New Signings and Team-Ups: Sony broadens out; US co-management for Driessen; New touring agency for NZ

Sony Music Australia broadens out with Mass Appeal Records

Sony Music Entertainment Australia this week releases one of the hottest hip hop albums of the year, Run The Jewels 2, through a team-up with Mass Appeal Records. Mass Appeal started in New York City in 1996 as a graffiti fanzine and grew into a hip hop, street and skate culture magazine. The 2013 set-up of Mass Appeal Records partnered with rapper Nas. Signings included 17-year old NYC rapper Bishop Nehru, Detroit rapper Boldy James and XXL freshman Fashawn. Future releases include a Mass Appeal compilation and a new Nas album. Earlier this year it signed Run The Jewels, aka EL-P and Killer Mike. The duo return to Australia for headline shows alongside Joey Bada$$ in January, and Falls and Sounthbound festival appearances.

Jodie Regan managing Fascinator

Award winning Perth manager Jodie Regan added Fascinator to her Spinning Top firm. Fascinator is the psychedelic project of Children Collide frontman Johnny Mackay. After a year in New York, Fascinator has dropped new track and video Showin’ Off. To mark the team up, Spinning Top has a Jagwar Ma edit of the track as a free download on its site.

Barely Dressed/ Remote Control announce Jim Lawrie

Melbourne singer songwriter Jim Lawrie is the second signing for Barely Dressed Records, through Remote Control. He releases his second album EONS in February. As a preview, the first two singles Midnight Run and Just Like Normal are being given away for free. Lawrie began as a drummer in his mid-teens for acts including Eagle and The Worm. His first album Paying My Debts From The Grave was released last year.

US co-management for Driessen

Melbourne R&B/ hip hop duo Driessen, based in the US for the past six months, signed US co-management with Richard Compton’s Florida-based Metropolis Productions. Cameron and Clayton Driessen tour the US for six weeks with four dancers, a DJ and a live rhythm section. New single Taking Over, released online, was mixed by Lu Diaz (Usher, Puff Daddy, Pitbull).

National broadcasts for Woodford Folk

Three south-east Queensland community radio stations, 4ZZZ, 4EB and Noosa FM are collaborating on this year's national Woodford Folk Festival broadcast. Three hours of highlights of the live sets and interviews with artists and punters will be played live across the Community Radio Network (CRN) on December 30 and 31. The week long festival is a celebration of music, art, culture, community and ceremony at Woodfordia, an hour north of Brisbane.

Hockey Dad net in agency, distribution

Wollongong’s Hockey Dad signed with booking agency Village Sounds and a distributor Inertia via the Farmer & The Owl label. Things are moving on the live front for them: national dates with DZ Deathrays and Bass Drum Of Death, and a Falls Byron Bay slot for winning triple j Unearthed’s Falls comp.

World Electronic Music Contest spins in Australia

UK-based talent hunting and networking Fame Music and Ministry of Sound Australia are hunting the next producer/DJ talent by bringing their World Electronic Music Contest to Australia. The quest, which begins in January, will provide the winner the chance to produce and engineer their sounds at Studio 301, an international release through Ministry of Sound, gigs at two southern hemisphere clubs, new gear from Native Instruments and mentoring from two EMD acts. Judges include EMD duo SCNDL, Ministry of Sound A&R Dylan Sanders and Studio 301‘s Ben Feggans. Head to famemusic.com/au.

Adelaide’s Oisima presses Create/Control

Multi-genre Adelaide performer Oisima (aka Anth Wendt) joins the Create/Control roster with his debut album Nicaragua Nights out mid-2015.

Pavement cracks onto Perth’s Thee Gold Blooms

Sydney’s The A&R Department’s new label Pavement Records teamed with Perth garage surf rock outfit Thee Gold Blooms to release their new single Katie-Sue. It’s a taster for their debut album, out next month.

Music mentors go sky-high

Busby Marou, Channel [V] presenter Danny Clayton, Lionel Cole and this year’s triple j National Indigenous Music Award winner Philly were mentors in Australia’s first sky-high mentoring session. A four year partnership between Virgin Australia and the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) aims to provide support for indigenous students through high school and to further education and employment. The first session was held at 30,000 feet on a Virgin Australia flight out of Sydney over the Land of Gadigal People of the Eora Nation. That session led to a public performance in Martin Place, Sydney, last Friday. Virgin says the partnership has reached 3,500 high school students nationally this year, with the aim to reach 10,000 by 2018.

Alan Jones extends 2GB contract

Alan Jones, who holds a 14.1% share of the Sydney radio market, extended his deal with Macquarie Radio’s 2GB until June 2017.

Sugar Mountain dishing it up

Melbourne music and art festival, Sugar Mountain struck deals for food and bar. These were signature burger dishes from Fitzroy’s Hammer & Tong owners Simon Ward and Dennis Ferreira, Carlton dive bar operator Dave Kerr building a replica on-site of The Beaufort complete with Ike’s Rack Shack lean-to for BBQ fare, Dai Duong’s Vietnamese restaurant Uncle in St. Kilda, Raph Rashid’s New York-style deli snack stand, and a fried chicken joint from Collingwood restaurant Rockwell and Sons. Sugar Mountain also signed Richmond brewery Mountain Goat as a major partner providing beer, wine and cocktails. Those playing at Victorian College of the Arts are Nas, Kim Gordon, SWANS, Ariel Pink, Leif Podhajsky and Ash Keating.

MTV’s #Get808 campaign gets it

MTV Australia’s #Get808 campaign with Sydney agency The Royals to generate awareness for MTV Music channel 808, has worked. Using guerrilla tactics like sky writing over Sydney and Melbourne, street teams and the 808 body painted models on the ARIA red carpet drove 10,000 visitors to the get808.com site and added 1700 new followers on Instagram and Twitter.

New national touring agency for New Zealand

Arts development agency Creative New Zealand is in March launching a national touring network for music, dance and theatre acts. The initiative for the New Zealand Touring Agency came from its study which found that lack of touring opportunities hampered the sectors from unveiling new work and growing audiences. PromPt Incorporated, which delivers the Performing Arts Network of New Zealand Market to introduce acts to festival and venue promoters, will run the scheme for an initial three years.

CRA promotes digital radio over Christmas

Commercial Radio Australia and Sony partnered on a retail bonus offer for DAB+ digital radios at Christmas. An ad over 32 stations promotes digital radio as a gift of “unlimited entertainment”. The push on Sony digital radio sets covers 600 stores of retailers JB Hi Fi, Myer, Bing Lee and The Good Guys.

Durex back with Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

Durex Creative returns as a sponsor of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras for a third year. It continues its ‘Love Same Sex’ campaign across gay and lesbian media platforms for its Mardi Gras and Melbourne’s Midsumma sponsorships.

NRMA Business serving Country Music Cocktails

As part of its sponsorship of the Tamworth Country Music Festival, NRMA Business Motoring brings back its Country Music Cocktails showcase. From 174 applications for the 2015 event (compared to 32 in its first year in 2013), 36 acts were chosen. These include O’Shea, Jetty Road, Kirsty Lee Akers, Ashleigh Dallas and Roo Arcus.

The Rising Stars category is back for a second year: Caitlyn Shadbolt who performed in that category returns in 2015 as a main stage performer after going on to make the Top 5 on X Factor Australia. A 2015 Rising Star gets a prize from Market The Music, Peppertone Productions and The Vault Studios. The winner also receives six months of music business and marketing mentoring, media and publicity advice and a new single produced by producer Sean Rudd. The NRMA Business Motoring Country Music Cocktails, hosted by Ben Sorensen from Real Country, is on January 18 at SSS BBQ Barn.

Stan gets in bed with BBC Worldwide, CBS Studios

Nine Entertainment Co and Fairfax Media’s new streaming service Stan struck two more content deals with BBC Worldwide and CBS Studios, following similar pacts with Sony and MGM.

Seven West Media adds TV content to Presto

Seven West Media plugged into Foxtel’s upcoming streaming service Presto, with Seven and Foxtel owning 50% each of the new Presto Entertainment. Presto GM Shaun James said a marketing campaign will start next month.

Asia Pacific’s Komli to rep moshtix

Asia Pacific’s digital media technology company Komli Media takes over as ad sales rep in Australia for concert and festival ticketing provider moshtix, Komli’s MD for A/NZ, Tasneem Ali, has high hopes for growth. “The lucrative moshtix audience is energetic, youthful and dynamic. They are predominantly 18-34 with a slight male skew (56%). Moshtix is a transactional site, so its users are active consumers. Moshtix has an active database of more than 1 million subscribers and more than 1.5m average page views per month.”

Music acts behind Special Olympics campaign

Nicole Scherzinger, Maroon 5, Jessie J, and Charli XCX joined a team-up by Ubisoft and the Special Olympics for the first Just Dance challenge. It’s an online fund raising campaign based on the dance and music video game with millions of players around the world, to raise money for the Special Olympics.

One Day raising money for street kids

Hip hop collective One Day is producing a Christmas edition of its monthly One Day Sundays block party at the Vic Enmore (Dec 28). It hopes to raise $10,000 for disadvantaged youth through charity Youth Off The Streets.