Can You Cover A Song In Just One Week?

Split Sounds, a new music company focussing on innovation and new digital products, has announced the worldwide launch of its first initiative Cover in a Week. Each week, the Cover in a Week team partners with music publishers to hand-select a new song for artists to cover. Artists are tasked with making the most original and entertaining arrangements they possibly can, with the best recordings being selected for potential sync placements in movies, TV shows, ads or playlists.

"With Cover in a Week, we are aiming to connect the dots between unsigned artists and producers, and the publishers representing the greatest songwriters in the world. Film and television producers as well as advertising agencies are continually looking for unique and interesting versions of great songs, and getting a song placed in these can help establish an aspiring artist's career" co-founder Hilton Rosenthal said.

In addition to licensing and sync opportunities, Split Sounds has partnered with The Orchard for global distribution across all online platforms for select Cover in a Week versions.

Split Sounds has been created by father and son duo Hilton and Nick Rosenthal. Hilton has had a distinguished 40-year career in the music space having run international record labels, publishing companies and producing major international artists including work with Paul Simon, Carole King, Johnny Clegg and Harry Belafonte. Nick has been an entrepreneur and product innovator since age 14, and has been featured at South by Southwest and Midem as well as conferences and events in the USA, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland and Greece. He helped launch AWAL’s Label Services division (later acquired by Kobalt Music Group) and has been a consultant to Coke Music and MTV in the areas of music marketing and digital strategy.

"Covers have become an integral part of the music industry ecosystem, yet they remain fragmented and artists have not yet harnessed their potential. Cover in a Week is the perfect first step for us to begin developing our vision and platform to power the future of the music industry" Nick Rosenthal said.

Cover in a Week is now accepting entries for the first featured song, with many more to come. Artists interested in being part of the challenge can visit www.coverinaweek.com to enter.

http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=201676

Loudr Announces Strategic Agreement With CD Baby To Offer Cover Song Licensing To Its 350,000 Independent Artists

Technology driven music rights company Loudr® has announced an agreement with independent music market leader CDBaby® to provide cover song licensing solutions to CDBaby's artist community, which includes musicians, bands, record labels, choirs, a cappella, and other musical groups worldwide.

Loudr Licensing, Loudr's mechanical licensing platform, will now be offered to CDBaby members as a simple tool for securing the rights needed to legally distribute cover songs in the US. CDBaby will refer artists interested in cover song licensing to Loudr Licensing via links on CDBaby and through collaborative marketing outreach.

Launched earlier this year, Loudr Licensing is an open platform that enables users to purchase a mechanical license, the license needed to release a cover song. Using Loudr Licensing, any artist, label, or distributor can secure the right to legally sell or give away a cover recording across a broad spectrum of media, from physical releases to digital downloads to ringtones to interactive streams, for a flat service fee of $15 plus the cost of royalties.

“We’re thrilled to offer Loudr’s growing rights service and love their approach to streamlining licensing for our members. They’ve taken on a challenging part of the music rights process and made it exceedingly simple,” said Rob Filomena, CD Baby's Director of Music Publishing.

"We're excited to partner with CDBaby, a digital music distribution pioneer that shares our vision to empower the artist community, as well as promote practices that ensure songwriters and publishers are compensated for music use,” said Chris Crawford, Loudr’s CEO.

Loudr's rights products have experienced rapid growth and substantial global adoption, powering more than 50,000 licensing transactions to date. Loudr Licensing reduces the complexity of licensing by enabling users skip the challenge of securing clearance from multiple rights holders, as well as the hassle of ongoing accounting to one or more music publishers.

About Loudr
Loudr (http://loudr.fm) builds products and services that make it easy for content creators, aggregators and digital music services to identify, track and pay music publishers. Powered by technology that parses song ownership information and matches sound recordings to composition rights holders, Loudr makes it easy to secure mechanical right clearance for song usage at scale.

About CD Baby
CD Baby (http://cdbaby.com) is the largest distributor of independent music on the planet, home to more than 350,000 artists. The CD Baby catalog makes up an estimated 17 per cent of iTunes track offerings. With a one-stop professional dashboard allowing indie musicians to manage their royalties and licensing, CD Baby has become the go-to partner for many icons in the new music industry. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Macklemore had their start on CD Baby, while others like Ingrid Michaelson and Gregory Alan Isakov have maintained independent and highly successful careers. Greg Brown, Willis Earl Beale, and Grant Lee Phillips are among musicians who’ve dropped the old label system and turned to CD Baby to strike out on their own.

http://loudr.fm/licensing

http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=183071