Industrial Strength: November 7

CBAA CONFERENCE GETS SET FOR MAJOR DEBATES

This week’s Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) conference November 9—12 on the Gold Coast is all set to fire up some buoyant debate.

These cover if community radio is about the listener or the presenter, the problems women face in community radio and how to overcome them, how to interact with the local community, engaging with people with disabilities as well as with indigenous and migrant communities, tips on funding, how media can cope in these dark days of “fake news”, ways to build a strong station and how to deal with personality clashes at the station.

For thefull list of media labs, updates and forums, go here.

Tania de Jong’s keynote address Voices of Innovation – The Power of Positive Human Collisions is an interactive one, showing how using as many voices “empower you and your station to build an inclusive culture where innovation can flourish and opportunity is found in diversity, and develop resilience and learn from failure.”

LIVE NATION POSTS BEST Q3 YET

Live Nation Entertainment posted its best Q3 yet, with the concert promoter and ticket seller had a 12% growth in revenue to US $3.6 billion.

Operating income in that quarter was up 5% to $201 million Adjusted Operating Income) up 10% to $335 million.

All divisions – concerts, advertising and ticketing – delivered their strongest quarterly AOI results ever.

So far in 2017, LN sold over 80 million tickets for concerts, up 20% year-on-year It will spend $5 billion on producing concerts in 2017.

In the third quarter, attendance increased by 16% to 65 million fans at 20,000 shows in 40 countries.

LN’s Ticketmaster grew14% so far in the nine months of 2017. Its Verified Fan scheme saw a 90% drop in tickets ending up in the second market, LN said Right now 60 artists and Broadway shows use the scheme, including Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Hamilton and Bruce Springsteen.

LN President and CEO Michael Rapino said, “As a result, by the end of this year I expect we will deliver three million tickets to Verified Fans, saving them $100 million dollars relative to buying on secondary sites after bots got thetickets first.”

Rapino said based on performance so far, all of LN divisions were expecting to achieve record revenues and operating income for 2017.

MELBOURNE WALKING IN MEMPHIS

Music Victoria CEO, Patrick Donovan and Creative Victoria’s Manager of Contemporary Music, Kirsty Rivers, at the Memphis Music Cities Convention for the official hand-over for the Music Cities Convention April 19 & 20.

Dr Shain Shapiro from Music Cities Events declared to a jam-packed convention of international delegates that Melbourne is the Live Music Capital of the world.

Donovan and Rivers also launched anew videoto the gathered about Melbourne’s live scene, made by Ben Cunningham (Bencu).

Also getting attention was the video’s soundtrack, the 2016 ethereal track ‘Floating’ by Melbourne’s Saatsuma.

Donovan told this column that the video got “an incredible reaction” – and endeared itself to the Memphis locals as soon as they discovered that Saatsuma is a collaboration between Memphis Kelly and Cesar Rodrigues!

OXFORD ART FACTORY SITE ON THE MARKET AGAIN

The 600 square site which houses Sydney live music Oxford Art Factory is up for auction on November 28.

Owner Mark Gerber had it on the trading block last October as well, using the money for new ventures.

This time around the 1/38-46 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst site, is expected to bring $5 million.

The Oxford Art Factory business will continue as usual. Yesterday it announced a four-hour set from the UK’s Mr. Scruff on Sunday November 19 for Astral People, and British bands Hunnas and Coasts on January 20 through Destroy All Lines and Chugg Entertainment.

The venue draws 5000 punters a week and earns a net income of $370,800 a year.

Oxford Arts Factory took over the site ten years ago and has the lease until 2031 with options until 2035.

The building previously housed Central Station Records.

PILL TESTING PUSH IN PERTH

The push for pill-testing at music festivals in WA has begun, with drug researcher and Edith Cowan University academic Stephen Bright revealing to The Sunday Times that secret unauthorised pill-testing at a festival last summer found 99% of patrons got rid of their drugs when they realised there were unknown substances.

The Sunday Times reported, “But despite being presented with the confronting results of the pilot, both Police Minister Michelle Roberts and Health Minister Roger Cook’s office said pill testing was “not on the State Government’s agenda”.

PANDORA SHARES SLIP AFTER Q3 REPORT

Pandora Media shares slipped after the release of its Q3 earnings.

It wasn’t all bad news. The company reported that premium subscribers crossed 1 million in October, revenue excluding ticketing was up 9% to $360.2 million, and subscription revenue was up 50% to$84.4 million.

But much of its reports failed to match various analyst expectations.

Ad revenue, which makes up most of its revenue,: grew 1% to $275.7 million, but missed the $289.3 million expected,

Active listeners were 73.7 million vs. 74.6 million expected and were down from 77.9 million in Q3 2016. Pandora pointed out it excluded “approximately 1.1 million active listeners from Australia and New Zealand, following our decision to exit the business in those countries.”

Listener hours: were 5.15 billion down from 5.4 billion, and didn’t reach the 5.16 billion expected.

RHYTHMS MAGAZINE FOR SALE

Australian roots and blues publication is on sale again, with current owners, singer-songwriter Catherine Britt and her husband James Beverley looking for “the passion, drive and deep devotion to music that it takes,”

Britt and Beverley took over from Marty and Verity Jones in early 2016. The magazine was set up in 1992 by Melbourne broadcaster Brian Wise.

Britt was contacted for comment.

SYDNEY’S EMILY PERRY IN US DANCE CHART

Yet another Australian act has cracked the US dance charts. This time it’s Los Angeles-based 18-year old Sydney singer-songwriter and music video director Emily Perry, whose current second single ‘Boom’ has entered the Top 10 of Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart.

“Beyond grateful and so excited for what’s to come,” she posted, as she continued to work on her debut album.

The track was a collaboration with composer Cindy Valentine and produced by 2011 Grammy winners, The Jackie Boyz (credits include Justin Bieber, Chris Brown and Jason Derulo).

It came with remixes by Grammy-winning DJ Dave Aude (Bruno Mars) and DJs Dave Matthias and Twisted Dee.

Her debut single ‘Sugarcoated’ from earlier this year already had US club airplay.

Perry is also a movie and stage actor, model and completed a Certificate IV in Dance at Brent Street Studios.

ED SHEERAN TOPS NZ’S WEDDING SONGS LIST

Ol’ Ginger Head has gate-crashed enough weddings around the world to thrill the lucky couple with a brief performance, so it’s not surprising that Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’ tops Spotify’s Top 10 Wedding Songs in NZ.

The others on the list are John Legend’s ‘All of Me’, Bruno Mars’ ‘Marry You’, Mark Ronson’s ‘Uptown Funk’, Jason Mraz’s ‘I’m Yours’, Van Morrison’s ‘Brown Eyed Girl’, Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)’, Jack Johnson’s ‘Better Together’, The Black Eyed Peas’ ‘I Gotta Feeling’ and Christina Perri’s ‘A Thousand Years’.

Not sure whatever happened to The Strokes’ ‘I’ll Try Anything Once’ or Dave Edmund’s ‘I Knew The Bride When She Used To Rock and Roll’ but, never mind, there’s next year.

BEYONCE, SWIFT ON POWERFUL WOMEN LIST

Only two singers made it onto Forbes’ most powerful women in media and entertainment list, topped by Vogue Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour, Artistic Director, Conde Nast.

Beyonce was at #4 after NBCUniversal Chair Bonnie Hammer and 20th Century Fox Chair/CEO Stacey Snider.

Taylor Swift was at #12, just above author JK Rowling.

LOST PICNIC PATRONS NOT SWAYED BY APOLOGY

After getting pulverised on social media for queues of up to 90 minutes to collect pre-purchased hampers and buy drinks, promoters of Sydney’s October 15 Lost Picnic festival rushed out an apology.

Finely Tuned said the event at the Domain (which drew 9000) had been nine months in the making, admitted that there were operational issues, and “We will be addressing all of these well in advance of next year.”

However, there might not be a second one if disgruntled punters have their way. Some have contacted NSW Fair Trading while a petition has started to stop the “dodgy money-grabbing” event from staging next year.

SONG, VIDEO FOOTAGE, SNEAKED OUT OF MANUS ISLAND

While 600 men exist with no power and no food after refusing to leave Detention Centre after it closed, a song and music video footage have been sneaked out to provide a picture of what’s going on.

Most Australian media have been stopped from going to the island.

Farhad Bandesh, a 36-year-old Kurdish man who has been in detention on Manus Island for 4½ years after fleeing from Iran, has released ‘Flee From War (Our Rights)’.

Musician and record producer David Bridie, also a founder of the Wantok Foundation, has been communicating with Farhad for the past six months after a mutual friend in Lorengau on Manus connected them.

Bandesh recorded the rough track on his phone and sent it in parts to Bridie. He asked him to add a band on it. The track now features Richard Mogu, Mark McCartney and Jake Lilley.

The film clip was done by Andrew Prowse featuring footage Farhad took on his phone, including of his paintings and photos by other detainees. All proceeds go to Refugee Legal

NEW BANDCAMP APP

Bandcamp has launched a new app which “gives you a real-time mobile view into your stats, helps you manage and fulfil your merch, and lets you directly message your fans.”

The messaging to fans is interesting because it allows artists and labels to target them in different ways.

The free version gets them to folks who’ve spent money on the act’s music Bandcamp Pro subscribers get extra data as location or level of support which would be essential when planning a tour.

NEW YORKERS LEARN TO DANCE

Shock, horror! New Yorkers have been dancing illegally in restaurants and bars since 1926 and the days of Prohibition. Apparently, it has to do with a cabaret licence, of which only 100 of the city’s 25,000 venues have.

That’s finally been overturned for good. But it’s not the first time that the statute has been ridiculed. In 1967, the part of the law which stipulated that jazz musicians could only play NYC if they had a cabaret card.

We Australians shouldn’t snigger too much. According to the Chambers Institute, a pub owner is still obliged to water and feed your horse if you turn up on one.

It is illegal to roam the streets wearing black clothes, felt shoes and black shoe polish on your face (tools of a cat burglar, you see) and you’re not allowed to wear hot pink pants after midday Sunday.

BARNESY BOOK TOUR EXPANDS

Jimmy Barnes’ The Working Class Man: An Evening of Stories & Songs tour continues to sell out and add dates.

At last look, it was up to 33 shows in Australia (March 15—May 30) and four shows in New Zealand May 8—12.

Last month, the book shifted 20,000in its first week, the biggest sales ever by any biography or autobiography released in this country, and immediately topped the Neilsen Books can chart.

That 20,000 figure has also beaten most of the music books published in this country

The top seller remains Sydney metal writer Murray Engleheart’s book on AC/DC, Maximum Rock’N’Roll with global sales of 370,000.

THE BIG O TO MARK AUSTRALIA’S FIRST ALL-HOLOGRAM CONCERT TOUR

It looks as though Roy Orbison has beaten Ronnie James Dio to become the first hologram concert tour of Australia.

Orbison’s hologram will tour here for the first time since 1972 next year, doing five shows between May 4 to 13, accompanied by a symphony orchestra, immediately after a UK tour.

FRENCH MONTANA’S ’UNFORGETTABLE’ GOES 3 X PLATNIUM

On the eve of French Montana’s seven-date December arena tour with The Weeknd, his Sony Music hit ‘Unforgettable’ has been certified triple platinum in Australia.

The track is also triple platinum in the U.S. and Canada, quadruple-platinum in Sweden, double-platinum in Norway, Ireland, and Switzerland, platinum in The Netherlands, UK, Denmark, France, Finland, Portugal, Germany, New Zealand, and Brazil, and gold in Spain, Austria, and Mexico.

It’s crossed 1 billion streams globally.

He’s just dropped a documentary Project: Unforgettable – My Project, Their Reality which traces his story, and his relationship with Uganda’s Triplets Ghetto Kids who star in the ‘Unforgettable’ video and inspired the Jungle Rulesalbum.

NEW FEMALE MUSIC INDUSTRY SCHOLARSHIP

Music SA and ticketing agency moshtix have created a new scholarship to assist in developing the career of a female South Australian music industry professional.

The scholarship, for a Certificate IV in Music Industry, will be funded by moshtix.

Harley Evans, CEO and owner of moshtix said, “We first started working with Music SA in 2015 and we’ve seen them go from strength to strength ever since, so we naturally jumped at the opportunity to work with Music SA to fund thisscholarship.

“It’s a fantastic initiative to help increase the presence of women in the music industry and to give them real-world experiences along with a nationally accredited Certificate IV in Music Business.”

AND A FEW OTHER THINGS

• Which artist manager was so startled by a gothed up Halloween sweet collector coming up behind him that he instinctively turned and punched him in the mouth?

• Was Donald Trump the secret force behind the “grassroots” campaign to stop Bon Jovi from buying the NFL team the Buffalo Bills in 2014, as US media outlets are claiming?

• It looks like the Music Vault hall of fame in Melbourne is set to open in mid-December.

• Midnight Oil’s show at Hanging Rock in Victoria last Saturday aroused the wrath of the blueys. They found 13 fans were over the alcohol limit, one three times over, while 15 other traffic offences, included unlicensed drivers andunregistered vehicles.

• The Hanging Rock show drew 20,000 fans. There were 13,500 at Perth Arena (during which Peter Garrett stopped the show until two misbehaving fans left) while the day after their intimate fundraiser for marine conservation as partof the Fremantle Festival drew 3,000 who heard them perform the 10,9,8 album in its entirety for the first time in Australia.

• First Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow didn’t split up, they “uncoupled”. Now Sam Smith says his new album is about being “let go” by his ex-boyfriend.

• Triple j breakfast listeners didn’t take long to figure out Liam Stapleton‘s mobile phone which co-host Ben Harvey released slowly in riddle form. As a result, Radio Today reported, he was inundated with 1672 calls and 3,541 textmessages. Singer-songwriter Dean Lewis quipped he was responsible for 300 of them.

• The Walt Disney Studios confirmed a longtime rumour that Beyonce will lend her voice to the live-action and CG reboot of its 1994 animated classic The Lion King.

• Zaccaria Concerts & Touring and Yours & Owls have the firepower bill of Jimmy Barnes, Daryl Braithwaite, Ian Moss, Diesel and Mental As Anything at Wollongong’s MacCabe Park on February 11.

• German singer Nena, best known here for her anti-war song ’99 Luftballoons’, was in Perth to perform at the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference. After that she visited Rottnest Island, which she’d seen a pic of on the internet and fell in love with, before flying back to Europe.

• Due to “unforeseen venue issue”, pro-audio trade fair Entech will swap its Melbourne and Sydney dates. Melbourne is now February 22 and Sydney the 27th.The other cities remain unchanged.

• Production companies Matchbox Pictures and Screentime will open offices in South Australia for two years, with the SA Film Corporation providing $250,000 for these as part of its drive to increase local drama production. Both will develop movies with local writers, producers, directors and musicians.

• Queensland’s peak music association Q Music is advertising for a new General Manager.

• Queensland punk band Shandys’ bassist Victor Huml is running as a Greenslopes candidate for the Greens in the upcoming state elections. He’s campaigning for, among other things, “better outcomes on issues – starting with housing affordability, renters’ rights, and affordable and reliable electricity.”

• The European tour by Melanie Horsnell and King Curly (Steve Appel) is going great guns, with two new dates in Scotland (where she’s getting airplay on the BBC) and one in Ireland confirmed. They were told it would take six hours to get to their Berlin show, which turned out to be 10, so they virtually rushed onto the stage as soon as they arrived. They also met up with Aussie expat Dan Tuffy (one-time member of Tasmania’s Wild Pumpkins At Midnight) and plans are to meet up in Berlin to write some songs.