Amadou and Mariam - a blind couple from Mali - their latest album is produced by Manu Chao, its called Dimanche A Bamako, check it out. see link....
Nicky Watson as a music show host is such a great train wreck. her interviewing skills improve the more stoned she is. Oh, you mean thats her natural disposition, oooppsss...
I got this email this morning, looks loike the Big Day Out organisers have been dupoed. Will this hit the media?
Greetings,
This is Mikey Dread/ Dread At The Controls www.mikeydread.com
I would like you and others over there to be notified that someone is out there using Mikey Dread- from /Channel One Sound UK claiming that he ,is me, Mikey Dread , Michael Campbell, Dread At The Controls the artist, producer, and radio pioneer and deliberately tricking innocent people, fans and promoters with my stolen identity as a international reggae artist.Please be advised Mikey Dread from Channel One sound is NOT me,
the original, Dread At The Controls.Preview www.mikeydread.com
I have had emails from the UK, Australia and NZ from my fans who were mislead by the advertising of this FAKE MIKEY DREAD FROM LONDON, going around and using my name as if he was me, and cashing in on this identity theft.
I respect you guys and would appreciate that you make public the distinction that Michael Campbell, Mikey Dread- Dread At The Controls is not the same as Mikey Dread from Channel One Sound from the UK.This needs to be addressed today.A lot of times promoters knowingly or un-knowingly refer to my bio for him and make false claims using my accomplishments in reggae and this has become overbearing. Some people actually go to the event then email me that they were tricked.
Firstly I live in the USA this guy is a rip off using my name illegally to get out there and continues to con people.
I have warned them already and they continue now its gone too far and must stop.
I am making sure you and your associates have been notified by me as it is
illegal for anyone to steal another persons identity and is punishable by law.
I will handle that part myself as this has to stop this year and clear the air on all doubts and he will have to pay damages for his illicit behavior and intent to defraud me of all clients who booked him thinking that thy were really booking the original Mikey Dread.
Thanks
Mikey Dread
>>The fight for the commerical ear has been won, now lets focus on supporting musicians of artistic merit that are representitive of our nation not US styled radio playlists
Bob, this is partly what Penman is getting at, I think - NZOA has consistently denied they have a cultural agenda under the act, deferring to a commercial one. NZ music successes that Labour love trumpeting about generally fall into the commercially successful.
Fat Freddys are the delightful antidote to all that crap - commercial radio has even started playing them (after they did a radio edit of Wandering Eye), hence their album bounces back to number one on the charts. Brendan Smythe is very touchy on the issue of NZOA's lack of a cultural agenda.
Casper, Major labels are under no obligation to support the local music industry - it wasn't that long ago that BMG got a new boss and he dumped their local roster, including Che Fu, at the directive of head office.
last I heard, cd sales in NZ were in the region of $180m a year - 10% of that is $18m. That aint chump change, now, is it?
also from simon's comments...
"From Carlton Gore Road, where Jerry had to ring me to get the skinheads designing their album cover out of the stairway during a retailers conference, to the damp end of Nikau Street, to the rather odd offices in Scanlan Street, to the final resting place in Freeman’s Bay, Festival Records contributed something that was often un-catered for elsewhere. Over the past forty years, they provided something that no-one else did and it’s hard to see where the interesting little labels with something quirky and vital will go now. But then again, perhaps its time, like the record industry as we know it, is past. There is no doubt however, that without the support, drive and belief exhibited by the management and staff of this wannabe major, the indigenous NZ industry would not have been in the position it was in 2000 to make that jump to where it is now.
A minor but cruel irony….Flying Nun quickly ended a disastrous deal with Warners years ago and now end up owned by them, indeed such a large slice of our national musical heritage is now controlled by a listed American company. It’s like Coca Cola owning Bastion Point…..
from Simon Grigg's blog, read the whole post here...
http://www.opdiner.blogspot.com/
excerpt...
I know its only a record company and record companies come and go but I feel the need to say something about the twinge of sadness I feel with the passing of Festival Records.....sorry… FMR…but I guess to those of us who have been around for a year or two, they will always be Festival.
Yep, a record company is just a record company, and this one has been controlled for most of its existence, at least in Australia, by the not-user-friendly Rupert Murdoch, who bled it for much of its life. But Festival, at least on this side of the pond, was something else. It was, for years, half locally owned (by Kerridge Odeon and before that by a series of entrepreneurs) and it had a freedom of spirit and a drive, by virtue of the people who worked there and the fact that it was small and relied on its deals with offshore indies and its suss in the local market to survive. In the eighties most of Festival’s major indies, Island, A&M, Arista, Jive, and Chrysalis, were bought and effectively turned into little more than names by multi-nationals. Whilst under the wing of Festival, all those companies enjoyed better success in New Zealand than anywhere else in the world. Even Mushroom jumped ship for a while, although its subsidiary, Flying Nun stayed in the fold. Things were tough after that and never, despite the best efforts of some pretty talented people, never really recovered. The surprise is that it took Murdoch so long to offload FMR…rumours having been rife for years.
Trips to several conferences in Australia over the years confirmed pretty much what had been obvious to many for a long time, that a&r was not a strength in the Australian operation, and hadn’t been since the golden years of the sixties. Indeed at one of those conferences, at some hellhole in Coffs Harbour, MD Roger Grierson stood up and announced that whoever had signed that “last piece of shit, was fired”.
Russell Brown on BFM, talking with Murray Cammick, just mentioned that he'd heard unofficially that FMR staff had been fired, Warners keeping only two satff on. Given Warners local roster is tiny, doesn't bode well for all FMRs acts. Murray mentioned that many majors here get pressured to focus on international roster over local signings, citing the example of when former Warners head James Southgate had three local top ten albums in the charts on Xmas, and Warners Hong Kong office phoned him up and asked him why arent those positions taken up by foreign priorities. Murray used this as an example of how a major here with strong local roster came be too successful.
Dust, some good points on govt funded bodies and their noo ziland music movement. They may not be marketing for export as made in nz, but govt bodies such as Tradenz are pitching in here, as Aunty Helen sees the Crreative Industries as potential export earners, and face it, meat exports just ainth= that sexy.
I liked Andrew Penmans comments in the SST on govt funding ...
"We're touring with several other bands under the Dub Conspiracy banner," says Penman. "Basically Dub Conspiracy is an attempt to bypass idiots like the New Zealand Music Industry Commission or New Zealand on Air. I sound like a hypocrite, 'cause Salmonella has taken a few NZ On Air video grants, but really, I think these organisations and most major record labels encourage dependence and stop bands from devising alternative ways of working independently."
Penman believes bands end up competing against each other for audiences, media space, record contracts and funding, instead of building "a community where bands get together to tour, to appear on each other's albums and to share knowledge and resources."
>who has marketed themselves as a NZ band?
Think of this in nz exporters context - many businesses trade on NZs image when selling overseas... but not music. As Kirsten Morelle of Golden Horse notes in Music Making in New Zealand (great book!), no-one cares that you're from NZ, it doesnt make you stand out - having good songs makes you stand out.
>It seems strange to me then that reporters claim that someone is doing something unique by not trading on 'Brand New Zealand' when in fact its the norm.
But thats NOT the norm for many exporters.
"In hiring Michael Parisi and acquiring FMR, Warner Music Australasia plugs into a global A&R matrix that is committed to developing global careers."
FMR, welcome to the matrix!!!
ah, press releases, what poo.
from NZ Herald - a business angle on FFD success.
Fat Freddy's Drop let music walk the talk
27.10.05, By Liam Dann
When Peter Baker, general manager of record distribution company Rhythmethod, sat down to talk to his new clients, Fat Freddy's Drop, about marketing plans he was a little taken aback.
The band and manager Nicole Duckworth had a clear vision - no marketing.
"It's not that I wanted to do a big marketing campaign, but there are things that you traditionally do with any new release," Baker said. The band wanted none of them.
When Fat Freddy's released its debut studio album in May there were no street posters, print ads, music video or single. And, Baker recalls, there wasn't even a definite release date to promote.
But the plan worked - big time. The album's commercial success is unprecedented. It was the first independently distributed album to go straight to number one in the New Zealand charts. It was a gold record by the end of its first day (10,000 sales) and has since gone double platinum.
This week, Baker is doing the paperwork on an order that will see it top sales of 40,000.
Big mainstream retailers like The Warehouse are among the album's biggest buyers, something that was unimaginable in the band's early days as part of Wellington's underground dance music scene. [NB- The Warehouse account for over 60% of all CD sales]
But the "anti-marketing" philosophy is not about nihilistic rock'n' roll posturing.
Duckworth, who knows plenty about marketing, says it's part of a clearly defined strategy.
"We've always been pro-active about establishing a marketing plan," she said. "That plan was based on a couple of philosophies."
The first was to let the music do the talking, not the advertising.
"We'd come across - and been impressed by - marketing theories like the whole 'word-of-mouth thing'," she said.
"The loyalty that a word-of-mouth recommendation creates from a fan is much more powerful than someone discovering the music or the brand through a print ad."
The idea was to encourage a sense of ownership in fans.
"Then the audience is actually out there working for Freddy's."
That audience - which grew from years on the live circuit - created a huge advance demand for the album.
"With a creative business, you must let things happen organically," Duckworth said.
The loyalty, which saw the core fan base buy the album so quickly, has in turn created an industry buzz making Fat Freddy's one of the hottest acts in the country.
It's ironic given that the original plan was to ignore New Zealand and concentrate on foreign markets.
"The whole New Zealand thing surprised us," Duckworth said. "Seven years ago, we decided to focus on the international underground dance music scene because we didn't want to have to move into commercial music to be successful in New Zealand."
The band felt it was better to carve out a niche and sell themselves in places such as Germany, where that niche was big enough to be commercially viable.
That focus has meant that until this year most of Fat Freddy's work was only available on vinyl - something that only heightened demand for the album.
Duckworth said the vinyl release strategy was deliberate.
"You promote music through the DJs. When someone buys a CD, they'll play it in the car or at home and a close network of people will discover that music. But if you put it on a piece of vinyl and a DJ plays it over the weekend, then thousands of people start hearing it."
The Fat Freddy's sound - soulful lyrics layered over a slick brass section and heavy reggae beats - is part of a local movement dubbed Aotearoa Roots.
But, unlike so many Kiwi exporters, New Zealandness is not something the band has pushed.
"We've been careful not to market or brand the band as New Zealand," Duckworth said. "There is little interest, in the European market particularly, in music being from a specific country.
"There is a lot of pride here in New Zealand that the music is home grown but, overseas, you really have to put music out there first."
Fat Freddy Facts:
* Release music through their own label - The Drop.
* Debut studio album has sold nearly 40,000 copies.
* Picked up four New Zealand music awards this month - including best album and best band.
what is wrong with you people? It's IGGY AND THE STOOGES! I was all set to fly to OZ to see em on the back of tour rumours for later this year, and now they comin here! They are worth the price of admission alone. Now some mroe dance stuff would be cool....
tasty sounds, will come down and check you fellas out.
have a listen to some of my stuff, if you're interested...
A dedicated group of Kiwi sound techs have established a non-profit online forum website at nzsound.net specifically for anyone working in sound and/or music - production and post. The site is in its early stages of development with moderators so far including:
Tim Prebble (sound designer) Ray Beentjes (dialog editor) Tony Johnson (location sound) Paul Isaacs (Sound Techniques) David Donaldson (Composer, Plan 9) Rob Paris (Protel)
While the most active sections of the forum so far are location sound and post production, long time NZM contributor (and highly regarded film sound designer) Tim Prebble hopes it will be balanced with more music content over time.
"Ideally the forum can be a way of sharing information between us all and I personally believe film presents some unique opportunities for many of the musicians & engineers/producers who read NZ Musician." The forum is located at http://www.nzsound.net
try Rianz, or maybe have a read of Gareth Shute's book Hip hop in Aotearoa, in all good bookstores now, or your library.
she's done a bunch of press where she keeps saying this is more her own album, whereas her first one was other people telling her what to do, how to sound - strange thing tho, she recorded her new album here, but went to New York to mix it with the same producer as her first album, which explains why it sounds no different ot the first one.... go figure
have you contacted the jansen shop in AUkcland? The folk there are quite friendly, i've heard./ A mate of mine had a lovey old Jansen bass, and after chatting with these folk heard some great stories about their guitar maker. Apparently the quality of the pickups depended on what day of the week it was - if you had a goood sounding guitar it was probably made mid week, but bad sounding ones were usually made on monday, after the fellow had a boozy weekend and was a bit hungover.
There was a good artiucle in NZ Musician on jansen guitars several years ago - contact them and they maybe able to sell you a back issue of it.
election fun and games... theres a nutter at my work who is so disgusted by labour's student loans writeoff, that hes been putting up national party election posters on his office door - the last one was the TAX/CUT one... So, bottom line - New Zealand music on commercial radio under National - less than 2%. New Zealand music on commercial radio under Labour - over 20%. 9 years of National govt with zero growth in support for the arts... remember that sheeet?
original Sony documents now online at
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2005/jul/payola2.pdf
runs to 59 pages....
Industry rule number four thousand and eighty,
Record company people are shady.
So kids watch your back ’cause I think they smoke crack..
Tribe Called Quest, Check the rhime
from the LA Times
Practitioners of the promotion trade, once estimated to be a $60-million-a-year business, have fallen on hard times. Increased governmental scrutiny and declining sales of musical recordings have caused labels to slash their payments to independent promoters by as much as 75% in the last four years. One of the industry's top promoters, for instance, has shut two of his firm's four offices and fired three-quarters of his 50-person staff.
In past investigations, Spitzer has been criticized for allegedly overstepping his jurisdiction, pushing into areas that are overseen by the federal government. The Federal Communications Commission is responsible for enforcing payola laws.
But the FCC, which is wrestling with other issues, including telecommunications policy, media consolidation and indecency on public airwaves, has imposed only one fine in a payola case in the last decade. It was relatively small, however: $8,000.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-payola23jul23,0,4233398.story?coll...
oohh, serge gainsbourg- ever heard that album he did in 1979 with Sly and Robbie? Sleazy old french git over reggae riddims, bizarre but great