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View All Jobs ![]() US Copyright Office U.S. Copyright Office, NewsNet Issue 714 Billboard Biz 'The Voice': Top 11 Revealed BMI Events: BMI Acoustic Lounge: New York ASCAP Their First Broadway Experience! SESAC SESAC Sponsors GRAMMYs on the Hill More News ![]() • Latin Connection Podcast: Victor Manuelle on the Evolution of Salsa & 25 Years in the Business
• Bad Bunny, Steve Aoki & More Announced as Panelists for Billboard Latin Music Week
• Global Superstar Luis Fonsi to be Honored at the 25th Annual BMI Latin Awards
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View All Entries ![]() • ABA IP Section Pens Letter in Support of CASE Act:
• 213 Recording Artists and Music Organizations Urge Congress to Close 1972 Sound Recording Loophole
• Copyright Alliance Commends Reps. Collins and Jeffries on Introduction of Music Modernization Act (H.R. 4706)
• Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Friend of Music Business, Named Ranking Member of House Judiciary Committee
• Dec 31 Is The Deadline to Claim Pre-1972 Sound Recordings in SiriusXM Settlement
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by A. Bloom We chat to Steve Lewis about his incredible time in the music business, and his advice for successfully building and monetising a publishing catalog. Hi Steve, how did you first get involved in the music industry? I was 16 years-old and I had just taken what were then called GCE O levels. I wanted a job for the summer holidays so I answered an ad in The Times which said, “Record company/magazine needs young people. Easy work, good money.” That was about the best outcome I could hope for so I phoned the telephone number. I was told to turn up at an address just off Bayswater Road and I was greeted by Richard Branson’s partner, Nik Powell, and they actually didn’t have a record company at all. They had a magazine called Student Magazine. Nik wanted me to go sell the magazine in Hyde Park. I was going to be allowed to keep half of the cover price and had to return the unsold magazines and 50% of the proceeds to them at the end of the day. I told him I had come for the record company job and he said, “You’ll have to talk to my partner about that and he's not here. Why don't you just go and sell these magazines?” I said, “I don't really want to do that.” So I waited, I met Richard, I talked my way into it and the record company wasn't actually a record company at all. It was a mail order retail business. They advertised in their own publication, Student Magazine, and in a couple of other places, and sold albums at discounted prices. You can't really understand today how revolutionary that was at the time. People didn't sell records for discounted prices in those days. The manufacturers set the price and retailers all sold records for the same amount. There was no competition in the market at all. So I began working for Richard age 16, for the fledgling Virgin which was really me, Nik, and maybe half a dozen other people. I did everything I could to make myself indispensable, and at the end of the summer holidays they allowed me to carry on working after school. I would get paid £1 for 4 hours work and I had to take my train fare out of that which was 30p. After school I decided to go to university. Richard said, “Oh you don't need to go to university. That's silly. I didn’t go and I'm doing fine. Come and work with us, it’s going to be more fun”. I said, “No, Richard, I want to do this”, so I went to university in London but I was able to continue working at Virgin during my studies. I wasn't a very enthusiastic student and by 1974 I knew that I was very disenchanted with my studies; I knew it wasn't going to be vocational. During that time Virgin had become a proper business. In 1973 we had actually released our first record, Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’. And Richard and Nik asked me if I would run Virgin’s artist management company. Read the rest of the article on our blog www.synchblog.com. |
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World Intellectual Property Day
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Significant 2018 Tax Changes For Music Publishers
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Music Royalties 101 (by Todd & Jeff Brabec) View More See all Articles ![]()
Entertainment Law Fundamentals and Practice by Corey Field (New publication)
by C. Field View Full Post Meta-Metadata: Turning Three Text Fields Into Millions of Dollars by C. Crawford View Full Post See all Posts ![]()
Court of Appeals Sides With Songwriters, Publishers on Licensing
As the music industry headed into the holiday season, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals gave songwriters and music publishe …
View More State Department Pays WIPO Dues The Copyright Alliance reported that last week, they were notified that after completing its review of World Intellectual Property … View More |