Music News 7/28/11

SESAC has announced a new partnership with INgrooves a leading provider of digital distribution, marketing and promotion services to the global music & video community via its One Digital platform. INgrooves will service SESAC-represented content to online retailers, mobile carriers, and other digital media outlets. Through this relationship, SESAC will now be able to service content, for which publishing and master rights are owned by its affiliated artists and songwriters, to INgrooves’s list of over 500 online and mobile destinations worldwide. SESAC’s utilization of the One Digital end-to-end digital asset management platform, made possible by the arrangement, automates many distribution and administrative functions for SESAC artists and connects them directly to leading online and mobile stores worldwide. In addition, the partnership provides clients customized marketing, promotion, and administrative support to help maximize the earnings potential of specific music releases and catalogs.

According to SESAC, the deal signifies an evolution in its digital strategy. While licensing and royalty accounting remain core competencies, new value-add services such as digital delivery and distribution will augment opportunities for licensing SESAC-represented content in the marketplace.

“A PRO is often the first industry relationship an aspiring artist, songwriter, or composer has in their career,” said Hunter Williams, Sr. VP, Strategic Development, Distribution and Research Operations, SESAC, Inc. “In the age of DIY (do-it-yourself), it’s more important than ever that we use this position to provide complementary services to our affiliated artists and writers to help them meet their professional goals. The more opportunities SESAC can create for its artists and writers to distribute their content into the marketplace, the more opportunities it will present for SESAC to monetize that content in the licensing arena.”

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Producers of hit singing competition The Voice will be in Nashville holding open auditions this week. They are looking for contestants for the show’s second season on Friday and Saturday July 29-30 at the Municipal Auditorium.

Interested candidates must be 16 years of age and register online prior to the audition. Contestants can be solo artists or duos that perform any type of music.

Those who are not able to attend an Open Call Audition, can send a video submission.

All the casting details are here.

Celebrity Coaches Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Cee Lo Green and Christina Aguilera will not be at the auditions. Praised by viewers and critics, The Voice has become one of the most successful new television shows in years, averaging almost 13 million viewers in its first season.