Composium Digest: Can’t buy back the rights to your music? Rerecord it instead
Composium | February 16, 2021
Composium Digest is a newsletter-only addition, delivered once a week. Get overviews of interesting stories happening in the music industry, stay informed of various opportunities music startups and companies offer, and catch up on some of the Composium articles you might have missed.
UMG is going public?
Anouk Dyussembayeva, Composium CEO
Vivendi announced its planning to spinoff Universal Music as a $36 billion independent company, which will make it the biggest music company on the planet. Following this announcement, Vivendi shares soared — its shares climbed by 24%.
In case you don’t know: a spinoff happens when a company or its subsidiary sell/distribute new shares, and a new company is created as a result.
While Vivendi would only own 20% as a result of UMG becoming a standalone company, it would give more power to invest and acquire companies in industries like television, publishing, and communications.
UMG is not the only company to do so — to note, Warner Music went public in June, valued at almost $16bn.
This move would also open a new variety of opportunities for Universal to continue expanding, working with new artists and exploring the music industry.
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GRAMMY Museum Announces GRAMMY in the Schools Fest
Monserrat Torres, Composium Ambassador
Leading up to the awards ceremony, the GRAMMY Museum will be kicking off the GRAMMY in the Schools Fest (GITS) from March 8th-11th. This four day festival will be free to the public as long as they are registered in advance.
Various GRAMMY Museum education programs, including GRAMMY Camp, GRAMMY Career Day and the Music Educator Award will be incorporated into this virtual festival.
In addition, performances by students and professionals along with educational panel sessions with artists such as H.E.R, Charlie Puth, and lessons covering the broad spectrum of music will be happening throughout the week. Lastly, lessons and study guides will be provided free of charge to any teacher that registers their students to participate.
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Clubhouse now has.. musicals?
Anouk Dyussembayeva, Composium CEO
More In Music, Noelle Chesnut Whitmore’s organization, is geared towards “bridging the gap in the music industry.”
The Lion King: The Musical all began with Whitmore registering on Clubhouse. Having only three weeks of preparation, she was able to make the musical come to life with 40 other Clubhouse members.
With the pandemic, there’s been a big uptick in the number of musicals being done online. We wrote about TikTok’s Ratatouille musical premiere, and with Clubhouse users growing exponentially (I recently joined too - @anoukdyu), I predict online musicals will be something long-term.
Podcast Crossover: Eric Whitacre!
Sidney O’Gorman, Composium Ambassador
Two podcasts and a modern composition icon. Eric Whitacre sits down with Raul Cruz and Victor Calvo from American Nerds and Josh Meehan from The Media Music Podcast to talk about music, movies, the pandemic, and how he approaches each in his own life.
Raul and Josh, both students at the University of Miami and singers in the Frost Chorale, were able to set up the interviews through their conductor Dr. Amanda Quist. Split into two parts, you can find the first half of the interview on The Media Music Podcast and the second on American Nerds at the links provided below.
You read a story on Composium or Composium Digest and still have questions? Fill out the form and we will do our best to get the answers
Can’t buy back the rights to your music? Rerecord it instead
Anouk Dyussembayeva, Composium CEO
Taylor Swift announced on February 11 on Good Morning America that she has rerecorded her most popular album, Fearless, dropping the rerecording of “Love Story.”
According to Swift, the new version will have 26 songs that “made the album, but [also] the songs that almost made it.”
The big question: what “motivated” the singer to do so?
In our first Composium Digest, we talked about how companies like KKR, Hipgnosis, and other major investment firms are buying out publishing rights to famous music catalogs.
Let’s go over the recent history. Ithaca Holdings, which is owned by Scooter Braun, got the recordings of Taylor’s first six albums after striking a deal with Big Machine (her first label). In November, the manager sold those master rights to Shamrock Capital for a whopping $300 million.
Taylor’s attempts to gain control over and acquire her own music have been completely ignored in both deals. If you can’t buy back the rights to your music, rerecord it instead… which is exactly what Taylor is doing. You weren’t ready for that, Scooter Braun?
Catch up on Composium’s original articles!
How USC Thornton has changed, and here's how you can too
Working in the industry for over 30 years, Daniel Carlin has collaborated on hundreds of film and television projects. Dedicating his career to advocating for composers, performers, and musicians, Carlin served two elected terms as Chair of The Recording Academy (the GRAMMY organization) and 25 years on the Motion Picture Academy's Music-Branch Executive Committee.
Now the Director of USC Thornton's Screen Scoring program, he was first the Executive Director of the Henry Mancini Institute before serving 5 years as Chair of Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music…
How Georgia Tech marries music and technology
Georgia Institute of Technology, otherwise known as Georgia Tech, is one of the world's best technical institutions. With their School of Music, they also took a STEM-based route, offering all of their degrees, from Bachelor's Degree to PhD, in music technology.
According to Jason Freeman, the School of Music Professor and Chair, the degrees are officially STEM-designated from the U.S. Department of Education. Because of the university's unique approach, the curriculum of their students varies a lot from those of other music schools…