07.22.10

Thursday Bits & Pieces: New Music Seminar, Google’s New Legal Gun & More…

BigChampagne's New Ultimate Chart Tracks Popularity Across Many Platforms

The New Music Seminar (NYC) wrapped up yesterday after featuring a number of speakers and presenters including Tom Silverman (NMS Co-Founder), Eric Garland (BigChampagne), Corrie Christopher (Agent, VP APA), Ariel Hyatt (Ariel Publicity & Cyper PR) and Peter Kafka (All Things Digital) among many others. There was a wide range of topics discussed, all focused on the future of the business, including media, touring and breaking through. BigChampange’s new Ultimate Chart, which measures artist and song popularity using a number of metrics including the three F’s (fan/friends/followers), also created a lot of discussion following its unveiling by Eric Garland during the conference’s State of the Internet Address… Google has hired veteran music attorney Elizabeth Moody, formerly of Davis Shapiro Lewit & Hayes, presumably to help them through the label terrain as they move closer to launching their much-discussed new music service likely to be known as Google Music… July 31st will see a first-of-its-kind star studded event in India for the release of the audio to the new film Endhiran, composed by Oscar winner AR Rahman who became a household name in the West after winning Best Original Score for Slumdog Millionaire. South African label Think Music has acquired the rights to Endhiran’s audio, beating out a number of larger labels who were rumored to be vying for the rights… Elsewhere, Atlantic Records has signed Christina Perri, the overnight sensation who performed her song “Jar of Hearts” on So You Think You Can Dance recently.  Perri is also the younger sister of former Shinedown lead guitarist Nick PerriLinkin Park has teamed up with MySpace MusicIndaba Music and TopSpin Media for a new online fan collaboration contest… And Forbes discusses music in the cloud with Thumbplay Music chief exec Evan Schwartz

01.14.10

Promiscuous Drunks, Friendly Calls and Humbug Resolutions… Happy New Year!

Chiddy Bangin on BBC Radio 1

It was one-year ago today that we published our ‘welcome back & happy new year‘ piece for 2009, so a post-holiday roundup and a look at the early action in 2010 on this date only seems fitting.

Taking up the digital marketing reins at Hollywood Records is J Scavo, who exits his GM position at MySpace Records where he was integral in promotions like Toyota Rock the Space and Wendy’s Fresh Faces, as well as the signing of artists such as Christina Milian and Meiko among others… It appears things are heating up stateside for Philly’s Chiddy Bang with the Crush-managed artist being signed by EMI in the UK and their track “The Opposite of Adults” getting spun regularly on Radio 1.  Another early contender for one of the new year’s first bidding-derby acts is TMills, as we hear major-label heads are lining up to showcase the tattooed auto-crooner… Distorted electro-duo Sleigh Bells appear to be closing a deal with indie shop Mom & Pop, while Austin’s Ume is being courted by multiple big-indies on opposite coasts. Stay tuned…

In other updates, the next New Music Seminar will take place in Los Angeles on February 2nd, and will feature Spotify founder Daniel Ek as keynote speaker and numerous panelists including Ian Rogers, Alex Patsavas, Jason Bentley and Kevin Lyman to name a few… And in case you missed this holiday reading, checkout And Party Every Day: The Inside Story of Casablanca Records, the new inside account of the influential and infamous record label was penned by label co-founder Larry Harris.