Please allow me to introduce our company Palace Music Group, LLC. We were established in 1996 as a distribution company. We specialize in Online Digital Distribution, Television and Movie Rights Synchronization. Palace Music Group, LLC is comprised of knowledgeable individuals operating with the right mixture of leadership, talent cultivation, foresight, planning, timing and game plan execution. Palace Music Group distributes unsigned independent artists from ALL genres.
• It's hard to believe, but Wendy Williams doesn't really have any celebrity friends. In fact, she told ABC News Radio that she doesn't have any celebrity numbers in her phone. "We may be at a charity event later on in the week together, and we might drink white wine and giggle for that moment," said Williams. "My closest women friends are moms in the school system where we live because I have more in common with them. I have celebrity girlfriends for their purpose of coming to the show." [ABC]
• Chris Brown launched his brand new foundation, Symphonic Love Foundation, in Los Angeles earlier this week. Its mission is to create "arts programs for youth while encouraging everyday public service, respect and kindness." Brown says art is such a major part of everyone's life. "[It] influences every aspect of my life completely… Focusing on positivity and love helps you have respect for yourself and others." [RTT News]
• Sheryl Lee Ralph has announced the details of the 22nd Annual DIVAS Simply Singing AIDS charity event. Ralph tapped Oleta Adams, Faith Evans, Angela Winbush, Tramaine Hawkins, Lalah Hathaway, Jennifer Lewis and others to perform and present at the event on December 1. [EURweb]
• Rihanna's been touched by the devastation left by Hurricane Sandy. She announced yesterday during a live Facebook interview that she's donating $100,000 to the food bank. She'll also be holding a listening party at the 40/40 Club (for her new album) and has asked everyone attending to bring cleaning supplies for the Daily News Hurricane Relief Fund. [YBF]
• In other Rihanna news, she released the video for the lead single, "Diamonds," off her upcoming album, Unapologetic. It's a unique clip that features Rihanna surrounded by destruction. Check it out below.
It’s obvious that Rihanna and Chris Brown are going to do whatever they want—despite public criticism. Amidst rumors swirling of reconciliation between the two songbirds comes a new musical collaboration, “Nobodies Business.”
In the minute-and-a-half long snippet, Rihanna coos “I wanna be your baby/You’ll always be my baby/Tell me what you want,” over a smooth-grooving dance beat. The two go on to sing in unison, “It ain’t nobody’s business,” which will of course ignite further speculation about the two dating again.
Rihanna and Brown have collaborated two other times since the infamous battery incident from a few years back, with tracks like, “Birthday Cake” and “Turn Up the Music.”
“Nobodies Business” will appear on Rihanna’s upcoming release, Unapologetic.
For weeks now the Internet has been buzzing with attitude and saltiness over Zoe Saldana playing Nina Simone in an upcoming biopic. Those angry tweets and blog posts were exasperated when images of Saldana in costume—and full makeup—surfaced.
Several days ago India Arie posted an intense blog on NinaSimone.comcalling images of Saldana's portrayal a "parody." "This just looks weird, it looks like a person in Black(er) face with a fake nose," wrote Arie. "If they were going to pick a person who looks nothing like Nina Simone… why not her daughter Simone *shrugs* just saying…" But the Grammy winner says the images just make her feel "sad" because "It feels out of place with what Nina Simone means in an African-American historical context."
However, Arie says she's not an actor, but believes Saldana can pull it off if it's her calling. "…I trust that through her obvious admiration of Nina that Zoe Saldana can pull off the portrayal energetically," explained Arie. She gives Saldana the benefit of the doubt that this is her calling. "And maybe Zoe Saldana really is being called spiritually to play this role."
Alicia Keys serves up another Girl On Fire single with the beautiful ballad, "Brand New Me."
Be prepared to feel a boost of self-worth and intense inspiration with the sound of Alicia's crisp, confident vocals. Everything about this song works to make this an amazing follow-up to the previously released "Girl On Fire." Lyrically, this is one of her most powerful & inspirational songs to date.
Make sure you purchase Alicia Keys' new album Girl On Fire when it hits stores November 26th.
Full House: The room was packed for "Spinning The Turnstiles In New Directions:
New Partners & Strategies in the Live Music Space" (Photo: Michael Seto)
Sure, EDM is all the rage on the touring and festival circuit right now -- but what about in 2017? To a panel of top promoters and investors, the picture was a little cloudy.
"They're clearly able to bring in the talent. The question is what happens beyond that revenue expense line," said Charles Johnson, managing director of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey's sports and entertainment specialty group. "If I put my lending hat on, I personally don't understand if it will be sustainable five or seven years from now without significant change. And that change I believe would have to come on the creative side. You gotta do something to make a DJ in front of a bunch of people more creative."
The relative safety of EDM shows, which are frequented by teenagers 18 and under rampant with various substances, has been a concern since the rave scene of the late 90s and has taken on a renewed liability factor for promoters like C3's Charlie Walker. "Our shows are 18 and up…the younger they are, the more likely it is they don't know anything about anything," Walker said. "That scene has certainly got some risk in it that we don't in other parts of our business." Added Todd Boehly, president of Guggenheim Partners (an owner of Billboard's parent company Prometheus Global Media), "If it's a problem for the promoter, it's a problem for the investor."
Having seen various musical trends come and go, Y Entertainment Group CEO Rick Stevens echoed the "tremendous risk" associated with putting "all your eggs in the basket of one category music, particularly as it is highly likely that that will transform itself into the mainstream. I think the really clever festival promoters who have established a brand are guys like the AEGs and the Goldenvoice team who've opened up to all categories and attracted a broader marketplace."
No matter what the genre, live music is of high interest to investors these days -- particularly with No. 2 promoter AEG currently on the block (whose CEO Randy Phillips was in the front row during the Touring panel). Guggenheim's Boehly confirmed "everything you read about our interest is real" in bidding on the company, but that "it will all come down to, like everything, price. They've got a lot of interesting aspects to it. I think the extension of the theme that we've been thinking about is very much real in the context of what they've built to date... but so far we have a picture book. Our bid's not gonna come back with a picture book. We have to get more than just pictures, unless they want us to win pictures. There's a lot more work to be done, but from the outside looking in they've built an interesting footprint."
Cuban discussed AXS TV, the live-music cable channel rebranded with
Ryan Seacrest. (Photo: Michael Seto)
Mark Cuban saw the value in the televised side of live music earlier this year when he teamed up with Ryan Seacrest to rebrand his HDNet cable channel as AXS TV, a 24/7 live-music network. "I'm a big believer for all the reasons that live events create a unique experience for the people there, television extends it to everybody," he said. "The one thing the Internet doesn't really provide you is zero latency and the thing social media is all about is zero latency. We might have all seen the 'Gangnam Style' video at different times but didn't share the experience. Television, everybody sees it at the same time. It becomes a communal experience and television has become the only way to reach a big audience and enable that communal experience. We're looking at AXS TV to in essence be the ESPN of music and pop culture."
And with EDM and festivals still very much a buyer's market, the conversation eventually turned to Bob Sillerman's current investment in EDM festivals, promoters, agencies, and the lasting impact of his company SFX (which was sold to Clear Channel in 2000 and eventually became Live Nation). "The world today in live entertainment is post-SFX," said Jordan Zachary, VP at The Raine Group. "We made a bet that festivals have replaced the old amphitheater world and the way people see live music."
Offered Guggenheim's Boehly, "SFX took down a strategy that was cap-ex intensive and heavy around real estate with one type of theme and it worked really well at the time. The rollup worked really well at the time and the benefit of debt financing was all in place to have a really nice run. The combination of great content and fantastic real estate makes for a very self-fulfilling prophecy. But the dynamic around who's playing what and where and who can actually play in big amphitheaters is changing dramatically. And as tastes continue to broaden and become more and more diverse, it's clear the festival model is kicking in nicely. The legacy SFX model isn't that attractive to the eye."
Cuban's biggest concern is the herd mentality that EDM can create. "The interesting thing is it's a lot of the same DJs going festival to festival to festival. Right now EDM is the platform I look at it and say it's more about communal experiences. But with big concerts, you can have 100,000 people there, but there's 300 million people that aren't there. We want to be the people that broadcast those experiences."
From left to right: Mark Cuban, Chairman, AXS TV; Todd Boehly, President,
Guggenheim Partners; Charles J. Johnson, Managing Director, Investment Banking,
Sports & Entertainment Group; Billboard's Bill Werde; Rick Stevens, CEO, Y Entertain-
ment Group; Charlie Walker, Partner, C3 Presents; Jordan Zachary, VP, The Raine
Ice Cube knows how to keep busy. During the height of election season, the rapper/actor dropped a new record titled "Everythang's Corrupt," off his upcoming album of the same name.
Earlier this week, Cube chopped it up with the Huffington Post to discuss the race between Obama and Romney, his collaboration with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and his upcoming film endeavors. Check the highlights below.
On working with Tom Morello for "Everythang's Corrupt" "We kind of ran into each other and admired each other’s work. It was kind of quick and passing. And then when we did the record it was a loop that my man Fredwreck put together. We just wanted the guitars to be a lot thicker and make it feel like a perfect mixture of hard hip hop and hard rock."
On the presidential election "I think it’s a joke. I don’t even see how Mitt Romney is in the race. It’s a trip how they all were talking all of the elitist talk when Obama was running against McCain, but you don’t hear none of that now … It’s like they just want a white man to come to the rescue, the paramedics was already here. But that’s what it really boils down to. Dude [Romney] is just lying through his teeth … If he wins, he’s going to do what they [Republicans] always do. Get in there, make sure their homeboys is paid and everybody else can kind of get whatever they can get. It’s just a shame, because if he wins it’s going to be like, “here we go again, down the drain."
On the NWA film with Dr. Dre "We’re still in the casting process, and it’s a Cube Vision Production. We’re still working on casting and the script. I haven’t seen the photo [Dr. Dre tweeted], but I can guarantee you that wasn’t where it was from unless they were location scouting. So you know, it’s a thing where I want everybody to be involved with the movie in some capacity -- all of the members, so everyone is welcome."
On Chris Tucker being a part of last Friday movie "Well, my magic is still here so the movie is going to get done. The movie is going to be funny, and it’s going to live up to all the long-anticipated wait. I would hope that he’ll be a part of it. He’s more than welcome to be a part of it … It’s a trip, because you’re looking and somebody says that “the magic is not even there” who’s never even tried it. We put the first one together and we can put another one together. So he should really trust that, and do what his fans want him to do. You should never out grow your fans. And if the fans want him to do this movie, that’s what we’re in this for, then that’s what he should do."
With 11 NBA titles, you'd figure that Phil Jackson has nothing left to prove. But with the Lakers' head coaching job open, ESPN claims that Jackson will consider coming back to the NBA in search of yet another title with Kobe and co. y">ESPN claims that Jackson will consider coming back to the NBA in search of yet another title with Kobe and co.
Since news broke early Friday that Lakers coach Mike Brown had been fired, there has been rampant speculation as to who the Lakers have in mind for his replacement. Names bandied about include former Knicks and Suns coach Mike D'Antoni to former Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, but none is more intriguing than Jackson, the former Lakers and Bulls coach. For some reason, whenever the Zen Master gets involved, people go crazy.
With the Lakers absolutely packed with star personalities and egos, maybe the only guy for the job is Jackson. After Bryant was filmed openly showing up Brown on the sidelines this week, and with some perplexing coaching decisions involving his fragile new big man Dwight Howard, it seemed like only a matter of time before Brown was out. But will Jackson be able to take a brand new team and coax them toward a championship? Moreover, will he even be willing to return to the sidelines? He's had knee and hip problems in recent years, but is apparently healing well, and there's no doubt that he can't seem to stay away from the game for long. A Kobe/Phil reunion should terrify the rest of the NBA.
UPDATE: ESPN's Marc Stein says that it may come down to Jackson and D'Antoni. Other sources saying Jackson's top assistants are ready to return if he is.
On Wednesday at the Billboard Touring Conference, Billboard editorial director Bill Werde moderated a long Q&A session with Live Nation CEO Irving Azoff that touched on nearly all areas of the music-biz veteran's career, both past and present. In this 12-minute video excerpt, you get several highlights, ranging from hilarious stories about touring with Neil Young and Joe Walsh to his current, no-holds-barred opinions about paperless ticketing, StubHub and Pandora. Andrew Hampp's article about the session is pasted below, but for some classic, undistilled Azoff, just click "play."
Irving Azoff doesn't tweet anymore, thanks to Live Nation lawyers who asked the candid chairman to keep mum in social media ("I don't think it's fair that they let Nathan [Hubbard] tweet and not me.") But an hour-long keynote chat with Billboard editorial director Bill Werde at Billboard's Touring Conference on Wednesday, he had a whole Twitter feed's worth of opinions, stories and frank assessments of the music industry's past, present and future.
He began by sharing a few tales of how he got his start under the wing of the late promoter Bill Graham, who invited a young Azoff up to the Fillmore in San Francisco to check out a show. "I go to meet him backstage, which in those days was on the left side, and I went up to the door and my name was not on the list," Azoff recalled. "They said, 'You'll have to go find Bill.' So I go in front of the Fillmore and there's Bill with his arms folded. I said 'Bill it's me Irving' and he says 'There's a guy cutting the line.' So he goes up and he kicks him in the ribs, like you'd see in a movie, and had the police cart him away. And then he walked up and said, 'hey it's really nice to meet you now let's go see a show.'"
With a little more than a year under his belt as CEO of RCA Music Group, Peter Edge, who headed up the label's A&R team for 16 years, has handed over those reins to new executive vice president, head of A&R, RCA Records, Keith Naftaly.
Since 2009, Naftaly has been with the RCA/Jive Label Group, working with Pitbull, Britney Spears, Santana, Leona Lewis, Rod Stewart, Jordin Sparks and others. Previously, he held senior A&R positions at Sony Music, J Records and Arista Records. Before his label career, he worked in radio, first at KMEL in San Francisco followed by KKBT/The Beat in Los Angeles. Naftaly's team consists of J Grand (SVP, A&R and Marketing), Shawn Holiday (SVP, A&R, West Coast), Wayne Williams (SVP, A&R), Mr. Morgan (VP, A&R), Trevor Jerideau (VP, A&R) and Adonis Sutherlin (Sr. Director, A&R).
Billboard.biz spoke with Edge late last month -- when the label had three albums in the Billboard 200's top 10: P!nk, Brandy and Miguel -- about the company's new A&R layout and its current and upcoming releases.
Billboard.biz: It's been a little over a year since the new RCA management team was put in place. How are things going? Peter Edge: We have a lot of major releases coming out and we just released P!nk's album "Truth About Love," which did great for us and that will continue to sell. Brandy came in at No. 3. We have albums from Alicia Keys, Pitbull, Christina Aguilera, and Ke$ha still coming out. We also have new developing artists doing well, like A$ap Rocky, which is building beautifully and he has a single with Drake called "Problem." Miguel is one of our biggest success stories: He was brought in by Mark Pitts and Bystorm [Entertainment]. It's a big story when we are breaking a new artist. We also have other developing artists like Dry the River, Sleeper Agent, and Walk the Moon, which are all building.
What's the new A&R structure? We appointed Keith as the head of A&R, and he will continue to work with the artists he has now. For example, Keith worked on getting the Kelly Clarkson greatest hits album out -- he saw that the best of P!nk album ("Greatest Hits So Far") had done so well for us so he decided it would be a good idea to do one for Kelly Clarkson. So with his new responsibilities, Keith will also oversee most of the A&R staff.
Other senior executives, like Mark Pitts -- who will remain president, A&R Urban Music /CEO Bystorm Entertainment -- Rani Hancock (executive VP, A&R), David Wolter (senior VP, A&R), and Bryan Leach (Senior VP, Urban A&R, RCA Records / president of Polo Grounds Music) will continue to report to me. How are your plans going on beefing up the label's rock repertoire? We already have a great bunch of rock acts like the Dave Matthews Band, the Strokes, Kings of Leon, and the Foo Fighters, and we have signed a bunch of new acts. We have signed an artist called Mikky Ekko, who is incredible and who I am really excited about. He is a great writer and right now there is a whole new crop of alternative acts like Gotye who are enjoying success. I think Mikky Ekko can do the same thing. So you feel like the new regime has its groove going? Yes, we have three records in the top 10 of The Billboard 200. We had a No. 1 record (Dave Matthews Band "Away From The World") in the last eight weeks. We are bringing back established artists and breaking new ones, most of which we have signed or developed. Breaking new acts is a huge part of our business and that is not an easy thing to do, yet we are showing success. When you have a new company, it takes a minute to get into the swing and get a great working relationship. Now our creative team and business side are hitting their stride. Most of our big releases are still coming. Over the next two months we will have five big albums, and a couple of others we will be announcing shortly. We have a really incredible release schedule.
We guess The Rock can't get enough of what these big, bad-arse characters are cooking! Details after the break.
Paramount and MGM will co-produce "Hercules," an upcoming film about the mythic hero starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, which the studios announced on Wednesday. Johnson had been reported as "in talks," and now his casting is official. The Brett Ratner-directed action film was adapted from Radical Studios' graphic novel "Hercules: The Thracian Wars" by Ryan Condal; Evan Spiliotopoulos did script revisions.
The Rock has a hefty schedule ahead on him as he'll next be seen in "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," "Snitch," and Paramount's "Pain & Gain," due in theaters April 26, 2013.
Known for incorporating social and political awareness into his music, it’s no surprise that Ice Cube has released his latest single, “Everythang’s Corrupt,” around this year’s presidential election.
The track, which features Rage Against The Machine guitarist, Tom Morello, serves as the lead single from Cube’s Spring 2013 independent album of the same name.
During a recent interview with the Huffington Post, the 43-year-old rapper-turned-director opened up on the album, his role in the forthcoming NWA film and his thoughts on Chris Tucker’s “doubts” of another “Friday.”
How did you and Tom Morello link up for “Everythang’s Corrupt”?
We kind of ran into each other and admired each other’s work. It was kind of quick and passing. And then when we did the record it was a loop that my man Fredwreck put together. We just wanted the guitars to be a lot thicker and make it feel like a perfect mixture of hard hip hop and hard rock.
What’s the concept behind the song’s video?
We wanted it to have the same flavor as “Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It,” which was a video that was pretty much full of real footage cut together. That video got a lot of mileage for us, so we figured the time was right for another version of that. That’s why we dropped this song first, because it’s the most political song on the album. And it’s a political time. It’s a throwback, in a lot of ways, in terms of subject matter.
Throughout your entire career you have managed to incorporate political consciousness into your lyrics. Can fans expect more of that on this album?
Yeah, but it’s a different time. You got to do it in context. So it’s not a heavily political record, but it does have statement songs and rhymes. I got a song called “Dominate The Weak,” which is just showing you how a police state would look and feel. But hip hop is in a different space right now when it comes to that. You don’t want to overdo it when it comes to the political stuff.
What are your thoughts on this year’s presidential election?
I think it’s a joke. I don’t even see how Mitt Romney is in the race. It’s a trip how they all were talking all of the elitist talk when Obama was running against McCain, but you don’t hear none of that now … It’s like they just want a white man to come to the rescue, the paramedics was already here. But that’s what it really boils down to. Dude [Romney] is just lying through his teeth … If he wins, he’s going to do what they [Republicans] always do. Get in there, make sure their homeboys is paid and everybody else can kind of get whatever they can get. It’s just a shame, because if he wins it’s going to be like, “here we go again, down the drain.”
They wasn’t on the set of the NWA movie. I don’t know where they was, cause we’re not even filming that yet. We’re still in the casting process, and it’s a Cube Vision Production. We’re still working on casting and the script. I haven’t seen the photo, but I can guarantee you that wasn’t where it was from unless they were location scouting. So you know, it’s a thing where I want everybody to be involved with the movie in some capacity -- all of the members, so everyone is welcome.
Do you have any ideal candidates for who you would want to portray Ice Cube?
My son, O'Shea. He looks like me, and he can rhyme. He knows Ice Cube better than any actor, and I think he can do it. So we’re going to have him audition and hopefully he’ll show that he has the skills.
Fans are also anticipating the next and final installment of the “Friday” franchise. And earlier this year Chris Tucker admitted that he has “doubts” about the magic still being there. What are your thoughts? Well, my magic is still here so the movie is going to get done. The movie is going to be funny, and it’s going to live up to all the long-anticipated wait. I would hope that he’ll be a part of it. He’s more than welcome to be a part of it … It’s a trip, because you’re looking and somebody says that “the magic is not even there” who’s never even tried it.
We put the first one together and we can put another one together. So he should really trust that, and do what his fans want him to do. You should never out grow your fans. And if the fans want him to do this movie, that’s what we’re in this for, then that’s what he should do.
Do you have a tentative release date for the film or are you still writing the script?
Nah, it’s written. We’re just really waiting for New Line Cinema to give us their notes, and then the ball gets rolling from there to the next phase. So we really haven’t offered anyone the movie [roles] yet, until we can get the movie green lit, and get a budget. Then that’s when we can go after everybody that’s on the script and see if they’re down. But for whoever’s down, the movie is going to get made and the movie is going to be funny. One person isn’t going to stop the show.
Check out Ice Cube's new video, "Everythang's Corrupt," below.
Uh oh! 50 Cent just tweeted some pretty harsh words directed at his former buddy Floyd Mayweather. 50 made it pretty clear that for the right price - $5 Million, to be exact - he'll step in the ring with the undefeated Mayweather. This is just the latest in the deterioration of their friendship/business partnership. 50 made sure to stipulate that December 14th is too soon, but he seems pretty confident in his ability. If 50 hits the gym even harder and cuts weight, who ya got?
