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New York (May 13, 2009) – Madison Square Garden’s national music network Fuse and MSG Entertainment today announced they will present Dave Matthews Band live at the Beacon Theatre on Monday, June 1.
Fuse, the only national network dedicated to music, will also telecast “Fuse Presents Dave Matthews Band: Live from the Beacon Theatre” in high-definition and commercial-free on the eve of the release of Dave Matthews Band’s Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.
Proceeds from the concert will benefit Dave Matthews Band’s Bama Works Fund supporting charitable programs in the Charlottesville, VA area.
Kicking off with “Fuse Presents Dave Matthews Band: Live from the Beacon Theatre” on June 1, Fuse will air 7-days of original programming — including a 4-part original documentary “Dave Matthews Band: The Road to Big Whiskey” — in support of the album release. Jointly Fuse and MSGE will also put a full portfolio of marketing assets across multiple platforms to round out the promotional push in support of this partnership.
This distinctive and creative collaboration between MSG Entertainment and Fuse offers fans and viewers unique multi-platform access to Dave Matthews Band. The 360-degree experience began on April 14 as the band launched their Spring 2009 tour with a sold-out performance at Madison Square Garden. While in New York the band stopped by Radio City Music Hall for an interview with Fuse about the new album. The network then followed the band to Charlottesville, VA where they captured behind the scenes moments of the band’s hometown tour stop. All of this will be included in Fuse’s 7-days of original Dave Matthews Band programming.
“Fuse is celebrating the release of the Dave Matthews Band’s eighth studio album with an entire week dedicated to the band,” said Mike Bair, president, MSG Media. “By tapping into MSGE’s legendary venues and strategic marketing offerings, together we’re providing an experience for Dave Matthews Band fans that goes beyond the show. From a live concert at the legendary Beacon Theatre to an intimate documentary taped at Radio City Music Hall, we’re raising the bar and look forward to collaborating with other artists on similar projects to reach their fans.”
“Together under the MSG umbrella, MSGE and Fuse are in the unique position to put the full weight of our assets behind Dave Matthews Band’s release of Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King and create this type of unique experience for music fans,” said Jay Marciano, president, MSG Entertainment. “Today’s entertainment environment is all about providing unique content and a meaningful experience. We are thrilled to work with Dave Matthews Band to support them on their tour and the release of one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year, and such a meaningful project to the band and their fans.”
“Working with MSGE and Fuse to bring this partnership to life has been a very positive experience,” said Coran Capshaw, longtime manager of Dave Matthews Band. “With them we’ve developed several exciting ways to offer the band’s fans a really great experience.”
Fuse and MSGE together offer a one of a kind experience - from playing legendary venues to garnering national television programming attention and access to MSG’s entire portfolio of marketing and promotional assets to supporting projects like this through collaborative partnerships that only Fuse and MSG Entertainment can provide. Airing live on Fuse and streaming live on fuse.tv, Dave Matthews Band will join artists including The Killers, The Cure, The Foo Fighters and Fall Out Boy who have all taken advantage of this type of collaborative live series.
The legendary and newly restored Beacon Theatre, recently hosted the grand re-opening of the theatre following a 7-month, $16-million restoration and featured seminal artist Paul Simon with special guest Art Garfunkel. This intimate rock room has recently played host to many of the music industry’s most highly anticipated and sought after shows including the 40th anniversary spring run of the Allman Brothers Band with various special guests; the Martin Scorsese documentary film of the Rolling Stones, “Shine a Light”; and a performance by the legendary and reclusive folk artist Leonard Cohen to name a few. Dave Matthews Band fans will now have the opportunity to see the band at the 2800-seat Beacon Theatre before the release of their eighth studio album.
“More cowbell” is an American pop culture catchphrase originally derived from a Saturday Night Live comedy sketch about the recording of the song (Don’t Fear) The Reaper by Blue Öyster Cult. Now you can get your own cowbell!
Here’s a way to add more of that so desired cowbell to any song you choose! Just beware that music may never be the same for you again!
New York, NY, July 29, 2008 – The Walkmen released their highly anticipated new album today exclusively on AmieStreet.com as part of the website’s ongoing Download To Make A Difference campaign that launched earlier this month.
You & Me will be sold for a period of three weeks at the special price of $5. For each album purchased AmieStreet.com will donate $5 to a cause of personal significance to The Walkmen.
“All donations go to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in honor of Luca Vasallo, a friend to the band and a current patient who is seven months old and doing a great job fighting a very difficult disease,” said Peter Bauer of The Walkmen. “This is a very good organization that certainly deserves the attention.”
The You & Me exclusive pre-release marks the second major release for AmieStreet.com’s Download To Make A Difference campaign, which gives people the chance to support important causes by downloading new music.
The Walkmen’s new album is released by Gigantic Music and marketed and distributed by The Orchard. To download You & Me and give $5 to a great cause go to AmieStreet.com/thewalkmen.
Buy The Walkmen You & Me on Amiestreet
http://amiestreet.com/thewalkmen
Preview The Walkmen You & Me on AOL
http://spinner.aol.com/artists/new-releases-full-cds?defaultTab=1
MP3: The Walkmen “In the New Year” from You & Me
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Do you watch MTV and ever wonder what that song was you just heard? MTV plays roughly 1500 music cues in its programming each week, not including music videos or performances — and is now giving fans an easy, new way to discover all that music. Introducing Soundtrack.mtv.com — the industry’s first-ever interactive music guide for TV — showcasing everything about the music and artists being played on MTV at any given time. Not only that, Soundtrack.mtv.com also empowers communities of fans to rally behind their favorite indie bands to get them onto the biggest stage of all, MTV — introducing them to millions.
Here’s more News Facts:
* Soundtrack.mtv.com launches today and is integrated into nearly all of MTV’s programming, inviting viewers to discover a diverse line-up of music from both established and up-and-coming artists.
* Whether for the next 24hours or the last 24 days, Soundtrack.mtv.com can tell you the song, artist, and album of the music heard on MTV — plus provide a deep catalog of corresponding content including music videos, performances, personal blogs, photos and more.
* Soundtrack.mtv.com enables fans to champion their favorite music and allows bands/artists to galvanize support — creating a clear path for the best to make it in front of MTV’s music supervisors and onto TV.
Soundtrack.mtv.com specifics:
* A music discovery “wheel” informs fans of aired music by day, show and time and provides them with more information to discover selected artists. The wheel allows users to search for music currently playing on-air, upcoming in the next 24 hours, and previously played in past show programming dating back to Soundtrack’s launch (July 16, 2008).
* Emerging bands can raise their profile by creating customizable Soundtrack profile pages where they can stream music, videos, promote upcoming events and fire up their fans for support with tools such as a vote for me button called “Support By Sound.”
* A Soundtrack ranking system features “Top Artists” and “Top Songs” in the community and provides high-ranking emerging artists with direct access to MTV music supervisors, who will be listening to the online community, observing bands rankings and hand picking new artists to play on MTV on-air programming.
* The Soundtrack community will have the power to escalate the Soundtrack rank of their favorite band’s songs by listening or voting for them.
* Auto-generated playlists around buzz-worthy show moments will be featured on Soundtrack, such as love songs from classic Heidi and Spencer scenes and best party songs from “My Super Sweet 16″ episodes.
* Soundtrack will soon be fully integrated with MTV.com including the ability to buy songs on Rhapsody.
Quotes:
Attributed to Brian Graden, President of Entertainment, MTV Networks Music Group
* “Our audience is constantly telling us they want to know more about the artists and music they are hearing in our programming. That’s because TV is a great place to find music, and now, unlike anything else out there, Soundtrack.mtv.com offers a pure, unobstructed road to discovery.”
Attributed to Amy Doyle, SVP of Music & Talent, MTV
* “Music is threaded throughout everything we do — online, on the go, and on TV — unifying every possible screen to create the best music experience for our audience, the artists they love, and the music industry as a whole. With Soundtrack, we’re creating a new way to propel emerging and indie artists onto MTV, the world’s stage.”
Attributed to David Saslow, SVP Video Content, Production, & Programming, Atlantic Records
* “Our new act Carolina Liar had their music featured several times on ‘The Hills’ last season and the reaction was immediate. MTV has been a terrific partner in helping us break the band, and because of Soundtrack.mtv.com the viewers are able to discover who these bands are.”
Soundtrack ‘Hot 10′ Playlist
Music cues in MTV programming expose unknown and unsigned acts to the masses and music industry. Some of the songs that gained enormous popularity after being featured on an MTV show include:
* Olivia Broadfield — “Don’t Cry” (Real World): Went to #4 on in the electronic singles charts on iTunes and #5 on the albums charts and garnered 20,000 plays on Olivia’s MySpace page the day after her song aired on ‘The Real World’.
* Jason Reeves — “Photographs & Memories” (A Shot at Love II): As a result of the chyron in ‘A Shot of Love II with Tila Tequila’, track sales increased by 394% and the album sales increased by 179% the week the show aired. Reeves subsequently signed with Warner Bros Records.
* Carolina Liar — “I’m Not Over” (The Hills): After being featured in ‘The Hills’, digital sales of this song rose by 483% resulting in Carolina’s label to respond by saying “fans are digging the band and searching for more on the act�this is making a big difference”
This is pretty awesome:
Making of:
SEATTLE—June 30, 2008— Rhapsody®, the leading digital music service from RealNetworks®, Inc. (Nasdaq RNWK) and MTV Networks, today launched its “Music Without Limits” initiative. This strategy is designed to turbocharge the digital music industry in three ways, by:
Accelerating the move away from proprietary Digital Rights Formats by making music from all major labels available in the DRM-free and interoperable MP3 format;
Empowering music fans to conveniently stream full-length songs, and buy MP3s, anywhere they want including the most popular music sites and social networks on the Web;
Integrating digital music directly with mobile phones through a deep partnership between Rhapsody and Verizon Wireless.
From TorrentFreak.com:
Joss Stone, who won a Grammy last year, loves music, but hates the the music industry. In a recent interview she said that - unlike herself - most artists are brainwashed by the industry, and she encouraged people to share her music.
After the show a reporter asked her what she thinks of piracy, and people who download her songs off the Internet. Her response baffled the reporter, as she simply told him: “I think it’s great…” There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, the reporter probably expected to hear something else from her. “Great?,” he said.
“Yeah, I love it. I think it’s brilliant and I’ll tell you why,” Stone continued. “Music should be shared. […] The only part about music that I dislike is the business that is attached to it. Now, if music is free, then there is no business, there is just music. So, I like it, I think that we should share.”
“It’s ok, if one person buys it, it’s totally cool, burn it up, share it with your friends, I don’t care. I don’t care how you hear it as long as you hear it. As long as you come to my show, and have a great time listening to the live show it’s totally cool. I don’t mind. I’m happy that they hear it.”
Stone went on to say that most artists have probably been “brainwashed” by the record labels, when they discourage their fans from downloading music. Of course, Stone is not the only artist who actually wants people to share their work. Last year rapper 50 Cent made some positive remarks about filesharing, and Nine Inch Nails takes it even further, as they upload their music onto BitTorrent sites themselves.
These artists are spot on, in fact, several studies have shown that artists actually benefit from filesharing. The more music people share, the more CDs they buy and the more concerts they visit.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette
Just don’t get too carried away with your iPod karaoke.
Published: Tuesday, April 29
Is it just me, or is everyone plugged in these days?
“Nine out of 10 people workout with an iPod or MP3 player,” said Melanie Shernofsky, group fitness coordinator at Montreal’s Mansfield Club.
The same could be said for the many runners and walkers who are tuned in to their own playlist while cruising the streets of their neighbourhood.
Yet despite the apparent spike in music appreciation amongst the fitness crowd, exercising to music isn’t new. People were skating around roller rinks to the tunes of Buddy Holly and jumping to the beat of the Pointer Sisters in aerobics classes long before Amy Winehouse took top billing on the iPod of most gym rats.
Why is music such an integral part of the exercise experience?
“Music takes us away from the physical discomfort and the process of exercise itself,” said Jim Gavin, a clinical health psychologist from Concordia University.
Indeed most exercisers will tell you that music is a pleasant distraction during a workout. Some even go as far as saying they can exercise longer and harder when listening to music than without. And while there is a general consensus that music can make the minutes go by faster when running on a treadmill, there is little data to suggest that you can workout longer or harder while listening to your favourite tunes.
Numerous studies have evaluated the heart rate and time to exhaustion among exercisers listening and not listening to music. The majority noted no significant difference between the two. Which means exercise duration and intensity weren’t affected by music. What was affected, however, was how hard the exercisers perceived they were training while music was playing.
Study after study notes that exercisers perceive their level of exertion to be lower when music accompanies their workout compared to those who exercise in silence. Also interesting to note is that the affect is greater the harder you exercise. In other words, the tougher the workout, the more music helps you hang in there.
“Music tends to separate us from what we are physically doing and leads us further away from how we are feeling,” says Gavin.
Not all music is equal in its distraction, though - at least where exercise is concerned. A 2006 study of 128 undergraduate students noted a preference for faster, more upbeat music as the intensity of the workout increased. No surprise there. Footloose beats out James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful every time when the going gets tough. Nike’s iPod sensor combo even allows runners to program their own “power” song that can be pressed into play when the feet need a little extra incentive to keep moving.
Yet as powerful as music is, not everyone appreciates the distraction. Yet another study noted that among runners, novices were more likely than veteran runners to benefit from listening to music during their training runs. The elite runners actually found music to be an unwanted diversion, which suggests that the disconnect between mind and body is not considered beneficial for runners who use their body’s feedback to continually gauge and modify their intensity.
Of course, there are other uses for music in the exercise field. Yoga instructors often play music as a form of relaxation, helping participants to de-stress and slow down their hectic pace in tune with the mindful approach of the practice.
Group exercise instructors have long been known to count on music not just to motivate, but also to keep everyone in the class moving in synch. In fact, the addition of music to group exercise classes is what characterized the aerobics boom in the 80’s - back in the day instructors spent hours choosing the right music to motivate and the right moves.
Interestingly, with personal MP3 players now all the rage, music lovers don’t need group exercise classes to supply musical motivation. In the age of self-selection, exercisers can create their own workout playlist with their favourite tunes that can be updated at will. This means they can find all the motivation they want on their own iPod, making a solo run on the treadmill just as motivating as a group exercise class.
Shernofsky thinks that’s a good thing.
“For people who don’t like to exercise, music can be a great motivator.”
It also means that anyone with two left feet or an aversion to a Madonna, Christina Aguilera and Mariah Carey re-mix played at 150 beats a minute can now workout to the beat of their own drummer.
That being said, there are some rules that go along with plugging in during exercise. Don’t tune out to the extent that you aren’t aware of your surroundings. Keep alert and listen to your body and what’s going on around you. And whatever you do, limit your iPod karaoke to places where you aren’t likely to be overheard. Not everyone is a fan of Bat Out of Hell sung at full volume on a beautiful Sunday morning (don’t ask).
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24358965/wid/11915829?GT1=40006
By Jake Coyle
Mon., April. 28, 2008
NEW YORK - You’re sitting at home online and suddenly you get an irresistible urge. You absolutely have to belt out R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly” and share it with the world.
You now have that ability, thanks to the new MySpace Karaoke, to be launched Tuesday by the social networking site.
MySpace Karaoke (ksolo.myspace.com) debuts nearly two years after Fox Interactive, a division of News Corp., which owns MySpace, purchased the karaoke site kSolo.com. The combination of MySpace and kSolo allows users to upload audio recordings of them singing everything from R. Kelly to Richie Valens to their profile page.
MySpace co-founder and president Tom Anderson (known by many as the friend that comes automatically with a MySpace account) said MySpace and karaoke are a natural fit.
“It is in part because music is so popular on our site,” said Anderson. “But also because karaoke is such a fun and social thing, which is what we’re about too. It’s not as much fun to go to karaoke alone, but when you do it through the Internet or on your MySpace page, then you can share it with people.”
Recordings can be prominently displayed on one’s MySpace page and receive ratings from friends (and, presumably, fans). As of Monday afternoon, the most popular song to sing was Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel.”
MySpace Karaoke and kSolo — the first major karaoke site — are just two destinations of a small industry of online karaoke sites. SingShot, owned by Electronic Arts, and Bix, owned by Yahoo!, are also big names in karaoke on the Web.
And YouTube has, of course, been the largest repository of people dancing around their bedrooms and singing their favorite songs. While MySpace Karaoke doesn’t currently have a video option, Anderson says it’s in the works and that it will include a split-screen duet feature.
Users need only a microphone to sing into. MySpace Karaoke gives them the music to sing over (with vocals removed) with the lyrics scrolling across their computer screen. There are also numerous effects that users can play with to alter their recordings.
Right now, the site has between 2,000 and 3,000 songs available, all of them licensed from music publishers. The difficulty of managing those rights has been the reason for the delayed launch, Anderson said.
“It was quite difficult,” he said. “The rules and the licensing changed over time and became more complicated since MySpace is a global company. There’s different rights in different territories.”
But Anderson thinks having those rights puts MySpace at a distinct advantage.
“On MySpace, we actually filter and take down content (without licensing),” said Anderson. “At some point, YouTube is going to be forced to — or pay the rights holders because they’re breaking the law when they do that.”
As recordings have begun to pile up, there’s a wide variety of quality.
Said Anderson, “You’ll find equally horrible and equally good ones.”
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2008/03/07/artists-raid.html
Canadian musicians and songwriters are applauding an RCMP raid on a company accused of being a modern-day pirate operation and one of the biggest music bootleggers in Canadian history.
RCMP investigators raided the Winnipeg-based shop of Audiomaxxx.com on Wednesday and seized 200,000 CDs and DVDs as well as computers, label-making machines and burning towers capable of copying 11,500 discs a day.
“We’re looking at cube vans and U-Hauls worth of CD and computer equipment. It’s a lot,” RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Line Karpish said.
The material seized included recordings by big-name artists such as Nelly Furtado and Shania Twain, but also smaller artists, the RCMP said. The RCMP’s three-year investigation began after the Canadian Recording Industry Association received a flood of complaints.
Association president Graham Henderson estimated one-third of all the pirated music in Toronto may have originated from Audiomaxxx.com. The bootlegged goods were also being shipped to North and Central America, Europe and the Caribbean, according to an RCMP news release.
“The largest seizure that I can remember was about 10,000 discs seized from a commercial operation in Toronto a year ago. This was 20 times as big,” Henderson said.
Independent producers and smaller record labels, including some from the Caribbean, played a big part in pushing the industry and the police to investigate, Henderson said, because their market was being undercut by the material made in Canada.
There has been big buzz about the bust at Canadian Music Week, the country’s international music conference, taking place in Toronto this week, he added. “At all levels, I’m getting high fives.
“This was striking at the livelihoods of independents and music publishers and songwriters, as well as the Celine Dions and Sean Pauls of the world. They’re very, very pleased,” he said.
Keri Latimer, Winnipeg-based singer-songwriter with the alt-country quartet Nathan, was happy to hear an alleged pirating operation had been shut down.
But the success of such companies is a sign of the times, she said.
“Kids that are downloading music, they’re used to doing that for free,” she said. “I think it’s hard to change that sort mindset — once you’re used to doing it, you can’t see anything wrong with it.”
Winnipeg musician Steve Bell, who co-owns Signpost Music, agreed, saying he doesn’t think people value music as much as they once did.
“I think more and more music products are being devalued, and that’s really frustrating, especially for small producers, guys like me who are trying to make a living off of selling tens of thousands of CDs, not hundreds of thousands,” he said.
“Basically a company like that couldn’t survive if people weren’t wanting a lot for a little, and that kind of mentality is hurting a lot of people.”
Lindsay Gillespie, who owns a company in Toronto that manufactures CDs for independent artists and labels, said the income lost to music piracy is crucial to many of his clients.
“The amount of money that they can make at the merchandise table … can mean the difference between a hotel room and sleeping in the van, ” he said.
Charges are pending against a 31-year-old Winnipeg man, and police are investigating three other individuals.
The Audiomaxxx.com website was not working Thursday evening, and the company’s owner and his family did not return phone calls.
Under Canada’s Copyright Act, it is illegal to copy CDs and DVDs for sale, rent, distribution or public exhibition without the copyright owner’s permission. It is legal, however, to make copies of music recordings for the copier’s private use.
With files from The Canadian Press
PLAY
