INDIE NEWS BEAT October 24, 2004 Edition
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* CD Baby Pays $10 Million To Musicians For CDs Sold
* MusicDish Network Founder To Speak At Caribbean Regional Conference
* Genre Bending Hungry Lucy Releases 3rd Album
* Record Industry Announces Mid-Year 2004 Shipment Numbers
* Twisted Sister To Release 'Still Hungry' CD
* Deita Klaus Releases A Powerful Anti-War Anthem
* Tall Tales Of Osama Bin Laden
* Toucan Cove Entertainment Explodes On To The Scene
* IFPI And BPI Take Action Against Jetgroove.com
* Fluttr Conquers Prestigous Emergenza Festival
* Steve Barnett Named President, Epic Records
* John Ashcroft Host Student Forum On Intellectual Property Theft
CD Baby Pays $10 Million To Musicians For CDs Sold
Independent online music retailer CD Baby has now paid over $10 million directly to musicians for CDs sold worldwide through their online store at cdbaby.com.
CD Baby's easy consignment system has given every musician access to worldwide sales and distribution, without having to sign away their music to a record label.
While record labels are blaming piracy for a lack of sales, music sold through CD Baby has almost doubled every year for the past six years.
"It's easier than ever for music fans to find great non-mainstream music," says CD Baby founder Derek Sivers. "So what's reported as a sales decline for a huge pop star is actually a sales boost for the less-famous but more-talented musicians of the world. We sell thousands of CDs a day by artists you've never heard, but will love when you do."
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Eric De Fontenay To Speak At Caribbean Regional Conference In Trinidad
Eric de Fontenay, founder of popular music industry portals MusicDish & Mi2N, has been invited by the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) to speak at the 'The Impact of Trade and Technology on Caribbean Creative Industries' conference being held on October 28-29 2004 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
Eric's presentation "The new Digital World and Creative Industries" will examine global trends in digital technologies and convergence; how these have given rise to new business models and how they are transforming creative industries. The presentation will explore the implications of convergence how the Caribbean creative sector, and In particular small producers, can deal with the technological changes to maintain viable cultural businesses.
Eric will also be participating in roundtables with stakeholders in the different creative sectors (music, dance/drama, fashion/glamour, publishing, film/media, etc) to jointly discuss issues that affect their ability to export products and services and to make recommendations for addressing them in international negotiations.
A copy of the presentation will be made publicly available online in November. To request a copy or enquire on speaking opportunities, email mailto:editor@musicdish.com
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Genre Bending Hungry Lucy Releases 3rd Album
Hungry Lucy's 3rd full-length CD, "To Kill a King" will be released on Nov 2nd, 2004. The album features 13 new songs and continues Hungry Lucy's tradition of bending genres and melting it all together. While not purely a concept album, a story line runs throughout "To Kill a King" as Christa Belle's deeply personal lyrics lead you through a tale of oppression, grief and ultimate triumph.
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Record Industry Announces Mid-Year 2004 Shipment Numbers
Themusic industry is showing some signs of a rebound in the first half of 2004, with full-length CD shipments to retail outlets increasing by 10.2 percent compared to the same time period in 2003. It is the first time in five years that the first half of the year has experienced an overall increase in shipments of all formats combined. DVD music videos and licensed digital downloads also showed impressive growth, according to new data announced by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Overall, CDs and all other audio and video music products shipped to retail increased by 8.5 percent in the first six months of 2004 (289 million units were shipped in the first half of 2004 vs. 267 million in the first half of 2003), while the dollar value of those shipments increased 4.5 percent. When including direct and special markets, the overall percentage growth for the first half of 2004 for units shipped, compared to a similar time frame in 2003, is 4.0 percent (349 million units versus 336 million). The overall dollar value increase for all units shipped was 3.6 percent.
In spite of gains made in some areas, the industry's top-selling albums, which are among the most heavily pirated, remained significantly down as compared to 2001: top 50 albums shipped 16.7 percent less in the first half of 2004, and the top 100 albums shipped 19.7 percent less. However, there has been some improvement in these categories in the last six months of 2004.
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Twisted Sister To Release 'Still Hungry' CD
A Rerecorded And Expanded Version Of The Classic 'stay Hungry' Album On Eagle Rock Entertainment
2004 is shaping up as one of the most exciting years ever for the hard rock band Twisted Sister. Eagle Rock Entertainment releases the 'Still Hungry' CD -- a rerecorded and expanded version of the classic 1984 album 'Stay Hungry' -- on October 5, 2004. 'Still Hungry' adds seven new tracks to the original 'Stay Hungry.'
The rerecorded 'Stay Hungry' tracks are "Stay Hungry," "We're Not Gonna Take It," "Burn in Hell," "Horror-Teria: A) Captain Howdy B) Street Justice," "I Wanna Rock," "The Price," "Don't Let Me Down," "The Beast" and "S.M.F." The biggest singles of Twisted Sister's career, "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock," were fist-pumping smashes and important, ground-breaking music videos in the early days of MTV.
The seven bonus tracks are "Never Say Never," "Blastin' Fast & Loud," "Come Back," "Plastic Money," "You Know I Cry," "Rock N Roll Saviors" and "Heroes Are Hard to Find." These songs appear at the end of 'Still Hungry.' Four of them -- "Come Back," "Plastic Money," "You Know I Cry" and "Rock N Roll Saviors" -- were newly recorded in 2004. The recording of "Never Say Never" and "Blastin' Fast & Loud" was completed in 2001 using the original drum tracks Pero laid down in 1984. "Heroes Are Hard to Find" was recorded in 1998.
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Deita Klaus Releases "Rose", A Powerful Anti-War Anthem About A Suicide Bomber¹s Wife
Celebrity Horror Rock Star, Deita Klaus¹ new release, "Order of the Golden Dawn", includes the controversial "ROSE", reflecting the horror of a suicide bomber¹s wife. The song expresses Deita¹s anti-war stance with "You don¹t have to die for your country". Susan Friedricks¹, wild piano solo, expresses the chaos of war. "ROSE", is a passionate anti-war cry.
Formerly Dawn La Rue, founder of Near Death Experience (NDE), Lead singer for the Chicago cult band Surrendur Dorothi., DEITA KLAUS, emerged from the Galaxy, after a Big Bang. She is best known for her dark gothic hits: "Best Sex" and "Vampire". Her new single, "Dream Girl World" is a favorite on the Rock Charts.
Deita Klaus recollects, "Ominous gray clouds, shrouded a harvest moon, the night two white night doves landed silently at her feet, cooing as they hypnotized rocker Dawn LaRue, into a deep sleep". The last moment Dawn remembered was sitting on the moon in a black night star fest, reading from, "The Order of the Golden Dawn" Tarot... She awoke to be the "Goth Queen of the Galaxy", and bases each song on a Tarot card.
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An anonymous publisher and an anonymous Music Publishing House, anonymous songwriters and others produce a full scale rock-opera making fun of Osama Bin Laden.
34 songwriters and artists collaborate on l4 songs about Bin Laden from different points-of-view: his mother, his therapist, his college roommate, his wife, and others. The one-of-a-kind CD, a brutal and scorching response to Bin Laden, is shocking in its sheer and merciless mockery. The CD has just been released via a collectible CD available on the web.
"This is the way 34 of us handle our stress and pain," says songwriter, ŒPrincess Ten¹. The 14 songs in the musical are composed of all styles of tunes. "We put together what we thought about this fanatic, scamming, mass murderer and then put that to music. We have writers from all over the world who worked on this."
One listener said "the soundtrack of the CD is the sound track of truth."
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Toucan Cove Entertainment, a full service entertainment company with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Boca Raton, Montreal and Zurich, opened its doors with a singular mission: to release diverse, high quality material, creative in both content and packaging, in full partnership with its artists.
"Toucan Cove is not looking to create a one dimensional niche company specializing in one style of music but one that is solely based on tapping into the divine power of quality entertainment as a gateway to forging an emotional bond, one that only creative content can make. We enter into a partnership that allows our artists complete creative control but which also encourages them to be involved in every aspect of marketing & promotion and to rest assured that when it comes time to take it to the next level, we have the resources and the experience to make it happen," says Robert Evanoff, Vice President, Artist Relations and Development.
Blasting out of the gate is BIG EGOS?NO IDEAS, the debut release by FRICKIN' A, featuring "Trend," the song/video of the fall (as seen in Unleaded Rotation on MTV Hits). Defining the mischievous and melodic "snot rock" genre, 'Trend' is a vibrant playful nod to trends awash in corporate advertising and showcases this young good-looking band from Cincinnati. Major support from radio is mounting, as is anticipation for the anthemic second single "Party Like a Rock Star." FrickinA.com.
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IFPI And BPI Take Action Against Jetgroove.com
An international anti-piracy action by IFPI and BPI, representing record companies- worldwide and in the UK, has led to the removal of over 50,000 tracks and albums being offered for sale at the website jetgroove.com
Jetgroove claimed that they would pay royalties to the copyright owners based on the material that was actually downloaded, but the website prompted numerous complaints from IFPI and BPI members on the grounds that these tracks were being made available without permission.
The content providers were based in Moscow and the Domain Name Server & streams were hosted on US servers. IFPI sent a strongly worded cease and desist notice to the content providers requesting the immediate removal of the infringing material.
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FLUTTR is proud to announce that they are the winners of the USA Finals and placed 4th in the international round of the Emergenza festival. The Emergenza festival is presently the major European festival for up and coming bands as well as one of the largest and most reliable international organizations in the music market.
For the first time this year Emergenza spread to the USA and covered 5 cities divided into two regions: Boston-Buffalo-Chicago and Philadelphia-Washington. In Boston the initial number of participating bands was 128, narrowed down by audience voting to 64 and then again down to 12. Together with the winners from Chicago and Buffalo, 14 bands appeared in front of 7 jury members at Avalon in Boston on June 26 to compete for qualification in the International Final in Taubertal, Germany.
In Germany FLUTTR was seen and heard in front of 30,000 people at the Taubertal music festival. There along with 20 bands from around the world, FLUTTR placed 4th overall. FLUTTR guitarist Troy Kidwell won second best guitar player.
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Steve Barnett Named President, Epic Records
Steve Barnett has been named President, Epic Records, it was announced today by Don Ienner, President and CEO, Sony Music Label Group U.S., to whom he reports. Mr. Barnett is based in New York.
Most recently, Mr. Barnett served as Executive Vice President, General Manager, Epic Records, since 2000. In this capacity he played a key role in establishing a wide variety of artists, including Shakira, Chevelle, Good Charlotte, Los Lonely Boys, Modest Mouse and Franz Ferdinand, as well as in creating effective international marketing campaigns for a wide array of artists, including Gretchen Wilson. He was also instrumental in bringing legendary rock artists AC/DC to the label, and played a central role in establishing an innovative marketing and distribution agreement with Integrity Music Group, one of the fastest growing companies in the Christian Music market.
From 1999 to 2000, Mr. Barnett was Executive Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Epic Records & 550 Music. Prior to that he was Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Epic Records since September, 1997. He joined Epic Records in June, 1996 as Senior Vice President, International. Previously, he had served as President of Hard To Handle Management since 1988, where his clients included AC/DC, Cyndi Lauper, M People and Foreigner, among other artists. Prior to establishing Hard To Handle, Mr. Barnett was a partner in the UK artist management firm Part Rock from 1980 until the establishment of Hard To Handle, Part Rock's U.S. company, in 1988.
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Attorney General John Ashcroft hosted more than 100 Washington, D.C.-area students in an educational forum addressing intellectual property theft. Partnering with Court-TV, Street Law, and i-SAFE-and with entertainment contributions from the Recording Industry Association of America and Motion Picture Association of America-the Department of Justice encouraged students to pursue their dreams through creation and innovation while respecting the creative property of others.
"Intellectual property is a valuable economic resource for our nation. Yet everyday, this resource is stolen when millions of people on the Internet illegally download software, music, movies, and computer games," said Attorney General John Ashcroft. "At the foundation of the Department's aggressive intellectual property enforcement efforts is a commitment to educating students not only on the consequences of intellectual property theft, but also on the crucial role of ideas in shaping our nation. This program will provide a valuable model for future education efforts intended to inform youth about the importance of intellectual property."
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Provided by the MusicDish Network. Copyright © Tag It 2004 - Republished with Permission