Molly Neuman, the riot grrrl movement leader and drummer for bands such as Bratmobile and The Frumpees, is taking on the role of head of business development at Songtrust. The former record label owner and A2IM vp most recently served as Kickstarter’s first-ever head of music.
In a Medium post published today called “I’ve Joined Songtrust,” Neuman explains how a 1992 tour through the U.K. with Bratmobile helped open her eyes to additional performance-rights royalty payments that the band could collect that they had not previously realized.
“Like many bands of our time, business matters were not the focus of our creative work,” she writes. “We didn’t have a manager, a lawyer or really any simple structure with which to organize ourselves and check off the necessary steps we needed to take in the early days to make sure we were handling things properly.”
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These days, she continues, the realm of royalties is even more complicated than it was 25 years ago with the addition of streaming services and web and satellite radio. “For most songwriters early in their career,” she writes, “The business landscape is absolutely prohibitive to being able to access and collect the money they are due.”
Neuman’s passion in her work on behalf of artists is what led her to Kickstarter two years ago, and what is now bringing her to Songtrust, the global royalty collection service and publishing administrator that is part of Downtown Music Publishing and co-founded by Justin Kalifowitz and Joe Conyers III. At Songtrust, Neuman will lead marketing, sales and business development for the company’s 100,000 songwriters and 15,000 publishers, which cover more than 1 million copyrights around the world.
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“My career journey has twisted and turned a number of ways over the years,” she writes, “But I’ve always remained connected to the mission of removing barriers to entry for all creators — from every gender, genre and geographical region — and I’m so very excited about the opportunity to take this passion to Songtrust.”
Check out Neuman’s full Medium post here.