SoundExchange is looking for 50,000 artists and labels that are owed money, the N.Y. Times’ Ben Sisarioreports in His Media Decoder column. The 12-year-old agency, which pays artists and labels when their music is played on services like Sirius XM and Pandora, has struggled to get artists to fill out the necessary paperwork, and it has been criticized within the industry for being…

Former Roc-a-fella artist Freeway has been a free agent for a little while. Now he’s officially inked a deal with NY-based indy Babygrande Records. The label hasn’t had that many new releases in a while, but it should be an interesting move. We should be expecting Freezer’s next album Diamond In The Ruff on November…

Via Hypebot [Allindstrom] Nielsen’s Music 360 Report, based on a survey focused on music consumption, discovery and related topics, struck a chord with the press this week. In particular, the finding that radio is the top music discovery tool and that YouTube functions for many young people as a music streaming service is news to…

Before Bey shot the video for “I Was Here” last week at the United Nations in NYC, she explains to Anderson Cooper the song’s contribution supporting World Humanitarian Day. Video debuts August 19.

Mr. Ratner may have thought he was getting little more than a limited partner with a boldface name and a youthful following that could prove useful someday. But Jay-Z’s contributions have dwarfed the $1 million he invested nine years ago. His influence on the project has been wildly disproportionate to his ownership stake — a…