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ArtistData founder Brenden Mulligan is reporting some solid first month for Onesheet, his new service that lets artists set up a branded web presence quickly by pulling assets from other online accounts. Mulligan says that 10,000+ artists, musicians and DJs signed up in the first month. Artists of all sizes have set up Onesheets, Including artists major labels acts. The free service leaves private beta and is now open to all artists.

The battle over digital music royalties had begun again. The U.S. Copyright Royalty Judges have opened a new proceeding to set the statutory rates for 2013-2017 with a decision expected by the end of 2012. In recent weeks, Sirus & Xm has reportedly been talking to record labels and other rights holders about direct licensing. At the same time, in a move that could affect digital music providers beyond Sirius, SoundExchange has signaled they will push for much higher payments. "We have long been preparing for this proceeding, and are planning to seek a substantial increase in the statutory rate" said SoundExchange in a statement. "In other words, we plan to seek rates well in excess of the 2012 rate of 8%." How much higher? "The Judge actually concluded that the appropriate "market rate" was 13%- but, based on what the Judges believed to be Sirius's and Xm's precarious financial positions at the time (2007), theyadjusted the rate downward to the current levels," according to the satellite radio provider.

Many artists are taking contracts and copyrights for granted. You must protect your music and your art by making sure you understand what is in, and how important, contracts and copyrights are. The right contracts and copyrights can make you a millionaire -- the wrong ones could leave you broke.

What makes a good manager? Well, that's a very personal thing. Of course, you need a manager who is hard working, honest and motivated to work with your music. A well connected manager is a beautiful thing, although if you are an up and coming artist, don't discount the chance to work with and up coming manager that is super excited about your music and eager to climb the ranks with you. Sometimes it is good to be the big fish in the small pond instead of the lowest of the low on a big time manager's books. There is one factor beyond all that which matters at least as much- you simply have to like your manager. You should have a great rapport with your manager, preferably both on the clock and off. You need to be able to be completely upfront with your manager about everything you're working on, and you need to feel absolutely comfortable calling them up and bouncing ideas of of them. You're going to spend a lot of time with your manager, and bad vibes will make that time really unproductive really quickly.