New Signings & Team-Ups: Awaken I Am get global release; Pierce Bros. ink label, booking deals; Born Lion sign to ABC imprint; Meerkat raises $12m; SCA’s new deal

Pierce Bros. sign with Warner Music, UK booking agency

Melbourne folk-pop duo Pierce Brothers move their career up another gear by signing with Warner Music in Australia/NZ. They’re touring Australia in April with seven shows before relocating to Europe for their summer. They also signed with UK’s Free Trade Agency (Ed Sheeran, War on Drugs, St Vincent) who’ve booked them on major festivals as The Great Escape, Canadian Music Week and Pinkpop Festival in Netherlands, and showcases across Europe including dates with The Cat Empire and two of their own shows in London in May. As announced here previously, they recently signed to Europe with RCA/Sony. In Australia Jack and Pat shifted 40,000 EPs independently and recently sold out a record five shows in Melbourne.

Four l Four have Born Lion as mane feature

ABC Music imprint Four l Four inked Sydney hardcore merchants Born Lion. After playing Soundwave, they are in the studio recording their debut album with Sydney producer Dave Hammer (The Snowdroppers, Die!Die!Die!, Thundamentals). “To be on the same label as Tim Rogers, The Snowdroppers and Little Bastard is an honor,” said Born Lion’s John Bowker. “It’s an amazing label that has had belief in this band from the beginning.”

Awaken I Am album gets global release

Gold Coast pop-rock outfitAwaken I Am(pictured)’sdebut albumShields and Crownsgets an Australian and NZ release through Shock Records on March 27, as well as through Zestone Records in Japan and Blackstream Records in the U.S. They embark on a 10-date national tour between March 28 to May 2 and in June will join Kentucky bandEmarosa on their national dates.

Buzz app Meerkat raises $12 million, taking over world?

Live video streaming app Meerkat, which just took South By Southwest by storm, raised an extra US $12 million courtesy Greylock Partners and angel investors. This means Meerkat is valued at $40 million after being launched in March 2015. First depending entirely on Twitter, the app has introduced new features to make it more independent after Twitter bought the rival Periscope live video service and started to inhibit access for Meerkat. Meerkat founder Ben Rubin claims he built the app in just eight weeks and that it already has 300,000 users. The BBC in the UK is piloting the app for its news coverage.

ABC lets Jeanie out of bottle

Melbourne country/pop duo Jeanie signed with ABC Music. New single You’ll Be With Me Till I Die comes off debut EP Crazy, out on April 2 and launched at The Toff In Town that day with Monique Brumby. Jeanie formed late last year by ABC3 presenter Olivia Phyland and TV composer Aaron D’Arcy.

Bang PR wins Vivid Sydney account

M&C Saatchi’s Bang PR will handle light, music and ideas event Vivid Sydney for the second year in a row, after a competitive agency pitch by Destination NSW. Its GM of Communications, Tanya Bowes explained, “Bang PR showed a great understanding of the development of the event and agency requirements, presenting creative ideas grounded in solid media strategy. The event runs May 22 to June 8 for its seventh year. Last year it attracted more than the entire population of Adelaide, with a record 1.43 million attendees.

SCA strikes deal with Big Video

Southern Cross Austereo is one of seven publishers pacting with mobile specialist Big Mobile’s new premium-only mobile video network Big Video. It claims 150 sites and apps with four million monthly unique browsers and 100 million monthly impressions over various formats. SCA’s James Bayes said, “We’re excited to evolve our partnership with Big Mobile beyond display through the Big Video Network. In 2015 we’ll continue to make a heavy investment in premium mobile content and video is a key part of that strategy.”

Aussie metal group Meshiaa lands global deal

Melbourne metal band Meshiaa (Meh-she-yuk) landed a worldwide record deal with Mascot Label Group. Now joined by US drummer Jon Dette (ex-Slayer, Anthrax, Testament), they enter Green Day’s Jingletown Studios in Oakland, Cal, tomorrow (March 25) to begin tracking their debut album.

Glenn A Baker ambassador for ‘60s cruise

Choose Your Cruise, which combines South Pacific holidays with music festivals, has tapped Sydney media personality and music historian Glenn A. Baker as Ambassador and host for Rock the Boat 6. The seven night cruise November 6 to 13 has a ‘60s theme, with acts including Peter Noone, Gary Puckett and The Union Gap. The Troggs, The Pacemakers, The Fortunes, Mike Pender’s Searchers, Badfinger featuring Joey Molland. Brian Poole & Chip Hawkes (of The Tremeloes) and PJ Proby.

Popfrenzy releasing Alyx Dennison debut

Popfrenzy Records will release Alyx Dennison’s self-titled debut. Dennison was half of Sydney’s kyü. On the cusp of a breakthrough including triple j Unearthed and Qantas Spirit of Youth Award, they split after a year. She then played with experimental artist Richard In Your Mind, travelled around India and learned the Dhrupad vocal tradition with Uma LaCombe in Varanasi and moved to Melbourne to study composition at the Victorian College of The Arts.

Two Coast Alliances work on music projects

The Gold Coast Alliance and Sunshine Coast Alliance are working together to create events to attract more tourism to their regions. The first is a free opera event in September to coincide with the annual Kite Festival.

The Gold Coast Alliance is also cross promoting its Blues on Broadbeach festival with sporting and cultural events. The blues festival, which last year injected $15 million to the local economy after drawing 125,000 over four days, is back on May 21 to 24. A football match between the Gold Coast Suns and Melbourne’s Collingwood is being marketed to sports fans (especially those from Melbourne) to come and enjoy the festival as well.

The Gold Coast Alliance also runs a free country music festival which last year drew 50,000 in its second year, and a jazz festival which draws 20,000.

Mauboy catwaks for Target

Jessica Mauboy’s team up with Target at its event at Melbourne Fashion Festival saw her hit the runway for the first time modeling three of the chain’s “new season womenswear fashion” and performing a live set at the end.

Rockstar Games, Mass Appeal, make games’ offshoot album

Rockstar Games and Mass Appeal Records are working on offshoots for the music from Grand Theft Auto V. The album Welcome to Los Santos features artists The Alchemist and Oh No making new music “based on and inspired by the original soundtrack.” The new music debuts in the US inside the PC version of the game on April 14 and as a stand-alone album ten days later.

Brisbane’s Morning Harvey expands business team

Brisbane band Morning Harvey are managed by Rick Chazan’s Ground Control Music and booked by Stephen Wade of Select Music.

Backlot Films ally with Deluxe

Melbourne-based Backlot Films founders Tony Ianiro and Mark D’Angelo struck an alliance with Deluxe Australia. It will provide the film and television industry with a one-stop-shop for post-production and logistics services. Deluxe will also provide management for three dispatch warehouses in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Backlot Films already has a distribution company that will provide filmmakers with an alternative opportunity to secure a cinema release. Ianiro said, “Our focus has always been on connecting, engaging and collaborating with local and emerging talent.”

SVOD platform Stan to piggyback off Telstra

After piggy-backing off Optus subscriber numbers, streaming video on demand (SVOD) platform Stan applied to add Telstra to its list of telco partners. It’s caused blinking of eyes. Telstra already has a deal with Foxtel & Seven West’s Presto (this week it confirmed a six month bonus subscription and unmetered access to Presto for its T-Box customers), and a 50% stake in Foxtel. But telcos are gung-ho about streaming: their subscription penetration is stuck at 30%, and they are hoping the new craze will boost it. Outgoing Telstra CEO David Thodey reckons it could even double it.

Following on from striking exclusive content deals with studios as Amazon and Sony, Stan also recently announced a partnership with Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific for a range of children’s programming.

Live Nation has a drink on Smirnoff

Live Nation Entertainment appointed Smirnoff as its official vodka sponsor for 26 music festivals in the US and Europe. Smirnoff will “enhance the consumer experience” at events as Wonderlands, V, Creamfields, Electric Daisy Carnival, Rock'n'Heim (Germany) Pinkpop (Netherlands) and Dcode (Spain).

Presto joins 20th century

Presto has a content agreement with 20th Century Fox that will provide its customers with Modern Family, Homeland, Sons of Anarchy, American Horror Story, the X-Files, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The Americans, Glee and Louie.