Music Industry News

B.J. Jansen on Helping Artists Help Themselves

Source: We All Make Music
June 28, 2010

B.J. Jansen accepts and welcomes the changes faced by the music industry. Rather than look at them as catastrophic, Jansen sees them as “kind of a revitalization." “Everyone should stop complaining and try to become master of their own destiny!" Music business acolytes say that kind of thing all the time, but Jansen, who has over a decade of experience as a baritone saxophonist, bandleader, producer, composer, arranger, and independent record label owner, has had first-hand experience in nearly all ...

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RealNetworks Cuts 85, 25% of Executive Staff

Source: HypeBot
June 24, 2010

Even after the recent spin-off of Rhapsody, RealNetworks continues to struggle. Today the company announced another round of layoffs that include 85 jobs or 6% of the total workforce. The cuts include 25% of its executives and will shrink offices in Europe, Asia and its Seattle headquarters. Real also consolidated its Technology Products and Solutions and Media Software and Services business units.

“This reorganization marks a significant milestone in our transformation of RealNetworks," according to Bob Kimball, president and ...

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Blue Note Records Signs Ambrose Akinmusire

Source: Michael Ricci
June 28, 2010

JAZZ TRUMPETER & MONK COMPETITION WINNER

“DESTINED FOR MUCH WIDER RECOGNITION" (NEW YORK TIMES)

EMI's Blue Note Records has signed jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Ambrose Akinmusire. The 28 year-old winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition will head into the studio this Fall to record his major label debut with labelmate Jason Moran as co-producer.

“Mr. Akinmusire is among the latest to put together a quintet that seems destined for much wider recognition," recently wrote critic Ben Ratliff ...

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Songwriters Fest Fails to Carry a Tune

Source: All About Jazz
June 28, 2010

Everyone showed up late to the party

Perhaps it was because everyone knew who the winners were well before the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards were doled out Friday night. But everyone was late to the party. The wind whistled through the ballroom at the Beverly Hilton at the scheduled start time; finally, more than an hour later, the show began.

And what an odd show it was. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers handed out a ...

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Cabaret: Precarious but Resilient

Source: Michael Ricci
June 28, 2010

Stability is a word not often used to describe New York City's fragile cabaret world, where only a few can make a full-time living, and the clubs themselves ride an economic seesaw from week to week.

But because Manhattan's three major supper clubs -- the Caf Carlyle, the Oak Room and Feinstein's at Loews Regency -- are attached to hotels, their survival is not solely dependent on the box office.

That is a stability of sorts. And as the 2009-10 ...

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All Hail the Jazz Prodigy

Source: Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
June 27, 2010

Oy. Why do jazz writers love prodigies so? Can this be a deeply-seated musical inferiority complex rearing its ugly head? “We stole one from the classical boyos"? “You see! Our music is so great that even the prodigies dig it!"Shoot. If ever a genre did not have to prove that the genius of its practitioners unfolds early on, it is jazz.Yes, early jazz professors were often weaned in academic environments like Storyville, where the student body ...

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Hypebot Assumes Stewardship of musicthinktank.com

Source: HypeBot
June 26, 2010

We're honored to share today that we've assumed the stewardship of the respected Music Think Tank web site. We believe that the combined sites create the web's most viewed independent source of news and commentary serving artists, labels and the music technology sector.

Over the last two years, MusicThinkTank.com has become the go to site for thoughtful essays exploring the rapidly evolving business of making and marketing music. Founded by tech entrepreneur Bruce Warila and music business pundit Andrew Dubber, ...

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All-Night Session: Abrams, Moran, City Winery Jam

Source: Inverted Garden by Eric Benson
June 26, 2010

Other cities may have more tightly knit jazz communities (Peter Margasak and Andrey Henkin have made pitches for the vitality of Chicago), but none come close to approaching the size and diversity of the New York scene. On any given night, there are around two dozen jazz shows in the city, and it's not uncommon that I see two or three or ten that I want to check out. From the time I started going to clubs, I've dreamed of ...

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