The Importance Of Artwork In Your Music

With the rise fo streaming the prominence of album artwork has, quite literally, been greatly reduced. That said, it’s a mistake for artists to discount the incredible importance of album art when it comes to releasing and promoting your music. ____________________________ Guest post from Horus Music Before online streaming, artwork…

Copyright and A Defense Of ‘Unfair’ Competition [Neil Turkewitz]

In this article, Neil Turkewitz goes on the offensive against a recent piece by Mark A. Lemley and Mark P. McKenna titled "Unfair Disruption" in which the authors lambast copyright and its owners’ inability to adjust to disruptive technology and innovation. ___________________________________ Guest post by Neil Turkewitz from Medium Okay,…

Skip Rates: Why The First 30 Seconds Matter More Than Ever

With the album on the wane and attention spans shorter than ever, the first 30 seconds of of a song matter more than. Not only do they need to capture the listener’s attention, but in streaming, they determine if the songwriter is going to get paid at all. Skip rates…

Black Box Income Most Musicians Don’t Even Know About

Some of the most common advice given to indie artists is to populate their metadata. In the streaming age in particular, telling organizations who you are and how to get ahold of you is key to your getting paid. Still, many artists’ failure to do this has resulted in pools…

Supreme Court Tells Songwriters: “You’ll Have to Wait”

In a further bit of bad news for music creators, the Supreme Court recently ruled that artists who are victims of copyright infringement must wait, in some cases for as long as seven months, before they are able to file they are able to file a lawsuit. _______________________________ Guest post…

A2IM, RIAA, Music Trade Groups Unite To Improve Digital Attribution, Credits

The RIAA, A2IM, The Artist Rights Alliance and SAG-AFTRA have joined forces to support the creation of a “more robust and effective system of digital attribution and credits.” For the first time, groups representing both artists and labels have come together to work towards better attribution for musicians and fans…

‘Local Radio Freedom Act’ Is Actually Anti-Creator, Anti-Property-Rights [Richard James Burgess]

The National Association of Broadcasters and its horde of well paid lobbyists are now working to coerce congress into cosponsoring a bill dubbed the Local Radio Freedom Act, an ironic title given the bill’s far more sinister anti-creator, anti-property rights content. Here A2IM CEO Richard James Burgess explains why both…

Ready Or Not, K-Pop Is Here To Stay

Just a few short years ago, it seemed unlikely that the K-pop wave would ever truly break on the US, with multiple attempts to break into the market falling short. This all changed with the rise of BTS, bringing K-pop into the American mainstream, and while you still won’t here…

Music Publishers Issue ‘Fact Check’ Of Spotify Blog Post ‘Attempting To Deceive’ Songwriters

Spotify has released a blog post laying out their decision to join Amazon, Pandora and Google in appealing a US Copyright Board decision that would raise streaming payments to songwriters by 44%, over time. Now, David Israelite of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) has issued point-by-point "fact check" of…

Tracklib: A Valuable Tool For Producers

Sampling is a huge part of producing music in the modern era, but clearing records in order to do so legally can be a pricey and drawn out process. Thankfully, the good people at Tracklib have now become the first record store to streamline the digital sampling process – a…