We catch up on this week’s music publishing news, from key deals and signings to new hires, legislation and more.
Deals and Signings
Sly Stone Sells US Publishing Catalog to Michael Jackson Estate (Billboard)
The Sly and the Family Stone bandleader sealed the deal ahead of his 1976 U.S. Copyright Act reversion rights taking effect.
UMPG Signs Robbie Williams To Global Administration Deal (MBW)
Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) has signed a global administration deal with Robbie Williams’ publishing company, Farrell Music. The agreement includes Robbie Williams’ existing catalogue and future works.
‘Fantastic class’: Mute Song joins IMPEL (Music Week)
Mute Song has joined IMPEL in a move that managing director David McGinnis said will mean the “best possible service” for the publisher’s clients.
Dataclef and Indian Performing Right Society Expand Services Agreement (MBW)
Dataclef and the Indian Performing Right Society Limited (IPRS) have expanded their services agreement, growing their business relationship from claiming and reports processing to comprehensive back office and rights management services including tariff administration, member self-service tools, and brand support.
LyricFind inks eBay deal for its lyrics-based merchandise (Music Ally)
LyricMerch is getting an interesting distribution partner: eBay, which will be a new shop-window for LyricMerch, as well as a place for “targeted merchandise campaigns”.
Hirings and Promotions
Blackbird Music Publishing Appoints Suzanne Moss as Vice President, Head Of Creative Licensing (MBW)
Blackbird Music Publishing Group has hired industry veteran Suzanne Moss as Vice President, Head of Creative Licensing. Moss was previously Vice President of Creative for Film/TV ads at Universal Music Publishing.
Audio Network Appoints Cindy Chao VP, East Coast (MBW)
Audio Network announced that it has hired Cindy Chao as their VP, East Coast. She will be based in New York and report to Andy Williams, who is the company’s global commercial director.
‘Extensive experience and deep knowledge’: Liam McMellon appointed creative director at Bluewater Music (Music Week)
Bluewater Music has appointed Liam McMellon as creative director, based in London. He will be responsible for a wide range of creative projects, including artist development and artist management for the music publisher’s creative division.
PRS For Music appoints commercial boss and chief information officer (Music Week)
The key hires are among the first under new CEO Andrea C Martin. Roger James joins as chief commercial officer and general counsel, while Mark Krajewski takes up the role of chief information officer.
Facts and Figures
Streaming fuels growth in songs business, though digital still only a fifth of revenues (CMU)
Total music collections for 2018 were 8.49 billion euros, a 1.8% increase on 2017. Royalties collected from digital services were up 29.6% to 1.62 billion euros. Over the last five years digital income recorded by CISAC has increased a massive 185%.
Publisher’s Quarterly: Khalid’s ‘Talk’ Helps Sony/ATV Rule Radio Again In Q3 (Billboard)
The publisher spent its eighth straight quarter at No. 1 for the top 100 radio songs, while wresting control of the top spot from UMPG among Billboard Hot 100 hits.
Launches
PRS for Music launches royalty dashboard for music creators (M Magazine)
The new service is now available to PRS for Music members, enabling them to access to comprehensive analytics, data and insights into how their music is performing through a new online dashboard.
Warner Chappell launches ‘Final Sessions’ music podcast (Music Ally)
We’ve seen a fair few labels launch their own music-focused podcasts in recent times, but not quite so many publishers. Warner Chappell is, though: it’s launching a new music-documentary podcast called ‘Final Sessions’, hosted by journalist Joe Levy.
Interesting Reads
Emerging Sync: Looking Into Sync Opportunities Within China’s Entertainment Industry (Synchblog)
As China’s music industry grows, Kriss Edward Thakrar examines the opportunities and challenges this presents for Western artists, publishers and record labels in the world of film and TV.
Synchtank Brings Powerful Solutions to Large Companies Grappling with Metadata, Royalties, Asset Management (Platform & Stream)
Rights holders with large catalogs of entertainment assets face the daunting prospect of asset management, revenue maximization, and collecting fully on royalties. The scale is huge, the data messy, the payments complex.
The Christmas carol fighting homelessness (Rhinegold Publishing)
Choirs around the UK are raising funds for homeless charity Crisis through performances of a Christmas carol, Ring the Bells.
‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’: The Ongoing Saga of Pop’s Most Contentious Song (Rolling Stone)
In 2006, late South African singer Solomon Linda finally got credit for his part in the smash hit. But with the release of a new ‘Lion King,’ questions still linger.
How many people does it take to write a hit song in 2019? (GQ)
Music Week found that it took an average of 5.34 people to write the 100 biggest hits of 2018 – a new record. “The attitude to what songwriting is has changed,” says Helienne Lindvall, songwriter and chair of the Ivor Novello Awards.
What Goes Into Releasing An Artist’s Music Posthumously? (NPR)
George Michael is one of the latest musicians to have music released posthumously. A lot goes into how that music gets released, who profits and what players make it happen.
How Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ Became the Holiday Gift That Keeps on Giving (TIME)
The festive track, a veritable pop masterpiece written and performed by Carey (with a co-writing assist from her longtime collaborator at the time, Walter Afanasieff) has consistently dominated not only the holiday music charts, but the zeitgeist since it made its joyous debut in 1994.
TikTok: The Good, The Bad, The Paradox for the Song Creator (Medium)
A balance needs to be struck in the fight for technological advancement vs protecting the interest of intellectual property owners.
Unclaimed Royalties Study (U.S. Copyright Office)
As directed by the MMA, the U.S. Copyright Office is undertaking a public study to determine the best practices that the Mechanical Licensing Collective may implement to effectively identify copyright owners and unclaimed royalties of musical works.
Latest Jobs
Director of Marketing, Communications & Public Affairs – Ivors Academy (London)
Reporting to the CEO, the Director of Marketing, Communications & Public Affairs will be responsible for the effective management of messaging across the organisation.
Social Media Manager – Blue Raincoat Music (London)
Blue Raincoat Music is seeking a Social Media Manager to implement world class social media campaigns and support the marketing team in London.
Sales Manager, Music Licensing – Songtradr (Santa Monica)
The Sales Manager, Music Licensing is a hands-on role responsible for collaborating, developing and executing Songtradr’s sales strategy to drive revenue.
