A new ruling from the US Government requires that streaming music services raise their royalty rates for songwriters and music publishers. Here are the details. The United States Copyright Board (CRB) held hearings from March to June of 2017 to deter…
Category archives: Feature Story
Avenged Sevenfold Is Boycotting the Grammys to Protest How Rock Is Being Treated
Did the Grammys actually misrepresent the Rock genre as Avenged Sevenfold claims? At this year’s Grammys, California heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold will compete against Metallica and the Foo Fighters for Best Rock Song. Nominated for ‘The Stage,’ …
Here’s the Entire Facebook Contract for Music Publishers & Songwriters
If you’re an indie publisher or songwriter, you’re probably going to hate Facebook’s music publishing contract. So far, we’ve been covering a string of licensing deals between Facebook and music industry rights owners. That inc…
The Nation of Canada Sues Ticketmaster for Deceptively Inflating Prices
The world’s leading event-ticket vendor — and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment Inc. — are in regulatory hot water. Canada’s Competition Bureau is now suing Ticketmaster over a litany of deceptive pricing practices. Innocent until pro…
Indie Songwriters Feeling Left Out as the ‘Music Modernization Act’ Moves to the Senate
The ‘Music Modernization Act’ is being heralded as groundbreaking legislation for music and tech. But indie songwriters and publishers feel like they’re getting the shaft. Most music industry bills face brutal deaths, outmatched by s…
We Asked a Top A&R Executive If Rock Is Really Dead
Is Rock n’ Roll Finally R.I.P.? U2 still sells out arenas. Desert Trip is one of the biggest festivals in the world. Even Journey still fills arenas without Steve Perry. But those are celebrations of the past, not the present. And in the present, the…
Fewer Than 10% of Grammy Nominees Are Women, Study FInds
In bad news for the Recording Academy, only 9.3% of women in the music industry have received Grammy nominations since 2013. Several weeks ago, the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that only 4.3% of all directors from the top 1,100 films releas…
Jack White Is Banning Phones at His Shows — Fans Will Have to Keep Them In Sealed Pouches
Jack White hates phones at his concerts. So he’s banning them. Some performers don’t mind phones at their shows. Jack White definitely isn’t one of them. Now, the White Stripes progenitor is banning all mobile phone usage at his s…
New York’s Governor Orders All ISPs to Follow Net Neutrality — Or Leave the State
If ISPs want to do business in the State of New York, they must adhere to net neutrality principles. Now, it’s the law. Republicans in Congress introduced a bill to prevent states from making their own net neutrality laws. But that bill hasn…
AT&T’s CEO Says Killing Net Neutrality Was a Really Stupid Idea
AT&T is one of the companies supposedly benefitting from the FCC’s shutdown of net neutrality. So why is AT&T’s CEO fighting to keep net neutrality alive? Typically, a corporation doesn’t protest when it gets a juicy governme…