| CMU Daily - on the inside 6 Aug 2003 |
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In today's CMU Daily:
• Indies responsible for 40% of platinum
• Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg and Warren G back
• Pernice brothers on tour
• Police reckon shootings linked to attempts to murder Knight
• Sony signs catalogue to Streamwaves service
• MTV vma
• Louie Austen tonight at 93 feet east
• UK major revamp cd single pricing
• Dark side of the DVD
• New Sting album
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INDIES RESPONSIBLE FOR 40% OF PLATINUM
An analysis of platinum, gold and silver awards by the Association of Independent Music yesterday provided good news for the independent sectors – over a quarter of the original artist albums that went platinum last year were on independent labels. Other stats in the survey:
The study of sales of new albums by UK artists in 2002 reveals: 5 out of 13 (38.5%) UK artists who reached platinum status were UK indie signed. Thelabels were: Infectious (Ash – 'Free All Angels'), Mushroom (Muse – 'Origin Of Symmetry'), Wildstar (Craig David – 'Slicker Than Your Average'), V2 (Liberty X – 'Thinking It Over'), and Brighton's own Skint Records ('Fatboy Slim - Halfway Between Heaven & The Stars').
9 out of 29 (31%) UK artists who reached gold status were UK indie signed. The labels were: V2 (Elbow – 'Asleep In The Back'), XL (White Stripes – 'White Blood Cells'), XL/Twisted Nerve (Badly Drawn Boy – 'About A Boy' and 'Have You Fed The Fish?'), Visible Noise (Lostprophets – 'Fake Sound Of Progress'), Independiente (Paul Weller - 'Illumination'), Infectious (Ash – 'Intergalactic Sonic Sevens'), Echo (Feeder - 'Comfort In Sound'), Jazzee Blue ('Chris Rea - Dancing Down The Stoney Road')
8 out of 24 (33.3%) of UK artists who reached for silver status were UK indie signed. The labels were: Sanctuary (Alison Moyet - 'Hometime'), Rulin' (Jakatta - 'Visions'), XL (Lemon Jelly - 'Lemonjelly. KY' and 'Lost Horizons'), Mushroom (Muse - 'Hullabaloo'), Perfecto (Paul Oakenfold - 'Bunkka') and the mighty mighty Ninja Tune and Big Dada (Mr Scruff – 'Keep It Unreal', Roots Manuva - 'Run Come Save Me' respectively).
Corporate-extruded pop like Will Young and Gareth Gates will continue to dominate the multi-platinum categories, but even here there were considerable victories for some indies: V2 and Independiente had notable multi-platinum sales for Stereophonics ('Just Enough Education To Perform' 5 x platinum = 1,500,000) and Travis ('The Invisible Band' 4 x platinum = 1,200,000 units).
One American site sounded surprised as it reported the story saying: "Against a backdrop of a 21.5% share of the album market in 2002, the statistics prove the UK indies' prowess at breaking new British music, and the importance of the sector to the British music industry." We know.
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SNOOP DOGG, NATE DOGG AND WARREN G BACK
It may have taken 12 years, but Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg and Warren G, who named their '213' trio after the Long Beach area code more than a decade ago, are set to release their first album in Nov.
Snoop said: "We've been in the laboratory doing real good music, so we should have a single for y'all maybe in about three weeks, maybe a month. I'm just trying to put together the best record to represent 213, since we never came with a record before, nobody never really heard us as a group. We're really getting each others' back on every record. It makes the job that much easier and more like team ball. I play team ball better anyways."
The trio are recording with the Neptunes, along with many of the same producers behind Snoop's recent 'Paid Tha Cost to be Da Boss'.
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PERNICE BROTHERS ON TOUR
The Pernice Brothers - who formed six years ago in Northampton after the break up of the Joe Pernice' alt-country band, Scud Mountain Boys – will be touring this Aug.
The dates are:
8 Aug: Hanbury Ballroom, Brighton
10 Aug: Leicester Summer Sundae Festival
11 Aug: Sheffield Broadwalk
12 Aug: Glasgow King Tuts
13 Aug: Manchester Academy 3
14 Aug: London The Borderline
15 Aug: Cardiff Barfly
16 Aug: Dublin Whelans
Press Contact: Michelle at One Little Indian
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POLICE RECKON SHOOTINGS LINKED TO ATTEMPTS TO MURDER KNIGHT
A series of shootings involving friends and associates of Tha Row Records boss Suge Knight have been linked to attempts to kill the rap mogul himself by police officers according to reports in the LA Times.
The police have been investigating the shooting of Suge associate Wardell "Poochie" Fouse last month, as well as a string of other shootings within Knight's network of friends. They now suspect that at least three of the shootings were ordered or carried out by two gang members who have a feud with Knight, and they reckon Suge himself may have been the actual target.
Knight himself, who has just started a 10 month prison sentence after breaking his parole conditions, is reported to have said he does not believe anyone is running a proactive campaign to have him murdered.
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SONY SIGNS CATALOGUE TO STREAMWAVES SERVICE
Sony have signed a deal with Streamwaves, a Dallas-based digital streaming media company, making their music available on a non-exclusive basis to Streamwaves subscribers.
Streamwaves Vice President Technology Sean Catlett said: "With the addition of Sony Music Entertainment's vast catalogue of songs, Streamwaves will be the first browser-based service to offer all fivemajor labels. This not only expands the content at streamwaves.com, but combined with our all-digital content delivery system, the service is able to offer a wider range of music to its customers faster than ever before."
Phil Wiser of SME said: "Sony Music Entertainment is proving its commitment to online musicby making our digital catalog available through a wide variety of legal services. Consumers need choices in the legal marketplace, and we are pleased to add Streamwaves to the dozens of services that offer our artists' music."
Streamwaves was the first Internet company to build a streaming subscription engine and to launch a subscription service with major label content. Its current service offers CD quality sound and the ability to select music on-demand to anyone with a Web browser.
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MTV VMA
Who's going to be there?
Performing; 50 Cent, Good Charlotte, Coldplay and Christina Aguilera.
Presenting: Puffy (P Diddy), Kelly Clarkson, Ashanti and Tony Hawk, Hilary Duff, Ludacris, Bam Margera, Redman, Evanescence, David Spade, Snoop Dogg, young NBA sensation LeBron James, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olse.
The 2003 MTV Video Music Awards will be held on 28 Aug in New York.
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LOUIE AUSTEN TONIGHT AT 93 FEET EAST
German label, Kitty Yo signee, Louie Austen will be performing live tonight at 93ft East, BrickLane, alongside Plej, with Spoilt Pussy: Gillian Pittaway & guest DJs
Austen will be on stage at 9:45 pm
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MAJOR REVAMPS CD SINGLE PRICING
EMI yesterday announced it would be launching a new CD single pricing structure in the UK next month in a bid to tackle the sliding singles market.
Most single releases will now be available as a two track CD single for £1.99, which a special edition version featuring extra content often available for £2.99. Releases by the biggest names will continue to retail at £3.99. The label also plans to simplify CD pricing by ending the practice of discounting CD singles in the first week of release (a marketing trick used to push early sales in order to achieve a high chart entry).
Talking to Music Week EMI chairman Tony Wadsworth said he hoped the move would make lives easier for record buyers, recognising that: "There is confusion among consumers about pricing. They see singles at £1.99, £2.99 and £3.99 and don't know why."
HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo reacted positively to the news telling the BBC: "We're hoping that this now acts as a trigger for other record companies to start putting forward their own initiatives."
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DARK SIDE OF THE DVD
Eagle Vision has gone to great lengths to bring Pink Floyd's seminal 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' LP (which spent a record number of weeks in the Billboard charts, 741) to DVD, which will see shop-shelves on 26 Aug.
Recorded in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound 'The Dark Side Of The Moon: Classic Album DVD' takes a track by track look at the album and includes extended interviews with band members Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright as well as original engineer Alan Parsons. Bonus DVD footage also contains an acoustic version of Waters performing 'Brain Damage' and Gilmour's unplugged 'Breathe'.
The running time is 92 minutes, with 49 minutes of main program, and 43 minutes of bonus footage.
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NEW STING ALBUM
'Sacred Love', Sting's tenth studio album and his first in over 4 years, will be released on A&M Records on 22 Sep.
The new ten-tracker was written throughout 2003 and recorded in Paris. Produced by Kipper and Sting, the album features various members of Sting's musical family: Kipper, guitarist Dominic Miller, keyboardist Jason Rebello, trumpeter Chris Botti and drummers Manu Katche and Vinnie Colaiuta. Sacred Love also features special guest appearances from Mary J. Blige ('Whenever I Say Your Name') and Anoushka Shankar ('The Book Of My Life') and will be preceded by the album's first single, 'Send Your Love', on 15 Sep.
The full track listing for Sacred Love is: 'Inside', 'Send Your Love', 'Whenever I Say Your Name', 'Dead Man's Rope', 'Never Coming Home', 'Stolen Car', 'Lets Forget About The Future', 'This War', 'The Book Of My Life' and 'Sacred Love'
A DVD entitled 'Inside: The Songs of Sacred Love' will be released on 6 Oct and features Sting performing music from 'Sacred Love' for the first time. The performance was recorded live at the Mayan Theatre in LA earlier this summer.
Press Contact: RMP