Welcome to Summer 2010! In the U.S., we're used to summer being a time of travel, vacation from school, family trips to the beach, or just a time of year for a more relaxed pace even in the music business. One aspect of the music industry that has been anything but slow is the torrent of legal actions. From the titillating lawsuit filed by a prominent New York veterinarian against a diva for unpaid vet bills for her Jack Russell terriers to the RIAA fighting for more royalties to the possible death by litigation of LimeWire to the granddaddy of lawsuits, the Google and Viacom epic struggle.

In a major victory for Google-owned YouTube, an U.S. District judge ruled against Viacom who was seeking $1-Billion in damages testing the copyright infringement protection under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. While Viacom has vowed to appeal the thirty-page decision which it called "fundamentally flawed", it was a major victory for Google, internet service providers and free-speech groups who had voiced concerns that diluting the protection of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act would make it more difficult for companies and individuals trying to express themselves. Judge Louis Stanton himself noted that Viacom spent several months amassing over 100,000 videos it said violated its copyright and then sent YouTube a mass takedown notice. The judge also noted that by the next business day YouTube had removed virtually all of the contested material. So, now the burden has shifted back to the copyright holders to police the internet looking for infringements on their copyrights. With Viacom's appeal (or bargaining tactics depending on your viewpoint), this issue will clearly drag on in the coming months.

Of course, the other big industry news was that EMI named Roger Faxon, previously the head of EMI Publishing, as the new CEO of the combined label and publishing operations rebranding themselves as a comprehensive Music Rights Company. While Terra Firma (EMI's parent company) was able to secure the funds to make its interest payment to Citibank avoiding a vowed takeover, the question now remains how long EMI or Terra Firma can continue paying the interest payments reported at $350-Million a year when EMI's current earnings can't cover the debt payments. Speculation has been rampant for years that the company will be broken up and sold within a year with the publishing operation being able to command over $3-Billion alone. We've seen inquiries and preparations by BMG, KKR, Sony and others who seem to be willing and able to open their checkbooks for that deal.

In the A&R world, it's been a fairly quiet period over the last two months. In New York, former Capitol Records A&R-man Vlad Bar joined Jive Records as they focus more on rock and alternative music. Leaving New York for Los Angeles is Epic's Jim Edmunds who is now at Epic's LA office. Also in LA, Simon Cowell's label (SYCO/SONY) has hired former Notting Hill and Ole Music Publishing Creative Executive Qiana Conley as the new Director A&R while over at Motown, Chris Anokute has joined the company as the new West Coast Director of A&R. We also heard that Ted Myers has exited Concord.

In the UK, Pino Pumilia joined Polydor replacing exiting executive Ben Parmar while Ben Scarr has joined Island. SONY-UK had a few exits including Angie Somerside who exited Columbia, and both Andrew Asamoah and Jonnie Blackburn left RCA. We've made all the changes in the latest issue of the A&R Registry for you.

Also in the new A&R Registry issue just released, be sure to read Vicky Hamilton's interview with veteran Century Media Executive Mike Gitter as well as our updated calendar of Music Industry Conferences. We also welcome the phenomenally-appointed Studio at The Palms, the first multi-million dollar recording studio located inside a casino located at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

We are thrilled to be able to announce that the completely updated, brand-new 12th edition of the Film & Television Music Guide is now available. You can call our offices at 800-377-7411 (or 740-587-3864 for our international customers) to order or you can order right here on our website (just go to the 'Products' page. As many of you know, in years past, this guide was an annual publication. However, we have seen an increasing change in contact information within this aspect of the music industry so we are now publishing this directory three times a year starting with this issue. Another exciting aspect of adding two additional issues of this directory is that for those of you interested in reaching the film, television and video game industry with your company's or artist advertising message, you can now join us at anytime during the year and we can get your ad out within a week into all the new issues that continue to go out each day. Please just give us a call to discuss advertising options.

Next up on our schedule is the new issue of the Music Publisher Registry. If you need to reach a target audience of top Artist Managers, Songwriters, Producers, Attorneys and Recording Artists, give us a call ASAP to reserve your space at our special summer prices.

As always, please know that we always try our best to make sure all of our directory information is correct at the time of publication, but if you ever come across a bad telephone number or email address, just let us know and we'll make sure to track down the correct information (if we haven't already!). Until then, we remain

Sincerely,

Ritch Esra and Stephen Trumbull
Publishers