Music News (12/3/14)

The International Songwriting Competition is accepting song submissions in two categories: love song and social cause.

One Overall winner from the promotion will receive 4,000 Radio Airplay credits ($100 value), and their love song included on the jango.com Love Songs station with artists like Bruno Mars, Christina Perri, Jason Mraz, Adele, Journey, and others. They will also receive promotion on Radio Airplay’s social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook, an artist spotlight feature in the Radio Airplay blog and newsletter.

Nine runners up receive 500 Radio Airplay credits each, promotion on Radio Airplay’s social media, and top rotation on the Independent Love Songs station. Winners will be announced in February 2015. Click here to enter.

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Music publishing and services company Kobalt has created an integrated data insight tool for artists, labels, publishers and songwriters to track their music and royalties globally in real-time. Clients can now view statements and catalog information, and compare sales, streams and views from Spotify, YouTube, and iTunes in real-time through the Digital Sales tracker. The Kobalt portal also allows detailed analysis of global revenue by various criteria, including income type and territory. Clients can also track views and earnings for YouTube user-generated and partner-provided content.

Additionally, the publishing section of the portal now allows writers to view digital collection data from Spotify, YouTube, and iTunes in real-time. KLS and publishing clients can also use the Kobalt Portal to follow the synch pipeline at each stage of the licensing process. Publishing clients can also take out advances on their income through the portal.

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Pictured (L-R): Whitney Daane, Desmond Child, Levi Hummon & Fletcher Foster.

Singer-songwriter Levi Hummon has signed an exclusive music publishing contract with Desmond Child and Deston Entertainment, in collaboration with Kobalt Music Publishing.

“Levi is a special talent, and we are thrilled to be working with him, as well as Desmond and Deston Entertainment,” added Kobalt’s Sr. VP Creative, Whitney Daane.

Levi’s song, “Make it Love” was featured in Child’s documentary film, TWO: The Story of Roman & Nyro, making it on the short list of nominations for the Oscar’s “Best Original Song.” Levi recently signed with Big Machine/Valory Records and is currently writing and recording his first full-length album to be released in 2015.

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Jeremy Spillman

Warner/Chappell Music, along with publisher Neon Cross, have signed a worldwide publishing agreement with songwriter Jeremy Spillman.

In just the past year, Spillman has had a diverse collection of songs recorded by such renowned artists as Eric Church, Brantley Gilbert, Little Big Town, Darius Rucker, Keith Urban, Frankie Ballard, and Charlie Worsham.

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Singer/songwriter/engineer Eric Varnell has signed a publishing deal with BMG Chrysalis and King Spirit Music.

He has worked with artist/writers and producers including Danielle Peck, Pillar, Jared Weeks, Lukas Rossi, Ashes Remain, and more.

Pictured (L-R): Sara Knabe (BMG Chrysalis), Chris Oglesby (BMG Chrysalis), Kevin Lane (BMG Chrysalis), Eric Varnell, Todd Wilkes (King Spirit Music), Kos Weaver (BMG Chrysalis)