^{Kauai Calls for Music Fest}

The 2012 KMF Songwriter Conference will be held July 11 - 14 at the Kauai Beach Resort, Lihue, HI. This four-day annual event is held on the island of Kauai and includes songwriting seminars, panel discussions, one-on-one meetings, informational workshops, songwriting com-petition, and evening concerts in a gorgeous beachfront setting. 

The KMF Songwriter Conference is a world class event that draws talented attendees from around the world and provides an opportunity for these songwriters to hone their skills and work one-on-one with, and be heard by, an impressive list of distinguished Grammy, Emmy, and Na Hoku Hanohano winning artists, producers, publishers, TV and film music supervisors, A&R executives, and other music industry executives from New York, Nashville, Los Angeles and Hawaii.

See http:// kauaimusicfestival.com for complete information.

^{Make Waves with Chris Lord-Alge}

Waves Audio, the industry-leading developer of professional audio digital signal processing technologies, and AudioFanzine, an online magazine catering to musicians as well as sound engineers, home-studio recording enthusiasts, and audio engineers, have teamed up to present the CLA Song Competition. The contest gives entrants a chance to have their song mixed by multi-Grammy-winner Chris Lord-Alge (CLA), one of today’s most in-demand engineers. Lord-Alge’s credits include such acts as Green Day, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band and Daughtry. Participants can enter via the Waves website or Facebook page.

To enter, artists should simply submit their best song, and Lord-Alge will pick the winner himself. He will make his choice based on the overall presentation: song, image and performance. Public voting will determine the Top 25 finalists; one lucky (and talented) winner will have his/her song mixed by Lord-Alge.

Visit http://waves.com for complete submission information. 

^{Panzer in NY for Manilow} 

Hit songwriter, lyricist and storyteller Marty Panzer will make a rare onstage appearance in New York City on April 28 at aBenefit for the Manilow Music Project. A full slate of vocalists will perform hits co-written by Panzer for Barry Manilow, Kenny Rogers, Julio Iglesias, Disney Projects and many more. 

A masterful raconteur, Panzer will relate the stories behind the songs at The Triad Theatre, 1598 W. 72nd St. at 9:00 p.m. Info is at http://manilowmusicproject.org. Tickets (a portion of which is tax deductive) are available at http://brownpapertickets.com/event/223237. 

^{“Stand By Me” Inducted}

“Stand By Me,” the song written by Leiber & Stoller and Ben E. King, will receive the Towering Song Award at the 2012 Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) Gala Event to be held at the Marriott Marquee Hotel in New York City on Thursday, June 14, 2012. Mike Stoller will accept the award along with King, who will also be honored with the Towering Performance Awardfor his performance on the Leiber & Stoller produced recording of “Stand By Me.”

Other SHOF inductees to be feted on June 14 at the Awards Dinner include: Gordon Lightfoot, Bob Seger, Don Schlitz, Harvey Schmidt & Tom Jones and Jim Steinman. Lance Freed will receive the Abe Olman Publisher Award and Bette Midler will be honored with the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award.

Tickets are available by calling Buckley Hall Events at 212-573-6933. Net proceeds from the event will benefit the Songwriters Hall of Fame programs. To learn about the SHOF, see http://songwritershalloffame.org. For Leiber & Stoller Music Publishing, see http://leiberstoller.com.

^{Warner/Chappell Production Music Launches}

Warner/Chappell Music, the global music publishing arm of Warner Music Group Corp., has announced the launch ofWarner/Chappell Production Music, uniting the company’s award-winning production music houses, which consist of more than 70 catalogs, including 615 Music, Non-Stop Music, Groove Addicts, Full Tilt and CPM. 

As part of the launch, Warner/Chappell has unveiled a new website (http://warnerchappellpm.com) which allows visitors to easily and intuitively search its production music catalogs from a single source, for quick and direct access to Warner/Chappell Production Music’s extensive catalog.

WarnerChappellPM.com hosts all of Warner/Chappell Production Music’s 70+ catalogs of music, allowing users to preview all of its tracks and view them sorted by brand, catalog, style or purpose. The site also features video and audio montages of the various uses of Warner/Chappell’s production music, including sports programming, news, music packages and advertisements, among others. WarnerChappellPM.com will also provide users with up-to-minute news from across its various brands, including the latest additions to its catalogs.

^{From Klezmer to Kick-Ass Rock} 

A new book, There was a Fire: Jews, Music and the American Dream, explains how the earliest motion pictures could only be seen through the viewfinders of nickelodeon machines, amusements disdained by the WASP majority as low-class fads. Like nickelodeons, the merchandising of songs, whether to stage shows or publishing houses, was a pennies business. Songs became merchandise and industrious songwriters and businessmen worked their way to owning publishing houses by saving the profits of song sales. Quickly enough, author Ben Sidran tells, choosing a life of music, letters or design became a normal, not exceptional, path to take for young Jewish Americans. 

The book’s early lessons concerning Jewish commerce and creativity segue to fascinating examples of more modern-day pioneering: Max Yasgur at Woodstock, Bobby Zimmerman’s transformation into Bob Dylan, the jam band prowess of Phish’sMichael Gordon and the fury of seminal punker ErdОlyi TamЗs, aka Tommy Ramone. For additional details see http://bensid ran.com. 

^{Ole Signs Turnbull}

The ole music publishing company has signed top-tier Nashville hit songwriter Dave Turnbull. ole has also acquired Turnbull’s song catalog which includes three 2011, No. 1 hits and more than 130 unexploited works and multiple holds by a number of major artists.

Notable copyrights in this deal include Kenny Chesney's “The Boys of Fall,” Brad Paisley’s “Anything Like Me” and Alabama’s“Old Alabama,” the three No. 1 Billboard Hot Country Songs chart hits that brought Turnbull the coveted Country Music Association’s Triple Play Award in January of this year. For further details, contact Kathryn Gatto, kathryn_gatto@olemm.com.