Music Industry News

William Morris and Endeavor Set to Form New Talent Agency Powerhouse

Source: Michael Ricci
April 26, 2009

Talent agencies William Morris and Endeavor are expected to vote Monday on a merger that would create a representation powerhouse in Hollywood that would rank second only to the long-dominant Creative Artists Agency.

The combined entity, easily the most talked about hookup in town since Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, would be better positioned to survive the shrinking economics of the entertainment industry, in which fewer films and network shows are being made along with studios squeezing salaries paid to ...

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Record Store Day Boosts Indie Stores' Sales

Source: Billboard Magazine
April 23, 2009

The numbers are in and Record Store Day produced a nearly 1% gain - to 566,000 for the week versus 561,000 from the corresponding week of the prior year - in U.S. album sales for the indie store sector, according to Nielsen SoundScan. While that may seem meager, it comes off as strong considering that U.S. album sales were down 15% last week to 6.3 million from 7.5 million in the corresponding week for the prior year. “Any sales increase ...

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Rodgers and Hammerstein Catalog Sold

Source: Michael Ricci
April 23, 2009

The estates of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II have sold the rights to the legendary duos songs and musicals

They including South Pacific, The Sound of Music and Oklahoma! to Imagem Music Group, an investment arm of a huge Netherlands-based pension fund, the company announced on Tuesday.

The sale represents a transfer of power over one of Americas most famous song catalogs and the licensing rights for future productions of the musicals, which until now had been controlled by ...

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Jimmy Herring: Don't Say No

Source: JamBase
April 22, 2009

By: Dennis Cook

Jimmy Herring Superheroes don't always look super in their day-to-day lives. Case in point, Jimmy Herring, a quiet, perfectly gracious Southern man, who'll shake your hand and let you yack his ear off longer than he probably should. In short, the definition of mild mannered, but put an electric guitar in his hands and he is transformed into an octopus-fingered, quicksilver smooth marvel, notes gleaming as ...

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Record Store Day Traffic, Sales Up

Source: Billboard Magazine
April 21, 2009

Thanks to the 82 exclusive releases and limited availability, customers lined up at record stores all around the country on Saturday morning and helped kickoff Record Store Day 2009 with a bang. Reports suggest traffic pick-ups and sales volume this year will be more than last year's inaugural event. “It was my best day by far," says Eric Levin, owner of Criminal Records in Atlanta and the head of the Assn. of Independent Media Stores coalition. “We had 600 people ...

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"I Kissed Frank Sinatra"

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 19, 2009

Want to host your own radio show? Nancy Barell does. She's an online disc jockey. Heard exclusively on the web, Nancy's 7-hour jazz and pop show, Spotlight on Sinatra, repeats 24 hours a day. She uses Live365.com, one of a growing number of sites that lets your inner deejay run wild. Though Nancy has been hosting her show since 2005 as a lark, her love of radio, pop and jazz began in earnest in 1976, when she met Frank Sinatra. ...

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Carol Kaye First Call L.A. Studio Bassist

Source: All About Jazz
April 19, 2009

Carol Kaye worked extensively with Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, Lee Hazlewood, and other top producers in the 1960s, although she was a straight jazz player when she started guesting on rock dates in the late 1950s.

She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pittsburg Jazz Society, “Outstanding Dedication to Bass Performance & Pedagogy" and Lifetime Achievement Award from Bass Player Magazine in 2008. Kaye received the Esteemed Hollywood Composers-Arrangers Award, as well as the Touchstone Pioneer Women in Music ...

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Seattle Times: Ballard Hasn't Gotten Too Big for Jazz Fest

Source: Seattle Jazz Scene
April 19, 2009

Changes were coming to Ballard, Bishop and Jorgensen among them. Condominiums, gourmet dog biscuits, indoor-plant boutiques, panko breadcrumbs and all the trappings of yuppie-hood were making their way to old Ballard, the changes literally visible from Bishop’s and Jorgensen’s apartment windows. The density of bars and restaurants, the foot traffic and the changing demographics of their neighborhood made it easy to decide to start the Ballard Jazz Festival in 2003. Now in its sixth season, the five-day festival has grown, ...

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