Industrial Strength: May 22

WOULD YOU TUBE BE WORTH $160B AS A STAND-ALONE?

If YouTube was separated from its parent company Google, how much would it be worth?

Investment bank Morgan Stanley crunched through the numbers (quite an achievement as Google does not reveal YouTube financials) and predicting that its new subscription YouTube Music service could be a major money earner, reckons it would be worth $160 billion.

That’s more than Disney ($155.3 billion market cap), Comcast ($150b), Netflix ($141b), Pepsico ($138.7b) and IBM ($132.4b).

In a note to investors, it said, “YouTube’s new music and premium products speak to a growing subscription focus which could lead to 13x higher user monetisation.”

Its estimate was that every 1 million YouTube users taking out a subscription would push YouTube revenue up by 1%.

In an earlier May 14 report on the future of the music industry, Morgan Stanley had estimated that global paid streaming users could triple from roughly 180 million in 2017 to as much as 575 million by 2022.  

With YouTube, it noted that music was the biggest daily draw for YouTube (36% of users, compared to 22% for movies and 20% for TV).

MUSIC IN THE HOUSE RAISES $200K FOR SUPPORT ACT

Last week’s Music In The House lunch in Sydney honouring Archie Roach raised a record $200,000 for Support Act Ltd (SAL), organisers said.

There were large bids for items such as Maton’s SRS60 guitar, Tony Mott photographs and Reg Mombassa designs.

On the day some hefty donation cheques were written out by Michael Gudinski and Frontier Touring ($50,000), Phillip Walker ($30,000), Universal Music Australia ($10,000) and Sony Music Entertainment ($5,000).

Two initiatives planned by SAL is a 24/7 wellbeing service similar to the one in New Zealand, and a music centre in Melbourne at a cost of $150,000 for three years.

ONE ELECTRIC DAY SELLS OUT SIXTH TIME IN A ROW

Melbourne’s One Electric Day festival in late spring sold out its 10,000 tickets within hours last Friday.

Held on Sunday November 25 at Werribee Park, it has a bill headlined by Jimmy Barnes, with The Angels, Ian Moss, Jon Stevens, Richard Clapton and Thirsty Merc.

Promoter Duane McDonald said, “When we launched the first One Electric Day in 2013, we were blown away that the event sold out.

“Every year, we have been selling out quicker and quicker.

“Thanks to the Melbourne music loving public, One Electric Day has become a special part of people’s entertainment calendars.

“It is an incredible day out, embraced by all ages, and we are excited to be able to create those memories year after year.”

MORE ROYAL BREAD THAN ROYAL WED

Decca Records is readying for a major career uptick for Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the 19-year-old cellist seen by 1.9 billion people around the world performing three pieces at the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

These were ‘Sicilienne’ by von Paradis, Schubert‘s ‘Ave Maria’ and ‘Après Un Rêve by Fauré.

Kanneh-Mason in 2016 won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Award.

He is signed to Decca Classics and already one of two breakthrough artists this year before the big gig.

His debut album Inspiration has already bolted to #7 on the iTunes chart

At #8 is Decca’s recording of the wedding.

In the meantime, there were wild rumours that Ed Sheeran and the Spice Girls were to perform before 600 guests at the private post-nuptials luncheon.

What they got was Sir Elton plink-plonking through ‘Tiny Dancer’ (where he inserted the line ‘L.A. lady” to denote the bride’s former acting career), ‘Circle of Life’, ‘Your Song’ and ‘I’m Still Standing.’

The musicians in attendance at the wedding were a widely smiling and dancing Victoria Beckham (not!), James Blunt, Joss Stone and Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons.

Also in attendance was a 12-year old girl, Amelia, who was a survivor of the May 22 bomb blasts after Ariana Grande’s show at Manchester Arena, and has been busy raising money for other victims of the night.

SECOND FUNDRAISER FOR GEORGE TELEK

Aside from the benefit concert headlined by Not Drowning Waving and Underground Lovers at Melbourne’s Memo Hall on June 9, a second fund raising event has been announced for PNG’s George Telek.

A dance will be held on Friday, May 25; Saturday, May 26 in Brisbane (venue TBA) with Sailas Kania (Saii Kay) featuring Uralom Kania.

Telek’s record company Wantok Musik said that the surgery in Brisbane for the singer’s highly aggressive cancer on his mouth “was a success! Dr Kieran Rowe and Dr Simon Samoilenko have done an amazing job which we are all very grateful.”

Six months of radiation now follows.

The crowdfunding campaign (see here) had raised $24, 532 in the first weeks, with a month to go to reach its target of $60,000.

CARAVANA SUN EUROPEAN TOUR

Aussie surf spirit-rock band Caravãna Sun are heading off to the UK and Europe for six weeks.

But first, they’ll do a run through Australia starting this week in Fremantle and winding up in Brisbane on June 8.

Band member Ant Beard says, “Our touring schedule over the years has been highly dependent on the surf locations and whether we’d have time to get in the ocean between soundcheck and gig…

“At this point in our career, we’ve realised that we and our fans like music that moves both inside and out.  

“Whether that’s full-power hip thrusting or held suspense between moments of bliss, we’re always on the search to break the barrier between artist and audience.”

On May 25 comes new single ‘Beauty & The Pain’ which Beard describes as “knowing that in the shit times, there’s always a splitting ray of beauty, like the fierce glow of your angry lover.

“It’s the cheeky smile you can’t help but let out, it’s the knowing that where there’s pain, there’s beauty.”

The video documents the song’s journey and the coming together oft their new sound.

MIRROR RECORDS LAUNCHES SINGLES LABEL

Sydney’s Mirror Records has launched a new singles-only label – with the first release through Californian singer songwriter Brandon Hoogenboom’s ‘Hey You’.

Nick Lynagh, general manager of Mirror Music Group said about the launch “Kurt [Bailey] and I both share similar excitement for new music and wanted a platform to easily release music by our friends and artists we love.

“Kurt has been mates with Brandon for many years, he is an incredible talent so it seemed like a great place to start.”

Set up in Redfern, Mirror Music Group is both a label and management firm which represents acts as Gang Of Youths, Middle Kids, Brightness and Sloan Peterson.

MTV SUSPENDS ‘CATFISH’ AFTER MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS

Production on the seventh season of MTV’s Catfish: The TV Show was suspended after sexual misconduct allegations were made against host Nev Schulman.

Details of the allegations are against the 33-year-old, who is married with a young daughter, are not known.

In the show, Schulman investigates online relationships where one person is often not who they appear to be.

ARTS GROUPS PUSH FOR MONA FOMA FUNDING

In addition to tourism and political parties urging the Tasmanian government to get on with extra funding Mona Foma festival’s move to Launceston after nine years in Hobart, three arts groups have also joined the chorus.

They are Junction Arts festival Design Tasmania and Tasdance, all from northern Tasmania.

They said that the festival’s presence would invigorate the northern arts sector.

Premier Will Hodgman said the government was working to hurry the arrangements along – including some long term ones – and “hopefully a decision can be made in the very near future.”

BLOOD LETTING AT JAZZ AWARDS

Pianist composer Barney McAll took three wins at the national Jazz Bell Awards in Melbourne at Bird’s Basement.

The full list is:

Best Australian Jazz Ensemble of the year – Barney McAll

Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album – Andrea Keller, Still Night: Music in Poetry

Young Australian Jazz Artist of the year – Evan Harris

Best Australian Instrumental Jazz Album– Barney McAll, Hearing The Blood

Best Australian Jazz Song of the year – Speedball, ‘Judgement Day’

Best Produced Album – Barney McAll, Hearing the Blood

Pianist Bob Sedergreen was inducted into Graeme Bell Hall of Fame.

In a wildly cheered acceptance speech, he talked about the music’s strengths as moving with ideas and strong friendships developed over his lengthy 56 year career.

“Charts were for Captain Cook and scales are to weigh yourself,” he quipped.

The 75-year-old wrapped up his speech by quoting an old blues song, to sum up his attitude to the music: “I’m not sure what jazz is but I’m willing to learn… and that’s sums me up to a tee. I am still willing to learn.”

43 SCORE ACF BOOST

43 individuals and associations from a number of disciplines are up to get matching donations from the Australian Cultural Fund for what they gather in funding.

In the contemporary section were the Perth International Jazz Festival, Queensland’s Flying Arts Alliance, NSW’s The Strides, Queensland’s José Carbó Trio and Victoria’s Dan Koop & Jamie Lewis.

QLD ARTS SECTOR WARNS OVER FEDERAL BUDGET

It wasn’t just the national live and arts sectors who were furious about the lack of imagination and initiatives in the recent Federal Budget.

A number of Queensland arts leaders told the Brisbane Times they were “disappointed” and warned that no extra cash for the Australia Council funding body would see small, medium and independent art organisations “starved” of funding.

Brisbane Festival artistic director David Berthold said his event was not directly affected.

But “it does mean that when we’re working with small organisations, there will be enormous pressure on us to fill up the gap and we can only do that to a certain extent because our brief is very wide and we also have an obligation to bring in international shows.”

Brisbane Powerhouse artistic director Kris Stewart lamented that the Budget missed the opportunity to help Brisbane become the nation’s arts and culture destination as it’s cheaper to live in and create in than Sydney and Melbourne.

Bleach Festival artistic director Louise Bezzina told the Brisbane Times that the small-medium and independent organisations were still creating great works, “but that tenacity can only go on for so long.”

Queensland Arts Minister Leeanne Enoch also expressed her disappointment: “The federal government, not just in this budget but for many years now, has abandoned our nation’s arts sector.”

ACT STREAMLINES FUNDING, ADDS NEW CATEGORIES

The ACT has streamlined its funding process for 2018/9, a move which got the thumbs-up from arts and music folks.

The more significant moves were to acknowledge that many projects need to do quick turn-arounds or sudden touring opportunities.

So artists and musicians can apply for up to $5000 for quickies available through a year.

One of these is the new Arts Activities category.

In other changes, artists and organisations can now apply for as much as $50,000 and now only have to wait for six months instead of 12 to lodge their next applications.

Full details can be found here. 

TWICKETS EXPANDS TO CANADA

UK reseller platform Twickets, which opened its first international operations in Spain, Australia and New Zealand before heading to the United States last October, has now gone live in Canada.

Since opening up three years ago, it has handled 1 million music, cultural and sports tickets, creator Richard Davies said.

BENDIGO WANTS FEEDBACK ON CREATIVE PLANS

The City of Bendigo in Victoria has released a draft vision of the Arts and Creative Industries Strategy and is calling for feedback.

It’s open here until May 25.

The first strategy since 2008, it was pulled together with two Creative Conversations with the local arts and music sectors.

Four themes raised through the Creative Conversations that the City foster a culture of creativity, support local talent develop activated spaces and inclusive networks, and market its cultural strengths to the world.

DRAKE SUING ON LIKENESS ON WEBSITE

A lawsuit aimed at Drake claiming copyright infringement – and which the Canadian rapper won – is heading back to court for a different reason.

In 2014, the estate of US jazz musician James Oscar Smith and publisher/management company Hebrew Hustle sued claiming that the song ‘Pound Cake/Paris Morton Music 2’ infringed on 1982’s spoken word track ‘Jimmy Smith Rap’.

Drake won that in May 2017 on the grounds of fair use.

In that time, Hebrew Hustle ran a photo of Drake with Lil Wayne and Birdman while a bio in the website about its founder Stephen Hacker claimed, “Stephen has played a heavy hand with his clients in the creation of hit songs for the likes of Eminem, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj and others.”

Drake is now suing, on the grounds that Hacker’s clients never wrote or produced music for him, and that Hebrew Hustle had no permission to use his photo on its site.

AUSSIE COUNTRY UNDER SPOTLIGHT IN NASHVILLE

The state of Australian country music will be the first keynote address at the International Country Music Conference to be held in Nashville from Thursday May 31 to Saturday June 2.

Addressing “Aussie Country: The Big Picture, History, and Today” are Sydneysider Dr Toby Martin who currently teaches in the UK at the University of Huddersfield; retired Tasmanian academic and author Andrew Smith, and former Hamilton County Bluegrass Band member Colleen Trenwith who is now at the East Tennessee State University.

Guy Cundell from the University of Adelaide, will discuss ‘The Hawaiian Guitar and Western Swing’.

Smith, an author on Australian country music figures and currently working on a Tex Morton book, will also provide an Orstrailian perspective on ‘Country Music and the Vietnam War’.

CLIENT LIAISON FASHION MAKES CATWALK DEBUT

Melbourne duo Monte Morgan and Harvey Miller aka Client Liaison, whose first foray into fashion two years ago with men and women beach accessories sold out instantly, last week were among five designers making their catwalk debuts at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Carriageworks in Sydney.

They unveiled their Deluxe Line of womenswear, menswear and accessories (“executive relaxation for leisure enthusiasts”) to be sold through pop-up stores in Sydney and Melbourne in mid June.

In between they’ve also announced their own national festival, set to draw 30,000 people, and a focus on Europe where they recently signed a record deal.

VALE

Connor Verner-Oakley was guitarist with Queensland prog-hardcore outfit Awaken I Am.

His irresistible guitar riffs helped the band’s rise, first in Australia, and then North America where they signed to Chicago-based Victory Records.

Last month they released the track ‘Dissolution’ from their album Blind Love, and had plans to tour the US.

However, as a stunned band posted on Facebook, “Our heart is broken, we have lost our beautiful brother Connor in a tragic accident.

“Connor was family, our little brother and an irreplaceable part of what makes us a band. 

“It’s hard to explain the bond between band members, we spent so much time together making music, playing shows, experiencing new cultures and most importantly laughing.

“To have lost him is completely devastating, he brought so much light and love to the band with his positive attitude, passion for music and his cheeky grin.”

AND A FEW OTHER THINGS…

Is Dua Lipa to record the next James Bond theme?

Let’s get fizzical: following some bad reviews for Pt 1 of the Olivia Newton John biopic on Seven, Pt 2 was abandoned by 250,000 viewers. Figures flopped to 488,000 metros from 735,000 on Sunday night. Goodrem, however, topped the night with Nine’s The Voice, the highest-rating entertainment show with 885,000.

Gold Coast radio station SEA Hit909 denied any wrongdoing after an employee’s girlfriend won two overseas trips in less than a year.

A devastated Smith Street Band, who cancelled a show in Castlemaine after one of their fans was sexually assaulted at an under-18 gig by someone in crowd, last week donated all their proceeds from their Melbourne show at The Croxton between AIME, Minus18, The ASRC and Girls Rock Melbourne. It was their “last headline show for a fair while”.

Californian man Eduardo Leon faces six years in jail after breaking into Rhianna’s home in the Hollywood Hills and roaming about on the property for 12 hours. The singer was not there: she’s currently working on two albums, one of them a reggae effort.

Bluesfest owner Peter Noble was a last minute addition to the 2018 Asia-Pacific Venue Industry Congress in Auckland yesterday. His keynote address looked back on 30 years of the Bluesfest legacy.

Lachlan Murdoch’s $100 million takeover of NOVA Entertainment in 2012 has proved to be a cash cow. The media company’s latest financials showed that over the past two years, Lucky Lachie’s private investment company Illyria received more than $53 million in dividends.

Frank Ocean makes his next acting role in Ships Passing In The Night. Made by Korean American filmmaker Michael Kang, it’s about the troubled relationship between a male supermodel and a fragile actress.

Gold Coast’s Amyl & The Sniffers’ first show outside Australia, at the Great Escape in Brighton, England, ended with a crunching cover of AC/DC’s ‘Dirty Deeds’. Music Week rated it as one of the best showcases at the conference: partly because they went down a storm, and partly because during the AC/DC cover, drummer Gus Romer’s nose begins spurting blood – and he licked it up with his tongue, never missing a beat.

It was bad enough that politics and/or racism saw Jessica Mauboy relegated to #20 at Eurovision but they’re still going at it. Belgian Eurovision site Songfestival rated ‘Our Jess’ as second worst dressed performer, after Macedonia. Historian John Kennedy O’Connor hissed that she looked like “… she’d escaped from Wentworth and been let on stage. It was dreadful. She was describing herself in the media as Australia’s Beyonce. Clearly she’s never seen Beyonce.”

Rapper T.I. was arrested after an altercation with the security guard at his own gated community in Georgia. He didn’t have his key, and the guard refused to let him in. T.I., called his wife Tiny Harris to try and calm things down, but this enraged the oaf even more, who shouted “who the fuck do you think you is [sic] talking to me like this?” Cops were called and T.I. was taken away.

Hastings Liquor Accord (NSW) got 120 of the region’s venue owners, cops, breweries and live music fans together to play a charity game of golf. As the Port Macquarie News reported, it was partly to raise money for campaigns for punters to drink responsibly but, as Liquor Accord president Alistair Flower pointed out, celebrate that assaults in licensed premises in the area dropped 53% in the last 10 years.