The CMA Foundation recognized some stellar teachers at its sixth Music Teachers of Excellence ceremony on Wednesday (Oct. 19) at Nashville’s Marathon Music Works.

Hosted by Country Music Hall of Fame member Kix Brooks, the event honored 30 music teachers—10 from Metro Nashville Public Schools, 10 from districts across the state of Tennessee, and 10 from across the U.S. Honorees were selected for their commitment to bringing a high-quality music program to their students and the impact they have had on their school community through music.

Teachers began the day at CMA’s office for a professional development session, where they heard from leaders and executives, including CMA CEO Sarah Trahern, CMA Foundation Community Impact Director Franklin Willis, Amro Music’s Nick Averwater, and members of the CMA Communications team on a variety of topics. Later, they were joined by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona for lunch and a Q&A session.

The evening celebration included a red carpet, dinner with more than 25 artists from the country music community, and a variety of performances throughout the night.

Music students from Nashville’s Hillwood High School introduced Brooks with a Brooks & Dunn medley, including hits “My Maria,” “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” and “Neon Moon.” The students also performed Randy Travis’ “Heroes and Friends” as well as joined Brooks for “Rock My World (Little Country Girl).”

The event also featured several guest speakers, including Secretary Cardona, who highlighted how critical music and arts education is in a student’s life and celebrated the passion and dedication displayed by each of the 30 teachers in the room.

Other speakers included Trahern, who spoke to the impact music educators have on the next generation and highlighted the value the country music community places on sustaining high-quality and equitable music and arts programs. CMA Foundation Executive Director, Tiffany Kerns also detailed the mission of the CMA Foundation and Brooks’ key role in its establishment. Nashville Mayor John Cooper also took the stage to honor this year’s 30 Music Teachers of Excellence and express his congratulations for their accomplishment.

In addition to Wednesday’s celebration, the CMA Foundation invested $5,000 to each recipient–half for each teacher’s music program to help enhance their music program and half for personal use.

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The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) recently held its second Annual Membership Meeting, at which key metrics from the last year were shared. Additionally, three current members of The MLC Board of Directors were selected to serve a second three-year term on the Board.

In the year and a half since launching full operations, The MLC has met every milestone set by Congress in the Music Modernization Act of 2018 and distributed nearly $700 million in blanket royalties.

“We are incredibly proud of these accomplishments,” says The MLC CEO Kris Ahrend. “Our team has worked hard to build robust data processing systems that allow us to distribute royalties accurately and on time. We have also released a suite of tools for our members that enable them to manage their catalog data effectively and correct any missing or inaccurate data they find. While there is still more work to do, we are pleased with our progress and are deeply appreciative of all the support we have received from our members and from the broader industry at large.”

During the meeting, a representative from the accounting and audit firm, Withum, shared the results of The MLC’s recent Class B Board Seat election. Tim Cohan and Scott Cutler were each elected to serve as Board Directors for a second 3-year term. Similarly, The MLC’s Class A Members selected Kara DioGuardi to serve a second 3-year term as a Songwriter Director on the Board.

The MLC also announced that its Class C Members will not change in 2023, though Sony Music Publishing has selected Michael Abitbol to fill their Director seat, which was recently vacated by Peter Brodsky. More information on The MLC’s Board of Directors and Advisory Committees can be found here.

Meeting Highlights From The MLC’s Leadership Team included:

• The MLC has collected almost $1 billion in mechanical royalties.
• As a result of The MLC’s efforts, rightsholders have received more than $800 million in royalties–nearly $700 million in blanket royalties distributed directly by The MLC and nearly $120 million in royalties processed by The MLC but paid by DSPs pursuant to voluntary licenses.
• The MLC’s current match rate for all royalties processed through September’s royalty distribution is 89 percent, while The MLC’s initial match rates for newly reported usage has exceeded 85 percent for six straight months.
• The MLC now has more than 22,000 members, having added more than 6,000 to date in 2022.
• The MLC has received more than 17 million works registrations to date and has processed more than 98 percent of those registrations.
• The MLC has completed 19 monthly royalty distributions to date, every one of which has been completed on time or early.

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The 1975 score their fifth consecutive Official Number 1 album with Being Funny In A Foreign Language this week, outselling the rest of the Top 5 combined.

Jacob Hackworth has signed a publishing deal with Kos Weaver‘s Goat Island Sound and Boom Music Group, with exclusive administration by Warner Chappell.

West Plains Missouri native Hackworth combines strong vocals with a knack for writing songs that has already netted him the Bailey Zimmerman breakout hit “Rock And A Hard Place,” which landed at  No. 1 this week on Sirius XM’s The Highway.

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