A recent ruling by the US Copyright Royalty Board set out the royalty rates that on-demand music-streaming services must pay songwriters over the next five years. The key figure: a 44% rise in those royalties over that period. Now the boss of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) David Israelite has warned streaming services that they should not appeal against the rates. “The digital music companies now have 30 days to decide whether to appeal that ruling, and in e

Your band is playing a dive bar, and you totally kill it. The audience is small but into it, and it's evident you're meant to be playing arenas. After the gig, a guy in a three-piece suit walks up, hands you a card, and tells you he's some famous manager and looking for an act just like you. “You have what it takes to be a star!” he'll tell you, before imploring you to call him. There's even movies and TV shows that emphasize this fantasy. The fact is, this may have happened

2019 NAMM show. The energy, hairstyles, and noise of the National Association of Music Merchants show, NAMM, are unlike anything I’ve witnessed in a decade of trade shows all over the world. NAMM brings together the crowd that’s fighting to keep music’s analog soul alive and well. You may think that the future of music making — and even the present, judging by the charts — is to be reduced down to a box, like most digital things, but NAMM’s attendees show how the music indust