US Supreme Court to take up Warner Chappell case around limitations on copyright damages, after appeal over Flo Rida ‘In The Ayer’ lawsuitThe US Supreme Court is set to make a decision on statutes of limitations for copyright lawsuits
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Women in Music: Building a Strong Music Community for Gender EqualityFreelance writer and psychologist Amber Parkin dissects gender inequality in the music industry and how we can implement ways to empower women in music. by Amber Parkin for Byta Music. Continue reading
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How to add music to Instagram Photo CarouselsBack in August, Instagram announced users can now add music to photo carousels in their main profile grid! This post explains why this is cool for musicians and shows how. Continue reading
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#MUSICIANS: 5 tips for planning a successful tourPlanning a tour can be daunting, so this simple guide is just what you need to get on the road with less stress and on the way to more success.. Continue reading
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Getting It Done: Last week in D.I.Y. and Indie MusicLast week, our tips and advice for the independent, do-it-yourselfers out there covered how to get into music production, how to get more streams, and more… The truth behind why. Continue reading
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REWIND: The new music industry’s week in reviewA busy week by any definition, the music industry was no exception, with Live Nation launching a new merch fee initiative, more songs surpassing a billion monthly streams and more…. Continue reading
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Dominican Rapper El Alfa Signs with Sound RoyaltiesEl Alfa announces his signing of a multi-million-dollar, eight figure deal with Sound Royalties, a subsidiary of GoDigital Media Group and the music industry’s leading finance firm for nearly a decade. After evaluating several offers from major industry players, Alfa turned to Sound Royalties because of his close relationship to their team and the company’s long track record of providing well-structured and priced funding to music creatives.

El Alfa is a Dominican rapper also known as “The King of Dembow,” a musical genre that draws upon the roots of Jamaican dancehall riddims. With eight albums under his belt and over 22 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone, El Alfa has his sights set on his continued growth trajectory. On Oct. 19, 2023, Alfa is scheduled to release his latest project, El Rey Del Dembow, which he credits as his “most important album to date.” The music will incorporate different melodies alongside African and Conga rhythms, infusing other cultures into the Dembow genre he popularized and brought to mainstream radio.

“I’ve been speaking with Sound Royalties for years, and the time finally made sense for us to work together. The best advice I ever received was from Alex Heiche and his team, telling me to register and organize my royalty streams and that whatever I do – don’t sell,” El Alfa recalls. “It was because I didn’t sell that I am now able to leverage my back catalog to invest in my future. This multi-million-dollar funding  will be instrumental in continuing to build my legacy and cement my influence in the Latin music space. Beyond that, it is foundational for promoting and marketing my music, launching new career opportunities, and releasing more work through my own music label, El Jefe Records.”

Learn more at soundroyalties.com

Billy Strings Wins Third Consecutive IBMA Bluegrass AwardGRAMMY Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician Billy Strings won Entertainer of the Year at last night’s 34th Annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards, his third-consecutive year receiving the award. 

The recognition adds to yet another triumphant year for Strings, who was also named Artist of the Year at last week’s 2023 Americana Music Association Honors & Awards—his second-consecutive win in the category—and will continue his extensive headline tour through this fall. Upcoming stops include Portland’s Moda Center (two nights), Seattle’s WAMU Theater, Stanford’s Frost Amphitheater (two nights), Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena (two nights), Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center (two nights), Syracuse’s Oncenter War Memorial and New Orleans’ UNO Lakefront Arena (three nights) among many others. See below for complete itinerary. 

Raised in Michigan and now based in Nashville, Strings is known as one of music’s most compelling artists. Most recently, he unveiled “California Sober,” a collaboration with legendary artist Willie Nelson—his first release since partnering with venerable label, Reprise Records. Landing on multiple “Best of 2023 So Far” lists, Rolling Stone calls the song “a blazing bluegrass banger filled with howling harmonica and guitar-picked solos,” while Consequence praises, “With just one song, Strings and Nelson seem to bring the best out in each other.” 

The collaboration follows Strings’ most recent full-length album, Me/And/Dad, which was released last fall and features Strings alongside with his dad, Terry Barber. The product of a longtime dream, the record features new versions of fourteen bluegrass and country classics that the two have been playing together since Strings was a young child. Released to overwhelming acclaim, NPR Music praised, “exuberant interplay…a match made tender by the familiar harmonies of these two lifelong picking partners,” while The Wall Street Journal declared, “Me/And/Dad works beautifully…the guitars from the principals along with mandolin, banjo, fiddle and bass are expertly played with joy and verve.” Additionally, Strings’ Grammy-nominated 2021 album, Renewal, led The New York Times to declare, “a premier bluegrass mind for this post-everything era…he has zigged and zagged between the form’s antediluvian traditions and rapid-fire improvisations that hit like hard bop, all within songs with hooks so sharp that he seems poised for crossover stardom.” 

Since his 2017 debut, Strings has been awarded Best Bluegrass Album at the 63rd GRAMMY Awards, Artist of the Year at the 2022 Americana Music Awards, Entertainer of the Year and Song of the Year at the 2022 International Bluegrass Music Awards (the organization also named him Entertainer of the Year and Guitar Player of the Year in 2021), Best New Headliner at the 2022 Pollstar Awards, Breakthrough Artist of the Pandemic at the 2021 Pollstar Awards and has performed on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” PBS’ “Austin City Limits” and “Bluegrass Underground.” 

BILLY STRINGS 2023 CONFIRMED TOUR DATES

September 29—Portland, OR—Moda Center

September 30—Portland, OR—Moda Center

October 1—Seattle, WA—WAMU Theater

October 4—Sacramento, CA—Golden 1 Center 

October 6—Stanford, CA—Frost Amphitheater

October 7—Stanford, CA—Frost Amphitheater

October 8—Stateline, NV—Tahoe Event Center

October 10—West Valley City, UT—Maverik Center

October 13—Independence, MO—Cable Dahmer Arena

October 14—Independence, MO—Cable Dahmer Arena

October 31—Grand Rapids, MI—Van Andel Arena

November 6—Amsterdam, Netherlands—Paradiso (SOLD OUT)

November 7—Amsterdam, Netherlands—Paradiso (SOLD OUT)

November 8—Antwerp, Belgium—De Roma

November 10—Cologne, Germany—Carlswerk Victoria

November 11—Luxembourg, Luxembourg—den Atelier

November 12—Munich, Germany—Neue Theaterfabrik

November 14—Paris, France—La Cigale

November 15—London, U.K.—Roundhouse

November 17—Manchester, U.K.—Manchester Academy

November 18—Glasgow, U.K.—O2 Academy Glasgow

November 19—Birmingham, U.K.—O2 Academy

December 6—Greensboro, NC—Greensboro Coliseum (SOLD OUT)

December 8—Baltimore, MD—CFG Bank Arena

December 9—Baltimore, MD—CFG Bank Arena

December 12—Pittsburgh, PA—Petersen Events Center

December 13—Pittsburgh, PA—Petersen Events Center

December 15—Wilkes-Barre, PA—Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza

December 16—Syracuse, NY—Oncenter War Memorial (SOLD OUT)

December 29—New Orleans, LA—UNO Lakefront Arena

December 30—New Orleans, LA—UNO Lakefront Arena

December 31—New Orleans, LA—UNO Lakefront ArenaJune 22—Columbus, OH—Buckeye Country SuperfestJune 23—Columbus, OH—Buckeye Country Superfest

From Ed Sheeran’s copyright victory to Songtradr buying Bandcamp… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days
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Epic Games sells Bandcamp to Songtradr amid major layoffsIndependent music marketplace Bandcamp has been sold to music licensing platform Songtradr just 18 months after Epic Games acquired it. Epic says it will continue to collaborate with Bandcamp on. Continue reading
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Up Close and Personal: When the algorithm goes too far [MIDiA’s Tatiana Cirisano]Tatiana Cirisano of MIDiA Research dives into how the borderline mind-reading technology of social media is affecting the music industry. What happens when the algorithm gets a little too close. Continue reading
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The risks and rewards of cover songsPerforming and releasing cover songs can be a great way to excite fans and even reach a new fanbase, however there are some important things you should know before doing. Continue reading
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Rick Ross and Maybach Music Group strike partnership with Larry Jackson’s $1bn-backed gammaAlso joining gamma is Breyon Prescott, including his Chameleon Entertainment label and catalog
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Charta Launches to Simplify Music ContractsNew company Charta has launched with the intention of revolutionizing how modern music contracts are drafted and executed. Before an artist or their label releases a song, every collaborator on that song has to sign a "clearance" agreement assigning their rights in the master sound recording to the artist. This covers producers, featured artists, audio engineers, session musicians and backing vocalists. In an era where over 100,000 new songs are being released on DSPs daily and collaboration is increasingly at the core of music creation, entertainment lawyers have been tasked with drafting and executing an insurmountable amount of clearance agreements necessitated by that collaboration. The result is that artists are often kept waiting for their lawyers to draft these agreements in order to finalize music for release. Once drafted, artists and their lawyers are kept waiting for months for their collaborators and their representation to review documents and return redlines, a process that often takes multiple rounds of revisions to reach an agreement mutually agreeable to both parties. With each passing year, the volume of music being released and the degree to which artists are collaborating with one another continues to grow rapidly while the number of entertainment lawyers does not, creating an ever-growing backlog of these agreements to execute without a solution in sight. Zachary Bohlender saw this problem firsthand as an entertainment lawyer and recognized that the problem was not only going to worsen with time, but that he and his peers were spending a disproportionate amount of their time executing relatively simple legal documents on behalf of their clients, inhibiting their ability to devote time to more skilled, strategic work. With no solution in sight, Bohlender took it upon himself to address the issue, leaving his post at the firm at which he was working to co-found Charta with his friend Arash Rashidi, an engineer with deep experience in AI.Charta's mission in the music industry is simple: to automate the process of getting clearance agreements done so artists can release music faster. Charta achieves this by building custom solutions for lawyers, labels and managers that fit their particular workflow and needs. Utilizing Charta’s intuitive interface, one can draft a clearance agreement and share that document with their collaborator or their representation in minutes or even negotiate all the terms of a clearance agreement on platform and subsequently sign the final document after it’s generated. Charta’s patent-pending process doesn’t rely on one-size-fits-all templates, and it can accommodate in excess of 800 unique scenarios for a producer agreement alone.. The result is a streamlined process that expedites the timeline on which artists can finalize these types of agreements in order to be able to release music with less delay and, in turn, alleviate their lawyers of the most onerous work placed on them. Charta’s solution to the ever-growing backlog of agreements to be executed in the music industry addresses a key pain point that ultimately aids all major stakeholders involved in the release of new music, from artists to labels, managers and lawyers alike.The benefits of alleviating this well-documented, ever-growing problem within the music industry is manyfold. Speaking to the implications of what Charta can do for artists and their lawyers, Bohlender shares:“There’s no single bigger pain point in the industry than clearance agreements. The backlog is immense and it prevents artists from releasing music, labels from achieving revenue, managers from focusing on creative and strategic guidance, and lawyers providing high value services. Gone are the days where every commercial artist is signed to a record deal and releases an album every couple years with a handful of collaborators. Charta is the missing link the music industry needs to come into the 21st century.”Other music industry veterans see the clear benefit, too. Tim Smith, CEO and founder of Blood Company shares: “I’ve known Zach for many years; beast of an attorney and amazing human. His many years of experience at leading firms in corporate / VC law and also entertainment law have positioned him uniquely to create this ingenious platform.”Charta launches with key industry support already under its belt. Its early adopters already include the record label APG, superproducer Kenny Beats, Colture and other international music companies already utilizing the platform. Ty Baisden, founder of Colture, sees the benefits of Charta as well:"Charta will be a turnkey solution for start-up producers, artists and writers who can't afford to pay for the expensive cost of having a lawyer review everything. It will help them be smarter business owners."The company also counts key members of the music industry as investors and advisors, including Che Pope, Matt Colon, Aloe Blacc, Boys Noize and Milana Lewis of Stem, whose own company's focus of affording artists more autonomy and transparency in their careers dovetails with Charta. Speaking to why she invested in Charta, Lewis shares:“Charta has built a platform that seamlessly translates between three languages — plain English, legalese and code. Applying those capabilities to the music industry is an incredibly powerful tool towards building a better future where artists can be paid more expediently and accurately, a vision that is shared with my companies Stem and Tone.”With Charta's launch, artists have the ability to take control of a process that has increasingly proven to be a major pain point in the music industry at large and alleviate entertainment lawyers of the most tedious part of their jobs. While Charta’s focus at the outset is clearance agreements, the company’s ability to expand to all varieties of agreements in the future has massive implications for streamlining the process of releasing music for the industry at large.For more information about Charta head to getcharta.com.

L-R: Zachary Bohlender and Arash Rashidi

PPL to sponsor A&R Awards category celebrating behind-the-scenes linchpinsFast-growing collection society supports award for 'the glue of the A&R department'
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