Innholdsfortegnelse for June 22, 2013 i Billboard Magazine

Pandora’s latest attempt to lower its royalty obligations is its most unconventional. The Internet radio giant has purchased adult top 40 KXMZ-FM Rapid City, S.D. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. ¶ KXMZ is in the country’s 255th-largest radio market as of the spring ratings period, according to Arbitron, with a population of 108,000. Nearly 71 million people listen to Pandora’s Internet radio service every month. ¶ But the purchase is a strategic move that Pandora hopes will help lower the price of the royalties that it pays to ASCAP, one of the major performing rights organizations in the United States. The company’s goal is to take advantage of a potential loophole in ASCAP performance royalty rules that offers lower fees to broadcast radio stations and the Internet radio services…

PROs. The challenge for ASCAP and BMI is whether they’re able to negotiate 10% of ad revenue performance rates or if iTunes Radio’s functionality requires a mechanical license and whether the 10% rate has to be divided between an advertising and mechanical license, the latter of which is paid directly to the publishers or their digital administrators. ITunes sales. The recordedmusic industry will be watching closely to see how iTunes Radio’s success affects sales. During the negotiations, labels fought for a seamless link between the new service and the iTunes store.…

In cutting a deal to pay artist performance royalties to Fleetwood Mac for the band’s new EP, Clear Channel Media & Entertainment continues to enter deals to pay royalties for master recordings from terrestrial radio advertising in exchange for predictable reduced rates for digital radio. According to Clear Channel, it’s the frst rights partnership between a radio company and an artist, but the company has already cut deals with 11 indie labels including Big Machine, Glassnote, Naxos and Wind-Up. “Reaching an agreement with [Fleetwood Mac] is the clearest sign yet that this kind of revenue-sharing model represents the industry’s future—it is a win-winwin, for artists, fans and the music business,” Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman said in a statement. While the U.S. music industry has long sought performance royalties for…

As chief revenue ofcer of Pandora, John Trimble oversees all advertising sales, marketing and ad operations for a company that is very much still growing. For the fourth quarter of Pandora’s fscal 2013, which ended Jan. 31, the company reported revenue of $427.1 million, a 56% year-over-year increase. That was led by $375.2 million in ad revenue, which also posted a 56% gain, along with $51.9 million in subscriptions and other sources. 6.00 AM start my morning workout, 30 minutes on the elliptical—aided by Pandora, of course. Today’s station is “O.P.P.”—got some Eminem and Dr. Dre to get the old body cranked up. 7.00 AM Metro north train into Manhattan, then take the subway to Union Square office. 8.30 AM Breakfast at coffee shop with a prospective…

ITUNES BY THE NUMBERS 4.1% Share of revenue Pandora pays publishers through PROs 10% Share of ad revenue Apple will pay publishers for iTunes Radio 12% Pro-rated share of iTunes Radio revenue if songs are streamed through iCloud RECORD COMPANIES After a nine-year stint at epic records, mike Flynn has joined Capitol music group as senior VP of A&R and staf producer. “One of the things I’m trying to do is fnd those next things that we can bring in,” Flynn says, declining to reveal any new projects he’s working on. “From the production side, my job is trying to nurture new talent and the things that are hopefully going to keep this business rolling for the next however many years.” Based in Los Angeles, Flynn will produce music from…

You may have caught a new, bilingual Wells Fargo commercial featuring a young Latina girl getting her first paycheck. Playing in the background is “Algo” by Chilean singer/songwriter Deborah Del Corral, an artist little-known in the United States. Also airing now is a Target “Summer Prep” ad scored to “Ula Ula” by Argentine funk group Illya Kuryaki & the Valderramas. Those synchs— along with last month’s launch of a new venture focusing on Latin music licensing called El Search Party—suggest there’s a surge of Latin music placements in mainstream advertising paralleling the increasing importance of Latin demographics in marketing of all things, from politics to department-store staples. But it ain’t so. Latin publishing companies and labels report steady growing revenue from their synch business— much of it coming from TV…

What did you wake up thinking about this morning? What is on my calendar? Can I wear jeans, or do I need a suit because I’m meeting with a senator? I wrap my head around whatever issue I will be dealing with during the day when I am swimming laps, which I do in the morning in the summer, and when I am showering and coming to work. Today, I was preparing for a speech that I have to give next week and I was thinking about how to put it together. Describe a lesson you learned from failure. There have been two important failures: the inability to get legislation on the rogue sites or legislation on the performance rights for music played on [terrestrial] radio. The lesson I learned…

GETTING THERE It’s always best to go late at night and get there in the early, early morning, so you’re not sweating while pulling up to the hotel. —Holly Carter,CEO, artist manager/producer, Relevé Entertainment STAY HERE I feel like people are having the most fun at the W Hotel [whotelsneworleans.com]; in the lobby there’s a party all the time. —Emil Wilbekin, editor at large, Essence Harrah’s [harrahsneworleans.com], but not the casino; they have a separate hotel portion that’s pretty nice. It’s comfortable and centrally located. —Jaha Johnson, artist manager Le Pavillon Hotel [lepavillon.com], which abuts the French Quarter and off ers a respite from the revelry. —Catherine Brewton, VP of writer/publisher relations, BMI DRINK UP Any corner daiquiri shop. They are all over the city, and New Orleans has an…

It started with Hillary Duff and Miley Cyrus selling albums and concert tickets but struggling to get airplay at top 40 radio. And it wasn’t so long ago that even Justin Bieber’s music was considered too young for the format, let alone songs from the latest generation of stars from Disney and Nickelodeon shows that targeted tweens. How things have changed. This week, Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop” debuts at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, Demi Lovato’s “Heart Attack” is No. 6 on Mainstream Top 40 and No. 20 on the Hot 100, and Selena Gomez’s “Come & Get It” bullets at No. 5 on Mainstream Top 40 and No. 8 on the Hot 100. Ariana Grande’s “The Way” rises 12-9 on the Hot 100, and the Jonas Brothers…

It’s a warm, breezy afternoon, and platinum Christian rock band Skillet is settled on the patio at Warner Music’s Nashville headquarters, anxious to talk about its new album, Rise, due June 25 on Word/Atlantic. “It’s a story about your typical American teenager,” lead vocalist/bassist John Cooper says. “He’s coming into adulthood and he’s faced by the horrors that we see every day—floods, bombings, earthquakes, school shootings. He’s also faced with his own problems from his family life. It’s about his path to salvation, and wanting to be significant in some way. The record has a lot of ups and downs, all leading to this salvation experience.” Rise wasn’t intended to be a concept album. Producer Howard Benson, who had worked with the band on previous album Awake, recalls that he’d…

20M listeners currently subscribe to on-demand services 125M is the size of the full market, assuming that the current 20 million subscribers comprises both innovators and early adopters, with innovators making up 2.5% of the market, and early adopters accounting for 13.5% 800M is the size of the full market if you believe the current 20 million subscribers are all innovators, meaning just 2.5% of the market…

ARTIST: Gogol Bordello ALBUM: Pura Vida Conspiracy RELEASE DATE: July 23 LABEL: ATO/Casa Gogol MANAGER: Patrick Jordan, Red Light Management PRODUCER: Andrew Scheps PUBLISHING: Kobalt Music Publishing AGENT: Robby Fraser, William Morris Endeavor CHART HISTORY: Super Taranta! (2007), No. 115 Billboard 200, No. 2 Heatseekers Albums, 98,000; Trans-Continental Hustle (2010), No. 62 Billboard 200, No. 1 Heatseekers Albums, 67,000 TWITTER: @GogolBordello Gogol Bordello’s new album Pura Vida Conspiracy— its first on ATO Records—is due July 23, and the group is on the road “to raise motherfucking hell,” as punk-philosopher frontman Eugene Hütz puts it. The band’s summer schedule of rock-roots riots in the United States, Western and Eastern Europe, Canada and Brazil coincides with the release, but it will be typical of an annual trek that has inspired comparisons to…

In 2011, Rio Roma—the Mexican pop duo of brothers Jose Luis and Raul Roma—earned a platinum certification in Mexico for sales of more than 60,000 copies of its debut album, Al Fin Te Encontre—big numbers for a new Latin act. ARTIST: Rio Roma ALBUM: Otra Vida RELEASE DATE: June 25 LABEL: Sony U.S. Latin MANAGER: Seitrack PRODUCER: Loris Ceroni PUBLISHER: Sony/ATV BOOKING AGENT: MXLIVE Entertainment TWITTER: @rioromamx Rather than rushing a U.S. release, label Sony Latin put out a digital-only version and took its time in developing a strategy for a proper U.S. outing. After nearly two years of playing industry showcases and panels, Rio Roma will release sophomore set Otro Dia simultaneously in Mexico and the United States on June 25. “It’s so very hard to sell a pop…

A super-hip Netflix for concert films and music documentaries, Qello—which YouTube recently added as a paid subscription channel—scans a user’s iTunes library and queues up band DVDs he or she may want to watch but never buys. Qello is free for seven days on iOS, Android, Kindle and Internet-enabled TVs, then $4.99 per month. The year-old, New York-based app boasts the “world’s largest library of streaming HD concert films and music documentaries,” and that promise doesn’t disappoint. Qello took less than a minute to download on Wi-Fi, and seconds to scan a full iTunes library. It then produced a tantalizing list of must-see DVDs from Radiohead, Wavves, Nirvana, Jay-Z, Air, the Black Keys, Metallica, Daft Punk and Dr. Dre’s vintage “Up in Smoke” tour DVD. Less than 10% of the…

A week after it was announced that Columbia Records had signed a new deal with Nine Inch Nails (May 28), the band released new single “Came Back Haunted” on June 5. It’s the lead track from Hesitation Marks, due Sept. 3—the act’s first studio album since 2008’s The Slip, which debuted and peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard 200. The Slip has sold 113,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. + 18 “Came Back Haunted” (see review, page 36) bows at No. 18 on Billboard’s Alternative chart, the band’s highest entry since 2005, when “The Hand That Feeds” opened at No. 8. “Came Back Haunted” starts with 547 detections across 45 alternative stations, according to Nielsen BDS, in the week ending June 9. The song also scores the second-highest debut…

Lorde’s A-Leapin’ Sixteen-year-old Lorde (real name Ella Yelich-O’Connor) draws her first ink on a domestic Billboard songs chart, as “Royals” (Lava/Republic) bows on Triple A at No. 28. The song spent three weeks at No. 1 in her native New Zealand in March and April, while parent EP The Love Club leapt onto Heatseekers Albums at No. 8 last month. The singer/songwriter signed her deal at 13, took her stage name and penned her debut hit because “I was interested in aristocracy at the time,” she says. Guinevere’s Top 40 Flight It makes sense that, as a confessed “Star Trek” fan and gaming geek, pop singer Guinevere would release a video in which she’s in a romantic relationship with a robot. The clip is for her Cirkut-produced “Fly Away,” which…

This week Billboard looks at the time it takes for songs, on average, to ascend to No. 1 on five genre airplay charts. Not only are there widely varying differences among each format, but songs at some formats, like alternative and country, take longer now (during the first six months of 2013) than in comparable periods five and 10 years ago. MAINSTREAM TOP 40 With the format reliant on current music for its core sound since its formation more than a half-century ago, it makes sense that songs average relatively quick rises to No. 1, and that those figures have remained steady during the last 10 years. At eight weeks, now-veteran Justin Timberlake’s recent No. 1 “Mirrors” marked the fastest of his six format leaders. ALTERNATIVE Unlike mainstream top 40,…

After nearly a year of speculation, rumor and talks, Apple has fnally unveiled iTunes Radio, a Pandoralike service that will be funded by advertising revenue and let users build their own listening stations based on chosen songs/artists plus each user’s iTunes buying history and iCloud account. ITunes Radio isn’t just a Pandora copy, which already has a major head start with 70 million users every month. For example, it’ll allow labels to pitch music that can ft with a user’s choices, and iTunes Radio will come with a “buy” button, which labels hope will spur iTunes sales. The new Apple service will ultimately pay out more dollars to the labels and publishers than Pandora, according to sources. On the recorded-music side, sources say Apple has agreed to carve out two…

The RIAA’s requirements for gold record status have changed during the last 55 years, starting with shipments of more than 1 million units, dropping to 500,000 and then updating it to include on-demand streams, counting 100 streams as a single paid download. Studying records that reached gold status in a single format reveals the dramatic drops in the income a gold record generates. The peak came with the CD single in terms of total revenue generated per songs, though in contemporary dollars downloads and streams continue to trail 78 rpm discs released during World War II. For example, to be certifed gold, “Chattanooga Choo Choo” by Glenn Miller (1942) and “Catch a Falling Star” by Perry Como (1958) had to ship 1 million copies. But even when halving the revenue…

.biz Social commerce startup Chirpify now allows sellers to accept credit cards and send and accept automated clearinghouse payments. The company had previously used only PayPal to process payments. Chirpfy enables users to buy, sell, tip and fund-raise on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The festival gold rush is on, with announcements of new events coming in a seemingly endless fow. Generally they have cool names and enough familiar headliners to draw media attention. But some of them are failing, or are destined to, even with experienced producers at the helm. This is the climate in which Prime Social Group is launching not one but two multi-act, multistage festivals under the Breakaway Music Festival banner, set for Columbus, Ohio, and Dallas on Sept. 14 and 24, respectively. “Breakaway” is a soccer…

WHAT: Apple has inked deals with the major publishers just in time to announce the fall launch of its iTunes Radio service. Since Sony/ATV Music Publishing (including EMI Music Publishing), Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) and BMG Chrysalis have withdrawn digital rights from ASCAP and BMI, Apple had to cut individual deals with each of them, as well as Warner/Chappell Music, which exercised its nonexclusive licensing arrangement with the performing rights organizations to also deal directly with Apple. According to sources, the result of those negotiations is that Apple has agreed to pay publishers 10% of ad revenue from the service, which is more than twice the combined 4.1% of revenue amount that Pandora pays through ASCAP, BMI and SESAC to the publishing sector. WHY: The major publishers pulled their…

German broadcasting giant ProSieben-Sat.1 is looking to carve out a piece of the growing music streaming business with the launch of Ampya, an online streaming service akin to Spotify. The justlaunched Ampya features more than 20 million music titles in addition to 57,000 music videos and more than 100,000 radio stations, available through an adsupported “freemium” service or on a subscription basis. Music streaming is already a crowded market. In addition to Swedish-owned Spotify, such services as Napster, Simfy, WiMP and Deezer compete for music-hungry German fans. But despite its corporate bulk, ProSiebenSat.1 has proved adept in competing with flexible online startups. The company’s Internet video-on-demand service, MyVideo, is the territory’s leading video streaming operation and a major entrenched competitor to international operators like Amazon-controlled LoveFilm and Netflix, which has…

The pioneers of long-lasting touring festivals in North America have much to teach newcomers in the field. There’s a stark difference between touring fests that survive or at least end on their own terms (Vans Warped, Ozzfest, Mayhem, Rock the Bells) and those that do not (Lollapalooza, Lilith Fair, H.O.R.D.E.). While a variety of factors play a role in an individual festival’s success, or lack thereof, the fests that endure for the longest haul have one common denominator: They usually stay true to their niche. The ones that fall by the wayside (as tours, at least, as the Lolla brand thrives as a non-touring festival) all make the same critical error—trying to be all things to all fans, diluting their brands and disengaging the core audience in the process. There’s…

The biggest names in country music, including Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert and Sony Music’s Gary Overton, lit up Music City as the CMT Music Awards and the CMA Music Festival took over the town. .com For photos of the music business at work and play, go to billboard.biz. To submit photos for consideration, send images to backbeat@billboard.com. 1 Golden girls: Country superstars Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert celebrated their big wins at the CMT Music Awards, held June 5 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Underwood took home video of the year for “Blown Away,” while Lambert nabbed double honors for performance of the year for “Over You” and female video of the year for “Mama’s Broken Heart.” 2 Warner Music Nashville president/CEO John Esposito (left) and Hunter Hayes were…

Name: Young Chop Software weapon of choice: “FL Studio, loaded up with VSTs”—virtual studio technology—“and drum kits.” Breakout: Producing 2012 viral hits “I Don’t Like” and “Bang” for Chief Keef. Other recent notables: Big Sean’s “Guap,” French Montana’s “Ocho Cinco,” Pusha T’s “Blocka” and Wyclef Jean’s “Hope N Pray.” Up next: Kanye West’s Yeezus, Big Sean’s Hall of Fame, R. Kelly and upcoming Chicago rappers Tink and Johnny May Cash. Though Young Chop (real name Tyree Pittman) is the leading beatmaker in the “drill” rap subgenre exploding from Chicago’s South Side, he can usually be found at SoundScape, a small studio in Humboldt Park, on the other end of town. When he’s home, that is—just three to four days a month, Chop says. He flatly denies he was just in…

“here’s no handholding. You’ve just got to put on your big girl pants and go for it!” That’s 22-year-old Chelsea Lena’s assessment of the approach she’s taken during the last five years as a successful demo singer. And she’s not alone. A quick trip through Google reveals dozens of websites representing companies and individuals offering demo vocal services to songwriters and producers pitching songs to record companies, artists, managers, A&R executives and music publishers. It’s a behind-the-scenes part of the industry that dates back to Tin Pan Alley and the days of song pluggers. Dionne Warwick got her start demoing songs for Burt Bacharach and Hal David when they were peddling songs at New York’s Brill Building. Loretta Lynn demoed songs for Acuff Rose Music in Nashville before she became…

The week Skillet’s new album Rise is released, frontman John Cooper will be keeping an eye on the self-titled debut from We As Human, which also arrives June 25. Cooper discovered the band and signed it to Hear It Loud, an imprint he launched with manager Zach Kelm and attorney Todd Rubenstein in partnership with Atlantic/Word Records. “We covered two Skillet songs at our very first show,” We As Human frontman Justin Cordle says, adding that he “never thought in my craziest dreams” that the label to sign his band would be Cooper’s. For his part, Cooper confesses he never thought he’d start a label. “What I wanted to do is get my manager to manage them. I never wanted to be a label owner. I don’t really know what…

If music subscription services are the future of the record business, then mobile apps will be the gateway to the future. These apps will need to provide excellent listening experiences that are worth paying a monthly fee. It may be the services’ greatest challenge yet. Subscription apps have improved through the years by reimagining the services’ PC experiences without being overly complicated. Services are also creating other apps that enhance, or lead to, their core product. These mobile successes are important: Customers who pay for mobile access provide the lion’s share of subscription revenue. Rdio does its best to maintain the simplicity and elegance of its Web service without burdening the mobile app with too many buttons and features. “We try as much as possible to maintain feature parity with…

DROOG, DJ collective. Ejeca, “Hi Rollin’.” A midtempo starter from one of the promising new talents of the U.K. house revival. Rounded percussion, reverbed soul vocals and mellowed organ stabs build into an appropriate earlynight/after-hours crescendo. Click Click, “Ducks in the Kiddie Pool.” A contagious pool or daytime partystarter with a retro vibe that combines ‘80s-style synths and modern techy growl. Throw a pleasantly slightly cheesy pitched-down robotic vocal bit on top, and you have a smash that hasn’t failed to get those hips moving yet. Harry Bennett, “Body Language.” This track feels instantly familiar while avoiding all of the overused sounds out there today. A strong bottom gives you a good ride until a little bit of acid adds sprinkles over a creepy vocal. Top shelf.…

BRANDI CARLILE Singer/songwriter Carlile hits the road this month on her Hard Way Home Summer Convoy tour. The 37-date headlining run follows her 2012 LP, Bear Creek, and includes dates supporting Dave Matthews Band and the Avett Brothers. Booking agent Duffy McSwiggin of Paradigm has routed Carlile’s tours for the past nine years, and sees the process as constantly evolving. “I’m only as good as the artist I represent, and she is an amazing artist.” ROUTING: Following Bear Creek’ release, Carlile—now in between album cycles— looked to McSwiggin for a specific strategy in routing her summer swing. “The idea was to headline secondary markets—secondary festivals, theaters or soft-ticket events.” However, many of the dates were routed around Carlile’s opening slots for Matthews—slated for June 15-16 at the Comcast Center in…

Making her return to Motown (after a short stint with Universal sister label Republic), the Grammy Awardwinning India.Arie weighs in with what may be one of the best releases of her career. Framed against spare arrangements, resonating rhythms and engaging melodies, India.Arie and longtime collaborator Shannon Sanders focus on what immediately drew fans to the singer’s 2001 powerhouse debut, Acoustic Soul: her unerring talent for conveying life experiences, hard-won lessons and self-empowerment within a soulful context. Whether shifting into a playful (“Nothing That I Love More”), romantic (“Cocoa Butter”), serious (the life-affirming “Break the Shell”) or spiritual (“Thy Will Be Done”) mood, she sonorously draws from a colorful palette of R&B, folk, blues, reggae and third-world influences abetted by insightful lyrics. —GM India.Arie Songversation PRODUCERS: various Soulbird/Motown Records RELEASE DATE:…

Matador Records had been “actively pursuing” hard rock act Queens of the Stone Age before signing the group this year, according to label co-owner/GM Patrick Amory. For that diligence, this week’s No. 1 Billboard 200 debut of the group’s . . . Like Clockwork is Matador’s first chart-topper, with 91,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan (see story, page 45). Amory says the label wanted to work with QOTSA founder/frontman Josh Homme “on any of his projects. [QOTSA] was free from Universal, and we were working with another of their manager’s clients [Sonic Youth], so that helped us gain some entree.” By the time Matador signed QOTSA in early April, . . . Like Clockwork was “done and fully conceptualized,” according to Amory. That includes a series of five animated…

As Queens of the Stone Age claim their first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 (see stories, pages 39 and 45), the annual Tony Awards shine a light on cast recordings. The Tonys, broadcast June 9 on CBS, help spur an immediate impact for some of this year’s biggest musical cast albums. As this issue’s charts reflect the Nielsen SoundScan tracking week that ended on the night of the telecast, there should also be additional impact from the Tonys on next week’s charts. That said, the new Broadway cast recording of “Pippin,” which won the Tony for best revival of a musical, debuts at No. 92 on the Billboard 200 with 5,000 sold and bows at No. 1 on the Top Cast Albums chart. Right behind it is the…

MYSPACE RETURNS The new Myspace, backed by the Vanderhook brothers, has officially launched as its rebuilt platform moves out of beta and adds a new mobile app. Profiles from the classic Myspace have been upgraded so members can log in using their Myspace, Facebook or Twitter accounts to access their content. The new platform is “designed to showcase creativity, foster collaboration and promote discovery” and boasts access to some 53 million songs from established and unsigned acts. BEATLES’ UNIVERSAL APPEAL Bravado, the global merchandising arm of Universal Music Group, has announced a deal with Apple Corps. The management boutique, founded by the Beatles in 1967, covers rights to Beatles merch in North America. That makes UMG, for all intents and purposes, the home of the Beatles in North America, as…

The music game genre, left for dead after sales of “Guitar Hero” collapsed three years ago, is starting to show signs of life again. Four titles shown at this year’s E3 videogame convention in Los Angeles are carving a path toward the next trend that could lead to a revival in music games: music creation. “The light-bulb moment for us came when we saw a survey showing that 84% of people wish they could make music, but couldn’t,” says Matt Serletic, chief executive of Music Mastermind, developer of an upcoming mobile title called “Zya.” “There’s a wide chasm between the desire to make music and the ability to produce a satisfactory result.” Serletic was a record producer for artists like Rob Thomas and chairman of Virgin Records from 2002 to…

Live music. If the Breakaway fests, which meld EDM with other genres, come off well, it’s only good for a genre now faced with proving its legs as EDM enters the mainstream. If it fails, Breakaway will become a cautionary tale for both EDM and the surge in new festivals. Prime Social. If these festivals make hefty profits, Prime Social will no longer be under the radar and AEG, Live Nation, C3 Presents and Bob Sillerman will likely be calling The heartland. Prime Social is finding success by going where the big-name promoters often don’t. But virgin territory doesn’t stay virgin for long in this business.…

Indie publishers. Hundreds of established but smaller publishers like Downtown Publishing, Pen Music and Reach Music that use PROs to negotiate royalty payments might see their income rise as a result of the direct deals. Rate court judges will likely consider the direct rates in making future decisions. Sony/ATV. The world’s largest music publisher has led from the front on advocating for better royalty rates for songwriters, and CEO Martin Bandier has been more vocal than most given that his company’s size gives it a stronger hand in deal talks. PROs. ASCAP and BMI are still doing OK in these deals, even though the majors are pulling digital rights from them. That’s because they still plan to use the PROs to administer the rights. The lower administration-only fees might be…

Earlier this year, when Pencils of Promise was looking for a marketing partner to help spread the word about its annual Justin Bieber-supported Schools 4 All fund-raising campaign, the international education organization turned to the nonprofit Pvblic Foundation, which specializes in donating millions of dollars’ worth of unused advertising spots to charities. The results were impressive. Pvblic made a media grant of $100,000 to Pencils of Promise that included donated banner ads from websites targeting 14- to 18-year-olds. As a result, Pencils of Promise raised $400,000 to help build new schools in struggling countries, according to Pvblic co-founder Anjula Acharia-Bath, who is also CEO of entertainment/ lifestyle website Desi Hits. “They were able to help drive eyeballs and participation from a very specific demographic, which we wouldn’t necessarily have been…

If you’re waiting for a rebound in the recorded-music market, you might have to wait quite a few years. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ new media report shows growth is everywhere in the United States except recorded music. Concerts are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3% through 2017. PwC expects the game business to rise at a CAGR of 6.2%. The North American film business (including the United States and Canada) is forecast to have a 3.3% CAGR. And the U.S. fixed-broadband market, the delivery mechanism for much of this entertainment, is slated to grow at a CAGR of 4.4%. But recorded music is expected to shrink at 1.3% during the next five years, falling from a $6.4 billion business (in consumer spending) in 2012 to $6 billion…

“There’s no place like home: Broadway and New York City.” —Cyndi Lauper 1 Pen pals: SESAC’s Tim Fink and composers Brad Chiet, Brenda Burns and Todd Burns (from left) mingled on the red carpet before SESAC’s Film and TV Composer Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on June 6. Todd Burns was honored for his work on the TV shows “48 Hours” and “Maury.” 2 Time to shine: At the Film and TV Composer Awards were (from left) SESAC’s James Leach, Grow Music Project’s Kristin and Christopher Tyng , and SESAC’s Erin Collins and Dennis Lord. 3 The musical “Kinky Boots” walked away with top honors at the 67th annual Tony Awards in New York on June 9. Actor Billy Porter took home an award for best performance by a leading…

“This is the worst spot to stand.” In the middle of a photo studio in Hollywood, Miley Cyrus faces a video crew there to capture the pop icon relaying spritely promos for an upcoming blitz of TV appearances on “Good Morning America” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” There’s a director on hand, but it’s clear who’s running the show. “Look, I’m not fat or anorexic—I just know my angles,” Cyrus instructs the cameraman. She then goes over the scripts, which are a little too cutesy for her taste—the copy riffs on the title of her new single, “We Can’t Stop,” released just the day before. “I hate it when people make puns out of my song titles,” she says, before adding with a slight smile, “Should I do a Christian Bale…

In the world of demo singing, payment can come in several forms. Fees for demo sessions range from under-the-table favors ($50-$75 in cash, “to cover my gas,” one singer says) to contracted label jobs that can bring anywhere from $300 to $500. But the biggest paydays come when reference vocals are left on a commercially released master recording. That’s where the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists comes into play. In Nashville, under the union’s standard publisher demo agreement among songwriters, publishing companies and session singers, the lattermost are protected should the demo be upgraded to a master. That protection includes payment for each future use of the demo, including film, TV and other media. “In the digital age, it’s become a very big revenue source for…

What if you could double the market for Internet radio, or triple the number of subscribers for on-demand services? The answer may be simpler than you think—that is, the answer may be all about simplicity. As Steve Jobs frequently said, consumers want simplicity, and building a simple product is more difficult than building a complicated one. That’s one reason iTunes has more than 500 million active accounts (though not all are music buyers) while on-demand subscription had just 20 million paying customers globally at the end of 2012, according to IFPI. After keeping mainstream consumers at arm’s length for years, digital music services have started simplifying their product to reach the broader market. New features and approaches at both Internet radio and on-demand services reveal concerted efforts to make digital…

In the fall of 2009, a singer/songwriter named Holly Brook holed up in a cabin in the Oregon woods. She was interested in branching out beyond the soft coffeehouse pop of her debut, Like Blood Like Honey, recorded a few years prior. When she emerged the next year, having penned Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie” with producer Alex Da Kid while in the cabin, Skylar Grey was born. Since then Grey, a soft-spoken artist who now resides in what she calls a “retirement community on a mountain,” has become well-known thanks to her appearances on tracks like Diddy-Dirty Money’s “Coming Home” and Dr. Dre’s “I Need a Doctor.” After her performance of the latter with Dre and Eminem at the 2011 Grammy Awards, the demand for Grey’s solo music…

Crowned winner of Billboard’s industry competition “We Hear the Future” in 2006, harmony-rich pop/R&B group AHMIR has continually toured during the last seven years and recently notched two major milestones: a May 20 performance on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” and a slot on YouTube’s inaugural, sold-out DigiFest music festival at New York’s Terminal 5 on June 1. Early on, AHMIR manager Michael Cheung of Chino World Management sought to buck the norm. Labels weren’t seeking vocal groups, and because members Leon Jones, Michael McDonald, KC Washington and Mark Robertson are all black, Cheung didn’t want the foursome automatically boxed solely as R&B. “Their audience is wider than that,” he says. Now, with covers of everyone from Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum to P!nk on YouTube, AHMIR counts more than…

Nine Inch Nails “Came Back Haunted” (5:17) PRODUCERS: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Alan Moulder WRITER: Trent Reznor PUBLISHER: Form and Texture (ASCAP) Null/Columbia Four years after announcing a hiatus, Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails have come back . . . smiling? There’s certainly a level of angst-y lament implied on the lead track from the forthcoming Hesitation Marks—the first NIN single since 2008—but the bottom line is that “Came Back Haunted” (see story, page 38) is really five-and-a-half minutes of irresistible techno-funk. Layered synths and subtle industrial effects percolate atop a bouncy rhythm pattern until jagged guitar riffs explode from the mid-song instrumental break, which in turn leads to a sinewy, tribal vocal outro chanting the title over and over until the song’s abrupt conclusion. Acknowledging his absence, Reznor…

.biz The One Numbers campaign set up by U2’s Bono is backing the agit8 project, which will rerecord classic protest songs in hopes of influencing leaders at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland. The project wants G8 leaders to help boost African food production and improve transparency in international aid. The songs include Sting performing the Police’s “Driven to Tears” and Ed Sheeran’s version of Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War.” For 14 years, Juan Luis Morera Luna and Llandel Veguilla Malave have respectively been Wisin and Yandel, the most successful reggaetón duo on Billboard’s charts, with 10 No. 1s on Hot Latin Songs, a record for a duo in any genre. Now, half of that duo is ready for the solo spotlight, even as Wisin & Yandel continue to work…

7 MONTHS AGO While Dallas Green was still in the studio he teased fans with updates on the album’s progress through Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, starting as early as November of last year. Dine Alone Records director of marketing Ryan Spalding emphasizes the importance of this social strategy, saying that the label’s priority was to “always treat the fans with respect and make sure they’re in the loop before it goes out to a broader audience.” U.S. exposure was also key for Spalding, who helped hire media relations company Sacks & Co. to push the songwriter stateside. “Dallas gave up his time to help achieve this,” Spalding adds. 1 MONTH AGO In Canada on May 24, City and Colour became the first Canadian act to stream its album on iTunes…

LEGEND Bullets indicate titles with greatest weekly gains. Album Charts ● Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 500,000 albums (Gold). ▴ RIAA certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 1 million units (Platinum). Numeral noted with Platinum symbol indicates album’s multiplatinum level ◆ RIAA certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 10 million units (Diamond). Numeral noted with Diamond symbol indicates album’s multiplatinum level. ◯ Latin albums certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 50,000 units (Oro). △ Latin albums certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 100,000 units (Platino). Numeral noted with Platinum symbol indicates album’s multi-platinum level. Digital Songs Charts RIAA certification for 500,000 paid downloads (Gold). RIAA certification for 1 million paid downloads (Platinum). Numeral…