Songtradr Raises $4 Million For Indie Music Licensing

Music licensing platform Songtradr today announced that is had raised a Series A round of $4 million to support the company’s ongoing expansion. This latest round brings Songtradr ‘s total funding to $9 million. Lead investor in the round was Richard White, CEO and founder of Australian-based WiseTech Global. Songtradr…

What To Do When Your Song Is Among Copyright Office’s 60M Notice Of Intent To Use Filings

This week SoundExchange subsidiary SXWorks launched a free database that allows songwriters and publishers and songwriters to search more than 60 million address unknown Notice of Intention to Use (NOI) song filings made to the U.S. Copyright Office by Spotify and other music service. But what do you do when…

Music Modernization Act Seeks Sweeping Royalty Reform

While legislative gridlock seems to be the order of the day, a new legislative effort to institute a comprehensive reform of music licensing regulations is pushing ahead in the U.S. Senate with bipartisan support. _________________________________________ On Wednesday, the Music Modernization Act was introduced in the Senate, with co-sponsored from both…

Enrique Iglesias Sues UMG For Unpaid Streaming Royalties

Latin music superstar Enrique Iglesias has filed a lawsuit against his former label, accusing them of underpaying streaming royalties. According to the suit, filed in a Miami on Wednesday, Iglesias alleges that UMG paid him a small fraction of his 50% royalty rate due for music streamed online and is…

YouTube To Assign ISNI IDs To All Musicians, Songwriters

YouTube has signed on to the global International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) initiative which assigns an ID to every creator, It is designed to make identification and therefore payments more accurate. YouTube is the first ISNI registration agency in the music space. ____________________________________ YouTube has become a Registration Agency for…

Did A Court Just Make Creative Commons Unenforceable?

Here Attorney and legal scholar Stephen Carlisle explores a perplexing court decision that changing the context in which a photographic image is displayed constitutes ‘transformative use’ rendering a Creative Commons license ineffective and impossible to enforce. ______________________________ Guest post by Stephen Carlisle of Nova Southeastern University January 8, 2018 saw…

10 Field Artists Working Across Aesthetic Boundaries

While field recording has existed for over a century, it has changed and progressed along with the rest of the industry. Here we look at ten people working in field recording who are crossing aesthetic boundaries to capture sounds from the outside world. _____________________________ Guest post by Patrick McGuire of…

SoundExchange Launches Free NOI Loookup Of 60M Songs

[UPDATED] SoundExchange subsidiary SXWorks has launched a free database that allows music publishers and songwriters to search more than 60 million address unknown Notice of Intention to Use (NOI) song filings that have been made to the U.S. Copyright Office. _________________________________ NOI LOOKUP, a new free service launched today by…

Song, Score, Sound Academy Awards 2018 Nominees Named

A diverse group ranging from May J. Bilge to Sufjan Stevens have been nominated for the Best Original Song award at the 2018 Oscars to be announced March 4th live on ABC. Soundtrack stalwarts like Hans Zimmer and John Williams led the Best Original Score nominees. The full list of…

Spotify Lawyer Leads Law Institute “Restatement of Copyright” Project [Chris Castle]

Chris Castle investigates a suspicious development in the world of copyright, after the American Law Institutes moved to write up a "Restatement of Copyright", a project with some concerning ties to a lawyer with Spotify’s best interests at heart. _____________________________ Guest post by Chris Castle of Music Technology Policy The…