FYI Roundup From the Web and Webmail

• Facebook Flops Again With Updated Privacy Policy
• Video: Nevin Grant Receives Hamilton’s Lifetime Achievement Award
• Astral Posts 13th Consecutive Year Of Profitable Growth
• Michael Burke’s Curious Journey To Cordova Bay (Records)
  
• Ole Earns Swift Grammy Nomination
• Publishers Seek To Avoid iTunes Pitfall
• Classical Audiences A Dying Breed
• Peter Project Releases EP Inside iPod-Shaped Bar Of Soap
• Symphony Nova Scotia Revisits Messiah
• FACTOR Trumpets Grammy Nominations
• Kreesha Turner’s Delirious Return
• Dog-a-palooza, A Food Bank Extravaganza
• Five Year Gestation But Raised By Swans Has A Cygnet
• The Dudes, Battered, Bloodied But Not Beaten

FACEBOOK: As part of supposed improvements to its service, starting today Facebook is asking all users to review and update their privacy settings. But that’s not all that Facebook is doing. The company responsible for Beacon (Facebook’s Beacon program tells members about their friends’ e-commerce activity) is now making its own privacy recommendations, which will take effect by default unless users change them. And in most cases, the recommendation will be that users over 18 share all information with “everyone” — Facebook’s 350 million users as well as search engines.

Given that the vast majority of users — 80-85% by Facebook’s estimates — don’t change their default privacy settings, it’s obvious that the company hopes as much information as possible is available to the Web at large. Wendy Davis, Daily Online Examiner

NEVIN GRANT- long time “bossman” at Oldies 1150 CKOC in Hamilton, Ontario was recognized with the Hamilton Music Lifetime Achievement Award Sunday, December 6. Congratulations to a very deserving man. An icon in Canadian music. (Thanks to Warren Cosford for pointing this out).

ASTRAL GROWTH: Astral Media Inc. today held its Fiscal 2009 Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders at which Ian Greenberg, President and Chief Executive Officer, highlighted another strong year of growth ? the 13th consecutive year of profitable growth for the Company ? achieved in spite of very challenging economic and advertising market environments.

He underlined the continued contribution of all of the Company’s business units to a strong display of resilience and expressed his gratitude to all of Astral Media’s 2,800 employees across Canada for their hard work and dedication. He also outlined the Company’s strategy to take full advantage of the slowly upcoming economic recovery.

In his outlook for Fiscal 2010, Mr. Greenberg said: “Throughout Fiscal 2009, we kept investing in our brands, in our platforms and in programming initiatives that enable us to further enhance the experience of our listeners and viewers and to grow our market share. We viewed the downturn as an opportunity to strengthen our client relationships and to continue to improve the return on their advertising investments on our platforms. The early signs of increased advertising activity bode well for a gradual recovery towards the second half of the 2010 fiscal year and Astral will be fully positioned, both strategically and financially, to emerge as a stronger organization from this economic downturn.’’

During the course of the meeting, the Company also announced the renewal of its normal course issuer bid to purchase up to 2.5% of the outstanding Class A Shares and Class B Shares of the Company. Under the terms of the renewal, the Company intends to purchase for cancellation, through the facilities of the Toronto Stock Exchange, up to 1,338,192 Class A Shares and up to 69,616 Class B Shares. This represents no more than 2.5% of the 53,527,697 issued and outstanding Class A Shares as at November 30, 2009 and no more than 2.5% of the 2,784,672 issued and outstanding Class B Shares as at November 30, 2009. The shares will be purchased for cancellation in accordance with applicable regulations of the Toronto Stock Exchange over a maximum period of 12 months beginning on December 15, 2009 and ending on December 14, 2010. The average daily trading volume for the Class A shares is 147,333 and the average daily trading volume for the Class B shares is 82. On a daily basis, the Company will not be entitled to purchase more than 36,833 Class A Shares and a maximum of 1,000 of its Class B Shares. The Company believes that the purchase of the Class A Shares and Class B Shares may be an economically worthwhile use by the Company of its funds and is in the best interest of the Company and its shareholders. The Company has purchased 27,200 of its Class A Shares at an average price of $31.50 and none of its Class B Shares from December 15, 2008 to December 8, 2009 under the currently outstanding normal course issuer bid which expires on December 14, 2009.

CORDOVA BAY: Michael Burke charted a course for himself as an informal artist manager and record label honcho, a decision that would pay long-term dividends. Last week, Burke and his Victoria-based company, Cordova Bay Entertainment Group, which houses Cordova Bay Records and Cordova Bay Publishing, celebrated its 10th anniversary.

In addition to his local companies, the native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, also owns pieces of other labels — 50 per cent of U.K. label Fierce Panda and 12.5 per cent of Toronto’s Maplecore Ltd., under which Open Road Recordings, Fontana North distribution and Maple Music Recordings are housed. Mike Devlin, Times-Columnist

OLE EARNS GRAMMY NOMINATION: Ole, one of the world’s fastest-growing independent music publishers, earned its first ever Grammy nomination when the candidates for the 52nd annual Grammy Awards were announced December 2nd during a live music special televised by CBS from Club Nokia in Los Angeles.

The Canadian firm publishes the Liz Rose catalogue song “White Horse,” (co-written by Liz Rose and Taylor Swift) featured on Taylor Swift’s No. 1 album Fearless, which is nominated for Best Country Song, and earned Swift a second of eight total nominations in the Best Vocal Performance category.

In addition to the above nominations, Swift’s album, Fearless, featuring three ole published songs also co-written by Rose (“White Horse,” “Fearless” and “Tell Me Why”), received a nomination for overall Album of the Year in a category that includes Beyoncé’s I Am…Sasha Fierce, the Black Eyed Peas’ The E.N.D., Lady Gaga’s The Fame and the Dave Matthews Band’s Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King.

Taylor’s recently enhanced re-release of Fearless: Platinum Edition saw the addition of two other ole-Rose songs to the album – “Come In With the Rain” and “SuperStar” -  bringing the total number of ole-published Swift cuts to 13 across four albums: Taylor Swift (“Tim McGraw,” “Teardrops On My Guitar,” “Picture to Burn,” “Tied Together With A Smile,” “Stay Beautiful,” “Cold As You,” and “Mary’s Song”); The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection (“Christmases When You Were Mine”); Fearless (“Fearless,” “White Horse,” and “Tell Me Why”); and Fearless: Platinum Edition.

“We are thrilled to be a part of these Grammy nominations through the talents of Liz Rose and Taylor Swift.  Liz and Taylor have had an incredible year and to be a part of such a phenomenal success story is an honour,” says Gilles Godard, ole’s Chief Creative Officer.

Ole would also like to congratulate Swift on her six additional nominations in the categories of Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals.

These Grammy nominations follow on the heels of awards earned by ole during last month’s CMA Week including: a pair of BMI awards for ole songs “Picture to Burn”, from Swift’s 2008 self-titled debut album; and “Trying to Stop Your Leaving” (by Brett Beavers/James Beavers, from the Dierks Bentley’s 2008 album Long Trip Alone; as well as a SESAC award for “White Horse.”

PUBLISHERS SEEK TO AVOID iTUNES PITFALL : Publishers are desperate to avoid the iTunes slavery that has befallen the music industry, so they are now pursuing a strategy of building content for multiple devices to be sold through digital storefronts.  These publications can be read on any device without encyrption software.

One industry executive said the splits from those platforms…are closer to the iTunes model – with the publishers getting 70% of subscription revenue and the platforms keeping the rest.  This is the reverse of the Kindle split, which is 70% in favor of Amazon. One of the obstacles stalling quick adoption of a multi-platform format is the cost of wireless delivery.  Rory Maher, TBI Research

CLASSICAL MALAISE: Conventional wisdom: the classical music audience has always been the age it is now. The reality is it wasn’t always this way. Blogger Greg Sandow points readers to a variety of studies showing the demise of youthful audiences attending serious music concerts, and anecdotal evidence that includes a page from EM Forster’s Howards End. Greg Sandow, Sandow’s blog

HERE & THERE: Platinum-selling flameno plucker Jesse Cook has added a second show to his April 12 Halifax concert at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium …MuchMusic brings Canadian teen sensation Justin Bieber Home For The Holidays with a LIVE@MUCH Performance, Dec. 22 … Ali Milner is channelling her excitement into an intimate performance to celebrate the launch of her new 13-track album, I Dare You, at the Free Times Cafe on Dec. 16 … Toronto indie-geek-rap DJ phenomenon Peter Project‘s new 5-track EP is an inspired amalgam of genre-busting tunes. The Fresh EP is available ONLY as a bar of soap!  Weird, right?  It’s actually a download card embedded into a handmade soap bar designed to look exactly like an iPod. Some may remember founding member Peter Chapman started out promoting his demo tapes by leaving them in public washrooms for people to pick up and discover.

Eagle Rock Entertainment is thrilled by the accolades bestowed on Jeff Beck‘s Performing This Week…Live At Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club CD, released in Nov. 2008.  Beck’s presentation of the Beatles’ classic “A Day In The Life” was announced as a candidate for the “Best Rock Instrumental Performance” Grammy Award. Beck appears with Eric Clapton at Toronto’s AC Feb. 21 and Montreal’s Bell Centre the following night … Halifax rocker Jon Mullane has released his new music video for upcoming single Sin City”, a back handed compliment to Canada’s east coast city populated by the coastguard, air force and navy. The single and video are to be included on on Mullane’s Shift album that is due for release in January. You can view the video here.

In honour of the 250th anniversary of Handel‘s death, the 80-member Symphony Nova Scotia and Chorus presents a very special version of his masterpiece Messiah on Dec. 18/19 a at the Rebecca Cohn in Halifax. Instead of the standard version of  Messiah that orchestras usually perform this time of year, the Cohen oratorio is in its unaltered original version, which premiered in Dublin, Ireland in 1742 … RGK Entertainment artists, Doc Walker, Tara Oram and Corb Lund, head west for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Celebrations this winter. Both Doc Walker and Tara Oram will perform at official events hosted on Manitoba Day and Newfoundland and Labrador Day, respectively … Hot off the heels of his recent Grammy nomination, Michael Buble takes to the stage as part of Bravo!’s award-winning At The Concert Hall series on Jan. 19 … The Beatles On Record premieres on Bravo, Dec. 28.

FACTOR is trumpeting a little good news, namely that two foundation recipients have received nominations at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards. TBeast’s “Mr. Hurricane” – from their self titled FACTOR-funded sound recording – is nominated for Best Short Form Music Video; and Nickelback, who have received past FACTOR support, are nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance … L’ Escola de Samba Acadia, Fayo, Phil Flowers, Morse Code Alphabet, Subliminal and Les Païens are on tap for Music NB fund-raiser at the Manhattan Bar & Grill in Mocton tomorrow night (Dec. 10).

Delerium‘s latest video, Dust In Gravity, features Kreesha Turner. The track is to be included in a 1st quarter 2010 Definitive Collection ‘remix’ release … Montreal’s international Gangstress, Empire ISIS, is letting loose “Participate,” another track and video from her latest Brand New Style album.

Vancouver alternative rock band Elias has announced support for the ‘Give me Truth’ War campaign in support of War Child Canada. The band is offering a free digital download bundle in return for signing War Child’s Petition online. Supporters can sign the petition here and receive two Elias songs and the video for their single “All We Want” taken from the band’s debut Wax Records release, Lasting Distraction.

Amy Sky and Mark Masri are indirectly nominated for a Grammy. The two guest vocalists on pianist  Jim Brickman’s Faith , which has been nominated for Best New Age album … Children Collide, from ‘the down under’ will be coming to Canada to tour during Canadian Music Week.Check out the video for ‘Farewell Rocketship from the band’s recent album by linking here.

Not My Dog may well be one of Toronto’s smallest clubs but it always presents a full schedule of local artists. Now the venue is holding its 1st annual three day music festival. Christened “Dog-a-palooza,” it’s an effort by the club and more than a dozen local performers to give back to the community of which the venue and the musicians are part. The event, to be held next weekend (Friday Dec. 11 through Sunday 13) will spotlight a range of first-rank local roots music artists and raise money and non-perishable food for a local community meals programme. Among the artists taking part are Samantha Martin, Treasa Levasseur, the Creaking Tree String Quartet, David Celia and David Baxter.

London, Ontario’s Raised by Swans has built a small but devoted international audience with their critically-acclaimed, independent debut, Codes and Secret Longing (2005). Four years on RbS is set to release No Ghostless Place. The launch takes place this Friday (Dec. 11) at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern where the band will perform for the first time in over 18 months.

DEADLINES!

FACTOR

• Domestic and International Business Development Program – Dec. 15th, 2009, Jan. 29th
• Domestic and International Showcase Program – Dec. 15th, 2009, Jan. 29th
• Domestic and International Tour Program – Dec. 15th, 2009, Jan. 29th
• Emerging Artist Program – Jan. 29th
• Marketing and Promo for FACTOR Funded Sound Recordings – Jan. 29th
• Songwriter Workshop and Seminar Support Program – Jan. 29th
• Video Program – Jan. 29th

The Department of Canadian Heritage:

• Music Entrepreneur Component (MEC) – Aid to Canadian Sound Recording Firms of the Canada Music Fund (CMF) – Dec 17th 2009

Province of NB Music Industry Development Program (MID) – Feburary 2010

THE DUDES – BLOOD, GUTS, BRUISES, CUTS: What they say must be true, as after The Dudes released their album titled Bloods, Guts, Bruises, Cuts earlier this year the band (and others involved in the making and development of it) has suffered nothing but.  Take for example their photographer Randy who took shots for the album and next thing you know he falls into a parked car and needs staples in his head.  Or Megan who shows up at the shooting for the video ‘Girl Police’ and breaks her ankle within the hour.

None compares, however, to the injuries that the band themselves have sustained.  Two days before heading out on tour lead singer/guitarist Dan Vacon’s white BMX took him down the highway of hurt resulting in 12 staples to the head and a broken collarbone.  A month later drummer Scott Ross borrows and bails on the same bike to end up missing 3 of his front teeth, a bunch of his face, and a piece of his moustache.  Witnesses say he got up swinging like he was in a fight.  Eerily enough it was the same intersection in Calgary where both accidents happened.

Most recently Vacon crashed into a tree skiing at Lake Louise and broke the other side of his collarbone.  Again two days before leaving out on tour.  Last week the band got caught in a blizzard and while hailing a cab Ross slipped and got dragged 30 feet underneath the bumper of an oncoming car.  With both knees busted, Scott can’t yet walk but still somehow manages to rock.

Blood, Guts, Bruises, Cuts?  Exactly.  Don’t be surprised if their next album foresees the title Millions Sold, Millions Made.

Nominated for a CBC Radio 3 Bucky Award for their offstage antics and voted Calgary’s favourite band for the last 4 years, FFWD Weekly calls them “a rock band capable of taking on the world at large.”

TWINS SHINE ON: Twin sisters Carmen and Camille are making indie-music magic happen.  The pop/rock duo’s latest single, Shine 4U, recently won the Chum Emerging Artist Initiative which has resulted in national radio rotation across Canada. The duo become a viral smash hit with over 2 million video-views on YouTube, and ranked in the top-fifty of Canadian bands (all-time) for most channel subscribers.  Their debut album, “Two” has had many tracks featured on MTV’s reality series “The Hills” as well as other original MTV productions. As well, the twins have garnered press through multiple media outlets including Perez Hilton.com, Elle Girl, Seventeen, Billlboard.com and Stuff Magazine.

As sisters, C&C’s career began as kids with their own ‘rec-room band’ which has mushroomed into such key performances as MTV’s Total Request Live. The girls were reared on Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Joplin, Zeppelin and since then their love of all music developed influences as varied as Sheryl Crow, No Doubt, Depeche Mode and Fleetwood Mac.

Carmen and Camille have performed in cities all over the world including London, Glasgow, Manchester, Vancouver, Toronto, Cairo, Boston, Budapest, New York, Dubai, Austin, Crete, Los Angeles; just to name a few. The girls have also showcased for MTV (USA) as well performed live on YTV’s The Zone.  Currently a TV scripted reality series is in development with Salient Media, Los Angeles.  C&C split their time between Vancouver and LA and are currently working on new songs and touring in support of Shine 4U.

Broadcast/Media

Casey Wilson is named General Manager of Clear Sky Radio effective immediately.In this new role, Wilson oversees all day-to-day aspects of both CJOC-FM Lethbridge, AB and CJCY-FM Medicine Hat, AB … Former CHUM exec Rob Farina has lured veteran CFNY/CHUM-FM personality Maie Pauts to EZ Rock Toronto. Pauts shows up for work at 2 St. Clair W. on Jan. 3 …

EDMONTON HOT 107 (Press release): Since its launch in early October, 2009, HOT 107 has significantly impacted radio listening in the Edmonton market by creating a massive level of awareness amongst teens and young adults.

Now, according to two separate research studies (in which 600 Adults were interviewed), we have also learned that approximately one of every five 18-44 year-olds in the Edmonton CMA now listen to HOT 107 on a weekly basis!*

HOT 107’s Owner and General Manager, John Yerxa, says: “After witnessing dozens of one-on-one interviews, we already knew that HOT 107 had captured the hearts and minds of many Teen and Young Adult radio listeners in the Edmonton area. However, this new wave of research clearly confirms that HOT 107 has also drawn a dramatic level of support from a wide cross-section of 18-44 adults as well.”

Yerxa goes on to say: “In the coming year, utilizing the services of professional, independent, third-party research companies, we will provide our friends and clients with up-to-date numbers that are reflective of the entire Edmonton CMA. Each month, a fresh sample of at least 600 adults will be contacted, resulting in greater than 7,000 local respondents being interviewed over a 12-month period. No respondent will ever be asked to participate in more than one tracking study. And our commitment is that, each time HOT 107 commissions a research study, every adult within the local CMA will have an equal chance of being selected to participate. Only in this way, can we – OR ANYONE ELSE – provide audience research to the advertising community that is truly reflective of the local market.”

* 18% of 18-44 year-olds (Trend Research Inc., Nov 18-28) and 20% of 18-44 year-olds (Leger Marketing, Nov 16-22) say they listen to HOT 107 on a weekly basis.

Trend Research Inc. is an Edmonton-based marketing research data collection firm, providing both quantitative and qualitative services. It is a Gold Seal Member of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA).

Leger Marketing is the largest Canadian-owned market research firm. Based in Montreal, it exclusively represents the most prestigious worldwide group – Gallup International Association – giving it access to the best polling and research practices in the world.