“The Music Company of the Future”, 4.15pm, 13^th May, The Great Escape

Brighton, UK, 13^th May 2011:- Cooking Vinyl Group chairman Martin Goldschmidt will today announce that Cooking Vinyl is to become an official introducer of business to a newly established multi-million pound investment fund, being provided by Icebreaker. The announcement will be made during his address to the aptly-titled panel, “The Music Company Of The Future”, part of Brighton festival The Great Escape’s convention strand.

Under the new arrangement, artists signing to Cooking Vinyl Records and sister company Essential Music & Marketing will have access to an exclusive pool of music funding. With the company’s long reputation for talent discovery and development (Billy Bragg, the Prodigy, Underworld), Cooking Vinyl’s team will exercise their discretion, introducing Icebreaker LLPs to exciting opportunities to further the careers and profiles of artists both emerging and established.

Icebreaker LLPs have already been involved with various projects produced and distributed through Cooking Vinyl and Essential, including Marilyn Manson’s eagerly anticipated new album.  The establishment of the new fund reflects not only the positive experience for both companies of that project, but also the immense possibilities opened up by the pairing of the innovative and open minded label with Icebreaker, leaders of a new breed of venture capital active in the music industry.

Cooking Vinyl are already in talks with a number of artists about possible deals that will involve Icebreaker. A number of high-profile signings are expected to be made over the next 12 months.

Said Martin Goldschmidt, founder and MD Cooking Vinyl, “This is the first time to my knowledge that Venture Capital has teamed with a record label in such a significant way. We’re excited that Icebreaker have recognised the experience and professionalism that Cooking Vinyl bring to the equation. Between us we have the skills and financial leverage to maximise the chances of a project’s success.”

Caroline Hamilton, founder and MD Icebreaker Management added, “Our investors have a huge appetite for professionally managed acts.  We’re delighted to be working alongside the people at Cooking Vinyl and we’re confident that, with their assistance, we will be able to help maximise returns for the Icebreaker LLPs, and at the same ensure that talent is properly rewarded.”

About Icebreaker Management

Icebreaker Management is the adviser and administrator to the Icebreaker LLPs.  Since 2004, when the first LLP started trading, these LLPs have raised over £350 million of capital from private individuals.  These have helped fund the production and distribution of nearly 150 music albums from a range of new and established British, Irish and other artists and musicians.  Recent and current acts include Marilyn Manson, Beverley Knight and Sinead O’Connor.

About Cooking Vinyl Records

Cooking Vinyl has developed a reputation as one of Europe’s prime artist-focused independent labels, inspiring an enviable loyalty among its artist roster. It is also in the vanguard of music companies offering innovative services-only deals that claim no stake in artists’ copyrights.

Cooking Vinyl take full responsibility for the management of a project whether functioning as a label or in a services-only setting. Adding more than just marketing muscle, Cooking Vinyl devise and implement worldwide sales, marketing and distribution plans for their artists, working alongside booking agents and artist managers.

www.cookingvinyl.com

• Alex Jones-Donnelly among new speakers revealed for unique fast track course
• Accreditation announced from Rockschool and Access to Music
• Course fees reduced to £995 for intake on 15^th September 2010
• Students offered an incredible €280 entrance fee to MiDEM 2011
• Places still available

20^th August 2010:- Covent Garden’s Music Business School (MBS) is getting ready for back to school in September with news that its unique Music Business Fast Track courses will now carry the seal of approval of Rockschool, the west London music college working in partnership with Leicester’s Access to Music.

Also being announced is MBS’s latest line-up of guest speakers, who will guide students through their areas of professional expertise. They include: Alex Jones-Donnelly, consultant to Virgin Records, ACM and more; Liz Cirelli of Word & Rhythm magazine; BBC Radio’s James Bursey; Radar Music Video’s Caroline Bottomley; David Goggin of PPL; Erik Nielsen of Wingnut Music; PRS For Music’s Tracy Kemp; Eric Mackay of CELAS and journalist Phil Sutcliffe. They join existing speakers including Stiff creator Dave Robinson and PPL/MusicTank’s Keith Harris.

The unique course distils into 12 day-long classes the knowledge a conventional Commercial Music BA course teaches about music business and management. Dispensing with knob-twiddling and song-writing lessons, the course focuses on up-to-date music business issues, with lectures on the digital age, mobile and the new ways of building fans and developing revenue streams offered by the DIY model.  Within this, the MBS course now covers three units from Rockschool’s syllabus on Royalties and Music, Contracts in the Music Industry and Music Publishing.

Students attending Music Business School will be officially enrolled in Rockschool, receiving a student number and access to Rockschool’s intranet. After successful completion of the course and a written exam, students will receive a Level 3 certificate from Rockschool, which may be used as credit towards a Rockschool diploma.

Places are still available for the course beginning on 15^th September. With fees reduced to £995 per term (equivalent to less than £83 per day) and 15% discounts on offer for members of the MU, AIM, MPA and MMF (less than £71 per day), the course is an extremely cost effective to way to get ahead in the music business.

Students enrolled in the course are also offered the incredible special rate of €280 (£230) for entrance to MiDEM 2011.

With A level results being released last week, the course organisers are anticipating enquiries from a slew of school-leavers now taking unplanned gap years. The course will also appeal to graduates in other fields, young entrepreneurs starting out and those changing careers, giving them a fuller understanding of copyright, management deals, labels, contracts, touring, publishing and all related areas.

The school operates from the established Exchange Court building in Covent Garden – a bustling hive of music and entertainment activity, which includes Connected Artists, Sound Advice and Pledge Music among its occupants – setting this unique course in a prime location.

Steve Melhuish, Music Business School’s founder said, “There are lots of people out there who need to know these skills, but don’t have the time to enrol on a 3 year BA course in Commercial Music. The Music Business Fast Track course distils the most important learning required, offering something more instant and therefore appealing where time is at a premium.

“There are other short courses around too, but none of them offer the full spectrum of teaching that we are providing, none of them have the kind of guest speakers we have, and none of them can boast such a great location.”

More information on the course and the teachers is available at www.musicbusinessschool.co.uk.

Course details

Cost: £995 for 12 weekly sessions (£845.75 for MU, AIM, MPA and MMF members)

The course covers the following units on Rockschool’s syllabus:

• MUSPRA 341 Royalties and Music (8 credits)
• MUSPRA 342 Contracts in the Music Industry (8 credits)
• MUSPRA 346 Music Publishing (8 credits)

Address:

Covent Garden
London
WC2R 0JU
United Kingdom

1-5exchangecourt.com

About Steve Melhuish

Steve Melhuish is an experienced veteran in the music business, having run the first Virgin Record Store in the early 70′s. Two years later Steve went on to open and manage six record stores, under the title Bonaparte Records Ltd, throughout the capital and suburban areas, bringing him success for the next 15 years, including the UK’s first record store in New York.

Following this he proceeded to set up and operate four record labels, including Human Records and Six Strings. Steve was at the forefront of the UK’s indie DIY scene, spending the 80′s and 90′s operating international import/export companies distributing UK labels such as Stiff and Creation, to the US & Canada.

As the digital age arrived Steve continued to act as consultant to various music companies advising on music distribution, and for the past 10 years has been lecturing at Westminster, Kent, Greenwich and Canterbury Christchurch universities.

In 2010 Steve set up the Music Business School, offering fast track courses to those wishing to gain a fuller understanding of the music industry.

About Rockschool

Rockschool was set up in 1991 by music entrepreneurs Norton York and Simon Pitt to bring the best in pop and rock into mainstream education. They do this by providing exams, publications, advice and support to teachers and educational bodies.

Rockschool continually expands its activities by creating partnerships and developing new qualifications. They operate in 18 countries outside the UK.

The event entitled Talking Copyright: Reflecting On A 300 Year History & The Music Industry, which takes place at the University Of Westminster’s London campus on Regent Street on 15th June, forms part of a raft of BMC music industry-focused seminars and master-classes to mark British Black Music Month (BBMM), an initiative started by the BMC in 2006 to celebrate domestic black music, address issues within the sector, and to improve music industry knowledge.

The minister will hear accounts of the progress of copyright history, landmark cases, causes célèbre, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ copyright stories and policies, before making a short speech to an audience made up of practitioners of the music industry, lawyers, students and music consumers.

The panel of the event, organised by Black Music Congress in association with University Of Westminster’s Centre For Black Music Research, is drawn from the fields of music, law and education, consists of David Stopps (Music Managers Forum UK & International copyright & related rights director), Kienda Hoji (lawyer/BA programme director University Of Westminster commercial music), Pauline Henry (ex-Chimes singer/intellectual property consultant), Dave Laing (researcher/lecturer), Ben Challis (lawyer/lecturer), and Kwaku (BMC founder/lecturer).

“We usually hear about copyright in the context of illegal down loading news stories. So we decided to put on this event to show that, as copyright underpins the music and creative industries, it needs to be talked about and understood outside of the closeted world of academia and law,” says BMC founder Kwaku.

For more details of Talking Copyright or further seminars including Keeping It Legal: Live And On-Air, British Black Gospel: An Invisible Industry?, Trailblazing British Black Music Album Anatomy: ‘Osibisa’ (MCA 1971), and Kissing History: Reminiscing Over 25 Years Of Kiss FM, visit BritishBlackMusic.com.

Event details:
6:30pm – 8:30pm
Tuesday 15th June 2010
Old Cinema, University of Westminster, Regent’s Street

If you wish to attend please contact:
Kwaku
BMC founder
editor@britishblackmusic.com
020 8450 5987
www.britishblackmusic.com

Notes to editors:

1. Black Music Congress (BMC) founder Kwaku publicly uses only name. If your house style does not allow for one moniker, you are welcome to use “founder” or “spokesman”. He founded BMC to continue similar work carried out by the Black Music Industry Association (BMIA), an organisation he served as a committee member, editor of its newsletter and organiser of its seminars and other events. The BMIA fizzled out in the late 1990s due to withdrawal of funding – BMC works with partners but decidedly does not rely on funding to operate.

2. BMC is a not for profit organisation. It was founded in 2002 to provide a forum for discussing black music issues with a British bias; networking; and a pathway to music industry education. Its focus is on black music and music industry practice, but its constituency is not exclusively African. Between 2002-2008, there were several BMC debates delivered each year at City University London.

3. BMC is working with Akoben Awards, a new organisation focused on bringing together creators and consumers of positive black music, on the £10,000 New Music Entrepreneurs Grant during BBMM. This will offer up to ten new and young potential music entrepreneurs of African descent a challenge to develop a business with a grant of a £1000 each. Application deadline is July 8. For further details: akobenawards@gmail.com, www.britishblackmusic.com.

4. BMC has worked with voluntary organisation BTWSC (www.btwsc.com) to deliver a wide range of community events, and both accredited and non-accredited courses. In addition to its OCN Level 2 Music Industry course, BMC in partnership with Akoben Awards and BTWSC will be launching later this year ‘Copyright & Contracts For Music & Cultural Industries’, a new accredited course aimed at improving specialist knowledge to help upskill especially young people and the unemployed.

5. Black Music Month (BBMM) is focused on June, though increasingly activities are spreading into July. It is a BMC initiative which aims to focus attention on domestic black music through various platforms, such as seminars, master-classes, album anatomies, club nights, edu-tainment concerts, radio programmes, etc. The annual event started in 2006.

6. BMC works with a range of partners to achieve its aims, especially during BBMM. Such as intellectual property advisory agency Own-It, record industry body BPI, managers association Music Managers Forum, and educational institutions such as City University London, University Of Westminster and Collage Arts, and media outlets such as Colourful Radio.

From more than 280 entrants to the competition, held exclusively on Facebook, Martin picked the following names at random:

Ashpaul Ahdan
Tom Rose
Claire Thorn

The winners will be invited to come for an interview with Music Business School founder Steve Melhuish, and the most deserving candidate will be offered a free place on the Music Business Fast Track course. The two runners-up will be offered half-price places.

The course aims to teach everything covered by a typical Commercial Music BA course about the music industry in twelve intensive day-long classes. The normal cost of the course is £1295 for the full twelve weeks, or £150 for individual classes.

Martin Elbourne picking the winners of the MBS prize draw.

Two further names were selected, to be offered the prize in the event of the initial winners being unavailable.

www.musicbusinessschool.co.uk

Digital Stores today announced the imminent launch of its two newest direct-to-consumer online stores. Shaun the Sheep and Timmy Time will join Aardman stablemates Wallace & Gromit with their own dedicated microsites within the Wallace & Gromit online store, going live tomorrow, Friday 27th November.

As with all of Digital Stores’ sites, the stores will carry their clients’ official branding, and will blend seamlessly with their existing websites.

Shaun the Sheep has enjoyed a huge following since his first appearance in the Oscar- winning Wallace & Gromit animation A Close Shave in 1995.  Since then, Shaun has been given his own show, has accrued a strong online fanbase and become a merchandising success worldwide. Following the great success of series one a second series has recently launched in the UK on the BBC and is due to roll out worldwide.

Timmy Time launched on CBeebies in April 2009 and is Aardman’s first pre-school series. The show has become one of the most popular programmes on the CBeebies channel and already has an active and adoring online fanbase of parents and carers. Recently launched to the high street, Timmy Time merchandise is proving to be a great success and is now rolling out internationally.

Rob Goodchild, UK Licensing Manager at Aardman, said, “We’re delighted to be partnering with Digital Stores to develop our ecommerce offer. All Aardman brands naturally develop a strong fan base which we strive hard to satisfy with our merchandise programmes. This partnership has enabled us to seamlessly, and painlessly integrate a store into our own sites, creating a strong cross-category offer, with all the logistical and marketing expertise you would expect from a leading online retailer”

Simon Moxon, sales director of Digital Stores commented, “With Christmas around the corner and the fact that more and more people are shopping on line because of the convenience and breadth of product available, we are thrilled to be launching Shaun the Sheep and Timmy Time. Customers will have access to plenty of product that they may not easily find in the high street, underlining yet again the many benefits of shopping online from such a trusted brand as Aardman”.

Shaun the Sheep series 2 can be seen on BBC One on weekdays at 4:20pm, while Timmy Time continues to appear on the CBeebies channel up to three times a day on weekdays.

MusicTank

19th January 2010, location tba

• MusicTank Announces Next Debate: Jazz On The Beeb – A Love Supreme Or Kind Of Blue?
• 2 Jazz Services-Funded Reports Launched:
• “The Value Of Jazz In Britain: Two”
• “The BBC – Public Sector Radio, Jazz, Policy And Structure In The Digital Age”

The University of Westminster’s music business network MusicTank continues its series of think tanks with a discussion of the future of UK jazz, focusing in particular on the role to be played by the BBC and other publicly funded bodies.  Leading jazz support network Jazz Services will be launching two significant new reports at the event, and inviting discussion with the reports’ authors.

Speakers will include Chris Hodgkins (Director, Jazz Services), Professor Stuart Nicholson (author, lecturer and journalist), and Mykaell Riley (Head of Music Production, University of Westminster).  Other speakers from the worlds of broadcasting and jazz will be confirmed closer to the event.

The first report will set the scene with an overview of the economic standing of jazz in the UK.  The second will focus in more depth on the impact of public sector broadcasting policy on jazz, and will examine the needs of jazz – and by extension other niche genres – in a changing digital broadcasting environment.

“The Value Of Jazz in Britain Two”
(Mykaell Riley and David Laing)

Jazz services published the original “The Value Of Jazz in Britain” in December 2006.  The report showed that the annual turnover of the jazz sector of the British music industry was almost £88 million in 2004-05.  This report follows up these findings by comparing the original statistics with those from 2008.  Factors including record sales, funding and other economic indicators will be assessed, and a picture of the changing face of jazz in Britain will be revealed.

Mykaell Riley is Head of Music Production at the University of Westminster.  David Laing is the author of several books on popular music and a former editor of Music Week.

“The BBC – Jazz, Policy and Structure in The Digital Age”
(Stuart Nicholson, Emma Kendon and Chris Hodgkins, foreword by John Fordham)

In the eyes of many in the British Jazz economy, the BBC is no longer supporting jazz to the extent that it could, and many feel, should.  This paper examines the specific needs of jazz, with its particular emphasis on live performance, and how these needs are being met by the BBC in comparison to other European public broadcasters. The issues affecting jazz impact upon broadcasting policy for all niche genres, including classical and opera.  The report also suggests a solution that maximises DAB’s potential to deliver targeted, niche digital radio programming to what is claimed to be a hungry yet largely under-served audience and as such, attunes well to the Government’s recent Digital Britain report.

Professor Stuart Nicholson is a lecturer, broadcaster, journalist and author of six books on jazz, including Is Jazz Dead: or Has It Moved to a New Address. Chris Hodgkins is director of Jazz Services and Emma Kendon a trustee.

The latest event from the University of Westminster’s music business think tank MusicTank will examine the effects the Licensing Act 2003 has had on the grassroots live music industry, with Metropolitan Police Chief Inspector Adrian Studd, the officer behind the development and review of Form 696 confirmed to take part, and Chairman of the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee John Whittingdale keynoting the think tank double header.

Studd is head of the Met’s Clubs and Vice unit, and has been a staunch public defender of Risk Assessment Form 696 since its introduction in 2006. The event will give attendees from across the music and licensed trade industries the chance to confront him directly over the Met’s policies.

Whittingdale has been at the forefront of the growing voice demanding changes to the Licensing Act to exempt small venues for their requirements as well as fronting the opposition to the controversial Form 696, which has been widely used by the Metropolitan Police and has been recommended to forces across the UK.

In July the government ignored Whittingdale’s recommendations; this event will get the reasons behind the call for change, and the reasons behind the resistance to it.

Form 696 has courted controversy since its introduction. Following recent high-profile review, some of the form’s questions have been re-worded in efforts to appease critics of its previous incarnation which was said to discriminate on grounds of race and music genre, as well as potentially stifling live music performance.

Speaking to MusicTank on behalf of the DCMS Select Committee, its Chairman John Whittingdale MP commented: “The rewording of risk assessment form 696 makes the Met’s position more confused – DCMS’s Select Committee’s view is that we can’t see any justification whatsoever for its existence. It’s unnecessary, not required and acts as a deterrent.”

Also in the event – entitled Live Music: Licensed To Thrill? – MusicTank will investigate the use of noise abatement orders and their impact on small venues across the UK. Following MusicTank’s August newsletter editorial examining the effect their use has had in Birmingham, there has been a flurry of other stories from other parts of the UK as well as a response from Australia, where the music sector has campaigned to help venues in similar situations to the noise abatement order affected locations across the UK.

The editorial focused on the issues faced particularly in Birmingham, where the Digbeth area of the city – home to Supersonic Festival, GodsKitchen owned nightclub AIR, Birmingham Barfly and almost countless small grassroots venues – has had a number of live venues curtailed by noise abatement orders. The most recent of these venues, The Rainbow, heavily relies on music concerts to get by, and has had plans to install a £30,000 soundproof roof hampered by their noise abatement order. The landlord of The Rainbow, Kent Davis, will also be addressing the event, giving a frontline view on the issues caused by noise abatement orders and the Licensing Act.

Lisa Lavia, managing director of the Noise Abatement Society, which campaigns, educates and develops programmes to “aid the abatement of excessive and unnecessary noise”, will be appearing on the second panel.

LACORS (the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services) has expressed an interest in sending a representative to the event, with further details will be confirmed shortly.

The event will be chaired by MusicTank Chairman Keith Harris, more panellists will be confirmed soon. The format of the event is:

18.30 – 18.35: Introduction by Keith Harris

18.35 – 19.40: The Licensing Act and Form 696: What are the issues? 

Keynote: John Wittingdale, Chairman, Culture Media and Sport Select Committee
Panellists include: Chief Inspector Adrian Studd, Metropolitan Police Clubs and Vice Unit

19.40 – 20.10: Break

20.10 – 21.15: Noise Abatement Orders

Keynote: Kent Davis, Landlord, The Rainbow, Birmingham
Panellists include: Lisa Lavia, managing director, the Noise Abatement Society

Event Details:
   
Date: Tuesday 22nd September 2009 
Time: 18.30 – 21.15 hrs
Venue: The Basement, MCPS-PRS Alliance
Location: 29-33 Berners Street, London, W1T 3AB.
Nearest Tube is Goodge St. (Northern Line), Alliance is at Mortimer St end of Berners St.
Price: £35 standard, £25 MusicTank Members, £30 trade body members (AIM, BACS, BPI, MMF, MPG, MPA, MU, PRS For Music, PPL)
Price includes complimentary drink on arrival, and post-event transcript

All places MUST be booked and paid for in advance via www.musictank.co.uk