New Signings & Team-Ups: Nov 3
UMPG adds Kacy Hill to roster
Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) added Kacy Hill to a worldwide deal. It includes her new debut EP Bloo, out last month through Kanye West’s G.O.O.D Music/ Def Jam. “Kacy Hill is so inventive and one of the most exciting new artists today,” said UMPG Chairman and CEO Jody Gerson. “Her writing and performances are refreshingly unique and modern.”
The Arizona-hailed singer songwriter started as a model for American Apparel and backup dancer for West on his Yeezus tour. She signed to G.O.O.D last December alongside John Legend, Big Sean, Pusha T, Q-Tip and Teyana Taylor. Since then she’s been acclaimed as an exciting new talent. GQ stated, “Hill’s barrelling towards the big time” and NY Magazine tipped her as “one to watch.” New single Foreign Fields has over 1.6 million Spotify plays and hit #7 on Spotify’s Global Viral 50 chart. Arms Length got 672,340 Spotify plays in its first two weeks.
Sydney’s Big White sign international booking deal
With plans to return to tour the US and Europe next March, Sydney guitar band Big White signed an international booking deal with Belgium’s ToutPartout. They will be repped by Romain Peutat. Band manager Nick Lynagh of Habit Music Company tells Industrial Strength that Peutat “got in touch after discovering Big White via overseas blogs. He had friends at BIGSOUND check them out as well.” In the meantime, Lynagh is in talks with securing a North American agent. The band is booked by Jordan Campbell at Harbour Agency for Australia. Their debut album Teenage Dreams is set for release through Caroline Australia.
Big White (named after the art deco building they share) toured Europe in early 2014, and recorded their first single EOFY in a Berlin bomb shelter. In March they played SXSW in Texas as part of a showcase by their US label Burger Records, and followed it up with 10 dates in the US southwest.
Girls Rock Camp lands Barnett, Cloher as mentors
The inaugural Girls Rock Music Camp – profiled in last week’s Industrial Strength and to be held in Canberra January 11 to 16– has unveiled its first four mentors.
Milk Music label operators and singer songwriters Courtney Barnett and Jen Cloher will be “dropping by one afternoon to play some songs and teach a workshop,” Australian director Chiara Grassia told Industrial Strength. Steph Hughes also designed their logo. Becki Whitton is a Melbourne-based musician and producer who performs as Aphir. Applications for volunteers and mentors just closed, so more names will be confirmed in the next few weeks.
Response from the music community to the introduction of the camp in Canberra – possibly the first of other cities – has been awesome, Grassia revealed on social media.
Ayla heading for European release
triple j favourite, Sunshine Coast based Ayla (Scanlan), whose When The World Ends EP is out in Australia on November 6 set independently, is set for a European release next year. She is signed to Italian record label Ego (Emma Louise, The Jezabels). Ayla who was raised on the family cattle stud farm, revealed she owns 12 cows of her own.
Nine acquires Soundbreaking
Australian TV viewers will see UK music documentary series Soundbreaking on the small screen next year. Nine Network announced it as part of its 2016 schedule at its Upfront launch in Sydney. The eight-part doco by FremantleMedia International, traces the history of music with never-before-seen footage.
Sony Music goes into a JV with Artist Legacy Group
Sony Music Entertainment entered into a joint venture with Artist Legacy Group to provide artist and estate brand management services for its catalogue Legacy Recordings and other SME labels.
ALG, set up two years ago, provides licensing, branding strategy and merchandising for artist estates. Current clients include Keith Moon’s estate, photographer Mick Rock and the defunct New York City venue Max’s Kansas City. The partnership, which will operate under the ALG name, will be based in New York City and live within SME’s Commercial Music Group. Adam Block, President of Legacy Recordings will manage SME’s interest in the venture.
Haim joins WME roster
US trio Haim signed worldwide representation with William Morris Endeavor (WME), which recently set up in Sydney for Australian and Asia Pacific operations. They continue to be managed by Jon Lieberberg at Roc Nation.
K-Pop’s Rain selling Queensland to Korea
One of K-Pop’s biggest international stars, pop singer and actor Rain, is enlisted to sell Queensland to Korea in a new state tourism campaign. He will fly to Australia shortly to film the Q-Pop campaign.
Tourism and Major Events Minister Kate Jones said 53,000 Koreans visited the state in the year to June 2015, a 4% rise from the year before. 91% of them are aged 15 to 29, Rain’s demographic, and most are into surfing and watersports. He will plug these as well as the state’s outdoor night-life and lifestyle experiences.
Rain’s Q-Pop campaign is driven by Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ) in partnership with Korean Air, Tourism Australia, Gold Coast Tourism, Brisbane Airport Corporation, Brisbane Marketing and Tourism Tropical North Queensland
Musicians, film makers, revealed for Captured Australia
Heath Media’s national music video competition Captured Australia has announced the seven pairings of musicians and film makers. They have seven weeks to produce a music video or short film under 5 minutes. These will be
premiered at Australian Music Week in Sydney on Wednesday November 18 before touring around Australia with a series of pop up events, with screenings, talks and performances between November 22 and December 8.
Two of the teams are from NSW: beat maker Waza & Vanessa Dang, and rock band Wild Honey & Ramundi.
From Victoria, electronic world music outfit Flamingo Jones teams with Mohini Herse, and synth pop Tully on Tully with Sarah Jo Fraser.
SA band The Unset work with Melbourne’s Ashleigh Royle.
The WA teamings are EDM act Griff & Brendan Joel, and singer songwriter Gina Williams and guitarist Guy Ghouse with Richard Watson.
The films screen online from November 22. An international judging panel chooses the winning filmmaker and public votes the act. The winners are announced on December 9 at the AU Awards at the Oxford Art Factory in Sydney.
MTV creates web-series promoting NSW travel
MTV extends its partnership with Destination NSW for the #MTVTRIPPERS campaign. It uses its global reach to showcase NSW as an exciting and affordable destination for the 16 to 34 age group.
The first of the three-part campaign has Australian high profile social media identities Natasha Oakley of the Bikini A Day blog (1.5 million Instagram followers) and Tyson Mayr of the Naked Traveller blog (54,6000 Instagram followers) sharing their travel experiences through the state. Then two short episodes feature on MTV online, and on-air across MTV channels in ANZ.
Queensland entities launch music industry hook-ups
Music association QMusic, community radio 4ZZZ and Music Industry Inside Out join forces to produce a monthly meet-up/hookup in Brisbane on the first Monday eve of every month. There’s a new topic each month, aimed at people wanting to learn more or meet like-minded people. The first one, on recording, producers and studios, was held last night (November 2) at The Foundry.
Warner Music gets soulful with Beverley Knight
Warner Music will get platinum spinning British soul singer Beverly Knight’s eighth album next year, through a deal she signed with UK’s East West. Knight who celebrates the 20th anniversary of her debut album The B Funk, has been in UK theatre productions of The Bodyguard, Memphis The Musical and Cats.
Melbourne to host Asia TOPA
The Victorian Government will work with Melbourne arts associations and Asian partners to stage the inaugural Asia TOPA: Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts. It will contribute $250,000 to the January to April 2017 project.
It was initiated by the Sidney Myer Fund in partnership with Arts Centre Melbourne, which received a $2 million philanthropic grant to establish the program. First act is groundbreaking Chinese contemporary dance company Tao Ye Dance Theater.
Victoria’s Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley recently lead a delegation of arts groups to China during which a Cultural Partnership Agreement was struck, opening the doors for Victoria’s creative industries to forge new opportunities with Australia’s biggest trading partner.
Perth creative help out Moana videos
Perth art rock band Moana’s second EP Trilogy Of The Black Monsoon will experiment with three release dates. Each will come with cross-collaborative artworks over multiple forms. Via Luna Pictures’ stunning music videos for Golden Orb and Elephant Bones, paintings by Kuba Kujawa of Denmark and theatrical live-performance collaborations directed by Moana Lutton herself with Perth actors, movement artists and creative performers.
The project was funded by the Department of Culture and the Arts, with assistance from Creative Partnerships Australia and a Pozible campaign, which raised $10,000.
Study: goin’ mobile
An intensive new Australian study will look at how the ad and music industries can get a grip on the consumer behaviour of those pesky millennials on mobile devices. The Millennial Moments study will be a team-up between OMD, NewsLifeMedia and AMR and include research on apps and sites visited, duration of stay, and how behaviour changes depending on time of day, location and activity.
Tropfest extends Moonlight Cinema, QT partnerships
Tropfest, the world’s largest short film festival, has extended partnership with Moonlight Cinema and hip designer hotel QT Sydney for the second year.
The venues for the December 6 event are Moonlight Sydney (Centennial Parklands), Moonlight Adelaide (Plane Tree Drive), Moonlight Cinema Melbourne (Royal Botanic Gardens), Skyline Drive In Blacktown, Moonlight Perth (Synergy Parkland), Gundaroo Hall NSW and Perth Midlands.