Industrial Strength

PANDORA PREMIUM COULD CHANGE ITS FORTUNE

It will be some months before Pandora reveals how many subscribers it got for its new $10-a-month Premium music-streaming service. But analyst Piper Jaffray suggests a survey of its 4.3 million Pandora Plus subscribers shows a “sizable pent-up demand” for it.

The “sizable” is only 15% of respondents, which may be nothing to crow about from the rooftops. But Piper Jaffray says that could make an extra $12.5 million a month for Pandora, which in the long run means it can remain independent and not feel the need to put itself on the market.

ACT TO INTRODUCE ‘SMALL VENUE’ LICENCE

The Australian Capital Territory is planning to introduce a new licence fee tier as part of an overall review by Attorney General Gordon Ramsay. It is for smaller venues that held 150 people or less, and didn’t trade after 2am.

These presented a “lower risk of alcohol-related incidents” and offered “more options for Canberrans to enjoy a night out”.

LIVE MUSIC TIES WITH CHINA

A new partnership in China brokered by the Australia Council could create closer ties with the live music sector in that country as part of an arts placement program.

Mel Cheng, who works as an artist manager at Sydney-based One Louder Entertainment (Paul Kelly, Neil Finn, Crowded House, Kate Miller-Heidke, Ball Park Music) will spend three months working on the Concrete And Grass Festival in Shanghai (September 16—17).

Gaining contacts and an understanding of challenges of a new market could lead to an interchange.

A second recipient is Melbourne-based performance arts group Snuff Puppet’s GM Jodie Kinnersley who’ll be mentored at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre.

ENTRIES OPEN FOR HELPMANNS

Entries are opened until April 28 for the 45 categories of the Helpmann Awards, now in their 17^th year. They are organised by the live music sector’s peak music association, Live Performance Australia.

The contemporary music categories include best festival, international tour and Australian concert.

PARLOUR GIGS EXPANDING OVERSEAS

Parlour Gigs, the Australian initiative where households book acts to play at their homes. has grown 680% in the last six months, is about to start including New Zealand acts. Co-founder Matt Walters confirmed it is also looking at entering the US market.

Phil Jamieson, Jordie Lane and Henry Wagons are among those who’ve used playing homes as alternatives to booking tours through traditional booking agents.

BRISBANE HOSTS MUSIC SUMMIT

The Music Industry Summit in Brisbane will look at how to succeed in a changing climate, write better songs and put together an international tour to target your demographic.

Organised by Rodney Holder, of Music Business Facts, and APRA/AMCOS, speakers include Canada’s Devin Townsend and his manager Andy Farrow, Graham Nixon (Resist Records and manager of Parkway Drive), Tim Price (Collision Course) and Eli Chamravi (Wild Thing Presents).

Held on Friday May 19 at the Crowbar, it is held from 4pm to 1am, and includes live sets from upcoming acts.

MIDNIGHT OIL BACK TO FARMHOUSE?

Remember that Burra farmhouse featured on the cover of Midnight Oil’s 1987 global hit album Diesel and Dust? The SA Mid-North pile of bricks is in an advanced state of disrepair. Three years ago, the local community raised $15,000 to preserve it, along with a donation of $7000 from the band.

Locals now want the Oils to take a photo outside the place when on their tour, and even play a concert in the local showground (the town is 160 km north of Adelaide). The request hit the Oils’ publicity company on the weekend.

COMMUNITY BROADCASTING SECTOR ROUNDTABLE

Among topics discussed at the Community Broadcasting Sector Roundtable over two days were a catch-up on the Government’s reforms of the sector, and dealing with changes in technology, audience behaviour and sponsorship.

The Roundtable also heard from the Community Broadcasting Foundation (CBF) regarding its draft strategic plan and the Australian Community Television Alliance (ACTA) about the transition of community TV to online.

MOLLY, THE VOICE, UP FOR LOGIES

Both the Channel 7 mini-series Molly,about the life ofIan “Molly” Meldrum, and The Voice Australia are up for TV Week’s Logies, held Sunday April 23 at Crown Entertainment Complex’s Palladium Room in Melbourne.

Actor Samuel Johnson is nominated for a Gold Logie for Best Personality on Australian TV, Best Actor and Most Outstanding Actor. The show was gonged for Best Drama Program and Most Outstanding Miniseries or Telemovie,

The Voice Australia on Nine Network is nominated for Best Entertainment Program against Anh’s Brush With Fame, Family Feud, Have You Been Paying Attention? and Upper Middle Bogan.

MASH IN MUSIC TO BENEFIT FROM US MENTORING

Mash in Music, the real-time music sharing platform for consumers and their friends, is one of six start-ups chosen by KPMG and Australian global innovation network Advance for their latest elevate61. The six were chosen because they turn over at least $500,000 and have aroused overseas interest.

Between April 2–12, they will be taken to San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York and will be given mentoring, networking and targeted sessions with top VCs and industry experts on how to break the overseas markets. They will also be introduced to enterprise customers and potential partners.

BRISBANE CREATES QUBE FOR EMERGING ACTS

Brisbane City Council is showcasing the city’s newest talent via the QUBE Effect. On Saturday April 1, there will be 24 acts playing from 11am—4pm at King George Square and Queen Street Mall between 4—9pm. Acts get prizes and professional development, and some get the chance to play the Council-curated stage at BIGSOUND.

The 24 acts will also be shooting videos for themselves at the Tivoli on April 3 and 4. Festival promoter Lincoln Savage has built a system with a robotic engineer where robotic cameras will track and live-edit the bands.

ADELAIDE SPOTLIGHTS ITS JAZZ SECTOR

In the weeks surrounding UNESCO’s International Jazz Day (April 30) Adelaide will live up to its new status as UNESCO City of Music by promoting its jazz sector.

Under the banner State Of Jazz, it will promote all jazz gigs and activities (everything from forums to jam sessions) in the state between April 16 and May 7.

Musicians, venues, teachers, and any others interested in organising a live jazz event in that period are encouraged to register by April 2 at adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/shows/state-of-jazz.

Adelaide Festival Centre is holding the International Jazz Day Gala on April 30 which will feature the premiere of a new jazz concerto by Grammy-winning composer and band leader Gordon Goodwin, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, James Morrison, and a host of other soloists.

The concert will also showcase students from the James Morrison Academy in Mt Gambier and from the Julliard School of Music in New York as they combine to form the James Morrison Academy Jazz Ensemble.

VALE

• John Burnley started his extensive radio career in hometown Hobart as 7HT as a eenager. He worked in 13 stations in four states, as well as serving as Program Director at 2SM, 6PM, 6PR, 6IX and 4BC. He had been unwell since suffering a heart attack two years ago, and passed at the age of 78 in Brisbane.
• Country music singer-songwriter Tom McIvor was christened the rodeo cowboy (also the name of one of his eleven albums), as he competed from his mid-teens on the rodeo circuit for 20 years. When no longer able to continue, he wrote songs like The Only Road You Know and Go Riding Young Cowboy for play in the American rodeo circuit. In 1997 he was inducted into the Song Maker Awards in Tamworth. McIvor was to have turned 69 in May.
• Jaye Walton is best remembered for her hosting her own TV show in Adelaide (for which she got an OAM in 1980) and an Australian-Thai show for which the King awarded her a medal of the Royal White Elephant for her services to charity. Walton also hosted her own evening radio program, Walton’s World, on 5DN in the early 1980s.

MUSIC VICTORIA ON MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

Music Victoria is currently running a membership drive until March 31. These range from $33 a year for. individuals ($22 for students/concession) and $66 for bands. Those who sign on go into a prize pool worth $12,500.

Its CEO Patrick Donovan says, “I wanna know why we have 12.5 million attendances at gigs in this state every damn year, and not every musician, small business and punter is a paid up member!”

Camp Cope, Kylie Auldist, Jo Syme (Big Scary, Pieater), Rich Stanley (The Tote, Aarght Records), Mathew Rogers (UNIFIED) and James Young (Cherry Bar, Yah Yahs) are among members.

AND A FEW OTHER THINGS…

• Are plans in place for Daryl Braithwaite to sing his solo hit The Horses with its writer Rickie Lee Jones at Bluesfest? Meanwhile, Braithwaite, Diesel, Ross Wilson, Kav Temperley of Eskimo Joe and Montaigne are playing Parliament House on behalf of the Parliamentary Friends of Australian Music group.
• The YouTube/Google crisis has knock-on effects in Australia, with Holden, Kia, Bunnings, Foxtel and Caltex yanking out ads until the platform can give assurances that the TVCs won’t be shown against any controversial or inflammatory material.
• Original Kiss drummer Peter Criss is attending the Kiss Konvention in Melbourne at Wick Studios on May 13 & 14. He’s also doing a sit-down dinner show on May 12 at the Sofitel – the second last before he plays his final in New York as he’s retiring.
• DJ Havana Brown makes her acting debut in Aussie movie Chasing Comets, playing a club DJ.
• US singer Stanaj is in Australia doing promo on April 5 and 6.
• Music video festival CLIPPED, which combines bands and filmmakers, has opened applications until May 1. Last year it received 1000, The event is on June 3 at SUNSTUDIOS in Sydney
• Australia’s heavy metal community has rallied around Sydney music photographer Mick Goddard’s young son Kai. He was born in 2008 with a hole in his heart and his liver outside his body, and has had five bouts of surgery. Goddard and guitarist Stu Marshall (Dungeon, Death Dealer, Empires Of Eden) have put together a fundraiser CD Kingdom Of Kai with metal acts as Lord, Taberah, Vanishing Point and Silent Knight.
• Aussie soul legend Jo Jo Smith celebrates her 50^th anniversary in the biz with a 22-date run between May 12 and July 9, accompanied by Lucie Thorne & Hamish Stuart.