Summer Time!
After the busy conference season, Jaybird and our clients are ready to soak up the rays. But don’t worry, we’ll have our laptops with us! Here’s everything we’ve been up to the last few months!
Recent Client News
AIMP Global Music Publishing Summit
Middle Row (L-R): Art Levy, Debbie Rose, Brooke Primont, Michael Lau, Ree Guyer, Crystal Morris, Joanne Kelsey
Front Row (L-R): Eric Polin, Mike Todd, Yvonne Drazan, Ginia Eady-Marshall, Barbie Quinn, Antonella DiSaverio, Kandice Cherelle, Abby North
The 2024 AIMP Global Music Publishing Summit (GMPS) wrapped on June 11th at the 3 West Club in New York City, drawing over 325 attendees, including songwriters, music publishers, rights organizations, record labels, DSPs, and more. This is Jaybird’s seventh year producing the event for the AIMP, and it was sponsored by Copyright Delta, ICE, Music Publishers Canada, the NMPA, PRS for Music, RyteBox, and Switchchord, as well as AIMP National Annual Supporters including ASCAP, BMI, CMRRA, Exploration, The MLC, SESAC Music Group, SXWorks, and YouTube. See Billboard’s coverage for more info!
On May 16th, the AIMP Nashville Chapter hosted the “State of the Union for Music Publishing with David Israelite” event at the CMA offices in Nashville. During the event, held shortly after the NMPA announced its opposition to Spotify’s bundling plan and issued them a cease-and-desist letter for unlicensed lyrics, Israelite covered a wide variety of issues currently facing independent music publishers, including TikTok and Twitter/X licensing, MLC updates, PROs, and more. Check out The Tennessean for a quote from Israelite at the event!!
On May 22nd, the LA Chapter presented the 5th Annual Linda Komorsky AIMP Scholarship to rising UCLA Senior Trinity Drummond, and two runner-up awards to rising Juniors Sophia Lynn (USC) and Cocona Mori (UCLA).
Music Business Association
From May 13-16 in Nashville, TN, The Music Business Association held the 2024 edition of the Music Biz conference! The conference had a slate of more than 320 speakers, and was attended by more than 2,100 professionals from over 750 companies and 30+ countries. You can view recaps from each day and the list of Bizzy Award Winners in Music Row below!
Music Biz Day 1 Recap
Music Biz Day 2 Recap
Music Biz Day 3 Recap
Music Biz Day 4 Recap
2024 Bizzy Award Winners
Music Biz also announced the conference is moving in 2025 to Atlanta, GA and will be held May 12-15 at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly Hotel. Read more about it in Billboard!
AI:OK
Martin Clancy and David Hughes have officially announced the launch of AI:OK with the intention of identifying ethically aligned music products and services in the age of AI. AI:OK has received funding from the Irish government through Enterprise Ireland, and has received letters of support from organizations including A2IM, Deezer, Fairly Trained, NMPA, and RIAA. You can read more about it in CNET!
DDEX
DDEX has signed a liaison agreement with A2IM to advance DDEX standard adoption. The agreement is an acknowledgment of their shared interests in identifiers, metadata, and efficient music industry workflows offering a mechanism to communicate more information about the work that DDEX is doing and how it affects the independent label sector, and a route to provide any requirements for DDEX’s standards that are specific or even unique to the independent sector. Read more in Creative Industries News!
During the Music Biz 2024 Metadata Summit on May 15th, Mark Isherwood moderated the panel “Lights, Camera, PDF? Modernizing Music Metadata for AV Content” with Thomas Theune, Mark Vermaat, Jennifer Freed, and Chad Neville.
Deborah Mannis-Gardner
If you’re looking for a good documentary to stream this summer, we recommend “Kiss the Future” on Paramount+! Our client Deborah Mannis-Gardner served as the music supervisor on the documentary produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, which covers the struggle of Sarajevo’s citizens during the Bosnian War and how aid worker Bill Carter enlisted U2 to perform there and raise awareness.
Deborah was also instrumental in helping to clear all of De La Soul’s music to bring it to streaming last year. The process of bringing their catalog to streaming is now being chronicled in the documentary “Chapter 3” which began streaming on YouTube June 7th. Read more here.
Finally, Deborah recently did the clearances for Eminem’s new single “Houdini” which hit number 1 in its first week on both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. US charts. She also worked on the new Megan Thee Stallion album “MEGAN” and the new Camila Cabello album “C,XOXO”, which are both being released June 28th. Congrats, Deborah!
Head Bitch Music
Peermusic has signed songwriter, recording artist, and music executive Jessica Vaughn to an exclusive global publishing agreement. Through the deal, Peermusic will administer select catalogue and future works. The deal also encompasses a sync representation deal for Vaughn’s masters and for writers represented by her own company, Head Bitch Music. Congrats, Jessie! Read about it in Music Week!
At Music Biz 2024, Ryan Vaughn moderated and Jessica spoke on the panel “The Industry’s New SuperWeapon: Creatives As Executives” with Molly Neuman, and Russell Manning.
In addition, Jessica recently spoke at A2IM on the panel “Sync Success Strategies: Placement to Optimization,” discussing essential strategies for securing and maximizing sync deals.
LyricFind
LyricFind has kicked off their 20th Anniversary with their own “Diamond” achievement by reaching over 10 million unique songs in its fully licensed lyrics database. This milestone is the perfect marker to represent the company’s growth over the past two decades to become the world leader in lyric monetization, all while remaining completely independent with zero outside funding. Read about it in Music Connection!
During Canadian Music Week 2024, LyricFind presented the special panel “From CMW to the World: 20 Years of Innovation with LyricFind,” where LyricFind Founder and CEO Darryl Ballantyne, Founder and CTO Mohamed Moutadayne, Board Member Ted Cohen, and Angel Investor (and Darryl’s Mom!) Carol Ann Ballantyne discussed their historical milestones and spent some time strolling down memory lane.
Made In Memphis Entertainment
Beatroot Distribution, part of the Made in Memphis Entertainment family of companies, has signed a music distribution and publishing administration deal with Glbl Wrmng, a dynamic collective of New Orleans-based creatives. Under the deal, Beatroot will take over back-office functions for the collective while offering its artists unparalleled opportunities in digital marketing, project management, and A&R insights to help them broaden their audience.
The announcement was recently covered by Music Connection and Creative Industries News. Read the full press release here >>
Over at Music Biz 2024, MIME’s Tony D. Alexander spoke on the panel “The Real Value of Independents” and Delante Murphy spoke on the panels “Arrested Development?: Demystifying the Pathway to Artist Success” and “Rethinking the Financing of Artists.”
Symphonic Distribution
On May 15th, Symphonic’s CEO, Jorge Brea, was awarded the Music Business Association’s 2024 Bizzy Award for #NEXTGEN_NOW One to Watch, which recognizes an executive under 40 whose work has been exceptional, innovative, and stands out as a contribution to the industry. See the full list of winners in Music Row!
In addition to their Bizzy Award win, Symphonic team members also spoke at the Music Biz 2024 conference on multiple panels.
Top Left: Planning Your Next Release: Advice from the Experts – Randall Foster
Top Right: Opportunities Abound: Latin Music’s Growing Popularity In Sync – Guillermo Bohorquez
Bottom Left: Records Rights & Royalties: The Need for Metadata Improvement Solutions – Eshan Shah Jahan
Bottom Right: Walking the Walk: Tactics to Boost Diversity & Inclusion NOW – Janette Berrios
Symphonic announced Guji Lorenzana will be leading their business activities in Asia and will be responsible for expanding Symphonic’s artist roster and negotiating new business partnerships with Asian companies to grow Symphonic’s presence in the region. Check it out in Music Business Worldwide.
Angry Mob Music
On May 31st, Shaboozey dropped his new album Where I’ve Been Isn’t Where I’m Going, and “My Fault (Feat. Noah Cyrus),” co-written by Angry Mob’s Bailey Bryan, was the lead single.
In the last few weeks, the song has reached #40 on Billboard Hot Country, #26 Bubbling Hot 100, and had more than 7.5 million streams Spotify since it’s release. The album as a whole has hit #5 on the Billboard 200, #4 on the UK Country Album Charts, and #2 on the Official Album Downloads chart in the UK!
Angry Mob’s Senior Director of A&R, Ralph Torrefranca was interviewed by Music Business Association President, Portia Sabin on The Future Of What Podcast! The episode, “Diversifying Music Industry Writing Rooms,” expands on Ralph’s Billboard Op-Ed and he highlights the success of New Normal Writing Camp, plans for upcoming camps, his experiences with diversity throughout his 18 year career in music, and his advice for young, diverse songwriters looking to participate in writing camps. You can hear the full interview here!
OpenPlay
OpenPlay has expanded their direct delivery option through a deal with Too Lost, enabling music companies with an OpenPlay subscription to seamlessly send music and video releases directly to DSPs, at no cost, with no distribution fee. With new pricing tiers, independent labels can now have the full catalog management experience that major labels enjoy, at an affordable price point that includes no-cost delivery of their releases to more than 400+ global DSPs. Check it out in Digital Music News.
OpenPlay also struck a partnership with beatBread to help independent labels achieve greater flexibility and freedom as they grow. Under the partnership, labels can leverage OpenPlay’s best-in-class platform at zero upfront cost. To complement its features, beatBread will offer indie labels both flexible financing and tools to compare and evaluate financing offers, from not only beatBread’s own capital, but from other capital partners inside and outside its partner network. Read more in Music Business Worldwide.
During Music Biz 2024 from May 13-16, OpenPlay representatives spoke on several panels throughout the week and sponsored the Metadata Summit!
Top Image: Practitioners Perspective: Power User’s Plans & Building Support Infrastructure – Jonathan Bender
Bottom Left Image: Complete Control? The Rewards & Risks of Cross-Copyright Ownership – Edward Ginis
Bottom Right Image: Are We Prepared?: The Ethics Of New Revenue Streams – Edward Ginis
NY Tech Alliance
On June 4th, the NY Tech Alliance and CUNY College of Staten Island (CSI) Tech Incubator partnered to showcase AI companies at the June NY Tech Meetup.
To view photos that capture the evening, visit the NYTA Flickr site.
To watch the event in its entirety or snippets, head to the NYTA YouTube channel.
On May 13th, the NY Tech Alliance hosted their yearly Accessibility Meetup co-hosted by NY Tech Alliance Director, Doug Binette, and Board Member, Xian Horn, and put on in partnership with Give Beauty Wings and Equal Entry.
To view photos that capture the evening, visit the NYTA Flickr site.
To watch the event in its entirety or snippets, head to the NYTA YouTube channel.