Category archives: publishing

Downtown Music Publishing Promotes Andrew Sparkler SVP Biz Dev [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]

[UPDATED] Downtown Music Publishing has promoted Andrew Sparkler to SVP, Business Development. He joined Downtown in 2014 as VP Business Affairs, and was the catalyst behind the indie publisher’s innovative direct YouTube deal. Prior to joining Downtown, Sparkler was Vice President and Head of Business Affairs at ASCAP. In his…

Hey Alexa, Where’s My Money? An Update On ‘Address Unknown’ Royalty-free Windfall Loophole

A new update on the status of the exploitation of the ‘address unknown’ mass NOI filings to the Copyright Office has come out, thanks to Sydney-based Paperchain. Attorney Chris Castle shares a 70% rise in such filings, with Amazon still the champion exploiter, followed by Google and then Spotify. ________________________…

How To Guide To Music Rights, Royalties For Creative Licensing

Structured somewhat differently than other types of creative licensing, music licenses, copyright, and royalties are designed to fairly distribute profit to all parties involved, but not all music royalties are the same. Here we look at the different categories for musical rights and royalties and what they mean. _____________________________ Guest…

YouTube Royalty Rate Variables Explained

Many artists and labels take issue with YouTube royalty payments, and not without cause, as the rate it pays is less than desirable. Here we breakdown what exactly goes into calculating these royalty, and the many variables which must be factored in. _____________________________ Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music…

URGENT: Time Running Out For Artists, Writers, To Exercise Their Termination Rights Under US Copyright Law

A provision of the 1976 Copyright Act allows for the copyright transfers to be terminated, meaning creators can reclaim their copyright, regardless of a contract which may state such works are transferred permanently. There is, however, a limited timeframe in which such reclamation can happen, meaning artists need to act…

8 Step Guide To Getting On A Playlist

While many articles may offer up ‘hacks’ to getting featured on a playlist, doing so usually requires hard work over a period of time. Here we look at an eight step guide for organically getting your music onto a streaming service and, hopefully eventually, featured on a prominent playlist. _______________________…

Weekly Music Publishing Update 7.13.17: Spotify, Fake Artists and The Problems Of Scale

The talk of the music industry this week has been in regards to the “fake artists” that have been popping up in playlists all over Spotify. These artists have seemingly no web presence outside of the songs that appear on Spotify, though the songs have garnered hundreds of thousands of…

Spotify’s ‘Fake Artist’ Issue, Other Problems At Scale [Chris Castle]

As Spotify has grown to be the #1 music streamer, it has also grown to be the #1 target. This time accused of creating ‘fake’ artists and commissioning recordings, something which Spotify vehemently denies. Music attorney and industry critic Chris Castle weighs in. _____________________________ Guest post by Chris Castle of…