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Save The Music America Day

April 25 Proclaimed Save The Music America Day By Mayor of Johnny Cash’s Former Hometown, Hendersonville, TN
 Written by Phil Sweetland - Music & Radio contributor The New York Times

Scott-Foster-Mayor-of-Hendersonville-TN--STMA-Founder-Mark-Dreyer-50Hendersonville-TN Proc1 2013NASHVILLE, TN (April 19th)  – Hendersonville Mayor Scott Foster, whose current constituents include Taylor Swift and Kelly Clarkson and whose town used to be home to Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison, has proclaimed Thursday, Apr. 25 to be “the first annual SAVE THE MUSIC AMERICA DAY,” to help songwriters and composers who “have suffered both monetary and intellectual property losses due to illegal downloading of copyrighted materials.” STMA executive director Mark Dreyer has lived and worked as a professional studio musician and producer in Hendersonville and the Nashville area since 1996, and has seen the effects first hand. “If Johnny Cash were still living,” Mayor Foster said in a telephone interview Apr. 11, “he would be awful proud of Mark Dreyer.”

STMA is a not-for-profit organization, which “provides effective ways to counteract illegal downloading of music and media through awareness campaigns designed to capture the hearts and minds of America’s music fans. “We are fighting for the hearts of our kids, which is really the next generation of music consumers” said Dreyer. “If we pay for our houses, our clothes, and our cars, then we should pay for our music,” RCA Records country star Crystal Shawanda says in a PSA for STMA.

Education of young fans is another crucial mission for STMA, and Mayor Foster told Dreyer he will contact Sumner County Schools administrators to make them and their students aware of SAVE THE MUSIC AMERICA DAY. STMA has just launched its “Take the Pledge” campaign, which will allow the foundations message to sweep through schools across America and enable our youth to rally behind a single ideal, “Support music across America by Taking the Pledge to download and share music responsibly. “This campaign,” Dreyer says, has the potential to create a counter cultural movement reshaping the hearts and minds and in our nation’s youth.”

Another advocate fighting illegal downloading is Bono, who in 2009 told USA TODAY: “How does a songwriter get paid? There’s no space for a Cole Porter in the modern age.” That same year, STMA notes, the Recording Industry of America announced that 95% of all digitally downloaded music was being acquired illegally, and that over 70,000 music jobs had been lost in the United States as a result.

CONTACT: Mark Dreyer, mark@savethemusicamerica.org  - a 501(c)3 Foundation
Phone: (615) 598 7559

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STMA PSA Now Available

45 Top Artists Team with Save The Music America (STMA), Recording PSAs During Country Radio Seminar to Spread Vital STMA Message to `Download and Share Music Responsibly’

By Phil Sweetland

Music and Radio contributor, The New York Times

NASHVILLE – February’s Country Radio Seminar included appearances by country superstars including George Strait, Alan Jackson, and Faith Hill, but some of the finest CRS performances came from the nearly four-dozen artists who recorded PSAs to show their support for Save the Music America’s (STMA) efforts to stem the tide of illegal downloading of music.

Tracy Lawrence, Jerrod Niemann, The Roys, Ty Herndon, David Ball, Billy Dean, Ira Dean, and Deborah Allen were among the artists participating in this vital effort.

As STMA notes, “illegal file sharing and downloading may seem innocent, but the effects are devastating. To date more than 70,000 jobs have been lost, and thousands of industry related businesses have closed their doors.”

To fit with today’s TV and radio format, some Public Service Announcements are 10 seconds, others 30 seconds. One of the 30-second spots included this quote: “Music speaks a universal language and forms the soundtrack of our lives. However, the future of music is in jeopardy, the short-and-sweet 10-second spots read: “Support the future of American music, please download and share your music responsibly. To learn more log on at SaveTheMusicAmerica.org.”

Mark Dreyer, one of Nashville’s in-demand session players and producers and publisher of the Nashville Music Business Directory, is the founder of STMA. “We got a very positive response to the PSA messages,” Dreyer says. “We would like to thank CRS, Aristo Media, and all the artists for their participation supporting the message.”

STMA has completed the first of many multi artist PSA’S available for viewing at, www.savethemusicamerica.org and will soon be broadcasting them both regionally and nationally. STMA is currently seeking corporate sponsors, which Dreyer believes will help take the message viral and allow for a multi concert and awareness campaign. Potential sponsors can get additional information by contacting Lloyd Charles Krein , Marketing and Promotions Director at: lloyd@savethemusicamerica.org

Other artists who kindly donated their time and talents to record PSAs during CRS included: Buddy Jewell, Matt Kennon, Bryan White, Glen Templeton, Jaida Dreyer, David Frizzell, Julie Ingram, Sean Patrick McGraw, Lucas Hoge, Kaylin Karr, Dustin Lynch, the Farm, Sherry Lynn, Justin Haigh, the Wayne Mills Band, Mark Wayne Glasmire, Taylor Made, Susan Cattaneo, Candy Coburn, Madonna Nash, Dee Hilligoss, the McClymonts, Lisa Matassa, Beth Coyhall, Kayla Nettle, Corey Wagar, Joanna Mosca, Justin McBride, James Wesley, Jason Cassidy, Nicole, Leah Seawright, Lizzie Sider, Manty McIntosh, One Height Rodeo, and Kelly Parkes.

CONTACT: Mark Dreyer, mark@savethemusicamerica.org

www.Savethemusicamerica.org