Welcome to our new client: MIME!
Made in Memphis Entertainment (MIME) is a Black-owned full-service entertainment company with global reach, but with its heart in the hometown of modern American music. Their family of companies includes everything from an independent record label (MIME Records) to a music publishing company (MIME Publishing), an Emmy-winning sync catalog (Heavy Hitters Music), the only Black-owned music distributor in the U.S. (Beatroot Music), and a state-of-the-art recording studio (4U Recording).
Want to learn more? Read Mix Magazine’s interview with 4U Recording’s Studio Manager Crystal Carpenter (a rare Black woman in the studio world) and Chief Engineer Kerry Kernan, and then check out MIME Co-Founder, President, and Managing Director Tony Alexander’s guest post in the Memphis Business Journal on why the entire C-suite needs to act as diversity officers.
“More Than Music”
The Jaybird team joined Soundstripe’s mission to support their Nashville community by buying these beautiful “More Than Music T-shirts, and guess what? We love them! (Definitely our new favorite work-from-home outfit.) All proceeds from the T-shirt sales went to The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee to assist with relief efforts for the East Nashville tornado. Read the whole story and get yours here.
Jaybird Client Updates
In addition to being named one of The Tennessean’s 2020 Top Workplaces, Soundstripe cemented its spot as one of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. by making the Top 100 of Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000 list! Soundstripe is not only #68 overall but also the #1 company in Tennessee and #5 company in the Media category. Well deserved!
Soundstripe also recently hired 20-year music industry veteran Jay Harren as VP of Music and promoted one of their first hires, Tia Watkins, to Director of Customer Support. Harren will direct the vision and daily operations of Soundstripe’s Music Division, developing and implementing strategy, managing label operations, and maximizing revenue from the company’s growing and diverse catalog via streaming, publishing, and sync opportunities. Meanwhile, Watkins will be responsible for strategizing the Customer Support branch’s growth, optimizing the timeliness and efficiency of member support, and overseeing the branch’s projects. Read more in Billboard and Music Row.
Over at Exploration, Co-Founder and Co-CEO Rene Meredith was invited to appear on the She Rocks Podcast! Check out Episode 28 to hear her discuss her career journey, advice for musicians on how to get paid, her own Red Dragon Sessions podcast, and much more. Exploration also has been increasing their presence on social media and working on an educational video series on the music business. Follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to watch the first one when it goes live. You can also read Aaron Davis’ (Co-Founder and Co-CEO) profile here. The Exploration team also launched a “5 Minutes or Less” educational video series: in the first episode, Rene Merideth explains metadata in detail.
Our team contributed to the Demos for a Difference charity project by offering our PR services pro bono! The album, available now on Bandcamp, is made up of over 190 demos from artists of all kinds, with all proceeds going to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Demos for a Difference has been featured multiple times in American Songwriter and various local outlets in New Jersey, where the project originated before going international.
Demos for a Difference has raised $2,600 so far from sales of the compilation album and will be hosting a livestream on August 26th with performances from artist contributors, with all donations also benefiting the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. More details coming soon.
Hip-hop entrepreneur, author, and artist career builder Wendy Day started the year with the 20/20 Vision daily video series to help artists grow their career. In July, Wendy launched another edition of 20/20 Vision, this time for producers. The daily video advice series kicked off July 15th, with new episodes going live each day on Wendy’s IGTV before being posted to her YouTube page the following day.
The Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) hosted the AIMP Global Music Publishing Summit Webinar on June 9 and an interview with 2020 Songwriters Hall of Fame electee Steve Miller on June 11. Both were featured in American Songwriter, and writer Robert Dye also previewed the AIMP NY Online Showcase on June 25, featuring three amazing NYC talents.
Throughout July and August, the AIMP has been hosting its Summer Educational Webinar Series, which kicked off on July 7th with the first of two webinars sponsored by Jaybird client DDEX. In these sessions, DDEXSecretariat Mark Isherwood walked attendees through the explanations about various DDEX standards and how they are used, allowing them to get the most out of their music metadata. In addition, fellow Jaybird family member Exactuals also presented an AIMP webinar on July 23 that focused on maximizing publishing catalog revenue by smoothly ingesting accurate data, working with it efficiently, and then processing royalty payments to the rights-holders in a timely manner. Other webinars in the series have been presented by SoundExchange, The MLC, and Songtrust. Don’t miss upcoming installments from Sound Royalties on August 20 and Lyricfind on August 27!
In addition, the AIMP Nashville Chapter announced the winners of the fifth annual AIMP Nashville Awards. This year’s AIMP Nashville Publisher of the Year award went to SMACKSongs, a co-publisher of the song “One Night Standards,” which was named AIMP Nashville Publisher’s Pick. Ashley McBryde, a co-writer of the track as well as its recording artist, was named AIMP Nashville Artist-Writer of the Year, while Hailey Whitters took home AIMP Nashville Rising Artist-Writer of the Year. The AIMP Nashville Songwriter of the Year award went to HARDY, while AIMP Nashville Rising Songwriter of the Year went to Allison Veltz Cruz. The AIMP Song of the Year was “The Bones,” co-written and recorded by Maren Morris, while National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) President and CEO David Israelite was honored as AIMP Nashville Song Champion of the Year. Read more in Music Row and Music Connection.
The Queen of Sample Clearances Deborah Mannis-Gardner has been featured in Playbill on “Navigating Song Rights in an Increasingly Digital World.” If you’ve been enjoying the Hamilton film on Disney+, you have her to thank, as she handled all the music clearances to make its release possible! Deborah has also been quoted in Synchblog and interviewed by Michael “Double 0” Aguilar for the Think Like a Rapper podcast (Episode 116).
We’re proud to announce that NY Tech Alliance (NYTA) Executive Director Andy Saldana has been named in Crain’s Notable LGBTQ Leaders & Executives! Andy also recently wrote a blog post about educational disparities and technology, available on Medium. In addition, the NYTA just launched the Latina Luminaries program on Instagram Live, in which Yvonne de la Pena takes over NYTA’s Instagram account to interview an outstanding Latina in the tech community. These live interviews happen every other week; follow NYTA on Instagram to attend.
On July 16, Angry Mob Music Group Director of A&R Ralph Torrefranca conducted a Nashville Songwriter Workshop on the key differences in the LA and Nashville music scenes: songwriting culture, approach to splits, and emphasis on production tomorrow. In addition, Angry Mob sends a monthly newsletter featuring their latest news and releases. Subscribe here!
Finally, DDEX added a new Charter member: Downtown Music Holdings! Downtown, which owns and operates a broad portfolio of global music publishing, distribution, artist, and label services brands, has appointed Scott Williams, Chief Technology Officer of its subsidiary CD Baby, to the DDEX board of directors.
Just for fun…
The Jaybird team recently met on Zoom to watch the documentary Creem: America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine, and we strongly recommend it! It’s available for viewing here.
