The JUNO Awards and Slaight Music Team Up To Create Canada’s Premier Artist Development Opportunity
The JUNO Awards and Slaight Music announce the launch of the premier artist development opportunity in Canada, The Allan Slaight JUNO Master Class. This new initiative provides the crucial tools to help three finalists develop their careers, build their own sustainable business and become ‘JUNO ready’. The deadline for submissions is Thursday, July 27, 2015 at 5:00 pm ET.
The inaugural ‘master class’ includes a week-long customized artist development program co-developed with Canada’s Music Incubator at Coalition Music. This development program provides hands-on mentoring, networking and collaboration opportunities.
The Allan Slaight JUNO Master Class brings together the two key mandates of CARAS and The JUNO Awards: music education through MusiCounts and the celebration and promotion of excellence through the JUNO Awards. The program aims to foster the growth of Canadian musicians through mentorship, education, skills training, development and deal-making opportunities. With no submission fee needed to apply, the program requires that an active CARAS Academy Delegate endorse each applicant’s entry. For more information, visit www.junomasterclass.ca.
“It is our goal to help artists in their journey by exposing them to a program that will not only hone their musical skills, but enhance the business side of the industry for them as well,” said Allan Reid, President & CEO, CARAS/The JUNO Awards & MusiCounts. “We are asking CARAS Academy Delegates across the country to endorse artists in their communities that they feel are ready for this next step.”
“Slaight Music remains committed to assisting, promoting and developing opportunities for Canadian musicians to flourish and the Allan Slaight JUNO Master Class is a fabulous extension of our objectives,” said Gary Slaight, CEO /President Slaight Communications. “My father, Allan, was a true leader in championing Canadian artists beginning with Gordon Lightfoot, and I know that he is proud to have this initiative named in his honour.”
Submissions will go through two rounds of judging. Canadian music industry heavyweights, including representatives from major and independent music labels, publishers, agents, managers, and media partners will narrow down the submissions to the top 10. A Super Jury made up of JUNO alumni will facilitate the second round of judging to narrow down the field to three finalists. JUNO Award winners Sam Roberts of the Sam Roberts Band, Max Kerman of Arkells, producer Gavin Brown, and A&R representative Ali Slaight from Slaight Music are amongst the Super Jury. Additional jurors and key partners from the music and media ecosystem to be announced.
“Canada’s Music Incubator at Coalition Music is dedicated to addressing the gap that exists between artists creating music and their ability to operate a small business. New artists are equivalent to starter companies and require entrepreneurial skills and know-how. We are proud to co-develop the artist development program with The JUNO Awards and Slaight Music and to share our experience, expertise and resources with the artists selected,“ says Vel Omazic, Executive Director, Canada’s Music Incubator at Coalition Music.
PRIZING DETAILS
Three finalists will each receive:
- An all inclusive trip to Toronto for an intensive and customized artist development program with industry leaders and Canadian artists hosted by Canada’s Music Incubator at Coalition Music. The program (October 25–31) will culminate with a music industry showcase night in Toronto for the finalists.
- A trip to the 2016 JUNO Awards in Calgary, Alberta. Includes flights, hotels and JUNO Weekend packages, including tickets to the Welcome Reception, JUNO Gala Dinner & Awards and the live JUNO Awards Broadcast.
- Showcase opportunity at the JUNO Awards during JUNOfest – a two-day music festival during JUNO Weekend – PLUS a chance to perform for the Canadian music industry at the exclusive JUNO Gala Dinner & Awards.
- JUNO TV will film the finalist’s experience of the Master Class program, producing three mini-docs to run on junotv.ca. This series will be directed by MuchMusic Video Award winner and JUNO-nominated music video director Ben Knechtel.
- Studio time at Slaight Music Recording Studios.
- A cash investment in their music career and more.
To be eligible for the Allan Slaight JUNO Master Class program, candidates must meet all of the following criteria:
- Be a Canadian citizen(s).
- Released a minimum of two original singles within the eligibility period (January 1, 2014-July 15, 2015); EPs and albums are also eligible.
- Have never been previously recognized as a JUNO Award nominee either as a solo artist or as part of a group, even if this submission is a new solo project or band.
- Have not sold more than 5,000 albums/EPs or 50,000 singles according to Nielsen SoundScan.
- Must be 19 years of age or older on or before the program deadline.
- Must be available to travel to Toronto, ON for a maximum seven-day artist development program, taking place October 25-31, 2015 and to attend the JUNO Awards in Calgary, AB from April 1–3, 2016.
- Must have an active CARAS Academy Delegate endorse their submission.
For more details visit: www.junomasterclass.ca
Who Is Remixing Glenn Gould With Rap? This Is Awesome
Glenn Gould was a Canadian pianist who became one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century. He was particularly renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach. His playing was distinguished by remarkable technical proficiency and capacity to articulate the polyphonic texture of Bach’s music.
And he works INCREDIBLY well with hip hop. Don’t believe me? Check out what arts collective Uninvited Guests have done:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WsRRBQVP74
Rolling Stones Release Secret LA Club Show as ‘Sticky Fingers Live’
The Rolling Stones have released a live version of the ‘Sticky Fingers’ album recorded just weeks ago in Los Angeles and without notice to fans.
On May 20 The Stones played the smallest show of the current tour at LA’s 1200 capacity Fonda Theatre, a warm-up show at the start of the 2015 Zipcode tour, where they performed the entire ‘Sticky Fingers’ album for the first time ever.
Two of those songs ‘Sister Morphine’ and ‘You Gotta Move’ had no been played live by The Stones since in a long time. ‘Sister Morphine’ since 1998 and ‘You Gotta Move’ since 1976.
The Sticky Fingers Live album features only the songs from the classic 1971 album performed that night and not the six other tracks the band performed.
The sequence was the album starting at track two ‘Sway’ with the original opening track ‘Brown Sugar’ moved to the end.
Sticky Fingers Live May 20 2015 at The Fonda
Sway (from Sticky Fingers, 1971)
Dead Flowers (from Sticky Fingers, 1971)
Wild Horses (from Sticky Fingers, 1971)
Sister Morphine (from Sticky Fingers, 1971)
You Gotta Move (from Sticky Fingers, 1971)
Bitch (from Sticky Fingers, 1971)
Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (from Sticky Fingers, 1971)
I Got The Blues (from Sticky Fingers, 1971)
Moonlight Mile (from Sticky Fingers, 1971)
Brown Sugar (from Sticky Fingers, 1971)
The album is now available on iTunes. A physical disc version has not been announced.
Food Network Canada and Walmart Canada Harvest “Cooking For Kids” Campaign
Food Network Canada and Walmart Canada are teaming up to help busy parents create easy, delicious, and healthy options for their kids with a robust multi-platform campaign. Coinciding with the re-brand of Walmart’s fresh foods section, the partnership includes sponsorship of the resourceful Cooking for Kids Guide onFoodNetwork.ca, which features inspiring meal ideas and tips for Canadian families, Walmart custom content, and product integration.The campaign also encompasses integration into the new original series The Incredible Food Race as well as sponsorship of the show.
Hosted by Rick Campanelli (Entertainment Tonight Canada), each episode of The Incredible Food Race features two families battling it out in a super-charged race full of fun food challenges and a main event: the family versus family cook-off of a kid-approved meal. As the official show sponsor, Walmart is integrated into every episode and provides each winning family free Walmart fresh groceries for a year. Campanelli is joined by Food Network Canada Chef Corbin Tomaszeski (Restaurant Takeover, Dinner Party Wars) as chef mentor and commentator during the main event. Over the summer, Walmart and Chef Corbin will also host eight tailgate events at sites across Canada featuring a barbecue, cooking demonstrations with local Walmart Mom Ambassadors and Chef Corbin, with a ninth tailgate event created for the series.
An additional piece of the partnership includes four broadcast spots featuring Chef Corbin inviting Canadians to Discover Another Side of Walmart and promoting the Cooking for Kids conversation online using #KidApprovedMeals. The spots will run on Food Network Canada as well as various Shaw Media broadcast properties including Global, HGTV Canada, Showcase and Slice. The vignettes include Chef Corbin offering advice on cooking meals for kids, introducing fresh produce and meat from Walmart fresh groceries into kid favourites, and tours of Walmart’s distribution centres. Extended vignettes will live online on the Walmart sponsored Cooking for Kids Guide on FoodNetwork.ca, in addition to Walmart sites and Walmart Mom Ambassador blogs.
“There is an appetite for quick, delicious and healthy meal options for families, and the partnership between Food Network Canada and Walmart Canada provides both the resources and the inspiration to make this easier for parents,” said Barb McKergow, Head of Marketing Ventures, Shaw Media.
”At Walmart, our mission is to help Canadians save money so they can live better,” said Jennifer Holgate, Vice President, Marketing Communications at Walmart Canada. “This is why we are excited to be partnering with Food Network Canada to showcase our enhanced fresh food offering and inspire Canadian families to create delicious, healthy and affordable kid-approved meal solutions.”
Beginning today, and running until December 16, Walmart is sponsoring Walmart Wednesday’s on Food Network Canada during primetime, with co-branded promos to run throughout the schedule.
Glen Hansard’s new album ‘Didn’t He Ramble’ out Sept. 18th
Didn’t He Ramble, the second solo outing from acclaimed singer songwriter Glen Hansard, will be released September 18 via Anti- Records. The new album is his first in over three years and follows 2012’s solo debut Rhythm & Repose, which Billboard hailed as “Hansard at his most engaging,” while The Wall Street Journal furthered, “Hansard’s distinguishing trait as a songwriter is a heavy-handed earnestness.”
As a special preview, the video for the album’s single “Winning Streak” is premiering now as an NPR Music First Watch here.
Of the video, director Braden King explains, “Glen and I talked a lot about the way in which every life is a fight, a struggle. No matter who you are. No matter what you do. They’re all different and they all never end. For me, the song is about that struggle we all face in our own ways and about who has your back along the way. There is no end to it. We may get momentary rests along the way but they are fleeting. We all have to get up again and get back into the ring. And you know, sometimes, those who are the hardest on us are the ones who get us through. The way this turned out, the song kind of became the spirit of this place, the blood running through all these boxers veins. And I love the way in which Glen haunts and inspires it all.”
Didn’t He Ramble was produced by Thomas Bartlett (The National, Sufjan Stevens), a frequent collaborator of Hansard’s, and Grammy winner and former Frames band-mate David Odlum (Paloma Faith, Tinariwen). The album, which was recorded in New York, Dublin, Chicago and France, is Hansard’s most intimate and elegant record since his work in Once and features guest appearances by John Sheahan (Dubliners), Sam Beam (Iron and Wine) and Sam Amidon.
While the journey to finishing the record was a long one, the reward of finally arriving at the end line was well worth it. Hansard explains, “I feel I’ve really dug deep for these songs, and I’ve been chasing specific ideas asking myself ‘what is it I’m trying to say with this line or idea?’ One would hope that through all of this that you find your voice. And, amazingly, you might find it in the smallest gesture of a song.”
Glen Hansard is the celebrated principal songwriter and vocalist/guitarist for the influential Irish group The Frames. Whether busking the streets of Dublin, where he got his start, or headlining a gig, Hansard has garnered a reputation as an unparalleled frontman.
Hansard is also one half of the acclaimed duo The Swell Season. In 2007, he and Czech songstress Markéta Irglová took home the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Falling Slowly” off the Once soundtrack. In 2013, the Broadway adaptation, Once, The Musical, won eight Tony Awards including the top musical prize itself.
As a solo artist he has sold-out shows worldwide and performed on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Late Show with David Letterman,” “Tavis Smiley,” and has been featured on the Emmy Award-winning program “CBS Sunday Morning.”
TRACKLISTING
1. Grace Beneath the Pines
2. Wedding Ring
3. Winning Streak
4. Her Mercy
5. McCormack’s Wall
6. Lowly Deserter
7. Paying My Way
8. My Little Ruin
9. Just to Be the One
10. Stay the Road
Glastonbury audiences left HOW MANY sleeping bags and tents behind?
Highlights of Glastonbury, the musical extravaganza included Kanye West, Florence + the Machine and The Who, while Lionel Richie headlined the Pyramid Stage last night to a crowd of over 100,000 revellers.
A litter picking crew of around 800 people have begun to clear the huge site of rubbish, and have already picked up an assortment of stray wellies, abandoned tents and discarded nitrous oxide canisters and balloons which had been used to inhale ‘hippy crack’, also known as laughing gas.
An estimated 11 tonnes of clothes and camping gear are believed to have been abandoned, including 6,500 sleeping bags, 5,500 tents, 3,500 airbeds, 2,200 chairs, 950 rolled mats and 400 gazebos.
It is thought that the festival organisers will spend around £780,000 collecting the rubbish from across the site, while volunteers will sift through around nine tonnes of glass, 54 tonnes of cans and plastic bottles, 41 tonnes of cardboard and 66 tonnes of scrap metal.
Nearly 200 tonnes of composted organic waste was removed from the site throughout the five day festival. The fields of Worthy Farm will then be returned to grazing dairy cows.
Via The Daily Mail
Canadian Arts/Media Job Posts For June 29, 2015
The Royal Conservatory of Music is looking for a Performance Manager.
The Mint Agency in Toronto has an opening for a Public Relations Account Executive.
Humber College in Toronto has an opening for a Professor, Music Production.
Love Sports? The Score is seeking a Social News Editor.
ENTERPRISE MMG in Saskatoon has opening for Reporter – Local News Coverages.
Meridian Credit Union in Toronto has an opening for a Social Media & Digital Coordinator.
LoyaltyOne in Toronto is seeking a Specialist, Social Media Community Job.
Lego To Invest $1 Billion Looking For Sustainable Materials
Today, the LEGO Group announces a significant investment of DKK 1 billion dedicated to research, development and implementation of new, sustainable, raw materials to manufacture LEGO elements as well as packaging materials.
Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO and President of the LEGO Group, says “This is a major step for the LEGO Group on our way towards achieving our 2030 ambition on sustainable materials. We have already taken important steps to reduce our carbon footprint and leave a positive impact on the planet by reducing the packaging size, by introducing FSC certified packaging and through our investment in an offshore wind farm. Now we are accelerating our focus on materials.”
The investment will result in the establishment of the LEGO Sustainable Materials Centre. The centre will be based at the LEGO Group’s headquarters in Billund, Denmark, and include all current functions and employees working to find alternative materials. In addition, the LEGO Group expects to recruit more than 100 specialists within the materials field during the coming years to work on this challenging ambition.
The LEGO Sustainable Materials Centre organisation will be established during 2015 and 2016, and it is expected that it will include satellite functions located in relevant locations around the globe. In addition, the centre will collaborate and develop partnerships with relevant external stakeholders and experts.
LEGO Group owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen comments on the announcement, “Our mission is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. We believe that our main contribution to this is through the creative play experiences we provide to children. The investment announced is a testament to our continued ambition to leave a positive impact on the planet, which future generations will inherit. It is certainly in line with the mission of the LEGO Group and in line with the motto of my grandfather and founder of the LEGO Group, Ole Kirk Kristiansen: Only the best is good enough”.
The decision to significantly boost the search for sustainable materials was taken at the recent General Assembly of the LEGO Group in May 2015.
In 2012, the LEGO Group first shared its ambition to find and implement sustainable alternatives to the current raw materials used to manufacture LEGO products by 2030. The ambition is part of the LEGO Group’s work to reduce its environmental footprint and leave a positive impact on the planet our children will inherit. As an example, in 2014 more than 60 billion LEGO elements were made – and finding alternatives to the materials used to make these bricks would significantly reduce the LEGO Group’s impact on the planet.
“The testing and research we have already done has given us greater visibility of the challenges we face to succeed on this agenda and we respond by adding significant resources in order to be ready to move into the next phase of finding and implementing the sustainable materials. I am truly excited by the full commitment of the Board of Directors and our owner family to significantly boost the work to ensure a lasting positive impact,” says Jørgen Vig Knudstorp.
When the LEGO Group is ready to introduce new materials it is vital that it does not compromise the quality or safety standards set by the LEGO Group and expected by parents. Consequently, the LEGO Group will continue to seek extensive research and robust data to ensure that all aspects of safety and quality are considered.
“This is paramount to us as it enables us to provide children with a unique play experience that inspires and develops them and enables them to build a better tomorrow. This is ultimately the reason for our continued efforts to always do better,” says Jørgen Vig Knudstorp.
The LEGO Group will not be able to solve the task of finding and implementing new materials alone. In recent years, the Group has collaborated with companies and experts on the task and these relationships will continue with existing as well as new partners with expertise in the field.
An example is the Climate Savers partnership between the LEGO Group and WWF signed in 2013, which has targets on developing a sustainable materials strategy. A new collaboration with WWF was agreed in spring 2015 and focuses on better assessing the overall sustainability and environmental impact of new bio-based materials for LEGO elements and packaging.
“There is no common definition of a sustainable material. Several factors influence the environmental sustainability of a material – the composition of the material, how it is sourced and what happens when the product reaches the end of its life. When we search for new materials all of these factors must be considered,” says Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, adding:
“What we announce today is a long-term investment and a dedication to ensuring the continued research and development of new materials that will enable us to continue to deliver great, high quality creative play experiences in the future, while caring for the environment and future generations. It is a daunting and exciting challenge.”
What Happens When You Leave Your Phone On During The Ant-Man Press Conference
A reporter left their phone on the conference desk to record audio during the Ant-Man press conference, but didn’t put their phone in airplane mode. An untimely call had a hilarious result!
