The FYI News Bulletin
Copyright owners are cheering a Federal Court blocking order against pirate IPTV service GoldTV.
By David Farrell
Copyright owners are cheering a Federal Court blocking order against pirate IPTV service GoldTV. Details of the ruling can be found Cassels’ website. It’s not the first time a takedown order against a Canadian website has been successful, however. In 2013, the Motion Picture Assoc. of America successfully shut down Vancouver resident Gary Fung’s BitTorrent downloading website isoHunt and had him pay a US$110M fine to settle with the MPAA.
– The Canadian Folk Music Awards is taking applications for jurists, with a deadline of July 7. Info and application form, @: folkawards.ca/jurors.
– Linus Entertainment and Toronto-based music company Popguru Sound & Vision Ltd. have signed a global exclusive licensing deal for future and back catalogue releases being marketed and distributed by Linus, and includes music from The Confidence Emperors and Popguru label imprints. The first release under the new arrangement will be Trini-Canadian author and hip-hop artist John Orpheus’s album Saga King. Earlier this year, Penguin Random House launched his book of memoirs entitled Saga Boy under his birth name of Antonio Michael Downing. There will be new albums to follow from The Wilderness of Manitoba and Martha and the Muffins.
– Canadian Live Music Assoc. CEO Erin Benjamintells The Globe and Mail that Ontario’s continued prohibition on indoor live-streaming with no audience and safety protocols in place is “a mystery” to concert venues and musicians. “It’s extremely unfortunate that the government has not been able to work with us to allow live-streaming, at the very least, in Step 1.”
– The SOCAN Foundation has allocated a total of $250,000, which will be available for distribution to members, parcelled up in 850 grants of $300 each for professional skills' development. Applicants are encouraged to submit applications early. Once the funds are exhausted, the program will be closed in the portal. SOCAN members can learn more about the program by visiting www.socanfoundation.ca
– The Edmonton Folk Festival has entirely reinvented itself to fit the times. Normally staged in Gallagher Park, the 2021 edition is taking it to the city’s streets with 40+ concerts across the city in July and August. The series will launch on July 16 with concerts taking place each weekend at various yet-to-be selected locations when most covid restrictions are expected to be lifted in Alberta.
"We're looking forward to it, taking to the streets," festival producer Terry Wickham said in an interview with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM on Tuesday. Wickham said organizers plan to stage 12 concerts each weekend with travelling shows on the back of two flatbed trucks.
– Meantime, the Calgary Folk Music Festival has adapted to covid restrictions its “summer serenades,” a week-long outdoor concert series in July at Island Park with a lineup that includes Cowboy Junkies, The Jim Cuddy Band, Hawksley Workman, The Halluci Nation and Shad, DJ Skratch Bastid, Whitehorse, William Prince, Terra Lightfoot, Tom Wilson and iskwe, Julian Taylor, Pharis & Jason Romero, Moscow Apartment, and Lido Pimienta. Capacity will be limited to 15 percent of usual attendance, or 1,500 per night, according to Calgary Herald scribbler Eric Volmer.
– Live Nation has quickly added a 2nd show for youthful, multiple Grammy-winning Brit sensation Jacob Collier’s single date stand next May 10 at History in Toronto. The new batch of tickets goes on sale this week. An earlier announcement had the multi-genre musician-composer headlining The Danforth Music Hall before a lockdown squelched that. Demand has pushed him to a venue with almost twice the capacity.
– Live Nation is also touting a 40th anniversary OMD tour that touches down at Toronto’s History and Stanley Park, Vancouver’s Malkin Bowl on May 30 and 20 respectively. In addition, the band will be performing in a fee-based livestream with all the money to be shared with OMD’s touring crew that has been furloughed since Feb. 2020.
– CMW and RBC’s Emerging Artist Project co-sponsor an online webinar about using ShineX software to track your SiriusXM royalties, hosted by its guru developer Guillaume Drouin on June 22 at 2 pm ET. Further details and Zoom registration here.
– Research conducted by the Royal Conservatory of Music resident neuroscientist Dr. Sean Hutchins seems to conclusively demonstrate that remote teaching and exams has supported music students during the pandemic – and will continue to do so well into the future.
– The US Copyright Royalty Board has increased the royalty for subscription webcasters from 0.24 cents to 0.26 cents per play, and for free, ad-supported services from 0.18 cents to 0.21 cents.
– The UK festival industry is in tatters, and now organizers are pressing for government-backed insurance to ensure they can survive another lost season. Festival businesses have spent an average of C$592K on surviving up to this point, according to figures reported by the NME. On Monday, Westminster pushed back restrictions on live music by another month due to the rapid spread of the Delta covid strain.
–Primus embarks on a Rush tribute tour this summer with a show that has the American funk metal band performing the Canadian trio's 1977 album A Farewell to Kings in its entirety. Below, almost a decade ago, Primus's Les Claypool showing his respects.
