October 03, 2011

By Jonathan Handel, THR

On the heels of an AFTRA press release issued Saturday, a source close to the union told The Hollywood Reporter that the labor organization is “very frustrated” with the pace of negotiations with the major record labels and for that reason took the step of inching towards a strike posture.

The phono needle hasn’t jumped the platter just yet, but there are definitely some scratches in the vinyl already. When asked whether a strike against the labels was possible, the source said only that “everyone hopes not.”

AFTRA’s constitution requires a 75% affirmative vote, of those voting, in order to authorize a strike.

The move taken Saturday by the union’s national board was a delicate procedural dance: The board authorized the contract negotiating committee to seek a strike authorization vote from members, should the committee choose to do so. The board’s move was not itself a strike authorization, contrary to some published reports.

While this may sound like a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, the move was unusual, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We hope this sends a strong signal,” the source added.

The contract doesn’t expire until Dec. 31, but AFTRA’s sound recording deals are usually reached three or four months out. That’s not happened this time, despite three weeks of meetings in New York and Los Angeles so far. Only one additional day of talks are scheduled, for this Wednesday. National executive director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth serves as chief negotiator for AFTRA.

The union noted that the agreement, called the Sound Recordings Code, generates more than $140 million annually in covered earnings and benefits for both major artists and session singers around the country.

Exactly what’s providing the discordant note in those negotiations is unknown, but the source did highlight a related factor: When the agreement was extended by a year in 2010, the labels also agreed to negotiate a music video agreement as well. Currently, those videos are generally produced outside of AFTRA jurisdiction, even though the singers and dancers involved are AFTRA members. Contract talks were held in mid-June, but have not yielded an agreement. The union is seeking provisions regarding safety, pay scales, overtime, residuals, and health and retirement benefits. [...]

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Make sure to mark off the biggest three days on the music creator calendar on YOUR calendar, and then get back to enjoying the beach. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as we make plans. Registration will open in late October, and that’s when discounted hotel rates will start, so until then just keep the ASCAP EXPO on your radar.

SAVE THE DATE:
ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO
April 19-21, 2012
Renaissance Hollywood Hotel
Los Angeles, CA

Too excited to wait? Or did you miss the 2011 ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO?

Whether you went to the EXPO or not, for the first time we are offering you the ability to watch this past year’s at home! All of the EXPO panels – nearly 50 panels which is 60 hours of content – are available to stream online. By purchasing Online EXPO Panel Video Access, you will get to view the panels at your leisure from any computer. The videos will be viewable until the end of 2011. Buy EXPO Video Access now!

You can check out non panel coverage and interviews on our ASCAP EXPO Blog and our ASCAP EXPO YouTube Playlist. “

By Steven J. Horowitz

(This is an abridged version of Steven J. Horowitz’s article in the August 20 issue of Billboard titled “Protecting the ‘Throne’.” For the full article, head here to purchase the issue, and here for a subscription, which gets you the magazine, charts, bulletins and much more.)

When Jay-Z and Kanye West’s collaborative album “Watch the Throne” hit iTunes earlier this week, many expressed amazement that the album hadn’t leaked, as nearly every hip-hop album in recent memory has.

What they didn’t realize was the months of near-military-scale planning required to keep the album under wraps.

Taking C.I.A.-like precautions to ensure that the album was released on their own terms, the duo successfully staved off hackers with a leak-proof strategy — an anomaly for an industry consistently brought to its knees by web-savvy individuals eager to share unreleased material with the world.

“It was really important to [Jay] that people experienced this album in its entirety when they first listened to it,” says a Roc Nation executive, who asked to remain anonymous. “That was really the driving force of it, to create that nostalgic moment of unwrapping the CD and listening to it for the first time.”

Conceived during three iterations in Australia, New York City and Paris, “Watch the Throne” was kept secure by three core engineers — Mike Dean, Anthony Kilhoffer and Noah Goldstein — who disabled their computers’ Wi-Fi at pop-up studios constructed in hotel rooms. Due to compromising hacker attempts for West’s 2010 release “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” outside producers such as the RZA and Swizz Beatz were asked to appear in-person for works-in-progress — no emailed song drafts were allowed.

To combat pre-release piracy, Kilhoffer, Grammy Award-winner for West’s Graduation and John Legend’s Get Lifted, claims that all sessions were saved offsite to hard drives in Goldstein’s locked Pelican briefcase over the course of nine months. “Everywhere we went in hotels, we were locking hard drives and Noah took them with him,” says Kilhoffer, who now travels with external memory units that can only be accessed by biometric fingerprints. [...]

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By Richard Smirke, London

A London warehouse containing stock for a number of U.K. independent labels — including XL Recordings, 4AD, Beggars, Domino and Rough Trade – was destroyed by rioters during a third night of unrest in the British capital.

The three-story building, which was owned by Sony DADC and located in the London borough of Enfield, was burned to the ground on Monday night (August 8). It was the main warehouse for indie distributor PIAS and handled stock for over 150 labels, as well as multiple DVD and game companies.

A statement was posted on PIAS’s website earlier today, confirming the blaze. [...]

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Copyright Office Announces Technical Amendment

The Copyright Office is making an amendment to its regulations by removing Part 251, Code of Federal Regulations, “Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel Rules and Procedures.” In 2004, Congress replaced the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panels with three Copyright Royalty Judges, who operate under separate regulations. The Office, however, had retained its regulations after this transition in order to complete open proceedings and as a historical reference for those determinations that had been decided under the CARP system and had been appealed. Removal of these regulations is thus an administrative task taken to remove regulations that have not been needed for a while. (Read more.)

HFA’s Reduced Commission Program (“RCP”) is an unprecedented offer for our valued clients and provides them with an opportunity to more effectively manage their businesses by centralizing all U.S. mechanical licensing and royalty processing through HFA.

Program Details:

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

CLICK HERE for more information and to register!

Half of 2011 is already history, complete with a suite of awards ceremonies celebrating music’s best. From the Grammys to the Tonys, the cultural supremacy of BMI’s deep repertoire has been on full display.

January
The year launched with a high bar, as Atticus Ross’s music for The Social Network earned Best Original Score at the 68th Annual Golden Globes and 83rd Academy Awards.

February
In between the Globes and the Oscars, the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards showered more accolades on BMI songwriters in February, as they took home an astounding 65% of the evening’s honors, the largest percentage for any performing right organization in this generation. Lady Antebellum brought a host of Grammy gold home to Nashville: With five wins, the crossover trio led the BMI charge at the Grammys. Lady Gaga, John Legend, the Roots, Eminem, the Black Keys and BeBe and CeCe Winans all garnered multiple statuettes as well.

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Spotify and turntable.fm are now licensed by BMI. In the agreement, the two digital music services’ public performances of BMI’s more than 6.5 million works are covered.

In an exclusive outreach to music creators, Spotify is offering BMI songwriters, composers and music publishers an invitation to experience its vast library of over 15 million songs. The invitation, distributed by BMI, exemplifies Spotify’s dedication to working seamlessly with its partners during its launch in America.

http://www.spotify.com/us/bmi/

BMI tracked 1.6 billion performances on BMI-licensed websites in the last quarter alone. Thanks to this and other key revenue streams, BMI is paying more songwriters, composers and music publishers than ever before in its 71-year history.

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Behind the music: Should the music industry put digital first?

The focus of the music industry is downloads – but is this the smartest move? Figures show most people still want to listen to CDs, plus there has been a boom in vinyl sales

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