October 31, 2004
The Rise of the Independents
Big Labels, small thinking; Small Labels, thinking big! Developing...
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October 30, 2004
R. Kelly, Jay-Z & Pepper Spray: Un-Finished Business "The Best of Both Worlds" Tour over?
It's been no secret the R. Kelly and Jay-Z have been feuding during the Best of Both Worlds tour. For the two artist, the tour has been anything BUT the best of both worlds. It seems that Kelly has been more than a bit envious of the audience reception for his touring partner, Jay-Z. The tour is now in doubt after Kelly walked offstage during a performance Saturday and then was alledgedly pepper sprayed by a member of Jay-Z's entourage.
NEW YORK - The tumultuous tour pairing platinum-selling stars R. Kelly and Jay-Z came to an abrupt end Saturday, one day after Kelly walked offstage during a performance and allegedly was blasted with pepper spray by a member of Jay-Z's entourage.
Kelly was booted from shows Saturday and Monday at Madison Square Garden by the promoter, who told the "I Believe I Can Fly" singer that he was banned from the facility, said his publicist, Allan Mayer. The promoter announced that Jay-Z, with special guests, would do the shows alone.
"The fans deserve better than this," Kelly said in a statement. "I'd like the show to go on. It's really disappointing that Jay-Z and the promoter don't."
Jay-Z and R. Kelly were in the midst of a 40-city "Best of Both Worlds" tour, which has been beset by canceled shows and reports that the feuding performers weren't even on speaking terms.
The tour, which had been scheduled to run through Nov. 28, has been canceled, said promoter Jeff Sharp of Atlanta Worldwide Touring. Jay-Z's publicist was unsure if the rapper would try and fill the remaining dates as a solo act.
The pepper-spray incident happened about an hour into Friday night's show, when Kelly walked on stage and said he saw two people in the audience waving guns, Mayer said. Kelly abruptly stopped his set around 9:30 p.m. while arena security employees searched for weapons.
Finding none, guards told Kelly it was safe to continue performing, Mayer said. But as the singer was making his way back to the stage, a man in Jay-Z's entourage — apparently miffed that Kelly interrupted the show — sprayed him and two of his bodyguards in the face, Mayer said.
Read the article: R. Kelly Booted From Jay-Z Tour
Artist: Jay-Z & R. Kelly
Album: Unfinished Business
Label: Def Jam
Audio CD (October 26, 2004)
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October 29, 2004
Winter Music Conference - Calling Chicago DJs & Music Producers
Calling all Chicago DJs & Music Producers
Press release from MOM ProductionsWe are inviting all Chicago House DJs, Producers and the Global Dance Music Community to experience the legendary SOUNDZ of CHICAGO, the House Music Capitol of the World at the Winter Music Conference March 22- 26, 2005 .
During 5 days at the magnificent CARDOZO HOTEL, we will showcase an array of Chicago’s finest DJs and Producers who have influenced House Music and Dance Music Culture worldwide. This will be the only place during the WMC for industry professionals and patrons visiting from around the world to experience the true SOUNDZ of CHICAGO!
If you are planning to visit the annual Winter Music Conference, March 22nd -26th 2005 and would like to take part in this opportunity as one of Chicago’s very own DJ/Producer please contact:
MOM Productions by November 15, 2004.
EMAIL- mom@mindovermatterchicago.com
OFFICE - 773-793-2566 ask for Ralph
Participating DJs and Producers will receive Discounted Hotel Rates and DJ scheduling.
Winter Music Conference
March 22-26, 2005
Wyndham Resort
Miami Beach, FL
Winter Music Conference, in its 20th anniversary year, is regarded as the singular networking event in the dance music industry, attracting professionals from over 60 different countries. With its high concentration of top international artists, DJs and industry professionals, WMC permeates the international press and is thereby one of the most publicized events in the business. Every aspect of the industry is represented including the top technological innovators, artists, DJs, producers, radio and video programmers, retailers, distributors, audio manufacturers and many more.Industry Development
Currently, the music industry is engaged in a profound structural metamorphosis. CDR's, MP3's, download streams and other new technologies are forever changing the ways in which people create, buy, sell and listen to music. Such matters are among the many debated at Winter Music Conference. The WMC program brings together informed professionals to present new ideas, discuss industry issues, and build new inroads for business development. Meetings and seminars focus on topics such as market strategies, artist development, copyrighting, publishing, writing contracts, artist management, distribution, radio, promotion, internet retailing, and the media, just to name a few. With more than 30 important meetings and seminars on the agenda, WMC will continue its mission to provide a decisive global platform for resolving the current challenges and stimulating new industry growth and revenue.Artists, DJs and Events
One of the most exciting aspects of Winter Music Conference is the convergence of industry executives, press and A&R reps, as well as artists and DJs of all levels bumping heads on the dance floors and rubbing elbows at the bar, while enjoying their favorite DJs spinning on the decks. The level of exposure WMC provides for artists and DJs is invaluable. WMC offers endless opportunities for DJs and artists to network and have their music heard by A&R reps, labels, and an international audience of music industry professionals. The Demo Listening Workshops, CD compilation, poolside performance stage, DJ Spin Off and a host of other performance events, showcases and release parties throughout the week provide limitless opportunities for innovative DJs and artists to break out of the box. Venues throughout Miami feature a non-stop schedule of nighttime events showcasing legendary artists and DJs from all over the world. WMC also presents the International Dance Music Awards, revered as the premier annual awards event for the dance and electronic music industry. Ultra Music Festival, the largest music festival of its kind in the U.S., is the official closing event for WMC. Nowhere other than WMC will you experience such diverse and unique talents gathered together to share one week of exclusive music industry events.
International Marketplace
The leading products, sounds and services from all over the globe are showcased at the WMC marketplace. See the latest innovations and breakthroughs in technology. In the WMC Exhibit Hall, you may also discover distributors, record labels, instruments, DJ hardware, sound equipment, music publications, internet and software technology, apparel, CD duplicators and much more. Because the Exhibit Hall is entirely hands-on, you ultimately become an intrinsic part of the whole experience. If you are looking for exposure, the WMC Marketplace is a prime opportunity to present your product or service directly to your market.
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October 28, 2004
File Sharers vs. RIAA (round to File Sharers)
File Sharers Win More Protection
Alleged file sharers must be given a notice explaining their legal rights before their internet service provider hands over any personal information to the music labels, a Pennsylvania judge ruled, making it still harder for the music industry to use the courts to intimidate people suspected of piracy.Privacy advocates called the Oct. 12 order by U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe a positive step in protecting the privacy and due process rights of accused copyright infringers.
The Recording Industry Association of America has filed thousands of so-called "John Doe" lawsuits, where the industry's trade association sues people based on their internet protocol addresses without knowing their names. The RIAA must first obtain an order from a judge to subpoena the internet service providers for the name of the defendant. With Rufe's order, now ISPs in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania must provide a detailed notice to their customer advising them of their rights, before they hand over their customers' names to the music companies' lawyers.
"It's another step in the evolution of protections for people who are accused by the record labels of file sharing, but may have a defense and may want to protect their anonymity," said Wendy Seltzer, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case. "It puts some procedural safeguards into the process."
The RIAA did not return a request for comment.
[Read the article]
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October 27, 2004
Boomboxes are Back! Listen to my Beats…
Though never truly out of style the boombox has seen better days. Where it was once the iconic accessory of the ruling hip-hop and break-dancing street culture, the boombox, in recent years, has lost some of its appeal. Newer, cooler, musical listening devices such as mp3 players became the hot item. The boombox faded into the background, even with its ever present, hard to ignore, bass boost. The boombox was no longer cool — until now.
Boomboxes are Hip Again
There was a time when a boombox on your shoulder was as much a badge of hipness as the white earphones signifying an iPod in your pocket are today.So cool was the portable music player in its heyday that it found its way into numerous films and advertisements in the 1980s, as laid out in the Pocket Calculator Boombox Museum, a site dedicated to retro consumer gadgets. Even rapper L.L. Cool J had his say on his 1985 album Radio, which dedicates numerous verses to the virtues of the boombox.
Those days are gone. According to the Consumer Electronics Association, only 329,000 boombox units without CD players were shipped in the United States in 2003, compared to 20.4 million in 1986.
The boombox, a self-contained audio device measuring 1 to 3 feet wide, became an essential part of street culture during the 1980s as people started to carry their boxes with them or used them to blast music in public places.
Today, you still see the occasional person carrying a blaring ghetto blaster down the street in the United States, despite the advent of personal stereos, which are much smaller than boomboxes and are designed to be used with headphones.
Some city dwellers, like San Francisco-based urban dancer Skorpio, use both a boombox and a personal stereo.
"I like to share my beats with everybody else," he said.
In other circles, the boombox lives on in unusual ways. Mark Argo and Ahmi Wolf, students in New York University's interactive telecommunications program, have removed the tuner and tape deck of a large 1980s ghetto blaster and filled it with a computer and Wi-Fi access point to make their Bass-Station. People can access shared media stored in the Bass-Station and manipulate playlists of music that gets amplified through the box's original speakers.
On the West Coast, sound artists such as five-piece group Rajar and collaborators Guillermo Galindo and Chris Brown use boomboxes along with other radios as part of their musical arsenal. Both groups performed at a recent event at Southern Exposure, a San Francisco artists' organization and gallery.
Rajar uses sounds captured from radio -- whether radio stations or the sounds of other transmissions such as faxes -- as its raw sonic material. At Southern Exposure, the group also picked up its own sound as it was being broadcast by the low-power FM transmitter managed by a community radio project, Neighborhood Public Radio, and fed the noise back into its mix.
Brown and Galindo broadcast sounds from their laptops and other electronic devices through four low-powered transmitters to any receivers nearby. Normally, they encourage audience members to bring boomboxes so that they themselves form the amplification system, modulating the sound as they move around. At Southern Exposure, they broadcast to boomboxes dotted around the room. More…
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October 25, 2004
Song Swapping Still Strong - What's an Industry to Do?
Song swapping has been viewed as the scourge of the music industry though in reality it's been the music industry's inability to build a viable business model to take advantage of peer-to-peer (P2P) fileswapping. Revenues are lost and boardrooms are gloomy. The RIAA has sued but has not been able to stem the tide. Read more... Song-Swap Networks Still Humming
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October 24, 2004
Industry > Music > Business
Welcome to the Machine! Well, it's not a machine really, but I always did like the lyrical expression of Pink Floyd — Careful With That Axe Eugene was pretty cool too, but I digress. Welcome to Industry > Music > Business — the new segment on BIGBAER Urban Alternative Music Magazine devoted entirely to the music industry and all related business. Everything from indie to big labels, to management, promotions & manufacturing will be discussed, referenced, made public. It all begins here. And we've got a lot of work to do! - jack "papa" baer 2004/10/24
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