KOREAN STAR RAIN AT MTV VIDEO AWARDS JAPAN 25/04/05
One of the bright lights of the 'Korean Wave' sweeping Aisa, pop singer Rain will advance beyond the Asian stage and makes his entrance on the world stage at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan (VMAJ) to be held at NK Hall in Tokyo, Japan on May 29. VMAJ performers, announced by MTV on April 14, include Rain, Hoobastank from the U.S. and Amuro Namie and Orange Range from Japan.
SONY BMG and WARNER CHAPPELL INK NEW MEDIA DEAL 25/04/05
Sony BMG Music Entertainment has signed a broad-based licensing deal with Warner/Chappell Music for publishing rights to a variety of new digital entertainment formats. The umbrella agreement sets working guidelines for clearing rights for DualDisc releases, sales of master ringtones and ringback tones, video-on-demand services and video downloads.
The pact also covers multi-session audio discs and "locked" content for hard drives and storage media, which consumers may "unlock" by purchasing the tracks or albums online. The move marks the second such alliance between Sony BMG and a major music publisher. The company inked a similar pact with EMI Music Publishing in December.
Warner/Chappell controls more than 1 million copyrights from 65,000 songwriters and composers, including Eric Clapton, Dido, The Eagles, Green Day, Don Henley, Madonna, Moby, R.E.M., Van Morrison and John Williams. The Sony BMG deals set defined rates for master ringtones, ringbacks and DualDisc releases. Rates for other emerging technologies, most notably video, have been left open for determination at a later time.
LLOYD WEBBER EMPIRE UP FOR SALE 25/04/05
UK broadsheets including the Mail on Sunday have reported that Andrew Lloyd Webber has put his theatre, production and publishing empire up for sale. The Really Useful Group owns the rights to smash hit productions such as Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Evita and Jesus Christ SuperStar.
The Group co-owns Really Useful Theatres which controls 11 theatres in London's West End including The Palladium. A price tag of £500 million (E740 million approx) has been suggested for the Group and the sale is being masterminded by Ingenious media boss Patrick McKenna.
KASABIAN SHOW CUT SHORT AFTER SINGER STRUCK ONSTAGE 25/04/05
The first date of Kasabian's latest UK tour ended in chaos on April 22nd as guitarist Serge Pizzorno was hit by a bottle flung from the audience at Glasgow's Carling Academy and was unable to continue.
The band had already played much of their main set reported NME.com. Although plastic pint cups were being flung amidst the crowd, however, it appeared to be a bottle which struck Pizzorno on his temple during 'The Night Workers' and caused him to drop to the floor. The band quickly followed him as he was helped offstage, with singer Tom Meighan assuring the audience they would be back "in
two minutes".
After a five-minute wait which saw the crowd directing football chants in the direction of the culprit, however, a member of the production crew took the mic and informed everyone that the bottle had cut Pizzorno's head, that he was in need of medical treatment, and that the gig was over.
DIGITAL
PIRACY COSTS UK MARKET £650 MILLION IN TWO YEARS 20/04/05
A new report from the BPI/TNS suggests that digital piracy has cost the UK music industry an estimated £650M in lost sales over the past two years. Downloaders' spend on music dropped 33% over 2003 and 24.5% over 2004 according to the research. The report also looks at digital downloading adoption. 18% of those aged 12-74 are currently downloading, but the majority of them are using P2Ps.
However, of the 82% who do not download currently, 84.3% of them stated that they would not use P2Ps. The BPI has taken this as proof that its education and litigation campaign in regards to file-sharing is having the desired impact by stopping many from even considering using P2Ps. However, for those who do download already, the story is somewhat different. 51% of downloaders who use P2Ps said they will continue to do so despite litigation taking place. The research comes as the UK courts force five ISPs to hand over the names to the BPI of a further 33 suspected file-sharers who it is claimed made 72,000 tracks available over P2Ps between them
Source: FiveEight magazine
EVENT AND VENUE SECURITY CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS THREATS FROM TERRORISM 20/04/05
Speakers at the Event and Venue Security Conference, held in London at the QEII Conference Centre on April 18th and 19th highlighted to risk of terrorism at live events post 9/11 and highlighted how information, technology and intelligence are the keys to fighting the threat.
Speakers included Sir John Stevens, previously head of the Metropolitan Police in London, Professor Michael Clark director if the international policy unit at Kings College London, David Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Security Industry Association, Daniel Ostergaard from the US Department of Homelands Security, On the safety side of the conference, speakers from both the sporting events and music business covered a wide range of topics including input on the audience perception of crowd safety from Professor Chris Kemp of Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College and the legal obligations and liabilities at live events from Glastonbury lawer Ben Challis.
Other presentations came from Mark Logan at Showsec examining best practice at large scale events including the Download Festival, Wimbledon and Creamfields, Tim Roberts from the Event Safety shop on crowd safety at Glastonbury and Rico Hawkes from Clear Channel who spoke on implementing safety procedures at motorsports events.
EMI UPBEAT ON SALES 18/04/05
EMI have annouced that their year end figures to March
2005 will be slightly ahead of predictions, wth profits of £141 million.
The label and publishing group had previously issued a profits warning in
February after both Coldplay and Gorrilaz said their albums would be late but sales overall have held up and the impact of piracy has not been as bad as expected. The full results awill be published on May 24th. EMI's shares rose nearly 3p on the news to 250p.
I-POD MARCHES ON 15/04/05
Apple Computer Inc. 's quarterly profits are up six-fold, smashing estimates. Predictably the many incarnations of the iPod sold well accounting for 31% of the company's fortunes. The company also said that the stripped-down Mac Mini was seeing strong sales. According to CEO Steve Jobs 40% of those buying were switching from Windows.
Meanwhile in related news, Apple"will" launch an iTunes service in Japan by the end of the year and are in negotiations with record companies there. The iPod is not as dominant in Japan's personal digital music player market when compared to America and Europe. The launch of an iTunes store in the land of the rising sun is set to change this.
MEAN FIDDLER BOARD RECOMMENDS TAKEOVER 11/04/05
The Board of the Mean Fiddler Group has recommended a 60p per share offer from the private investment vehicle owned by Clear Channel and Irish promoter Dennis Desmond's MCD. The deal will see Mean Fiddler founder Vince Power realise
about £13 million for his shareholding. The takeover will add to Clear Channel's and MCD's UK interests and will include control of the Reading and Leeds festivals.
NEIL YOUNG RECOVERING 07/04/05
Neil Young is recovering from a brain aneurysm after the rock music legend underwent surgery on Tuesday (March 29th) and he is now expected to make a full recovery. Young had planned to perform at Canada's Juno music awards on Sunday, but has been advised by doctors not to travel.
SOLO SPRINGSTEEN READY TO TOUR 07/04/05
Bruce Springsteen will begin a solo acoustic tour on April 25th in Detroit, in support of his upcoming Columbia album, "Devils & Dust." The first North American leg of the tour will play 2,500 to 5,000 seat theatres and theatre configurations in arenas through to May 20th in Boston. The USA tour will be followed by European dates that begins May 24th in Dublin.
Source: www.billboard.com
MTV VIDEO AWARDS RETURN TO MIAMI 06/04/05
The MTV Video Music Awards are returning to Miami for the second year running.
" Miami radiates an energy that was clearly visible in last year's
show" said MTV President Van Toffler said Tuesday. The show is scheduled for August 28th 2005, the steamiest time of the year for South Florida and the middle of hurricane season. It will once again be held at the AmericanAirlines Arena. Miami campaigned hard for a repeat performance, promoting its track record for hosting big events such as Super Bowls.
UK SONY RADIO AWARD NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED 06/04/05
Xfm presenter Christian O'Connell has been short-listed for three more awards in the radio industry "Oscars", the Sonys. O'Connell, who was last year named DJ of the Year, is nominated in the category again. He faces competition from Danny Baker on BBC London 94.9 and Zane Lowe, who showcases up-and-coming acts on his BBC Radio 1 evening show. O'Connell's Xfm show goes head-to-head with Johnny Vaughan on sister station 95.8 Capital FM for the Breakfast Show of the Year award, and with BBC Radio 2's Jonathan Ross in the Entertainment category.
Rock School , a contest that O'Connell recently launched for young bands, is also up for the award for best radio competition. Radio 2, Britain's most listened-to station, with a weekly audience of more than 13 million, will battle it out with Radio 1 and commercial rival Classic FM for UK Station of the Year.
QUEEN'S ROME SHOW STIRS UP CONTROVERSY 06/04/05
Queen went ahead with a gig in Rome on Monday (4th April) despite a plea to cancel the show out of respect for the death of the Pope. Queen are on tour with former Free singer Paul Rodgers. Queen said the show took place after consultation with local authorities and that they observed a minute's silence.
A Vatican spokesman said that the felt that a a concert should not be held "in our capital - with all due respect to what others believe." The government-appointed commissioner for the Italian capital's funeral arrangements added the group turned down requests to postpone the show at the Palalottomatica venue. All sporting events including Serie A football had been cancelled at the weekend.
US COURT PROTECT'S CAPITOL'S COPYRIGHTS 06/04/05
A ruling in a New York court is expected to have a major impact on the recording industry. Capitol Records had sued another New York-based recording company, Naxos of America, for copyright infringement of recordings of classical music it owns which were originally made by the Gramophone Company and which had fallen into the public domain in Europe.
In the United Kingdom and Europe copyright in sound recordings expires fifty (years) after the year of recording or first release. Naxos had begun to distribute its own restorations of the recordings. A federal court dismissed Capitol's lawsuit, saying the UK copyrights had expired 50 years after the records were made and that US copyright laws don't apply to recordings made before 1972, when the laws were enacted. But New York state's Court of Appeals ruled that common law in New York protects ownership interests in sound recordings made before 1972 that aren't covered by the Federal Copyright Act. An attorney for Capitol suggested the ruling means artists, their estates and others involved in recordings made before 1972 should be able to collect U-S royalties for their performances.
EDINBURGH CASTLE CONCERTS CANCELLED 05/04/05
Historic Scotland has been accused of scuppering a series of high profile summer concerts at Edinburgh Castle. Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, Meatloaf and Sting were reported to have been lined up for gigs on the castle esplanade. But Historic Scotland, which is responsible for the castle, said potential health and safety dangers meant it could not give the go-ahead.
Edinburgh City Council said the move was due to "red
tape" and would cost the city millions of pounds. Council leader Donald Anderson said: "We've
been badly let down by Historic Scotland. They were concerned
about some health and safety issues but suggestions were made to resolve
these and with a bit of guidance it could have happened."
This was a real opportunity to build up the castle as a world-class venue and that now has been lost. Mr Anderson blamed the cancellations on "red
tape". Historic Scotland said that the proposed concerts would have caused unecessary crowding and traffic problems.
LONDON'S WIGMORE HALL SETS UP OWN LABEL 05/04/05
Fuelled by the success of the London Symphony Orchestra's own label, the Wigmore Hall is hoping to take advantage of record labels cutting back on classical releases by distributing its own CDs. The Hall plans a release schedule of 16 CDs for 2006 from next year's peformances and may also trawl the Hall's archive for classic performances. The label, called Wigmore Hall Live will
retail at the mid price range (approx £11, E15). Chief Executive John Gilhooly announced
the new label which comes hard on the heels of a £3 million (E4.2 million)
refit and refurnishment last year.
GLASTONBURY SELLS OUT IN THREE HOURS 04/04/05
All 112,500 public tickets for the 2005 Glastonbury Festival sold out in three hour after last's year's nightmare scenario of endless telephone and internet booking queues was avoided.
The website selling the tickets, www.alound.com received 7.5 million hits after 09.00 on Sunday April 3rd after tickets went on sale. Over 2 million calls were logged and all tickets were sold by 12.20.
The Festival is scheduled to be held between June 24th and 26th with headliners New Order, White Stripes, Brian Wilson and Kylie. The event wll be broadcast live on BBC television and radio. New procedures for ticketing were brought in for 2005. Customers could buy two tickets only using a debit card and must bring photo ID with them to gain access to the Festival. Festival Organiser Michael Eavis warned that any tickets on sale on Ebay or by 'agents' were likely to be bogus and non-existant.
Glastonbury Festival won a prestigious Arthur Award at this years ILMC 17.
MUTI EXITS SCALA AFTER MUTINY 04/04/05
Riccardo Muti has resigned form La Scala after an uprising by house musicians and staff. Musicians and other employees voted overwhelmingly for his departure last month and despite support from the board of trustees the conductor has resigned. At one point state legislature threatened to impose direct control over the opera house.
ENO'S EXPLOSIVE WAGNER BOOED BY AUDIENCE 04/04/05
A production of Wagner's "Twilight of the Gods" by the English National Opera was booed in the closing stages last night after the heroine, Brunnhilde, betrayed lover of Siegfried, was portrayed as a suicide bomber who detonated herself to kill remaining cast members. Many members of the audience resented the references to modern terrorism but director Phyllida Lloyd was unrepentant. In a traditional ending Brunnhilde is seen riding off in a fireball astride her horse.
UK PUBLIC HOUSES MAY ESCAPE EU WORKPLACE NOISE DIRECTIVE 01/04/05
New EU rules on noise due to come in February 2006 are unlikely to hit pubs hosting live music according to www.thepublican.com.
Government ministers are set to approve new regulations which will see a lowering of the decibel exposure limit in workplaces from 85 to 80 decibels, but despite reports that employers face fines or even prison if their staff are exposed to such levels. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said it was "highly unlikely" that this scenario would actually occur in practice. The HSE has suggested reducing noise exposure for staff in loud bars and pubs by separating the bar area from the music area, or arranging work patterns or breaks that would reduce staff exposure. Tony Payne, chief executive of the Federation of Licensed Victuallers' Associations, is calling for a full consultation before the new regulations come into effect.
LOLLAPALOOZA LAUNCHES 01/04/05
This year's scaled-down version of Lollapalooza, will be held on July 23 and 24 in Chicago's Grant Park. According to the event's website, 70 bands are expected to grace five stages. The full lineup will be announced on April 22nd. For a week beginning Thursday April 7th or until supplies last, a two-day pass will be available for $35, with a two-ticket limit per credit card. Tickets can be purchased through a link on the Lollapalooza site, which also promises forthcoming information on travel packages. The Lollapalooza Tour was cancelled in 2004 after poor ticket sales.
Website: www.lollapalooza.com
SANCTUARY GROUP TO BUY TWENTY FIRST ARTISTS 01/04/05
Sanctuary is to buy Twenty-First Artists Ltd, the artist management company currently part-owned by Elton John for
an estimated £16M. Sanctuary has also negotiated a five-year management deal with Mr. John who said "I
am very pleased to be involved with Sanctuary as I have
been impressed by the approach they take, particularly toward the artist"
Source: FiveEight Magazine
GROKSTER & MORPHEUS
CASE REACHES US SUPREME COURT 01/04/05
The US Supreme Court will be the final arbiter as to whether producers of file-sharing software can ultimately be held responsible for copyright infringement. The lawsuit, brought by MGM and 27 of the world's largest entertainment firms, has raged for several years. If the Supreme Court finds in favour of the music and movie industry they would be able to sue file-trading firms into bankruptcy. But if the judge rules that Grokster and Morpheus - the file-sharers at the centre of the case - are merely providers of technology that can have legitimate as well as illegitimate uses, then the music and movie industry would be forced to abandon its pursuit of lawsuits against file-sharing providers (and probably internet service providers).
Key to the decision will be the Supreme Court's view on the legitimacy of the landmark ruling in 1984 which found that Sony should not be held responsible for the fact that its Betamax video recorder could be used for piracy and the parallel UK case where it was held that Amstrad's dual cassette deck was not illegal.
DAVE RUSSELL DIES 31/03/05
We are very sad to have to report the death of one of the 'all time great' production managers, Dave Russell, who passed away peacefully on Thursday, March 24th at his home in Hudson, Ohio, after several months of illness. A formal announcement from Dave's family contained the following message to all of his many friends and colleagues around the world:
"Over the
course of the last few weeks, he spoke often of the love and friendship
he experienced over his years of touring. He tried responding to many of
your emails, until he simply ran out of strength to do so. To everyone
he wished to say how much he truly valued the opportunity to have known
you. At David's request there will be no memorial service. A celebration of his life is being planned to take place sometime this summer. Memorial donations may be made to:
The Hospice of the Western Reserve,
300 East 185th Street,
Cleveland,
Ohio 44119."