Billboard Cranks up More Country Music Coverage
December 21st, 2011
It’s a two-pronged effort: both a new blog and a print magazine, which they refer to as a mini magazine. Billboard is making a major stab at coddling up to Country Music — specifically Nashville Music. The blog is available now, the mag expected December 27
It’s all for good reason, as Country grows while some other genre are having a tough time.
Billboard’s new blog is titled (615), after the Nashville area code. The mini-mag will look like Billboard Magazine, just smaller…which is a good idea, since the main pub is far too large to be placed on the average newsstand, except on the bottom rack. Eye-level good. Foot-level bad.
The first edition will have a special hook attached: a CD featuring some of Country’s top artists. One thing we’d change if we had our druthers is the bit about only being available in Target Stores and at Target online. Oops, one other drawback: The ding dong thing is priced at five bucks — $4.99 to be exact. But what’s the difference?
Still, it’s a great salute to Country Music. And for that we salute Billboard.
Brad Paisley, Zac Brown Up for Oscar Nominations
December 20th, 2011
Here’s something Country Music Fans can root for in the Oscar Nominations:
Songs written by Zac Brown and Brad Paisley are among a pool of potential Oscar nominees for Best Original Song.Brown, Wyatt Durrette, Drew Pearson and Anne Preven penned “Where the River Goes” for the Footloose soundtrack. Brown also recorded the song for the project.
Paisley teamed with British pop star Robbie Williams to write and record “Collision of Worlds” for the Cars 2 soundtrack.
Time for a Songwriter Hooray! YouTube buys licensing firm RightsFlow
December 12th, 2011
From a battle over pirated music and videos on YouTube to a settlement to this announcement, a lot of ground has been covered in the effort to get creators and distributors of music the royalties they deserve for play on the giant video website.
YouTube has acquired RightsFlow, a company that helps songwriters, recording artists, labels, distributors, and online music services set up licensing and royalties arrangements.
“By combining RightsFlows expertise and technology with YouTubes platform, we hope to more rapidly and efficiently license music on YouTube, meaning more music for you all to enjoy, and more money for the talented people producing the music,” YouTube said in a statement on its blog last Friday.
YouTube and parent company Google have been involved in several copyright-related altercations over the years. In August, YouTube reached a settlement in a class-action suit involving a group of music publishers. The suit accused YouTube of encouraging users to upload pirated video clips of TV shows, films, and music videos.
via YouTube buys licensing firm RightsFlow – ZDNet Asia News.
Pistol Annies Take Country Music by Storm, But What’s With Miranda Lambert?
December 9th, 2011
It’s rare…even unheard of when a top recording artist takes on an entirely different persona as part of a trio/band. But Miranda Lambert has done it, and successfully.
Music Row.com says the Pistol Annies have been causing a buzz and making registers ring. The band’s digital-only album was released in late August and debut sales were a remarkable 42,000 units. At the same time, the trio’s most famous member, fiery Miranda Lambert, has also been lighting torches. Lambert recently debuted Four The Record which hit the charts at No. 1 selling more than double any of her previous debut albums. Pistol Annies includes Ashley Monroe, managed by John Grady and unofficially signed to a solo deal at Warner Bros., plus Angaleena Presley, managed by Scott Kernahan.