Industrial Strength: October 9, 2013

Apple to bring iTunes Radio to Australia next year…

Australia can expect to get iTunes Radio in early 2014, according to Bloomberg. It says that according to people aware of the situation, Apple wants to take on market leader Pandora Inc in the UK and Canada in the next few months, and also in Australia and New Zealand where Pandora operates. Apple can do this because it already has global rights with major labels. Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services Eddy Cue has said that he wants iTunes Radio “in more than 100 countries.” Currently iTunes Radio is only available in the United States. The only way Australians can access it is if they have a US-based account.

… while Twitter plans to expand

Twitter has named Australia has one of the countries it plans to focus on to expand its international revenue. Twitter – which is about to list on the stock exchange in America by selling up to US$1 billion in shares – is yet to make a profit. It lost US$164 million in 2011, $US79 million in 2012 and $US69 million in the first half of 2013. Of the $253 million it made in the first six months of this year, $221 million was from advertising, and the rest from data licensing. This loss is despite having 215 million monthly active users, or 100 million daily users, who create 500 million tweets per day. In regulatory filings Twitter said it planned to increase the size of its sales and marketing support teams in Australia soon. It’s already opened an office in Sydney withKaren Stocks as its manager and TV producer Danny Keens as director of media partnerships. Advertisers that have used its platform for marketing included Universal Music Australia, National Australia Bank, Nine Network and Qantas. Twitter has 3 million accounts in Australia.

Festivals #1: Boomerang will come back

Despite financial concerns, Boomerang, the indigenous festival for all Australians, will return, promoter Peter Noble and festival directorRhoda Roberts. Both said that the experience was so unique that people would return and bring their friends. Over 5,000 attended over three days, to engaged with the music, art, dance, painting, film, discussion and cultural exchanges. They experienced highlights as the moving opening and closing ceremonies, the hushed silence before a stunning set by Gurrumul where he was joined unexpectedly by Natalie Pa’apa’a of Blue King Brown, weaving circles to traditional Maori healing and tea with elders and discussions featuring Dr Gondarra, Xavier Rudd and Jeff McMullen. Roberts recalled, “There was the sun and the sand grounds; and then there were all of us together on the crest of a new beginning. It’s obvious the people will return for this experience and for our people it will be a returning of the culture.”

Noble, who held Boomerang at the Bluesfest site in Byron Bay, announced, “Never have I presented a better festival than Boomerang. My heart is swelling with pride as we walk of this event site with our roots deeper in this country for what we have just experienced in the original peoples culture. The people who came to Boomerang shared our pride in our culture and we are better people for it. I saw thousands of cameras flashing during the opening ceremony and I know that in the years to come I am going to see many more thousands. Boomerang will come back and this is going to be one of Australia’s greatest festivals.” Noble points that the first Boomerang was more successful than the first Bluesfest. Gurrumul’s collaborator Michael Hohnen said, “Boomerang is a beautiful special festival, it warmed our collective hearts.”

Festivals #2: Great Southern Blues back to Narooma for good

“There was an overwhelming message from the audience,” promoterNeil Mumme told Industrial Strength after The Great Southern Blues Festival returned over three days on the weekend to its spiritual home Narooma after a two year hiatus and move to Bateman’s Bay. Over 4, 500 attended after the strongest pre-sales in the event’s 16-year history. Among them was Phil Stokes who used to travel from Newcastle with 12 friends each year for the festival, and then, ended up moving to Narooma because of the festival. After his triumphant return, there’s no rest for Mumme: in a few weeks he goes on the road with WA bluesman Dave Hole who’s doing his first acoustic tour.

Festivals #3: Whitsunday promoter down by $72k

John “Scratch” Grey who promoted the Whitsunday Calling festival which was cancelled at the 11^th hour, says he’s out of pocket by $72,000. The problem, he said, was that their original production company couldn’t supply the equipment requested by the acts. A replacement firm did not confirm by 5.30 pm last Thursday, which forced Grey to pull the plug. By this stage, some of the 250 ticket holders had already arrived, and vented their anger on the festival’s Facebook page. The bill included Daryl Braithwaite, Katchafire andAsh Grunwald. Refunds were expected to begun today (Wed).

Festivals #4: new festival for Surfers Paradise

The Gold Coast City Council approved the staging of the two-day Beach Life festival on Surfers Paradise beach – the first commercial enterprise on the stretch. It is the initiative of Gold Coast promoter Billy Cross and Fuzzy. Cross who has been lobbying the Council for a long time, expects 20,000 to attend over two days in January (4 & 5) and give local traders a boost. To offset the invariably protests, the music only starts after 3 pm and stops at 10 pm, and only a 200-metre stretch will be fenced off during that time. Set up as an electro hip hop event to fill the void left by the closure of Summafieldayze, acts announced include DJ Skrillex, Wiz Khalifa and A$AP Rocky.

Festivals #5: Deniliquin Ute draws 20,000; sets new world records!

The Deniliquin Ute Muster wrapped up on Sunday night with a headlining set from America’s Alan Jackson and drawing 20,000 over two days. “It’s been 15 years since the local community banded together for the first Deni Ute Muster and we’ve gone from strength to strength when a lot of other festival events are struggling to find an audience,” reckoned festival GM Kathie Heyman. The Muster broke two world records: the one for Blue Singlet Count which drew 3,924 (3,500 set in 2010) and drawing 9,736 utes on site breaking the record set in 2010. Also performing were Kasey Chambers, Grinspoon, Russell Morris, Sunny Cowgirls, Adam Brand and Corb Lund.

Festivals #6: Wollongong’s Folk by the Sea to become an annual event

With all 600 weekend tickets sold for Wollongong’s inaugural Folk by the Sea, organisers the Illawarra Folk Club’s president Russell Hannah announced that it would become an annual event. It featured folk, world, Celtic, bluegrass, roots and gypsy music, and some of the shows were packed out.

Certifications…

Alan Jackson’s successful debut visit downunder has seen four of his albums back in the ARIA chart, with The Very Best Of certified platinum … The Great Gatsby soundtrack had a surge of sales with the DVD and Blu-Ray release and gone gold … On the singles side,Redfoo’s Let’’s Get Ridiculous has got its first platinum, Lana Del Rey’s Summertime Sadness picked up its second and, andOneRepublic’s Counting Stars and Lorde’s The Love Club EP their fourth. Drake’s Hold On We’re Going Home hit gold, as have Haim’sThe Wire and Avicii’s You Make Me.

Moshcam: new-look website, new appointments, exceeds target,

Moshcam, creators of the world’s largest online catalogue of originally-produced live music videos this week announced it has launched a new look website, joined the ranks of the top 3% of music channels globally on YouTube after six months, and made new appointments to complete its management team.

The new site is designed HTML5 and completely different from the old site. “Our main focus is giving fans complete control over how they watch and listen to the music they love,” said Paul Hannigan, chief of Product “We now have a massive catalogue of more than 1300 full-length live music concert videos, artist interviews and more. With playlists and personalisation, we’ve not only made Moshcam incredibly easy to use, but enormously addictive.” This will be followed by a fully accessible mobile site in November.

Under CEO Stephen Peach and chair Deanne Weir, Moshcam’s site consistently ranks in the Top 5 of Australian music sites, according to Nielsen Netratings, with a daily average of 16,000 unique browsers and 2.1 million page impressions a month. Its YouTube channel, launched in January, gets over 3 million views per month and 40,000 subscribers. Recent major appointments to the Sydney-based management team were Sarah Partridge as chief marketing officer (formerly marketing director at EMI Music Australia), Ross Morrisonas head of programming & artist relations (formerly live agent at Primary Talent International) and Kristy Botfield as sales & partnerships manager (formerly business development manager at Fairfax Digital).

Lorde: chart achievements in Australia, US

Lorde’s debut album Pure Heroine streaked in to #1 on the ARIA chart, with the third highest weekly sales of the year (so far). She is the first female artist from NZ to top the Aussie charts, according to The Gavin Ryan Report. She is also the tenth NZ act to do so: Split Enzhad three, Crowded House five (yes, yes, they’re Australian/NZ) andNeil Finn had one. Pure Heroine is also the ninth chart topper by an act signed directly to Universal Music Australia. It’s also the eighth album to chart featuring ‘Pure’ in its title, the previous best effort beingDefryme and Purekiller (#4, June 1994) and Hayley Westenra andPure (#7, July 2003). No other album has reached #1 with ‘Heroine’ in the title although US band From First To Last’s Heroine got to #71 in March 2006.

In America, the 16-year old is the youngest artist to top the Billboardcharts since Tiffany. But she’s not the first. Stevie Wonder was 13 with Fingerprints Pt. 2 and Little Peggy March the first female at 15, both in 1963.

Phia awarded German scholarship

Sophia Exiner, the Berlin-based Melbourne musician performing asPhia, was awarded one of the first scholarships from the newly-formed Musicboard Berlin to record her debut album. The program supports expat musicians making significant creative contributions to Berlin’s music scene. Fellow recipients include Pantha Du Prince and Easter. Phia has been working in the folk/electronic scene. Producing the record is fellow Berlin-based Australian Joshua Teicher (Mez Medallion). Classically trained pianist Phia starts a 11 date tour of Germany this month behind her debut single Do You Ever?

TRIPPING

Which onetime door-girl with publicist aspirations is positioning herself to take over the business of Shapelle Corby to get endorsement deals when she returns from Bali? The attraction, aside from the filthy lucre, is that the would-be publicist also spent some time in the slammer on drug charges.

Which American crooner and Australian crooner are negotiating to tour together?

Meantime, the South Australian Government is trying to get The Rolling Stones to play the Adelaide Oval as its first music act for the new $500 million Adelaide Oval before 70,000 fans. Sources told The Advertiser that two major promoters are talking to the band about doing a stadium tour next year. Miley Cyrus is also said to be heading our way next year through Live Nation. At this point we can safely rule out a co-headliner with Sinead O’Connor.

Parkway Drive went back to where they played their first ever gig ten years ago: this time 900 packed out the Byron Youth Activity Centre (YAC) where the band kicked off with the first song it ever played live, ‘I Watched’ and stormed on to what fans reckoned was among their best ever shows.

Azealia Banks, who walked off stage 15 minutes into the Sydney show of the Listen Out Festival after a crowd member threw a full beer can onto the stage, had the same problem in Melbourne. The promoter attributed her walk off 90 seconds in “as a result of a member of the audience throwing a full can on beer at her on stage. The incident made Azealia and her stage crew feel unsafe. Banks would like to apologise to those fans in the audience whose experience was affected by the behaviour of one individual.” The next day in Brisbane no one chucked a tinnie and she finished off the set. Simple, really.

One time Australian resident, Dave Dobbyn, will be inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame at the APRA Silver Scroll Awards next Tuesday.

Venues: Sydney’s Century Venues – the folks behind Enmore Theatre, Fusebox, Comedy Store, The Vanguard and Sidetrack – teamed with Young Henry’s to set up the 250-capacity Factory Floor in Marrickville … Adelaide’s Jade Monkeys is getting close to its relaunch. They signed with the landlord a year to day after their old home got closed, and on the weekend were having a painting bee … Melbourne’s latest music venue, Bar 291, launches this Saturday in Brunswick. Run by a local collective, its format is live music, a monthly flea market, festival after parties and clothing launches … The Eatons Hill Hotel was named Best Entertainment Venue at the Australian Hotels Association’s national awards for excellence, held in Canberra before 450.

Which radio exec (and Beatles tragic) is about to head off to the UK for the holiday of a lifetime – the complete Beatles guided tour.

Ten Network is eying the Australian rights to Irish talent contest The Hit, The Sydney Daily Telegraph revealed. In the show, aspiring songwriters pitch their ditties to big name singers. In the meantime, is a channel looking at creating a reality show around a group of topless jelly wrestling waitresses who visit mining towns in the outlback to entertain cashed-up bogans?

The Mercurys played a tribute set at the opening of the Caloundra Music Festival in memory of Tony Byrne who passed away last month, as reported in Industrial Strength. Byrne, a record producer, was also part of the festival’s steering committee since it launched in 2007.

The Cat Empire’s Felix Riebl used the encore at their Mackay, Queensland, show at the MECC to slam the proposed Abbot Point coal terminal. He called it a “stupid idea” as it would break up the Great Barrier Reef.

Melbourne nine piece reggae soul and hip hop outfit Kooyeh are on tour around the country behind new album Soul Cleansing. They got a call from one of their girlfriends that their share house in Kew, which also houses their recording studio, lost its roof in the wild winds that swept Melbourne. Singer and keys player Isaac Walker quipped, “We were thinking, Wow, we literally raised the roof off!”

LIFELINES

Vale: Cairns-born Melbourne-based Timi Arnott, 23, after an epileptic fit. He was working as producer of Kiss FM’s The Pash and ran his own events, marketing and PR company Stalker. His long time friend and colleague Sarah Maree Cameron, in an Instagram post, described him as “someone who was just a ball of energy looking for fun and leaving smiles on peoples faces wherever (he) went.”

Married: singer Jon Stevens and fashion designer Jodhi Meares,who confirmed their engagement in July, are said to have quietly tied the knot.

Married: Ryan Winter, who heads Adelaide’s By Popular Demand agency and SLAM in SA (and former dB staffer), married Olga Grudinina, media assistant at Mediacom, on the weekend in the Adelaide Hills.

In Court: Matthew Cox, the 26-year old accused of killing Gold Coast R&B singer Tony Williams at his home in December 2011, had been told by a woman told him she had been subjected to a degrading sexual offence by Williams, the Southport Magistrates Court was told at a committal hearing.

Vale: John Hopkins, the highly acclaimed conductor, founding Dean of the College of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts and Director of Sydney Conservatorium of Music for six years, passed away at 86. As federal director of Music for the ABC, he championed avant garde works, and encouraged orchestras to play the works of local composers. In 2011, he was awarded the APRA/AMC Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music.

NUMBER CRUNCHING

3.315 million metro and regional viewers watched Nine’s coverage of the National Rugby League grand final, a great boost for Ricky Martinand Jessica Mauboy who performed before the 81,491-strong crowd.

6 weeks stay at #1 on the ARIA singles chart by Katy Perry’s 4 x platinum Roar sees her tie with Avicii’s Wake Me Up for equal second longest running number one for 2013. Robin Thicke leads at the moment with Blurred Lines at eight weeks. Perry has notched up 16 accumulated weeks at #1 with three chart toppers, equaling Shaggyand Whitney Houston.

84% of Australia’s classical musicians suffer from performance-related physical pain, anxiety and depression, according to a study by the University of Sydney.

6^th Top 10 hit for Jessica Mauboy with Pop A Bottle (Fill Me Up)debuting at #2 this week.

$459 million (US) grossed by Roger Waters’ three year Wall Livetour. It beats the solo record of $407 million previously set byMadonna with her Sticky & Sweet tour in 2008-09. Waters’ is the third highest-grossing tour of all time after U2’s 360° which grossed $736 million and ran 2009-2011) and The Rolling Stones’ A Bigger Bangwhich grossed $558 million from 2005-2007.

30,000 expected to attend the Save The Palace rally in Melbourne this Saturday at noon to press the importance of live music. Plans by current owners of the building to build apartments and hotel rooms do not include space for the 2,000-capacity music venue.

1 in 5 songs in the UK Top 10 contain references to alcohol says a study by Liverpool’s John Moores University, doubling in the last decade.

30% increase in revenue for Brisbane Festival, helped by sell-out shows from Calexico, Hungry Kids Of Hungary, as well as Psycho Beach Party, La Soirée, and Freeze Frame. 470,000 people turned out to watch Sunsuper Riverfire, while 452,000 viewers tuned in to the Channel Nine broadcast.

292.4 million sales of US digital track sales in Q3 2013, compared to 311 million this time last year; a 6% drop.

5.9 million takedown requests from copyright-holders to Google over the month of September, a record high.