Music News 2/7/13

Natasha Powell

Natasha Powell has joined BMI Nashville‘s Corporate Communications & Marketing department as Director of Public Relations. In her new role, Powell will be responsible for corporate communications strategies for BMI, while also managing public and media relations efforts for key events in Nashville and regionally. She will report to Silvia Davi, VP and Head of Strategic Communications & Marketing at BMI’s New York City headquarters.

Powell previously held the position of Manager of Corporate Communications at CMT. She joined CMT in 2003 as an assistant in the Program Development & Production department and transitioned to the Corporate Communications department in 2005. At CMT, she led public relations efforts for many of the network’s series, including Sweet Home Alabama, CMT Top 20 Countdown, CMT Insider and Bayou Billionaires, and oversaw media credentialing for the CMT Music Awards.

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Global Repertoire Database At Midem; ‘This Year It Is Real’

Last year at MIDEM, the Global Repertoire Database (GRD) initiative was announced; this year that initiative is underway. Simply put, the GRD is a central source for copyright metadata related to music. This metadata will include the creators of these works and their ownership, control and/or administration. It is intended to solve a major problem between the music industry—particularly publishers—and digital companies because it will create one source for companies to go to in order to find out who controls a copyright and, therefore, who to seek in order to receive permission to use that work.

The GRD panel at MIDEM was hosted by Stephen Navin, Chief Executive of the Music Publishers Association (UK). Members of the panel were Jackie Alway, Director of Legal & Business Affairs International, Universal Music Publishing (UK); Michael Battiston, Vice President, International Business Development, ASCAP (US);  Alfons Karabuda, Executive Chairman, ECSA (Belgium); Thimo Prziklang, Director of Corporate Development, GEMA (Germany); Pekka Sipila, Executive Director, Finnish Music Publishers Association (Finland) and Sami Valkonen, Head of International Music Licensing, Google Play, Google (US).

Navin began the session by announcing, “this is one of the most dynamic projects in our industry. It was discussed last year and then undertaken. Over 100 people from 30 different countries are hard at work on this and you can feel the pride in this project. This is a structure that is going to deliver our business to the digital age. It involves taking a multiplicity of data from around the world and creating a Palace of Data, the Jerusalem of Data, which will benefit all of us greatly.”

Prziklang of GEMA noted, “the world repertoire of music will be there in its final state. It will be one place to go to find out about mechanicals and sync rights.”

Battiston of ASCAP added, “it’s much more than just a database. It is a single point of contact for publishers who will only pay a single acknowledgement fee once registration is in. There will be a single operating area to reconcile the data. A single place helps resolve conflicts because the GRD will direct queries to the suppliers of information—such as ASCAP or BMI.  Once in GRD, there will be a major service to get that data to collection societies and publishers. It will give easy access to music users.” Finish Music Publishers’ Sipila stated, “Creators, collection societies, licensees, publishers, record companies, and advertising agencies will all have different limits to access, dependent on how the information is used.

The Global Repertoire Database will be financed by 13 collection agencies through a “loan” process.

“The real value of the GRD is shared copyright operations,” said Battiston. “Everything will be done in a single place with the data fed to all societies. The result will be a large savings because it will clear and reconcile a set of data everyone can agree on. It will make all of our lives easier. When a publisher or collection society receives an invoice, they can see if it lines up with conflicting data. Someone who wants to use this data will know where to go to find the rights.”

Google’s Valkonen noted the progress from last year at MIDEM, stating, “Last year this was a Power Point; this year it is real. However, the next stage will require a lot of extremely complex work.”

Karabuda of ECSA in Belgium noted that there will be unknown advantages in the future because “we are creating something for inventions that are not yet invented, for compositions not yet composed.”

“Digital space is global,” stated Jackie Alway with Universal Music Publishing (UK). “This is the first time access to a database is global. This is the opportunity to do it once and do it right. We will provide one place to register instead of having to register in multiple societies.”

“There is no data base today for people to refer to for digital services,” added Prziklang.

Walkonen stated, “in our current practice of licensing, we don’t have any idea of conflicts which lead to a great deal of time and attention wasted to sort those out. With GRD we will be able to make the money flow a lot faster to our partners. The ultimate benefactors will be the composers, authors and publishers because we can turn money around a lot faster.”

“The GRD isn’t gong to solve copyright disputes itself,” said Alway. “These will be referred back to the rights owners.”

The Global Repertoire Database is expected to be operational in 2014, although panelists repeatedly stated that data injection is a complex process and their aim is to do it right regardless of how long it takes—although time is of the essence.

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YouTube’s first channel exclusively featuring original country music content launched Feb. 6 at www.youtube.com/countrynow.

Country Now is home to the original series Country Download, Hear & Now, OMC! and I Luv My Country, which are created and produced in Nashville. Former Sony Music Nashville executive Butch Waugh is among those leading efforts for Country Now.

GreenLight Media & Marketing, a West Hollywood based company headed by longtime branded entertainment executive Dominic Sandifer, produces the Country Now channel. GreenLight is an independent agency within a network of sister companies that includes Red Light Management, ATO & TBD Records, and several major music festivals. Its clients and partners have included the GRAMMYs, AOL, YouTube, Pandora, Hyundai, adidas and American Express. Prior to launching GreenLight, Sandifer led the Entertainment & Integrated Brand Marketing Group for TBA Global, working with Chase, Nestle, Nike and McDonald’s. He also headed Universal Music Group/IGA’s Strategic Marketing team where he helped develop music-driven marketing strategies for Coca-Cola and XBox, and helped create tie-ins between Sting and AOL Broadband, and Black Eyed Peas and iTunes.

As a consultant for GreenLight, Waugh is working with labels, managers, and artists to provide content for Country Now. He explains, “Dominic looked to me for the lay of the land in Nashville, to make sure we were presenting country music in the right way, and also to share Country Now’s vision with Nashville.”

“We talked about addressing the needs of country music fans,” Waugh continues. “If you look at it, there are consumers for labels, viewers for TV and YouTube, fans who buy tickets, and listeners for radio. They’re not always the same people, but they bleed over. So we looked for ways to expose country music and country artists to all these different types of country fans. We want to help connect the dots between the music and the fans and increase the awareness process. With Country Now, fans get to hear the song, see the video with the image of the artist, and discover the lifestyle behind the artist. It is especially valuable for new artists.”

While music programming will anchor the channel, Country Now will also feature lifestyle programs about fashion, sports, cars, southern cooking and culture. Additional series are expected in the near future, including live music programming.

“We’ve never had a country music dedicated channel on YouTube,” sums Waugh, “so I was pretty excited about having a destination for country music fans. I come from the Joe Galante school of thought, so I’m all for anything you can do to get country music artists in front of fans, especially in front of YouTube’s 22 million viewers.”

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Warner/Chappell Music has signed a worldwide co-publishing agreement with Grammy-nominated musician, producer and songwriter Derek George. He recently produced Randy Houser’s No. 1 track “How Country Feels,” and has also had songs recorded by Rascal Flatts, Jake Owen, Wynonna Judd, Hootie & the Blowfish, Josh Gracin and Hannah Montana, among others.

Pictured (L-R): Front Row: Alicia Pruitt, Sr. Dir., A&R; Derek George; Ben Vaugh, Exec. VP. Back Row: Matt Michiels, Production Mgr.; Steve Markland, VP, A&R; BJ Hill, Sr. Dir., A&R; Blain Rhodes, Creative Coord.; Phil May, VP/GM

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Cole Walowac and Jon White, members of the Gotee Records band Capital Kings, visited SESAC to celebrate their recent signing with Capitol CMG Publishing. The band also cheered the success of their self-titled release, which debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Christian Albums chart.

Pictured (L-R): Capitol CMG Publishing’s Eddie DeGarmo, SESAC’s John Mullins, Cole Walowac, Jon White, SESAC’s Tim Fink and Gotee Records’ Joey Elwood. Photo: Ed Rode