When you walk into a movie theatre you will see rolling credits listing the most important members of the production as well as the cast and crew involved in the project. Music services like Pandora, iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon along with others do not list credits of those who were involved.

“That’s the basis for a metadata movement being spearheaded by producer, mixer and engineer Count (aka Mikael Eldridge), whose ‘credits’ include artists like DJ Shadow, Radiohead, The Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, New Order, No Doubt, Galactic, Zoe Keating, and Tycho. ”
(Digital Music News)

Count wants his name included in these artists’ digital works – just like physical formats – which is why he’s pushing to properly credit performers, producers, and engineers on all online music services. He offers a solid case as well.

“If Led Zeppelin had only sold albums digitally when they started, it’s very unlikely that many people would know who Jimmy Page or Robert Plant are because the digital music files you purchase for download or streaming can’t show you who played on them.”

(1) Better credits make better user experiences. For example, if I like Radiohead or the Roots, I would want to know who produced them, what other albums they’ve done, and who’s performing on the recordings. Chances are I might like their other work.

(2) This is Marketing 101. It’s an opportunity for these companies to share and sell more music.

(3) Hollywood does it, so why don’t we? The Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild, and Writers Guild along with the studios would sue if the credits were not there.

(4) This is not about egos. It’s about survival. Producers, engineers, and musicians need these credits in order to survive in this business. Nobody knows the producers work without credit.

(5) It’s an easy fix. Internet distributors to simply require the following info for all releases: list all performers, producers, engineers, mixers, and mastering engineers for each song and provide their preferred web link. Without this data, the release simply shouldn’t be accepted by distributors.

Click here to ‘Like’ the campaign to credit performers, producers, and engineers on all online music services.

“It’s absolutely unbelievable that I can go online and instantly have access to Roger Federer’s obscure tennis stats but I can’t even see who is singing a song on iTunes or Pandora.” – Count

Pop duo LMFAO are facing a $7 million lawsuit from their former managers.

The stars, uncle and nephew Stefan ‘Redfoo’ Gordy and Skyler ‘SkyBlu’ Gordy, have been sued by bosses at personal management company RPM GRP, who claim the band signed a deal with them in 2008 but later ditched the contract and hired two of the firm’s former employees to manage them instead.

The lawsuit, filed at Santa Monica Superior Court in California, accuses the duo of breach of contract, tortuous interference and accounting.

The papers state, “LMFAO has thanked the managers who took them from ‘0 to 60’ by throwing them under the tour bus (i.e. firing them). Instead of hiring new managers, LMFAO then poached two employees of the original managers, hiring them on a salary instead of paying a commission to the original managers.”

Gone are the days when artists and managers have a 20 years relationship like U2 and Paul McGuinness. Other artists such as Metallica as well as Britney Spears also enjoyed long lasting business relationships with their managers. The rock band Kiss has been managed by Doc McGhee since 1996.

Veteran management team DAS Communications demanded $14 million in damages after they were fired from Pop star Ke$ha who they described as “a very young and inexperienced artist whose ‘star’ may not continue to rise.” According the papers filed she has made an incredible amount of money in a very short period of time, in large part due to DAS efforts.

Taylor Swift’s former manager also sued country singer for millions of dollars, arguing she owes commissions from a contract she signed with him in 2004, according to RollingStone.com. In July 2005, Swift’s father Scott fired Dan Dymtrow and the singer signed with record label Big Machine. Dymtrow claims he was fired because Swift’s family didn’t want to pay his commission after he helped the singer’s music career take off.

The artist and the manager generally begin on good note. In most cases, the manager will find an opportunity or negotiate a deal that will set the stage for success. The probabilities are low, but if the song reacts with the public and finds it self on top 40 radio, the artist is set to make several million from publishing and performances. Managers are generally paid a percentage of the band’s income, often 15% to 20%.

The manager makes more money as the band popularity grows since the income of the musicians is directly tied to the income of the managers. According to several seasoned managers in the music business the band begins to look at management as an expense rather than something of value. Instead of paying a manager 2 million dollars to manage a multimillion dollar business, the artist will hire salaried employees for half the cost.

In some cases, artists have hired family members only to find themselves in a financial disaster. For instance, Beyonce fired her father as her manager. Live Nation told Beyonce that Matthew Knowles had taken money from her that he was not entitled to as her manager.

Dick Clark, the music industry maverick, longtime TV host and powerhouse producer who changed the way we listened to pop music with “American Bandstand,” and whose trademark “Rockin’ Eve” became a fixture of New Year’s celebrations, died today at the age of 82.

The X Factor is turning into a flop and when it returns for its second season expect major changes.

“When “The X Factor” returns for its second season in the fall, the show will have undergone some major changes, including the possible addition of Britney Spears to the judges panel. But Wednesday on “Good Day LA” (weekdays, 7 a.m. PT on Fox) L.A. Reid revealed that the new personnel won’t be the only difference between Season 1.

“One way of raising the bar of the talent we’re looking for, is that we allow contestants to come in who already have managers and agents. Last year they wouldn’t have qualified. This year they do qualify. The whole idea here is to raise the bar for the talent we’re going to find,” he explained.” (Huffington Post)

According to sources, Simon also wants to add a Disney star to the mix like Demi Lovato or Selena Gomez to reach a younger demographic.

“Madonna’s “MDNA” album is dead. It’s really quite amazing. Amazon.com has dropped the price of downloading “MDNA” to five dollars. On iTunes, the only version of the album on the chart is the explicit one, selling for $14.99. It’s at number 46 on their chart. On hitsdailydouble.com, “MDNA” dropped to number 8 from number 1, with an 87% fall off from the previous week.

The amazon.com situation is much worse. As a physical CD, “MDNA” is just gone. (Updated) The actual deluxe CD, has fallen to number 16. It’s the only one of the many versions of “MDNA” that’s selling at all. This is the second week of release. The clean version download — for $5 — is at #733. The dirty one, so to speak, is around 500. “MDNA” is just…gone. It’s a total sales collapse. It makes you wonder, what happened? Of course, Madonna has done very little publicity. And the inflated first week sales–reported here exclusively–are over now as the “bundling” with concert tickets is finished.

But wow. The deluxe version with a special booklet, for sale at $12.99, is showing up on amazon at number 5,706. Five thousand seven hundred and six.

So what did go wrong? The audience wasn’t interested in vituperative songs with the “f” word scattered through them liberally. Instead of dancing, Madonna was cursing. And what does she have to curse about? She’s a gazillionaire. She does whatever she wants, to whomever she wants, whenever she wants. No one stops her. Her charity in Africa was a bust, and the documentary she made about it was ridiculous. She continues to espouse the “philosophy” of the Kabbalah Center. She flaunts lovers half her age. She talks with a haughty accent. Last year, one of her brothers turned up homeless in Michigan. Madonna seemed not to care.” (Forbes)