Thursday, April 29, 2010

We are pleased to offer you the ASCAP Daily Brief powered by The Dean's List This daily email, compiled by ASCAP Board member, music publisher and songwriter Dean Kay, cuts through the media clutter to bring you links to the most relevant news and commentary on the rapidly evolving music industry and how it affects your future livelihood. We think you'll soon begin to rely on this report as so many industry insiders do every day. If not, we've made it easy to unsubscribe without affecting your other email communications from ASCAP. [Scroll to the bottom to unsubscribe.] When consumers AND creators are happy everyone in the middle will have gotten digital distribution right. Are We Living Too Fast for Slow Pop? By Keith Jopling -- Couple of years back I was at a music conference featuring a panel of 'new millennial's discussing their music listening habits. One explained in all seriousness, that he had "tried putting a CD in and just listening, but it didn't really work for me". Older members of the audience, including me, sighed out an involuntary laugh. The Death of the Bridge By Brian Hazard -- Many of my all-time favorite songs are "growers" - album tracks that don't really grab you the first few spins, but eventually dig their hooks in and don't let go. Few artists these days have the luxury of writing growers, because listeners aren't willing to invest that kind of time. Unless the artist is proven to deliver, the listener will tune out and move on. The Challenge With Music Recommendation Tools By Glenn Peoples -- Will music recommendation tools ever account for the diverse ways people discover and embrace music? In a post at Rhapsody's blog, Rhapsody VP of music programming Tim Quirk cites concrete metrics from BigChampagne to show how unlimited access to music can reveal the wide range of a person's tastes. The New A&R: Is There Any Room for Gut Anymore? By Digital Music News -- Almost overnight, the art of A&R (artists & repertoire) has been completely transformed by digital formats, simply because the internet starts pouring feedback immediately onto new artists and songs. "A&R is the easy part now, it's the rest of the business that's impossible," one major label executive told Digital Music News... VIDEO: Musicians on the Internet - Strategy Vs Tactics My Interview with CD Baby's Brian Felsen By Dave Allen CD Habit Buoys Up UK Recorded Music By Andrew Orlowski -- The hard-to-kill CD helped revenue from the sales of recorded music in the UK last year stay much where it was in 2008, according to figures released by the BPI today. Interest in music was undoubtedly boosted by the death of Michael Jackson and the final digital release of The Beatles' catalogue remastered. Facebook's Expansion Triggers Political Backlash By Michael Liedtke, - Facebook's plan to spread its online social network to other websites could be detoured by regulators looking into privacy concerns that have raised the ire of federal lawmakers. Four senators said Tuesday that Facebook needs to make it easier for its 400 million users to protect their privacy as the site opens more avenues for them to share their interests and other personal information. Pandora's A Threat To Broadcasters In the Internet radio game, Pandora's the one to beat. So says Jacobs Media's new Tech Survey of 26,000 rock radio listeners in the US. According to Fred Jacobs, President of Jacobs Media, Pandora is "a threat to terrestrial radio. Millions of People Now Get Live Streaming Video Sent to Their Phones By Marshall Kirkpatrick -- Live video, from around the world, streaming right through the phone in your hand: that's pretty incredible. It's not science fiction anymore, it's now something that millions of people have experienced. We7 Shows Ad-Funded Model Can Work for Online Music UK rival to Spotify succeeds in covering its running costs for the first time - while paying proper royalties to artists. Mercyme Makes History, 'I Can Only Imagine' Surpasses 1 Million Downloads CMSpin Network -- MercyMe has made history as their massive multi-format single "I Can Only Imagine" recently surpassed 1 million digital downloads, making it the first song in Christian music to go platinum in the digital domain. Indaba Updates Online-Recording App By Matt Rosoff -- Last year, Indaba Music became the first company to offer a full-fledged digital-audio workstation in the cloud. This is a pretty remarkable piece of programming: digital-audio workstations like ProTools and Cubase are the tools of the trade for professional recording, and free equivalents like Audacity and Apple's Garage Band offer beginners a simple way to get acquainted with the basic ideas of multitrack recording. But all of these programs run locally and rely on local computing resources, including storage. Indaba takes the whole concept and moves it online, letting you record and manipulate files from a Java application in your Web browser. Bing Crosby, Beyond His Greatest Hits By Will Friedwald -- If Bing Crosby wasn't the single most important figure in 20th century popular music-and, in particular, the most influential singer of the great American songbook-it's difficult to know who would be. He cast a giant shadow over the entire landscape of American music, touching upon the pop icons who followed him (Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and the Beatles all paid their respects) and into the worlds of jazz, rhythm and blues, and country music. There's even a famous calypso record dedicated in his honor. Junkestra Symphony Is Pure Garbage By Leslie Katz -- With its sleek architectural lines, extensive acoustic setup, and cultured patrons in fancy garb, Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall is generally considered an elegant place. On Sunday, May 9, however, the stage at the home of the San Francisco Symphony will be covered in garbage. Sewer pipes, deck railings, dresser drawers, bike wheels, saws, bathroom fixtures, and bird cages. Symphony musicians will bang, clang, tap, and thump on these and other bits of detritus as they perform Junkestra, a composition played with 30-plus percussive instruments made entirely of objects scavenged at the San Francisco Dump. DEAN KAY Dean Kay has been at the helm of some of the most highly respected and forward thinking music publishing companies in the world, first as COO of the Welk Music Group, then as President/ CEO of the US division of the PolyGram International Publishing Group, and now as President/CEO of his own precedent setting venture, Lichelle Music Company. Prior to his involvement in publishing, he was a successful songwriter, having had hundreds of his compositions recorded - including "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra. Mr. Kay has been a member of the Board of Directors of ASCAP since 1989 and is Chairman of its New Technologies Committee. He is also on the Board of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA). The ASCAP Daily Brief-Powered by The Dean's List is intended as a guide to direct music professionals to key articles about issues facing the entertainment industry. Recipients are encouraged to read further about the issues by accessing the complete article through the links provided. Author attribution is provided with each article, and none of the links allow readers to by-pass subscription archive gateways. Please note that all editorial comments are indicated in brackets. Questions? Comments? Please Contact Us

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

We are pleased to offer you the ASCAP Daily Brief powered by The Dean's List This daily email, compiled by ASCAP Board member, music publisher and songwriter Dean Kay, cuts through the media clutter to bring you links to the most relevant news and commentary on the rapidly evolving music industry and how it affects your future livelihood. We think you'll soon begin to rely on this report as so many industry insiders do every day. If not, we've made it easy to unsubscribe without affecting your other email communications from ASCAP. [Scroll to the bottom to unsubscribe.] When consumers AND creators are happy everyone in the middle will have gotten digital distribution right. Publishers, Collective Rights Ask Congress To Assist ISPs By Ed Christman -- In providing public comment to the Federal Communication Commission on preserving an open Internet, a group of U.S. music publishers and collective rights organizations have asked that Congress consider empowering Internet Service Providers (ISP) to work with right holders to develop a graduated response strategy aimed at ending online theft of copyright works. A comment filed by the National Music Publishers Assn., ASCAP, BMI, the Nashville Songwriters Assn. International, the Church Music Publishers Assn. and SESAC, noted that 95% of music downloads (or 40 billion downloads) were unauthorized in 2008. ... "In our judgment, the Commission's final rules on Preserving the Open Internet and Broadband Industry Practices should make clear that Internet Service Providers can exercise reasonable management practices to address abuses on their networks. US Says Protecting IP Rights a Top Trade Priority (Reuters) - U.S. officials on Monday welcomed a new study showing the importance of innovation to U.S. economic growth and promised vigorous action to curb the huge international trade in fake and pirated goods. "The United States has long been acknowledged as a global leader in fostering innovation and improvements in technology," Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Miriam Sapiro said in a speech to mark World Intellectual Property Day. "However, this competitive advantage is eroded -- along with the jobs it creates -- in an environment where piracy, counterfeiting and other kinds of intellectual property theft continue unchecked," Sapiro said. Trade in counterfeit goods costs tens of billions of dollars to the United States alone. FBI, DoJ Suit-Up 35 New Agents; Lawyers for Intellectual Property Battle By Michael Cooney -- The FBI and Department of Justice said they were going to go hard after intellectual property crimes this year and so far they seem to be keeping their word as today the agencies appointed 15 new Assistant US Attorney (AUSA) positions and 20 FBI Special Agents dedicated to fighting domestic and international IP crimes. NAB, MusicFirst Head To Head In Op-Eds Radio Ink -- NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith and MusicFirst Coalition Exec. Director Jennifer Bendall do a point-counterpoint on performance royalties in today's Washington Post, 'Glee' Is Music to Songwriters' Ears By Scott Collins and Denise Martin -- Pop classics have been getting a sales bump after being performed on the Fox series "Glee" Steve Perry cheers. But not everyone is enthusiastic. [Thanks to Michelle Kay for the link.] Why Synch Licensing Remains a Buyer's Market... By Paul Resnikoff -- Songwriters can certainly make money in synch licensing, but the variables are stacked against the little guy. Well-established or superstar composers are in a different category, but the rest are struggling against an oversupply of content. For them, this has become almost a textbook example of a buyer's market. Spotify Adds Web2.0rhea By Andrew Orlowski -- The first major Spotify upgrade sees it treble in size, turning into a cross between iTunes and Facebook. The goal is to make Spotify "your only music source". It's also, according to the company, much more "social". What the word "social" really means in today's Web 2.0 jargon is "two solitary people in two geographical locations sharing a bad user interface experience". So is Spotify social? SoundHound's Pet Project: A Music Search Engine By Paul Bonanos -- Music is a language that's woefully underrepresented in the science of Internet search. You can Google a song title or some lyrics and get good results, but the language of melody and rhythm remains elusive for most search engines. As a lifelong musician, I've wanted a tool that translates musical input into useful search results for years, but while Shazam has received the most attention, Midomi's more powerful paid app has won over fans by adding a sing-to-identify function. Police Seize Gizmodo's Computers Over iPhone Prototype By Ian Sherr - Police broke into a blogger's home in search of photographs of a prototype Apple iPhone and other material, launching a felony investigation, gadget site Gizmodo and prosecutors said on Monday. Gawker Media-owned gizmodo.com, a popular consumer gadgets site, said last week it paid $5,000 for a prototype next-generation iPhone purportedly left in a Silicon Valley bar by one of Apple's engineers. GetGlue Links Web Resources for Movies, Books and Music Together Like its name implies, the GetGlue Web browser plug-in and its companion website is the virtual substance that holds together key resources about a particular movie, book or album. These Location-Based iPhone Apps Should Survive Facebook World Domination By Kate Currin -- I read a clever joke on Twitter the other day: The Internet is now a giant app for Facebook. With Facebook poised to take over the world's communication, and with Twitter following behind, it's the question is on the tip of every iPhone addict's tongue: Will the other location-based apps survive when Facebook finally rolls out their location strategy? IRAN: Art for Free By Tafreshi -- How much is music worth for the average Iranian? Album Art Grabber Review By Damien McFerran -- When you consider the classics albums of our age - such as The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell and Lou Reed's Transformer - all of those records are tied in with distinctive artwork. It's almost impossible to separate the two elements. Thankfully there's now a way of fusing your MP3 tracks with the original album covers, and the best thing is that it doesn't require you to jump through hoops in order to achieve it. [Album Art Grabber.] Out of Chopin's Shadow By Stuart Isacoff -- Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski once summed up the profound appeal of his country's most famous composer, Frédéric Chopin, by describing his music as an impeccably tailored French suit-perfectly cut and elegantly designed-within which we can perceive the stifled wails of an entire nation. It's a potent combination of beauty, craft and mournful emotion that Robert Schumann famously labeled "cannons buried in flowers." And in this bicentennial year of Chopin's birth it's difficult to think of another composer who so perfectly embodied the Polish character ... Meat the Crew of the Starship Enterprise By Jeff Sparkman DEAN KAY Dean Kay has been at the helm of some of the most highly respected and forward thinking music publishing companies in the world, first as COO of the Welk Music Group, then as President/ CEO of the US division of the PolyGram International Publishing Group, and now as President/CEO of his own precedent setting venture, Lichelle Music Company. Prior to his involvement in publishing, he was a successful songwriter, having had hundreds of his compositions recorded - including "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra. Mr. Kay has been a member of the Board of Directors of ASCAP since 1989 and is Chairman of its New Technologies Committee. He is also on the Board of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA). The ASCAP Daily Brief-Powered by The Dean's List is intended as a guide to direct music professionals to key articles about issues facing the entertainment industry. Recipients are encouraged to read further about the issues by accessing the complete article through the links provided. Author attribution is provided with each article, and none of the links allow readers to by-pass subscription archive gateways. Please note that all editorial comments are indicated in brackets. Questions? Comments? Please Contact Us

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

We are pleased to offer you the ASCAP Daily Brief powered by The Dean's List This daily email, compiled by ASCAP Board member, music publisher and songwriter Dean Kay, cuts through the media clutter to bring you links to the most relevant news and commentary on the rapidly evolving music industry and how it affects your future livelihood. We think you'll soon begin to rely on this report as so many industry insiders do every day. If not, we've made it easy to unsubscribe without affecting your other email communications from ASCAP. [Scroll to the bottom to unsubscribe.] When consumers AND creators are happy everyone in the middle will have gotten digital distribution right. Stephen Foster 2010 -- Doo-Dah in the Digital Age By Barry Alfonso -- The great American songwriter helped establish the idea of royalties. How would he have coped with digital era of mash-ups, sampling and plain old larceny? Whatever Happened to ... ? By Elaine Gaston -- Terry Pettijohn II, assistant professor of psychology at Coastal Carolina University, said many of the changes fueled by technological advances could compromise the way people communicate with each other. "The question then becomes, is this technology keeping us better connected or causing us to interact with each other in person less and less?" Pettijohn said. The Atomization Of The Music Industry And What Do Do About It By David Packman -- We are witnessing the atomization and decentralization of the music industry, says David Packman, a partner at venture capital firm Venrock and former eMusic CEO. The music industry's best hope going forward is to decentralize music consumption as well. Even For Majors Labels, It's A Direct To Fan Future By Bruce Houghton -- Direct to fan marketing and sales has been the indie d.i.y. mantra for months, and now even the major labels are getting into the game. With an increasingly fractured media landscape and a decreasing retail marketplace, what choice do they have? Rhapsody's iPhone App Beats Spotify, MOG to the Punch By Eliot Van Buskirk -- Apple on Monday approved a new version of Rhapsody's iPhone app that includes a crucial new feature: the ability to store subscription music in the phone's memory so that you don't need to rely on your phone's data connection to stream music using the company's $10/month music subscription. (Video demo included with article.) Today Facebook, Tomorrow the World By Ryan Singel -- With a dizzying array of announcements this week, it seems almost inevitable that the web will become, at least for the near future, an extension of Facebook. What Facebook Might Learn from Gawker By Chris Matyszczyk -- With its latest twists and turns with respect to privacy, is there any way that Facebook can become a brand whose values can truly be known and trusted? For Web's New Wave, Sharing Details Is the Point By Brad Stone -- Mark Brooks wants the whole Web to know that he spent $41 on an iPad case at an Apple store, $24 eating at an Applebee's, and $6,450 at a Florida plastic surgery clinic for nose work. Too much information, you say? On the Internet, there seems to be no such thing. A wave of Web start-ups aims to help people indulge their urge to divulge ... Google's Blind Side: The Smartest Guys in the Room Can't Handle the Truth pt. 2 By Chris Castle -- There is an excellent opinion piece in Forbes by Ronald Cass, former dean of the Boston University law school. In Google's Blind Side, he makes many good points about the unacknowledged liability exposure that Google has to the many copyright infringement cases pending against the company, and makes an overarching point that cuts against the Veoh case. He also gives a very well-articulated explanation of why the Electronic Frontier Foundation's interpretation of the DMCA (and that of many other Google apologists) is entirely wrong as a matter of law. How To Generate Buzz On Social Networks Knowledge@Wharton -- Think real estate: It's all about location, location, location. Some lessons from the folks at Foursquare. Film Industry Demands Fines from Pirate Bay Pair By Peter Vinthagen Simpson -- 13 major film companies have filed writ against two of the men behind The Pirate Bay demanding payment of 500,000 kronor fines for continuing to operate the file sharing website despite a court order from October 2009. UK: Small and Mobile ISPs May Avoid New Filesharing Laws By Chris Williams -- Exclusive Regulators are considering creating loopholes in the implementation of the Digital Economy Act to allow small, mobile and Wi-Fi ISPs to avoid its copyright enforcement regime. A suggested threshold system would take into account an ISP's size and the costs of compliance before imposing the Act's provisions against unlawful filesharing. Undercover Persuasion by Tech Industry Lobbyists By Cecilia Kang -- Why pay for a golf trip, dinner or full-page ad when you can tweet for free? The influence peddlers of K Street have discovered the power of social networking on such Web sites as Twitter and Facebook. Using their own names without mentioning that they work in public relations or as lobbyists, employees of companies with interests in Washington are chattering online to shape opinions in hard-to-detect ways. BERLIN New Way to Guide a Car: with Your Eyes, Not Hands By Juergen Baetz -- Tired of spinning that steering wheel? Try this: German researchers have developed a new technology that lets drivers steer cars using only their eyes. Raul Rojas, an artificial intelligence researcher at Berlin's Free University, said Friday that the technology tracks a driver's eye movement and, in turn, steers the car in whatever direction they're looking. For Blues Lovers, Gip's Place in Bessemer, Alabama Is the Place to Be on Saturday Nights By Bob Carlton -- Gip's Place is as real as it gets these days -- a true blues relic with creosote posts that date back to 1952, when Gipson built his backyard shack so folks could drop by, hang out and make music. ... Inside, Christmas lights and Mardi Gras beads dangle from the ceiling, tattered posters of Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters cover the walls, and a big, yellow sign with a wild-eyed black cat, courtesy of Birmingham artist Steve Lowery, declares, "Welcome to Gip's Place, Where All the Cats Play." DEAN KAY Dean Kay has been at the helm of some of the most highly respected and forward thinking music publishing companies in the world, first as COO of the Welk Music Group, then as President/ CEO of the US division of the PolyGram International Publishing Group, and now as President/CEO of his own precedent setting venture, Lichelle Music Company. Prior to his involvement in publishing, he was a successful songwriter, having had hundreds of his compositions recorded - including "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra. Mr. Kay has been a member of the Board of Directors of ASCAP since 1989 and is Chairman of its New Technologies Committee. He is also on the Board of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA). The ASCAP Daily Brief-Powered by The Dean's List is intended as a guide to direct music professionals to key articles about issues facing the entertainment industry. Recipients are encouraged to read further about the issues by accessing the complete article through the links provided. Author attribution is provided with each article, and none of the links allow readers to by-pass subscription archive gateways. Please note that all editorial comments are indicated in brackets. Questions? Comments? Please Contact Us

Thursday, April 15, 2010

We are pleased to offer you the ASCAP Daily Brief powered by The Dean's List This daily email, compiled by ASCAP Board member, music publisher and songwriter Dean Kay, cuts through the media clutter to bring you links to the most relevant news and commentary on the rapidly evolving music industry and how it affects your future livelihood. We think you'll soon begin to rely on this report as so many industry insiders do every day. If not, we've made it easy to unsubscribe without affecting your other email communications from ASCAP. [Scroll to the bottom to unsubscribe.] When consumers AND creators are happy everyone in the middle will have gotten digital distribution right. Counterfeiting and Piracy Undermines the Incentive to Create By Patrick Ross -- That counterfeiting and piracy causes significant harm to creators and creative industries is unquestioned, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office has affirmed that in a new report. There are also some questionable comments made to GAO that are repeated in the report, such as the notion that taking a copyright owner's work without permission or compensation is a benefit to that owner. [One can always turn to a Higher Power] A Christian's Response To Copyright brandonandkatie.com -- There are a lot of objections to obeying (copyright) law... The most common one I hear is, "It's not illegal as long as you're not selling it." Others say they're just trying it out to see if they want to buy it, or that it shouldn't cost that much to begin with, or that it's just not that big a deal. Isn't it? [Figures do not include songwriter and publisher revenues.] A Deeper Look at How Much Musicians Make Online By Tim Rutherford-Johnson -- Information is Beautiful have just published a chart comparing how much artists and labels earn according to the royalty deals of various real and digital music formats. The results are interesting in themselves: to break the US minimum wage of $1,160 every month, a recording artist must sell somewhere between 1,161 and 3,871 retail albums (depending on the deal they strike with their label); but to reach the same figure through Spotify earnings in a month they need to hit over 4.5 million plays. What's A Facebook Fan Worth? Study Says $3.60 By Bruce Houghton -- What is the true value of all of those Facebook fans you've been collecting? Some social media specialists have done the math and it turns out that on average each fan is worth about $3.60 a year. Indie Labels March on Washington This Week By Bruce Houghton -- The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), as a part of The Recording Academy's "Grammys On The Hill" event, will lead a delegation to Capitol Hill this week to advocate for a slate of issues of crucial importance to the independent music community. Progress In Broadcasters, Music Industry Talks? By Juliana Gruenwald -- National Association of Broadcasters CEO Gordon Smith says meetings between broadcasters and a coalition of music industry groups are starting to focus on possible areas of compromise over the music industry's call for AM and FM radio stations to pay musicians a fee for playing their music on the air. Nearly 800,000 U.S. TV Households 'Cut the Cord,' Report Says By Ben Patterson -- Make no mistake: The big cable, satellite, and telco carriers are still sitting pretty with more than 100 million TV subscribers. Nevertheless, a new report claims that more and more viewers are "cutting the cord" in favor of watching their favorite shows via over-the-air antennas (remember those?), Netflix, or the Web. Simply Dashing: Sirius Adds 171,000 Subs In Q1... By Alexandra Osorio -- Sirius XM Radio added 171,441 subscribers during the first quarter, according to disclosures this morning. That represents a gain of 0.9 percent, and brings the total to 18,944,199. It also represents a major reversal from the same quarter last year, when Sirius shed a worrisome 404,422. You Want Movies with That Hard Drive? By Christopher Null -- The days of buying a pristeen new hard drive with nothing but free space may be coming to an end. Seagate today has announced a plan to bundle motion pictures on new hard drives. "Some" of its 500GB FreeAgent hard drives will come preloaded with 20 recent films from Paramount. To watch them, the user will have to pay $9.99 each. ROME: Italian Judge Cites Profit as Justifying a Google Conviction By Elisabetta Povoledo -- An Italian judge convicted three Google employees in February of violating privacy laws because the Internet company had sought to profit from a video of an autistic boy being bullied by classmates, according to a judicial reasoning in the case released on Monday. That verdict was the first to hold the company's employees criminally responsible for content posted on its system. Star Wars: Uncut - A Crowdsourced Shot-for-Shot Remake By Matt Blum -- The idea of remaking the original Star Wars is ridiculous, of course. The idea of remaking it shot-for-shot seems both preposterous and futile. So why does the idea of remaking it shot-for-shot, with each 15-second clip remade differently, seem just crazy enough that it might work? Icon Hank Williams Receives Pulitzer Citation By Chris Talbott -- Hank Williams, the country pioneer who is among the most influential singer-songwriters in music, was given a special Pulitzer Prize citation. "I don't think any country artist cast a longer shadow than he does, both as a songwriter and a performer," Jay Orr, vice president of museum programs at the Country Music Hall of Fame, said Monday. [Great compilation: "Hank Williams: The Ultimate Collection." The songs - as everyone knows - are breath taking.] 10 Things the Internet Has Killed or Ruined (and Five Things It Hasn't) By Dan Tynan. DEAN KAY Dean Kay has been at the helm of some of the most highly respected and forward thinking music publishing companies in the world, first as COO of the Welk Music Group, then as President/ CEO of the US division of the PolyGram International Publishing Group, and now as President/CEO of his own precedent setting venture, Lichelle Music Company. Prior to his involvement in publishing, he was a successful songwriter, having had hundreds of his compositions recorded - including "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra. Mr. Kay has been a member of the Board of Directors of ASCAP since 1989 and is Chairman of its New Technologies Committee. He is also on the Board of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA). The ASCAP Daily Brief-Powered by The Dean's List is intended as a guide to direct music professionals to key articles about issues facing the entertainment industry. Recipients are encouraged to read further about the issues by accessing the complete article through the links provided. Author attribution is provided with each article, and none of the links allow readers to by-pass subscription archive gateways. Please note that all editorial comments are indicated in brackets. Questions? Comments? Please Contact Us

We are pleased to offer you the
ASCAP Daily Brief powered by The Dean's List

This daily email, compiled by ASCAP Board member, music publisher and songwriter Dean Kay, cuts through the media clutter to bring you links to the most relevant news and commentary on the rapidly evolving music industry and how it affects your future livelihood. We think you'll soon begin to rely on this report as so many industry insiders do every day. If not, we've made it easy to unsubscribe without affecting your other email communications from ASCAP. [Scroll to the bottom to unsubscribe.]

Review of Parts of UK Digital Economy Act
By Chris Castle -- The Digital Economy bill finally passed in the UK Parliament by 4:1 majority and received Royal Assent last week as part of the "wash up". The Digital Economy Act takes a number of encouraging steps toward establishing market rules for the digital society.

More Hype Than Facts About ACTA From its Critics
By Barry Sookman -- The internet is lighting up again with opposition to the ACTA as negotiations on the trade agreement resume in New Zealand. Notwithstanding that much about the treaty is now known from well publicized leaks, its critics continue to try and slag it with misinformation and biased criticism.

Supreme Court Justice Sidney Thomas?
By Ben Sheffner: Dear entertainment industry: How do you feel about the judge who wrote this occupying a seat on the Supreme Court? Supreme Court Justice Sidney Thomas? [Thomas wrote the Ninth Circuit's decision against MGM in MGM v. Grokster. That decision was later overturned -- in a 9-0 vote – by ... the Supreme Court.]

UK: Spotify Slammed by Songwriters
By Dan Martin -- A songwriters' association has criticised the Spotify streaming service over 'tiny' payments to musicians.

Last.fm Now Offers Less.fm
By Andrew Orlowski -- CBS-owned music site Last.fm offers Less.fm today, after a decision to stop streaming full length tracks. Instead, it will provide a 30-second preview of a song and a link to other sites carrying the full song, such as Spotify and Mog.

Twitter to Have Paid Tweets Show Up In Searches
AP – Twitter announced Tuesday that it is introducing advertising, allowing companies to pay to have their messages show up first in searches on its site. The introduction of Promoted Tweets comes as Twitter increasingly faces questions about how to turn its wide usage into profits.

[Raises very interesting music licensing questions.]
Old Ads That Won't Die or Fade Away
By Stuart Elliott -- Madison Avenue is coming up with a digital variation on an Irving Berlin standard: The campaign has ended, but the advertising lingers on.

Shazam Moves Into the TV Room
By Jenna Wortham -- Shazam, the mobile application that can identify the songs you hear, has enjoyed tremendous success on the iPhone and iPod Touch. ... But will Shazam's successes translate to an iPad? Andrew Fisher, chief executive of the company, said the iPad is perfect for the next evolution of the service.

Cash Extortion Scheme Targets BitTorrent Users
By HNS Consulting Ltd. -- BitTorrent users are targeted by an unprecedented extortion campaign that threatens them with legal action for copyright infringement, unless the pay a $400 "fine".

Just Shoot Me
By Geoff Edgers -- Let's say you want to be the producer, writer, and, as it turns out, star of your own movie. And that movie is about trying to reunite the legendary, elusive rock band the Kinks. All you have to do is abide by one simple rule: Forget you have a life.

‘This Week' Is Adding Online Fact Checks
By Brian Stelter -- ABC's Sunday morning public affairs program, "This Week," is adding an online feature that its political guests may not appreciate: fact checking. The program is promoting an arrangement with the Web site PolitiFact.com whereby its editors apply its "Truth-O-Meter" — true, half true, false, "pants on fire!" — to the administration officials and lawmakers who are interviewed.

BEIJING: First Singers Fined for Lip-Synching
Reuters – Two Chinese singers have become the first people in the country to fall foul of new rules banning lip-synching nearly two years after widespread criticism of miming at the Beijing Olympics' opening ceremony.

Set Up a Geeky Media Center that Non-Geeks Can Actually Use
By Kevin Purdy

Dr. Yes Will Hear You Now
By Ashley Kahn -- Bruce Lundvall is one of the industry's best-loved anomalies. He's the product of a major-label system that still draws the scorn of many musicians (often deservedly so), yet he remains an insider with an uncommon level of respect in the musical community.

SEOUL: There's Little Funny About North Korea's Comedy Show
By Jon Herskovitz and Christine Kim -- North Korea has carved out a spot in TV history for having one of the world's longest running comedy shows, despite it being mostly devoid of jokes for the decades it has been on the air.

DEAN KAY

Dean Kay has been at the helm of some of the most highly respected and forward thinking music publishing companies in the world, first as COO of the Welk Music Group, then as President/ CEO of the US division of the PolyGram International Publishing Group, and now as President/CEO of his own precedent setting venture, Lichelle Music Company. Prior to his involvement in publishing, he was a successful songwriter, having had hundreds of his compositions recorded - including "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra. Mr. Kay has been a member of the Board of Directors of ASCAP since 1989 and is Chairman of its New Technologies Committee. He is also on the Board of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA).

The ASCAP Daily Brief-Powered by The Dean's List is intended as a guide to direct music professionals to key articles about issues facing the entertainment industry. Recipients are encouraged to read further about the issues by accessing the complete article through the links provided. Author attribution is provided with each article, and none of the links allow readers to by-pass subscription archive gateways. Please note that all editorial comments are indicated in brackets. Questions? Comments? Please Contact Us