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SONG BIZ
ASCAP GOES TO PICTURE
BMI HOSTS PANEL AT COMIC-CON
The annual ASCAP Film and Television Awards were held in Beverly Hills, CA,
and featured a spirited performance by hot rock band GroupLove. Pictured
at the event (l-r): John LoFrumento, ASCAP CEO; Trevor Rabin, ASCAP Henry
Mancini Award recipient; and Paul Williams, ASCAP President and Chairman.
Harold Payne: Getting Brave
with Womack
Hot on the heels of his collaborations and
tours with Gorillaz, Bobby Womack is back
with a vengeance: the soul legend has released
The Bravest Man in the Universe co-produced
by Gorillaz mastermind Damon Albarn and XL
Recordings owner Richard Russell.
For Los Angeles, CA, singer-songwriter Harold
Payne, who collaborated on the majority of
the songs, it marks a long string with Womack
reaching back to “Daylight,” a hit in 1976 (and rerecorded
by Kelly Rowland). Samples by artists
including Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent and G-Unit
recast the Payne/Womack collaborations into
marquee hip-hop hits.
Payne, who currently performs over 200 concert,
club and custom song events a year, is
known as an originator of what is now defined
as the Positive Music movement. With a steady
string of genre-defining CD releases to his credit,
Payne’s songs have been cut by a roster of over
100 artists that includes Rod Stewart and Patti
Labelle.
Surrounded by modern beats, Womack’s latest
project resurrects a classic singer with a slate of
inspired tracks. Speaking to Echo magazine,
Richard Russell praised Payne as “…the hero of
this project.” Find out more about Harold Payne at
http://haroldpaynemusic.com.
BMI Heats up Chicago
BMI will present the performers on its 2012
Lollapalooza stage. Running Aug. 3-5 at Grant
Park’s Hutchinson Field in Chicago, IL, BMI’s
stage will kick off performances at 12 p.m. each
day, setting the pace at the behemoth music
festival.
Festival-goers seeking rising stars and a
bucolic respite from the Chicago heat flock to the
BMI Lollapalooza stage, known for emitting soulinflected
sounds, acoustic balladry and pop-rock
rhapsodies from a slew of singer-songwriting acts.
Performers on this year’s BMI stage range from the
moody melodies of Ambassadors to the sassy
swagger of Dev; the budding rock iconoclasts
the Sheepdogs; and the expressiveness of siren
Yuna. The lineup will provide a blend of sounds,
reflecting Lollapalooza’s wide-ranging approach
in offering attendees performances that are
unique and remarkable.
Additionally, BMI has partnered with recognition-and-discovery
company in8 Mobile to
offer music enthusiasts an opportunity to win
tickets to the festival and gain exclusive access
to the BMI-sponsored stage. Beginning July
5, BMI will release details via Twitter hashtag
BMI and White Bear PR presented “The Character of Music” panel at the
Comic-Con International 2012 in San Diego, CA. BMI’s Anne Cecere moderated
“The Character of Music” with panelists (l-r): Arrow composer Blake Neely;
Arrow exec. prod. Marc Guggenheim; Supernatural composer Christopher
Lennertz; Supernatural exec. prod. Todd Aronauer; TRON: Uprising composer
Joseph Trapanese; TRON: Uprising exec. prod. Charlie Bean; Looper composer
Nathan Johnson; and Looper exec. prod. Rian Johnson.
#BMIlollaStage and http://bmi.com/lollapalooza
about the contests.
Sony/EMI Deal Closes
An investor group led by Sony has closed its
$2.2 billion acquisition of EMI Music Publishing.
The deal will give Sony control over a catalog of
more than two million songs and a global market
share of about 31 percent, nine points above that
of Universal, its closest competitor, according to
an estimate by the trade publication Music and
Copyright.
Sony’s new catalog will include the 750,000
tracks—including 251 by the Beatles—that are
controlled by Sony/ATV, the company’s joint venture
with the estate of Michael Jackson. It will
also include 1.3 million from EMI, with Motown
hits, chestnuts like “Have Yourself a Merry Little
Christmas” and songs by contemporary performers
such as Norah Jones, Kanye West and
Amy Winehouse.
Sony’s deal will also reunite Martin N. Bandier,
the chairman of Sony/ATV, with the EMI
publishing catalog, which he built over 17 years
until he left the company for Sony in 2007. While
Sony/ATV and EMI will be separate entities,
Bandier made it clear in an interview that he
intended to run them as one collection of songs.
Read more at http://emimusicpub.com.
HEARTS OF DARKNESS: SINGER-SONGWRITERS SHINE
Three seminal singersongwriters
are the subjects
of a captivating new
book, Hearts of Darkness:
James Taylor, Jackson
Browne, Cat Stevens, and
the Unlikely Rise of the
Singer-Songwriter. Author
Dave Thompson focuses on
the inward journeys of this
prolific trio and the ways
that their artistry impacted
and mirrored the ‘70s. From
Backbeat Books (now a
division of Hal Leonard). See
http://halleonoardbooks.com.
MILESTONES: FRANCES PRESTON
Frances Preston,
a music industry
pioneer and former
president and chief
executive of BMI,
died in Nashville,
TN. Preston was
a driving force in
music spanning
six decades as
she fought for
songwriters’
rights and for her
company’s growth
in representing a
diverse roster of
talent.
28 August 2012 www.musicconnection.com