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Labels - 0, Songwriters - 1 In a historic deal between labels and songwriters the national music publishers association has come away with a major win in an agreement that will see labels forking out the monies from "pending and unmatched accounts" that are set up in cases where a publisher has not been located by a record label, or an ownership dispute over a song. This is good news for the industry because publishers and labels are finally beginning to see eye to eye.

Are The Record Labels Biting the Hand that Feeds Them Radio broadcasters around the country are growing increasingly concerned about the long-standing relationship with the music industry. The record labels are demanding an additional "tax" (not including the hundreds of millions of dollars paid annually to groups like BMI, ASCAP and SESAC, which goes to compensate songwriters and music publishers) on local radio stations for every song played. The music industry must be in panic mode to intentionally put a strain on the over 80 year mutually beneficial relationship that previously had radio promote record labels and artists and generate millions of dollars in music, hospitality, small-business and merchandise sales. Free local radio reaches 236 million listeners/week but record labels seem to not really give a hoot about free promo, pay up or shut down.

Malcolm Gladwell ,author of the book Outliers, is pretty adamant about his 10,000 hour rule. The rule states that in order to master any craft 10,000 + hours of practice must be accumulated. And getting in that many hours of practice can take 10 years or more. Basically, you gotta put in your work. The music promotion blog has a piece on Steve Martin that really attests to the decade journey that one must take to reach celebrity over night. By the time Steve was propelled into great public awareness he was a well oiled machine, ready to deliver the goods. Television (tell a lie to your vision, particularly shows like american idol and other media sources are very good at trivializing the years of work that some of our greatest icons put in to achieve icon status. Record Labels have even been fooled forgoing development for the young inexperienced (We've seen how well that works). Thats actually the equivalent of getting hired for an entry position and then getting promoted to CEO of the company a few weeks later, needless to say, that company's going to fail. I guess the point of this is if you want to increase your chances of success, not being signed but actually be icon status (being remembered for the many things you've done, not just the first thing), then you have to sleep in that car, perform in front of an audience of empty chairs, bounce from label to label because when god finally taps you on the shoulder and says its go time your going to outshine all of the others not even half way through their 10,000 hour mark. Put in the time and you will be rewarded.

A new study has found that the the fall of an item's popularity mirrors its rise to popularity, so items that become popular faster also die out faster. Kyle Bylin, Accosciate Editor for hypebot.com has taken that study one step further by relating the new find to the marketing strategy of record labels. It could be said that the Record Labels are killing itself to live, what a weird paradox.

Tick Tock, The Copyright Act of 1976 is About to Expire. It's always entertaining to me to watch the money traps that the labels set for artists, back before information was freely available, EXPLODE! Welp, that's exactly what's about to go down. The Copyright Act states that an artist or author who sold a copyright before 1978 can take it back 56 years later and If it was sold during or after 1978 they can take it back 35 years later. Assuming a correct and prompt filing of paper work, the record labels could lose sound recording copyrights they bought in 1978 starting in 2013. How does this affect you? If the labels don't wanna lose the contents of their entire library you can make a for sure bet that the new copyright law will be negotiated in your favor. Higher royalties anyone?

Here's an interesting one. Remember when the labels were on Apples heels to allow for a more flexible pricing structure than the 0.99 cent that apple had set? It even got so out of hand that _ started removing content from the iTunes store (Like a big baby!), only later to put it all back in, remember this? Well ever since apple conceded in allowing labels to increase popular tracks from .99 cents to $1.29 digital revenue has slowed. Warner saw and 8 percent growth in the holiday quater verses 20 percent the year before while digital album downloads gre 5 percent in december, down 10 percent in the sept quarter and 11 percent in the june quarter. Warner CEO Edgar Bronfman seems optimistic thought saying that the price change has been a "net positive" for warner, but agreed that a 30 percent price increase during a recession probably wasn't the best move. No duh.

Music will thrive in 2010 Jomar, blogger for the musicproducersforum recently wrote a rebuttal to CNETS recent article entitled will recorded music survive in 2010. Kudos to Jomar for getting it right. To sell music this year labels will have to see music as more than just a way get money from the customer. With the record labels struggling for a solution i've never seen so many artists recording music, its as if getting signed is an annoyance for the artists of the future. The leveling is almost here, with every artist gaining access to the same tools, theres never been more of a reason to record music. The less expensive it is for an artist to record music the less money an artist has to make to see a profit.

Applying the Record Label Model to the Indie Artist You may already be familiar with the online world of myspace music and facebook pages, and the offiline world of shows and radio play, but as George Howard puts it "Err too far online, you fail. Too far offline, you fail". In order to be successful today you need to achieve the perfect balance between online and offline marketing. Eleetmusic's Kevin English outlines how to use the four R's (Radio, Road, Reviews and Retail) of the "Not so new record label model" to capture the audience statistically proven to be more receptive to trying to new things. College students.

Labels put more musicians in the poor house.

The techdirt blog goes for the jugular of John Conyers, not the same dude from the terminator movies, but one of the RIAAs biggest backers of forcing radio stations to pay to help promote music. It all started with John delivered a speech at an event put on by the recording industry lobbyists, Conyers made the analogy that the lack of a performance right mandatory fee for radio stations was comparable to slavery and indentured servitude. Techdirt sheds some light on the old practices of shady labels paying off radio stations to spin records fully knowing the momentum that radio promotion can lend to a project. But that was years ago when (the only way to steal music was to run out of best buy with a stack of cds in hand and hope you didn't get spotted by the surveillance)you actually went to jail for stealing music. Techdirt goes on to say that the argument of the lobbyist groups are completely made up and ridiculous, just an excuse for the labels that are unwilling to actually do something to properly capitalize on free promo. As artists who's arguments are more valid the RIAAs or the Radio stations?

Okay, so your an independent artist, more power to ya. You write, produce, record and distribute your own tracks, but how well is your music being received. Major record labels have numerous methods to track the performance and popularity of their music. Soundscan, and Billboard are some of those ways. But once the music reaches the consumer thats when the metrics come to a screeching halt. Luckily now as an indie musician you have many ways to track your music, some ways actually rival those of the record labels. You can now monitor your brand, and even statistics such as how much time my audience spends listening to my material, and what songs are shared the most in their network.

Myspace: looking to cut into the record label space.

American Idolizes The Money, Not Your Music Eleetmusic's Kevin English had a chance to hear out some of the past american idol finalists at one of the panels held at the recently passed CMJ 2009. The topic, an interesting one mind you, was a look at entertainers who have been to the top of the mountain only to look down at how far they had to fall. Artists such as Kimberley Locke (remember her?) talk about their idol experiences as well as life after the season has wrapped and the cameras have powered down. The gist? Sometimes being an independent artist carries with it the invigorating feeling of carving out ones own musical destiny. At the end of the day you have a pretty good realization of who you are, who your fans are, and you can proudly boast that you aren't just a number in a label of numbers.

I just spent 30 minutes, reading Courtney Loves rally call to all indie musicians. It's never been a better time to be independent. The controversial singer takes on record label profits, Napster and "sucka VCs." Her passion for music is definitely shared by the staff here at SongPlacements. Excellent article.

Eric Beall hit it out of the park this time with his incredible article walking you through just exactly how you would make a connection on the other side of the big record label doors. His advise offers walk arounds to from being unsolicited to solicited, direction for who to actually approach with your recorded material, finding the people who's tastes are suited to your music and always looking for the alternative way into a project. The article does such a good job of explaining how to get your music heard that i'm sure you will start applying this knowledge right away!

A new radio study has noted that radio reaches 77% of adults over the age of 18 on a daily basis. Thats more than twice the daily reach of CDs, five times the reach of satellite radio (15%) and six times the reach of iPods and Mp3 players (12%). What they fail to mention is that record labels buy out all of those slots.

Napsters Impact a Decade Later If you watched the Grammy Awards Sunday night then you probably witnessed the Academy's plea to US music consumers, encouraging the purchase of "great" music. Cnn Money took a 10 year look at the RIAA's 8 billion dollar decline, the free movement and most importantly, the label anti-christ, Napster.

Forget the Record Deal, What about the Publishing Deal. While labels are understandably trying to mitigate their risk, by targeting artists who are already as "developed" as possible, it seems that publishers have taken on greater roles as nurturers of talent. Taylor Swift go her start by honing her songwriting abilities under the guidance of Arthur Buenahora at Songy/ATV Music publishing. Keri Hilson speaks about having first developed as a songwriter with Universal Music Publishing, and how that experience helped her launch her solo career with Interscope Records. HERE is a full interview with Eric Beale, who began his tenure in the industry as a songwriter, writing songs for the Jacksons and Diana Ross. Hopefully this interview gives you some further insight into the world of publishing and some hints on how you can either get into the publishing business as a working artist or as a career, helping other artists hone their skills!

Facebook rallies for Abbey Road.

Do you make music for the money or because you love to create? I personally create music because a chip was genetically implanted into my skull when i was just one month old, and since then music and i have shared a certain bond (at least i think thats what happened). I actually feel that monetizing your music can kind of hurt the art. If you adopt the notion that the reason you create is all about the money. It is a firm belief of mine, that if you do something for the love, and you are truely blessed with god given talent then the money will fall in line with the love and the love will never be perverted.