The Orchard Licenses Catalog To Limewire

The Orchard is licensing its music to the DRM-free a la carte music download service operated by file-sharing network LimeWire. The store, launched earlier this year, has existing content from Redeye Distribution, Nettwerk Music Group, and IRIS. The addition of 1.2 million tracks from The Orchard doubles its catalog to more than 2 million songs.

The LimeWire store operates much like any other digital retailer, selling tracks both a la carte and taking an eMusic-like approach and selling tiered bulk "subscriptions" that offer anywhere from 25 to 75 songs a month on a sliding pay scale.

The company remains embroiled in a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by major labels against its popular P2P music network.

Administration Deals (aka "Admin Deals")

Typical Scenario. This type of deal is used when the songwriter just wants a publisher to collect royalties and handle the various paperwork (for example, the BMI/ASCAP song title registrations, copyright applications, the issuance of licenses, etc.), and where the songwriter does not want or need a publisher to proactively promote his or her catalog of song. A good example of a company that does a lot of Administration Deals is Bug Music in Los Angeles.

Material Covered by the Deal. Most often this kind of deal covers all material written by the songwriter, or at least any material that the songwriter has not already committed to other publishers.

Copyright Transferred. No transfer of copyright.

Income Sharing. Typically, the publisher will take 10% to 20% of the income, and the pay the rest to the songwriter and the songwriter’s publishing company.

Term. Administration deals are normally in the range of three to five years.

Advances. For catalogs generating a modest amount of income, usually no advance is paid. For more profitable catalogs, usually an advance will be paid, with the amount to be determined on the basis of the income that has been generated in recent years by the catalog.

Mixtape Community 8tracks.com Unveils Service

With user-generated playlist site Muxtape shut down for an indefinite amount of time, newly launched 8tracks.com is hoping to fill the void left in the mixtape community. Like Muxtape, the site allows users to upload content from their personal music libraries and create playlists for others to stream. The site also allows users to create playlists using content uploaded to the site by others.

Unlike Muxtape, the site does not allow users to see what track will play next or to skip forward and backward through tracks they might not enjoy. This is because 8tracks operates under a compulsory license as a non-interactive webcaster, as mandated by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

8tracks was founded by David Porter, formerly the director of business development at Live365.

Artist Quote of the Week

"99-cent singles create excitement. Whoever came up with that was somebody who was a little bit older and remembered buying 45s. The thing about it is, once they buy the singles, what's next. And that's what the record companies are not doing."

-Jermaine Dupri

Live Nation Moves Into Latin America

Live Nation has made a major foray into South America in cutting a five-year exclusive distribution deal with CIE and T4F (Time For Fun), giving LN a huge presence in Brazil and Mexico. CIE is the third largest concert promoter in the world, according to Billboard Boxscore.

The deal effectively locks down Mexico and South America for Live Nation on most major tours in this vital and growing region, where LN has previously not been a dominant promoter.

"Wherever we can we want to have a Live Nation office executing, and we haven't had that in Latin America, largely because CIE is just so dominant," Jason Garner, Chief Executive Officer, North American Music, tells Billboard.biz. "In a region where we had zero market share, to form an exclusive deal like this gives us immediate entry, it didn't cost us a lot of money to get in, and we get the most proven execution and venue partner in the region."

Though this deal has been in the works for a year, Garner says Live Nation and CIE already had a relationship in place through LN's Global Touring division. "We wanted to formalize that relationship to make it exclusive and then add on the important South America piece to really complete our Latin America play," he says. "It was driven by a mutual desire between the two companies to find a way to formalize what has been a very friendly relationship. They were looking for a steady supply of talent and we were looking for an exclusive execution partner and that brought the two of us together."

Producing live concerts that drew over six million music fans in 2007, CIE generated more than $1 billion in revenue and margins approaching 21 percent, according to Live Nation. CIE, which is publicly traded on the Mexican stock exchange, also operates its own ticketing platform in many markets including Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, and others.

LN says CIE produces more than 85% of all the live concerts by international talent in Mexico, a country with a population of more than 100 million people. T4F operates top venues in Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires, Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, and Porto Alegre, all of which are emerging as important new markets for international talent.

Ocesa, CIE's live entertainment division in Mexico, is a vital component of the deal. "If you're a world class artist, you don't work in Mexico without working with Ocesa," Garner says. "By having an exclusive relationship with them it really gives us a nice advantage when we're sitting down talking with an artist, that we have this great partner South of the border."

George Gonzalez will continue as president of Ocesa in Mexico, Fernando Alterio will remain as president of T4F, and Bruce Moran will be president Latin America for Live Nation based in Los Angeles. "When you enter into a relationship like this, what you want to know is when you take a band that trusts Live Nation and you walk into Latin America, that you have solid operators," says Garner. "The key here is we have trustworthy, solid partners, a well financially backed, publicly traded company, and the best part is they're our friends.

Alejandro Soberón Kuri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CIE says in a statement: "It is very clear to us that Live Nation's global platform is attracting the world's most exciting and successful artists, cementing their position as the leading provider of talent on a global basis. By forming an exclusive alliance with Live Nation, we are ensuring that our distribution channels will be filled with a steady stream of live concerts from the greatest artists in the world."

Mechanical Royalties Redux

This is the money that must be paid to the owner of the (composition) copyright every time a physical copy is made of any record containing that composition.

That means for every actual piece of vinyl, 8-track or cassette, a certain amount must be paid the copyright owner (usually the composer). Excluding use for broadcast, hence all the specifically marked "promo only" stuff. The artist never gets paid for those copies. Nor do they get money when their (major) label gives bunches of those records to Record and Tape Clubs. They are considered promotional copies, given to those companies as a "reward" for buying a certain amount of another artist.
By US law, this right cannot be assigned to the label ! So usually in a recording contract, the label bargains a lower rate (usually 2/3 or 3/4) that it must pay the composer. Again, this is a lot of paper work, small labels usually just roll this archaic stuff into a decent royalty rate.

The reason I call this archaic, is that it is grown out of an old system where the composer, arranger, performer, and label are very distinct entities.

US

In the US, the Harry Fox Agency is known for collecting and administrating Mechanical Licenses.

UK


Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS)
http://www.mcps.co.uk/

You will need to obtain a license with MCPS before a UK pressing plant is allowed to proceed with manufacturing.