Music Biz Headlines: May 23, 2017
SoundExchange acquires CMRRA - What does it mean for Music Licensing?
A spate of consolidations points to a future, a one-stop shop where music users (including digital music services like Spotify or Deezer, and perhaps even smaller music users like podcasters) can obtain all the rights that they need to use music in their businesses — David Oxenford, Lexology
CRTC leaves Canadian television to fend for itself in Netflix age
As the chair of Canada’s broadcast regulator rides off into the sunset, he has been tossing a few last coins at the many supplicants who follow him wherever he goes. Cantonese and Punjabi newscasts; measures to slow the loss of local TV; more opportunities for female directors, writers and producers; more flexibility for broadcasters – the benevolent Jean-Pierre Blais, outgoing chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), seems to have a little something for most.
He doesn’t leave much of a legacy for himself, however. Once again, his piecemeal approach offers no consistent strategy to address the challenges facing Canadian television production in the Netflix age — Kate Taylor, Globe & Mail
Over 1K Russian-speaking Jews attend Leonard Cohen exhibition
Inspired by the Montrealer’s indelible mark on popular music, and proud of his Jewish Ukrainian ancestry, over 1,000 young Jews originally from the former Soviet Union gathered at a Limmud FSU conference in Westchester, NY, Friday for the unveiling of an exhibit honouring the late singer and writer — The Jerusalem Post
Bryan Adams leases island getaway
Published rates start at US$16,500 per week in the off-season and balloon to $30K per week during the spring and early summer. Additional expenses include hospitality taxes and a discretionary tip for household staff — Variety
Sudanese-Canadian's song of freedom wins songwriting prize
Hisham Abu-Nura wrote and recorded the winning track, Freedom Island, and released it under his stage name, The Free. The 16-year-old has won the inaugural Canadian Songwriting Competition — Lynn Saxberg, Ottawa Citize
Vancouver Opera Festival releases attendance figures
The Vancouver Opera Festival is reporting that 20,000 people took in its first event that includes Otello and Dead Man Walking at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, and The Marriage of Figaro at the Vancouver Playhouse--as well those who attended its Tanya Tagaq and Ute Lemper concerts — The Georgia Straight
Canada 150 musicians getting the shaft
The City of Victoria offers $200 honorariums to bands to perform from $624K event budget — Times Colonist
Peel's finest shows up to bust party, ends up playing drums
Vinyl Ambush thought the party was over on Saturday when Peel Region’s finest showed up. Turns out the blue meanies weren’t so mean, after all — Kelowna Now
Uses of blockchain in music
One company looking to help move the ball for swifter payments for musicians is Revelator, which is able to better track digital assets. Rather than waiting months to receive royalty payments, musicians see a more instantaneous course of payment — PYMNTS.com
Saddledome bucks big acts to Edmonton
Technical constraints mean big productions skip Cowtown for Edmonton where Rogers Place and Commonwealth Stadium can meet modern touring demands — Eric Volmers, Calgary Herald
‘Despacito’ and the Revenge of Reggaeton
The first Spanish-language U.S. No. 1 hit since “Macarena” sees Justin Bieber jumping on a music style of fraught racial lineage in Latin America — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic
Stream your vinyl with a wireless turntable
The Trntbl is a turntable from the vowel-adverse folks behind the vinyl-by-mail subscription service Vnyl. It’s wireless and streams high-quality audio to your Bluetooth speakers, AirPlay devices, or Sonos speakers — April Glaser, Wired
Rebuilding—and recording with—the 1920s technology that changed American music forever
The lathe democratized music production and distribution, just as mixtapes, file-sharing, streaming services, and platforms like Bandcamp did. And musicians have rediscovered it — Charley Locke, Wired
EU relaxes some geo-blocking rules
The Portability Regulation will allow the cross-border use of online paid content subscription services when roaming in the EU.
Non-commercial video streams or public broadcasting organisations content will remain geo-blocked and broadcasters will need to distinguish between their own content and third party content in their programs and also between live streams and archived content in order to decide what can be unblocked — IP Watch
Music Archaeology: Reviving the world's forgotten records
For generations, record collectors have played a vital role in the preservation of musical and cultural heritage by “digging” for obscure music created by overlooked artists. These music "archaeologists" are consumed by a desire to give these records a second chance at being heard and appreciated. In our digital age, these record-diggers also act as music curators and are crucial alternative voices to a contemporary culture often served by computer algorithms — Alex Charpentier
The great digital-age swindle… and the man fighting back
He was tour manager for the Band, producer of Mean Streets… so why, at nearly 70, is Jonathan Taplin taking on Facebook and co? — The Guardian UK
Can you copyright your dumb joke? And how can you prove it's yours?
Comedy writer Alex Kaseberg is taking Conan O’Brien and his Conan show writer to court for allegedly pilfering his material — NPR
Uses of blockchain in music
One company looking to help move the ball for swifter payments for musicians is Revelator, which is able to better track digital assets. Rather than waiting months to receive royalty payments, musicians see a more instantaneous course of payment — PYMNTS.com
Hits Daily Double’s Karen Glauber speaks out for all women in the music biz
There isn’t one female in the music industry who hasn’t been sexually harassed at some point in her career. Let that sink in. Not one. Believe me, I know. And I know this isn’t about sex—not really. It’s about power, insecurity and the need to assert status.
Searching for Jackie Shane, R&B’s lost transgender superstar
Although Shane hasn’t recorded a song, performed live or spoken to the media for more than four decades, a budding new interest in the soul singer’s past is getting her more attention than most artists climbing the Billboard charts today — Elio Iannaci, Globe & Mail
The insidious class divide in music teaching
A passionate debate is raging regarding musical education which threatens to unbalance the already critically privileged world of classical music. And, ironically, some of those who believe that music education should be made more accessible are arguing for measures that will actually exacerbate that privilege — Ian Pace, The Conversation
An ode to the joy and madness of the B-side
You can tell a lot about someone by how they meet the challenges that are laid before them. Applied to bands and B-sides, that proposition holds doubly true. For some bands, signed to major labels, B-sides give the artist a chance to create an alternative narrative to the one detailed by their A-sides — Pete Paphides, VF
Inside Real World Studios, Peter Gabriel’s recording sanctuary
Chosen for its proximity to the water, Gabriel set about converting and extending the 18th-century mill into a state-of-the-art studio space, knocking down preconceptions of partitioned studio space in favour of an open plan approach, with video and pic gallery — Anton Spice, VF
Putin plays the piano
The Russian Federation President played the piano while waiting to meet China’s president Xi Jinping at a recent international summit.
Spotify Artist Payments Are Declining In 2017, Data Shows
As Spotify’s revenue goes up, artist per-stream and revenue payouts are going way, way down. And here’s the data to prove it — Daniel Sanchez, Digital Music News
How the record industry crisis of 1925 shaped our musical world
American Epic, a new BBC4 series, tells the story of how the pioneers of blues and country music saved the recording industry —
Prince’s Revolution, and the Jacksons with no Michael, soldier on despite fallen stars
Bands missing their famous frontmen say their shows help fans grieve and celebrate — Ben Rayner, Toronto Star
Tom Morello pays tribute to Audioslave bandmate Chris Cornell
A poem posted on Instagram cites the singer’s talent, intellect and friendship — Rolling Stone
