The MLC Announces Six Advisory Committee AppointmentsThe Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) announced six appointments to the organization’s advisory committees, including three appointments to the Dispute Resolution Committee, one appointment to the Operations Advisory Committee and two appointments to the Unclaimed Royalties Oversight Committee.

Dispute Resolution Committee

Songwriter, David “DQ” Quiñones, has been appointed to the Dispute Resolution Committee, to fill a songwriter seat. Quiñones attended Shenandoah Conservatory for music education and opera studies before attending Berklee College of Music where he studied music production and engineering. He has an extensive studio resume in vocal production and arrangements and has written most notably for Beyoncé, BTS, Brandy, The Pussycat Dolls, Enrique Iglesias and Nicki Minaj.

Consuelo Sayago (Industry Relations Advisor at Spirit Music Group) has been appointed to the Dispute Resolution Committee. Sayago is a seasoned music industry professional who has dedicated her career to championing the rights of creators. With a background in contract administration at BMI and EMI and most recently serving as Vice President, Global Administration at Spirit Music, she has played a pivotal role in working with CMOs worldwide to form equitable standards and alliances.

Matthew Skiba (Vice President, Rights and Content at Vydia) has been appointed to the Dispute Resolution Committee. Skiba brings a wealth of knowledge to the committee from his role at Vydia, where he’s held positions in digital rights management. Previously, Skiba worked in publishing administration and infringement claims at The Royalty Network, Inc., managing settlement agreements for mechanical and sync infringements.

The Dispute Resolution Committee makes recommendations to the Board on policies and procedures for the processing of royalties related to works that are subject to disputes over ownership and is comprised of five songwriters and five representatives of music publishers.

Operations Advisory Committee

Lidia Kim (Vice President, Legal and Business Affairs at Concord Music Publishing) has been appointed to the Operations Advisory Committee. Leveraging a rich background in the legal industry, Lidia oversees the digital business and legal affairs for Concord Music Publishing, advising company executives and internal departments on global digital and catalog matters, and managing the global digital licensing network, DSP relations and mass copyright litigation and other new media rights enforcement matters. Her expertise extends to managing business affairs as well as drafting and negotiating agreements with both emerging and established talents, including artists, songwriters and contemporary classical composers.

As described in the Music Modernization Act of 2018, The MLC’s Operations Advisory Committee makes recommendations to the Board on policies and procedures related to the operations of the Collective, including the efficient investment in and deployment of information technology and data resources. It is comprised of six representatives of music publishers and six representatives of digital music providers.

Unclaimed Royalties Oversight Committee

Songwriter, “Bruce” Waynne Nugent, has been appointed to the Unclaimed Royalties Oversight Committee,filling one of the five songwriter seats. With over two decades of experience in the music industry, working at the intersection of entertainment and technology, Nugent brings a vast array of knowledge in music production and A&R, co-producing for artists like Frank Ocean, Justin Bieber and Nelly.

Dale Esworthy (Executive Vice President, Worldwide Administration at Sony Music Publishing), who previously held a position on the Operations Advisory Committee has also been appointed to the Unclaimed Royalties Oversight Committee. In his position, Esworthy manages all administration operations for the company across its network of 38 offices in 24 countries, including copyright, royalty administration, tracking and other client services.

The Unclaimed Royalties Oversight Committee recommends policies and procedures to The MLC’s Board related to the distribution of unclaimed accrued royalties and is comprised of five songwriters and five representatives of music publishers.

Committee appointments are for three-year terms. Alisa Coleman, Board Chair states: “The MLC Board and its nominating committee appreciate all the submissions by writers and publishers who want to do their part by working with The MLC on these important committees. In reviewing and interviewing the many applicants, the Board has chosen those who we believe will best contribute to the diversity and knowledge of the existing committees.”

More information on The MLC’s Board of Directors and three advisory committees can be found here.

Live Nation reports soaring concert attendance as small shows struggleLive Nation reported record growth last year and predicted continued growth in live music for the next decade. But Live Nation and Ticketmaster's soaring numbers come even as many small to mid-level music venues struggle...
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From Universal’s stake in Chord Music to Live Nation’s biggest year ever… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days…
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Over 145m fans attended 50,000+ Live Nation events in 2023, with company’s FY revenues up 36% YoY to $22.7bn in its ‘biggest year ever’Concert giant publishes its Q4 and FY 2023 financial results
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Producer Crosstalk: The IvyBand and production team The Ivy – Wyatt Clem and Shawn Abhari – met in 2016 while studying music production at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Oklahoma City. Both arrived with a music background and a passion for the craft of making records. Together the duo has released three self-produced EPs and the full-length A Door Still Open is slated to drop on February 23. To date, The Ivy’s 2017 “Have You Ever Been in Love” has earned more than eighteen million Spotify streams.

Writing and recording a song is typically only part of the artistic equation. Another crucial piece is how an artist knows if what they’ve created has merit or commercial viability. “If I’m not vibing with it within the first few days, then I move on,” Clem observes. “But Shawn and I won’t give up if there’s a song with one sound that doesn’t fit. Sometimes we can lose sight of whether it’s a good song as a whole because we want to make a certain tone or performance work. Otherwise we try to follow our joy and excitement, especially if we both feel it.”

 “I’ve learned over the years that all of the sounds in a song should feel like they’re in the same environment,” Abhari adds. “If you use a certain amount of reverb on one instrument, then make sure that it blends into the mix so that it all sounds like it’s in the same room. If I get stuck, I just turn on the main core elements. If those all sound good, then I’ll add other things piece by piece. If something is really jarring, we figure out what’s working and what’s not by building it up track by track.”

Knowledge gained on earlier projects is drawn upon regularly when a new record is begun. Further lessons are also likely to be learned in the process. “A Door Still Open came from a bunch of demos we’d written before we even knew we were doing an album,” Abhari recollects. “The challenge was how to make only a chorus and a verse fit with some of our other ideas. That was always hard but engineers and producers in LA helped us make the environment feel like it was in the same headspace.”

Virtually any band would be thrilled with the eighteen million Spotify streams that “Have You Ever Been in Love” has amassed. But what was it about that song that imbued it with such stellar reach? “I don’t know why it hit other than maybe that indie-pop eighties genre was popular at the time and maybe it fell right into the algorithm,” Abhari speculates. “I loved the crunchy, eighties-sounding four chords. I took the drum rack from one of Wyatt’s demos that had some really cool reverse snares and things and made the beat from it.”

Many artists are noted for their customized gear. Eddie Van Halen had his Frankenstrat and Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready has a custom-modified amp that goes to eleven (really). In Clem’s case, his most prized piece of gear is his hacked Mexican Strat. “I took the body off of Shawn’s first electric guitar – a twenty-dollar Squier – and combined it with parts from my own,” he recalls. “Now it feels better than it ever did. I don’t see myself parting with that anytime soon.”

The three most important lessons the two have learned as producers, musicians and engineers are:

It’s not about what you can do with your instrument. It’s how you can serve the song.

Any sound can be cool if you manipulate it hard enough. We once made a song entirely out of six samples of paper being torn.

You can achieve everything you need without spending thousands of dollars. Our songs that have reached the most listeners were done on inexpensive equipment.

For 2024, The Ivy plans to concentrate on local shows initially and to join a larger tour towards the summer. The two also have material for another record in their creative queue. Both Clem and Abhari maintain home spaces from which they record demos. Often they work at the Santa Monica studio of SameSame, the production duo of Rob Cohen and Blake Mares. Until 2021, all of their music on Spotify was recorded in their bedrooms.

Contact - wearetheivy.com; Instagram = @wearetheivy;

Amanda Curtis - Press Here Publicity, Amanda@pressherepublicity.com

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Spoiler: It has nothing to do with talent...

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ASCAP 2024 Membership Meeting: Jermaine Dupri, DOMi & JD BECK, Maggie Lindemann, Sam Hollander and More Industry-Leading Talent Take the StageASCAP, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the only US PRO that operates on a not-for-profit basis, has announced the talent lineup for its 2024 Membership Meeting, scheduled for February 28 in New York City. 

Featuring performances, panels and presentations aimed at bringing the ASCAP community together for inspiration, education and a report on ASCAP’s historic 2023 financial results, the day will kick off with a performance from Grammy-nominated progressive jazz duo DOMi & JD BECK. Confirmed to participate in the meeting are Songwriters Hall of Famer and forefather of the Atlanta music scene Jermaine Dupri (who will participate in a keynote conversation), #1 songwriter and producer Sam Hollander (“High Hopes”), pop-punk singer-songwriter Maggie Lindemann, ASCAP President & Chairman Paul Williams, ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews and many more. Full schedule and lineup below.

After the opening DOMi & JD BECK performance, Williams and Matthews will deliver ASCAP’s “state of the union” as the PRO celebrates 110 years of serving music creators. The two will offer an essential recap on ASCAP members’ remarkable 2023, including the organization’s record-breaking financial success. They will discuss what it means to be the only US PRO operating as a not-for-profit, how ASCAP is putting creators first to serve the greater good, and the latest on its advocacy on behalf of creators’ livelihoods in the age of AI. Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Stacey Ryan will perform to close out the session. 

More than 30 years after his first smash, producer, entrepreneur and record executive Jermaine Dupri is still crafting incredible songs for R&B stars like Muni Long (“Made for Me”) and Ari Lennox (“Pressure”). In a keynote conversation, Dupri — fresh off his appearance as Usher’s hypeman during the Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Performance — will reveal the decisions that have helped get him to where he is today, and what it takes to sustain a productive, inspired and successful career. He’ll also share anecdotes from his decades-long career, including co-writing and co-producing three singles for Usher’s diamond-certified album Confessions; co-writing, co-producing and winning a Grammy for Carey’s “We Belong Together;” releasing two solo albums, and amassing eleven #1 Billboard Hot 100 hits.

The second half of the day will turn to networking and educational sessions. “We Create Music,” a superpanel of ASCAP songwriters and composers at the top of the pop, film music and musical theater spheres, will feature Hollander, his fellow #1 songwriter-producer Gregg Wattenberg (Five for Fighting, OAR), Madison Love (Kings & Queens,” Ava Max; “Turbulence,” P!nk), Oscar-nominated film composer Carter Burwell (Carol, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Banshees of Inisherin), and playwright/lyricist and composer Michael R. Jackson (Tony and Pulitzer-winning A Strange Loop). In this discussion moderated by Variety Executive Editor, Music Jem Aswad, the panelists will talk about their approaches to storytelling and offer practical advice for navigating the ups and downs of the industry – from paying dues and setting goals, to overcoming obstacles and the politics of collaboration.

The program will close out with the “Writers Jam,” featuring some of today’s top writers across the genre spectrum performing their biggest hits live and telling the stories behind the songs. Participants include Liana Banks (Bebe Rexha, Saweetie, Queen Naija), Grammy-winning songwriter Claudia Brant (Camila Cabello, Carlos Santana), pop-rock juggernaut Maggie Lindemann (“Pretty Girl,” “hostage”), and Dove Award-winning gospel singer-songwriter and composer Blessing Offor (“Believe,” “Brighter Days”).

Read on for the full lineup and run of show.

ASCAP Membership Meeting Schedule

3:00 pm - ASCAP Membership Meeting

Opening performance from DOMi & JD BECK

Updates from Paul Williams, Elizabeth Matthews and ASCAP SVP Membership & ASCAP Foundation Executive Director Nicole George-Middleton

Closing performance from Stacey Ryan

4:00 pm – 4:15 pm – Break

4:15 pm – 5:00 pm – “We Create Music” featuring Carter Burwell, Sam Hollander, Michael R. Jackson, Madison Love and Gregg Wattenberg

5:00 pm – 5:45 pm – KEYNOTE: The Confessions of Jermaine Dupri

5:45 pm – Break

6:00 pm – Writers Jam with Liana Banks, Claudia Brant, Maggie Lindemann and Blessing Offor

7:00 pm– 8:00 pm – Networking reception

The 2024 ASCAP Membership Meeting is currently at capacity. For more information, visit: www.ascap.com/meeting2024.