HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Georg van Handel (CEO) and Chris Honetschlaeger (President) with BETA Records, LLC, announced today that they will partner with Javien Digital Payment Solutions, Inc. to provide a complete solution for the sale of music, merchandise, and other content from their artists within BETA’s upcoming social music community.
SANTA MONICA, Calif. & EMERYVILLE, Calif. — Yahoo! Music (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Gracenote(R) today announced a new licensing deal allowing Yahoo! Music to offer the largest catalog of legal, licensed song lyrics from Gracenote to Yahoo! Music’s consumers. Beginning today, song lyrics for hundreds of thousands of songs from all five major publishers will be incorporated into Yahoo! Music through Gracenote’s growing database.
TOKYO and OAKDALE, Minn. — Imation Corp. (NYSE: IMN) and TDK (NYSE: TDK) announced this week that they have reached a definitive agreement under which Imation will acquire TDK brand world wide recording media business and use of the TDK brand name for recording media products.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — TrueFire.com, a leading provider of online guitar lessons and interactive courses, is now shipping Marc Schonbrun’s Geek Guitar, an interactive video course designed to bring the latest technology to guitarists for recording and performing.
SEATTLE, Wash. — iLike, inc, the six-month-old social music discovery service, announced today that it has surpassed one million registered users and is now processing over 200 million monthly track plays based on enabling users to log their listening habits on their iPods and PCs. The company also announced new concert-discovery features with event listings provided by Ticketmaster.
SEATTLE, Wash. — As a co-producer and music supervisor of the buzz-heavy indie flick “A Lawyer Walks into a Bar,” Evan Fitzmaurice had to match top-quality film content with a similarly powerful soundtrack. He began by looking online for original music aggregators, and was impressed by GarageBand’s “excellent interface and search function.”
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — If you are an unsigned music artist, BETA Records invites you to a special event May 1st at the Sunset Strip Key Club as part of MUSEXPO 2007, the annual gathering of the world’s leading music executives, producers, managers, and new media content experts.
NEW YORK, N.Y. — SoJo Artist Management is pleased to announce the recent signing of New York based Live Society. Hot off their New York win of Bodog’s $1 Million Battle of the Band competition, the band is ready to take the world by storm. Representing a modern day twist on the R&B and Classic Pop sound, Live Society’s danceable grooves and rich harmony driven songs are sure to appeal to all ages.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — BETA Records Mexico announces additional international expansion which follows the success enjoyed by U.S. and German sites of the online record company headed by founders Chris Honetschlaeger and Georg van Handel. BETA Records actively finds, produces, and showcases unsigned artists and distributes content to fans via digital channels.
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — A&R Select, the music industry’s benchmark in independent promotion and marketing, is currently hosting an online Battle of the Bands competition held at BB King’s Bar and Grille, located at Universal CityWalk. Over 80 local and regional bands will perform for an industry panel of well-known record labels, music supervisors, managers, music directors, and publishers.
NAB 2007 – Las Vegas — ADAM Audio, a leading provider of top quality professional audio reference monitors, announces the NAB debut of its A7 near-field monitor. This active, 2-way reference tool offers broadcast engineers, production directors, producers, and talent the most accurate audio reproduction available today.
JAMAICA, N.Y. — The Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (JCAL) is pleased to present “A Jamaica, Queens Thing”: Rap and the Crack Era in South Jamaica, organized by guest curator Herb Tam. The opening artist reception takes place Saturday, April 14, 2007, 4 – 7 pm.
MADISON, Wis. — Sony Creative Software announced today the release of Sound Forge 9 Professional Digital Audio Production Suite. Sound Forge 9 new features include multichannel file recording, editing and processing, phase scope metering, and Dolby(R) Digital AC-3 export.
PFINZTAL, Germany — Hot on the heels of their 1.0 launch announcement in March, VirSyn has already posted a patch to their new chaos synth called POSEIDON – the Ocean of Sound, which updates the program with both new features and the expected minor bug fixes for a new product.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Zack Orr Music proudly announces the release of “Francisco the Man.” Francisco the Man is 12 songs, each coinciding with the months in a year. As the album progresses through the four seasons, the instrumentation and overall sound changes as well. Zack recorded natural sounds from each of the four seasons and arranged them as rhythmic beds and soundscapes throughout the record.
NEW YORK, N.Y. — Acclaimed jazz bassist Jay Leonhart will premiere his new one man-one bass show, “Nukular Tulips”(TM) on March 24 at Stage Left Studio in New York City. Leonhart, who has played with everyone from Tony Bennett and Marian McPartland to James Taylor and Queen Latifah, still seems to have enough time in between bass notes to allow him to take a good look around the world to see what’s going on.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — NOTION Music is pleased to announce that Inal Bilsel of London is the grand prize winner of the company’s first Realize Music Challenge, a competition that drew entries from composers across the globe.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Electronic artist The G-Man and country keyboard player Doug Colosio announce the formation of Golosio Publishing, a music licensing company which will supply songs for film, TV, games and commercials. “With six dozen new production music tracks and well over a hundred songs, we’re ready to create any type of sound you can imagine,” states Scott G, who is also the recording artist known as The G-Man.
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — A&R Select, the music industry’s benchmark in independent promotion and marketing, has recently extended a helping hand to many artists affected by the tragic events of Hurricane Katrina. A&R Select’s timely and heartfelt outreach is an important part of their vow to assist musical artists in underprivileged circumstances.
BOONTON, N.J. — Spending on digital rights management (DRM) software and hardware to protect entertainment, commercial software, and other information will exceed $9 billion dollars over the next five years, says a new market research report from Insight Research Corp.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Two new CDs – “Spirit of America” and “She Dances” – have been released by Make it Happen Now (MIHN) Records, a new recording company in Memphis, TN. “Spirit of America” features original songs such as “We are Strong,” and “the Pledge,” to new versions of classics such as “America the Beautiful.”
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — It didn’t take long for music marketing website, SoManyMp3s, to become one of the most popular promotional tools for independent artists seeking to elevate activity on their MySpace page, say the project’s founders. The service has one goal: to help independent artists reach “MySpace Celebrity Status” by gaining friends, and with the help of plays and visits.
MINNETONKA, Minn. — Minnetonka Audio Software announces AudioTools(TM) Consult(TM), a workflow assessment, custom engineering and software development service designed to automate complex audio workflow processes.
MIAMI, Fla. — Sdoia-Satz Music Institute (The Husky Gang School), the prestigious, private music school in Miami with a reputation for outstanding musical excellence, is celebrating its 50th anniversary and is offering a $100 discount on its $250 two hour comprehensive aptitude test. This test evaluates the untrained sense of pitch, rhythm, strengths and weakness of personality and natural musicianship.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Music lovers are used to ringtones on mobile phones but music from independent artists can be difficult to find. Free software on the BETA Records web site (www.betarecords.com) is changing all that.
MINNETONKA, Minn. — Minnetonka Audio Software announces AudioTools(TM) Batch Pro(TM), an out-of-the-box software application that will revolutionize the way the audio assets are managed and processed. Part of Minnetonka AudioTools structured workflow; Batch Pro is the industry’s first fully automated processing tool for audio assets.
MUNICH, Germany — Sonja Armisen, Tango Fusion Club founder, announces the release of a second CD, “TangoFusionClub Volume Two: Electronic Tango Flavoured Beats,” which has a distinctly refined, and electronic flavor. The decision to release this CD followed the amazing success of TangoFusionClub: Electronic Tango Beats Volume One.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Personifying the cabaret genre, Ute Lemper is known for her moody interpretations of songbook standards, laced with witty asides and knowing looks, weaving an atmosphere that draws in audiences like few other performers today.
HAMBURG, Germany — The Oscar winning film The Queen featured Nuendo throughout its post production processes, with all editing, rerecording and premixing done on Steinberg’s Nuendo Media Production System software. The audio for The Queen, which was nominated for six Academy Awards, was transferred through several studios all using Nuendo as their primary audio post platform.
LONDON, U.K. — ORCA from FXpansion is an experimental monosynth based on detailed and accurate models of analogue synthesizer circuits and components. And now Orca is available in RTAS (Pro Tools) and AU (Mac) formats, as free downloads. ORCA was previously released in VST format.
Pfinztal, Germany — The latest version of VirSyn’s morphing additive synthesis virtual synth, CUBE 2.2, was announced today. The update comes with a vastly improved resynthesis for complex and inharmonic sounds. Also included is a free soundbank and some bug fixes related to pitch bend, and for both Ableton Live and Intel Mac users.
CHAMPLAIN, N.Y. — Kaysound Imports has entered into a new agreement with Chinese manufacturer CME for product distribution in the US market. The agreement comes after a successful showing of new CME products at the Winter NAMM show in late January and goes into effect on March 1, 2007.
NEWS: CME (Central Music Company) announces the U2 USB Cable Interface Series, a series of USB cables with built-in computer interfaces for easy plug and play connection of line and mic level audio sources and MIDI keyboards and controllers.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The seventh annual DIY Convention has set the schedule for its 2007 event, to be held in February in the heart of Hollywood. Panels on podcasting, licensing music, blogging, MySpace/YouTube success, book publishing, digital entertainment and showcases, screenings and parties are on tap for the DIY Convention.
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — How is great music created and produced? What do top music producers look for in an artist? How do you find, develop and keep artist clients? And how do producers handle challenges such as creative control? The answers can be found at the PRODUCING HIT SONG 5-part series, sponsored by the National Association of Record Industry Professionals, to launch on February 16th with special guests Harvey Mason, Jr. and Damon Thomas.
SYNTH NEWS: The new “KORG Legacy Collection – ANALOG EDITION 2007” was announced January 18th. The popular “MS-20” and “Polysix” from the KORG Legacy Collection are now joined by the “Mono/Poly.” According to the company, these are “classic Korg analog synthesizers newly reborn as software instruments in a powerful production package.”
ANAHEIM, Calif., Winter NAMM 2007 — Cakewalk, the world’s leading developer of powerful and easy to use products for music creation and recording, today announces new versions of its popular SONAR Home Studio and SONAR Home Studio XL titles. SONAR Home Studio 6 and SONAR Home Studio 6 XL feature the power of Cakewalk’s flagship SONAR 6 paired with a feature set, price, and ease-of-use geared towards home studio owners and budget-conscious musicians.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — A year ago, Arturia changed their logo and added the tag line “Hardware and Software.” Many people then wondered what it would mean effectively. Well the answer is unveiled today at the NAMM show in Los Angeles: Origin, Arturia’s first Hardware synthesizer, is introduced on booth 7013.
SEATTLE, Wash. — Kagi Media, producers of Mix It Like A Record, the enormously successful interactive mixing course authored by Grammy-winning engineer, mixer and producer Charles Dye, together with DUY, a leading developer of a broad range of plug-ins for Pro Tools, are sponsoring a contest in which three winners will receive a copy of the Mix It Like A Record mixing course and DUY’s Global Bundle.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Building on the extraordinary, sold-out success of the 2006 ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO, ASCAP will stage an even larger, more comprehensive event for music creators at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles on April 19-21, 2007. The ASCAP EXPO is the first and only national conference dedicated to songwriting and composing, bringing together top music creators across all genres with those just starting out.
COLUMN: From chestnuts to carols, games to sleigh races, and loose translations to loose women, there are some interesting facts about the sounds of the season. Recording artist and commercial music composer Scott G presents some eyebrow-raising information about the most familiar and famous holiday music of all time.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — NOTION Music, makers of NOTION(TM) music composition and performance software, have contributed content to Pass the Ring, one of several Theme libraries for Sony Cinescore soundtrack creation software.
HAMBURG, Germany — Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH is pleased to announce that its new WaveLab Studio 6 editing and mastering application is now shipping to dealers worldwide, providing first-class mastering, editing and CD burning tools for musicians and project studios at an impressively low price point.
PETERSBURG, Va. — Alexander Publishing, the world’s leading publisher of orchestration instruction, has teamed with Naxos Recordings, the world’s leading classical recording label, for How Ravel Orchestrated: Mother Goose Suite. This breakthrough in orchestration instruction includes a newly engraved score featuring the condensed Piano part at page bottom along with the Naxos Recording of Mother Goose Suite by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Jean.
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — L.A. based, A&R Select offers artist development and marketing services for online musicians. Historically, A&R refers to “Artist and Repertoire,” a job title given to the label representatives that discover and groom new talent for success. A&R Select’s staff gives the tools and resources for songwriters and performers to develop and market themselves to labels, publishers, film, television and video game companies through their MySpace music sites.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Mark your calendars, and save the date! ASCAP is pleased to announce that the next ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO will take place April 19-21, 2007, at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel in Los Angeles, CA.
Cakewalk today unveiled official details of the latest iteration of their popular music creation and recording suite: SONAR version 6. According to the company, SONAR 6 debuts an innovative feature called Active Controller Technology (ACT) and other features to “tighten up your entire band with the revolutionary new AudioSnap.”
MONTABELLO, Calif. — TASCAM is pleased to appoint Paul Jenkins to the position of National Sales Manager. Jenkins, with over 25 years of experience in the pro audio and music instrument industry, will lead the TASCAM sales effort throughout the U.S.
CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple® today announced that its entire iMac® line now features the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor in every model, delivering up to 50 percent faster performance than the previous iMac. A new 24-inch iMac with a brilliant 24-inch widescreen display joins the 17- and 20-inch models, and iMac prices now start at just $999. Every new iMac includes a built-in iSightâ„¢ video camera for video conferencing out-of-the-box; Apple’s breakthrough Front Row media experience; and iLife® ‘06, the next generation of Apple’s award-winning suite of digital lifestyle applications.
PARIS — Vivendi and Universal Music Group (UMG), 100%
owned by Vivendi, announced today that they have signed with Bertelsmann a
definitive agreement for the purchase of BMG Music Publishing Group for a
total consideration (in enterprise value) of EUR 1.63 billion.