From Steve Stoute:

Last week, two of the biggest names in music shocked their fans with bold moves through digital media: Long-time digital music holdouts Led Zeppelin announced that they would finally release their catalogue to the masses via Spotify, while Beyoncé, without warning, unleashed her 14-song, 17-video self-titled album on iTunes. One of these events represents the future of music as a business, while the other retreads an already-broken model.

The Spotify/Led Zeppelin deal, unfortunately, represents the latter. Spotify, like Pandora, is still attempting to substantiate a business model that gives music away for free to a vast majority of its listeners. While each service has some small percentage of paid subscribers, their entire business model has so far relied on advertisers to underwrite a majority of their costs. Telling every Spotify user in the world that they will now be able to access the entire catalogue of one of the most popular music acts in history for free is only reinforcing this discredited model; once you train consumers that your product is free, it is very hard, if not impossible, to convert them to a paid model. CONTINUE READING

Buzz Track: Body Say No, Heart Say Yes

Ashley Allen who we listed as a top 8 emerging artist just released her new EP ‘Body Say No, Heart Say Yes’. The EP, was co-written and co- produced by Cash Cash (All Time Low, Cobra Starship). She’s garnered favorable comparisons to Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, Mika, Demi Lovato, and Lily Allen. As a live performer, she’s built a robust profile with dazzling performances at legendary NYC venues such as Rockwood Music Hall, Bowery Electric, and Highline Ballroom. Her video “Lets Go” has almost reached 400,000 YouTube views.
Contact: lizalee.mgmt@gmail.com

If you write songs, and your songs are sold, downloaded, streamed or used in many other ways, they’re generating songwriter royalties for you. Awesome, right?

Nowadays, the types of songwriter royalties earned fall into two buckets: Physical/Analog Songwriter Royalties (generated from old school music industry), and Digital Songwriter Royalties (generated from the modern digital music industry). With all of the different ways your compositions can be used in both industry models, there’s a good chance your songs are generating money you’re not even aware of, which means you’re missing out on collecting your money, and that ain’t cool. So, to make sure that stops now, we’ve outlined 13 ways that your songs make you money.

But one note before we begin: each income stream and type of royalty explained below is generated from both the original recording of a song or “composition” (i.e. the Beatles’ version of “Yesterday”), and off of a cover of the song. CONTINUE READING

Buzz Track: Love Is Worth It

Brittany Ray, a 18 year old country/pop singer-songwriter from Iowa is making noise. She just uploaded a video for the track Love Is Worth It which features Richie McDonald from Lonestar. She’s compared to Martina Mcbride and Sara Evans with her smooth vocals and striking beauty. She plans to release a new single every couple of months along with securing live appearances. An artist to watch.
Contact: jbflyer@yousq.net

From the NYPost:

It’s already known as ARTFLOP.

On Nov. 6, amid the kind of hype not seen since Michael Jackson floated a statue of himself down the Thames River, Lady Gaga released her third studio album, “ARTPOP.”

And not since Jackson has such a globally famous, white-hot pop star had such a rise and precipitous fall: “ARTPOP” is on track to lose $25 million for her label, Interscope, prompting ­rumors of imminent layoffs.

But it’s not just album sales. When Gaga opened this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, her performance was eclipsed by the twerking Miley Cyrus. Gaga’s work as both host and performer on a recent “Saturday Night Live” was underwhelming, and her recent ABC special, “Lady Gaga & The Muppets’ Holiday Spectacular,” had a dismal 0.9 rating among viewers ages 18 to 49, with just 3.6 million viewers total.

“That ‘Applause’ Gaga is hearing these days has been reduced to a polite golf-clap,” said The Wrap, referring to the title of her first single from the album. CONTINUE READING