Somewhere in the U.S., there are webcasters with political access;U.S, Representative Jay Inslee, D-WA, and eight co-sponsors have introduced a bill to overturn the recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board to raise rates for webcasters. If the bill makes it into law, it would set the minimum annual royalty per service no higher than $500. Get more details at Radio and Internet Newsletter.

From Futuremusic.com comes word that Pete Townshend of the Who has introduced a software application called ‘Method Music’ that will allow users to hum a tune and clap a rhythm and get a ‘composition’ back, so anyone can be a songwriter. Of course, clapping a rhythm might be the deal-killer for a lot of would-be writers.

You can check it out at http://www.lifehouse-method.com

Thanks to Bob Lefsetz, who pointed out this site: bratz.com. It’s a ‘contest’ whereby you, a songwriter/performer can have one of your songs featured in an upcoming motion picture, Bratz. All you have to do is grant Geffen all rights to the song, in exchange for no payment to you. Such a deal. Here’s an excerpt of the section labeled “Our Rights”:

“We shall have the right to use, market, store, distribute, reproduce, display, perform, transmit and promote the Content in any way we see fit (including, without limitation, in synchronization with video portions of the Film, on a soundtrack album for the Film and as advertisements in connection with the Film and soundtrack album) without payment to you.”

If you are a songwriter, go to the site and read the rest of the ’simplified’ agreement and learn how major music corporations really like to operate. There’s a button on the first page.

Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich has died at age 80.

Nothing like a story about the top dogs at music businesses getting together for a ‘friendly’ chat. Digital Music News editor Paul Resnikoff has a little report on a recent meeting at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University

Korea’s ReignCom, which owns iRiver America, has introduced an updated version of its Clix media player. The new device does away with buttons and scroll wheels; instead, selection is made by directionally clicking a glass display. Digital Music News has the story.

The Hollywood Reporter.com site is reporting that during a proceeding to determine royalty rates between ASCAP and digital services AOL, RealNetworks and Yahoo!, a federal court has ruled that there is no performance royalty right for songwriters and publishers in a download. Currently, digital services pay a performance royalty for streams and a digital phonorecord delivery (DPD) royalty, similiar to a mechanical royalty.

Like a lot of things that happen in court, the ultimate impact is not always clear. HollywoodReporter.com’s article has some commentary on it’s possible effect on digital distribution

Go watch this now.

Okay, I’m behind on this: yesterday was the print deadline for the May issue of Louisville Music News and your overloaded editor worked feverishly to get it done. Which it is.

Continuing on with this entry after a series of power crumps, computer glitches and mini-crashes, we note that at Velocity, Joseph Lord has a nice bio piece on A Century of Airplanes while LEO has a feature on Dick Sisto’s Derby week activities at the Jazz Factory, written by LMN’s Jazz reviewer Martin Z. Kasdan, Jr. Aside from some reviews of CDs from various nationals, that’s it - all the other deadtree pubs are busy on Derby poofs, the norm here at this time of year.
— PMM

Yahoo.com and Gracenote have announced a new licensing deal allowing Yahoo! Music to offer the largest catalog of legal, licensed song lyrics to consumers. Lyrics searches are one of the most common but involve unlicensed and unreliable sites. Looks like it’s time to get an account at Yahoo….