Music Biz Headlines, Aug. 5, 2021
A documentary on Oscar Peterson (pictured) will premiere at TIFF, Holger Petersen is profiled, and bandmates seek to help Michael Kovrig. Also in the headlines are Ontario Place, Halifax Jazz Festival, Warner Music Group, Sony Music, The Offspring, DaBaby, Billie Eilish, Specialty Records, Newport Jazz, Tom Morello, and gospel music.
By Kerry Doole
Oscar Peterson documentary will premiere at TIFF
Black + White, the Barry Avrich-directed feature-length documentary about the iconic jazz pianist, on Wednesday set its world premiere for this year’s Toronto Film Festival TIFF Docs lineup. A trailer for the feature-length “docu-concert” ahead of that September 12 bow is coming. – Patrick Hipes, Deadline
Digging up roots: Holger Petersen has weathered 50 years in the Canadian music business
Back in the '70s, starting a record label in Canada wasn’t a road to fame or fortune. But Petersen didn’t care about any of that when he launched Stony Plain Records in 1976 with a focus on blues and roots music, two genres not tearing up the charts. – Financial Post Magazine
‘Hold on, please, we’re gonna get you home’
Last month, Michael Kovrig’s former punk bandmates put out a song calling on all the governments involved to work toward his and Mr. Spavor’s release from detention in China. – James Griffith, Globe and Mail
Halifax Jazz Festival’s live shows are just the summer fun we need
Local favourites like Asia & Nu Gruv perform at Grand Parade Aug 5-8. – Morgan Mullin, The Coast
Ontario Place is going private – and that’s a problem
Ontario Place will no longer be a public place. The Ontario government’s Friday announcements made that clear. The provincially owned park, created in 1968, will soon be two-thirds privatized. Nobody knows what this will cost taxpayers – but be sure it’ll cost dearly to visit any of the new amenities. – Alex Bozikovoc, Globe and Mail
International
Warner made $192M YOY from streaming in calendar Q2
Warner Music Group just reported quarterly recorded music revenues of over a billion dollars for the third straight quarter. WMG’s fiscal results for the three months to end of June (its fiscal Q3, but calendar Q2), reveal that the company’s quarterly recorded music revenues – including streaming, digital and physical sales, plus ancillary income – hit $1.152B, up 34% year-on-year (or 27.6% in constant currency). – Murray Stassen, MBW
Sony's recorded music revenues jumped by$451M YOY in Calendar Q2
Sony Music’s quarterly recorded music revenues rose by 48.2% year-on-year in calendar Q2 2021 (the three months to end of June). They were up by a massive USD $451M versus the same period in 2020. This increase came off the back of an uncharacteristically soft quarter for Sony in calendar Q2 2020, when – hit by the effects of the pandemic – it turned over $936 million from recorded music. – Tim Ingham, MBW
What would it take to decentralize the music industry?
Blockchain and decentralized technology is at a crossroads. It, along with related tech like cryptocurrencies and NFTs, has matured dramatically. Yet music blockchain companies have struggled to succeed, even as they promise (and occasionally deliver) real creativity and efficiency in areas where the music industry desperately needs it. – Music Business Worldwide
Drummer Pete Parada dropped from The Offspring for refusing Covid-19 vaccine
Parada announced Tuesday that he's been dropped from the American rock band over his failure to receive the Covid vaccine. "I've got some unfortunate and difficult news to share," Parada, 48, wrote in a statement posted to Instagram. "Since I am unable to comply with what is increasingly becoming an industry mandate, it has recently been decided that I am unsafe to be around, in the studio, and on tour." – Cydney Henderson, USA Today
DaBaby booted from Lollapalooza after homophobic comments at festival
DaBaby was cut Aug. 1 from Lollapalooza's closing lineup following crude and homophobic remarks he made last week at a Miami-area music festival. The Grammy-nominated artist, whose name is Jonathan Kirk, had been scheduled as a closing act on the final night of the four-day music festival in downtown Chicago. NYC's Governors Ball also dumped him. – AP
Review: Billie Eilish remains brilliant with sophomore album
Few people do complicated like Eilish and “Happier Than Ever” is a fascinating look at a messy, famous pop star’s life, as diaristic as Taylor Swift but more self-critical and emotionally candid. It’s a superb album, ambitious and mature — a young woman pulling the fire alarm while we all stare at the flames.– Mark Kennedy, CP
Did Nazis change the universal music pitch to use against their enemies?
A popular meme on social media makes a series of allegations about the musical tune pitch A=432Hz and A=440Hz, including that the latter was a standard imposed by the Nazis to manipulate their enemies. Multiple experts discussed these allegations with Reuters. – Jerusalem Post
Specialty Records turns 75
The story of Specialty Records, the most influential label of all time: “Songs never die” As it celebrates its 75th anniversary with a new compilation, Jordan Bassett explores the imprint that gave us Little Richard – and therefore The Beatles, Prince, David Bowie and so much more. – NME
Thom Yorke and Björk among singers with biggest vocabularies, new study finds
A new study has found that Thom Yorke, Björk and Lorde are among the singers with the biggest vocabularies, based on the number of different words they use in each song per 1,000. The likes of Billie Eilish, Lorde and Harry Styles also came out on top. – Jasmine Kent-Smith, Crack
Newport Jazz 2021: Day 1
The iconic event, slightly modified, returns to Fort Adams. – Mac Randall, JazzTimes
Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello covers AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” with Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Vedder
The Atlas Underground Fire features Phantogram, Chris Stapleton, Damian Marley, Mike Posner, and more. – Matthew Strauss, Pitchfork
Gospel music guide- all you need to know
Gospel music: what it is, how it evolved and some of the best gospel performers to listen to. As gloriously varied as it is hugely popular, gospel music is here to stay. Composer and conductor Ken Burton traces the genre’s history to its genesis. – BBC Music Magazine
