For decades, broadcasters have enjoyed an exemption that allows them to not pay performers and labels when they terrestrially broadcast music. This hardly makes sense, especially compared to digital services like Pandora or Sirius XM, which pay not only songwriters and composers, but also performers and sound copyright owners. This is why the recent deal struck between broadcasting behemoth Clear Channel and Big Machine Records to pay out for “terrestrial” spins seems so significant.  read more

Over the last two years, electronic music has become bigger across the United States than at any point in history, even at the height of the rave era in the 1990s. For lifelong fans, its sudden rise has been astonishing. For years, while house and techno were born essentially in the Midwest of America, those of us stranded stateside have looked on as electronic became a staple of European pop culture, while we were left seeking out underground clubs and boutique record stores, feeling niche-ier than ever. But now, dance music is so mainstream that the corporate powers that be have rebranded it—electronic dance music, or EDM, which self-respecting dance music fans tend to despise. read more

[…]Universal’s deal would reduce the number of major record companies to three from four, and give the company — already the largest record group by revenue — a 40 percent share of the global recorded music market, according to most estimates.

Others in the music industry, including the Warner Music Group and independent organizations like the Future of Music Coalition, also oppose the Universal deal. But the deal has supporters, too, including some artist managers and American labor unions representing musicians and performers.

Thursday, May 24, Air Traffic Control and the Future of Music Coalition’s “Dear NOLA: A Concert for New Orleans” will return to the Blue Nile, showcasing a singular evening of performances by both local and national musicians.

The concert is the culmination of the two organizations’ artist activist retreat, which brings musicians annually from around the country to New Orleans to meet and discuss different ways to integrate activism and philanthropy into their work.

Proceeds from the concert will once again go to benefit New Orleans-based nonprofits Sweet Home New Orleans and the Gulf Restoration Network, two organizations with a legacy of commitment to preserving and protecting Louisiana’s cultural and natural environments.