C'est Chic!  

Nile Rodgers Honored by The P&E Wing® of The Recording Academy®         

  

"I just wanted to be a jazz guy, playing club dates," said the 3X Grammy winner producer Nile Rodgers (David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Duran Duran and Madonna, Daft Punk) to peers who had gathered at  The Village studios in Santa Monica to salute the disco legend.  One of the most influential music producers in the history of popular music, Rodgers performed his familiar classics in a duet with Flea transforming the multiple studios at the Village into a big dance floor much like those you experience at family wedding or barmitzvah!   

Rogers hit single, "Le Freak" by his group Chic was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2014. 

The Producers & Engineers Wing® of The Recording Academy® celebrated its eighth annual GRAMMY Week event with music industry guests (below) honoring Rodgers with a music career spanning more than five decades.  Rogers is also an unprecedented philanthropist and founder of the We Are Family Foundation.  

Warner Bros. announced the label had signed Rodgers and his band Chic to a global deal through Land of the Good Groove, an imprint formed by Rodgers and Ostin. Rodgers' history with Warner Bros. goes back to 1984 and his production work on Madonna's Like A Virgin. The lead single from Chic's first album in more than 25 years comes out March 20 launching Rodger's UK tour "I'll be there". Warner Bros. will release the album in June 2015. 
Watch this fun Rodgers factoids
 

 

PlugIn To Audio Fantasy 

 

The roster of elite engineers and producers joining the PlugIn Alliance network is growing rapidly. GRAMMY Award winning mixing engineer, Craig Bauer (right) is among them. Click to read the full interview.  

 

 

Plugin Alliance CEO Matt Ward and Brainworx CEO Dirk Ulirch (above) hosted an event at Fantasy Studios in San Francisco last year where a number of pro guitarists came in to try out Brainworx's guitar emulation technology.  Producer John Cuniberti (Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar) and few Bay Area guitar slingers including Vic Johnson (Sammy Hagar), Micheal Lee Firkins, Chris Solberg (Eddie Money, Santana) and Tommy Odetto joined in.  While everyone loved the sound of the amp emulations one of the biggest thrills for Dirk was to be in the studio where his favorite band, Journey, recorded some of their biggest albums. For Matt, who grew up in Berkeley and had spent many days in the Saul Zaentz Film Center helping them with their transition to digital technology in the 1990s, it was more of a homecoming.    

studioexpresso spotlight on Fantasy here or contact Amanda Howell or Jeffrey Wood, studio directors at 510.486.2038.

 Earlier this year PlugIn Alliance interviewed twelve-time Grammy®-winning producer mixer and engineer  Rafa Sardina  (Calle 13, Placido Domingo, Lady Gaga) After Hours Studio...here    

 

 

 

 

For the latest info on ATCs contact  Brad Lunde at

TransAudio Group 702-365-5155

 ATC SCM20PSL Passive 2 Way Monitors in studio G, Brooklyn where Puss N Boots perform "Don't Know What It Means 

1973 WINS RESOLUTION AWARD  

Ivor Drawmer, veteran designer and manufacturer of boutique high-end audio processors, has earned a 2014 Resolution Award for the new Drawmer 1973 three-band stereo FET compressor. The Drawmer 1973 benefits from Ivor's deep, thirty-plus years of experience building best-in-class signal processors and is unique in its combination of three critical attributes: its controls are remarkably easy to use, its price is low, and its sound is, of course, beautifully musical. "The Drawmer 1973 multiband compressor is the kind of tool that mix and mastering engineers will find so useful they'll wonder how they ever got by without it," said Brad Lunde, president of TransAudio Group, Drawmer's U.S. distributor.  

 

    

Digital Entertainment Job Surge in California  

     

Youtube Space Los Angeles Headquarters above. Photo: by the C

 

A surge in digital entertainment jobs from new online shows on Amazon, YouTube and other new-media outlets has helped drive employment in Hollywood to the highest level in a decade. Some 8,000 new jobs were added to the motion picture and sound recording sector in Los Angeles County last year, according to state jobs data. The 6.5% growth from the previous year was three times higher than all private-sector jobs in the county.

Santa Monica-based Amazon Studios has several Web series filming locally, employing hundreds of crew members on such as shows as the detective series "Bosch" and "Transparent," about a dysfunctional Los Angeles family.   

A rosy picture is coming out despite the recent cuts from Warner Bros, Sony Pictures headquartered in Culver City and Glendale-based DreamWorks.

Netflix, Amazon, Yahoo, YouTube and other Internet giants have been expanding their entertainment offerings to grab some business from the traditional networks and cable channels.  

As consumer confidence improves, advertisers are filming more commercials. That has led to a continued growth in commercial production, which was up 9% last year, according to FilmL.A. Nearly half of all commercials are filmed in the L.A. area.   

ELI Papers The Grammy Week

One of the most prestigious events held during GRAMMY® week this year was the 17th Annual Entertainment Law Initiative® (ELI). Established in '98, the luncheon and scholarship presentation seek to address legal issues confronting the music industry. This year the event was held on February 6 at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica and featured a keynote address by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.).  

The congressman received a warm applause from east coast attendees when suggesting to move the event to his home town of NY.  In his remarks, he talked about a music scene where satelite radio and internet are afforded a free ride. He added that outdated copyright laws allow for "an irrational system" where state laws are invisible to satellite signals and musicians are not paid fairly in today's digital landscape.
Bare in mind, when a song is played through traditional AM/FM radio, only the songwriters collect royalties.  If that song is played on Sirius XM or on Pandora, both the songwriters and the performers are paid, but at significantly different rates that are set through different legal processes. And if the song is played on Spotify through a smartphone, there are still different royalty rates, reached through different means. Nadler outlined these challenges rooted in the inability of the laws to catch up with new technologies when it's hard to imagine what's next. He called for a united industry to meet these challenges and not remain on the side lines allowing for an "unnatural business environment" to thrive.   
"Try not selling a car and letting your customer drive it away for promotional reasons. He expressed his outrage for another product like music being marketed so differently.  "When it comes to legislation, the issues are too important and the opposition too powerful for you to win as a divided community," Nadler added. 
It's important to note that only the day before the ELI event, the United States Copyright Office made a long-awaited set of proposals for changes to music copyright. Among its changes are royalties for performing artists on the radio, and extending federal copyright protection to recordings made before 1972. 

Special guests at the luncheon included Ron Wilcox, ELI Executive Chair; Ken Abdo, ELI Executive Committee Program Chair and top music industry attorney (Lommen, Abdo, Cole, King & Stageberg, P.A.); and Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy® and the GRAMMY Foundation (photographed above with the scholarship winners, honorees Nadler and Frackman).   

Stay With Me

Petty and Lynne Won't Back Down 
       

English soul singer Sam Smith was the big winner at this year's Grammys, taking home four awards: best newcomer, best song, best record and best pop vocal album.  Sam Smith released "Stay With Me" in 2014. Twenty-five years earlier Tom Petty released "I Won't Back Down".  Smith's publisher settled a copyright dispute with Tom Petty's publisher in October over similarities between "Stay With Me" and Petty's 1989 single, "I Won't Back Down." "Recently the publishers for the song 'I Won't Back Down,' written by Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, contacted the publishers for 'Stay With Me,' written by Sam Smith, James Napier and William Phillips, about similarities heard in the melodies of the choruses of the two compositions," Smith's representatives said in a statement. "Not previously familiar with the 1989 Petty/Lynne song, the writers of 'Stay With Me' listened to 'I Won't Back Down' and acknowledged the similarity. "Although the likeness was a complete coincidence, all involved came to an immediate and amicable agreement in which Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne are now credited as co-writers of 'Stay With Me' along with Sam Smith, James Napier (Napes) and William Phillips.  Listen to both songs here 

Grammy Ads Up! 

Brands flocked to this year's Grammy telecast at a cost of $800,000 per 30-second spot after last year's show was watched by 26.6 million.
This was music to artist' ears like Katy Perry (Forbes list of $40 million worth as of 2014) who began promoting "bold new beauty looks" for CoverGirl

in the spring campaign in 2014 fit for her retro pinup girl to anime space princess to queen of the jungle looks! 

Introduced in 1961, CoverGirl has boasted a long list of celebrity spokeswoman with the current roster to include: Actresses Sofia Vergara and Queen Latifah, singer Pink and beloved talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, as well as rising stars such as Janelle Monáe.   

Big-box retailer Target bought an ad that looked like a performance (four minutes). Imagine Dragons (performance sans pairings)!  ID pushed Target's new #MoreMusic campaign and performed their new single "Shots" from Las Vegas.
Cost:  $8 million

At YouTube Space LA  

l-r:Michael and Carissa Alvarado - Us The Duo, Alex Wilhelm, Sr Director A&R, Capitol Music Group, Brad Haugen, CMO, SB Projects,  Jonathan Kalter, The MGMT Co, Margaret Hart, Artist & Label Relations, moderated by TV/radio host and entrepreneur DJ Skee at the YouTube Space LA
photo: by The C 

Performance by A Capella Super-Group Pentatonix at YouTube Space: l-r: Avi Kaplan, Kirstie Maldonado, Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi, Kevin Olusola.   photo by the C

Next the vocal sensation, RCA recording artists Pentatonix performed at the YouTube Space LA.  Darlings of Grammy week, Pentatoni  received their first Grammy Award for "Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella" at the 57th Grammy Awards on Feb. 8 at the Nokia Theater - where they presented 4X Grammy-winner Sam Smith the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album. Band member Kevin "K.O." Olusola played cello during Pharrell's live performance of "Happy."
The group was at Saturday night's legendary Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala - where they performed a Bee Gees medley for Barry Gibb, Clive Davis and his star-studded guest list. 
Pentatonix formed their popular YouTube channel and distributed their music through Madison Gate Records, a small independent label owned by Sony Pictures that distributes movie soundtracks. They also made effective use of social media to interact with their fan base. 

Pentatonix with producer Ben Bram (far right)

Formed in 2011, Pentatonix came to prominence by winning the third season of The Sing-Off on NBC  earning them $200,000 and a recording contract with Sony Music. Having now eclipsed 7.28 million subscribers and more than 785 million cumulative views, the PTX official YouTube page is currently the 12th most subscribed-to music channel and the 42nd most subscribed channel overall, while two members, Scott Hoying and Mitch Grassi, also have their own comedic YouTube web show, Superfruit, with over 1 million suscribers and over 75 million views. In May 2014, Pentatonix signed with RCA Records, a "flagship" label of Sony Music Entertainment. Their second holiday release, That's Christmas to Me. That's Christmas to Me was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and platinum on December 24, 2014, becoming the highest-charting holiday album by a group since 1962, and the fourth best selling album in the United States in 2014. Pentatonix, together with their producer and unnoficial sixth member Ben Bram, won Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella for "Daft Punk" at the 57th Grammy Awards. Pentetonix official US/Europe tour began in San Antonio Texas on Feb 25. Hear a sample of Pentatonix performance at YouTube Space LA here

Oscars So White

The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite trended on Twitter the weeks leading to the Oscars. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the first black president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences spoke out about this year's Oscar nominations and the firestorm of criticism that has  followed.  Isaacs says that while she's proud of this year's nominees and winners, the all-white acting slate inspires her to push for more diversity within the academy's ranks. All 20 of this year's acting contenders were white and there were no women in the directing or writing categories.    

Celebrated pianist Lang Lang, film composer Hans Zimmer (who played guitar) and producer Pharrell Williams started off their hit number "Happy" with an abstract intro, Pharrell speaking to the heavens with echoes in multitude of languages to include Spanish and French. Williams who won three Grammy awards Sunday night expressed his view during the performance of his hit song, "Happy" as he made a reference to Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. Dancers wearing black hoodies raised their arms - making the "hands up don't shoot" protest gesture used by Michael Brown demonstrators. As usual, Pharrell is the classy fellow who makes his views reflected peacefully and artfully. 

Larry Busacca/Getty Images for NARAS

When Brooke Axtell was a child, her nanny took her to the basement of a strange house and sold her to men who raped her. Austin-based writer, activist, and performance artist is also director of communications for Allies Against Slavery, a nonprofit that fights human trafficking. In "What I Know of Silence," Axtell describes the role art played in helping her recover from her experiences. A singer and poet, she has released three albums and two collections of poetry. Axtell who spoke movingly from the Grammy stage about her experiences with domestic violence says the segment was inspired by a visit to the White House by Grammy show producer Ken Ehrlich.  President Barack Obama made a video appearance on the show calling on musicians to pledge to stop domestic violence. Her life was saved, she said, when she sought help at a domestic violence center. Katy Perry followed her with a solemn performance of "By the Grace of God." Perry said she contemplated suicide after her breakup with Russell Brand, whom the song is about (she has never described their relationship as abusive).  

Axtell noted she was aware both Rihanna and Chris Brown were in the audience when she spoke. Brown has faced a string of legal troubles since beating Rihanna before the 2009 Grammy Awards.

Neil Portnow, the recording academy's president, said neither Rihanna nor Brown was consulted before the segment aired. 
 

Ageless Lennox      

Annie Lennox stole the show when the 60-year-old former Eurythmic joined the young Irish rocker Hozier for his hit "Take Me to Church" and delivered her cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins's "I Put a Spell on You."  

Soundcloud Backlash

Will Soundcloud continue with its sub-standard licensing offers and face a massive indie backlash?  

The recent buzz suggests their faith may be similar to its rival YouTube, and give major labels priority negotiation advantage.  Soundcloud perks have included priority placements, equity percentages, early participation in alpa and beta launches, and most importantly, 'most favored nations' privileges.  Most 'MFN,' ensures that the 'big three' majors - Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Universal Music Group - automatically benefit of any licensing negotiation that is better than theirs.  Effectively, MFN allows a contract to adjust to reflect the added benefits negotiated by someone else, ensuring the best deal among all rights owners. We're watching. 

Besides their pure analog signal paths, Bettermaker units have a full digital recall with 399 cells for your own presets, which you can recall with one touch.

You can save your settings in the internal memory of the EQ's as well as in your D.A.W....AND... in your project with your AUTOMATION. More info here  at Trans Audio Group. 

Oscar Moments 

Plastic Jesus is a Los Angeles based street artist that specializes in bold  stencil and installation work, inspired by world news events, society, the urban  environment, culture and politics. His work combines humour, irony, criticism  and unique opinion to create art that engages on many levels. His latest installation (left) says Oscar is in town bringing awareness to drugs. 

 

Until next month, express yourself.  Music lives and moves.