Songwriter Ben Hayslip takes top ASCAP 2011 songwriting honors
November 7th, 2011
Songwriter Ben Hayslip was the night’s top winner, collecting his first ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Award on Sunday night during the performing rights organization’s 49th annual country awards.
Hayslip had a hand in writing five of ASCAP’s most-performed songs in the last year: “All About Tonight” (Blake Shelton), “All Over Me” (Josh Turner); “Farmer’s Daughter” (Rodney Atkins), “Gimme That Girl” (Josh Nichols) and “The Shape I’m In” (Joe Nichols).
“It’s unbelievable, it really is,” Hayslip says of landing five hits in one year. “I dreamed of being a lot of things in my life, from an NFL quarterback to a songwriter, but I don’t think I ever dreamed of having five hit songs in a year. Maybe I didn’t think it was possible.”
Steve Jobs’ Contribution To Songwriters
October 6th, 2011
By Norm Daniels
We do mostly articles for songwriters here, so we must acknowledge the tremendous contribution of Steve Jobs to the music business from a songwriter’s standpoint. The whole world knows his great influence in the development of the personal computer, and then the groundbreaking developments such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad, and even animated film, through his Pixar Studios. But a lot of articles don’t include what his revolution in music did for songwriter royalties.
Of course songwriters earn their greatest royalties when a single they wrote is broken out from an album and is picked up by radio. From radio play, comes performance royalties, and record sales from that radio play can be generated much more quickly since digital downloads began. It was Jobs whose vision kicked off and largely maintains the millions of digital downloads sold these days, not only via iTunes, a Jobs creation, but through dozens of me-too sites. Example: Rodney Atkins no. 1 hit “Take the Backroad” sold 600,000 downloads before the album was even released.
Loeb & Loeb LLP has added attorney John P. Strohm to its Nashville office as senior counsel in the Music Industry Practice. He has extensive experience negotiating agreements related to music publishing, recording, distribution and emerging media, including numerous transactions with major and independent record labels and music publishers…important news to us, because Loeb & Loeb is the law firm that represents ParamoountSong.com and our affiliated music publisher, ParMusic Group.
GAC to Air Flood Relief Concert with Brad Paisley, Lady A & Others
May 8th, 2010
The first national telethon and concert event to raise money to aid victims of last weekend’s flooding disaster in middle Tennessee has been announced by Great American Country Television, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau and Gaylord Entertainment. Music City Keep on Playin’ – A Benefit for Flood Relief will air commercial-free on GAC, Sunday, May 16, 8– 10 p.m. Eastern. Read the rest of this entry »