7 posts and columns on songwriters

Google Acquires Music Royalty Manager RightsFlow

in News on December 9, 2011 at 2:44 pm PT

Google Inc.’s YouTube said it acquired RightsFlow Inc., a small company that tracks and processes royalty payments to songwriters and music publishers.

Sue or Sign: EMI Trades Lawsuit for Deal With Music Start-Up Grooveshark

in Media on October 13, 2009 at 9:00 am PT

Well look at that: EMI Music Group, which had been working on a licensing deal with music start-up Grooveshark but ended up suing it instead, now has a licensing deal with Grooveshark after all.
fought-the-law

YouTube U.K. Settles Royalty Fight, Turns Music Videos Back On Again

in Media on September 2, 2009 at 4:00 pm PT

Rejoice, British Web surfers! You’ll soon be able to watch your favorite music videos on YouTube again. Google has reached a settlement with a British licensing group in a dispute over royalty payments, which means that YouTube’s U.K. outpost will begin showing licensed music videos again, following a five-month outage.
anarchy-in-the-uk

Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff: How to Make Money While Music Becomes “Demonetized”

in D7 on May 27, 2009 at 9:31 am PT

As a longtime music executive and talent manager, Irving Azoff has had to find a way to work with everyone from inebriated rock stars to David Geffen. But he’s never had to placate Washington, D.C. before. But that’s what Azoff needs to do in order to pull off the deal of a lifetime: A merger between his Ticketmaster Entertainment, which dominates the ticketing business, and Live Nation, which dominates the live concert business. When Azoff isn’t busy trying to convince people that the merger doesn’t violate antitrust regulations, or running his ticketing company, he manages the careers of everyone from the Eagles to Christina Aguilera. Note the one thing in the music business he doesn’t spend time on: Selling recorded music.
Irving Azoff

Warner Music Group Disappearing From YouTube: Both Sides Take Credit

in Media on December 20, 2008 at 9:17 am PT

Warner Music Group’s videos are disappearing from YouTube. The move is a result of a breakdown in negotiations between Google and the music label over a licensing deal that was set to expire soon. Who actually made the move to drop the label’s content from the world’s biggest video site is a matter of dispute, though. Both sides are taking credit for the decision.

Steve Ballmer: Tenacious B

in News on May 1, 2008 at 10:59 am PT

Perhaps You Could Stream Those Back Royalties Over the Internet as Well

in News on May 1, 2008 at 9:42 am PT

Seems AOL and Yahoo were a bit off on their estimates of the back royalties they owe music composers, writers and publishers for streaming their work over the Internet. The two companies had proposed paying just $632,879 and $889,402, respectively, in 2006 royalites to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Yesterday, a federal [...]