, called “It’s Still Music City, U.S.A.: Doing Deals in Nashville,” included a variety of music industry experts from local bankers to D.C.-based music policy wonks.

The premise of the panel was that the song still reigns supreme in Nashville, so changes in the global music industry are being felt differently here. Therefore, business is done differently here than in New York, Los Angeles and London. The objective was to provide some insight for the audience into how business is done in Nashville, and why “it’s still Music City, U.S.A.”

The panel touched on Nashville’s startup community and financing opportunities, but the moderator, Nash FM’s Blair Garner, kicked-off the session by asking each panelist to choose one word to describe Nashville’s music community. Here’s what the panelists said:

Heather McBee, Project Music: “Community.” McBee, who joined the Nashville Entrepreneur Center after years in the music industry, pointed to the support that major labels and music industry execs have given to Project Music, the music-tech accelerator run at the EC. Not only did major players offer mentorship and support to the companies, she pointed out that they’ve also helped fund the accelerator.

futureofmusic.org – 

Yesterday, news broke that performance rights organization ASCAP lost its appeal of a decision by a federal judge to keep webcasting rates at 1.85 percent. The ruling also affirmed an earlier decision that publishers are not allowed to “partially withdraw” digital rights from ASCAP. This decision only applies to public performances of musical works on non-interactive (or “radio-like” services such as Pandora. (For more information on how all of this works, check out our ASCAP and BMI consent decrees fact sheet.)

Songwriters want to be paid more, and we think they deserve to be paid more wherever their music is performed. However, there are a few things that songwriters might want to keep in mind with regard to this decision:

1. The appeals court ruling means your royalties stay the same for the rest of the term, which is only through Dec. 31 of this year. After that, parties must come to a new agreement to achieve rates for the next five-year period or return to rate court.

2. Terrestrial radio pays 1.7 percent of revenue to Pandora’s 1.85. Most of the songwriters we know—including us!—are more likely to be heard on Internet radio than commercial FM. And you have to be played to be paid. Granted, Pandora is likely to buy an FM station in South Dakota, which would make them eligible for the 1.7 rate. However:

3. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is likely to make recommendations soon to modify the consent decrees, which according to several federal judges, currently prohibit partial withdrawal of digital rights from ASCAP and BMI. Depending on what the DOJ decides, publishers may be allowed to negotiate digital licenses directly with the services, which could lead to higher rates. But do pay attention to what the songwriter guilds and associations have to say about transparency. Because it doesn’t serve songwriters if the major publishers can play “hide the money” or trade equity and cash advances for lower writer royalties.

4. How do we get you paid more without fracturing the licensing space and tilting the playing field to just three major publishers? There are a great many writers who own their own publishing, are with independent publishers or have sub-publishing deals with the majors. This is a highly complex space with multiple writers and multiple publishers on a single song. Getting paid more is important, especially as our mechanical royalties erode. But eliminating webcasting isn’t the answer. Rock-solid data, transparency and yes, maybe even direct licensing under certain conditions, is likely to produce a better outcome.

Or else we’ll just have to ask Congress to “fix it.” And that might take a while.

futureofmusic.org – 

If you’ve ever negotiated with bandmates about where to eat after a gig, you know that musicians can have strong—and sometimes divergent—opinions about a lot of different things. Expand that to the broader music community—which includes independent and major record labels, managers, advocacy groups, artist unions and fans—and things can get even more complex. (Are we still talking about grub? Kinda getting hungry ourselves.)

Future of Music Coalition is a big tent and we respect the many and varied viewpoints of those who comprise our community. We understand that not everyone is going to see eye-to-eye on every issue. But sometimes consensus does occur. One recent example is the music community’s opposition to relaxing the rules around payola.

Over the last few weeks, musicians and their partners weighed in on an important matter before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Previously, a coalition of commercial broadcasters filed a petition to obtain a waiver that would allow them to take money in exchange for airing content without disclosing that information at the time the content is aired. If the waiver is granted, it’s a win for Big Radio, a loss for everyone else.

Such a change to the rules would have the effect of legitimizing payola, essentially making it even harder for independent artists and labels to achieve airplay.

FMC created the StopPayola.com website to help musicians and fans file in the official FCC docket. And we were psyched to see so many individual artists make their viewpoints known. We were also impressed that so many music groups—from trade industry associations to nonprofits—weighed in. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (the GRAMMYs) and FMC were among those pushing back against Big Radio.

All of this sends a clear message to the FCC: the music community stands together against payola on the airwaves. Undisclosed pay-to-play schemes are not good for listeners who want to know that the music they hear on the radio is chosen because of its artistic merit or popularity. And it’s definitely not good for artists and labels who are unable to pony up the cash to reach audiences on this still-vital platform. So what’s next? Well, the FCC has to decide whether to grant the waiver. With an overwhelming number of comments in opposition, we feel pretty confident that they’ll make the right decision.

Another thing the music community is united on is closing the loophole in US copyright law that allows AM/FM radio to not pay performers and sound recording owners (usually the label, but sometimes the artist) when their music is broadcast on terrestrial radio. Satellite radio pays. Webcasters pay. The rest of the developed world pays performers and labels. Songwriters and publishers are paid when music is played on AM/FM (as well as on digital radio). But incredibly, Big Radio has managed to convince members of Congress that not paying performers is OK. This isn’t just an issue for artists who are broadcast on US stations. It’s a fundamental imbalance in global trade. Due to the lack of a so-called “reciprocal right,” American artists are unable to collect money owed to them for overseas plays. Can you think of another export that the US would be cool with the rest of the world using for free? We can’t.

There have been many attempts to close this loophole over the decades. Currently, there’s a bill in Congress called the Fair Play Fair Pay Act that would, among other things, eliminate this unfair exemption. As we just learned from the payola issue, it is possible to come together and make our voices heard as a community. It might not happen all the time on every issue, but when it does, we’re that much closer to a brighter future for music.

hypebot.com – 

Guest Post by Eliot Van Buskirk on Spotify Insights

Unless you count the microtones between what the notes in the genres many of us are most familiar with, there are only 12 notes in all of music.

That’s over 30 million songs, the vast majority with various combinations of the same 12 notes. In addition, every song in western music is based around only one of these notes, as well as a mode — almost always major, which sounds happy, or minor, which does not. These two elements determine what key a given piece of music is in, and are known as the “key” of the song.

Spotify data analyst and jazz pianist Kenny Ning took it upon himself to analyze the key of every track on Spotify, to determine how frequently they appear, and we turned the result into a chart.

“With regard to Western contemporary music (which dominates our catalog), instrumentation is largely based around guitar, piano, or both,” said Ning. “So, the hypothesis here is that the key signature should be a convenient key for both guitar and piano.”

Let’s find out:

More mysterious, at first glance anyway, is the order of the notes. Why is G Major the top key on all of Spotify? And why is C Major number two?

Much like electricity going through a circuit, songwriters often take the path of least resistance. On a keyboard or a guitar — both incredibly popular instruments for composing western music — that path is through G Major.

We saw a similar phenomenon with minor keys. A minor, the relative minor of C major, is the easiest minor to play on a keyboard. It’s the also the most popular minor key, with 4.8 percent of all the music on Spotify.

Kenny Ning explains:

“E is convenient for guitar, but not piano.

C is convenient for piano, but not guitar.

G is convenient for both guitar and piano.

So, why is G major the most popular key signature in Spotify’s catalog? It’s likely because most popular Western contemporary music instruments are biased towards certain keys.

When people talk about the ‘key signature’ or ‘key’ of a song, they are referring to the tonal center of the song. The key signature will also determine what notes and chords your song should use if you want it to sound consonant/pleasant.

The guitar and the piano are probably the two most popular instruments in modern Western music history. So I would assume a lot of composition today begins on one of those two instruments. And for those who have ever studied guitar or piano, they quickly learn that certain keys are easier to play than others.

Black keys on a piano are thin and somewhat hard to strike accurately, and the player/composer has to remember where they are. Thus pianists will stick to key signatures that are largely composed of white keys, such as C major, G major, or F major.

For guitar, there are certain chords that are naturally easy to play given the standard tuning of the strings. There’s a reason the first chords you learn in guitar are E major, G major, A major, and D major.

Combine these two sets of ‘easy to play’ keys together, and you’ll see that G is the common denominator between guitar and piano. So it’s no surprise that songwriters would write their chords in these keys so they could focus their energy on more important things… melody and lyrics.”

newseveryday.com – 

The online streaming website Grooveshark lost its battle with the music industry on Thursday, shutting down immediately as part of a settlement agreement.

The closure follows a six-year legal battle between music labels and Escape Media, Grooveshark’s parent company.

Escape Media, parent company to music streaming service Grooveshark, has agreed to settle with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group and cease all operations, effectively “wiping its computer servers of all the record companies’ music, and surrendering ownership of its website, mobile apps and intellectual property,” according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

An RIAA statement issued on Thursday (April 30) goes on to say that under terms of the settlement, “Grooveshark founders Josh Greenberg and Sam Tarantino admit to creating and operating an infringing music service.”

“This is an important victory for artists and the entire music industry. For too long, Grooveshark built its business without properly compensating the artists, songwriters and everyone else who makes great music possible. This settlement ends a major source of infringing activity,” said a statement by the RIAA, the industry trade group that represents the major labels.

In court papers, plaintiffs called Grooveshark the “linear descendant” of file-sharing services Grokster, LimeWire and Napster, all of which were shut down over copyright infringement.

A message on its homepage reads: “Dear music fans. Today we are shutting down Grooveshark.

“We started out nearly ten years ago with the goal of helping fans share and discover music. But despite best of intentions, we made very serious mistakes.

“We failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service.

“That was wrong. We apologize. Without reservation.”

It added, “If you love music and respect the artists, songwriters and everyone else who makes great music possible, use a licensed service that compensates artists and other rights holders.”

musicweek.com – 

Amazon, Google and Pandora have joined forces to launch a coalition to oppose efforts from musicians, publishers and record labels to raise digital royalty rates from online services.

The move comes during a review by the 114th Congress and the Copyright Office of US copyright law, while licensing agency BMI is headed to court with Pandora in a royalties’ dispute.

The MIC Coalition, that also includes AM and FM radio broadcasters, digital distributors and restaurants, say: “The next 24 months are pivotal for music, with big decisions coming from the Department of Justice, the Copyright Royalty Board and Congress that will have the potential to determine how and where music is played and what costs consumers and users will bear.”

Commenting on the Coalition’s formation, president of the National Music Publishers Association said: “Streaming giants like Pandora have long exploited these archaic regulations to use songwriters’ work while paying them almost nothing.

“Sadly, it’s no surprise that they are joining other tech and streaming giants to fight the songwriters and artists who made them.”

The Department of Justice could be contemplating allowing US publishers to withdraw partial rights from blanket licenses with performing rights societies. Publishers would be allowed to make direct deals for digital licenses while still using the PROs for administering payments to its songwriters.

daebogan.wordpress.com – I’m happy to hear that Mark Mulligan has finally released his book, “Awakening: The Music Industry in the Digital Age,” about the rise of the digital music industry. He interviews dozens of prominent figures in the space and offers a point of view and analyses that we’ve come to love from this industry expert. “For anyone interested in the music industry and the lessons it provides for all media and technology businesses in the digital era, this is the only book you will ever need.” The book is available now on Amazon and iTunes and Google Play.