New Signings & Team-Ups: Country signings at Maven/Sony; Two new signings for Umbrella; Pitt The Elder gets Arrested; Twitter partners with Amplify

Two country music signings at Maven Agency/Sony Music

Sydney based Maven Agency, distributed through Sony Music Entertainment Australia, signed two Australian country music performers.

Award-winning Kirsty Lee Akers is set to release her first album in four years. Made with producer and songwriting collaborator Trey Bruce, sessions will be held in Australia and her current base in Nashville for a late 2015 release. Ackers landed her first record deal at the age of 16.

Emerging Townsville singer songwriter Jade Holland releases a single Woh Oh through the new deal on March 27. She is currently in Sydney working on her debut album. Holland who began performing onstage at 11 expects the new material to be more “unpredictable” than her past music.

Eves The Behavior signs global deal

20-year-old Melbourne artistEves The Behavior akaHannah Karydas, formerly known as Eves, has inked a global management deal withATCManagement. ATC, which has offices in LA and London boastsNick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Warpaint,Catfish & The Bottlemen,Faithless, and PJ Harvey on its roster.Karydas will be represented by ATC'sCedric Lemoyne, who is based in LA.

"This makes me very thrilled indeed!! Thank u for bringing me on board all the way from LA," she posted on Facebook today.

Two new signings for Umbrella

Umbrella has signed Andy Bull (pictured) and Winterbourne to their roster, which includes Cloud Control, Jane Tyrrell, Fishing, Left and Eleanor Dunlop. Bull is doing a national tour with Cub Sport, Winterbourne’s March/April tour behind ‘Steady My Bones’ is sold out in Sydney and close to in Melbourne.

Pitt The Elder gets Arrested

Melbourne punk band Pitt The Elder signed with Brisbane’s Arrest Records. Emma Thulborn, Jai Kennett and ex-Aitches members Shaun Scanlan and Matt Yates drop their debut album At The End Of The Day on March 20. It is pressed on 200 black and 100 Jameson & Dry coloured vinyl.

Funding study for music venues to be more hearing friendly

The Deafness Foundation Victoria, supported by Music Victoria, the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL), The Deafness Forum Australia and Vicdeaf, is working on a pilot study on how to help live music venues reduce high volume exposure to musicians, patrons, and venue staff. It is part of the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre (HEARing CRC)’s HEARsmart hearing loss prevention initiative. Researcher Dr. Elizabeth Beach said over the next few months venues will measure noise levels and talk to patrons, identify the risks and in consultation with venue owners, develop a “practical noise-reduction package that can be easily implemented in venues across Australia. ”

Skyscraper Stan And The Commission Flats pact MGM distro

Skyscraper Stan And The Commission Flats struck a distribution deal with MGM Distribution. The deal was signed the day before they made their debut at the weekend’s Port Fairy Folk Festival – where they launched the Last Year’s Tune album. After the festival, the Melbourne band heads off on an 11-day run March 11 to April 5 in NSW, QLD, SA and VIC.

Twitter partners with Amplify Festival

Tour company Nine Lives and Marquee Studios’ national Amplify Festival announced Twitter Australia as its social media partner to connect its audiences with acts.

Tom Maynard, of Marquee Studios, said: “The engagement levels we’ve seen using Twitter have been nothing short of amazing, with an average of 12%. We only launched last week and we’ve seen the #AmplifyLIVE hashtag trend number one globally and our Tweets garnering over 1.4 million impressions. Twitter has helped us go from 0 to 100 instantaneously and create a firehose of activity for the brand.”

Autumn label to release Ted Mulry tribute album

Tony Romeril, the former singer of Sydney band Autumn (Yellow River, Looking Through The Eyes Of A Beautiful Girl, Song For Raymondo) has set up Autumn Records to release an album to honor the solo work of Ted Mulry. Both Romeril and Mulry emerged in the early ‘70s, and spent time together beforeMulry died of cancer in 2001. The 13-track album, Will You Remember Me, A Tribute To Ted Mulry Songwriter,due out later this month, focuses on Mulry’s early solo material (Julia, the title track) songs from Mulry’s last and overlooked album This Time, and three that Mulry wrote and gave to Romeril in 1995 for an unreleased EP. He told TMN, “Ted’s place in Australian songwriting history is not recognised. His best work was in This Time, eight of which I re-recorded and reinterpreted.”

Aside from vocals by himself and Mulry contemporary Peter Cupples, Romeril used rising young performers Matthew Olsen, Ashley Morse and Dale Murphy “who have the most amazing voices.” He said a percentage of profits would go to the Cancer Council of Australia and Support Act. A live show of the album, most likely in Sydney, is being mooted.

Smash Mouth feel the Spirit

US band Smash Mouth signed a worldwide publishing deal with David Renzer’s Spirit Group to administer sync opportunities for its back catalogue. Its hits include Walkin’ On The Sun and All Star. Its previouspublisher Warner/Chappell Music got them sync deals including movies as Shrek and How the Grinch Stole Christmas and TV shows including The Simpsons.

Smith Street Band raises $8,190for asylum seekers

The Smith Street Band raised $8,190 for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. The sum came from 100% royalties and “a significant portion” of vinyl sales from their single Wipe That Shit-Eating Grin Off Your Punchable Face which of course came with a Tony Abbott cover artwork.

ASTRA awards announces additional partners

This week’s subscription TV’s ASTRA awards (Thursday March 12) have a number of first time sponsors have on board. Joining Telstra (associate sponsor). Foxtel (platform) and Mediaweek (media) are The Star Sydney (major sponsor), La Biosthetique (beauty), Belavance (beauty) and Twitter Australia (media). Destination NSW is a long time partner.

Wiggles TV show making US debut

Thanks to a SVOD deal between ABC Commercial and Hulu, all 103 episodes of Season 2 of The Wiggles’ preschool series Ready, Steady, Wiggle will be available to American viewers. According to ABC Commercial, ABC Kids TV rush-released Season 2 after strong ratings for the first one.

Arts NSW part of Reconciliation Action Plan

Arts NSW is among associations working with Reconciliation Australia to develop an action plan to build relationships, respect and trust between the wider Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Arts NSW has established a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) working committee which includes the executive, its teams and Aboriginal officers.

Arts NSW Executive Director Mary Darwell said that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait community has always been one of the agency’s biggest priorities, citing the NSW Aboriginal Arts & Cultural Strategy 2010-14 as an example. Aside from funding outcomes, the Cultural Strategy “increased the prominence of Aboriginal arts and culture in our policy direction and program delivery and the establishment of a network of Aboriginal staff from within the cultural institutions, the Aboriginal Curatorial and Arts Workers Network.”

MONA, The Island, explore ideas

Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) and The Island magazine will work together to share ideas and lift each others’ profiles. To denote its new status, editor Matthew Lamb has made The Island print-only dropping its digital content or online edition.

Screen Australia, Fremantle Media set up fund to develop content

Screen Australia and Fremantle Media set up a new grant to fund content for international SVODs as Netflix and Amazon Prime. It aims to develop up to four drama concepts for use “outside the traditional broadcast model.” The content will not be for local SVODs Stan and Presto.