Industrial Strength: Part 1
SENATE COPYRIGHT INQUIRY SLAMMED
Music industry leaders this week slammed a Senate committee inquiry into the safe harbour provision and urged Communications and Arts Minister Mitch Fifield to hold a review to find the essential problems it would cause for record labels and artists.
ARIA CEO Dan Rosen said: “A Senate inquiry is woefully inadequate to fix the fundamental flaws of this schedule.
“The other schedules to the bill were subject to a proper consultation and review by the department and that would be the appropriate place for an evidence-based inquiry into the commercial and market impact of any reform to safe harbour.”
Supporters of the safe harbour provision say it will fix an error in Australian copyright law due to bad drafting of the law. The creative industries argue it will protect the likes of Facebook and Google from being responsible for piracy in their systems and having to properly renumerate properly copyright owners. They also point out that the provision is regarded as out-dated in major overseas music markets.
NETFLIX RULES OUT MUSIC STREAMING
Much to the disappointment to Netflix’s 5.75 million Australian subscribers and its 33.3 million global payers (and 100 million users), it has no plans to offer music or live sport any time soon.
Todd Yellin, VP of Product Innovation confirmed: “Music? No, I don’t see that happening. Some companies are into the vast portfolio, diversified, into all kinds of things. We want to be the best video storytelling company in the world. That is our goal.”
THREE BURNERS SONG HEADS FOR YEAR IN EURO CHART
The hit remix of Melbourne band Cookin’ On Three Burners’ This Girl ft. Kylie Auldist by French DJ Kungs is heading for a full year on the European Border Breakers Chart. This week it was hanging in for its 47th week, at #9 spot.
BIEBER’S ADVENTURES DOWN UNDER
During his visits to Australian cities, Justin Bieber skated, jogged and even nipped into a Nando’s. But when a fan and Sydney eatery owner asked his 7000 Facebook followers for details on rumours that the Bieb was going to on a Harbour cruise, suddenly it became a “security threat”.
In Melbourne, the singer asked if he could have a play with the Ice Hockey League champions Melbourne Ice. Everything was set but at the last minute he opted to go swimming at Crown. He asked if he could play with them the next day. The team’s silence was titanic.
Meantime, the hundreds of Gold Coast fans who’d journeyed to Brisbane to catch his show at Suncorp Stadium found the return home delayed. Following a police incident on the train line, all trains to the Coast were cancelled and it took replacement buses an hour to arrive.
QLD SONGWRITERS TO GET MENTORED
The inaugural Big Sky Girls program has announced ten young Queensland women aged between 15 and 18 selected to take part.
They are Ruby Gilbert who is set to drop her debut EP this year, North Queensland country rock Jessikah Baillie, 16-year old amateur boxer Leah Reuben Mason, folk roots Asha Jeffries, 16-year old Jamison Kehl who’s just released an EP, triple j Unearthed indigenous winner Tia Gostelow, Grace Gallagher, Toowoomba guitarist Jessica Coleman, classically trained folk/blues purveyor Malia Stirling, and past Queensland Music Awards nominee Doolie.
Sony ATV jumped onboard as a partner, with the company’s Head of A&R Craig Hawker, involved in the selection process.
A high profile songwriter on the Sony ATV roster will be announced soon as a mentor for the program – along with the already-announced Queensland songwriters, Jackie Marshall, Kellie Lloyd, Roz Pappalardo, Áine Tyrrell, Emma Bosworth, Sabina Lawrie and Francesca de Valence, who will be guiding the girls through the creative process and help to facilitate industry development.
Aside from weekly mentoring, the selected participants will also see one of their songs professionally recorded by Brisbane producer Jeff Lovejoy. They will be invited to perform at showcase in Brisbane and in Cairns.
ARE THESE NZ’S MOST CREATIVE ALBUMS IN PAST YEAR?
Finalists for the $10,000 Taite Music Prize – a quest by Independent Music NZ to find New Zealand’s most creative album in the past 12 months – have been announced for the ceremony next month.
They are:
Aaradhna / Brown Girl (Universal Music NZ)
Hopetoun Brown / Look So Good (Melita Music)
Lawrence Arabia / Absolute Truth (Flying Nun Records)
Leisure / Leisure (The Leisure Collective)
Lontalius / I’ll Forget 17 (POD/Inertia)
Pacific Heights / The Stillness (Warner Music)
Shayne P Carter / Offsider (Flying Nun Records)
Street Chant / Hauora (Arch Hill Recordings)
EASY BEING GREEN FOR LORDE
While Lorde’s new single Green Light streaked to #1 first week in the New Zealand charts and ousted fellow Kiwi Ed Sheeran (well, he’s asked for NZ citizen papers to be sent to him, so there), it looks like it could generate good business in the United States.
Billboard reported that early sales indicated that by the end of its first week, it would have 12 million streams in the US, 60,000 downloads and radio airplay reaching 16 million. This would translate into a Top 25 debut or above.
But not all Lorde fans are impressed, with some saying the new track could have been pulled out of her new bestie Taylor Swift’s 1989 album. Swift herself sent the Kiwi am excited message that she loves the new track.”g2g brb just gonna make up an interpretive dance to this magnificent bop for the ages. ELLA I LOVE YOU.”
But a fan’s post on social media reflected some of the annoyance: “Taylor Swift ruined Lorde,’ wrote one grouch. “Green Light literally sounds like a Taylor song and I’m pissed.”
BARNES HOOKS UP WITH THE WIGGLES
After an initial venture into children’s entertainment in 1990 with his children as The Tin Lids, Jimmy Barnes returns to that sector again. Och Aye the G’Nu is a double release comprises an album featuring long time buddies The Wiggles, out March 31 via ABC/Universal Music, and children’s books out April 1st via Five Mile Press
The books were inspired by, and written for, his grandchildren especially the cheeky red haired Dylan.
“Glasgow holds a special place in my heart and it was also inspired by my love of Scotland,” Barnes said.
STUDY: MORE MEN PRESENT BREAKFAST RADIO
Breakfast radio, the most important slot of the day, is ruled by men with a 73.9% share. A study by the Mumbrella site of 40 shows (AM, FM, ABC) in five metro market showed no woman was a sole presenter although there were eight solo presenters. In total 68 men and 24 women had presentation roles.
Mumbrella found Adelaide the most male dominated with a 77% voice. Brisbane was the least, but men still outnumbered women by 72.2% to 27.8%.
The most diverse, with a near 50/50 split is KIIS FM.
KILLING HEIDI BACK FOR FIRSTTOUR IN DECADE …
After reuniting for last year’s Queenscliff Music Festival and the Zoo Twilight concert series in February in Sydney and Melbourne, Killing Heidi are undertaking their first national tour in a decade.
Live Nation has them at Astor Theatre Perth (Friday June 2), The Gov Adelaide (3), The Metro Sydney (8), 170 Russell, Melbourne (9) and Tivoli Brisbane (10).
Killing Heidi were one of the break-out hit acts of the turn of the millennium, with their debut album Reflector (March 2000) a beautifully produced and packaged record that went 4 x platinum and aroused interest in the US. The album will be released digitally for the first time later this month.
…WHILE UNDERGROUND LOVERS BACK IN ACTION
The reunited Underground Lovers are releasing their eighth studio album Staring At You Staring At Me on May 8 through its original label Rubber Records. It will be followed by launch shows in Melbourne and Sydney. The title of the record plays homage to its hometown, Melbourne.
The new single Rerun comes with a video conceived and produced by film scholar duo Cristina Alvarez Lopez and Adrian Martin. It accentuates the song’s lyrics about love with clips from classic Hollywood cinema.
VALE JOHN EDGAR MINSON
John Edgar Minson played an instrumental role in the rising popularity of Australian country music. For 20 years he presented the nightly country music show Hoedown on 2TM Tamworth, which was also picked up in New Zealand and New Guinea. In the mid-60s, he also presented The Country Music Show on television.
A keen musician, he played harmonica on a number of tracks by top artists and also designed the JEM pedal steel guitar. He also helped set up the Harmonica Championships in Tamworth in 1983. He was presented with the Country Music Capital Award for services to the industry, in 1978, added to the Australasian Country Music Roll of Renown ten years later. In 1998, he received a Medal of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to the music industry.
John Minson died in Coffs Harbour on March 10. He moved there after he retired and built model airplanes. He was 90.
Jobs
