Label:Life

Speaking of “Star-Spangled Banner” renditions, 1,300 copies of Whitney Houston’s famous version were dropped on the Puget Sound Educational Service District late last week.

The Washington stated school and library system received the CDs and hundreds of others as part of a price-fixing lawsuit against the recording industry.

“We did not just give carte blanche to the recording industry to provide any CDs they had left over in their warehouse,” Gary Larson, a spokesman for Washington Attorney General Christine Gregoire said. “To qualify, CDs had to have been on industry charts for 26 weeks or to have peaked in the top half of the charts.” [more @ www.eurweb.com]

[Bit late on this one but you never know some of you in London may catch it! -Ed.]

AIM continues its Big Wednesday series with June’s spotlight in on the art of juggling…aka music business finance. The event takes place at 6pm – 8pm at ULU (Room 2B), Malet St, WC1 on Wednesday 30th June.

Have you ever struggled with cashflow, overspending on a project, or even to keep up financially when a record starts getting success?

Topics covered include: Funding and running the finances of your independent music business, how to plan for success, manage cashflow, avoid the common finance pitfalls and how to produce a successful funding bid.

The session brings together two experts from the area of business planning and raising finance, who both specialise in the music and media industry:

- Steve Cherry of Media Funding company Chelver Corporate Finance, formerly of NatWest’s Media Banking division, Steve now helps businesses develop their business plans and attract funding.

- Boomy Tokan of Portobello Business Centre who have provided over 3,500 advice and consultancy sessions in the last year and helped small businesses raise nearly £3 million in investment.

Ideal for start-up or growing record companies, or their staff who want to know more about finance issues, the event is free to AIM members or £25 otherwise. Those interested should contact Remi Harris at remi@musicindie.com .

One year into the Communications Act, amidst an Ofcom review of public sector broadcasting and with BBC Charter Renewal around the corner, this think tank takes a close look at the UK’s changing radio landscape.

Despite an Act with hard-fought for reference to localness, and against research that shows that local music tastes can vary considerably, centralised playlisting is creeping into commercial radio. A trend that’s likely to grow given expected consolidation and foreign ownership of broadcast media.

The session will also consider Radio 1’s playlist policy, BBC local radio, systems in other countries and the launch and likely impact of community radio.

The evening will be keynoted by David Ferguson Chairman, British Academy of Composers & Songwriters and Chaired by Keith Harris. Panelists include Marie-AgnEes Beau, Head of the French Music Bureau in London and Steve Stark, Director of Brighton’s Juice 107.2 fm and totallyradio.com. Representatives from the BBC, OFCOM and others await confirmation.

We strongly advise early booking for this event.

Tuesday 6th July 2004,18.30 – 21.30hrs, The Red Room, Bertorelli’s, 11-13 Frith Street, Soho, London, W1D 4RB. The cost is £20, £15 for trade body members. For further details and to book, visit www.musictank.co.uk.

It seems that the download charts are the stomping ground of “£50 Man”: the marketing demographic that describes culturally clued-up men in their 30s and 40s who have £50 in their pocket and are torn between a DVD, a computer game or now, it seems, a downloading spree. [more @ www.timesonline.co.uk]

Senate leaders late Tuesday [06/22/04] introduced a bill to make it easier to sue “peer-to-peer” services like Kazaa and eDonkey 2000, which allow users to copy music and movies for free over the Internet.

The Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004 would allow companies to be held liable if they “intentionally induce” copyright infringement.

Under a recent U.S. court ruling, peer-to-peer networks cannot be held liable if consumers use them to distribute copyrightable works. [more @ www.washingtonpost.com]

Prelude to a Fake Complaint:
Senator Orrin Hatch and his colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee have introduced the Inducing Infringements of Copyright Act this week. They want us to think the Act is no big deal, and that it targets only the bad guys while leaving the good guys alone. They say that it doesn’t change the law; it just clarifies it. But they’re wrong. And this legal complaint is the proof.
[Read On @ www.eff.org]

Music business analyst Phil Tripp has lauded the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties’ recommendations on the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the US, which support the copying of purchased music for personal use.
Tripp previously submitted a proposal to music industry associations asking to support a change to the Copyright Act that would give consumers the legal chance to copy music for their personal use. Part of the proposed changes include “a levy that will be implemented on recordable media and a separate one on digital music players to provide a pool of income that would be distributed back to music creators in a fair and equitable manner by an agreed rights society.” [more @ www.zdnet.com.au]

And now for a little light relief from the world of formats, facts and figures…

Check out this wicked ‘Ultra-interactive Kung-Fu Remixer’ from interactive media artists Skop [www.skop.com], a Music/Video sequencer that allows you to create audio-visual mixes on your computer keyboard from an amazing set of Bruce Lee film clips, Hong Kong graphics and dope 70’s kung fu soundtracks!

This remixer was originally commissioned for the online art-exhibition “Festival of Visions – Hongkong -Berlin” and has featured in over a dozen major Art/Media festivals worldwide over the last three years.

Even if you’re not a complete geek like me, do check it out, it’s brilliant. ‘Ultra-interactive Kung-Fu Remixer’.

This weeks pick ‘Fabric 17 : Akufen’ (various artists), released 7/19/2004 on Fabric records (the label run by the London club of the same name) is described as “a minimal house tour-de-force, bursting with energy, excitement, and invention”.

I have to agree. Quality, deep, minimal, impeccably mixed House is the order of the day here. Real smooth, bassy, atmospheric and even thought provoking stuff. Enough with the adjectives. Check out an exclusive 29 min mix to promote the album HERE and visit www.fabriclondon.com.

A new Beastie Boys’ CD called “To the Five Boroughs” (Capitol Records), is raising hackles around the Web for reputedly infecting computers with a virus.

According to a recent thread at BugTraq, an executable file is automatically and silently installed on the user’s machine when the CD is loaded. The file is said to be a driver that prevents users from ripping the CD (and perhaps others), and attacks both Windows boxes and Macs. [more @ www.theregister.co.uk]