Music

When it was introduced by Clear Channel Communications in 2008, the iHeartRadio app had a humble job as an online outlet for the radio giant’s 800-plus stations.

Now iHeartRadio has become such a central part of Clear Channel’s efforts to remake itself as a multiplatform media company that “iHeart”has become the new identity of the entire operation. On Tuesday, Clear Channel – by far the largest operator of radio stations in the United States – renamed itself iHeartMedia, in recognition of what Robert W. Pittman, the company’s chief executive, says is how thoroughly the iHeartRadio franchise has become incorporated into virtually everything Clear Channel does.

For Clear Channel, the rebranding is also an effort to reshape perceptions of the company for the digital age, when radio’s dominance is being challenged by digital newcomers like Pandora and Spotify. The company began in the 1970s and was taken over as part of a $17. 9 billion private equity deal that was completed at the peak of the market in 2008 – and which saddled the company with a mountain of debt. As Clear Channel’s all-purpose audio brand, the iHeartRadio name is attached to a new awards show and multiple live events around the country. Those events include the annual iHeartRadio Music Festival, which returns to Las Vegas for a fourth time on Friday and Saturday, with performances by Taylor Swift, Coldplay, One Direction, Iggy Azalea and many other pop acts eager to curry favor with the country’s most powerful broadcaster.

Across the country, listeners to Clear Channel’s various radio stations, like the popular Top 40 outlets Z100 in New York (WHTZ, 100.3 FM) and KIIS in Los Angeles (102.7 FM), can scarcely listen to an hour of music without having disc jockeys exhort them to try the app and interact with them on “iHeart” – themed websites and social-media channels – making iHeartRadio a valuable national brand in what is largely a local radio business.

“To capture all these concepts and still call it the legacy name,” Mr. Pittman said in an interview, “really is a disservice to what we are and what people here have built. So we’ve taken our biggest national brand, our newest brand, our most digital brand, and made that the name of the company.”

According to Clear Channel, more than 50 million people have registered for the iHeartRadio app. And the larger iHeartRadio Network, which includes the broadcast station websites, is visited by 97 million people each month. (For comparison, more than 250 million people have registered for Pandora, with at least 76 million people listening to it each month.) Yet online listening – and the advertising revenue it brings – is still small compared with traditional broadcast radio.

Clear Channel says it reaches 245 million people in the United States each month through its various platforms, but according to Mr. Pittman, less than 5 percent of the listening to the company’s programming is digital. In an interview with The Associated Press in June, Mr. Pittman said that iHeartRadio accounted for “hundreds of millions” of dollars – a fraction of the $3.1 billion in revenue that Clear Channel’s Media and Entertainment division, which includes both broadcast and online audio, made in 2013. Any significant growth in radio, however, is likely to come from the digital side. According to the research firm eMarketer, revenue from broadcast radio will remain essentially flat through 2018, at about $15.6 billion, while digital sales will gain more than 160 percent during that time, to $5.3 billion. For Clear Channel, revenue growth is essential to managing the $20 billion in debt still left from its private-equity buyout.

No matter the name, some analysts doubt that Clear Channel’s digital businesses can ever rival its broadcast powerhouses in size. “It’s more about not leaving money on the table, realizing that if they don’t build a digital radio network that can bring in a couple hundred million, then that’s a wasted opportunity,” said Paul Verna, a senior analyst with eMarketer, when asked about Clear Channel’s business and the rise of the iHeartRadio brand. “On the flip side of that,” he continued, “I don’t think there is an opportunity to scale that up to the billions or create a whole new paradigm that supersedes their other business.” Clear Channel’s businesses are organized through a complex structure of holding companies, almost all of which will be renamed with versions of the iHeart brand. CC Media Holdings, for example, the overall corporation, will be renamed iHeartMedia Inc., and Clear Channel Communications, its major subsidiary, will become iHeartCommunications. Only the company’s billboard and outdoor-advertising division, which is publicly traded, will retain the Clear Channel name, as Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings.

A change to the company’s name may be a largely skin-deep reinvention; whether called Clear Channel or iHeartMedia, it still faces powerful competition from Pandora and other outlets, as well as a heavy debt burden. But Mr. Pittman – who was one of the founders of MTV and went on to become a top executive at AOL and the merged AOL Time Warner – said a name change could also have practical effects.

“When you align your brands with the way people really know you, it helps,”he said. “Today, when we walk into an agency and say: -Hey, we’re here from Clear Channel. We want to talk about some innovative new marketing, ‘they say, – You guys have been around forever.’ “But when we walk in and say we’re iHeartRadio,” he continued, “they say, – I love what you’re doing. Let’s talk.'”Source link

NPR, following the lead of other news and radio organizations, is widely expanding its live stage shows, with a slate of nearly two dozen events planned nationwide in the coming months.

The most ambitious of three “NPR Presents”series, “Water,”will marry news reports, oral histories and conversation about topics such as the drought in the West and mudslides in Seattle with theatrical and musical storytelling. The shows will be customized for each of their eight locales, in partnership with local NPR affiliates.

Kenny Leon, who won a 2014 Tony Award for directing the Broadway revival of “A Raisin in the Sun,”will direct the 90-minute one-night shows, which begin Oct. 25 in New Orleans.

Audiences have “a real desire for coming face to face with brands, touching the brand, but also building communities around topics, around hosts, around the conversation,”said Indira Etwaroo, executive producer and director of “NPR Presents. “She said the events would maintain NPR’s “journalistic rigor”and, without taking editorial license, would “create something entirely new in terms of the storytelling. “

Part of a new $1. 2 million three-year operating grant from the Kresge Foundation will support the live events, which also have corporate sponsors and are intended to make money for NPR. Ticket costs will vary by location.

Michel Martin, formerly the host of “Tell Me More,”begins one series of 10 events Friday at New York’s WNYC, looking at diversity on Broadway with a panel including the playwrights Bruce Norris and David Henry Hwang. Later shows in other cities will examine voting rights and ethics in football.

David Greene, the host of “Morning Edition,”and Robert Smith, a correspondent for “Planet Money,”lead more conventional conversations about personal finance in the third series, “Family Matters. “

The public radio programs “This American Life”and “Radiolab”have mounted theatrical stage shows based on their radio stories. Hosts and reporters of the business news program “Marketplace”have also toured this year with a stage show, described as “an irreverent, insightful look at the numbers that impact our lives. “

Separately, the show “Snap Judgment,”which is distributed by NPR and PRX, began a Kickstarter campaign, hoping to raise $150,000 by Oct. 10. The show had postponed a previous crowdfunding effort after NPR officials expressed concern about appealing directly to fans, which some NPR station executives said could reduce donations to local stations.

An NPR spokeswoman described the “Snap Judgment”appeal as an experiment. Source link

Before you see “Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host,”you hear it. The male and female voices bantering in the darkened theater cheerfully argue about whether to begin the proceedings with talk, rather than dance, so as to “start with an idea,”the implication seeming to be that movement is less fit for conveying content. The man making this argument is Ira Glass, the host and creator of the popular public radio show “This American Life. “ And perhaps he is only engaging in smart showbiz. For Mr. Glass, who is no stranger to the theater, is clearly the star of this charmingly homespun show – which traces interlocking themes of love, mortality and dedication through live talking and dancing and radio snippets – and words are his medium. Thursday night at the Town Hall, it seemed clear that a large, vocal portion of the audience had come to see Mr. Glass (its members sometimes broke into spontaneous cheers at his stage entrances, especially those involving dance routines), and not the muscularly precise dancers Monica Bill Barnes, who also directed and choreographed the show, and Anna Bass. This is no surprise, given the reach of “This American Life. “But it was at times disheartening to see how the 90-minute performance relegated Ms. Barnes and Ms. Bass to backup dancers – even when they had center stage.

This isn’t to say that “Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host”isn’t both endearing and entertaining, only that it limits itself structurally and conceptually, and steers clear of any difficult material. (There is, for example – and disappointingly – no mention of the controversial theater collaboration Mr. Glass engaged in, unwittingly, with the monologuist Mike Daisey.)

Ms. Barnes, Ms. Bass and Mr. Glass are all self-deprecating hams, playing up the humor in ways both silly and winning. Mr. Glass’s material moves easily through such subjects as a “Riverdance”touring company’s trying to win the lottery, to the deaths of loved ones, to the thorny rewards of longtime partnerships. He stays in a suit, while Ms. Barnes and Ms. Bass move among various costumes (sparkles and suits, of course), in dance numbers that stick to a fairly limited palette while combining elements of pantomime, vaudeville and modern-dance forms. Mr. Glass does step gamely through choreographed numbers, and the dancers are heard on tape talking with intelligence and sensitivity about the difficulties and pleasures of collaboration, and the sometimes terribly short performing lives of people in their field. But dance and radio never get as fruitfully entangled as they might. Source link

New free community online project that focuses on promoting music creation and composition has launched called Open Libre Music Production. The goal of the site it to provide hands-on guides, tutorials, articles and news updates that will help users find and use free and open music software. “A wonderful and wide range of options exist for people who want to create music with Free/Libre/Open Source Software,” says Gabriel Nordeborn, Co-Founder of LMP. “However, a single resource to bring it all together has been lacking. This is no longer the case. “Libre Music Production features articles on the basic steps in a FLOSS music workflow: Selecting an audio-orientated Linux distributionGetting the right hardware for recording. Understanding JACK, the all-important Linux audio serverProducing music with FLOSS software. Libre Music Production (LMP) is a community-driven online resource, focused on promoting music creation and composition using free and open source (FLOSS) software. By providing hands-on material submitted by the community, such as guides, tutorials, articles and news updates, we want to show not only that there is great FLOSS audio software out there, but also how to practically use that software to make music. The concept of Libre Music Production was created during the preparations for a libre music software workshop at FSCONS in November 2013. Original founders are Gabriel Nordeborn (Zth), Staffan Melin and Conor Mc Cormack (Leatuspenguin). LMP was born out of a perceived lack of integrated resources, and in particular a lack of information aimed at new and non-technical users. The goal of LMP can be summed up in two main points:

• Promote and aid making music with libre software
• Involve the community in the process

Source link

Isn’t it so often the case with cynical, heard-it-all-before critics that their most obvious gripes about a young band are usually the very merits that wind up paving golden roads to widespread popularity?KROQ Weenie Roast 2014: Avicii, Beck and Fall Out Boy Rock the Summer StageTake the inarguably pretentious but also undeniably promising L. A. group the Neighbourhood. Since its ascendency started gaining velocity little more than a year ago – when Coachella appearances as relative unknowns coincided with the release of their slickly moody debut I Love You and its Californicating first single, the radio-igniting “Sweater Weather”- there has been so much eye-rolling and style-shaming over such blatant commercialism and lack of originality that it’s been easy to overlook the forest for the trees that have enveloped this quintet. Of course the aim of their Columbia-certified amalgam is crassly ambitious, the sound stolen from a dozen superior sources. How have so many haters forgotten the lessons Linkin Park reiterated with its instant win at the turn of the millennium? For better or usually worse, deftly market-driven music-by-committee still has the best shot of achieving platinum status in an era of dwindling-to-nonexistent sales. Yet, with luck, a better band will emerge from such success, whether on record, stage or both. The Neighbourhood may just well be one of those long-range surprises. For all its evident flaws – particularly focal point Jesse Rutherford, a charismatic presence with a solidly improving voice who is nonetheless the biggest rock-star poseur to emerge in many years – the Neighbourhood is rapidly developing into an irrefutably strong live attraction, as proven by their confident headlining debut at the Greek Theatre Thursday night. They pulled in a capacity crowd of the same sort of rabidly excitable fans that have made Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda icons for a new generation. Regular Greek-goers would be hard-pressed to recall lines at this venue’s merch stands even half as long, nor have they seen such thick throngs huddling outside afterward in hopes of glimpsing the group’s exiting tour bus. Does that really have anything to do with the band’s musical quality, or lack thereof? No, though there’s definitely something fresh brewing among this bunch, more so than snarky doubters will acknowledge. And when a rip-off resonates this passionately with under- twentysomethings, it’s foolish to dismiss what’s afoot with such immediacy. Sure, spotting their influences is simple – the condos of forebears who aggregate into the Neighbourhood’s overall aesthetic have their doors wide open. Dumbest of all is the outfit’s staunch determination to maintain a black-and-white motif (as if they were worthy of a mystique befitting Bauhaus), going so far as to demand pro photographers capture them color-free for coverage, while seemingly everyone within a 100-foot radius at the Greek was busy posting reality on Instagram by the minute. Their visual output here also wasn’t terribly impressive, either, regurgitating clips from Pink Floyd The Wall and Chicago and even the Zapruder film of JFK’s assassination, rather than concocting their own distinctive array. Smarter, however, are the cribbed composites these baby-faced musicians produce: hefty trip-hop that owes its throb to Massive Attack, an anthemic sheen that yearns to equal Coldplay’s, a good deal of Jeff Buckley drama but lots more pulse siphoned off from Sublime (check one of their best bits, “West Coast”), whose pitter-patter melodies clearly inform Rutherford’s lines as much as any rhymer they might name-check. Add to it the same stark, detached intensity that courses through Lana Del Rey and Lorde and it’s no wonder the Neighbourhood comes across like a redesigned Linkin Park for the newly tragic, angst-ridden and horny. All around at the Greek you could spot bumping-and-grinding amid the rows, for if nothing else I Love You is becoming a go-to make-out classic for the Class of ’14, with Rutherford fast rising into sex-symbol status. On record, he’s almost androgynous, like Placebo’s Brian Molko, equally believable as a huskier female tone or a lighter male one. But on-stage, where his look is pure Scott Weiland with a dash of Davey Havok, his swagger steeped in the Jim Morrison tradition, there’s no mistaking his appeal. STORY The Doors’ Robby Krieger, John Densmore Reunite to Remember Ray ManzarekProwling in tight black pants and a leather jacket unzipped to show off his tattoo-splattered torso, his eyes hidden behind Bono-circa-“The Fly”shades, he was a walking magnet for female adoration; by night’s end, he’d garnered almost as much tossed-up lingerie as Tom Jones gathers at gigs. Rutherford plays it remarkably coy, though, or maybe he’s just aloof. When a front-row fan, momentarily given the mic, propositioned him with oral sex, he seemed somewhat dumbfounded by the offer. Yet that kind of reaction is precisely why the Neighbourhood is apt to last longer than its allotted 15 minutes, regardless of whether their music ever develops into something more than an artier Hoobastank. Some friendly advice, then: Make more use of lead guitarist Jeremy Freedman, for his solo during the slow-churned “Baby Came Home,”like Imagine Dragons doing blues-rock, was the most musically accomplished moment in a somewhat bungled hour-plus set. (Some bits crackled with extra electricity, as when rapper Casey Veggies joined for the new tune “Jealou$y. “Other times, there was stop-and-go flatness to the pacing, never more noticeable than when they teased an ear-grabbing forthcoming cut, “Dangerous,”with only a verse and chorus.)Oh, and one other tip: Don’t put down the people at a world-renowned venue who wisely run a tight ship and adhere to strict curfews. It’s bad form. Had you not dawdled offstage for three minutes after your big hit, prolonging the launch of an inevitable encore, you’d have had time enough to play both songs you planned, rather than dumping “How”and ending with the spirited kiss-off ”Afraid. “Seeing as tongue-wagging opening act Danny Brown - who lived up to Pitchfork-led hype in a fierce but fleeting turn – cut his set off 10 minutes before his time was up, you could have kicked off even sooner. And maybe have played all of “Dangerous,”too. Source link

Tori pleases the hard-core fans, but remains trapped in her past. Love her or hate her, one thing listeners could agree on about Tori Amos was her conviction and passionate intensity. It might have been easy to mock her mannered vocals and post-grad conflation of sexuality and consciousness-raising, but there was always the sense that she was a musician determined to grow and explore. You didn’t have to like it to feel some admiration. But Wednesday night at the Greek Theater was a different matter entirely: for this tour at least, Amos was an oldies act. PHOTOS Titans of Comic-Con: Stars Re-Create Classic Characters  “It’s a nostalgia fest,”she cooed early on, and she wasn’t lying. Even though her new album, Unrepentant Geraldines (Mercury Classics), has been well-received, she only performed two songs from it (by way of comparison, that’s one less than the Rolling Stones usually play from whatever new product they’re flogging on tour). The two recent classically influenced albums and her score for the musical The Light Princess, have been consigned to the memory hole; not a note is heard. Instead, she reaches into her catalog, going as far back as “Fire on the Side,” from her 1980’s pre-stardom band, Y Tori Kant Read. The short-term memory loss extended into the staging as well. It’s the same as it ever was: alone on stage, straddling her piano bench between a concert grand and an electric keyboard. Even after working in the theater, all that’s changed is a new pair of glasses and nine rectangles of white faux-brick siding hanging behind her. They serve no purpose; the only time they’re acknowledged is when “Lizard Lounge”- a too easy bit of wordplay for someone who has made her bones as a lyricist – is projected on one during her mini-set of covers (a lovely take on Bjork’s “Hyperballad,”a mannered version of Dead or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round,”and a grave, gospel-inflected reading of Elton John’s “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”). Otherwise, it looked like she was performing in the world’s emptiest, worst stocked Home Depot. It’s all done a trifle less frenetically than in the past; the songs have be slowed down a step or two, and her When Harry Met Sally’. orgasmatic thrashings have been toned down. She looks wonderful, even if she is a little less limber than in the past, occasionally straining to reach the piano pedals. But it’s a set she could just as easily have performed in 1994 as 2014. STORY Tori Amos’ latest album inspired by recession Not that the adoring crowd cared. They cheered when she raised her hand, when she crossed her legs, when she leaned vampishly across the grand at the start of “A Sorta Fairytale. “When the applause comes so easily, it must be tough not to yield to the temptation and give the people what they want. After this decade’s musical wanderings, both the album and the show are being hailed as a return to form, but really, it’s a step backwards. Source link

Best known for wild viral videos, OK Go is unifying its zestful live approach with a tightened sound for its next record, due this fall.

Finally, four years after a confounding third album and a few months before the arrival of what could be a career-high fourth disc, the odd wrinkles in OK Go’s ambitious, meticulous plan are beginning to get ironed out.

When Of the Blue Colour of the Sky surfaced to wildly mixed reviews at the start of 2010, its leadoff track couldn’t have been better named: “WTF?” Surely that was the reaction among many fans who a half-decade earlier had come to love the L.A.-via-Chicago group’s deceptively sunny power pop, often cleverly packaged in eye-grabbing, how’d-they-do-that viral videos, like the treadmill choreography clip that scored them their first Grammy in 2007.

In place of more hook-driven glee on the order of “Here It Goes Again” or the earlier hit “Get Over It,” however, was a collection as distant and diffuse as it was sonically adventurous and teeming with not-so-subtle nods to Prince at his most hermetically funky. Producer Dave Fridmann, long known for distinctively icy productions for the Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev and others, had seemingly sucked the joy out of OK Go with the band’s full consent.

But now, based on four cuts from the band’s forthcoming effort Hungry Ghosts (due in October from Paracadute) that were recently released as an EP – as well as the quartet’s terrific, confetti-showered set Tuesday night at the Troubadour – the post-breakout pieces of this modernist gem of a group are starting to fit. First single “The Writing’s on the Wall,” reminiscent of MGMT’s debut material and powered by a winsome bass line unabashedly stolen from New Order, is an ideal example. OK Go Party With the Muppets (Video)  One attempt at illusion, for “I’m Not Through,”had to be abandoned because the signature sign above the Troubadour’s stage couldn’t be turned off. But there was all that confetti, enough to rival what the Flaming Lips take on tour – furious flurries of the stuff, which for song after song blanketed the room, until red-white-and-blue mounds of it high as anthills remained when the house lights came up. “I promise you will have this (stuff) in your underpants for three weeks,”the singer insisted. Consider it OK Go’s way of reminding just how much fun they provide. Source link 

Gregg Allmanmay have been the headliner at the Annenberg Space for Photography Saturday evening, but newcomer Sturgill Simpson made the bigger impression. The opening show in KCRW’s ”Country in the City” series served as a coming-out party for the Kentucky-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter. PHOTOS ACM Awards Red Carpet Arrivals: Country Stars Hit Las VegasHis second album, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, released on his own High Top Mountain label, is the kind of country album you didn’t think they made anymore, a collection of flinty, beautifully crafted songs performed with grit and skill. It harkens back to the golden age of outlaw country, with touches of Merle Haggard, George Jones and Lefty Frizzell (he included a perfectly gimlet-eyed cover of “I Never Go Around Mirrors” in his set) thrown in for good measure). He apologized early on that touring had left his voice a little raw, but no apology was necessary. Live, Simpson and his hard-driving band are proudly unvarnished, alternating between rockers sweaty and dirty as the mines and trains that run the “Railroad of Sin,” and mournful and tender as the murder ballad “Medicine Springs.”  Simpson sings them with a baritone drawl reminiscent of Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson. But the real revelation was guitarist Laur Joamets. That’s not a misprint. As hard it might be to believe that someone with that name could play country music, the Estonian guitarist’s playing displayed an impressive fluency, deftly mixing Nashville twang, Bakersfield growl, and speedy bluegrass runs. With the solid rhythm section of Miles Miller and Kevin Black, the 45-minute set’s energy never flagged. They return to L. A. September 11. Don’t miss them. If the title of Simpson’s album nods towards Ray Charles’ classic 1962 album, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Gregg Allman’s set leaned toward the sophisticated R&B of Charles and Bobby Blue Bland, with mixed results. Even after his health problems (which led to a liver transplant in 2010), the 66-year-old Allman looked good. He lost some weight, but his voice retains the heft and passion of his prime. But he’s backed by an eight-piece band that often feels like it’s at odds with his strengths. Augmented by a three-piece horn section and percussionist, it’s a band built in the style of classic soul revues. But too often, the results are, at best, academic, at worst, cluttered and dull. After opening with a simmering “Statesboro Blues,” they turned his 1989 solo track “She’s No Angel” and the Allmans’ “Don’t Keep Me Wondering” into the kind of enervated adult R&B of Steve Winwood or Phil Collins. STORY ’Midnight Rider’ Producers, Gregg Allman Facing New Injury Lawsuit It’s certainly more soulful than the music either of them has served up lately, but it’s dearly lacking in fire or inspiration. Guitarist and musical director Scott Sharrard probably has the most thankless job in music: just about every solo he plays will be compared to either Duane Allman, Dickey Betts or Warren Haynes. He’s a fine player, but nothing he does will make anyone forget them. That’s the problem: the entire band is made up of fine musicians with little personality. The 15-minute James Brown medley they performed mid-set to give Allman a breather pointed up a bigger problem. They simply aren’t an especially good fit for Allman’s moody blues. And the best music came when they did the least. A cover of “I Found a Love,” Wilson Pickett’s early hit with the Falcons, was a grand vocal showcase for Allman and Sharrard’s harmonies; “Ain’t Wasting No More Time” pulsed with bluesy ache; and “Stormy Monday” included Allman’s most impressive work on his Hammond B3, as well as a solo from Sharrard paying tribute to the sharp, stringy tone of the song’s composer, T-Bone Walker. And “Love Like Kerosene,” the set’s sole new tune, had the rollicking drive of the best Chicago blues. But “Whipping Post” was, for some reason, turned into a shuffle. It was a move that so undermined the song that it took most of crowd until the chorus to recognize it. Unless it was Allman’s way of discouraging the calls for the song that have studded concerts since the ’70s (although this was probably the only night it could be yelled unironically), you have to wonder why he did it. “One Way Out,” another Allman Brothers chestnut, fared better under the Caribbean onslaught, but you still had to wonder why he bothered. A good deal of the crowd had already made their way for the exits. They should return, for this short series is a welcome addition to the summer’s free, outdoor concert schedule. It’s been smartly programmed, pairing a well-known act with a lesser-known but worthy opener (future shows include Shelby Lynne with Jamestown Revival, and Wynonna Judd and Nikki Lane). And the Annenberg’ Space’s fine photography exhibit, Country: Portraits of an American Sound, is definitely worth checking out while you’re there. Tickets for “Country in the City” is free with an advance RSVP. Set list:Sturgill SimpsonSitting Here Without YouWater in a WellLong White LinePoor RamblerMedicine SpringsLife of SinLiving the DreamI Never Go Around Mirrors (Lefty Frizzell cover)Railroad of SinGregg AllmanStatesboro BluesShe’s No AngelDon’t Keep Me WonderingAin’t Wasting No More TimeI Found a Love (Wilson Pickett cover)Stormy Monday (T-Bone Walker cover)Give Me Back My BulletsSweet FeelingBlack Hearted Woman/Hot Lanta (James Brown medley)MelissaLove Like KeroseneWhipping Post____ One Way OutSource link

Michael Jackson’s posthumous album Xscape due out May 13 on Epic Records. Eight tracks from vocal takes recorded by the late singer between 1983 and 1999.

For years, some have said that Justin Timberlake is the Michael Jackson of his time. ‘NSYNC did share the stage with MJ at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2001, but the two pop stars never recorded together in the studio until now. In this Instagram posted on May 1, Justin placed the single art for “Love Never Felt So Good” revealing that he’ll appear on the upcoming album, out May 13.
“Officially announced on March 31, 2014, Xscape will feature 8 tracks. It is the second such album of posthumous material to be released by Epic Records since Jackson’s death in 2009. The title track “Xscape” was recorded in 2001 for Jackson’s Invincible. American hip-hop producer Timbaland and Epic Records chairman L. A. Reid executively produced the album, with addition production from Rodney Jerkins, StarGate and John McClain. Reid said that they wanted to honor Jackson’s legacy when naming the album, “the title of this album honors Michael’s album naming process. He always chose a song from the album to name his projects and, beginning with Thriller, used only one word titles, each with an edgy quality to them (Thriller, Bad, Dangerous, HIStory and Invincible). This is true of the new project. “More news about Michael Jackson’s upcoming album will be revealed in the coming weeks. Keep visiting www.michaeljackson.com

XSCAPE
LONG AWAITED NEW MUSIC FROM MICHAEL JACKSON
OUT ON EPIC RECORDS MAY 13
EPIC CHIEF L. A. REID TEAMS UP WITH TOP PRODUCERS TO “CONTEMPORIZE” SONGS FROM ICONIC ARTIST’S ARCHIVE

March 31, 2014 – New York, NY – On May 13, Epic Records, in conjunction with the Estate of Michael Jackson, will release XSCAPE, an album of new music by the internationally beloved music icon and King of Pop,Michael Jackson. The project features eight new tracks, which the world will be hearing for the very first time on the new album. For the ultimate fan experience,XSCAPE will also be available in a Deluxe Edition, which includes all of the sourced Michael Jackson recordings in their original form. The XSCAPE standard and Deluxe Editions are available for pre-order beginning April 1 on  iTunes.com/MichaelJackson and elsewhere, and available at all retailers worldwide on May 13.

XSCAPE is executive produced by Epic Records Chairman and CEO L. A. Reid, who, after an initial mining of Jackson’s archives by the Estate, was granted unlimited access to the treasures representing four decades of material on which Jackson had completed his vocals.
Reid curated the final list of recordings to deliver to the producers, who retooled the production to add a fresh, contemporary sound that retains Jackson’s essence and integrity. It’s a process Reid calls “contemporizing.” The album’s lead producer, Timbaland was one of a handful of producers Reid believed had the gravitas, depth and range to creatively engage with Jackson’s work. Additional producers include global hit makers Rodney Jerkins, Stargate, Jerome “Jroc” Harmon and John McClain.

“Modern music and artistry would look and sound completely different if not for the ground breaking contributions Michael Jackson gifted to the world,” remarked L. A. Reid. “Michael left behind some musical performances that we take great pride in presenting through the vision of music producers that he either worked directly with or expressed strong desire to work with. We are extremely proud and honored to present this music to the world. ”

The title of this album honors Michael’s album naming process. He always chose a song from the album to name his projects and, beginning with THRILLER, used only one word titles, each with an edgy quality to them. This is true of the new project. Written by Michael Jackson and Jerkins, and produced by Jackson and Jerkins, “Xscape” has further significance in that it is the one track on the album that was ‘contemporized’ by the producer who recorded it originally in the studio with Michael.

John Branca and John McClain, co-executors of the Estate of Michael Jackson said, “Michael was always on the cutting edge and was constantly reaching out to new producers, looking for new sounds. He was always relevant and current. These tracks, in many ways, capture that spirit. We thank L. A. Reid for his vision. ”
XSCAPE is a long awaited collection of exciting new music that will thrill the legions of fans of one of the world’s most revered and best-selling artists, as well as attract a whole new generation discovering his artistry for the first time. In conjunction with the release of XSCAPE, Epic / Sony Music will launch an unprecedented global campaign with the One Sony sister companies, Sony Corporation, Sony Mobile Communications, and Sony Network Entertainment International drawing from all of Sony’s strengths and consumer reach.

“Michael has long been a treasured member of the larger Sony family,” said Kazuo Hirai, President and CEO, Sony Corporation. “Starting with the release of ‘Off The Wall’ in 1979, Sony Music Entertainment has since released all of Michael’s recordings. We are thrilled and privileged to be collaborating as One Sony to celebrate Michael’s latest legacy, and bringing his fans an exclusive experience through our upcoming initiatives with our products and services. ”

Digital Music Consumers reveal digital music activity top three of today’s consumers with watching music videos and radio as winner with buying CDs in 3rd.

Last week MIDiA Consulting released a new report by Mark Mulligan regarding a UK consumer survey, “Decoding the Digital Music Consumer,” that reveals only one digital activity in the top 5 music activities of today’s consumers. Watching music videos came in second to that long-time winner listening to the radio. Third in line? Buying CDs! Takeaways include the fact that radio and CD’s are far from dead and that there’s lots of room for growth in the digital sector. MIDiA Consulting’s Decoding the Digital Music Consumer,” authored by Mark Mulligan, is a free report available not only to MIDiA Consulting’s clients but to Music Industry Blog subscribers. If you’re wary of getting too many emails, I can attest that Music Industry Blog’s emails are low volume, low noise and very high signal.

The above chart offers a big chunk of what musicians and labels will find of interest in this report. The continued dominance of radio, TV and CD’s is noteworthy though radio is clearly the only channel that truly dominates. One might well assume that radio’s combination of free to the listener music and overall emphasis on major label acts and hits is a key part of what makes it so popular.

Though listening to free streaming music comes up 6th, watching music videos is the strongest digital activity by far. This is potentially good for all levels of the game given the growing usefulness of YouTube for marketing and revenue.

As Mulligan recently noted piracy is still a serious issue on YouTube. Yet YouTube remains a bright spot in the digital landscape with a growing ability to monetize previously unauthorized uses without forcing rights holders into the position of squashing all forms of fair use and shared culture to stop pirates.

Given the consumer emphasis of this study, one should not forget that the RIAA killed their brand in the public eye with broad attacks that swept up little old ladies and dead people in their net.

Speaking of Piracy: For me the report adds to the complexity of what we talk about when we talk about pirating.

The fact that the top digital channels for music, YouTube and related video streaming sites, were literally built on piracy should not be forgotten. However that doesn’t make it an acceptable business practice. I consider YouTube’s early piracy to be an artefact of a different time. Their current piracy is a different matter.

However, what YouTube has done is made it possible to work with behaviors labeled as piracy at a time when we’re realizing that filesharers also buy music.

The report finds:

Music subscribers are the most ardent pirates. “More than a quarter of music subscribers are regular P2P users, making the segment most likely to pirate music. This is not evidence that streaming drives piracy, rather that some of the most engaged music subscribers are also engaged pirates. This apparent contradiction is a long-standing feature of the digital music marketplace. ”

This is the kind of finding that troubles those stuck in a binary perspective, victims of a linear worldview, incapable of dealing with the reality that confronts them.

P2P is not the only piracy game in town. Non-Network Piracy? Oh sh*t! I thought it was our generation taping vinyl back in the day that was the problem but these kids today. They’ve got bluetooth and USB drives and who knows what else!

Keep in mind that while P2P file sharing is one to many, Non-Network Piracy is more often one to one. You know, like friends actually sharing things. That’s what friends do.

Churn, Baby, Churn!

There’s a lot in this report for people with strong business interests in streaming music services which is good since that’s who it’s written for. In particular, the skew towards male listeners on streaming services does not reflect earlier gender balance among listeners and leads me to the conclusion that studying why that is and responding to the situation should be a no-brainer for music services.

Given the still backwards nature of music and tech industry discussions around gender I’m guessing growth hacking will remain of greater interest.

Yet even growth hacking may not be enough to deal with the issue of churn.

Only 32% of music subscribers polled don’t plan to churn but that’s what they’re saying now. I wouldn’t even take the 32% as something to count on.

As Mulligan notes:

“Cancel a music subscription and all the music in the world is still immediately available for free – on YouTube and on Torrents, as well as countless radio stations, TV channels, music TV shows, without even considering the ex-subscribers own music collection.”

“Cancelling a music subscription simply turns off the tap on convenience, not on the content itself, and the share of people that are willing to pay 9. 99 a month for convenience is not exactly vast. This is why music subscription services need to up the innovation ante, to the extent of considering their current propositions as little more than the fuel for the engine.”

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