Posting tweet...
The question that occurs to me is whether in 10 years time Britain would be a place that say the Beatles could have emerged from. Will Britain be a fertile environment for all creative talent? Will Britain be a place where music, TV, film, games and publishing companies are sufficiently healthy to invest in British creative talent and take it to the rest of the world?
— , British Press Assoc.
No. Not in a world where there are no longer shops where you can buy the physical products and the internet is a sort of Somalia of unregulated theft and piracy.
IFPI has published its annual report on the state of the recorded music industry worldwide. Among the key points in the findings:
* Global recorded music revenues declined 7% in 2009
* Some key markets saw a return to growth
* Digital sales grew strongly in many markets
* Piracy continued to erode legitimate music sales worldwide
The Canadian Country Music Association announced today that the CCMA Award for Talent Buyer or Promoter of the Year will now be named after its most decorated (and only) recipient Ron Sakamoto.
Each year an award is presented to an exceptional talent buyer or promoter who, in the opinion of the membership, has best presented and promoted Canadian country artists in Canada within the current balloting year. The award for Talent Buyer or Promoter of the Year was introduced in 1993 and has only ever had one winner, Ron Sakamoto (Gold _ Gold Productions Ltd.) of Lethbridge, Alberta.
RBC Foundation has made a $15,000 donation to MusiCounts, The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences’ (CARAS) music education program, to fund the organization’s work to nurture and support music programs for young Canadians across the country.
The federal government made good its earlier decision to renew the Canada Music Fund for five years with a $27.6-million investment.
Federal Heritage Minister James Moore made the announcement Saturday in St. John’s during the Juno Awards festivities.
The money will help music industry groups, including Music Action, the SOCAN Foundation FACTOR and Library _ Archives Canada.
AFM Canada, the Canadian representatives of the American Federation of Musicians, and ACTRA are cheering Parliament’s approval of a motion calling for the extension of the private copying levy to digital music recorders. However, the Conservatives are standing firm in refusing to support artists as Liberal, Bloc and NDP MPs united behind Bloc MP Carole Lavallee’s motion.
The 2010 Juno Awards in St. John’s was anything but predictable, even if super-crooner Michael Buble did take home the most trophies, winning in the Album, Pop Album,Single of the year categories, as well as the Fan Choice Award. Up-start Drake managed to win two Junos, including New Artist, despite his not yet having released an album. And K’Naan’s meteoric success with the undeniably beautiful anthem ‘Wavin’ Flag’ helped him secure two Junos, including Artist Of the Year. But who could have guessed Metric taking home the Group of the Year Award? That said, their worldwide success clearly made them the right choice to receive the high honour. And Billy Talent beating out major label heavyweights to win in the Best Rock Album category? Saturday and Sunday night on The Rock brewed up some special magic. According to one news report, the volcanic ash locking down airspace over Europe was within hours of reaching Newfoundland which could leave a major contingent of Canada’s music industry stranded if Transport Canada rules it is too dangerous for planes to fly out. A weekend not without its upsets. Below, the complete list of winners from the 2010 Juno Awards.
he Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) honoured Ross Reynolds with the 2010 Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award on Saturday in St. John’s in the run-up to the Juno Awards TV show.
Reynolds has been a major player in the music industry, notably as a founding board member of CARAS and long-time Universal Music Canada President and Chairman.
Due to overwhelming demand during peak viewing hours, FYIMusic. com has strained server capacity on numerous occasions over the past six months, leading us to increase bandwidth on several occasions. Disruptions earlier last week due to over-capacity again underlined the overwhelming readership usage of FYI – and led to a significant up-grade in bandwidth capacity that kicked-in on Thursday. The new, improved service is immediately evident as page loads take a fraction of the time before the up-grade. There is no fixed deadline set but a new design for the website is underway with a launch date expected sometime in May. With the re-design of FYI comes a new business model, so those promoting services or involved in marketing and promotional campaigns should expect to hear from us in the coming weeks. The journey so far from FYI’s launch at at the ‘08 Juno Awards in Calgary has been educational, and exhilarating and we hope to continue to grow in importance as the dominant portal for Canada’s music and related industries for a long time to come.
Sincerely: David Farrell
Nickelback, Diana Krall Amongst Shoe less Shoe-ins
It was a night of high fashion, high notes, and high praises at the 2010 Juno Gala Dinner _ Awards in St. John’s, Nfld last night. The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) honoured 32 new Award winners during its gala event held at the St. John’s Convention Centre where more than 1,000 music industry guests and Award nominees gathered to celebrate the best of Canadian music – and discuss local weather conditions that contributed to delays and cancellations by nominees and winners alike because of dense fog overlaying the island airport, and the lock-down of airspace over Europe and the UK.
The Economist is not one to pander to socialist ideals and so it is surprising to find this authoritative publication 
declaring unequivocally that copyright terms need to be rolled back. The article forcefully argues that when the British Parliament first introduced copyright in books to protect them from piracy in 1709, the term of protection was finite in order to encourage learning. The Economist argues that in the past 50 years the term of protection has become wildly exaggerated after having the original ideal subverted by the entertainment industry and a connivance of greedy lawyers.
The term of protection, alongside the presumptive power and influence of hardware firms such as Apple have helped to create growing acrimony and distrust between the paying users and the putative owners of copyrights. If laws have become exaggerated, they threaten to become elephantine in over-reach with the secretive ACTA trade agreement which wants to lock down some of the most basic uses of technology in future. Much of the firestorm surrounding rights issues has been promulgated by law firms that have grown rich in obfuscating basic fundamentals in copyright law, and perhaps even intentionally furthering their own interests by providing legal advice that fuels law suits. Whatever side of the gavel one sits on, The Economist article is a must read. Full article here:
