A group of top UK musicians including Robbie Williams, The Verve and David Gilmour have banded as the Featured Artists Coalition to campaign for better deals and more progressive laws for all artists. 

Sony Corp. has announced that it has completed its US$1.2 billion purchase of Bertelsmann's 50% stake in their Sony BMG record label joint venture, ending the partnership the companies embarked on back in 2004.

 

With judges like Tom Waits, Ray Davies (The Kinks), Chaka Khan and Loretta Lynn, and industry executives like Amy Doyle (Sr. VP of Music and Talent at MTV), ISC's International Songwriting Competition continues to raise the bar for international songwriters. ISC 2009 is once again calling for South African talent to go global.

 

Amazon's new CreateSpace services enable independent artists and labels to get into Amazon network at low cost. These drives echo previous initiatives from Amazon to monetise the small business owner in digital music.

 

Under a decision handed down by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), the mechanical royalty rate that digital retailers like iTunes must pay songwriters and music publishers will stay the same - 9 cents per song. In deciding to freeze royalty rates, the CRB rejected both the publishers' petition for a 66% rate hike and digital retailers' request to cut royalty payments to songwriters by 55%.

EU industry ministers agreed to plans for a European piracy observatory to stem fakes and copies ravaging the movie and music industry in Brussels on Friday.

 

 Applications for SXSW 2009 are now open, calling all SA bands to submit to perform at the largest most credible music performance showcase in the world.