Whispers & Shouts: Your Daily Music Industry Wrap For August

Got an industry announcement, tip off or rumour? Email it to us at industry@themusic.com.au.

THURSDAY AUGUST 17

• Abbie Chatfield will no longer host the Hot Nights program on the Hit Network – which aired from 7pm to 9pm on weeknights – saying in a statement (per Mumbrella) that she “simply wasn’t enjoying myself day to day in that environment”. She explained: “I simply need to put my energy into projects that bring me joy and that energise me, rather than draining me. It’s also time to give someone else a go who would enjoy and appreciate the opportunity more than myself. I have so much on, and daily radio takes up so much time.” Chatfield will remain with SCA, hosting its LiSTNR podcast It’s A Lot. Her replacement for Hot Nights is yet to be announced.

• A suite of music publishers recently filed a lawsuit against Twitter, claiming (per Complete Music Update) that it “breeds massive copyright infringement that harms music creators”. Twitter has now fired back at them, asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit on the basis of a lack of evidence. “The complaint alleges that [Twitter] is directly, contributorily and vicariously liable for alleged copyright infringement arising from user posts”, states a notion filed earlier this week in Nashville. “All three counts should be dismissed for failure to state a claim”.

• Lisa De Angelis has signed a sponsorship deal with Cole Clark Guitars. She wrote on Facebook: “From the second I walked into Capitol Music in Tamworth and spied my first Little Lady – I only played it for about 3 minutes and was so convinced that I bought it on the spot – I knew it was only gonna be Cole Clark guitars for me going forward. Stoked to be welcomed into the Cole Clark family, and stoked to get to play these bad boys officially.”

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 16

• The 2023 Art Music Awards were held in Eora/Sydney last night. Heather Percy, Shervin Mirzeinali, Nat Bartsch, Paul Dean, Lachlan Skipworth and Rebecca Bracewell were among the winners for the genre-segmented Work Of The Year awards, while Roland Peelman took out the national individual Luminary award for his “sustained service to Australian music as a conductor, pianist, artistic director and mentor to composers, singers and instrumentalists”, and Moorambilla Voices won the national organisation Luminary award for their “long-term commitment to creating Australian art music with and for young people in regional NSW”. See here for the full list of winners.

• Nominations are now open for the 2023 WAMAwards, celebrating the achievements of artists and music industry figures in Western Australia. The form to apply can be found here, with nominations closing at 5pm WST on Thursday August 31.

• YouTube Music has added a Shorts-esque video feed to its app – dubbed ‘Samples’ – specialising in clips of music videos and live performances. Songs featured there can be transferred over YouTube Shorts for original content creation, or users can interact with track samples to play them in full, mark them as liked, add them to playlists or share them directly with other users.

• Adidas and The Brag Media have teamed up for a branding partnership that unites football and music in an interesting new way. For it, Mallrat and Kwame sampled field recordings of Matildas striker Caitlin Foord, then built an original song (called Back Of The Net Beats) around it. Head here to give it a listen.

MONDAY AUGUST 14

• APRA AMCOS has announced the second annual awards event for Major Minor Music Australia (MMMA) – colloquially known as The Ma’s – with this year’s ceremony being held in Eora/Sydney on Sunday October 8. It’s the country’s only awards show entirely dedicated to children’s music, with six trophies on the table: standard awards for Best Album, Best Single and Best Clip, plus the Michael McGlynn Newcomers Award, the Kinderling Children’s Choice Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award. Nominations will be shared on social media next Sunday (August 27). In a press release, awards director Benny Thatcher said: “We feel very honoured to be able to present these awards. Music for children is a genre with few advocates so being able to create a day where the industry feels heard, recognised and above all, celebrated, is something we are certain will grow in strength year in, year out.” Head here for more info on The Ma’s.

• Tony Burke (parliamentary minister for employment and workplace relations, minister for the arts, and leader of the house) has shared a statement on Kate Jenkins’ appointment as chair of ARIA/PPCA’s newly launched Centre for Creative Workplaces Council. The council, detailed last Friday (August 11), comes as part of Australia’s new national cultural policy Revive, and is led by Jenkins as a former Sex Discrimination Commissioner and author of the Respect@Work report into sexual harassment. Burke said: “Australian artists and creatives aren’t hobbyists, they’re workers. They deserve safe and fair workplaces like every other worker. That’s why we’re establishing Creative Workplaces and I can’t think of anyone better suited to chairing this Council than Kate Jenkins. She brings a wealth of experience and undeniable authority to Creative Workplaces, and I’m certain her leadership will result in tangible improvements for Australian artists and arts workers.”

FRIDAY AUGUST 11

• The full program schedule for BIGSOUND 2023 has been released, alongside the news that more than 50 new speakers were added to the conference lineup. See all the info here.

• It’s a huge day for Naarm/Melbourne-based Wiradjuri artist YNG Martyr: not only has he just launched his debut album Lovesick, but he’s also announcing – exclusively here on The Music – that he’s signed to Dew Process Publishing. Read our full story on the news here.

• ARIA (the Australian Recording Industry Association) and PPCA (the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia) have jointly announced the figures appointed to the inaugural Centre for Creative Workplaces Council. The board will be led by chairperson Kate Jenkins (a former Sex Discrimination Commissioner) and is rounded out by Tina Lavranos (an executive director at DarkLab), Michel Hryce (director of people and culture at the Michael Cassel Group), Tony Ayres (a writer, director and producer), Ruth Hazleton (a singer, musician and songwriter), Fiona Donovan (a production designer) and Bjorn Stewart (an actor, writer and director). In a press statement, ARIA and PPCA CEO Annabelle Herd said: “It is encouraging to see progress since the passing of the Creative Australia legislation in June, but the best announcements and intentions are nothing without robust execution. We cannot afford to get this wrong. We look forward to an announcement on the Council for Music Australia in the near future and look forward to working closely with both Councils to tackle the huge challenge faced by local music and to secure our talented artists the global fame they deserve. We can absolutely achieve this with the right investment and strategic support, but we need to be ambitious and execute well.”

• Rest in peace Elaine Counihan, a legendary figure in the Kaurna/Adelaide music scene throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Best known to the locals as Lady Larges, she – in tandem with her late husband Jim – ran shows at such iconic venues as the Largs Pier, The Arkaba, The Bridgeway, The Shandon Hotel and the Adelaide Unibar.

THURSDAY AUGUST 10

• Huge congrats are in order for Nova 100 presenter Ben Harvey, who announced the birth of his son Freddie James on-air earlier this week. Sharing the news with co-hosts Liam Stapleton and Belle Jackson, he said (via Mediaweek), “He’s amazing. He is just so special. The words like you can’t describe it. You can’t describe it until you’ve got him in your arms. And then you’re like, don’t believe that you’ve made this little human in the world. But it’s just so it’s so fresh. We came home last night. So we wanted to leave the hospital as soon as we could. We didn’t want to share room. So we left the hospital 13 hours after he was born. And we came home last night. And he was so weird being at home, with our pets. In our own bed, and we’ve had a baby.”

• The ABC have discontinued all of their in-house Twitter accounts, including those representing triple j – head here to read all about it.

• ARIA took to the halls of Parliament yesterday, taking Genesis Owusu and Jack River to meet with treasurer Jim Chalmers to “talk about how artists operate as a business and take huge risks to export great Australian music to the world” (per the org’s LinkedIn).

• Australian music industry stalwarts Nick Yates and Gerry Bull have joined forces to launch a new wide-ranging music company, HOW GOOD. Head here to read the full story.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 9

• Genre-bending Butchulla songman Fred Leone has announced his return to Sony Music Publishing “after many negotiations and back and forth”. He wrote in a statement shared on Facebook, “This has been a journey that started when I was 17. It’s been a long and often lonely path but one full of great memories including this one. As an outlet for my thoughts, experiences and emotions music has been the one constant in my life. Tearing up writing this as it does feel very surreal! Long story short, don’t stop dreaming, don’t stop the grind, make the art you love, stay the course, find your lane, and fucking never give up!” Leone is currently touring the country in support of his debut single, Yirimi Gundir, with shows to come in Darwin, Lorne, Melbourne, Hervey Bay, Eumundi and Brisbane – see all the details here.

• The Music Writer’s Lab will return to BIGSOUND for 2023. All the details on how to apply can be found here.

• Last week saw Warner Music host a global crossover event between it’s Australian, UK and Irish divisions. The joint showcase went down at Soho in London, welcoming a horde of the cities label representatives, press, partners and brands. Warner Music Australia was repped with performances from Pania and Day1 – see footage from the night here.

• Sheppard have announced a two-week residency at Warner Bros. Movie World on the Gold Coast, where they’ll perform daily from Friday September 15 to Monday October 2 (covering the full stretch of the upcoming school holidays). ���We never feel more at home than we do on the stage,” Emma Sheppard said in a statement, “and to be part of something so fun and magical at Warner Bros. Movie World is an amazing opportunity. We can’t wait to be part of the fun, play our favourite songs in the Queensland sunshine and bring the good vibes!” Following the stint, the family band will relocate from Brisbane to Nashville. Read more about that here.

• Spotify’s AI-driven “DJ” feature has officially launched in Australia. Head here to read all about it.

• Naarm/Melbourne’s Empire Music Studios have officially opened Studio A – their “flagship recording studio and live recording venue”, according to Paul Higgins (the studio’s managing director) – described as “a multi-purpose space with a stage and full in-house production along with a 64[-channel] hybrid console and a Yamaha C7X grand piano”. The studio is now open for bookings, and the first album being tracked there is the upcoming effort by Joe Camilleri & The Black Sorrows. Higgins wrote on LinkedIn that Studio A is “perfect for all large ensembles, orchestra, choir and much more”.

• Applications are open for the 2024 APRA Professional Development Awards, through which 12 winners will receive grants of $10,000. Included are three awards presented in partnership with the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music Office (NATSIMO) – the general NATSIMO Professional Development Award, the NATSIMO Youth Professional Development Award for creatives under 25 years old, and the NATSIMO Senior Professional Development Award for creatives over 50. In a press statement, Chris O’Neill (APRA AMCOS’ Director of Creative Programs and Stakeholder Engagement) said: “The PDAs are a part of APRA AMCOS and NATSIMO’s ongoing commitment to support Australian music creators throughout every stage of their career and help to build a strong foundation for the future of our creative industry.” Head here to apply.

• Farewell to Sarah Martin, who wraps up as publicist for famed Kaurna/Adelaide venue The Gov today. We’re wishing you the best of luck in all your future endeavours!

TUESDAY AUGUST 8

• ICYMI: this year’s BIGSOUND program is shaping up to be one of the biggest and best thus far, with its third speaker announcement sporting the likes Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda, Christine Anu, Ziggy Ramo, Camp Cope’s Georgia Maq, Kate Miller-Heidke, Anna Lunoe, Gordi and Bluey composer Joff Bush. See the full lineup here.

• Yothu Yindi will be inducted into the National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMA) Hall Of Fame at this year’s ceremony, which is taking place this Saturday (August 12) at the Darwin Amphitheatre. See the full story here.

• triple j have announced Abby Butler and Tyrone Pynor as the hew hosts of the daily Drive program, taking over from Lewis Hobba and Michael Hing this Friday (August 11). "As a former 14-year-old who once called into triple j to win bongos signed by San Cisco, it's honestly surreal to be taking over Drive,” Butler said in a press statement. “Doing it alongside Tyrone, who happens to be a radio star and one of my favourite people, is the best cherry on top.” Echoing the sentiment, Pynor added: “If you had told me three years ago that I would be hosting Drive on triple j, I would have screamed in your face! I'm excited for so many reasons, and teaming up with Abby for the Drive slot reminds me that this journey is bigger than just me. Winter is coming... or whatever that Lord Of The Rings quote is.” See the full story here.

• YouTube has launched a new campaign called FIFTY DEEP to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, showing off an archive of 2,000 music videos across a suite of bespoke playlists. Launching this Friday (August 11), the campaign will feature several other digital installations, such as a live stream of Hip Hop 50 – a concert featuring performances from artists like Run DMC, Lil Wayne, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Lil’ Kim, Cam’ron, Common, Fat Joe and Ghostface Killah – beamed directly from Yankee Stadium. Head here for more info on FIFTY DEEP.

• As reported by Digital Music News, Spotify seems to have dropped the ball with its latest Android update, with many users claiming the app either crashes randomly or doesn’t open at all.

• Congratulations to Marihuzka Cornelius, who joins Island Records Australia as its new head of A&R. She’d previously worked as an A&R director at Ivy League Records, where she launched the careers of national favourites like The Teskey Brothers and Mia Wray. In a statement shared by The Music Network, Island Australia’s managing director, Nicole Richards, said that “Marihuzka’s passion for making great music, coupled with her incredible track record of signings and success, has earned her a formidable reputation”.

MONDAY AUGUST 7

• Thoughts are with The Angels and Gangajang legend Graham “Buzz” Bidstrup, who is in hospital for a knee replacement. All the best, Buzz!

• UNIFIED Music Group founder and CEO Jaddan Comerford is among a group of entrepreneurs joining Side Stage Ventures – a “founder-led venture capital fund that backs the top one percent of founders in Australia at the earliest stage” – to launch a $15 million fund to support promising businesses at the Seed stage. According to a press release, the first fund has already backed “three fast-growing startups in health, generative AI and HR”. Head here for more info on Side Stage Ventures.

• Things Of Stone And Wood frontman Greg Arnold is launching his solo album with shows in the UK and Europe this October. See here for all the dates and details.

• Emma Donovan is wrapping up work on her next album in Naarm/Melbourne this week. It’ll mark the follow-up to Under These Streets – her third album with The Putbacks – which arrived in September of 2021.

• Emily Wurramara stars in the first episode of a new YouTube series called Rich Blak Women, talking about her success and “secrets to financial empowerment”. Released today by the First Nations Foundation, you can watch the video here.

• Sydney startup Oh! Jazz has signed a deal with Singapore’s EazieTV to broadcast a 24-hour jazz channel based around their live music content.

• Congratulations to Luke O’Shea, who conquered the 62km Jatbula Trail at the top end of Jawoyn country. Six days of walking, what an incredible feat!

FRIDAY AUGUST 4

• Amazon Music and Bandsintown have partnered to offer merch integration services through Bandsintown For Artists, which some 590,000 acts have signed up for thus far. “Merchandise and touring are uniquely intertwined,” Sean McMullan (director of artist services for Amazon Music) said in a statement, “and we’re making it easier than ever for artists and fans to connect.” Fabrice Sergent, Bandsintown’s co-founder and managing partner, added: “Merch is an opportunity to demonstrate fandom and a critical source of revenue at times when touring costs are rising. We’re proud to come together with Amazon Music to further our mutual goals of helping artists and their fans.”

• LUUDE’s remix of Down Under by Men At Work (which features Colin Hay himself) has made it to a quarter of a billion streams on Spotify. “I made this remix for fun to play at clubs in Australia,” the artist wrote on Facebook, “and it ended up changing my life [and] getting mad reactions all over the world[. I] can’t wait for the future, cheers legends.”

• Beatport will be increasing prices across the board on Monday August 14, bringing general catalogue titles to $2.09 apiece. New release tracks will cost listeners $2.29, while exclusives will run at $3.09. The add-on lossless fee has also raised to $0.80 apiece. It’s the digital audio merchant’s first price hike since 2005 – as the company explained in a statement on its website, “Recent economic factors have significantly increased costs for both Beatport and the community of tens of thousands of artists and labels that provide us with music from around the world. This price increase has been made in consultation with them, and will provide them with a much needed boost in revenue, as well as enable Beatport to invest in improving customer experience.”

• Big ups to Molly Millington, who announced today that she’s signed to the Nettwerk Music Group. The news comes as she releases her new single Foreign Accent, which she said in a press release is “about doing things you usually wouldn’t purely because the ways it’s presented is not what you’re used to”.

THURSDAY AUGUST 3

• UK-based industry professional Christine Osazuwa, founder of the virtual Measure Of Music conference and CEO of Shoobs (“a Y Combinator ticketing, live music and marketing startup focused on Black music and culture”) has launched an anonymous survey to gather data on the salaries made by the UK’s music industry figures. She wrote on LinkedIn: “A few weeks ago, I got together with a few others execs to discuss concrete and actionable ways to help the industry given the lack of a union for music execs. Top of that list was salary transparency. We all believed it was time to make money conversations more open and honest.”

• Big ups to Taylor Swift, who reportedly gifted a $100,000 USD ($152,813 AUD) bonus to the truck drivers working the North American leg of her Eras tour (which is heading to Australia next February).

• The Fader reports that Meta has (allegedly) developed an AI-based platform that can make music out of text prompts.  We wonder what this column sounds like (aside from awesome).

• The annual Adelaide Festival has received a $2.3 million funding boost from the South Australian government (via the state’s Major Events Fund), aiming to enhance its live music offerings over its 2024, ’25 and ’26 editions. “This festival enjoys a high-quality international reputation,” said premier Peter Malinauskas (per ABC News). “It is the Adelaide Festival that is the pre-eminent arts and cultural festival in our nation. But if we want to ensure that lasts into the future we have to choose to invest more resources to operate in this competitive environment.”

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 2

• SiriusXM have reported a six percent increase in profits for the second quarter of 2023, raking in $310 million USD ($469 million AUD) for a total of $2.25 billion ($3.4 billion) revenue. It comes amid jobs and office spaces are cut across the company, which is gearing up to launch a “next-generation platform” in the coming months. Little is known about that, however industry experts are predicting it will be a streaming service in the vein of Spotify and the like.

• According to a new study from TuneCore (via Music Business Worldwide), artificial intelligence is in an “early and rapid adoption phase” insofar as the technology pertains to its use as a creative tool. Independent artists seem to be the most onboard, with 27 percent of 1,600 surveyed saying they’ve used AI at least once in their careers thus far. 35 percent of those identified themselves as pop artists, while 29 percent were hip-hop artists, another 29 percent were rock artists, and 26 percent were electronic artists. 57 percent of them used AI to create artwork for their releases, 37 percent said they used it for promotional means, and 20 percent said they used it to connect with listeners. 50 percent of all respondents to the survey said they had a positive outlook on AI and its potential, while 39 percent were skeptical of its benefits.

• APRA AMCOS have detailed High Score, a “hybrid in-person and livestreamed conference” being held across Saturday September 30 and Sunday October 1 as part of this year’s Melbourne International Games Week program. Among those featured at the event will be Japanese composer Yoko Shimomura (whose credits include games like Street Fighter II, Super Mario RPG, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XV) and South Australian stalwart Christopher Larkin (Hollow Knight, TOHU, Outfolded). “High Score is a great conference for game music and audio artists. It brings together the community of both beginner and experienced and I'm looking forward to giving a talk at this year's event. I encourage anyone with interest in developing their skills to come along and meet others in the field," Larkin said in a press release. See here for more info on High Score.

• William Barton has been announced as the latest recipient of the illustrious Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music, which he’ll receive at the 2023 Art Music Awards later this month.  Head here for our full story on the news.

• triple j have unveiled the finalists for this year’s edition of its Unearthed High contest: Elianie from Boorloo/Perth, Ixaras from Meanjin/Brisbane, and both Lotte Gallagher and REDD from Naarm/Melbourne. In a statement, triple j Unearthed music director Dave Ruby Howe said: "As unpredictable as the music industry and life, in general, has been lately, we can always rely on our annual Unearthed High search to produce a stunning collection of artists making diverse and exciting sounds. That's rung true again in 2023. It's never easy to pick just five acts, but we reckon this graduating class of high achievers includes the artists we'll be hearing, watching play and obsessing over next.” Head here to read more about the Unearthed High class of 2023.

TUESDAY AUGUST 1

• Live Nation have reported their best-ever second-quarter earnings, up 27 percent year-on-year to reach a record-breaking $5.63 billion USD ($8.38 billion AUD). The figure is attributed mostly to concert earnings ($4.63 billion, or $6.89 billion AUD), which soared 28 percent, while ticketing revenues grew by 23 percent to account for $709.3 million ($1.055 billion) and operating profit grew by 21 percent to account for $386 million ($574.6 million). "Live music is bigger than ever,�� Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino said in a statement, “with global demand driving the industry to record levels. There’s a more diverse pipeline of artists breaking from all corners of the world, and at the same time tours are going to more markets – particularly in Latin America and Asia. This was our strongest second quarter ever, with 2023 on pace to be a record year, and early indicators for 2024 giving us confidence in continued growth.”

• TikTok has become one of the biggest platforms for up-and-coming artists looking to catch a break – but according to Meta, those artists might want to consider posting Reels as well. As CEO Mark Zuckerberg told analysts in a recent earnings call for the company, Reels are being played more than 200 billion times per day across Facebook and Instagram – a solid boost up from last year’s numbers of 140 billion a day. We're seeing good progress on Reels monetisation as well,” Zuckerberg said, “with the annual revenue run-rate across our apps now exceeding $10 billion [USD, $14.9 billion AUD], up from $3 billion [$4.47 billion] last fall.”

• Travis Scott has set a new streaming record for Spotify, with his latest LP Utopia being the most-streamed album in a single day last Friday (July 28, the same day it was released). All 19 of the album’s songs made it into Spotify’s US Top 20 chart, led by the track MELTDOWN. At the time of writing, K-POP is the album’s most popular song on Spotify with more than 53.5 million streams.

• Controversy sells in country music, as Jason Aldean has reminded us with his latest single Try That In A Small Town. The subjectively problematic song – the controversy around which has been blamed on so-called “cancel culture” – has topped Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart, while another once-controversial figure, Morgan Wallen, came in at #2 with his song Last Night. This week’s chart also marks the first time ever that all three of the top spots were taken out by country songs, with Taylor Swift’s rerecorded version of All Too Well ranked at #3. At this rate, there’s a good chance Aldean might have the biggest country hit of the year on his hands – something discussed in more depth over on Countrytown.

• Kylie Minogue has announced her first-ever US residency, running over some three months – from this November to next January – as the inaugural headliner of new Las Vegas club night Voltaire. Hosted at The Venetian Resort, president and CEO Patrick Nichols said in a statement: “Everything about Kylie reflects the essence of Voltaire. Her music is fun. Her spirit is absolutely infectious. And she’s at the top of her game, which makes this a truly special moment for fans to connect in such an intimate environment.” The Padam Padam singer will deliver a show tailor-made for the venue, too, as she noted in her own statement, “The creative team has designed an environment where people can get up and dance at their tables and revel in the night. That’s what Voltaire is and I can’t wait to perform in this intimate and exciting setting.”