New Signings & Team-Ups: November 29
Image: Nina Las Vegas has been added to Musica Copa’s list of DJs
BMG AND DRAPHT
ARIA winning multi-platinum rapper Drapht has inked a worldwide music publishing deal with BMG. His latest album Seven Mirrors, released in August and marked a return to music after he ran a café in Perth, was his second Top 5 debut on the ARIA chart.
BMG Australia Managing Director Heath Johns said, “Drapht is a genuinely unique artist and an inspired songwriter. The whole team at BMG is incredibly excited by this deal and we look forward to opening up a world of collaboration for Drapht at home and abroad.”
DUAL DEALS FOR CRAIG HEATH
Melbourne singer-songwriter Craig Heath, who emerged in rock bands as Velvet City, is currently focussing on his new love for country music. He’s signed a record deal with ABC/Universal Music, and representation with Stephen White Management, home to Lee Kernaghan and The Wilde Brothers. New single How Do You Do It is a taster for the Let It Ride album due in the first half of 2017.
ABC MUSIC BRINGS IN CHRISTIE LAMB
Country music singer Christie Lamb is certainly on a high. Fresh from a duet with Keith Urban at the Deni Ute Muster, she’s signed with ABC Music/ Universal. A new single Flamethrower is out this Friday, as a lead-in to an album in early 2017.
Lamb said, “I feel the team is a great fit for me and understand where I’m going with my music. They already have a great roster of artists and I am very excited to be on board! I can’t wait for everyone to hear what I’ve been working on.”
FLYING NUN COURTS THE COURTNEYS
Iconic New Zealand label Flying Nun has expanded its roster with Vancouver, Canada guitar band The Courtneys. It’s the first non-NZ act for the label, which is OK as the Canadians grew up shaping their ‘90s inspired sound on FN acts. The trio toured Australia and New Zealand last year, An album The Courtneys II, their second, is due out in February. Their first album came out in 2013, and they later worked with Aussie label Conquest of Sound as part of a network of indies around the world.
MUSICA COPA UNVEILS DJ LIST
This Friday’s Sydney music industry charity football game Musica Copa unveiled its list of DJs, curated by FBi Click. It features local crews Body Promise, Never Slept, Honey and Bare Necessities, the graduates of FBi Radio’s Dance Class 2016: GIRLIRL, Katia and Soft Hands plus FBi Click head honcho Sandro Dallarmi, Lauren Hansom and Sports.
This year’s annual fund raiser (KIKOFF Soccer Centre in Marrickville, $10 entry) sees 21 teams which include members of embers of Flight Facilities, Peking Duk and The Delta Riggs, plus What So Not and Nina Las Vegas.
RUSSELL SIMMONS ALL DEF DIGITAL TAPS KANYE COO
Hip hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons’ three-year-old All Def Digital has tapped Che Pope, COO of Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music for a number of future projects. The online network and digital producer ADD focuses on youth programming centered around music, comedy, poetry, news and art. According to Billboard, it has a reach of 100 million people over all social media platforms and last month had reached a total of 300 million views.
Pope is a record producer (Lauryn Hill’s Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, as well as releases by West, Big Sean and Pusha T) and film composer working with Hans Zimmer. Simmons told Billboard that among the projects Pope will work with are My Block (artists returning to the hoods they were born in) and Robber Radio, on the role of pirate radio in hip-hop.
FOXTEL ARTS PARTNERS WITH SYDNEY SYMPHONY
Foxtel Arts adds to its orchestral content via a partnership with the 90-piece Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In April 2017 audiences can watch the SSO under the baton of David Robertson in The Desert Music by renowned American composer Steve Reich and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The SSO, founded in 1932 by the ABC and one of seven resident companies in Sydney Opera House, the ork performs 150 shows a year to an annual audience of 300,000.
CLOUDY BAY USES MUSIC FOR YOUNGER AUDIENCE
After an event in Melbourne in September, wine maker Cloudy Bay teamed with Parlour Gigs and Mediacom Beyond Advertising to create a live music event in Sydney. To introduce the wine brand to a younger market, it targeted at millennials and Gen Zs interested in nature, food, travel and music. It featured Woodes and consisted of an outdoor picnic setting with Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc and oysters.
COOKING VINYL STEAMS IN NINA NESBITT
Cooking Vinyl signed Scottish singer/songwriter Nina Nesbitt, who reportedly inspired Ed Sheeran’s song Nina on his second album x, to a global artist services deal. It starts with her next album, a follow up to 2014’s Peroxide on Universal Music. Cooking Vinyl MD Rob Collins said seeing her play at a festival six months ago “and it was one of those moments like seeing Ryan Adams solo when Heartbreaker came out. I knew on the spot that I wanted to make a record with her.”
Uploading her material made in her bedroom, an early fan was Sheeran who invited her to open for him on a European tour and appear in one of his videos.
BPI GROWS TECH PARTNERSHIPS
Trade body British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is looking to create future tech innovations within the music industry with a new dedicated forum for record companies and technology businesses to exchange ideas and form creative partnerships. The first of the Innovation Hubs was held in early November in London. Execs from Sony Music Entertainment., BMG, Absolute, Believe and PIAS had discussions with live-streaming platform Chew, direct-to-fan marketing service Gig Rev and digital rights collections agency Traccks.
TWO MORE FOR PROPER MUSIC
Proper Music Group, the UK’s largest independent distributor which deals with Australian and NZ labels, has struck two new partnerships. They are international indie distributor Believe (James Vincent McMorrow, Greco Roman) and world music label Glitterbeat Records.