IMNZ Newsletter: Going Global: Artist Applications Close Next Tuesday

CLOVIS MCEVOY – CLASSICAL
CHELSEA JADE – POP CONTEMPORARY
CLAIRE COWAN – FILM & TV

Every two years, APRA presents Professional Development Awards to three New Zealand songwriters and composers who demonstrate outstanding potential in their field. Representing three different categories: Classical, Pop Contemporary, Film & TV, each award is worth $10,000 cash, towards the recipient’s ongoing career development.

These awards recognise artists who are shining lights in the world of songwriting and composition – creative, skilled, motivated, passionate, disciplined and organised.

To determine the three recipients, all applications are assessed by an anonymous industry panel.  The calibre of applications this year were exceptional and the judges were inspired by the huge potential reflected in them.

The plans of this year’s recipients are an eclectic mix: songwriting and recording opportunities in the US and Canada; sound track masterclasses in Cologne and Hollywood; and intriguing conferences around electro-acoustic music and virtual reality environments in Paris and Japan.

“These are three great projects from three amazing writers. Each is young and ambitious and they have bold and exciting plans. At APRA we hope that our support and investment gives them all confidence and freedom to experiment, learn, and thrive as artists” says Head of New Zealand Operations Anthony Healey.

For just over a decade, DRM NZ has worked with a great host of independent kiwi artists in getting their music on digital platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Google Play and more. This includes everyone from established artists like Fat Freddy’s Drop, Kora and Devilskin to emerging talents like TEEKS, Nomad and Robinson.

On the new partnership with Kingdon and his team, DRM NZ General Manager Andy Low states:
“This is a thrilling release for us, and we’re very excited to work with one of New Zealand’s great talents of today. KINGS has come up with a fantastic debut album, DRM looks forward to rolling out the new KINGS material far and wide.”

With lead single ‘We’ll Never Know’ scheduled to drop early September, KINGS returns in fine form with a varied album showcasing an impressive range of styles and wide skillset as a producer, songwriter, lyricist and performer.
Regarding the album construction and forging a new path without a major record label involved, Kingdon comments:

“Working closely with Warner Music NZ was such a great experience for my first project, we were able to break a New Zealand record, which was an amazing achievement and one we couldn’t have done without them.”

“I’ve always encouraged artists and musicians to do things themselves and to study the game thoroughly. It was only right that I do this entire project the way I preach. From directing the music videos to designing the cover art, everything is written, produced, mixed, and mastered the way I intended, with the hope that it encourages YOU to do the same thing.” 

Best known for runaway chart-topping hit ‘Don’t Worry ‘Bout It’, which has now surpassed 6 million streams and recently received a Silver Scroll award nomination, KINGS has carved out a unique path as a multi-talented artist covering a diverse range of genres.

What does that specifically have to do with the music industry?

Sometimes, when you want to find clues about why a enormous global corporation has swooped for an independent organization, you need to look closer at its founders.

Source3’s co-creators are Patrick Sullivan and Ben Cockerham.

They were also the co-founders of music IP-focused rights management tool Rightsflow, which was sold to Google in 2011.

Prior to launching Rightsflow in 2007, now-Source 3 CEO Sullivan (pictured, main) was VP of Music Services at music distribution platform The Orchard for almost three years from 2005 – establishing the business in EMEA, US, LATM & Australasia.

Sullivan also previously worked as VP of Licensing and Royalties at online music retailer eMusic, in addition to a three-year stint as Director of Research and Development at the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) from 2001-2004.

Before that, he was an analyst at mechanical rights clearing house the Harry Fox Agency between 1999-2001.

After selling Rightsflow, Sullivan became a Strategic Partner Development Manager at Google for three years, working closely with the music industry.

Sullivan’s business partner at Source3, Ben Cockerham (pictured inset), has a similarly music-centric professional history.

Before co-founding Rightsflow and subsequently working as a music-focused product manager at YouTube, Cockerham was Director of Global Operations for Music Services at The Orchard between 2004 and 2007.

In the Source3 blog revealing the Facebook acquisition yesterday, the company wrote: “At Source3, we set out to recognize, organize and analyze branded intellectual property in user-generated content, and we are proud to have identified products across a variety of areas including sports, music, entertainment and fashion. Along the way, we built an end-to-end platform to manage online IP and establish relationships with brands.

“Today, we wanted to let everyone know that we’ve decided to continue our journey with Facebook. We’re excited to bring our IP, trademark and copyright expertise to the team at Facebook and serve their global community… who consume content, music, videos and other IP every day.”

So let’s take a breath, and look over the evidence.

Facebook has just acquired the team and technology behind an IP identification tool created for the music industry – in addition to sports and other entertainment businesses – run by two music IP specialists who both spent years at The Orchard and other music businesses.

Like former YouTuber Tamara Hrivnak (pictured inset), who became Facebook’s global music strategy boss in January, both Patrick Sullivan and Ben Cockerham have extensive inside knowledge of Google’s approach to handling music IP.

The Source3 news comes in the same year that MBW spotted Facebook was advertising for three music-focused licensing positions, which revealed that the firm was set to launch a “comprehensive music strategy”.

Two of those jobs related to music publishing: North America Music Publishing Business Development Lead and International Music Publishing Business Development Lead.

Another fell on the recorded side of the business: a Label Music Business Development Lead tasked with ‘leading Facebook’s strategy and negotiations’ with music labels throughout the world.

Since then, we’ve seen Facebook also look to hire a Music Business Development Manager to ‘lead Facebook’s strategy and negotiations with digital music services, as well as collaborate with our product, media partnerships and platform partnerships teams to ensure a coordinated and best-in-class approach’.

That ad suggests that the company is looking, at least in part, to work collaboratively with existing music services such as Spotify.

Perhaps the most likely scenario, then: Facebook is gearing up to take on YouTube properly in both the user-generated and premium video space – while sidling up to established providers to embed itself deeper in audio streaming.

In order to get the music business on board – and therefore give itself an immediate collaborative/competitive advantage over Google and YouTube – Mark Zuckerberg could be putting in place protocols to ensure that music copyright is stringently monitored on the service. Complete with – ‘hopefully!’, cry the labels – a simple and automated takedown/monetization mechanic which doesn’t rely on rights-holders to comb Facebook’s service for infringers.

Patrick Sullivan, Ben Cockerham and Source3 may yet prove to be an essential component of this dream becoming a reality.

Remember, back in February, Mark Zuckerberg told his investors: “The creators [of premium video] need to get paid a good amount in order to support the creation of [their] content, and we need to be able to support that with a business model.”

Next big question: could Vevo ever really up and leave YouTube, and instead sign up Facebook as its primary partner?

Food for thought: Facebook recently announced its active monthly users had surpassed 2bn people.

YouTube recently announced its logged-in monthly user base had surpassed 1.5bn people.

Ladies and gentlemen… place your bets. Sourced via Music Business Worldwide 

“What if,” Bradfield told the journalist, “each and every one of [the former SoundClouders] had been offered ten thousand dollars to refrain from getting a job? To leave and start something. To leave and start working on the new future of music, whatever that might be.”

These former SoundClouder staffers have a unique skill set that combined music, tech and innovation to create a hugely popular site. It would be “sacrilegious to just let them go out and get regular jobs,” said Brafield, instead of encouraging them to continue to innovate.

“Companies like SoundCloud and Medium have tried to ease the pain of layoffs by sharing contact details,” the letter says. “We admire this attempt to get you employed again but we’d like to prevent you from just simply ‘getting a job.’”

His offer: “$10,000 to start something.” In return, WeTransfer just wants to see “a proposal for something you could design, build, or manage.” Sourced via Hypebot

China’s Music Business Is About To Explode
The following MBW blog comes from LiHui Shen (pictured), who founded Modern Sky Entertainment in 1997. Today, 20 years on, the group’s label, Modern Sky Records, is the largest independent record company in China, having released more than 200 albums across 40 artists. Modern Sky Entertainment is also the largest festival operator in the market, owning several brands including Strawberry Music Festival – the biggest event in China of its kind – as well as Modern Sky Festival, Greenfest Music Festival, 500 KM Music Festival Kunming and other large-scale outdoor music events. An artist and producer in his own right, LiHui Shen also runs Modern Sky Now, an online live streaming platform, as well as Modern Sky Lab – a live venue brand in Beijing, Shanghai and Kunming.

The Chinese music business is set to explode. Many executives across the US, UK and Europe look east and rightfully tip the Asian continent as the next great land of opportunity.

It’s a perception that is very welcome in Modern Sky’s home territory, especially since China has, until recently, been compared to the wild west as far as copyright protection is concerned.

Because of China’s political history, the idea of copyright as other societies might recognise it simply didn’t exist. The transition to a system of IP protection that can be integrated with the rest of the world is still ongoing and it’s a long and arduous process, because it requires widespread change – commercially, economically, culturally and philosophically.

Apart from making sure the right systems and infrastructure are in place (there’s still work to be done to make sure songwriters are adequately remunerated by traditional forms of media such as television and radio, for example), there’s the challenge of changing the mentality of an entire population. If something’s been

That’s certainly a question that persists within the older demographic of China’s 1.2 billion population, and indeed the older executives at the top of certain established companies, but there has been a change in the way our nation sees itself that has ushered change and will continue to move things in the right direction.

Today China identifies as an innovator on the world stage. It is keen to export its own products, technology and culture to the west.

Of course, in order to do that effectively, we need robust recognition of intellectual property, not just to ensure that China’s exports are protected but to make sure the west is willing to work with us on a commercial basis. It’s vital if China is going to compete in the 21st Century.

And while the very basic, ground level problem of persuading individuals to pay for IP may still exist to a large extent among the older generation in China, I’m happy to report that the Chinese youth are far more willing – and the size and power of that demographic has swelled over the past 15 years.

Modern Sky estimates that there are around 365 million people in China that will happily buy into culture and entertainment – young people that have newly disposable income to spend on leisure. It may not be the entire 1.2 billion population, but it’s still the equivalent of the entire USA buying into music. Imagine that.

How can western music companies tap into this enormous market?

The key is working with partners who understand the territory and can make things happen. The live sector in China, for example, is flourishing, with plenty of big festivals, venues and opportunities for touring. Modern Sky has seen success on that front as China’s largest promoter, presenting over 15 Strawberry Music Festivals every year in China – but many companies still aren’t equipped to make the most of the live world.

More broadly speaking, young people in China have been exposed to western culture like never before in recent years. They are adopting the subcultures, musical scenes and catalogues of work from decades gone by as new experiences.

As a result the Chinese youth are creating their own art in reciprocation, embracing western philosophies and adding their own twist. That in itself is an exciting prospect, but Chinese language music is still only likely to appeal to the Chinese market.

Modern Sky believes there’s another opportunity if we find ways for Chinese artists to collaborate with artists in the west. Working together in co-writing and performance will benefit from the connection each side has with their native audiences. Hence why Modern Sky has a US office and a European operation, based in the UK, alongside its China HQ.

There’s a massive commercial opportunity for music companies across the globe in China – the raw figures alone will only equal more potential as our territory’s attitude towards IP develops. But there’s even greater potential if we find ways to work together across the east/west divide, bringing our cultures closer together.

This second studio album by Wellington songwriter and recording artist Manzo, features guest vocalists and musicians from the Wellington region.
Topical themes of corporate greed, politics, masculinity and social pressure, are woven with tales of loss and love. This is an album that talks about the frustrations and flaws of our modern world to anybody that understands how it feels to be perceived as different.  It’s a salute to the outsider!  Pre-order now http://apple.co/2vu7y2S

Manzo will also be performing live in September. Save the date!
2 September, 7.00pm at the Fringe Bar, Allen Street, Wellington. 

To keep up to date with all things relating to the album, release dates, and live shows please follow Manzo’s Facebook page.