A Norwegian newspaper investigation alleging that JAY-Z’s Tidal manipulated listener data to add hundreds of millions of false plays to Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo begs a question: Why would the streaming service want to pay those artists’ record labels millions of dollars for streams that never occurred?
Reservoir has acquired nearly 500 songs from the catalog of late American songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. The global deal, conducted with Carmichael’s heirs, sees the US publisher acquiring titles from the Tin Pan Alley era dating as far back as the 1920s. Carmichael is best known for composing ‘Georgia On My Mind’, ‘Heart and Soul’, ‘Stardust’, ‘The Nearness of You’ and ‘Skylark’.
With the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling to uphold a 2015 verdict finding Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams' hit "Blurred Lines" infringed the copyright to Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up," many in the music industry are concerned about the potential consequences.
Under the deal, Primary Wave will control an 80 percent share of two catalogs: Bob Marley’s songs and Blue Mountain Music, which has reggae hits by Toots & the Maytals and rock classics by Free (“All Right Now”) and Marianne Faithfull.
Music Sales Corporation, Inc. announces it has acquired the worldwide publishing rights to Vernon Duke's catalog, including the Great American Songbook gems "April in Paris", "Autumn In New York", and "Taking a Chance on Love" - the latter from the Broadway musical Cabin in the Sky (1940).
Primary Wave Music Publishing, one of the largest independent music publishers in the U.S., has acquired the music rights of legendary Canadian 20th-century classical pianist Glenn Gould. The deal includes his publishing and master royalties, as well as the rights to his name and likeness.
Downtown Music Publishing has entered into an exclusive worldwide administration agreement with the Estate of Anthony Newley. The deal includes several notable works from Newley's catalog including the Oscar-nominated original score for the 1963 dramatic musical production, "Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory," with songs that have shaped popular culture such as "Pure Imagination," "The Candy Man," "Oompa Loompa," and "(I've Got A) Golden Ticket", penned alongside songwriting partner Leslie Bricusse.
After Prince's deal in April 2016, attention focused on the trove of unreleased material that he kept hidden in two storage vaults at Paisley Park, his studio complex outside Minneapolis. A conflict in Prince’s estate over a $31 million deal with Universal for music rights means that much of the vault may not see daylight for months or even years to come. And music industry lawyers say that copyright entanglements may complicate or even prohibit the release of more music.
Concord’s acquisition of Imagem Music Group, a publisher of significant classic rock, pop and contemporary compositions, heralds a golden age for music publishing transactions.
Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, best known for their time in The Turtles in which they recorded the hit song "Happy Together," have spent the past several years fighting a byzantine battle for the rights to get paid for their music being played by digital broadcasters, filing putative class actions in California, New York and Florida on behalf of artists with similar questions around their own catalogs. At issue is whether Volman and Kaylan, jointly represented in court under the name Flo & Eddie Inc. (which situates them as their own 'label' in the case), are due royalties from broadcasters for playing the music they recorded prior to 1972. In classic music industry fashion, the legalities at issue are kaleidoscopic in their complexity.
