New Signings & Team-Ups: Tkay lands agency deal; Concord and Bicycle merge; Little Deed at Harbour; Judas Priest launch coffee range

Tkay Maidza lands UK, European, agency deal
Fast rising Australian rapper Tkay Maidza, who made waves at last month’s SXSW, inked with Coda Music Agency for the UK and Europe. She has just been added to the UK’s Great Escape festival. In Australia, she sold out her seven-show headline ‘M.O.B.’ Tour, Adelaide-based 5/4 Entertainment reported. To set up the tour, her opening act, Brisbane producer UV boi فوق بنفسجي gave her Dew Process/ Universal single M.O.B. a chill-out remix. Maidza is also on Groovin’ The Moo and opens for Charli XCX.

Bossy Music PR-reppingJarryd James
Bossy Music will handle national PR for break-out Brisbane singer-songwriter Jarryd James. His track Do You Remember, which debuted at #2 on the ARIA chart, has gained over 1 million streams. After finishing off a sold-out headline tour, James heads out on tour on the East Coast in July. Live Nation and Artist Voice have him at Woolly Mammoth Brisbane (July 3), Sydney Metro (10) and Melbourne Forum (11).

Bossy is also working with new UK artist The Japanese House (18-year-old Amber Bain) whose single Still was triple j’s Zan Rowe’s ‘Catch of the Day’.

Warner/Chappell spreads on Cranberries
Warner/Chappell Music will administer for The Cranberries’ singer Dolores O’Riordan and guitarist Noel Hogan, covering their share of the Irish band’s work from 1993-2004. The band sold 40 million albums with hits as Linger, Zombie, Ode to My Family and Dreams.

Concord and Bicycle merge, new indie powerhouse emerges
America’s Concord Music Group and sister publisher, the Bicycle Music Co, have merged. The new company Concord Bicycle Music immediately bought Vanguard Records and Sugar Hill Records from Welk Music Group, retaining its President Kevin Welk as Chief Creative for the two labels. Billboard sees the emergence of an indie powerhouse, with an estimated $125 million annual turnover, a master recording catalogue of 10,000 albums and a publishing portfolio of 60,000 songs. It has raised $100 million for more acquisitions.

Artists it now represents include George Benson, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Creed, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Miles Davis, Paul McCartney & Wings, Evanescence, Kenny G, Carole King, Nine Inch Nails, the Offspring, Robert Plant, Paul Simon, Social Distortion, tStaple Singers, James Taylor, George Thorogood, Tone Loc and Alison Krauss.

Nine confirms it's buying Pedestrian.tv stake
Nine Entertainment’s buy into of youth online brand Pedestrian.tv, mooted in last week’s column, is now finalised. The deal, which provides Nine with a presence in the youth mobile and social media market where it is under-represented, is through its Mi9 digital division. It is believed to be a 60% stake for $10 million. The site, set up in 2006 by Oscar Martin and Chris Wirasinha, will retain its Surry Hills, Sydney, office and 27-strong staff.

Alex Parsons, Mi9’s MD said: “Pedestrian.tv engages over a million young Australians every month and delivers amazing results for brands. Our mission is to create and sell digital products that people and brands love, and in certain categories our strategy is to invest and create opportunities for future growth. We are excited by the opportunity to help continue to build this business whilst learning from the impressive Pedestrian.tv team.”

Gene Simmons kisses into WWE Studios
Kiss tongue man Gene Simmons signed a deal with WWE Studios to co-produce three horror movies. The first of these, Temple, starts shooting later this year. WWE Studios, set up in 2002 for WWE wrestlers, wert on to make 30 movies including The Scorpion King, Walking Tall and The Condemned.

WA/Singapore team up yields more results
The Singapore WA Music Exchange (S.W.A.M.), two-year partnership between West Australia’s WAM association and Timbre Music, continues to create more opportunities for WA acts in the Singapore and wider Asian markets. Three acts, to be chosen, will play at Timbre Group’s signature event Beerfest Asia. Held over four days (June 25 to 28), it draws crowds of 30,000. The Aussies play at an industry showcase before the public, producers and managers and also attend an industry networking session. Funding for the four acts is possible through WA’s Department of Culture and the Arts (DCA).

Spark & Opus And Umbrella merge
Management firms Greg Carey and Joel Connolly’s Umbrella (Urthboy, Andy Bull, Cloud Control, The Rubens, Fishing) and Briese Abbott’s Spark & Opus (Elizabeth Rose, PVT, Cub Sport, Franky Walnut) have merged. The new company will utilise Spark & Opus’ additional PR clients, and brought in Sony ATV’s Chris Chalmers as Head Of Publicity.

US, UK, distribution deals for Amy Winehouse documentary
An Australian distributor for the Amy Winehouse documentary Amy is yet to be announced. But it is handled in cinemas in the USby A24 and the UK by Altitude Distribution for a July release. Directed by Asif Kapadia, it includes new archive footage and unheard tracks. Her five-time Grammy winning Back To Black sold 20 million worldwide. Her troubled life ended at age 27 from alcohol poisoning in 2011.

Rdio champions Lurch & Chief
As part of Rdio Australia’s commitment to championing Australian up-and-comers, the streaming service has picked Melbourne’s Lurch & Chief as its Artist to Watch for April. The stoner-psych-swirl-rock act follows national dates opening for Kingswood with its own run of 14 club dates May 8 to June 7.

Little Deed at Harbour Agency
Sydney industrial/acoustic solo act Little Deed, whose debut single Neon set a buzz online, signed booking to Harbour Agency, repped by agent Dan Sant.

Melbourne Music Bank winner releases single
Folk singer songwriter Héloise, who won Bank of Melbourne’s music initiative Melbourne Music Bank 2014, is releasing the winning song This Is Home as a single this week. She launches it at the Workers Club on Thurs April 30. The comp was about penning a song about Melbourne. This Is Home was about Héloise leaving Tasmania for the big smoke of Melbourne. “I absolutely love the creative culture in Melbourne,” she said. The video was shot by filmmaker Wilk on an old V-line train in regional Victoria.

Judas Priest launch own coffee range
British heavy metal veterans Judas Priest unleash their own British Steel coffee to mark the 35th anniversary of their landmark album of that name. The deal, with Chicago’s Dark Matter Coffee to produce “the ultimate hesher coffee” is available online and in Dark Matter’s three stores in Chicago.

New act for Domino Australia
Domino Australia will release Move Systems, the new grime-hip hop track from its British parent’s signing Georgia. The multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter from London was drummer for Kwes and Kate Tempest.

The Wiggles get strapped in
The Wiggles’ latest partner is Australian-based global children's car-seat maker InfaSecure. The three year deal will see the act incorporate the fourth generation family brand’s child restraint message into its live shows and content. Wiggles Managing Director Paul Field said, “InfaSecure are an Aussie owned family business taking on the world – just like us.” The deal was brokered, and will be managed, by long time Wiggles sponsorship agency FIT Sponsorship Marketing.

Vivid Sydney renews Intel partnership…
Vivid Sydney and Intel Australia work together for a fifth consecutive year on using its latest technology on creative installations. These included Customs House transformed with 3D-mapped animations; will.i.am present an interactive light and music show on the Museum of Contemporary Art; festival-goers invited to “paint” the Sydney Harbour Bridge; and Sydney’s ferries transformed into a moving work of art. This year Intel technology is utilized at Martin Place’s Transcendence, a towering structure with projection mapping and computer code-driven light shows each night, as well as a pop-up bar.

…and with Red Bull Music Academy
Red Bull Music Academy returns to Vivid LIVE for a second year, after last year collaborating on the successful Giorgio Moroder x Heritage Orchestra commission. This year it presents The Studio over five nights at the Opera House. This includes showcases of EDM labels, collectives and international selectors. Friday May 22 sees French beats impresario Onra and Australian producer Dreems making his live debut. Saturday May 23 is the return of Marrickville institution Mad Racket with a six-act bill.

Friday May 29 is Goodgod Small Club and House of Mince come together for Goodgod Minceteria!. Saturday May 30 is curated by Astral People. The Sunday May 31 show is hip hop electro label Elefant Trak’s showcase.

Film version of Carole King’s Beautiful through Sony
Sony Pictures has gained the rights to the movie version of Broadway’s Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. It is not known if actress Jessie Mueller, the lookalike Carole who won a Tony for her performance, will make it to the movie which has Tom Hanks as one of the three producers.

Pandora streams into BWS stores
Pandora is streaming music into liquor retailer BWS, with a different playlist for each postcode. This is decided by BWS customer research and Pandora’s own Music Genome Project which analyses music use. BWS Radio begins with 70 stores in NSW, before rolling out to hundreds nationally. Pandora is using in-store customer experience firm Mood Media which provides the stores with a media player through which to play the music and slot in radio ads. BWS Radio is also heard outside the stores for all Pandora customers.

DHX seals deal with Orchard for ANZ market
Children’s TV producer and distributor DHX Media sealed a distribution deal with online music, video and film distribution company The Orchard for its children’s and family content. The three year deal covers Australia and New Zealand as well as the U.S., Latin America, South Africa and Europe. The deal is for 8,000 episodes of Caillou, Yo Gabba Gabba!, Teletubbies, Inspector Gadget, Super WHY! and Johnny Test and 2,000 tracks of children’s music from the likes of Caillou, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, The Doodlebops and Strawberry Shortcake. The Orchard’s deals with digital movie and TV storefronts reaches over 200 million paying customers.

Soak named [V] buzz artist
On the eve of her debut Australian shows in Sydney and Melbourne, 18-year-old Irish singer songwriter Soak is Channel [V]’s Buzz Artist Of The Month. Her Before We Forgot How To Dream is out May 29 via Remote Control.