The week of November 7, 2005, saw Donovan signing a contract with Universal Music Publishing Services. Creative Director, Jonathan Firstenberg began courting Donovan and his catalog of more than 60 professionally recorded studio tracks more than a month ago. The offer came very quickly. The library isn't in the business of taking on just any song, even if it sounds good. They are the second largest Publishing Company in the world and hold the license to a multitude of tracks. They recently acquired Elton John's catalog, they hold rights to everyone from Elvis Presley, Aerosmith, The Beach Boys to U2, Public Enemy and nearly anyone one else you can think of. At this point their aim is to fill holes and accept only songs that fill a void in their massive soundscape. The goal is to have a meaning or emotion that can fulfill any placement request. For this reason, most signed artists only see a small number of songs accepted into the new library. Usually less than ten tracks. Sometimes as few as three or four, with the exception being percussionists and programmers who have multiple beat tracks represented. Donovan was honored with the request that fifteen tracks be added to their library, securing him an important spot on their publishing roster. The songs selected from his expansive catalog of originals includes "Walk of Fame", "Silly Song", "Brave Angel", "Gravity", "Spreading Clever", "The Way I Feel", "California", "The Raven", "Only One More", "Higher Than My Vertigo", "Tinsel Town", "Hallelujah Girl", "The Range", "Mary Model" & "Talliesen".               What does this mean? The music supervisors at Universal place thousands of songs each year in films, on movie soundtracks, in NBC television, TV commercials, etc. They expressed no lack of confidence in being able to place these compositions appropriately. It remains to be seen what will actually come from this, but today the Creative Director of Universal Music Publishing Services shook Donovan's hand and figuratively told him to buckle his seat belt. Visit www.umplmusic.com soon and search for Donovan Lyman in their artist data base.