business
Jessica Mauboy, Superstar Australian Pop Artist, Signs With Warner Music
Her performances on Idol landed Mauboy a contract with Sony Music Australia, her label home until now. “I have had an incredible journey with Sony, for which I will forever be grateful,” she remarks. “It’s now time for the next chapter of my career and I’m very excited to be joining the team at Warner Music. I have been spending my time in studio lately and looking forward to releasing new music in the new year”. Along the way, Mauboy has bagged a string of platinum-selling records, awards and movie roles. Mauboy appeared in the 2009 feature film Bran Nue Dae and turning heads with her starring performance in the 2012 feel-good flick The Sapphires, her soundtrack for which went to No. 1 in Australia. Along the way, she won the ARIA Award for female artist of the year, and she has...
Ticketmaster’s Arbitration Policy Again Enforced in Dispute Over Pandemic Refunds
Ticketmaster filed a motion to compel arbitration. It argued that Hansen, like anyone else who buys concert tickets through its site, agreed to its terms of use which contains an arbitration agreement. In September, both Ticketmaster and StubHub prevailed on similar motions in disputes brought by baseball fans. There, U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer found that the click-through agreements users interact with while signing into the site and buying tickets are sufficient to provide notice of the policy and constitute mutual assent to an arbitration agreement. That’s one of the arguments Hansen made here; he didn’t read the terms of use and was unaware it included an arbitration provision and therefore he couldn’t have assented. U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen isn’...
Police recruit 503 special constables in Nasarawa
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has engaged 503 Special Constables (SCP) for community policing in Nasarawa State, to enhance intelligence gathering in tackling insecurity and crime. Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) in charge of Zone 4, Mr. Jonah John, made the disclosure on Monday in Lafia, at a one-day sensitisation campaign on community policing in Nasarawa. According to him, 49 of the 503 recruited SCP have successfully undergone training and posted to their various communities in the state to serve. The AIG added that 454 of the recruited SCP were currently undergoing training at the police Zone 4 Headquarters in Makurdi, Benue State. Speaking at the event, Peter Yisa-Gana, Inspector-General of Police (IGP’s) Special Rapporteur on Community Policing for Nasarawa, Benue and P...
Reddit Acquires TikTok Competitor Dubsmash
“Both Reddit and Dubsmash share a deep-rooted respect for how communities come together,” said Reddit CEO Steve Huffman. “Dubsmash elevates underrepresented creators, while Reddit fosters a sense of community and belonging across thousands of different topics and passions. It’s clear that our missions closely align and that our community-focused platforms can coexist and grow as we learn from each other.” While Dubsmash launched as a creation tool for lip-synching videos in 2015, its founders retooled the offering two years later to add social media elements. It has since emerged as a strong competitor in the growing social video app market, which is dominated by TikTok (with 100 million monthly active U.S. users and 2 billion global downloads) but also include...
Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ Hits U.K. No. 1 For First Time
“All I Want” reaches the summit in its 104th week. According to the Official Charts Company, no other song in history has spent as many weeks in the U.K. Top 40 before eventually reaching No. 1. Another song that makes an annual pilgrimage up the U.K. chart but has never reached the top is Wham’s 1984 hit “Last Christmas” (RCA). This week, it’s at No. 2, agonizingly-close to creating its own piece of history. The Queen of Christmas leads a festive U.K. chart which features 23 holiday-themed songs in the Top 40, including six in the Top 10: The Pogues featuring Kirsty Maccoll’s “Fairytale Of New York” (up 8-4 via Warner Bros), Shakin’ Stevens’ “Merry Christmas Everyone” (14-6 via RCA), Michael Bublé’s “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas” (13-7 via Reprise), Band Aid’s “Do They Know...
AC/DC Hold Off Shawn Mendes For Australia’s Chart Crown
Also this week, Swift folklore vaults 5-3, thanks to the debut of her Disney Plus special and the rollout of its vinyl version, which sees the isolation recording rule the ARIA Vinyl Albums Chart. British indie heroes Arctic Monkeys bow at No. 4 with Live At The Royal Albert Hall, the followup to their chart-topping 2018 studio album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. The live compilation becomes the Sheffield band’s seventh top five ARIA album, including all six of their studio albums. Rounding out the Top 5 is Miley Cyrus’ Plastic Hearts, down 3-5, while Yungblud’s U.K. No. 1 Weird! starts at No. 6 in the land Down Under. Michael Buble spreads festive cheer on the ARIA Albums Chart with Christmas, up 14-7. It leads a list of holiday-themed albums climbing the chart, including...
Air passengers decry upsurge in fares, seek urgent attention to roads, railway
Nigerians, who travel by air, have decried the “sudden” upsurge in air fares and urged the Federal Government to intervene to avoid poor patronage that could dwindle the fortunes of the aviation industry. Newsmen report that the air fares shot up by about 100 per cent in the last one week, with some airline operators even raising their fares by as much as 120 per cent or more. At Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, the fare from Abuja to Lagos, which was N35,300 (Economy Class), rose to between N70,000 and N75,000. Newsmen found that Business Class travellers were charged between N100,000 and N120,000, depending on the airline. Our correspondents, who visited other airports across the country, found that the rise in airfares was the same, a situation that forced some passengers to...
Defying Pandemic Woes, Live Entertainment Giant OVG Showed New Growth in 2020
One company, however, has not only avoided layoffs completely but actually hired more than 50 executives in the last two months to assist with a growing portfolio of venues and development initiatives. The Oak View Group, founded by former AEG chief executive Tim Leiweke, has been a quiet but persistent force for prosperity and economic development during the pandemic. Launched in 2015 along with Leiweke’s partner Irving Azoff, OVG is overseeing $4.5 billion in arena development projects across the world, including in Austin, Texas. There, the company made its most recent high profile hire, announcing that Casey Sparks, who previously managed the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma for ASM Global for six years, was joining the company. Sparks will serve as vp of OVG Austin and assista...
Diego Toro Celebrates Two Years of Toro Music Group With Yotuel Romero Signing
Below, Toro elaborates on the company’s anniversary, growing success and plans for 2021. What was the biggest life lesson working at Sony that you walked away with? It is very difficult to mention a single teaching in a lifetime of experiences with music, songs, artists and colleagues. But the “opportunity” that Sony gave me to demonstrate with passion, to think “outside the box,” to believe that you can break schemes, trusting music production from the heart, and being loyal to your principles and values are an inspiring route that will always pay off. What inspired you to launch your own marketing and management company two years ago? In a company, you live the musical stages of the artists, the releases, campaigns, and strategies according to the season. But in managem...
How the Academy’s New Black Music Collective Is Dismantling the ‘Disconnect’ With Its Community
Butterfield Jones: We are also shifting our thoughts around to equity and inclusion — making sure that once you are part of the Recording Academy, you have the opportunity to break that ceiling and get into leadership roles within the academy. We want to get more folks into the room. But we also want to make sure there’s a pathway to leadership once they get in the door. Which goals can the BMC accomplish immediately, and which will be more long term? Butterfield Jones: The North Star is to earn the trust of the Black music community. Being able to move that needle in one year and have more Black representation in the room will be progress. I’m here because many different powerful Black women paved the way. We’re focused on making sure that people that look like us have a seat at the table...
The Rolling Stones Tap BMG for Global Neighboring Rights, Extend Publishing Deal
BMG has signed up The Rolling Stones to represent the band globally in pursuing collections of master recording performance rights royalties when their songs are played on radio and television, also known as neighboring rights. While in the U.S., master recording performance royalties are only paid when music is played on digital and satellite radio — and not when tracks play on terrestrial radio or TV — in most other countries those rights receive royalty payments for that kind of play in addition to digital. This signing gives a big boost to BMG’s neighboring rights service, launched only six months ago. “If you are in the business of selling services to artists and songwriters, these are the kinds of client you dream of attracting,” BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch said in ...
Minister: Industry, trade, investment key to economic diversification
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, says the sector is crucial in the drive toward diversification of the nation’s economy, away from being oil dominated. Adebayo spoke in Abuja at the Physical/Virtual 12th National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment meeting, with the theme “Revitalisation of the Industry, Trade and Investment Sector in Nigeria in the Post-COVID-19 pandemic era”. He explained the pivotal role of the ministry as a key actor in the economy with the mandate to stimulate domestic investment and attract foreign direct investment into all sectors. The minister said it was committed in facilitating trade in goods and services and maximising benefits of international trade through functional bilateral and multilateral trade relations. Acc...
