April 12, 2011, (NEW YORK) – RightsFlow, a leading licensing and royalty service provider, has selected Florida State University’s “Renegade State Records” as the winner in the company’s “In The Limelight” promotion.  Local chapters of the Music & Entertainment Industry Student Association (MEISA), and the Intercollegiate Record Label Association (IRLA) were invited to develop and execute marketing campaigns for RightsFlow’s online mechanical licensing utility Limelight.   The campaigns ran at the end of 2010 with the winner officially announced at the Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA) and MEISA Annual Conference last week in Los Angeles, California.

Commented Serona Elton, newly elected President of MEIEA and IRLA founder, “We are always pleased to partner with companies like RightsFlow who share in our vision to empower our academic community with tools and resources that aid in the continued educational development of student leaders and musicians.”

Mallory Goodman, Director of Marketing for the student-run label shared, “Renegade State Records and FSU’s MEISA chapter are so excited to have been able to participate in a competition that gives student music organizations exposure. Limelight offered everyone that participated invaluable experience, and to be picked as the winning university is an honor.”

MEISA, the IRLA, and RightsFlow partnered on the promotional campaign to afford student record labels and local MEISA chapters with the opportunity to launch marketing campaigns to musicians, bands and choirs on campus highlighting the need to secure mechanical licensing for cover songs and to ensure that songwriters and publishers were paid 100% of royalties due.

Florida State’s MEISA chapter/Renegade State Records was awarded top prize based on their creativity and effective use of videos, articles, and advertisements to reach the musicians on campus.  The school will receive a prize package including some educational, licensing, promotional and production support for an upcoming project launch.  Judging for the competition was provided by industry executives Rob Santos (Vice President A&R at Sony Music Entertainment), Jon Vanhala (SVP of Digital and Business Development, Island Def Jam Music Group), and Hillary Zuckerberg (Director of Artists Against Hunger & Poverty at WhyHunger).

“We’re extremely pleased with the efforts and outreach of MEIEA, MEISA and the IRLA,” added Michael Kauffman, SVP of Sales and Marketing at RightsFlow.  “We applaud the efforts of Renegade State Records in particular, and thank the other participating University labels and MEISA chapters who contributed.  We also appreciate the support and feedback from our esteemed panel of judges.  During this time of transition in the music industry, it’s crucial to support and reward our future industry leaders for excellence.  It’s equally exciting to see them share tools like Limelight that drive compliance with the law and deliver 100% of royalty revenue to songwriters and publishers.”

Limelight provides artists, labels, church choirs and college bands worldwide with a simple, easy method to licensing cover songs and third-party compositions for release in the U.S.  The website is being used by musicians in all 50 states and in 96 countries to secure mechanical licenses for their U.S. releases.  It allows users to obtain easily obtain licenses for physical releases, digital downloads, ringtones and interactive streaming, reducing the complexity of licensing with publishers directly.  Limelight also offers several key features including licenses that don’t expire, minimal fees, and coverage of the broader publishing market not represented by mechanical rights societies.

Under U.S. Copyright Law, a mechanical license is required for sale or distribution of a cover song or third party composition.  The current U.S. statutory mechanical rate for physical units or digital downloads is 9.1¢ for songs five minutes or less and 1.75¢ per minute for songs over five minutes, and 24 cents per unit for ringtones regardless of track length.  Interactive streaming royalties are calculated based on a formula derived from site revenues and many other factors.