Music News (7/15/20)

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Mechanical Licensing Collective Launches Tools For Self-Administered Songwriters, Publishers

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) has announced two initiatives developed to help self-administered songwriters, composers, lyricists, administrators and music publishers organize and prepare their musical works data. By participating in The MLC’s Data Quality Initiative (DQI) or using the Music Data Organization Form, The MLC’s stakeholders can “Play Their Part” in helping The MLC fulfill its important mission of paying royalties accurately and expediently for their benefit.

The MLC created the Data Quality Initiative (DQI) to provide a streamlined way for music publishers, administrators and foreign collective management organizations (CMOs) to compare large schedules of their musical works’ data against The MLC’s data. Through the DQI, The MLC will provide participants with reports that highlight the discrepancies between the two sets of data so that they can more easily address those discrepancies and improve the quality of The MLC’s data.

The MLC has begun working directly with a number of music publishers and administrators to on-board them into the initiative. The MLC is also working with software vendors to help them enhance their platforms to enable users of their systems to participate in the initiative. The MLC looks forward to working with other music publishers, administrators, CMOs and software system vendors interested in participating in The MLC’s Data Quality Initiative.

The MLC created the Music Data Organization Form to help self-administered songwriters, composers and lyricists begin to organize their musical works’ data ahead of The MLC’s roll-out of The MLC Portal.

The MLC intends to begin rolling out the first version of its user portal later this quarter. This version will enable users to set-up their accounts and then search, view and edit The MLC’s data for existing musical works and register new musical works.
 

Mojo Music & Media Inks Catalog Deals With Terry McBride, Mark Miller, Matt McVaney, Jonathan Smith, More


Indie publishing and marketing company Mojo Music & Media has closed a series of publishing catalog acquisitions with artist/writers Terry McBride and Sawyer Brown’s Mark Miller, as well as writer/producers Jonathan Smith, Pat McManus and Matt McVaney, among others. These acquisitions added 80 chart singles, including 14 No. 1 hits and 29 Top 5 hits to Mojo’s catalog of six decades worth of country songs.

McBride began his career fronting McBride & The Ride in the early ’90s, releasing four albums and charting four Top 5 singles, before focusing on songwriting and landing cuts with artists including Garth Brooks, George Strait, Alan Jackson, Hank Williams Jr. and Gretchen Wilson. His most prolific collaboration, with Ronnie Dunn, yielded more than 25 cuts and 13 singles with Brooks & Dunn including such chart-toppers as “Play Something Country,” “Cowgirls Don’t Cry” and “Proud Of The House We Built.” Among McBride’s other hits are Reba McEntire’s “I Keep On Loving You,”  Josh Gracin’s “Stay With Me (Brass Bed),” Casey James’ “Let’s Don’t Call It A Night” and Easton Corbin’s “Are You With Me,” which enjoyed a second life as a No. 1 UK hit after it was remixed by Belgian DJ Lost Frequencies. Mojo has acquired McBride’s complete post-2004 catalog.

Veteran songwriter and producer McManus, a 12-time BMI award winner, has enjoyed cuts with artists ranging from Conway Twitty and BJ Thomas to Carl Graves and The Fifth Dimension. A run of hits in the ’80s, many co-written with Woody Bomar and Bob DiPiero, yielded four No 1 singles and four Top 5 singles, including the Oak Ridge Boys’ “American Made, Charly McClain’s “Sentimental Ol You,” Jim Glaser’s “You’re Getting’ To Me Again” and “If I Could Only Dance With You,” Conway Twitty’s “We Did But Now You Don’t” and Jacky Ward’s “Something On The Radio.” Mojo has acquired a 50% interest in McManus’ back catalog and will partner on futures.

Mojo acquired a co-publishing interest in the catalog of Grammy-nominated writer/producer Smith, a fixture in the contemporary Christian field, who has landed cuts over the last decade with more than 150 of the genre’s top artists including Danny Gokey, We Are Messengers, Tenth Avenue North, Bryan & Katie Torwalt and the J J Weeks Band. The deal includes such CCM hits as Zach Williams’ Platinum debut single “Chain Breaker,” “We Are Messengers’ “Magnify,” Building 429’s “We Won’t Be Shaken,” Tauren Wells’ “Hills And Valleys” and Johnny Diaz’ “Breathe.”

Click here to read more on musicrow.com.
 

Jimmie Allen Follows His Childhood Dreams On All-Star Collaborative EP

Jimmie Allen. Photo: John Shearer

In 2018, Jimmie Allen made history with his warm, polished debut single “Best Shot,” as the first Black artist to launch their career with a No. 1 at country radio.

The song spent multiple weeks atop of the Country Airplay chart, and was later certified Platinum by the RIAA. He followed the smash hit with another chart-topper, “Make Me Want To.”

Allen, a co-writer on both of his No. 1 hits, knows something of how working together can craft something bigger and brighter than any one contributor could do on their own. Allen took inspiration from the collaborative spirit of writers’ rooms for his new EP, Bettie James, which released July 10 via Stoney Creek Records/BBR Music Group.

“I love when different artists do music together,” he tells MusicRow. “A lot of people collaborate on writing a song, and bring in two or three people to write it. Just like with writing, it’s even better when there is more than one person singing it.”

The eclectic Bettie James welcomes artists ranging from Country Music Hall of Fame members Charley Pride and The Oak Ridge Boys, to pop/R&B star Nelly, country artists Mickey Guyton, Brad Paisley, Tim McGraw and Rita Wilson, to CCM star Tauren Wells. Lead single “This Is Us” features Noah Cyrus and has earned more than 30 million streams.

Click here to read more on musicrow.com.