Sunday, February 22, 2015

February Financial News Recap - Music Royalties

MIDEM as we know it may be no more, but the music business always kicks off the new year with The Grammy Awards.  This year, we celebrated nominated clients during #Grammy #Week with many out of town guests from New York, The Southeastern US and Texas (see photo here by Christianne Kinney, Esq. featuring Tamera Bennett, Esq., Ken Freundlich, Esq. and Auditrix founder Cedar Boschan at the Fox Rothschild Pre-Grammy Party)

Our music royalties highlights so far this year:
  • A popular post on the Auditix blog "Five Things to Consider Before Filing a Music Copyright Case" by trial lawyer Gerard P. Fox, Esq.
  • Cedar Boschan was re-elected to a second term as national treasurer of The Association of Independent Music Publishers.  She was also honored to be featured in discussion with the following music industry professionals in Berkeley at California Lawyers for the Arts' "Crossing the Digital Divide" 32nd Annual Music Business Seminar:
    • Keith L. Cooper, Esq., Partner who heads de la Pena & Holiday LLP's new Los Angeles office and focuses on clients in  transactional, copyright and trademark matters, as well as lawsuits
    • Angela Rose White, Esq., COO of David Rose Publishing Co. where she concentrates on music publishing/administration of a catalog including “The Stripper” 
    • Mikael "Count" Eldridge, San Francisco-based record producer and filmmaker (projects include DJ Shadow, Frank Sinatra, Radiohead, John Cale, No Doubt, RUN DMC)
    • Vivek Sridharan, Esq., Partner at Counsel LLP who advises on digital strategy for independent record labels, music technology start-ups

      The panel discussion focused on digital distribution of music and its impact on the music business.
  • Green Hasson Janks published its final Entertainment Newsletter (GHJ is switching to a blog, to be announced soon)
  • Cedar and her team at GHJ attended several educational programs about the music industry, including an International Panel at the AIMP and the first music-oriented program held by The Beverly Hills Bar Association in quite a while:
February 18, 2015 at The Beverly Hills Bar AssociationMusic Industry Update: Getting a Manager, a Record Deal, and the Money in 2015
L-R: Dean Wilson, 
President, Three Six Zero Group, Dina LaPolt, Attorney, LaPolt Law PC, Donald Passman, Partner, Gang Tyre Ramer & Brown, Rand Levin, Senior Vice President, Business & Legal Affairs, Universal Music Group, Dinah Perez, Law Office of Dinah Perez
  • We also attended The AIMP's International Royalties program featuring:
    • Michel Allain, Director General/CEO, FastTrack (Paris, France), who cogently pointed out that, unfortunately, $1M Euros equals $1M U.S. Dollars
    • Ger Hatton, Director General/CEO, International Confederation of Music Publishers (Switzerland)
    • Teri Nelson Carpenter, President & CEO, Reel Muzik Werks/AIMP Vice President
  • Check out our top tweets here!

Top Tweets YTD from the Auditrix 2015 Twitter Feed

Below are the popular tweets from the Auditrix twitter feed, which focuses on music economics and royalties, during 2015 YTD:

Best Unfinished Twitter Conversation with Glenn Peoples @ Billboard and John Strohm @ Loeb