Charity – Organizers of the 9th annual Music Therapy Ride have announced that a percentage of funds raised from the event will to go to finance a Nimbus School of Recording Arts recording studio at the Children’s Hospital in Vancouver…
Broadcast — Statistics Canada reports operating revenues among private radio broadcasters fell 5.2% last year. It’s the 1st annual decline since ‘93. Revenues totalled $1.5b in ‘09 as ad revenues fell 5.5%. The agency estimates radio profits came in at 17.9% on every dollar of revenue before interest and taxes. Declines were posted in all regions save Saskatchewan and Quebec…
Michel Arpin’s involuntary departure as Vice chairman, Broadcasting, at the CRTC begs the question, who does Harper have in mind as understudy for the top job? Arpin is now Visiting Prof at the Arts & Sciences Faculty of the Montreal U’s department of Communication…
CBC has revamped and renamed its late-night talk show The Hour. As of Sept. 20, the 7th season of the popular TV chat show is marqueed as George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight…
With 43 years in the business, Vancouver broadcaster Tom Jeffries is retiring from radio. His last Talk to the Experts show will air Saturday at 2 pm on CKNW-AM (980)
Biz – Sony Classical has signed a multi-year AV deal with the Vienna Philharmonic for the orchestra’s New Year’s Day recitals that annually attract an estimated 40m TV viewers in 70 countries…
With iPod sales slowing, digital music sales tanking and music streaming services struggling, the music industry is desperate to find its saviour. The user-pay app market promises to be the next golden goose…for those that have enough cache to sell a million or more [WikiNews]
Music sales are down, piracy abounds and the business models of tomorrow are still being developed. Amidst the challenges are opportunities to develop talent, new products and services, and a deeper connection with music consumers. Billboard offers 4 key strategies for stayin’ alive…
Box office receipts in the US rose by $100m this summer but the number of tickets sold declined. Hollywood.com reports premium pricing for 3D fare boosted gross receipts…
Miranda Lambert and Lady Antebellum emerge as early leaders at the 44th annual CMA Awards, judging by nominations announced yesterday. This Country show takes place Nov. 10 at the Bridgestone Arena in Music City…
Copyright – A form letter sent by Heritage Minister James Moore makes clear the Government of Canada will not expand the private copying tariff to include digital storage units. Moore makes clear the gov’t is staying the course in pursuing policy that exacts stiff penalties for piracy…
Digital Media — The Wall Street Journal reports Amazon is negotiating with content owners to create a subscription-based IPTV service. The category killer joins Apple, Google, Hulu and Netflix in the race to shift viewers from the couch to mobile devices…
Napster has released an application for Samsung Apps, the world’s first HDTV-based application store. The app enables subscribers to listen to music on 40-inch TVs, as well as select 2010 Blu-ray players and Blu-ray home theatre systems…
The Arcade Fire’s latest video uses the Google Chrome web browser, multi-screens and faux geo-positioning that requires viewers to key in a hometown address. It’s all a bit cheesy but the audio quality is astonishingly good and the song a certified smash hit for the band…
The Financial Times reports Sony is taking a shot at Apple’s stronghold on the digital music and video market with a new multimedia subscription service, coming to the PlayStation Network (and beyond) next year. Sony will unveil that music and video subscription service at the IFA technology show in Berlin later this week…
ISPs – An alliance of Aussie ISPs wants to derail a government plan to institutionalize broadband, arguing expansion is best left to public and private sector funding…
Live — The Experience Hendrix tour – featuring Billy Cox, David Hidalgo, Steve Vai with Living Colour and others - is set to make a 2nd 2010 run in 19 NA cities, including Toronto, Quebec City, Montreal and Ottawa…
Blue Rodeo, Jill Hennessy, The Higgins and Carolyn Dawn Johnson are the final performers named to appear at the CCMA Awards at Edmonton’s Rexall Place on Sept. 12. CCMA website for full lineup and details…
Macy Gray, Mogwai, Tom Tom Club, The Dears and Mary Margaret O’Hara are set to perform at the Pop Montreal International Music Festival, Sept. 29 – Oct.3.
With a bone-crunching tour schedule ahead, Caribou has announced the release of a 2-LP set, credited to “Caribou Vibration Ensemble featuring Marshall Allenâ€, and DVD that are to be sold exclusively at live shows…
Pint-sized popstar Justin Bieber was back on top last night as he performed a high-energy sell out gig at NYC’s Madison Square Garden. The event was being filmed for the star’s 3D concert movie, so the moptop made sure his routines were particularly energetic, with lots of jumping, kicking and on-stage action. Pictures and more at the Daily Mail online…
Music – Karlheinz Stockhausen begat postmodern composers such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich. All three have turned serious music into atonal gibberish that has alienated mainstream audiences [Axess]…
A Japanese edition of The Canadian Tenors, available online, includes 3 bonus tracks, including Winter Song with Sarah McLachlan…Brandon Flowers’ Flamingo, due Sept. 14, is co-produced by Daniel Lanois and Brendan O’Brien…Mean Old Man, Jerry Lee’s latest, pairs The Killer up with Keith Richards, Solomon Burke, Eric Clapton, Merle Haggard, Tim McGraw, John Mayer, Willie Nelson, Slash and Mavis Staples…Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy produced Mavis Staples Sept. 14 release, You Are Not Alone…â€Mutt†Lange produced Maroon 5’s Sept. 21 Hands All Over album…Speak Now is Taylor Swift’s ode to high-school, due out Oct. 25…
Rolling Stone magazine reports that a group of Radiohead fans has teamed up to edit video footage of a show in Prague last year. The not-for-profit performance video download has the Brit group supporting the initiative by providing the fans with an audio master of the concert…
Tech – Gartner research is projecting worldwide PC shipments of 367.8m units in 2010, marking the 1st time PC shipments have averaged a million per day…
Facebook has been awarded the patent for a click-behaviour based search-engine application. The patent describes a search engine ranking algorithm that is based on popularity of websites among the users’ peer group [GoRumours]
