Trichordist Editor

David Byrne Wants Performance Royalties On Commercial Radio | Stereogum #irespectmusic

Byrne points out a bill in the House Of Representatives, sponsored by Jerry Nadler of New York, that would bring artist royalties into federal law. He further clarifies that digital and streaming radio services such as Pandora already pay artist royalties. Independent and college radio stations would not be affected either — just the stations that make money playing music. He also links to a petition about the issue. And at the outset of his piece, Byrne says he’s been meeting with a small group of musicians and writers about forming a creatives union. Read the full essay here.

READ THE FULL STORY AT STEREO GUM:
http://www.stereogum.com/1648771/david-byrne-wants-performance-royalties-on-commercial-radio/news/

Please sign the petition at Irespectmusic.org to support artist pay for radio play

February 4, 2014February 4, 2014 by Trichordist Editor

U2 Manager Paul McGuinness on Artists Rights and Piracy

What needs to be done is simple, take the sites down and keep them down. If the pirates can manage to replace their sites instantly with legions of bots, Google, with their brilliant algorithm engineers can counter it.

We need the technology giants like Google to do the things that labels, the publishers, the artists, the writers repeatedly ask them to do. They need to show corporate and social responsibility. Take down the illegal sites, keep them down and clear the way for the legal digital distributers like iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, the new Jimmy Iovine Beats service, which promises to be a very serious competitor. Those services now exist, it is no longer acceptable to say that the music industry is not available, not making its wares available online.

We’re all aware in this room that subscription is now replacing downloading — legal or illegal — but we do need those mega corporations to make a genuine effort to cooperate and feed the industry that has been so good to them.

READ THE FULL STORY AT BILLBOARD:
http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/global/5893877/u2-manager-paul-mcguinness-receives-billboards-industry-icon-award

U2 Exploited by United Airlines, Jet Blue, HP, State Farm, Westin, Urban Outfitters, Sprint, AT&T, Amazon, Disney Resorts, Crate and Barrel

February 4, 2014 by Trichordist Editor

Shazam Predicts 2014 Grammy Winners | Yahoo Finance

The Shazam music team looked at the total activity around each of these artists and as a percentage of the total activity for the category and made the following predictions:

Record of the Year – Robin Thicke feat. T.I. and Pharrell, “Blurred Lines” – 5.4M Shazams (31% of the category)

Album of the Year – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, “The Heist” – 11.4M Shazams (48% of the category)

Song of the Year – P!nk feat. Nate Ruess, “Just Give Me a Reason” – 4.3M Shazams (31% of the category)

Best New Artist – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (56% of the category)

Best Dance / Electronica Album – Calvin Harris, “18 Months” – 5M Shazams (59% of the category)

Best Country Album – Taylor Swift, “Red” – 4.3M Shazams (40% of the category)

Best Rap Album – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, “The Heist” (42% of the category)

READ THE FULL STORY AT YAHOO FINANCE:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/shazam-predicts-2014-grammy-winners-151700334.html

January 26, 2014January 25, 2014 by Trichordist Editor

GOOD WORKS : MusiCares Raises $5.5m For Musicians In Need

MusiCares annual charity event honors Carole King and raises money for musicians in need. Musicians helping musicians, we like it.

Carole King still sees herself “first, last and always a songwriter,” she said as she accepted MusiCare’s 2013 Person of the Year honors last night at the Los Angeles Convention Center. But even after decades of hits written for herself and others, she was clearly moved by the night’s lineup of performers in her honor, including Lady Gaga, James Taylor, Steven Tyler, Pink, Will.I.Am and Alicia Keys.

The evening raised $5.5 million for MusiCares, which provides emergency financial assistance and addiction recovery programs to musicians in need.

READ THE FULL STORY:

http://variety.com/2014/scene/news/grammy-awards-lady-gaga-musicares-carole-king-1201070625/

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lady-gaga-james-taylor-and-more-honor-carole-king-at-musicares-gala-20140125

January 26, 2014January 26, 2014 by Trichordist Editor

Gene Simmons Voices Support for New Artists | Slyck News

We love Gene’s passion for new and developing artists to have the same opportunities he did.

The foxes have been led into the hen house, so people wonder why there’s so few chickens. It’s because you allowed your kids to go in there and steal the stuff for free, so record companies are dying and new bands don’t have a chance. And new bands should get every chance in the world, and if it means ‘The X Factor’ or ‘American Idol’ or any other kind of (outlet), give them a chance.

“I still think [downloading] is a crime. The sad part is that the fans are the ones who are killing the thing they love, great music. For f***ks sake, you’re not giving the next great band a chance. How much have we lost through illegal downloading?

READ THE FULL STORY AT SLYCK NEWS:
http://www.slyck.com/story2274_Gene_Simmons_Speaks_Out_Once_Again_About_Music_Piracy

January 25, 2014January 29, 2014 by Trichordist Editor

Why Google Really is Evil | Fox Business News

There’s an old saying, sooner or later the truth will out.

It’s also clear that, after Schmidt joined Apple’s (AAPL) board of directors, Android magically evolved from a BlackBerry-like device with a physical keypad into essentially an iPhone clone with a virtual keypad and multitouch display.

Right up until the Federal Trade Commission forced him off Apple’s board in 2009, Schmidt maintained that Google was not really a competitor to Apple’s iPhone. Of course, Google followed Apple’s next breakthrough device, the iPad, with Android tablets which, presumably, weren’t competitors either.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

There’s so much more in the Fox story it really is endlessly fascinating, and not that we’re surprised.

Besides having founders and top executives with the ethical flexibility to stab one of its closest partners in the back with a classic bait-and-switch while disingenuously attempting to maintain a superior moral high ground, there’s even more evidence that Google is the most evil tech company since Microsoft was, back in the day.

It now appears inevitable that, at some point, Google will know more about you than you do. If you’re at all concerned about privacy, forget the NSA; it’s Google you should be worried about.

READ THE FULL STORY AT FOX BUSINESS:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2014/01/17/why-google-really-is-evil/

January 24, 2014January 21, 2014 by Trichordist Editor

90%+ Of Artists Are Undiscovered | Next Big Sound

A lot of interesting 2013 Year End Data from Next Big Sound. We’ve been hearing a lot about how artists are going to be “empowered” by the internet and have new “middle class careers” without record labels. Thus far at over 13 years in, the numbers tell a very different story. We see more exploitation and less empowerment for professional sustainable careers.

All of the artists in our system were then grouped according to these benchmarks, and we found that an overwhelming number fall within the Undiscovered stage, in fact more than 90%. Close to 7% of the artists we are tracking are still Developing, but only about 1% of all the artists in our system can be considered Mainstream or even Mega stars.

Piracy has eliminated the incentive for investment in anything other than what can become the largest, most mainstream, major cross platform merchandising brands. The record labels have “adapted and evolved” to the reality of the new digital marketplace by building brands instead of bands that can be monetized over various platforms, like you know… t-shirts, touring, merchandising, endorsements, sync placements, etc.

Welcome to the future piracy brought you.

READ THE FULL REPORT AT NEXT BIG SOUND:
https://www.nextbigsound.com/industryreport/2013/

The Smoking Gun of Internet Exploitation of Musicians and Songwriters

January 23, 2014January 20, 2014 by Trichordist Editor

David Lowery Talks Artists Rights | The BBC [video]

When he’s not on the road touring, Lowery is teaching students at the University of Georgia about the business of the music industry.

He is a vocal critic of that industry, and particularly how technology – from illegal downloading to new streaming services – has made it harder for artists to keep control of their work and to earn a living from it.

WATCH THE FULL STORY ON BBC VIDEO:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25771368

January 22, 2014January 21, 2014 by Trichordist Editor

Musician/Producer Michael Beinhorn Added to NAMM Artists Rights Panel Thu 1/23 – 3pm

We’ve just gotten word that Musician/Producer Michael Beinhorn has been added to the NAMM 2014 Artists Rights & Internet Panel.

Michael brings a unique perspective as a musician and producer whose work spans from such classic and ground breaking albums as Herbie Hancock’s “Future Shock” which featured “Rockit” to seminal rock albums for Red Hot Chili Peppers, Marylin Manson, Hole, Soundgarden and to many more to mention.

Michael Beinhorn Discography

NAMM 2014 – Copyright, The Internet and You
http://www.namm.org/thenammshow/2014/hot-zone/copyright-internet-and-you-panel

Day: Thursday, Jan 23

Start Time: 3:00 pm (One Hour)

Room: The Forum (203 A-B)

Presenter / Moderator: Gregory Butler

Why are content creators seeing less money than ever while their art is being used so widely? Join our panel of experts as they look at the challenges of navigating the new music industry, piracy and intellectual property.

Panelists:
* Lucy Miyaki of Tashaki Miyaki
* Manda Mosher of Calico
* Reinhold Heil, Film & TV Composer
* John Cate, fmr Tunecore CFO
* Tom Biery, Artist Management
* Brian McNelis, Music Supervisor / Soundtrack Album Producer

NAMM 2014 Artists Rights Panel, Actually Features Artists…

January 21, 2014January 21, 2014 by Trichordist Editor

Google Can Bite Me | The Illusion of More

Never wanting to lose an opportunity to be bizarrely two-faced, Google is sending around a little graphic today to all you GMail users implying that stopping SOPA in January of 2012 actually enabled creativity to continue to thrive on the Web. Never mind that nothing in SOPA could have stopped you or me or any other would-be creator from uploading our works, ideas, or captured events to the Web; that’s just pesky reality.

But Google isn’t satisfied just to effect public policy in its own interests, it also wants to behave like the abusive and negligent father, who creepily shows up with a smile and a hug when his kid wins an award or becomes famous.

After all, this week isn’t just the anniversary of SOPA Blackout Day, it’s also the week Google received its 100 millionth takedown notice from recording artists who would rather not have their works exploited without permission or compensation. So, the whole, “we protected creativity together” message just kinda makes the skin crawl. Y’know?

READ THE FULL POST AT THE ILLUSION OF MORE:
http://illusionofmore.com/google-bite-me/