Guest post by Monica Corton (@momusing) Via The Guardian: Rock band Queen have lodged the latest protest against Donald Trump after the presidential candidate played the band’s famous anthem We Are the Champions at the Republican National Convention. “An unauthorized use at the Republican Convention against our wishes,” the British band said in a succinct statement posted on Twitter. What’s a songwriter to do when a song is used without authorization by a politician who espouses opposite views? This increasingly is becoming…
How the New Music Moguls Write Their Own Rules
Guest post by David Deal (@DavidJDeal) author of the new [free] ebook, “The New Music Moguls“ How do you succeed in an industry that faces constant disruption? The music industry has been asking itself this question ever since Napster crashed the party. As it turns out, elite musicians such as Rihanna and Taylor Swift, who routinely earn millions year after year, have been providing answers all along. They write their own rules for success, including a willingness to use their music as…
ASCAP and the Great Pandora Battle Where Artists and Musicians Pay the Price
Guest post by Monica Corton (@momusing), Executive Vice President, Creative Affairs & Licensing Next Decade Entertainment, Inc. I spent many hours fielding questions and having conversations with songwriters about the recent win by Pandora in the ASCAP rate court. Mostly, the songwriters wondered why there was a battle in the first place and why ASCAP lost. Performance rights licensing (the right to publicly play/perform a song on the radio, television, the Internet, large venues etc.) is one of those areas…
GoldieBlox vs. the Beastie Boys – What Constitutes Fair Use?
Guest post by Monica Corton (@momusing), Executive Vice President, Creative Affairs & Licensing Next Decade Entertainment, Inc. Now that the Beastie Boys have gone on the offensive for the unlicensed and unauthorized use of their song “Girls”, written by Adam Horovitz and Rick Rubin, as used in the Goldieblox viral video campaign to feature their girls toy line . . . let’s try to unpack what actually happened and why songwriters and music publishers firmly believe that this was not…
Build Experiences Not Just Products
Music is the one thing that accompanies me on my journeys, experiences, as well as my adventures in writing. While earbuds deliver sound, they do not deliver the essence of the song, the waves of sound, nor the soul of the artist. At the same time, I have a hard time justifying the need to buy overly expensive headphones just to enjoy music the way it was written or meant to be heard. One day I was shopping for headphones…
Angel Investor and Entourage Actor Adrian Grenier Starts Music Incubator
When he’s not starring in movies and television, Adrian Genier is a serial entrepreneur. Most recognized for his role as Vincent Chase in HBO’s Entourage, and also the upcoming movie, Grenier has co-founded or invested in several companies including SHFT, Fansnaps, and Churchkey Can Co. Now he’s at it again but this time, he’s changing his tune. While at SXSW in Austin, I spent some time with Grenier to talk about his new music incubator, The WRECKROOM. The idea is…
Smashing Convention: Billy Corgan on why artists need more than viral videos
Welcome to Revolution Season 3! Although, we unofficially launched one of the interviews early (because of the GRAMMY Awards), Season 3 proudly debuts with an unapologetic interview with none other than Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins. This episode also celebrates the release of Oceania, the new Smashing Pumpkins “album within an album.” As guitarist and co-founder of the Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Corgan was at the forefront of one of the most important music movements in recent history. He’s not…
Music, Film, TV: How social media changed the entertainment experience
Social media is more than a digital water cooler for TV and movies. The global conversation that takes place around events and the experiences people share based on what they watch teaches us about consumer preferences. More importantly, their activity influences behavior. Behavior counts for everything. Studying it is just the beginning of course. In order to understand and eventually steer behavior, we must translate activity into insights and in turn, translate insights into actionable strategies and programs. The Hollywood…
SXSW News: Billy Corgan Joins Brian Solis to Discuss The End of the Music Business as Usual
When I originally outlined my presentation for SXSW, my plan was to set the stage for a passionate and engaged conversation by sharing the inspiration for my new book, The End of Business as Usual. The more I thought about it, I realized that I could do more. To me, SXSW is a celebration of culture, art, innovation, and vision. The End of Business as Usual isn’t just about “business,” it’s about the end of everything “as usual.” So, I…
Facebook’s Open Graph is Music to My Peers
Credit: WireImage, Kevin Mazur – Mark Zuckerberg, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, Snoop Dogg and Sean Parker On stage during Facebook’s massive f8 developer conference this past September in San Francisco, Mark Zuckerberg introduced the world to frictionless sharing and the future of music. Freshly minted alliances with Spotify, Turntable.fm, Clear Channel, Rdio and many other services now feed the new “Music” dashboard that transforms friends into social DJ’s and music store clerks. In between their status updates, Facebook’s new frictionless…
