Country artists win US radio royalties victory - BBC News
A new deal between media giant Clear Channel and a leading Nashville music label could pave the way to all artists being paid for US radio airplay.
The agreements gives artists on the Big Machine label payment for songs played on traditional radio stations for the first time.
In exchange, artists have agreed to a cap on payments from tracks played on digital stations.
Taylor Swift and Tim McGraw are among artists who will benefit from the deal.
"We're going to more than double our income from Clear Channel in the short term," said Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta.
"They'll make it up on the back end as digital continues to grow."
Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman called the deal "an opportunity... to align our interests in all of our revenue streams and grow digital listening to its full potential."
The deal is a significant coup for the record industry, which has been trying to secure royalties from songs played on traditional radio for decades.
Songwriters receive a small amount when their songs are played on US radio, whereas performers do not.
But they are paid royalties for online usage, placing a heavier financial onus on digital radio platforms than their terrestrial counterparts.
Rather than compensating artists every time a song is played, the Clear Channel agreement will pay them a share of advertising revenue generated across all platforms.
Clear Channel's 850 stations make it the largest radio group in the United States and a major influence on broadcasting practice.
Miss Pennsylvania gives up crown, claiming beauty pageant was rigged - San Jose Mercury News
PITTSBURGH -- The Miss USA pageant representative from Pennsylvania resigned her crown claiming the contest is rigged, but according to organizers the beauty queen was upset over the decision to allow transgender contestants to enter.
A posting on Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin's Facebook page claims another contestant learned the names of the top 5 finishers on Sunday morning -- hours before the show was broadcast.
Monnin claims the other contestant told her the names of the top 5 she spotted on a planning sheet for the telecast -- and she decided to step down as soon as those same contestants were named during the show.
"In my heart I believe in honesty, fair play, a fair opportunity, and high moral integrity, none of which in my opinion are part of this pageant system any longer," Monnin wrote in one of her Facebook posts.
Monnin, of Cranberry, Butler County, did not immediately respond to a Facebook message from The Associated Press.
Donald Trump, who runs the Miss Universe Organization, called Monnin's claims that the pageant was fixed "totally ridiculous" in a live interview Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America" and said the pageant organization plans to sue Monnin for making the "false charge."
"We're going to be suing her now. She made a very false charge and she knows it's a false charge," Trump said.
Pageant organizers confirmed Monnin resigned, but said it wasn't for the reason she claimed.
According to a statement from the Miss Universe Organization, the contestant who Monnin claimed saw the sheet vehemently refuted Monnin's account.
The statement includes text from an email organizers said Monnin sent citing the decision to allow transgender contestants into the competition as the reason she's resigning.
A transgender contestant was initially denied entry to the Miss Universe Canada pageant, but Trump subsequently overruled that decision.
Miss Rhode Island, the pageant's winner, Olivia Culpo, told WPRO-AM she knew Monnin "fairly well" because contestants were often positioned alphabetically by state. She said Monnin's original resignation was based on her stance on the pageant's policy on transgender contestants and called it "strange" that Monnin is now saying something else.
"It's a little iffy to me," Culpo said.
Trump downplayed the role transgender contestants had on that Monnin's decision, even though pageant claim that was her motivation.
"I don't think that she had an issue with that," Trump said. "I think her primary issue is that she lost and she's angry about losing. And frankly, in my opinion, I saw her barely a second and she didn't deserve to be in the top 15."
The Platters founder Herb Reed dies at 83 - BBC News
Herb Reed, the last surviving founding member of the US vocal group The Platters, has died in Boston aged 83.
The singer's manager said he died after a period of declining health that included chronic heart disease.
Founded by Reed in 1953, the group had hits with songs including Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, Only You and The Great Pretender.
Following the replacement of original band members, he was the only singer to appear on all 400 recordings.
Reed continued touring, performing up to 200 shows per year, until last year.
Formed as harmonising street singers in Los Angeles, The Platters were the most popular black singing group of their time.
Reed is credited with coming up with the group's name - inspired by disc jockeys who referred to their records as "platters".
The original line-up included Reed, female vocalist Zola Taylor, David Lynch, Tony Williams and Paul Robi, who went on to have four number one hits in the US between 1955 and 1958.
Reed credited his survival in the music industry to the poverty he experienced as a child.
Growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, he said in his biography he was careful with money because he did not want to assume the group's success would continue.
The Platters continued to record until the late 1960s and tour in various incarnations, with more than 100 different members, until the present day.
The group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
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