GLOBAL NEWS UPDATES… John Ehmann: Following the recent appointment of John Janick to Chairman/CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M (IGA), it has been announced that John Ehmann has been promoted to VP of A&R for the label. Ehmann joined IGA in 2011 and has since signed and developed artists such as Lana Del Rey, Aloe Blacc and Cedric Gervais. He was also involved in the release of Carly Rae Jepsen’s album Kiss to market which included the hit single “Call Me Maybe.” There’s strong developing A&R interest from U.S. labels on the UK act Coasts who have been working with Good Soldier Songs Founder Christian Tattersfield whose past signings have included Biffy Clyro, David Gray and Damien Rice to name but a few. Adam Levine’s 222 Records has announced a partnership with Interscope Records. The labels will jointly release the soundtrack for Begin Again (The Weinstein Company), the major motion picture film from director John Carney (Once). The album will be available from ALXNDR/222/Polydor/Interscope on July 1st and features songs co-written by Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lashley, Nick Southwood, Rick Nowels, John Carney and Glen Hansard. The film will be released in theaters on June 27th, 2014. It has been announced that INXS manager, CM Murphy and his Murphy Rights Management (MRM) company has completed a worldwide publishing administration agreement with Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG). The deal will provide global support for Murphy and his team at the Sydney-based MRM offices. The first signing is the emerging Australian rock act Lepers and Crooks. It was announced last week that Busch Business Media, owned by Cologne-based publisher Timo Busch, will acquire all shares of the Munich-based Gruner + Jahr Entertainment Media GmbH. The purchase will be effective July 1st and will include the popular 22-year-old music business weekly, Musikwoche, which is circulated to about 4,650 people across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Other publications included with the purchase are Blickpunkt Film, Videomarkt and Gamesmarkt as well as the digital internet platform mediabiz and retail media including Treffpunkt Kino and Kino.de. Busch Business Media was launched in January of this year and has not yet been operating actively in the market. Buzz act Jhené Aiko has signed with BMI to represent public performances of her music. Aiko’s current single, “The Worst,” is produced by Fisticuffs and has hit No.1 on Billboard’s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop chart which makes her the first female artist to top the chart as a lead with a debut single since 2008. Her debut album Souled Out is set for release late summer through Atrium/Def Jam and includes producer credits to No I.D. in addition to Fisticuffs. Aiko has also picked up three nominations for the 2014 BET Awards for best female R&B/pop artist, the Centric Award and the Coca-Cola Viewer’s Choice Award. Following Beats Music’s recent price drop announcement, Spotify has offered a significant reduction of its own. Starting last week and through June 15th, new subscribers to the premium Spotify subscription will receive three months for the price of one ($9.99). Spotify recently posted an increase year over year of 4 million subscribers which was largely driven by mobile usage. The upcoming album from synth-pop duo Erasure titled The Violet Flame is being launched with a PledgeMusic campaign that features pre-order and direct to fan exclusive content including a limited edition signed box set, special merchandise and art prints as well as advance listening sessions in London at the Mute headquarters. Also being offered as part of the campaign is a fan VIP ticket bundle which will feature the album, premium tickets and meet and greet opportunities with the band on their upcoming tour. Sam Kling: SESAC announced last week the appointment of Sam Kling to Sr. VP Creative Operations for the Nashville-headquartered PRO. Kling will be based in SESAC’s LA office and will be responsible for advancing growth strategies for the company’s creative departments while working closely with the senior management team. Kling will oversee the creative department day-to-day inclusive of managing the creative operations’ budget. Prior to SESAC, Kling was VP at the independent publishing company peermusic where he oversaw the pop A&R and Film/TV creative operations. Ticketmaster UK, a division of Live Nation Entertainment, announced last week a new scholarship with Henley Business School, the established and highly respected European business school. The annual Ticketmaster Scholarship will give industry executives the opportunity to apply for a place on Henley’s MBA for the Music and Creative Industries and will give Ticketmaster the opportunity to provide mentoring to the chosen student and work with them on scholarship projects. The internationally syndicated radio show, Passport Approved, launched its Passport Approved Live West Coast radio tour this weekend with its first stop in Phoenix AZ. The tour, featuring artists Giorgi + Leo (UK), Hamish Anderson (Australia), Lime Cordiale (Australia) and Monks of Mellonwah (Australia) will be making its way up the west coast of the United States with stops in Fresno CA, Santa Cruz CA, Sacramento CA, Portland OR, Reno NV and Seattle WA. Tonight, June 9th the tour stops in Los Angeles at the legendary Viper Room and there are still a few pairs of tickets left for giveaway by reaching out to tyler@anrworldwide. For additional information, including ticketing for the Passport Approved Live tour, as well as updates from the Passport Approved radio show go to passportapproved. Warner Music Group (WMG) has announced the promotion of John Rees to VP of Digital Strategy and Business Development, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Rees will be based in London and will report to Lucy Otterwell, Sr. VP of Digital Strategy and Business Development (EMEA). Rees came to WMG in 2011 after three years at the venture capital company Ingenious Media, Europe’s largest independent investors in media and creative content. Prior to that Rees was with Sanctuary Records as global commercial and business development manager. Mike Gitter: Razor & Tie Records has announced the promotion of Mike Gitter to Sr. Director of A&R for the label. Gitter joined Razor & Tie in 2012 and since then has signed acts such as Starset, HIM, Finch and was he also involved in the signing of Chiodos. Gitter’s promotion will see him continue to identify talent for the label but will also see him involved further with all aspects of A&R including artist relations and recording. Last week Midem announced that its 49th edition will be taking place June 5th – 8th in 2015 in Cannes, France. The annual event which focuses on the international music business will feature an enlarged program to support labels and their artists looking to export internationally as well as new exhibition space and content devoted to Technology and Innovation according to the company’s press release last week. The Estate of the legendary rock performer/songwriter Arthur Lee (Love) recently expanded its publishing relationship with BMG/Chrysalis. The deal was negotiated by the Estate’s legal counsel Ben McLane, Esq. PPL, the UK music licensing company, announced last week that it had grown revenues to $296.5 million in 2013 which is a 4% increase from the previous year. Broadcast and online income made up just over 40% of overall revenues and was up 5% from last year. Public performance revenues grew 7% from last year to $116.5 million (39% of total revenues). International revenues saw a 6% decrease to $57.6 million. PPL’s membership grew to 79,000 performer memberships which is a 22% increase year-on-year and record company members also increased to 11,500. Pandora recently released updated metrics for the month of May 2014. The platform showed an increase of active listeners of 9% from 70.8 million at the same period last year to 77 million currently. Listener hours increased 28% from 1.35 billion same period last year to 1.73 billion. Pandora’s share of total U.S. radio listening is at 9.13% which is an increase from 7.29% at this time last year. Elvis Presley: This August, Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment will release That’s The Way It Is (Deluxe Edition) which will be the most ambitious Elvis Presley restoration package ever created. The highly collectible box set will include - for the first time ever - the album, the theatrical and home video versions of the film, six full-length concerts (featuring previously unreleased performances), rehearsal highlights and other rare recordings. The album was originally released in November 1970 on RCA Records and combined 8 studio tracks and four live performances. Phil Alexander, the editor-in-chief of MOJO and Kerrang! magazines has taken on additional responsibility for the music monthly Q as well which will extend his role across Bauer Media’s music brands. The appointment also marks the development of a senior music content team including Q Senior Editor Matt Mason, MOJO Senior Editor Danny Eccleston and Kerrang! Editor James McMahon who will look to further Bauer’s position as a leading publisher for the UK music market. eBay-owned ticketing platform StubHub has released a new concert discovery app called StubHub Music. The app, which currently only covers San Francisco, will be available to all StubHub markets within the next six weeks. StubHub Music customizes concert preferences for each user by notifying them when their favorite artists are headed to their city and also allows users to sync the information with their calendars and notification settings. The platform will also allow users to share data and invite their friends to concerts as well as offering direct ticket purchasing from the app. Nick O’Byrne: It was announced last week that Nick O’Byrne has resigned from his role of GM of the Australian Independent Record Labels Association (AIR). The Melbourne-based executive has been running the day-to-day for AIR since 2009 when then CEO Stuart Watters departed the organization. O’Byrne will stay on as a consultant for the 2014 AIR Awards and moving forward will focus on his many other projects within the Australian music industry. O’Byrne is a musician himself as well as an artist manager whose company, Look Out Kid, takes care of the singer/songwriter buzz-act Courtney Barnett. This is also the first year that O’Byrne is the sole executive programmer of BIGSOUND, the Brisbane-based music industry conference and showcase event. Belfast, N. Ireland born singer - songwriter, Ciaran Gribbin has signed with Polar Patrol’s publishing roster and brings with him a catalogue of over seventy songs. Ciaran has had a successful career to date having penned the music for the Sony Pictures movie Killing Bono, written a Grammy nominated song with Paul Oakenfold “Celebration” for Madonna, written and performed music in the Phillip Ridley movie Heartless and has become the singer for multi-million selling Australian band INXS. Peter Shukat: A&R Worldwide sends its deepest condolences to the family and mutual friends of longtime respected music industry attorney Peter Shukat who passed away Saturday morning after a long battle with prostate cancer. Mr. Shukat was a founding partner of the New York-based entertainment law firm Shukat Arrow Hafer Weber & Herbsman and managed affairs for some of the biggest estates in popular music, such as John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis and Bob Marley. He also represented artists including Yoko Ono. Funeral services for Mr. Shukat will be held this Tuesday for family and close friends. Mr. Shukat was respected and loved by many in the music industry and beyond, and most importantly by his close knit family.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 00:02:51 +0000
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