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Law on the Row Goes “Old Skool”

written by Jeff Scheese

Law on the Row is making the jump from digital to “old skool” hardcover. Barry Neil Shrum’s article The Magical Ring of Gyges: Why Illegal Downloading is So Rampant in the Age of Cyberspace was selected by author and editor Thomas J. Hickey, responsible for the Taking Sides book series published by McGraw-Hill.  Mr Shrum’s article is set to appear in the next edition of his Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Crime and Criminology . This will be the third edition oclip_image002f Mr. Hickey’s book. The books are set up in a “point/counterpoint” debate structure, and Mr. Shrum’s article will go toe to toe with an article from famed singer Janice Ian on the issue of illegal downloading of intellectual material from the internet.

As we all know, Piracy is becoming more and more of a problem in recent years due to many advances in technology. Shrum’s article takes the side that it is human nature to steal and take the plunder if they know they can get away with it and cites the famous mythological story “The Ring of Gyges” written by Plato. However there are those that know right from wrong and will remain from engaging in the piracy. It is his hope that if people choose to respect others intellectual property by not stealing it then it will encourage others to be creative without the worries of their own works being stolen. It is a very well written article that brings a lot of truth to the issue and really digs down into people’s motivations and discouragements of music piracy. Ian’s article The Internet Debacle – An Alternative View takes the opposing view that all music should be free to download from the internet.  The books thus establishes both positions, allowing the reader to “take sides,” i.e., see both sides of the argument and can then make their own judgment about the issue at hand for themselves.

The publication date is set for October 12, 2012. You can purchase either the hardcover edition or, for those of you with a Kindle, the Kindle edition. Both will be available on Amazon.

 

Jeff_Scheese

Jeff Scheese, a senior at Belmont University which an emphasis in music business, is currently interning with Shrum & Associates.

 
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New Collaboration “Baby Be My Valentine” Released on iTunes

I have to put a plug in for my brother, C. Kim Shrum, whose collaboration with the artist, Lancimagee Songs, Baby Be My ValeKim Shrumntine was released this week on iTunes.  You can check out the production here.  My brother has been writing songs as long as I can remember, and is one of the reasons I ventured into entertainment law.  Kim and I, together with our oldest sibling Michael, started a publishing company in the early 90’s called Painted Cow Publishing, so naturally I had to go to law school!  The rest is history.  Anyway, great work on the song gentlemen!  Sounds great.

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Nashville-based Identical Entertainment Finds Uncommon Success With Diverse Team of Writers and Artists

(Nashville, Tenn. – Feb. 1, 2011)  Thanks to a uniquely talented roster of writers and artists, Nashville-based publishing and artist development firm Identical Entertainment is making quite a name for itself in the music and entertainment industry.
Founded in 2008 by twin sisters Kathy Aberson and Sheila Bauer, the multi-faceted enterprise has benefited in recent months from a variety of song placement opportunities in music and television.  With a current staff of five writers and two artists, the company focuses primarily on songwriting and publishing, but also houses an artist development branch that is continually on the search for new talent.
“The motivation behind Identical Entertainment was to create a company that can recruit great writers and artists, develop them, cut some songs and then help facilitate their career by playing to their strengths,” says Identical Entertainment President Sheila Bauer.  “Everyone here is passionate about the same thing – music.  We’ve been so fortunate to find incredibly talented people to work with, and we’re all excited to see what that passion holds for us in the future.”
Identical Entertainment staff writer Deanna Harper is one of the writers behind the Pop song and YouTube sensation, “Justin Bieber’s Girlfriend.”  Performed by 14-year-old Michaela Wallace, the song has garnered nearly 1 million views in less than three months on YouTube alone.  In 2010, Harper enjoyed success with her song, “Feel You,” which was selected and performed as the official wedding song for the nationally televised Bachelor/Bachelorette wedding between Jesse Csincsak and Ann Leuders.

Canadian singer Jess Moskaluke released her debut single, “Amen Hallelujah,” after signing an artist and publishing deal with Identical Entertainment in June 2010.  Written by staff writer Tiffany Vartanyan, the song grabbed the attention of noted indie artist promoter Tyler Ward, who selected Moskaluke as his featured “Artist To Watch” in November 2010.  “Amen Hallelujah” has already received more than 300,000 hits on Ward’s YouTube channel and has charted on Canadian radio.  Moskaluke’s follow-up, “Catch Me If You Can,” was released through Ward’s site on Jan. 29.
Tonja Rose, one of the company’s hybrid staff writer/artists, is releasing her debut single to Country radio in February, titled “Where Would Your Heart Be.”   Written by fellow Identical Entertainment writers Deanna Harper and Greg Johnson and released through Nine North Records, “Where Would Your Heart Be” is Rose’s first single from her album, The Heart of Me.
The Identical Entertainment staff is anchored by President Sheila Bauer and CEO Kathy Aberson.  Director of Operations Lindsey Tatham Brown joined the company in 2008.  Reach Identical Entertainment at (615) 530-2643 or [email protected].  Direct mail to: Identical Entertainment, LLC, P.O. Box 120206, Nashville, TN, 37212-0206.
For more information, visit www.IdenticalEnt.com.

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Judiciary Committee holds hearings on HR 848, the “Performance Rights Act”

The House Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on H.R. 848 (this year’s version of HR 4789) tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m.  Although the Committee’s website does not identify any witnesses at this time, I am informed by musicFIRST that Smashing Pumpkins’ founder Billy Corgan and Mitch Bainwol, chairman and CEO of the RIAA will be speaking on their behalf at the hearing.

Billy Corgan H.R. 848 was introduced to the 111th Congress by Rep. John Conyers on February 4, 2009 then referred to committee on the same day.  It was co-sponsored by Tennessee representative, Marsha Blackburn.  If passed, HR 848 would amend The Copyright Act (specifically Title 17) to provide “parity in radio performance rights” under the Copyright Act.  In other words, the Bill would grant a performance rights in sound recordings performed over terrestrial broadcasts (i.e., traditional radio broadcasts, not satellite).   S. 379 is the Senate’s complimentary bill, introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy.

The act has certain provisions to accommodate concerns by the broadcast industry, such as the provision which establishes a flat annual fee in lieu of payment of royalties for individual terrestrial broadcast stations with gross revenues of less than $1.25 million and for non-commercial, public broadcast stations; the provision which grants an exemption from royalty payments for broadcasts of religious services and for incidental uses of musical sound recordings; and the provision which grants terrestrial broadcast stations that make limited feature uses of sound recordings the option to obtain per program licenses. 

The Act specifically states that it will not adversely affect the public performance rights or royalties payable to songwriters or copyright owners of musical works.   In particular, the Act prohibits taking into account the rates established by the Copyright Royalty Judges in any proceeding to reduce or adversely affect the license fees payable for public performances by terrestrial broadcast stations. Requires that such license fees for the public performance of musical works be independent of license fees paid for the public performance of sound recordings.

The full text of the bill can be found at govtrack.us.

One provision I found interesting was Section 6, (1)(A), regarding payment of certain royalties, that states, in full:

A featured recording artist who performs on a sound recording that has been licensed for public performance by means of a digital audio transmission shall be entitled to receive payments from the copyright owner of the sound recording in accordance with the terms of the artist’s contract.

Emphasis added.  This last clause intrigues me.  What I find interesting about it is that under the current structure, the record labels own most, if not all, of the commercial sound recording masters, i.e., they are the “copyright owner of the sound recording.”  This clause entitles the “featured recording artist,” e.g., Madonna, Michael Jackson, etc., to receive payments from the owner “in accordance with the terms of the artist’s contract.” 

In most artists’ contracts, payments are based on a percentage of the gross revenues from sales of physical units – current artist contracts do not have provision for payment of performance royalties on the sound recording.  It would seem that under the Act as written, there is silence as to what happens in this instance where these specific payments of performance royalties are not addressed in the artist’s contract.  One possible remedy would be for the legislators to draft language that would apply, such as what they have done with regard to the “non-featured artists in subsection (B) of the same Section 6.   This Section 6 is not found in the Senate’s version of the legislation.

All of this makes me curious about what will happen to performance royalties that are paid under this Act to the owners of the sound recording copyrights, i.e. the record labels if there is no language in the artists’ recording agreements to specify as to what percentage the artist is entitled?  One thing is certain:  an artist who is not recouped under his artist recording agreement will never see any of these performance royalties under such time as his balance is recouped.

One proposal you might suggest to your representatives is that they consider a payment structure similar to that of the current performance rights organizations that collect and pay performance royalties for musical compositions, wherein one half of the royalties go directly to the songwriter and the other half directly to the publisher.  If this were the case under the new Act, half of the royalty payments would filter directly to the artist and the other half would go to the record labels.  If there truly is a concern about the recording artists not getting paid for his or her performances, this is the only method that would assure this happens.

If you are a recording artist whose performances are being playing on local FM and AM radios, you should investigate the impact this legislation will have on you.  Call you Senators and Representatives and ask them to keep you updated.

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Music Row gears up for CRS

When big events like the Country Radio Seminar occur, Music Row begins to buzz with various activities and talk about the celebrities.  The Country Radio Seminar is an annual convention designed to educate and promote the exchange of ideas in the country music industry.  This year marks the event’s 40th anniversary and it promises to be another great year for attendance.

Among the buzz this year is Gerry House’s induction into the CountrGerry House y Music DJ Hall of Fame.  House is without a doubt one of the most well known country radio personalities of all time and has been honored many times during his long career as a spinner of vinyl (and now polycarbonate, or make that digits!).  He began that career in the small Tennessee town of Maryville at WBCR.  In 1975, he stared at WSIX-AM in Nashville then moved over to the FM side in the early ’80s.  In 1985, he moved his show to the granddaddy of Country Music Radio, WSM and then to KLAC in Los Angeles.  Ultimately, as life often does, he came almost full circle returning to WSIX-FM.  In 2008, the Gerry House and the House Foundation morning show on WSIX won “Personality of the Year” awards from the Country Music Association, the Academy of Country Music and Radio & Records.  House also received the National Association of Broadcasters’ Marconi Award and Leadership Music’s Dale Franklin Award. Also an accomplished songwriter, House wrote “The Big One” (George Strait), “Little Rock” (Reba McEntire) and “On The Side Of Angels” (LeAnn Rimes).   House is joined by the induction Cleveland Ohio’s Chuck Collier, a 30-year veteran of country music radio.  On the programming side of the equation, Bob McKay and Moon Mullins are the Country Music Radio Hall of Fame inductees.   Merle Haggard will receive the Career Achievement Award and Shelia Shipley Biddy will be presented the President’s Award.

The Country Music DJ and Radio Hall of Fame events unofficially mark the beginning of CRS each year.  The Hall of Fame Cocktail Party begins at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday evening. The Dinner and Induction Ceremony follows at 6 p.m.   The remainder of scheduled events for CRS are as follows:

Wednesday, March 4

Wednesday’s events kick off at 9 a.m. with the Opening Ceremonies and Award Presentation.  The keynote address, delivered by marketing expert Seth Godin, will follow at 10 a.m. in the Performance Hall, with the Sylvia Hutton Motivational Speaker/Life Coach panel at 11:15 a.m.  This year’s speaker will be former No. 1 country artist-turn motivational coach Sylvia Hutton.

New label Golden Music will sponsor Wednesday’s luncheon, featuring performances by Benton Blount and Williams Riley.  The previously scheduled morning Artist Radio Taping Session (sponsored by SESAC) will now be combined with the afternoon A.R.T.S. panel.  As a result, the afternoon session will be extended by one hour (2:30 p.m. – 4:50 p.m.).

Performers at ASCAP’s KCRS Live! will include artists and songwriters Jimmy Wayne, Kelley Lovelace, Ashley Gorley and Jonathan Singleton.  The popular Music City JamTM (7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. in the Performance Hall) will be hosted this year by Tim McGraw and sponsored by the Academy of Country Music. 

Additionally, two educational panels will be featured Wednesday afternoon: “Country Radio As Seen Through The PPM Lens,” sponsored by Arbitron, and “Back to the Future: 1969-2049.”

Thursday, March 5:

Designated as Music Industry Town Meeting Day, single day registration for Thursday’s activities may be purchased on-site for $265.  The day’s agenda includes the return of the Tech Track and Small Market Track panels.  Tech Track panels include “Spinning a Web” and “40 New Media Ideas.”  Small Market panels include “Come Hell or High Water: Disaster Preparedness,” “You’re a PD, Now What?” and “Champagne Production on a Beer Budget.”  Sixteen panels will be offered in all during the day between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Thursday’s events begin at 9 a.m. with The Country Music Association revealing the results of its 2008 Country Music Consumer Segmentation Study, conducted by Leo Burnett Co. and Starcom MediaVest Group.  Sony Music Nashville’s luncheon (noon – 1:50 p.m.) will feature performances by Miranda Lambert and Jake Owen.  At 4:10 p.m. Bobby Pinson, PauMiranda Lambert l Overstreet, Josh Turner and Jamey Johnson will perform during WCRS Live! (sponsored by BMI and Country Aircheck).

Friday, March 6:
Friday is Radio Sales Day.  Single day registration, including entrance to the New Faces of Country Music Show®, is available for $370 on-site.  Friday’s events will kick-off with the Managers’ Breakfast at 8 a.m., followed by CRS-40’s second research study, which will present findings from the Edison Research / CRB National Country P1 Study 2009 at 10 a.m. 

Panels during the day will focus on important topics that affect the Country Radio format, such as consumer habits, promotional and research ideas, voicetracking and tools to increase sales.  Prominent sales panels include “20 Ideas Even a PD Would Love,” “PPM!  Selling the Country Format,” “What’s NTR Got To Do With It?” “Creative Closing” and “A Car Dealer Tells All About Advertising.”  More than a dozen panels will be offered during Friday’s activities.

Friday’s luncheon, sponsored by Capitol Nashville, will feature performances from Darius Rucker and Little Big Town.  Also during lunch, Operation Troop Aid, a non-profit charity organization, will send 500 care packages from CRS-40 to deployed U.S. troops.  Packages will contain phone cards, MP3s, beef jerky, trail mix, hand wipes, hand sanitizer, cookies, candy, granola bars, toiletry items and thank you letters.  At 4:10 p.m., Barbara Mandrell will interview Kix Brooks during the Life of a Legend series.

One of Country Radio Seminar’s most popular events, The New Faces of Country Music Show and Dinner (sponsored by R&R and CMA) starts at 6:30 p.m. with performances from Lady Antebellum, James Otto, Kellie Pickler, Chuck Wicks and The Zac Brown Band.  CRS-40 will then Julianne Hough officially close with the unique 40th Anniversary Jam: A Musical Thanks to Radio, to be held at Cadillac Ranch and sponsored by DigitalRodeo.com.  Artists will cover their favorite radio hits from the last 40 years, featuring performances by Emerson Drive, Andy Griggs, Julianne Hough, Jamie O’Neal, James Otto, Blake Shelton, Jimmy Wayne, Chuck Wicks, Mark Wills and Darryl Worley, among others.

A new CRS documentary can be seen during the three-day seminar at the Renaissance and Hilton hotels in downtown Nashville.  The film, produced by Art Vuolo and titled WCRS-TV, chronicles various CRS highlights over the last 21 years.

CRS-40 will be held March 4-6, 2009 at the Nashville Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn. 

About CRB:
Detailed seminar information and a full agenda can be found online at www.CRB.org.  On-site registration is still available for $699 and may be purchased at the Convention Center.  The Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc.®, the event sponsor, is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 1969 to bring radio broadcasters from around the world together with the Country Music Industry to ensure vitality and promote growth in the Country Radio format. 

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ASCAP songwriters to perform at CRS-40’s KCRS Live! showcase

Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc. today announced the lineup for this year’s KCRS Live! event during the radio industry event, CRS-40, scheduled for March 4 – 6, 2009 at the Nashville Convention Center.  The ASCAP-sponsored KCRS Live! event will Wednesday, March 4 from 5-6:20 p.m.

The event almost always features some of Nashville’s top songwriting talent.  ASCAP writers and artists scheduled to perform this year include the following:

Jimmy Wayne Jimmy Wayne – Jimmy Wayne’s “Do You Believe Me Now,” the title track from his first new album in five years (Do You Believe Me Now), was worth the wait.  The much anticipated release was a Top 5 debut on the Billboard Country Album chart, while the single went all the way to No. 1.  The follow-up single, “I Will,” is headed in the same direction.  His first release was a Top 10 success, garnering a string of hits on the Billboard Country chart, including “Stay Gone,” “I Love You This Much,” “Paper Angels” and “You Are,” all co-written by Wayne.  He is scheduled to perform on the “American Saturday Night” tour with Brad Paisley in the summer and fall of this year.

Kelley Lovelace – Franklin, Tennessee resident and graduate of Belmont University, Kelley Lovelace is no stranger to hit songs, havingKelley-Lovelace-(No-Hat) written several that were recorded by artists such as Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Montgomery Gentry, Jason Aldean, Terri Clark, Joe Nichols, Jason Michael Carroll, Kristy Lee Cook, Tracy Byrd and many others.  Fifteen of those songs turned into Top 20 Billboard hits, and 10 of them reached the No. 1 position.  His credits include “Ticks,” “He Didn’t Have to Be,” “The World,” “Online,” (Brad Paisley), “The Impossible,” (Joe Nichols) and “I Just Wanna Be Mad” and “Girls Lie Too” (Terri Clark).

Ashley Gorley – Danville, Kentucky native and Belmont University  graduate Ashley Gorley scored his first No. 1 with Carrie Underwood’s 2006 hit “Don’t Forget To Remember Me.”  In 2008, Carrie brought him his second No. 1 with “All-American Girl.”  His third chart-topper came only a few weeks later with Trace Adkins’ No. 1Ashley Gorley smash, “You’re Gonna Miss This.” 2009 began with yet another No. 1 hit, the Brad Paisley / Keith Urban duet “Start A Band.”  Gorley has already won three ASCAP Awards and been nominated for two Grammys and a CMA Award.  His most recent single is Darius Rucker’s “It Won’t Be Like This For Long.”

Jonathan Singleton – Music Row’s “Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year” in 2008, Jonathan Singleton announced his presence in Nashville with the 2007 Gary Allan smash “Watching Airplanes,” a song that earned him an ACM nomination for Single of the Year.  The Jackson, Tenn. native is also a performer, recently playing gigs opening for artists like Joe Nichols, Phil Vassar, Jonathon Singleton Carrie Underwood, Jason Michael Carroll, Blake Shelton and Eric Church.  Singleton also wrote the latest Billy Currington single “Don’t,” and was featured in a recent “Legends and Lyrics” episode on PBS.

“We look forward to KCRS Live! every year.  It gives ASCAP an opportunity to showcase some of our best songwriter/artists to radio in a more intimate setting,” said Connie Bradley, ASCAP Sr. VP.

“For years, KCRS Live! has showcased some of Nashville’s finest songwriters at Country Radio Seminar.  This year looks to be no different, and we are grateful to have ASCAP once again sponsoring this event,” added CRB Executive Director Ed Salamon.

More information about the event can be found at www.crb.org.

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Barbara Mandrell and Kix Brooks slated for CRS-40 Panel

Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc.® has announced the CRS-40 “Life Of A Legend” panel will feature an interview session of country music legend Barbara Mandrell by host Kix Brooks.

Barbara Mandrell The “Life Of A Legend” panel, sponsored by ABC Radio Networks, takes place Friday, March 6, 2009 at 4:10 p.m.  This panel is the climax of the seminar, and is always highly regarded as one of the most engaging and memorable events of CRS week.   Brooks (half of superstar country duo Brooks & Dunn and host of American Country Countdown) will interview Mandrell as she reflects on her legendary career in country music. Mandrell earned her first No. 1 single with 1978’s “Sleeping Single in a Double Bed,” followed by “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right.”  Mandrell went on to score four more No. 1’s: “Years,” “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool,” “Till You’re Gone” and “One of a Kind Pair of Fools.”  A member of the Grand Ole Opry, Mandrell also starred in her own television series (“Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters”) and won both the CMA “Entertainer of the Year” and “Female Vocalist of the Year” Awards twice. “Barbara and the CRS grew up together, and it is particularly appropriate to feature her this year at CRS on the convention’s 40th Anniversary, the same year that marks her 40th anniversary with Columbia Records,” says CRB Executive Director Ed Salamon. “Barbara Mandrell is a legend in every sense of the word.  She has won countless awards, entertained millions with her television show and influenced so many of today’s artists.” This is the fourth year for the “Life of a Legend” panel.  Previous years’ lineups included: Gerry House interviewing Kenny Rogers (CRS-37), Eddie Stubbs interviewing Ronnie Milsap {CRS-38} and Norro Wilson and Ronnie Gilley interviewing George Jones (CRS-39). CRS-40 is scheduled for March 4-6, 2009 at the Nashville Convention Center.  Complete information, including registration, may be obtained by contacting CRB, Inc. at 615.327.4487 or by visiting www.crb.org.  Technorati Tags: Barbara Mandrell,Country Radio Broadcasters,CRS-40,Nashville,Entertainment

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Local 257 elects Pomeroy to replace Bradley

OUT WITH THE OLD

After over 18 years of service to the organization, Harold Bradley is no longer president of Nashville’s Local 257 chapter of the American Federation of Musicians.  Dave Pomeroy was elected president last week by a vote of 675 to 449.  Out of it’s 2620 members, 1165 votes were cast in this election, which is more than double the number of votes cast in the 2005 election.

This is most certainly the end of an era for Harold Bradley, for whom Harold I have a great deal of respect and admiration.  He began his long services as president of Local 257 on January 1, 1991 and later became the International Vice President serving the AFM’s International Executive Board, a position he will likely retain until 2010.  He received the AFM’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, the same year he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.  Bradley was also the first president of the Nashville chapter of NARAS and continues to serve as a member of the Grammy organization’s Board of Governors.

Harold and his brother, Owen, built Nashville’s earliest recording facility, Castle Recording Studio, in the early 40’s. As the architect of the Nashville Sound, Harold was part of Nashville’s original “Nashville Cats,” the A-Team, which included such notables as Boots Randolph, Floyd Cramer, Hargus “Pig” Robbins, Buddy Harman and The Jordanaires.

He is one of the most recorded guitarist in the world, and has been pickin’ on country albums for over 60 years, including work on such classics as Bobby Helms’ Jingle Bell Rock, Brenda Lee’s I’m Sorry, Roy Orbison’s Only the Lonely, Patsy Cline’s Crazy, Roger Miller’s King of the Road, Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man, Eddy Arnold’s Make the World Go Away, and Loretta Lynn’s Coal Miner’s Daughter, just to name a few.

Harold Bradley will always be considered a formidable force in Nashville’s music industry.

IN WITH THE NEW

Bradley’s replacement, Dave Pomeroy, is a well known and seasoned musician as well, having played electric and acoustic bass on more than 500 albums during his 34 years in the music industry.  Dave has played with artists including Emmylou Harris, Alan Jackson, Elton John, Peter Frampton and Chet Atkins, including work on 6 Grammy-winning projects.  Dave is also an independent producer and has produced numerous projects which can be found on website.

Pomeroy issued the following statement after winning the election:

"I am humbled to be elected to the office President by the members of Local 257. Thanks to everyone who voted and all those who volunteered to help my campaign.

On behalf of all members past and present, I thank Harold Bradley for his many years of dedication and service to this Local and the AFM. I am honored to be carrying on the historic tradition of leading Local 257 as we move into a rapidly changing future.

We have one of the most dynamic, versatile, and innovative music communities on earth, and I look forward to representing the best interests of all Nashville musicians, both here at home and around the world."

Pomeroy will begin his three-year term effective January 1, 2009.

In the same election, Craig Krampf defeated Billy Linneman for Secretary-Treasurer by a vote of 570 to 539.  Re-elected to the Executive Board were Bruce Bouton, Bobby Ogdin, Andy Reiss, Laura Ross, and Denis Solee, who were joined by new members Duncan Mullins and Jimmy Capps.

THE CONTROVERY

There is much controversy surrounding the election, which is viewed by some as “revolutionary.”  The scuttlebutt is that a riff has been developing since 2001 between the leadership of the AFM’s International Executive Board and AFM members who were also members of the Recording Musicians Association, the local chapter of which Pomeroy is president.   The RMA, a player conference sanctioned by the AFM, is a 1400-member organization of studio musicians with chapters in Los Angeles, New York and Nashville,  It is arguably one of the most active conferences in the AFM.

Bradley and Linneman, for better or worse, threw their support behind resolution put forth by Thomas F. Lee, the IEB President, and passed by the IEB in Las Vegas in June 2008, which threatened to “de-conference” the RMA at its September conference.

Lee’s opposition to the RMA derived from stemmed from his promotion of a deal which eliminated so-called backend new usage “buyouts” of musical scores used in video games, something which the AFM was reluctant to do in the past.  Read more about his in this Variety article.

The lines of battle were thusly drawn, and the Local 257 uprising has been building ever since, with tempers flaring on both sides of the disagreement.  (A detailed, though somewhat biased, historical trail can found on the “Sounds” blog).  As a result of the June vote, Pomeroy and over 150 other local members of the AFM presented a resolution at the executive board meeting of Local 257 calling on the members to censor Bradley for his support of the anti-RMA resolution, which Bradley described as “ridiculous” and to which he responded:

This resolution, submitted by RMA President David Pomeroy, is intended to influence my vote! I will continue to vote my conscience (based on the facts before me), and I resent this attempt to force me to vote otherwise.

This statement appeared in an open letter to Local 257 in the July-September 2008 edition of the Nashville Musician, the Local’s newsletter.  This exchange ultimately led to the controversial election of last week.

The waves of discontent were also felt in Los Angeles, where RMA member Vince Trombetta was elected as Local 47’s president earlier this month, also in an apparent backlash against Tom Lee’s anti-RMA leanings.

The principals of democracy are certainly at work in the AFM, just as they were in the presidential elections this year!

SUMMARY

I know Dave Pomeroy and I  believe he will be a caring and effective leader for the AFM.  I congratulate him and wish him the best in the new endeavor, knowing full well that he has some difficult struggles ahead in leading the opposition.

I also know and respect Harold Bradley.  Harold is a Nash
ville icon who has been an effective leader of Local 257 for almost two decades.  I believe he wanted what he thought was best for the musicians and I know that he always had the musicians’ interests at heart.  I thank him for his service to the industry.

But no one is perfect.  While I do not intend to take either side in this debate, I will note that perhaps it was indeed time for a revolution.  There is no doubt now that new leadership is the order of the day. Nashville’s musicians are the backbone of our industry and they deserve adequate compensation and representation.  The majority of them now feel that Dave will do that and I commend their choice.  While no one really likes it when it comes, change is often a good thing.   I hope that at least in the Local 257, egos can deflate to normal and tempests can subside, and harmony can once again return to the organization that is at the heart of Music City.

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PassAlong Networks gets cash infusion

Word is spreading on the Internet about PassAlong Networks, Inc.’s recent infusion of investment capital.  PassAlong is a digital music distribution and sharing service aptly headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee.  According to VentureWire, the company plans to close a $30 million funding round later this month.

PassAlong, also known as the Tennessee Pacific Group, LLC, was founded in 2002 by former Microsoft executive, Dave Jaworski and, Scott Lewis, an independent entrepreneurDave Jaworskier.  Mr. Jaworski’s blog, Can’t Stop the Music, can be found here.  The company raised $40 million in start up monies from angel investors – an unusually substantial amount from individual investors – and also raised another $10 million in investment capital in April 2007.

Music veteran Jeff Skillen recently went to work for the company as their VP of Entertainment Relations.

PassAlong has a patent pending on its media service engine architecture, which is designed to work across all operating systems and platforms and is device-independent.  It launched its first digital music download store on e-Bay in September 2004

The company has digital music catalog agreements with all four major record labels: Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, EMI, and Sony/BMG.  The PassAlong catalog includes nearly 3 million songs, including not only catalog from the majors, but also nearly 2 million independent songs in MP3 format.  Most of its music is either DRM or MP3, and the company became certified by Microsoft PlayforSure in December 2004.

The music-sharing services gets its name from the fact that it allows consumers to recommend music to friends with links to song clips sent through email and instant messaging services from AOL, MSN and Yahoo. PassAlong

PassAlong Network Inc.’s portfolio of other products, many of  which are interactive, includes:

StoreBlocks, an online platform of tools and templates for building digital music/media stores, including PassAlong’s library of songs from the four major labels and MP3 files from independent artists.  This system currently powers 120 digital music stores, including Proctor and Gamble’s Julie’s Jukebox;

OnTour, is an award-winning family of concert notification applications, widgets and websites;

freedomMP3, is a “non-DRM” solution, providing protection technology and media tracking services designed to safeguard artists’ rights without hindering consumer rights via interoperability;.

Skylocker is a media storage and market-management platform;

Speakerheart a subsidiary of PassAlong, is an exciting independent-artist publishing and promotion system; and

Connected Consumer, a series of platforms and services aimed at enhancing the connected consumer experience.

Look for this exciting company to go places on the web.

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Reba and Borchetta team up again

Valory Music Co., the independent label formed last year as a subsidiary to Scott Borchetta and Toby Keith’s Big Machine Records, has added another huge feather to their proverbial cap:  Reba McIntire.  The announcement appears today on Valory Music’s website.

brown05.tif A multimedia entertainer, Reba sold more than 55 million albums, won two Grammy awards and starred in the popular sitcom Reba!  She has for a long time been signed with MCA Nashville, a division of Universal Music Group, where she met Borchetta, who at the time was Senior VP of Promotion.

McEntire and Borchetta worked closely together at MCA Nashville creating a strategy that dominated airplay, sales and touring at a time when few other female artists were doing it.  During their collaboration, Reba and Borchetta had 14 number 1 hits and sold over 22 million records, giving MCA Nashville the title “Label of the Decade” for the 1990’s.

Valory Music was formed last year when Borchetta surprised the music community by announcing a similar high-profile deal with Jewel to produce a country record.  At that time, Borchetta stated that the objective of Valory Music was “to continue the momentum that has been achieved with Big Machine by not only replicating our current culture and our recent successes, but also by taking everything that we’ve learned over the last two years and pouring it into this exciting new venture. We continually re-engineer what we think we know and we feel like we’ve identified an incredible opportunity with the simultaneous availability of some incredible artists and record executives. . . .”

Together, Big Machine and Valory are two of the most successful independent projects in town, selling records for a stable of artists that includes the aforementioned Jewel, Taylor Swift, Trisha Yearwood, and Emerson Drive.

McEntire is expected to release a single with Valory Music next spring, with a complete album coming in the summer of 2009.

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