- ‘Secret’ Panel To Vote On 09 CCMA New Artist Showcase
- Don’t Disconnect Music Innovation
- Canadian Book Sales Post Double Digit Gains
- CD/DVD set Captures Stephen Stills’ Career
- MuchMusic Channels Going Ad Free At Month End
CCMA: The Country Music Week New Artist Showcase, staged at the Vancouver Fairmont Hotel’s BC Ballroom at 10 PM on Sept. 10, will include performances by Shane Chisholm, Jaida Dreyer, Mike Gouchie, Heather Longstaffe, Darren McGinnis, Arlen Park, Whiskey Jane and AJ Woodworth, the CCMA organizing committee has announced.
All eight of the artists were selected through a submission process and a two-tiered jury process composed of industry members from across Canada. For the first time, a secret panel onsite will be adjudicating the performances and the best in show will received the 2009 New Artist Showcase Award.
“We are so pleased to announce the Canadian country class of 2009,” said Chair of the CCMA Board of Directors, Jackie Rae Greening. “In the past, we have seen New Artist Showcase participants like Shania Twain and Paul Brandt go on to become huge international stars, so I can’t wait to see and hear what the future has in store for the Canadian country music scene.
For details about Country Music Week
MUSIC INNOVATION – Guardian:A decade after Napster, illegal downloading still hangs around record companies like a poisonous miasma. It is estimated that 95% of all music files circulating online today are unlicensed. Record sales are falling, jobs are being cut and filesharers are getting the blame.
Now it appears that the UK government wishes to echo what the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy is battling to push through in France: the imposition of an unyielding internet disconnection policy for repeat filesharers. …This policy could reinforce every stereotype the public has about the record company “suits” and “squares” they believe sit behind huge oak desks, snoozing all day as the world changes around them. At a stage where the industry has started to convincingly reinvent itself for the digital age, this is an anachronism too far.
BOOK SALES – Wall Street Journal:Canadian retailers can complain about a lot these days, but books are a different story.
While book sales in the U.S. and U.K. are hurting, sales volume in Canada rose 6.7% in the first quarter compared to last year, according to BookNet Canada. And the industry group, which tracks about three-quarters of Canada’s book sales, says the trends are “reasonably similar” in the second quarter as well, though it wouldn’t elaborate.
Wal-Mart Canada, a unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), has seen its book sales rise “by double-digit percentages” from last year as customers “stretch their entertainment dollar,” said company spokesman Andrew Pelletier.
The mass merchant, which is one of Canada’s top booksellers, has installed book tables in the main aisles of its stores and expanded its assortment in response to the trend.
Joel Silver, chief merchant of Indigo Books & Music Inc. (IDG.T), Canada’s biggest bookseller, said the company has always argued that spending C$20 on a book for 8-10 hours of entertainment is good value, and that message appears to be ringing true.
STEPHEN STILLS has a pair of Rhino releases that celebrate his past endeavours both 
as a solo artist and as a member of Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and Manassas.
After recording his second solo album, Stills formed Manassas in 1971 with a talented group of musicians that included Chris Hillman, a former member of the Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers. Manassas released two albums, 1972’s eponymous double-album debut and the 1973 follow-up, Down The Road. Rhino ‘Pieces’ features alternate versions of two songs from Down The Road: “Do You Remember The Americans” and “Lies” (featuring guitarist Joe Walsh). The collection also includes unreleased performances of “Sugar Babe” and “Word Game,” a pair of songs Stills recorded in 1971 for his second solo album. The remaining tracks include “Like A Fox,” a song recorded with blues guitarist Bonnie Raitt on background vocals and the Latin-tinged “Tan Sola Y Triste” (Spanish for ‘So Alone and Sad’).
Last fall, Stills played a career-spanning UK concert that Rhino is issuing as a CD/DVD set, titled ‘Live at Shepherds Bush’. The performances include songs from his solo career as well as repertoire performed with the Buffalo Springfield, Manassas, CSN and Stills/Young.
AD FREE MUCH: Beginning August 31, subscribers MuchMusic’s digital subscribers get non-stop music videos when MuchVibe, MuchLOUD, MuchMoreRetro, and PunchMuch go commercial-free. All four channels are available across Canada via digital cable and satellite subscription service.
“Commercial-free stations mean subscribers across the country get an uninterrupted fix of their favorite music videos all the time,” Brad Schwartz, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Much MTV Group, CTV Inc. stated in announcing the add-free service.
