Industry News

APRA Gets More $$

APRA can charge a higher rate to retailers who use music as background in their stores. The Copyright Tribunal approved APRA's new licence fee scheme. This will be phased in over three years, beginning Dec 1. APRA has over 49,000 background music licensees, ranging from large chain retail stores and registered clubs to small retail premises and hairdressers. APRA/AMCOS CEO Brett Cottle welcomed the Tribunal's decision. "Our background music rates have not changed (except in accordance with inflation) since the 1970s and in comparison with the great majority of other countries, our rates were extremely low. The new scheme reflects a more realistic and equitable value for music used in retail businesses."

In The Transit Lounge

Hilary Duff postponed her visit from October (launching her perfume, appear at the Cup) to December.

We hear organisers of the Nickelodeon awards are ready to strangle Lindsay Lohan as she seems unable to give a yes or no as to whether she can attend as a key presenter.

We hear Bob Dylan plans to return in March, Bob Seger is negotiating to get here on his first trip, and Tommy Lee and his TV reality series buddies to be here over summer.

UK band The Bluetones had to cancel their trip this month, and promise to reschedule for early 2007.

ARIAs New CD/Digital Chart

ARIA's new singles chart - which integrates sales from physical and digital tracks - debuted on the weekend. The current physical singles Top 50 chart, and the Digital Track Chart which ARIA launched this April, will continue to be published separately. The #1 digital track has been averaging 30% of the sales of the #1 physical single each week. Digital music was included for the first time when ARIA released its Jan to June 2006 figures in August. Digital figures posted 9.4 million units with a dollar value of $12.2 million. They accounted for 5.5% of the overall dollar value of $224.5 million.

Sandi Thom's I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker With Flowers In My Hair stayed at #1 for its seventh week. But the merging of digital and physical saw strong leaps by older tracks. Eskimo Joe's Black Fingernails Red Wine leaped to #23 from #53, Panic! At The Disco's I Write Sins Not Tragedies jumped to #26 from #66, Evermore's Running from #41 to #30, Dixie Chicks' Not Ready To Make Nice to #34 from #65, and Gnarl Barkley's Crazy from #67 to #36.

McClung At Nova

Dave McClung is the new Assistant Music Director at Nova 91.9 Adelaide. He was Network Music Director for Sea FM on the Gold Coast.

PJ A Hit In Tasmania

Hilltop Hoods' manager PJ Murton was a hit at Tasmania's four day Amplified 2006 conference on the weekend at Wrest Point casino. Murton had the audience captivated at seminars as he spoke about the Hilltops' decision to take the long road, ignoring mainstream initiatives including turning down a lucrative offer to use their music in an ad, and revealing some of the mistakes they made.

Also speaking at seminars were promoter Michael Chugg, Mushroom Music's Ian James, Triple J's Caroline Tran, Immedia!'s Phil Tripp, Shock A&R manager David Peacock, XYZ executive producer Angela Beal, APRA's Sally Howland, Kirstie Rivers and Con Kalamaras, Media Arts' David Vodicka and Stephen King, Liberation's A&R Damian Slevison, Premier Artists' Dylan Liddy and your humble columnist, as well as musicians Dave Faulkner, Charlie Chan, Phil Manning and Pete Cornelius.

A recurring theme through the seminars was that the advent of the Internet means a young act does not need a hit record to create a community of fans. It can be done through sites like MySpace. As Chugg pointed out, there was a time when 95% of bands that toured had to have a hit single. That is not the case any more. MySpace has created world interest for two unknown Aussie acts, OK Go and Sick Puppies through interesting videos.

Community TV Trial For Adelaide

The Australian Communications and Media Authority is again inviting applications from groups interested in conducting a community television trial in Adelaide on UHF channel 31. The current trial licence expires in January, after the ACMA decided not to go ahead with a permanent licence. See www.acma.org.au,

Arts Partnership Fund Hits $1 Million

In what is claimed to be a first for Australia, South Australian small businesses and arts organisations have a million-dollar incentive to form new partnerships, thanks to the SA Premier's Arts Partnership Fund. The Fund is a partnership between the State Government, the Australia Business Arts Foundation (a national body that promotes private sector support for the arts), and retailer Harris Scarfe. "The Fund will double any new financial commitment that a small business makes to an arts organisation, up to $10,000," Premier Mike Rann said. Partnerships to benefit include Urban Myth Theatre of Youth's linkup with Designer Direct, and The Shorts Film Festival's new alliance with the Prairie Hotel in Parachilna. See www.abaf.org.au

Harris Departs Mushroom

Mushroom Music publishing lost its Sydney based A&R, Paul Harris, who returned to the UK. Meantime, Mushroom was celebrating the fact that it has got back 'Neighbours' from Sony/ATV after some years. Mushroom makes a tidy income providing the music for soapies as 'Home & Away'.

Biz Meets The Pollies

Music industry movers and shakers got to grip the sweaty paws of politicians at NSW Parliament House for the inaugural 'Music In The House' luncheon. This year Jimmy Barnes was honoured by the biz's benevolent fund Support Act Ltd for his support of charities. Mushroom boss Michael Gudinski let the pollies know of his concerns: in his speech he covered problems live music in clubs faced, ticket scalpers and the lack of support by television to screen Australian produced video clips. Billy Thorpe in the meantime collared the pollies about helping Support Act make $1 million next year. Thorpe believes that while music fans and media have been supportive of benefits for Peter Wells and Lobby Loyde, sooner or later they're going to get jaded.

Downloads From Radio

An advantage of the coming of digital radio to Australia in 2009 is that listeners will be able to download music tracks from radio stations when they hear them, via special mobile phone handsets. It caught on big time with listeners when it was trialled in the UK. Matthew Honey, the managing director of Unique Interactive, a division of the UBC Media Group plc who have developed the technology and are behind the Birmingham trial, will be presenting the research findings to the industry at the Australian radio conference in Sydney on 13 Oct.

Beyonced Out Of Court

A lawsuit filed by Minneapolis singer-songwriter Jennifer Armour claiming that Beyonce Knowles had ripped off one of her songs has been dismissed by a Houston court. Armour claimed that Knowles stole her song Got a Little Bit of Love For You for her 2003 hit Baby Boy. She claimed her former manager had sent the song out to various record companies including Beyonce's. A judge compared the two songs and finding that they were "substantially dissimilar".

More Of Austereo Sold

Who loves ya baby? Village Roadshow continued to sell off its stake in Austereo, in recent weeks getting rid of 9.3% for $59.3 million. From 60% it now owns 50.2%. The whisper is that Roadshow wants the money to move its movie division to Memphis and spent $250 million over the next five years.

Lifelines

Born: daughter Abby Jane to Dew Process head of marketing and international licensing Graham Ashton and wife Jane.

Expecting: Amber Strantzen of Miranda Brown Publicity is on maternity leave.

Expecting: Loft nightclub marketing manager Camille Baturo and Foxtel onair talent Pete Timbs, in April.

Married: Pete Murray and partner Amanda Coutts finally tied the knot near Byron Bay on the weekend.

Married: Former Avalanches drummer turned radio host of 3MP's 'Jukebox Saturday Night' Geoff Cox and partner of seven years, Vivien, in Port Douglas.

Married: Isaac Hanson, 25, and Nicole Dufresne, 22, in Tulsa.

Ill: former Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker has a tumour in his arm, causing the cancellation of shows by his new band +44.

Ill: tendonitis in singer/guitarist Barry Hyde's wrist forced the Futureheads to cancel their October U.S. tour.

Hospitalised: US rapper Cassidy left with a fractured skull after a truck crashed into the SUV he was a passenger in.

Arrested: NY rapper Jadakiss on weapons possession charges after being checked for a routine traffic stop.

Sued: Jennifer Lopez for $47,000 by private jet company for two unpaid unchartered flights.

Jailed: Joseph Yacteen, 27, who shot Marc Cohn (Walking in Memphis) in the head during an attempted carjacking last August in Denver was sentenced to 36 years in prison.

In Court: a Massachusetts judge warned Bobby Brown will be arrested if he sets foot in the state, after the singer failed to show in court over his delinquent child-support payments to ex-wife Kim Ward.

In Court: George Michael has to face court next month after being found slumped in his car (again) apparently stoned.

Died: Sydney performing arts and theatre publicist Judith Johnson, from cardiac problems, 69.

Apology Of The Week

Sydney radio station WS FM went into red faced apology mode for twice following news bulletins about two recent American school massacres with Boomtown Rats' I Don't Like Monday which of course was about a similar massacre over there.

Rider Of The Week

The Smoking Gun site reveals that one of the funniest backstage riders is from Iggy Pop. He demands, among others, a homosexual designer to redo the dressing room to make it look "less like a typical rock & roll dressing room", a Bob Hope impersonator and "a copy of 'USA Today' that's got a story about morbidly obese people in it."

Music Biz Rates In Mobile Awards

The way the music industry has embraced mobile phone technology was evident in some wins at last week's Mobile Marketing & Advertising Awards. Fuzzy Entertainment won a gong for its mobile ticketing for its Field Day Music Festival, held in Sydney on New Years Day to 20,000.

Australian Radio Network took one for setting up a system where listeners of its Sydney urban radio station The Edge 96.ONE could find out what song was being played through SMS.

MP3 Club was first in the world to allow clubbers to buy full length digital music tracks while they were being played Seven Network's 'Wild TV'.

Optus and Sydney digital company Soundbuzz got a gong for developing a dual delivery system (an Australian first) which easily allowed Optus customers to download songs simultaneously to their mobile phones and PCs in one transaction.

Blair To Replace Haack?

Former SA presenter Amanda Blair is reportedly hot fave to take over Nicole Haack's time slot at FiveAA after it pushed the "ejection" button on Haack after nine years.

Meston Gets The Blues

Adelaide bluesman James Meston aka Sweet Baby James was named Official Ambassador for the 2007 Australian Blues Music Festival in Goulburn NSW. He was up for three awards at this year's event.

Native Tongue Signs

Indie publisher Native Tongue has signed a worldwide publishing agreement with Jonathan Bree, sole song writer of NZ act The Brunettes. They signed with SubPop for North America this year and working on their next album in Auckland and New York.

Native Tongue has entered into an agreement with The Datsuns to publish their new album "Smoke And Mirrors" for Aus and NZ.

Tower Records Liquidated

Another music icon bites the dust. American music retail chain Tower Records has been liquidated. At an auction a consortium lead by Great American bid US$134.3 million. There is a chance the Tower Records brand could live on with one party putting up $3.8 million to buy its website www.tower.com and in-store mag 'Pulse'.