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The latest news from Independent Music New Zealand.

Somewhat reluctantly, we're preparing to farewell NZ Music Month for another year. As if we need a reminder, once again we've been shown what a wealth of talent there is in this country. But it'll go out with a bang for sure - most especially if you're interested in the industry side of the whole biz - check out the seminars in Auckland this weekend and Wellington next week. National Recording Studio Open Day is also happening this Saturday if you're exploring recording avenues.

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Going Global: What You Need to Know Before You Go.

Wellington Music Industry Seminar Presented by the New Zealand Music Commission and Independent Music New Zealand

6pm - Monday 30th of May 2011
The Hub - Toi Poneke Arts Centre
61 Abel Smith St
Wellington, New Zealand

Entry is FREE

This seminar is an opportunity for bands, managers, self managed artists or anyone with an interest in music, to meet and interact with industry people experienced both in New Zealand and offshore. If you are looking to take your music overseas, come and hear from people who are working with both new and established artists from New Zealand on the global stage.

Speakers:

• Graham Ashton (Asho) – Footstomp Music - Australia
• Mark Rogers – Mark Rogers PR – United Kingdom/New Zealand
• Cath Andersen – Chief Executive NZ Music Commission – New Zealand
• Ben Howe – Independent Music NZ and Arch Hill – New Zealand.

http://nzmusic.org.nz/news/commission/going-global/

Free and Easy Publicity for the Independent Musician – Bought to you by Sarah Crowe from Instrumental, with Mara TK

Tuesday 31 May
6.00pm

We launch Instrumental’s Musicians Publicity Toolkit – an essential guide to self-publicity and online marketing developed by some of New Zealand’s best music managers - for those who are just starting out, or wanting to get serious about selling their sound without selling out! Come and hear tips from the best in the business and hear how Wellington musician Mara TK has used the toolkit to develop his profile. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113786942039281

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International and Industry Action

Tahuna Breaks are pleased to announce that UK producers Crazy P will be co-producing their new album, due for release later this year. The band have been hunkered down in the studio over the past 6 months working on and polishing brand new material, and Tahuna Breaks' latest will feature new material and reincarnated tracks from their back catalogue. The new tracks will reflect the band's progression and focus toward the more dance-orientated funk side of their varied musical blend.The band has been, and will continue to road test the new live tracks at several shows in and around the country this winter prior to release later this year. Read more...

Leila Adu has been voted Artist of the Week on the international MTViggy website, meaning she is featured prominenetly all week. She was selected over 3 other international artists, with writer Halley calling her "unpredictable" and describing her as a "jazzy, delightfully erratic alt-pop virtuoso". Read more...

Yulia has been appointed as an ambassador to Parents' Centres New Zealand. She is expecting her first child, to be born in the spring, and she will be attending the full range of Parents Centres' childbirth and parent education programmes, along with her husband/manager Glyn MacLean. Readers of Parents' Centres' magazine, Kiwiparent, can share in Yulia’s journey through ongoing columns in the coming months ahead. www.kiwiparent.co.nz; www.parentscentre.org.nz

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New release fanfare

South Island-raised and now East Coast, U.S.A-based Annabel Alpers AKA Bachelorette's self-titled 3rd album

will also be her last. If you were a fan of Isolation Loops (2006) and My Electric Family (2009), you will be touched once again by her deep space solitude and the soulful ache that radiates from her songs. Delicate electronic indie pop melodies with Annabel's luscious layered vocals once again are the focus of the album. The album was recorded around the world and mixed with Nicholas Vernhes at Rare Book Room (Animal Collective, Baby Dee, Dirty Projectors etc…) All profits from sales of this CD in NZ made by Annabel Alpers and her label Particle Tracks will be donated to the Christchurch Red Cross for their continuing earthquake relief work. http://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/CD/Bachelorette/10514335/?nt=1

The release date has been decided for Kapabal’s forthcoming album “No Rest” - September 12. The album will feature the two lead singles “Touch The Sky” and “Rude & Abracious”, which are available on iTunes and digital stores now. Stay up to date with important updates and leaks/previews of the album via Kapabal’s Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/kapabal And if you'd like some brand new hip-hop action right now, New Zealand’s only Hip Hop DVD series is back with Music Videos, Freestyles, Interviews and behind the scene footage of some of the most talented and hardworking Hip Hop Artists in New Zealand/Aotearoa, edited by Acebeatz and hosted by Kapabal. The new DVD features: Audiocity (Konflikt, Bash & Akuse), PHD, ill-z, Kapabal, Tyna, Impakt, H.F.S., Ray Tait, One-Two, Heavy trade, Big Willz, Leary, O.R.F., Hurrikane Pre (Phatty Lumpkins), Lenz 22, Choirboy, Dj Alphabethead, Blakout & more. It's available online here: http://www.amplifier.co.nz/release/70877/street-heavy-vol3.html

State of Mind's brand new album Nil By Ear is now available as 2×12” EPs in a full colour sleeve - and with the full 12 track un-mixed CD packed inside.

At the dawn of the 70s’ a potpourri of accomplished New Zealand musicians at a crossroads in their careers merged their talents in and a band named Highway. The group decided to break away from the dance band dominated scene and deliver compositions more suited to a concert environment. They were quickly signed to EMI Records and over a 3 day recording session with producer Alan Galbraith in mid 1971 they recorded their self-titled album. The Highway album remained something of an underground legend and a rarity for many years, it was recently featured in Nick Bollinger’s book “100 Essential New Zealand Albums”. It was full of nuances and styles ranging from country rock to complex layered progressive pieces and at times frenetic jamming that resolved itself just as the listener imagined it might end in chaos. Now, nearly 40 years later, the Highway album, an important part of New Zealand's progressive music legacy, is back on the streets as evidence of the magic created by some of our top players over a three day session at HMV studios in Wellington in 1971. Read more...

The solo project of Michael Logie, former Mint Chicks bassist, F IN MATH was born out the realisation that one can play electronic music live without ditching your beloved bass or pretending to twiddle knobs. Now he has teamed up with Flying Nun Records to release his debut - the Couch EP - which is out this week. 'Don’t Look Down’ is the first single from the EP, which rumbles and squelches right across the electro bass spectrum like you have never heard before, and features fellow Mint Chick, Kody Nielson, on drums. Making music on computers since 1998, F IN MATH has thrilled and confused audiences throughout New Zealand over the last few years. His full range freak outs and nail curling versions of ‘Benny and the Jets’ and ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ have been Camp A Low Hum highlights, and seen him play with the likes of Ratatat, Deerhoof, Disasterradio and will support The Adults on their 11 date New Zealand tour in July. Listen online to ‘Don’t Look Down’ at: http://finmath.bandcamp.com/

On the live front

NRG Rising and 1814 are supporting Third World's Aotearoa Tour, which covers Tauranga, Auckland, Wellington and Napier from this Friday May 27 to June 1. Read more...

Kidz In Space are setting out on tour this June and July to mark the release of their album Ghost. First witnessed by an earthling audience at the 2009 Big Day Out, they swiftly reached stratospheric levels with their show-stealing performances at bFM's Fancy New Bands Showcase and Ohakune's Mardi Gras. Having commenced their conquest, the cosmonautical cut crusaders are entering another new phase. Tour dates...

Around the world

Among all the talk about the major label deals struck -and not struck - for cloud music services from Apple, Amazon and Google, it's easy to forget where the indie labels stand in all this. Typically, independent labels are the "easier" labels to deal with. They are less concerned about things like piracy and upfront advances than the major labels, and therefore less difficult to negotiate with. And, because they commanded less of a market share in music sales, were cheaper too.

More recently, however, certain voices representing the independent label community are trying to take a harder line. Merlin, the independent rights agency based in the UK, is typically the loudest. It aims to take a strength-in-numbers approach to demand better terms from new service providers by providing an easier path to licensing the thousands of indie labels out there.

Merlin last week released the results of a member survey illustrating how music from independent artists is faring on various digital platforms. More than 50 artists from Merlin-represented independent labels released albums that reached the top 5 positions in albums sales among various charts worldwide, 18 of which reached No. 1 from January of last year through this past March. The Arcade Fire and Adele are the poster children here. And independent artists' market share for U.S. sales is 57% higher in digital formats that it is for physical formats.

The group reports similar success in streaming formats. While indie artists make up 10.5% of the streaming traffic among users of free tiers from streaming music services like Spotify, it jumps to 12.25% for premium tier users (and as much as 27% in "some territories.")