Music Glue appoints Neil Robertson head of A&R for Australia
Music Glue has announced the appointment of music industry veteran Neil Robertson to the position of Head of A&R, Australia. Robertson joins Music Glue after a decade-long tenure as international label manager at V2 Recordings/Cooperative Music, AU, working with international acts such as Bloc Party, Phoenix, Faith No More, Interpol, alt-J and Chvrches. Prior to this, he managed Scottish band Belle & Sebastian for 10 years. This included running the merchandising and ecommerce business for the band. Robertson said: “I’ve always been impressed with Music Glue’s ability to empower artists and to give them and their managers the chance to have really meaningful creative and commercial conversations with their fans. As the industry focuses on the best ways to generate revenue outside of traditional sales of recorded music, Music Glue’s technology makes it ideally placed to lead the way and this new role as part of a passionate and motivated team is really exciting.”
Ed Sheeran receives top songwriters certification
Ed Sheeran topped the July 2016 list of certifications awarded to songwriters and publishers by the National Music Publishers Association in the US. The NMPA's Gold & Platinum Programme identifies and honours songwriters based on certifications of songs by fellow-organisation the Recorded Industry Association of America, which awards platinum and gold certifications for recordings. In July, the NMPA awarded 356 certifications of hit songs to top songwriters. RIAA counts both sales and on-demand streams towards its gold (500K), platinum (1 million) and multi-platinum (2 million +) thresholds. Sheeran topped the month's certifications with six nods for Sing, The A-Team, Give Me Love, all three certified Platinum, and Kiss Me, Tenerife Sea, and Drunk all certified Gold. Also receiving six certifications is Dijon McFarlane (a.k.a. DJ Mustard) who gets awards for Needed Me, performed by Rihanna, certified Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum and LA Love (LA, LA) by Fergie, certified Gold and Platinum and Saved by Ty Dolla $ign, certified Gold.
Blurred Lines co-writers get support from 212 songwriters
The appeal lodged by US artists Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke and TI (aka Clifford Harris Jr.) against the verdict that determined that their co-written song Blurred Lines copied Marvin Gaye’s 1977 hit Got to Give It Up has received the support from over 200 fellow songwriters who argue that “the verdict in this case threatens to punish songwriters for creating new music that is inspired by prior works.” In other words, songwriters are concerned that any song that sounds similar to another song could be considered as infringing some other songwriters' copyright. On August 30, 212 songwriters — as diverse as Jason Mraz, Hans Zimmer, R. Kelly, John Oates, Tears For Fears' Curt Smith, as well as members of Earth Wind & Fire, Train, Linkin Park, Tool, Three 6 Mafia, The Go-Go's and Dirty Loops — filed an amicus brief with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, supporting the Blurred Lines co-writers in their attempt to get the 2015 verdict overturned.
Music Week Sync Awards nominations close tomorrow
There are just two days left to send in your entries for this year’s Music Week Sync Awards. Nominations close on Friday, September 2, so make sure you’ve submitted your entries before the deadline passes. Team categories include Record Company, Independent Record Company, Publisher, Independent Publisher, Agency and Broadcaster Music Department. You can find out more on each of the categories for this year’s awards here. The shortlist will be decided on the quality of nominations, rather than the number of nominations. And remember, nominations can come from either companies or individuals. This year’s Sync Awards take place at London’s Bloomsbury Ballroom on October 20 to celebrate the best sync teams individuals and placements across a broad range of media over the past 12 months. Plus there is the overall Sync of the Year award.
Berliner Philharmoniker partners with Panasonic to deliver hi-res A/V live experiences
The Berliner Philharmoniker and Panasonic have announced that they will collaborate to develop audio-visual technologies aimed at enhancing 4K/HDR video and Hi-Resolution audio platforms. Through this agreement, both parties will explore opportunities to bring a premium and authentic live concert hall experience to both the home and in-car environment. Panasonic will support the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Internet video platform, the Digital Concert Hall, through upgrading to the optimum and highest 4K/HDR video and Hi-Res audio recording technology, to improve the reproduction and streaming of BPH live performances. Furthermore, BPH will also collaborate with Technics, the high-end audio brand of Panasonic. Not only will BPH and Technics work closely to enhance digital formats and audio streaming, they will also work together on high quality, authentic analogue recordings.
