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Nate "Danja" Hill Dominates SESAC Awards

Songwriter/producer Nate “Danja” Hills took home top honors as Songwriter of the Year at SESAC’s 12th annual New York Music Awards last week in NYC. Hill had an impressive array of hits in the last year by Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and 50 Cent.  Hills also won Song of the Year award for his smash hit, “Say It Right,” as recorded by Nelly Furtado.

See a full list of winners after the jump.

EMI Wins ASCAP Publisher Of The Year

Last night, EMI Music Publishing was named publisher of the year for a record 14th time by ASCAP at their annual Pop Music Awards. EMI songwriters including Fergie, Beyonce, Nelly Furtado and Stargate’s Tor Eric Hermansen also won ASCAP awards.

SpiralFrog Adds Warner/Chappell Music

SpiralFrog has signed a deal with music publisher Warner/Chappell Music to add their catalog to the free ad-supported download site's growing offerings.

Signing rights from music publishers is a critical element in SpiralFrog’s push to make ad-supported music downloading available. Licensing sound recordings and music videos requires more than just obtaining rights from the recording artists  and record labels. The writers and composers of the songs themselves must also be compensated and music publishers license these underlying compositions.

Ricall Signs Big Life & Blue Mountain Music For Licensing

Ricall, the UK based online music licensing company, has signed a deal with two independent music publishers - Big Life Music and Blue Mountain Music - to bring all the tracks from their catalogs including Bob Marley, Free, Snow Patrol, The Waterboys, Futureheads and Badly Drawn Boy onto their online licensing platform.

MediaNet Disputes Publisher Lawsuit

Several major music publishers have filed a lawsuit against white label download provider MediaNet Digital claiming the company was delivering downloads for Yahoo, HMV, FYE and others without the proper licenses.  Yesterday, MediaNet predictably fired back:

"This complaint is completely without merit, MediaNet and others were licensed by the NMPA to distribute musical works until a final publishing rate was established, and this remains the case. NMPA's suit and PR push is a transparent political move during the Copyright Royalty Board hearings to establish an industry-wide standard.

This is nonsense, and we look forward to the CRB reaching a final conclusion on rate standards."

Whatever its merits, the lawsuit comes at a critical time for MediaNet who is also facing the possible loss of its biggest customer Yahoo! to a Rhapsody or another competitor.

Publishers File Suit Against MediaNet

Several members of the National Music Publishers’ Association have filed a class action lawsuit against MediaNet seeking damages, a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief "to put an end to MediaNet's willful and ongoing copyright infringement". MediaNet delivers the downloads and tech that powers online stores for Yahoo!, HMV and others. Publisher plaintiffs include Sony/ATV, Peer International, Frank Music and MPL.

The suit argues that MediaNet was originally covered under a 2001 agreement when it was owned by record labels, the company has refused to enter into a new agreement since 2005 when it was bought by private equity firm Baker Capital in 2005.

The filing comes as the Copyright Royaly Board is in the midst of hearings to determine new mechanical royalty rates. Expect many more lawsuits as the value and importance of digital sales and music 2.0 services grows.  (more)

EMI Publishing Makes Senior A&R Appointment

EMI Music Publishing has appointed Declan Morrell as Senior VP, East Coast Creative in NYC. Morrell is currently SVP of A&R at EMI Music Publishing UK, where he was responsible for signing leading songwriters including James Blunt, Take That, Bullet For My Valentine and Busted. The New York A&R team also includes Jake Ottman, who was recently promoted to Vice President of A&R.