Music Industry News

Marketers Underwrite Performers

Source: Michael Ricci
July 7, 2008

It's American Brandstand

The hip-hop and R&B producer Jermaine Dupri has discovered best-selling acts like Kris Kross and Da Brat, has produced hits for Mariah Carey and Jay-Z, and now runs the urban music division of the Island Def Jam Music Group. He's also looking for fresh talent for a new label financed by a company new to the music industry.

The new player? Procter & Gamble.

The consumer goods giant is part of a wave of companies getting into ...

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Obliqsound Signs Vocalist Gretchen Parlato

Source: All About Jazz
July 6, 2008

ObliqSound is pleased to announce the signing of its newest artist, American vocalist Gretchen Parlato. Having appeared as a guest on three previous ObliqSound releases, the singer who Herbie Hancock describes as having a “deep, almost magical connection to the music" will release her debut ObliqSound album in 2009. The album will combine Parlato's vocals in duo and ensemble, working with Lionel Loueke on guitar and vocals, Aaron Parks on piano and Fender Rhodes, Kendrick Scott on drums and Derrick ...

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Songwriters Fight Threat to Royalties

Source: All About Jazz
July 6, 2008

EC Told to Leave System Alone

LONDON -- European songwriters and composers are lobbying the European Commission over proposals that could harm the royalties they earn from their work. The EC has been investigating the way in which music royalties are collected after suggestions that the current system is unfair. At the moment, each of the 27 EU member states have separate royalty collection agencies, but it has been claimed that this means that each agency in fact enjoys a ...

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Bands Encouraged to Not Sign and Do It Yourself

Source: All About Jazz
July 6, 2008

Creation Records Founder McGee Tells Bands to “Do It Yourself"

Alan McGee, the former head of Creation Records who is credited with discovering artists like Oasis and the Libertines, spoke out against record labels in an interview with XFM. McGee urged new bands not to sign with labels, saying “I'd recommend a band not to go to any record label, I think they're all fucking rubbish. You're better off doing it yourself. They're living in the past." McGee apparently practices ...

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Mark Twain Americas Original Superstar

Source: All About Jazz
July 5, 2008

Mark Twain: Our Original Superstar

Twain first came to national attention in 1865, when he published a comical short story in dialect, which was eventually titled The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. ("You never see a frog so modest and straightfor'ard as he was, for all he was so gifted.") It appeared in newspapers all across the country, was received as a whole new kind of hilariousness and made him famous. “At the close of the Civil War, Americans ...

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Digital Download Model Puts Song Exposure Above Sales

Source: Michael Ricci
July 5, 2008

Some artists are using the pay-what-you-want option. But industry experts question the plan's long-term worth.

Mash-up artist Girl Talk's new album, Feed the Animals comes with some impressive numbers: About 300 sampled songs on 14 tracks that play for a manic 55 minutes. One number it doesn't come with, however, is a price. That's because Girl Talk, as Gregg Gillis calls himself, is adopting the model pioneered by artists such as Radiohead that allows fans to name their own price ...

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Coda is Heard for a Daytime Jazz Club in Harlem

Source: Michael Ricci
July 5, 2008

Gordon Polatnick's business plan, he concedes, was heavy on the things that fueled his daydreams and too light on almost everything else. The idea itself was simple. On the blocks in Harlem where Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker performed, Mr. Polatnick would open a nightclub. But it would do business during the day, charge no cover and sell soft drinks instead of liquor to encourage a family atmosphere. Never mind that the particular stretch of Adam Clayton Powell ...

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A Musical Missionary Returns, Joyful Spirit Intact

Source: Michael Ricci
July 5, 2008

At 86 the visionary musical sage Jon Hendricks, who along with Ella Fitzgerald and Eddie Jefferson originated the jazz style called vocalese -- the setting of swing and jazz instrumentals with playful scat lyrics -- is as voluble as ever. Since the late 1950s, when he was a co-founder of the vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, this verbal conjurer and scat-singing virtuoso has remained a dedicated popularizer of a form that the Manhattan Transfer refined to a high buff ...

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