Industrial Strength: November 3
Study: Music second largest driver of mobile entertainment use
Music is the second largest driver of reach and audience in the entertainment category for mobile users. According to the IAB Australia and Nielsen Mobile Ratings Report covering August, 8.2 million Australians aged 18 and above listened to music or viewed music-related content on their smartphones that month. 3.7 million did so on tablets.
Getting the most action on the two devices were Apple Music, Shazam and Spotify.
During August, 35% of time spent by Aussies 18+ on smartphones was on social networks, then entertainment (16%) and gaming (12%). In contrast, time spent on tablets was 28% on social media, 23% gaming and 20% entertainment.
According to the report, most time (43%) is spent on smartphones. Desktop accounted for 39% and tablet 18%. Through August 2015, Australian smartphones spent almost 35 hours engaging with digital content.
More concerts for Gold Coast’s Metricon Stadium?
The Gold Coast City Council is considering introducing three or four concerts a year at the 25,000-capacity Metricon Stadium in Carrara during the football off-season. Its Community and Cultural Development Committee has voted to develop a strategy to attract major events for the stadium, and has reportedly begun talks with promoters about incentives to draw major international acts.
The plan is to reinforce the Gold Coast as a concert area and inject new tourism dollars and stop the venue (which cost $144.2 million to build and opened in May 2011) from remaining dark during the off-season when it could be making money.
Among acts who’ve played the sports venue were Kiss in 2011, during which Ace Frehley punched their tour manager in the jaw in the dressing rooms after the show, according to his memoirs. Foo Fighters set a concert attendance record there with 37,000 that year, and filmed their These Days video there. Big Day Out staged at the stadium in 2014, and Cold Chisel recently drew 20,000.
Rhythms magazine up for sale
After ten years as owners-publishers, Martin Jones and Verity Bee have put Rhythms Magazine up for sale. It was founded in 1992 by broadcaster Brian Wise. It soon became an authority on roots music, giving blues, folk, country, world and jazz artists a voice denied to them in most mainstream media.
Jones says that through changes in the publishing and music industries, Rhythms kept its integrity and retained its loyal readership. “Our primary source of advertising has shifted from recorded music to live music, which is stronger than ever,” he reveals. “We’ve also had to keep on top of digital and online publishing, and have established one of the best digital magazines for iPad anywhere.” Jones is contacted at marty@rhythms.com.au.
Bundaberg unveils Ganggajang Way sign
The members of GANGGajang were on hand when Bundaberg in Northern Queensland unveiled the street sign for Ganggajang Way. Bundaberg Regional Council approved the request by developer Bill Moorhead to name the main street on his new Paddington Grove Estate.
Moorhead said the band was an obvious choice: leader Mark Callaghan grew up in Bundaberg, and wrote their best known song The Sounds Of Then (This Is Australia) about the place, evoking images of burning cane fields near the family’s single brick veneer home. The song also name-checked a piece of land which is now part of Paddington Grove. Moorhead in the past also toyed with the idea of naming other streets individually after band members Callaghan, Buzz Bidstrup Geoff Stapleton, Peter Willersdorf and Robbie James.
Aussies Abroad #1
Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum set up an exhibit around Keith Urban’s rise in Australia and move to the US to attain superstardom and sales of 20 million albums. The exhibit, to open on November 20 to run to May, includes memorabilia, instruments and documents from his childhood.
Aussies Abroad #2
Kylie Minogue has notched up her eighth #1 on the US Billboard Dance Club Song chart with The Other Boys, which features Nervo, Jake Shears and Nile Rogers. Minogue now ties with Whitney Houston, Lady Gaga and Enrique Iglesias. Madonna holds the record with 46 #1s on the chart.
Aussies Abroad #3
5 Seconds of Summer topped Billboard’s 21 Under 21 list for 2015, moving up from last year’s #2 spot. Lorde was at #3 and Troye Sivan at #6. 5SOS also played a Halloween gig in New York dressed as Poison, complete with wigs and glam-metal gear. Poison’s Bret Michaels posted, “Awesome look 5SoS.”
Aussies Abroad #4
Christian music group Hillsong United is up for the Favourite Artist – Contemporary Inspirational category of the 2015 American Music Awards on November 22. Its Empires album this May reached #5 on the Billboard 200, topped its Christian chart and peaked at #2 on the Digital Albums chart. Last week it notched up its 13th #1 on the Christian chart with Open River/River Wild. It also recently won Top Christian Artist at the Billboard Awards
Adelaide’s Jive opens record bar today
Adelaide music venue Jive’s new record bar upstairs launches today (November 3). It opens on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 12pm to 6pm. The pop up record store stocks new and used vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, tour t-shirts, and second hand turntables, speakers and amplifiers.
Sam Anning wins jazz award
Sam Anning won the National Jazz Awards, held as a keystone of the Wangaratta Jazz and Blues Festival. He won $12,000 plus a record deal with ABC Music and a chance to professionally record at the ABC Jazz studios.
Each year a different instrument is showcased. This year it was the bass, acoustic or electric. The 35 year old from Perth (who moved to Melbourne and now lives in New York City) was up against nine other contenders, the youngest being 24.
The festival wrapped up last night. It is not known how bad weather affected attendance. Last year it set a new record box office record and drew 25,000 fans.
Finalists for Grant McLennan Fellowship
Five finalists are up for this year’s Grant McLennan Fellowship. They are Screamfeeder and We All Want To founder Tim Steward, EDM performer Hannah Macklin (aka MKO SUN), singer songwriter Jack Carty and Stephanie Pickett (Ella Fence) who this year released the Wanderlust EP and was signed to an international management deal by Phil Pickett (Boy George and The Culture Club) of UK’s Rugged Management.
The 2015 judging panel is Sean Sennett, Sally McLennan, Ian Haug and Adele Pickvance.
Venues Update: new openings, pleb protests, investigations
* Melbourne’s latest live music venue, W4, is based in a one-time abandoned warehouse in the CBD’s Coverlid Place. The main room has a 350-capacity while the W4 Parlour upstairs is for more intimate gigs for 200. t is set up by The Luminosty Group (Sam Sleigh, Letitia Lillis, Marco Schirru). Schirru will also pull in booking duties alongside James Power’s Tiger Live Agency. Flight Facilities played their first DJ set in 8 years at an after party with the official launch last week with Ngaiire and Champagne Internet (ex-Yacht Club DJs).
* Tasmania has a new outdoor music venue Skyfields, capable of holding up to 15,000. It is located in the grounds of Eagles Nest Retreat in the foothills of Mount Roland outside Sheffield. Its first major concert is on March 19, with Missy Higgins performing with the Tasmanian Symphony, along with Paul Dempsey. The venue’s Director is David Sykes.
* Five Byron Bay venues are being investigated by the Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing (OLGR) for breaches of trading conditions over the NSW Labour Day long weekend. The OLGR sent out 30 officials to check. Serving drunk people and not complying with licence conditions were among issues being investigated.
* Sydney’s Chinese Laundry holds the first of its popular Garden Parties for 2015/6 on December 19. Headliner Scuba jets over from his home in London.
* Ben Randall, who owns adjoining Scarborough beach bars Torch Bar and The Sandbar, has applied to knock down the walls that separate them to make one large venue as part of a $1 million revamp. He says venues have to change as Scarborough is no longer a youth hangout, but the merged venue will continue to book live bands.
* Live music has returned to Adelaide’s Colonel Light Hotel on Thursday nights.
* Terence Borgioli’s throwaway line about his new Subiaco nightclub Brera being “pleb-free” aroused much media interest. In the same tongue-in-cheek spirit, Bathers Beach House in Fremantle put out a sign in front “Plebs welcome” while 100-strong Facebook group Pleb Walk 2015 will ambush the club with a Pleb Pride Walk.
* The Long Jetty Hotel, on the Central Coast of New South Wales, has been purchased by the Laundy syndicate.
X Factor NZ “rested” for 2016
X Factor NZ will be “rested” in 2016, Mediaworks announced. Traditionally the show only airs every two years. But 2015 was its annus horribilis. Format owner Simon Cowell was seething over incidents including UK judges Natalia Kills and Willy Moon viciously slamming a contestant in March (and being booted off), a convicted killer making it on much to the anger of his victim’s family, and the grand final drawing just 326,380 viewers making it only the series’ seventh most-watched episode this season.
Ticketbooth launches BoostedTix platform
Ticketing agency Ticketbooth has launched an associated platform called BoostedTix to make it easier for promoters to customise the site and for fans to sell tickets through their social contacts. It is set up so sellers can track their sales, earn commission and prizes, join up with other sellers for projects.
Ticketbooth CEO and founder, Simon Guerrero, said there’d be more roll-outs for his customers. “All the changes to the Ticketbooth system ultimately feed back into the social analytics platforms we’ve integrated, and assist with decreasing the cost required to market events online through digital platforms”.
Quickflix slashes staff, restructures debt
Troubled streaming video on demand (SVOD) service Quickflix, which has been on a trading halt since August, has busted some moves before it runs out of cash. (As of end of September, it had just $840,000 in the bank). It has faced its $6 million debt in licensing arrangements to major movie studios by restructuring $2 million, and coming to an agreement with studios for the remaining $4 million.
It told the ASX it had “reached agreement to enter affiliate arrangements with SVOD operators in Australia and New Zealand whereby the company will introduce a SVOD offer to its customers and derive a fee for signups to that offer.” It continues to drop revenue (down 8% to $3.9 million) and customers (now 100,121), it has slashed 20% of its staff (15 people) and slashed operating costs by 26% to save $4 million a year. It’s also applied for a Government tax rebate of $620,000 for research and development.
Inaugural regional Victorian festivals round up
* Aus Music Festival in Warrnambool made its bow on the weekend after three years in the planning. It was too early for Director Russ Goodear to give Industrial Strength an attendance figure but there were “thousands” at various events, and enough sell-outs and near sell-outs for it to be definitely staged next year. A debriefing is held with stakeholders on Friday. Musician and events manager Goodear’s prediction is that the festival can continue as long as it makes a “cultural and emotional connection” with its audience.
Aus Music managed to be both a Warrnambool-centric and an event with a wider appeal. It stressed on the diversity of Australian music (“among one of the best in the world”) and the importance of reminding audiences it needs to be respected. Among the events featuring 140 performers were themed concerts including an eight-strong songwriters showcase, a tribute to local ‘80s venue Lady Bay (complete with reunion of acts from that era), festival photos, a star-studded tribute to the songs of Archie Roach who was awarded Artist of the Year, and a music industry forum hosted by Music Victoria.
* Let Go is held on the Mornington Peninsula on Saturday February 20 at the Mornington Racecourse. Seven stages cover rock, acoustic, deep house, disco, commercial, Melbourne bounce, RnB, hip hop, trap and techno, Music is part of the mix, along with local wines and 20 community entertainment events. The folks behind the festival promote acts and also run Oktoberfest locally.
* Highlands, to have been staged in Yea, was cancelled at the last minute. Murrindindi Shire Council said it had not authorised it and claimed it had not been contacted about it. and shut it down via the Melbourne Magistrates Court with threats of fines of up to $180,000 for promoters if it went ahead.
More Festivals Update: new events, dramas, extensions
* To celebrate the 8th FBi SMAC awards, radio FBi holds the inaugural Bi SMACs: A Festival of Sydney Music Arts and Culture at Carriageworks on January 10.
*NSW Police are recommending that Dragon Dreaming in Yass not be given f permission to stage after 78 drug busts and a death at last month’s event. But some of the 2500 attendees have taken to social media to protest saying it was a remarkable festival while the owners of the festival site have also called on local council not to kill it off.
* Next year’s Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF) gets a new outdoor waterfront music venue, on the north side of Elizabeth Quay which is set to open early next year. The February 11 to March 6.PIAF, which has already announced Wynton Marsalis and disability dance performer Claire Cunningham, unveils its full program tomorrow (Wednesday).
* WOMAD New Zealand extended its stay in New Plymouth (and TSB Bowl of Brooklands) until 2019. It has pumped NZ $93.1 million into the local economy since its move from Auckland in 2003. But the downturn in the area’s gas and fuel industry has put a strain on the trust which operates WOMAD NZ. Of its other festivals, Kinetika is dropped for 2016 and it’s trying to find a new home for Tropfest.
Report: CBFF allocated $17.6m this year
The Community Broadcasting Foundation’s annual report for 2015 showed it supported 75% of funding applications. It allocated $17,607,547 to 236 broadcasting organisations, allowing the production of 69,498 hours of radio programming in 101 languages for 127 ethnic communities across the country. $279,606 went to 35 stations to upgrade equipment and subsidise staff salaries.
$1.4 million worth of Content Development grants saw $1.1 million allocated to t 30 stations and organisations to produce 49 programs. Of $1.1 million of indigenous grants, $380,000 went to 23 stations and producers to support 32 shows.
One more for the road(ies) #1: ARCA support
The Australian Road Crew Association is getting much support as it sources funding. An international Australian act which is returning to Australia to tour in June 2016 has offered to do a benefit concert.
Country singer songwriterAllan Caswell, when approached about a donation, knocked out a new song about roadies calledBoys In Black. A label distributor wrote out a cheque for $1,000.
One more for the road(ies) #2: It’s A Roadies Job book
The social and career problems faced by roadies, especially in the “golden era” of Australian pub rock is highlighted in a book called It’s A Roadies Job. It is self-published by Ron Clayton, who was with TMG from whoa to go and also worked with early ‘70s Sydney band Velvet Underground which had a pre-AC/DC Malcolm Young in its ranks. The book is strong on details, covers the inevitable sex and drugs as well as betrayals and bad business decisions.
The book provides insight to personalities, life on the road and power plays that bands have to negotiate. Clayton’s dedication to TMG lead to him going into debt to keep the band afloat. He mortgaged his house to buy a truck, but when the band’s falling sales saw it go into debt, he was sued by airlines, car hire firms and equipment shops and the truck was repossessed. With glee, he recounted in an interview to promote the book that it sold more copies in its first seven days than TMG’s single Jump In My Car did in its debut week. The book is available from kim_ron@optusnet.com.au.
MusicNT panel to highlight challenges of indigenous musician
Northern Territory association MusicNT is presenting a panel at the Australasian Worldwide Music Expo (November 12-14 in Melbourne) to highlight its programs on creating pathways that help indigenous musicians overcome obstacles as geographical isolation and minimal opportunities.
MusicNT programs include Bush Bands, Desert Divas and Sista Sounds. The Friday 13 session at 3 pm is moderated by Rhoda Roberts (Boomerang Festival, Head of Indigenous Programming at Sydney Opera House). The panel includes Rayella singer Eleanor Dixon who mentors Sista Sounds; Rayella guitarist Raymond Dixon; Bush Bands Project Coordinator Adelaide Wood; Association of Artist Managers Chairperson Greg Carey who mentors Bush Bands; Nannup Music Festival Director Phaedra Watts; and Stacia Goninon, GM of Seed Fund, which supports indigenous initiatives.
MusicNT Central Australian Manager Milyika Scales points out, “We are so isolated here in the NT, it’s important to show what we are doing to a national audience, especially when we are having such strong outcomes for our artists and partners.”
Adelaide arts administrator Greg Mackie awarded
High profile Adelaide arts identity Greg Mackie was presented with the $50,000 inaugural Jim Bettison and Helen James Award for his contribution to SA’s culture and the arts. Mackie, who runs the Festival of Ideas, also served as Executive Director of Arts SA during which time he developed the long time music conference Fuse under Alistair Cranney (who now runs Gorgeous music and wine festival) and served on numerous boards including Feast Festival and the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust.
Time Out Bar Awards recognises party promoters
This year’s Time Out Bar Awards (December 6, Sydney) has a new category called Party Starter. It’s for those hardy souls who, despite the Sydney lockout laws, keep clubbers coming with parties in clubs, bars, warehouses, basements and rooftops and “dedicated to keeping Sydney open.”
Funding cuts to close Wide Angle Tasmania
Funding cuts is killing off Wide Angle Tasmania, which provide entry-level film training, cheap equipment hire and film festival opportunities. Earlier in the year, it lost $80,000 of federal funding (a third of its budget) after Screen Australia faced its own funding cuts. A request to Screen Tasmania for more money and for 18 months yielded less money ($40,000) and for a six-month period while it worked on a business plan. Wide Angle will close up in June 2016.
OzFlix set for a 2016 launch
Set to launch next year is a pay-per-view streaming service called OzFlix dedicated solely to Australian films. Its creators, veteran film producers Alan Finney and Ron V. Brown, say that Australian films don’t last long in cinemas, and this is a way to keep them alive and reach new audiences. The two had the idea for five years but it took the arrival of Netflix to widen the SVOD concept to a mainstream audience. Aside from streams, OzFlix will also offer “bundles” of films based around a theme or director, and curated playlists from major Australian movie names.
To allow more Australian films to get online, Finney and Brown have set up the not-for-profit Australian Film Future Foundation to financially help filmmakers digitise their films.
Number Crunching
10 nominations for Seven Network’s Peter Allen – Not The Boy Next Door in the fifth Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) awards. SBS’s Prison Songs received five and the ABC’s The Cambodian Space Project three.
192,000 first week US sales of equivalent album units for 5 Seconds Of Summer’s Sounds Good Feels Good. 179,000 were straight out album sales.
400 of Launceston’s Princess Theatre old seats snapped up in two days, before its facelift in summer.
$71 million grossed on Maroon 5’s world tour so far, from 60 concerts before 874,880 fans.
494,400 metro viewers for Nine Network’s screening on the weekend of Videos That Changed The World.
Vale
Paul Joseph was a performer and environmental activist who co-founded the music and alternate lifestyle Aquarius Festival in NSW’s North Coast with Graeme Dunstan and Johnny Allen in 1973. He was also involved in the setting up of the Nimbin community, “a visionary and driving force” according to Dunstan, helping to build the houses. The move was prompted by police brutality he experienced at an anti-Vietnam war rally in Sydney, which lead him to live in a relaxed community. He returned to the city to play a leper in Jesus Christ Superstar. He was diagnosed with lung cancer this year. Before his death last month, his friends threw him a wake in April at the Nimbin Bush Theatre (he appropriately had built it for the community, even cutting down the trees) and at which he performed with his jazz musician son Willow and a band.
Adam Cazzola was a Mackay, Queensland-based remixer and a multi-instrumentalist who posted his tracks online. So obsessed was he about music that when Pink tickets ran out in Brisbane, he drove to Melbourne with his father Lorenzo to see her. Cazzola, 24, died on October 24 in a collision between his car and a ute.
One time RCA Chief Engineer John Innes set up Innes Corporation in 1977 to provide equipment for the radio and TV industries. It became a Proprietary Limited company ten years later and worked exclusively in radio, providing antennas, transmitters, measuring instruments and program input gear and later equipment for digital radio. He also expanded services to North America, Europe, South Africa and Asia. It was sold in 2014 to British company Sonifex, which started working with Innes on its audio cards. After that Innes set up electric and electronic manufacturing firm Retrace Pty Ltd
And A Few Other Things …
Lorde and her mum were on a long-haul flight to New York during the New Zealand All Blacks vs Australian Wallabies sweatathon. But she excitedly kept up with the progress of the game via Air New Zealand flight attendants (who blared out Queen’s We Are The Champions through the PA system at the end of the game when the Kiwis gave the Aussies a thrashing 34—17), and couldn’t wait to tweet her congrats. “All my life i’ve been a fervently non-sport ‘forgot my p.e gear’ type gal but jeez i am pretty proud of the @AllBlacks!” No news on what she thought of Robbie Williams singing snippets of Royals during his NZ shows.
Why was Ruby Rose hobbling around in a cane while she co-hosted the MTV European awards? Because when she was in South Africa shooting the action thriller movie Resident Evil: The Final Chapter she tore her calf muscles.
Southern Cross Austereo Chairman Peter Bush officially rejected rumours it is planning a takeover of Nine Network.
The video for Lime Cordiale’s Not That Easy was inspired by their dates for the Western Queensland Drought Appeal. In between gigs, they explored drought-hit areas, checking out abandoned farms, remote towns and sharing beers with locals in outback pubs. They explained, “We wanted to really get to know the people we were supporting, so we sat in pubs with them, shared beers with them and heard the heartbreaking stories that come from the ongoing issue of drought. We want to show the beauty of this part of Australia to our audience, which is primary based in urban or coastal areas.”
Two months after splitting from actress Gigi Hadid, 18-year-old singer songwriter and surfing tragic Cody Simpson has been linked with Aussie model Sahara Ray, the daughter of surf champion Tony Ray.
To say that Robbie Williams was miffed over the Stuff.co.nz review of his Wellington show would be an understatement. Fairfax music reviewer Simon Sweetman, who calls it as he sees it, called the show at the Basin Reserve “a circus”, “the whole chav-made-good, I’m-grinning-so-I-must-be-winning shtick is tiresome”, sniffed “The fact that Robbie Williams can barely aim anywhere near a high note, let alone hit one, is insulting” and reckoned the song Me And My Monkey deserved “a prize for the Worst Song in the World”. The Robbster hit Twitter where he has 2.45 million followers. He posted a photo from the journo’s private blog (featuring his young son Oscar), referred to him as “Simon Sweatman”, referred to him as “Baby eater” and posted his Twitter handle so that his fans could direct their ire straight at him.
God Of A Girl, the first taste of Perth EDM act Georgi Kay’s 2016-due Origins EP was inspired by the film adaption of Stephen King’s Carrie. It explored reality and fantasy within the psyche of an abuse victim and the mental results of being pushed to breaking point. “I was fascinated by the idea of her innocence and vulnerability transforming and physically manifesting into supernatural powers of chaos and destruction – a symbolism of the pain, fear and anger she felt as a victim of abuse and mistreatment.”
Filthy Lucre are heading over to the USA to begin recording a new album.
Foxtel will announce its 2016 programming lineup with a media call morning tea event on Thursday (November 5).
It wasn’t that long ago that rock and roller Jade Hurley came home from tour to find his motorhome broken into and $250,000 worth of jewellery he collected over 40 years. stolen Police told him that the collection had been pawned for a pittance. Now during a WA tour, thieves smashed into his borrowed car and made off with $10,000 worth of merchandise and personal items. “Scumbags” the big feller roared on Facebook.
Fleetwood Mac discovered how loyal their WA fans can be. They took to the stage at Domain Stadium in the middle of a torrential downpour. But no one in the 25,000-strong crowd left during the two hour show determined to hang on for the band’s first show there in 16 years … and Christine McVie’s first visit after 30 years. Stevie Nicks, who’d been told by her limo driver it never rains in Perth quipped to fans, “We bring the rain!”
Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie continues his further inroads to Hollywood. Johnny Depp will produce and star in his movie adaption of Neil Gaiman’s 2013 best selling children’s book, Fortunately, The Milk with Fox a possibility to be involved.
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