Hey Philly readers.

On Monday, May 7, the Philadelphia Chapter of the Recording Academy is hosting a screening of the documentary Before the Music Dies. The movie tells the story of American music at a precarious moment when just a handful of companies dominate the radio waves and the retail racks. Filmmakers Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen traveled the country, hoping to understand why mainstream music seems so packaged and repetitive, and whether corporations really had the power to silence musical innovation. Widely-praised and award-winning, the movie includes interview lots of musicians, industry folks and fans.

After the screening, FMC’s Kristin Thomson will participate in a panel discussion on the effects of radio consolidation, changes to the music industry and artist development with director Joel Rasmussen and Marcy Rauer Wagman, Director of Drexel University’s Music Industry program.

Before the Music Dies
Monday, May 7
International House, 3701 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
Doors at 6:00 PM
Admission is $10 for Grammy members and $15 for the general public.

Hope to see you there!
www.futureofmusic.org
Everybody have fun (and make money) tonight
Friday, December 21, 2007 12:49 PM
Wang Chung is a band most people probably haven’t thought about in a long, long time. The group popped up a couple of days ago in an interesting article in the New York Times about artists re-recording their hits to earn more money.

According to the piece, Wang Chung plans to re-record their 1986 smash "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" so the band can take home more licensing revenues. This is how it works: typically revenues from licensing a song are split 50-50 between the artist and the record label (which owns the song) under most record contracts.

When a contract expires, an artist is free to re-record the music (although sometimes there’s a 5-year moratorium on this in the agreement). The re-recorded music is solely owned by the artist, so he or she does not need to split the revenue. A 50 percent increase in licensing fees sounds pretty good, no? The article didn’t mention this, but some artists are choosing to re-record songs that are popularly licensed for sampling.