5 Lições De Marca Que Aprendi Na 'Third Man Records'

5 branding lessons I learned from Third Man Records

First of all thanks to Chris Robley for this article.

A few weeks ago I was in Nashville for the Music Biz conference. On the last day I had some time to kill before my flight home so I decided to go to Third Man Records, the studio, venue, record store, and curio shop dreamed up by Jack White.

I like The White Stripes and The Raconteurs’ music, but I’m by no means a Jack White devotee (I haven’t listened to any of his solo stuff). And yet when I stepped into Third Man Records, I had the feeling that I was entering the coolest place on earth. And leaving an hour later I felt bummed that I had to exit the coolest place on earth and go back into the real world.

So what did Third Man Records do to create that feeling in me?

It got me thinking about “branding” for musicians — and there are some great lessons to be learned from Jack White and his label/studio/store/whatever.

1. Be coherent

When you walk into Third Man you get an immediate visual impression. There’s a uniformity of presentation; it’s not exactly minimalism, but it’s simple and direct. Almost everything is YELLOW and BLACK. The record player. The gift bags. The cabinets.

This simplicity has a powerful effect, and it’s reminiscent of how The White Stripes came out of the gates in the late 90’s with a fully realized sense of visual branding: back then everything was RED and WHITE.

This visual directness is a lot like Jack White’s music, which is often reduced to its most vital elements (“vital” meaning not just important, but also alive).

I’m not suggesting that you need simple color schemes in order to be coherent in your branding, but it’s worth considering all the ways (writing, arrangement, visuals, messaging, distribution strategies) in which you can perhaps create a more immediate and clear impression.

Ask yourself: How can I communicate more directly?

2. Commit to an approach

Jack White is known for a kind of raw, wrangled, hand-made aesthetic. He’s not concerned with polish and perfection. He wants to capture moments and emotion, even if that means you see some warts.

That clearly defined and clearly articulated approach comes through in his own music, the music he produces for others, the stuff that’s recorded at Third Man and available on vinyl in the shop, and in the extra-musical elements of the store: books, posters, guitar pedals, etc.

When it comes to your own creativity, you certainly don’t need to share or adopt Jack White’s aesthetic. All I’m suggesting is that whatever approach you ARE pursuing in your art, you commit to it for a period of time: a year, an album cycle, a lifetime.

I’m as guilty as anyone of changing direction every five minutes. Oh, today I’ll record a bunch of stripped-down folk songs. Ah, nevermind. Maybe I should produce those same songs in Ableton and add a bunch of synths and beats. Hmmm, how ’bout a string quartet?

When you commit to an approach, you get stuff done. You have a standard to measure everything again. And you also have an easier time representing something larger than just your songs in the imagination of your audience.

So ask yourself: What is my approach? Can I stick with it for a while? And can I articulate it in ten seconds?

3. TRY!!!!!!!!!!!

Effort. It’s hard work. Unless you love what you’re doing.

I get the sense that the people behind Third Man absolutely love their work, whether it’s recording other artists, or creating a retail space to sell music and more. The place has character, and not by luck. It has character because of passion and lots and lots of effort.

I’ve heard that Jack White was an upholsterer before he was a band leader. That kind of attention to craft comes through in the products available at Third Man. For instance, there’s a box set of an early 20th Century record label’s catalog that is beautifully made (and you can watch a video about the whole process of crafting the packaging, mastering the music, etc.) The evident love and effort is what makes it worth the bazillion dollars they’re asking for it. Hell, I wanted to buy it and I don’t even know the music.

Musicians these days have to juggle a lot: writing, rehearsing, recording, gigging, designing, marketing, emailing, editing, and on and on — not to mention family, eating, sleeping, and other jobs. So I understand why some areas of your musical life might not get the attention they deserve. But it’s worth figuring where you’re slacking and either stepping it up or getting some help.

For instance, are you putting out songs where the lyrics are 80% of the way there, because you just want to be done with it already? Don’t. Wait. Try harder. Or find a collaborator to replace those lines that nag at your pride late at night when you’re being honest with yourself.

Not that great at videography? Save up some gig money and hire a pro. Making do with crappy drum sounds? Stop it! Watch some YouTube videos on drum miking techniques.

You get the point: try!!!! It makes a huge difference. And don’t forget that time can sometimes make up for skill, so be patient and put the time in if you don’t have the ability RIGHT NOW to bang out something masterful.

Ask yourself: where am I slacking and how can I do better?

4. Create an unforgettable experience

Third Man is an experiential place. You can pick up a guitar and play it through a custom Jack White distortion pedal. You can go into a listening booth and hear hundreds of albums recorded onsite. But for me, the whole retail setup seemed to have a centerpiece (probably not coincidentally): a vintage 1940’s recording booth.

You go in, wait for the red light to go on, and you have two minutes to sing or talk into the microphone. It then gets cut straight to vinyl. No do-overs. The little record pops out of the slot and you bring it over to the store’s player and give it a listen: your voice, in all it’s nasal and scratchy 1940’s glory.

Lots of the original text on the machine conveyed the message that this was a way to send a message home. Like an audio postcard. And once your record is cut you’re given a record sleeve that doubles as an envelope where you fill out the TO and FROM. I immediately thought of my dad who passed away last winter — and something about the carnivalesque, out-of-time-ness of the whole thing made it feel like I was being compelled to sing “Amazing Grace” (my dad’s favorite hym) to him, through the old wires, onto vinyl, and into the beyond.

Turns out I’m not alone in this compulsion. Neil Young recorded a whole album in this same recording booth, and he started the whole thing with a track where he’s just talking to his mother about life and death and missing her.

So anyway, naively I looked at the coin slot on the machine: 35 cents. Oh shit! That’s all it costs? Well, I need to go to the front desk to get change right now.

The woman working that day kindly said, “Well, I can give you change, but if you’re wanting to use the recording booth, it’s $20.” (Clearly I’m not the first confused customer asking for coins).

I didn’t miss a beat: okay, I’ll do it. 

What kind of percentage markup was that in my mind? 35 cents. 20 dollars. Who cares!? In that moment, all that mattered was that I sing to my dad. I paid the $20, tearfully sang the song, and went home with a record I’m not sure I’ll ever listen to again — and it all felt life-changing.

That experience made me feel invested in Third Man as a place, made me feel involved in it, like it’s partially mine. I mean, I know that’s logically ridiculous, but emotionally speaking it made me want to be a “brand ambassador” (to use a really icky marketing term).

I shared pictures and thoughts about the experience on social media. I told my friends about it. I’m WRITING THIS BLOG POST about it. And for as long as Third Man is open, I’m sure that any time I hear someone’s headed to Nashville for a trip, it’ll be the first place I tell them to visit.

Yes, there’s a difference between a place and song, or an album, or a video, or a concert. But every song, album, video, and concert gives you the chance to create an experience.

Ask yourself: What experience do I want to create? How can I make sure to deliver it? 

5. Partner up

Jack White, despite his hand-made, DIY style, didn’t actually MAKE everything you see and do at Third Man Records.

Someone else wired the circuit board for his guitar pedals; someone else crafted the wooden box for the old label catalog; and so forth.

As you’re searching for your own brand identity, or finding new ways to convey it, be on the lookout for other people, local businesses, or charities that can partner with you. If your missions are aligned, (ready for another awful buzzword?) synergy!

Ask yourself: Who can I partner with?

Bonus lesson: Be Famous (jk).

Of course Jack White has a bit of an advantage in the resources and connections department when it comes to executing well on his label, studio, venue, and retail projects. He’s got money and fame.

BUT… it’s worth remembering that he DIDN’T have those things the first time he launched a brand/band. A big part of what catapulted The White Stripes to success was the fact that an unknown Jack White — consciously or not — committed to an approach, communicated coherently, put in lots of effort and energy, created experiences, and found the right team to help him along.

You can too.

Gerenciando Seus Direitos No YouTube - Anatomia Do "Claim"

Managing your rights on YouTube: “The Anatomy of a Claim”

First of all thanks to Nicholas Salamone  for this article.

I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that if you’re reading this you know there’s money to be made on YouTube. And, as a platform, it sets the standard for individualistic expression while still respecting intellectual property.

But did you know that the entire system that allows for this expression and rights enforcement is based on the simplest of devices? Almost every cent of the billions of advertising dollars that flow through YouTube each year is due to one thing: The Claim.

What is a claim on YouTube?

It’s a simple concept: Rights can only be enforced if copyrighted content can be identified and linked to its respective owner. That’s precisely what a claim is: a link.

A claim is the link between a video and a particular copyrighted asset. And the function of a claim is to allow the owner of the linked asset to assert ownership over, and apply policies (monetize, track, block) to, the content of the videos that contain that asset.

A claim consists of three parts:

1. The Video
2. The Asset
3. The Reference

The Video

A video on YouTube is a digital file that contains one of two kinds of content: partner-uploaded and user-generated.

Partner-uploaded content is a video you upload to a YouTube channel that you own. Your claim to the video is made as you upload and apply a usage policy to it.

User-generated content (also known as UGC) are videos that other people upload to their channels. When the video contains content that you own (as determined by a Content ID match or a manual claim), you claim the video and apply a match policy to it. The match policy determines where and how the video is available on YouTube.

The Asset

An asset is something that a content owner provides to YouTube for rights management purposes. Assets are not YouTube videos; they contain information that refers to a piece of intellectual property, including various metadata (such as title, artist name, album, and ISRC for a sound recording), ownershipinformation, claims, policies, and a reference file (which we’ll get to in a second).

There are multiple types of assets:

Sound Recording — A Sound Recording asset represents an audio recording, and has metadata like ISRC, artist, and album. In it is embedded one or more Composition Share assets (see below), and it may in turn be embedded in a Music Video asset.

Composition Share — Represents an ownership share of a musical composition.

Music Video — Represents the official music video for a sound recording.

Art Track — Represents the video of a sound recording that doesn’t have a premium music video (for instance, it may just display the album cover while the video plays).

Web — Represents YouTube original video or other types of video content not covered by the other asset types.

Movie — Represents a feature film.

Television Episode — Represents an episode from a television show.

A “policy” lives within each asset and is a set of rules that specify how a content owner wants YouTube to handle a claimed video.

As an owner, you choose whether users can view the video and whether YouTube displays advertisements with the video. You say how you want YouTube to handle the video by associating a policy with it.

Basic policy types:

Monetize: This policy allows users to view the video and displays advertisements that create revenue for the asset owner.

Track: This policy allow users to view the video without advertisements, but will collect statistics about video views.

Block: This policy will not allow users to view the video on YouTube.

The Reference

A reference allows the asset to match and claim content found within user uploaded videos. It is an uploaded file of the actual content being represented by the asset. So if your asset is a sound recording, then your reference will be the actual sound recording file.

Managing rights

YouTube’s system for managing your intellectual property consists of three major components:

1. The YouTube rights management system identifies the owners and administrators of your intellectual property and defines the policies used to enforce your rights.
2. Content ID automatically scans YouTube videos for content that matches your intellectual property and applies the defined rights policy to the matching video.
3. YouTube videos are the (optional) public representation of your intellectual property, available to users on youtube.com.

So, when you upload a piece of intellectual property to YouTube, it is represented in each of these three components separately as an Asset, Reference, and Video. The asset lives in the rights management system, the reference is used by the Content ID system for matching, and the video is what contains your intellectual property on youtube.com.

And what connects all three of these together so that they can do their job and protect your intellectual property? THE CLAIM.

Novo App Stationhead Pode Ser O Que Os Negócios De Streaming Precisam

New App Stationhead Could Be Just What the Streaming Business Needs

By turning playlists into personal radio stations powered by collective listening, the streaming business might just have found the shot in the arm it's been looking for 

When Spotify's global head of creator services Troy Carter was asked at a conference five weeks ago about which promising music startups were on his radar, he didn’t skip a beat: Carter began describing an app that allows anyone with a premium Spotify account to turn their playlists into their own personal radio stations, through which they can interact with listeners and speak -- and even make phone calls -- over the music on their channel.

"It turns everybody into a DJ, basically, so you can play music, you can go live, there's a great flow and people are commenting -- it's almost as if you took Facebook Live and layered it onto the platform," said Carter, speaking at the Music Biz 2017 convention in Nashville. "And it's addictive. I thought I was a DJ for the night; I stayed up until like 4 o'clock in the morning DJ'ing a set."

Carter, a tech investor and former manager of Lady Gaga and Meghan Trainor, was talking about Stationhead, an app built by former Stage singer Ryan Star and his childhood friend Jace Kay, a web designer and coder, that launched in private beta earlier this year. Stationhead, which Kay built on top of Spotify's API (the interface that allows apps and features to be built into Spotify), offers the shared listening aspects of a traditional radio station but allows anyone, from a veteran artist with a huge following to a kid in a basement, to essentially take control and, in Star's words, "Turn your playlist on."

But Stationhead is more than just an app that allows people to share their playlists in real time, and what sets it apart could have a big impact on the music industry. Unlike an online radio station, in which a single broadcast is sent out to all listeners, when a user tunes in to a station on this app, the tracks being played by the DJ are simultaneously streamed via each listener's Spotify account, meaning that each listener counts for an individual stream of a song. Users can also "bite" a track that they hear on another station, automatically adding it to their own playlist, allowing songs and artists to travel quickly.

"You're sending a command for everybody to play it in sync, and you're also giving them control to be able to hop on and talk at any time and say whatever they want," says Kay, who developed the app over the past several years. "If you're a popular artist and you have a million listeners and you play 15 songs, that's 15 million streams. And after you're done, the people don't disappear; with this, if you're off air, people stick around."

      Courtesy of Stationhead

As artists diversify the way they roll out their albums, Stationhead’s utility could become a game changer. Drake, for example, has used his OVO Sound radio station on Apple’s Beats 1 to give fans a first listen to each of his last three releases before they became available to stream and purchase, referring to the premieres “global listening parties.” Stationhead would provide a similar experience for both artist and listener, with the added bonus that every single listener would mean one individual stream per song on the album; if just half the 10 million people who follow him on Spotify tuned in to a Stationhead debut of More Life, for example, that would equate to more than 100 million streams of the album’s songs globally -- in less than 90 minutes.

"A Taylor Swift or a Kanye West with millions of followers, if they start doing this, imagine the power and the reach," says Gary Greenstein, former general counsel for SoundExchange who is now a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which represents Stationhead. "And the fact that they can make money off it and they can help break bands and the labels can get their artists to do it; this is a very, very powerful tool in an age where there's so much noise."

In the past two years, the adoption of subscription streaming services has driven the music industry's first back-to-back years of growth this century, with 112 million paid subscribers worldwide by the end of 2016, according to the IFPI. In the U.S., streaming accounted for 51.4 percent of recorded-music revenue in 2016, according to the RIAA, generating $2.5 billion, an increase of 114 percent over 2015. To continue that growth, market leaders Spotify, with 50 million paid subscribers, and Apple Music, with 27 million, are looking for different ways to draw in new subscribers and drive more streaming -- and thus, more revenue for labels, publishers and artists.

"This sort of shared listening experience by a service is something that lots of companies have been interested in and trying to crack," says Greenstein. "Where you have simultaneous listenership right now is terrestrial radio, but that is over the air, it's not personalized, it's a mass audience. If I'm a fan of Ryan and I'm listening to his music and he plays an artist that influenced him and I like that artist, then I can follow and put out to my network the fact that I'm listening to Ryan, and it amplifies the listening experience."

Ryan Star and Jace KayStationhead/Serena Lingo

The idea for Stationhead began in January 2014, with Star and Kay sitting in a Manhattan bar considering the bill. Earlier that evening, Star and his band had played a sold-out show at the Bowery Ballroom across the street celebrating the release of Star's latest album, Angels + Animals, which had been released the day before. But then, catching up with Kay over dinner, the two decided to split the check.

"Jace was like, 'I've seen you on TV, heard you on the radio and in movies, why are we splitting dinner?'" Star recalls, sitting on the roof of Kay's apartment building on 23rd street more than three years later. "That's when I said, 'We should talk, man. There's a lot of people like me out there that are struggling in this sea right now.'"

After a decade-long career that began when his first band, Stage, was signed by Madonna and Guy Oseary's Maverick Records in the early 2000s and included stints at Atlantic Records and Island Records as a solo artist, Star was officially independent, with a dedicated fan base and a modicum of success but without the hallmarks of a rock and roller from an earlier era. 

At the time, the music industry had seen declining revenues for 15 straight years, ever since Napster and the digital music revolution undercut CD sales and consumer buying habits and all but ended the glory days of major label excess -- a period that coincided with Star's own career. But the rise of subscription streaming services like Spotify had begun to change the narrative, and the fortunes, of the industry at large. And Star and Kay saw an opportunity.

"I realized that there is an experience to be had, and it came back to this movie I saw as a kid, called Pump Up the Volume, where Christian Slater had a pirate radio station and it was the coolest thing," Star says, relating his own struggles with the expenses and politics of getting songs played on terrestrial radio, particularly as an independent artist. "Jace said, 'You want a radio station? I can build you one.' These days everything is social, but one thing that hasn't been turned on socially is music and radio. So we thought, 'Let's turn the world on.'"

Kay spent a year and a half building the back end of what would become Stationhead, while Star began cultivating support and advice from industry connections he had built throughout his career. Over time, Kay's apartment became a de-facto office, which now includes four additional employees in a typical startup environment. But the work has paid off, particularly in the past few months, as label executives and streaming service higher-ups begin to see its application; both Island Records and Republic Records have launched stations on the platform, and Star and Kay are working on a collaboration with Julie Greenwald and Atlantic Records, while an integration with Apple Music is also currently in the works. According to Star, users spend three hours and 45 minutes a day on average on the platform, hopping back and forth between broadcasting and listening.

"It democratizes the playlist process," says Rob Wells, former head of digital at Universal Music Group and now an advisor to Stationhead. "You're no longer relying on a Friday afternoon playlist, or a rock playlist; you follow various people and you're introduced to new music by entities that you have faith in, that aren't controlled by stakeholders that control the subscription services. Plus, it gets people through the payment gateway, it will increase listening, it's something that can be used to introduce new fan bases to new artists. So it does tick most of the boxes."

      Courtesy of Stationhead

Terrestrial radio, according to consumer surveys, remains the largest source of music listening in the country, but its status as a promotion machine and a gatekeeper within the music industry is increasingly in question. As smart phones have become ubiquitous and digital radio and streaming services have begun to infiltrate both the car and the home, radio's promotional capabilities have begun to diminish in importance. And after decades of being shielded from paying royalties to record labels and songwriters for broadcasting records, the Radio Music Licensing Committee (RMLC) is negotiating with BMI over an interim royalty rateof 1.7 percent of revenue to be paid to copyright owners, a battle that has raged for years and that will likely continue moving forward.

But Stationhead's model is not the same as radio's, which is regulated by the FCC. Because it's built on top of a fully-licensed streaming service, Stationhead doesn't need to have deals with record labels and publishers; Spotify's licenses take care of that for them, and its underlying system makes royalty payments automatic.

"It's turning your voice on, it's turning the world on, it's taking something that's off, that's broken, and turning it on," Star says. "So we look at FM and AM and we say, 'ON.'"

Read more: Canadians Listen to Way More Radio Than Americans, Study Finds

Despite the fact that the app is still at an invite-only stage, Stationhead is building out an impressive board of advisors; already, the company counts industry veterans like Wells, Greenstein, PledgeMusic founder Benji Rogers and E Street Band guitarist Stevie Van Zandt among its advisors; as well as Vonage co-founder Jeff Pulver; and Conductor co-founder/CEO Seth Besmertnik with a rolodex that's expanding by the day. Star and Kay don't see Stationhead as Spotify-only; the vision, Star says, is to make the app platform-agnostic, available to use with any streaming service, and they've been taking meetings to explore those possibilities, and are also in the midst of a funding round with the goal of a public beta later this year.

"Turning individual fans and consumers into, in essence, a radio DJ, where they can actually speak over the broadcast channel, that's a good idea," Wells says. "That's something that's going to enhance the listening experience and make music subscription services more sticky."

"There's still this desire to be part of a group, to have a shared experience," Greenstein adds. "And that's what [Stationhead] provides."

Tesla Poderá Ser O Próximo Provedor De Música Em Streaming

Tesla could be your next streaming music provider

The car company -- yes, car company -- is reportedly thinking of getting into the music business. Because why not?

Move over, Spotify. Eat it, Apple. Later, Tidal. Tesla is coming to town.

That's at least the latest from Recode, which cites musicindustry sources saying Tesla has held talks with all the major labels about licensing for a proprietary music streaming service. 

What isn't clear is when and if Tesla will rev this effort up, so to speak, or how broad it will be. Will this be just for its cars or for anyone with a phone? 

Tesla, in a statement, didn't address the rumor directly, but instead said its goal is, "to simply achieve maximum happiness for our customers."

"We believe it's important to have an exceptional in-car experience so our customers can listen to the music they want from whatever source they choose," the company said.

Sony Music Entertainment, one of the industry's major record labels, declined to comment. Meanwhile Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Of course, Tesla has a long history of going it alone. The all-electric car company created special software and chargers, despite already existing options. The company even created its own software to manage its manufacturing centers.

Stone Sour Atinge A 1ª Posição No Mainstream Rock Songs

Add caption

Stone Sour Score 4th No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Songs With 'Song #3'

Plus, the Foo Fighters land their 23rd top 10 on the chart, tying for fourth-most of all time. 

If Stone Sour had just one less No. 1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Songsairplay chart, the name of the band's new song would be a little more fitting.

"Song #3," the lead single from the Corey Taylor-led outfit's upcoming sixth studio album Hydrograd (due June 30), jumps 2-1 on the chart dated July 1, marking the band's fourth No. 1 on the ranking. It's also Stone Sour's second in a row, following "Tired" in early 2014.

"Song" completes the band's quickest climb to No. 1, reaching the top in its eighth week; previously, 2010's "Say You'll Haunt Me" took 11 weeks.

Prior to "Song," "Tired" and "Say," Stone Sour first reigned with "Through Glass" in 2006.

Also on Mainstream Rock Songs, Foo Fighters break into the top 10 with "Run" (11-4), the lead single from their upcoming ninth studio set. The Foos collect their 23rd top 10 with the song, tying John Mellencamp for the fourth-most since the chart began in 1981. Tom Petty (including his output with The Heartbreakers) leads with 28 top 10s, followed by Van Halen (26) and Aerosmith (24). 

Notably, those acts dominated the list from its early days, while the Dave Grohl-helmed Foo Fighters have joined their top 10 ranks after first charting in 1995.

"Run" is from Concrete and Gold, announced officially earlier this week and due Sept. 15.

Uma "Tech Company" Compra O "Toronto Concert Hall" Que Volta A Funcionar

Tech Company Revives Century-Old Toronto Concert Hall, Where Zeppelin, Zappa & The Who Once Rocked

Toronto's famed century-old Concert Hall, where Frank Sinatra hosted parties, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder climbed its balcony, Led Zeppelin held its first Toronto show, and The Rolling Stones rehearsed for tour, is officially back in business after Info-Tech Research Group purchased the building.

The venue enjoys its official re-launch tonight (June 23) with a concert by Randy Bachman of Bachman-Turner Overdrive and the Guess Who fame to kick off TD Toronto Jazz Festival (June 23 to July 2). Local rock station Q107 is presenting and tickets are $19.17 in honor of the venue's 100^th anniversary.

The ornate building was originally a meeting place for Masons like the Knights Templar and York Rite and is filled with symbols and intricate carvings.

As a venue it was first known as The Masonic Temple (1918), then Masonic Temple Auditorium (1945), then Club 888 (Tina Turner played there in 1966), then for a significant period as The Rock Pile with shows by Blood, Sweat & Tears, Procol Harum, Iron Butterfly, Canned Heat, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, MC5, Crazy Horse (with Neil Young), The Who, Frank Zappa and more.

In 1969, it became The Masonic Temple again, and hosted concerts by Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, The Ramones, Hugh Masekela, The Animals and Toots & the Maytals. Five years later, it was added to the Toronto Heritage Property Inventory and in 1979 was again known by The Concert Hall. 

It remained a top tour-stop destination for the next 20 years, reading like a who's who of popular music from rap to new wave and rock:  Sugarhill Gang, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Iron Maiden, Kraftwerk, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, R.E.M., Metallica, Run D.M.C., Skinny Puppy, Midnight Oil, Public Enemy, The Tragically Hip, Red Hot Chili Peppers (The Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam opened), Tin Machine (with David Bowie), Phish, Pantera, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Bob Dylan, Beck and more.

In 1997, a potential new developer planned to demolish the site to build condos but the same year the provincial government acknowledged its value by protecting it under the Ontario Heritage Act which "helps to ensure the conservation of these important places for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations." That September, the Rolling Stones set up shop there for weeks of rehearsals for their Bridges To Babylon Tour. 

The live venue now done, Bell Media purchased the properly in 1998 and used it as TV studio for CTV's national talk show, Open Mic with Mike Bullard, which did book live music performers. From 2006, it was used as MTV's studio, and the Polaris Music Prize rented it to host its annual awards gala. When Bell put it up for sale, it was expected it would be turned into condos. But Info-Tech -- headquartered in a 75,000 sq. ft. space in London, Ontario, with offices in Las Vegas -- purchased it in 2013 for $12.5 million and had other plans. 

After millions in renovations, the Toronto staff of 250 moved in Easter Weekend the following year.  The Concert Hall operates under a separate corporation, 888 Yonge Street (pronounced triple eight]. It has already been renting it out for private events, including a listening session with Jimmy Page for the final three Led Zeppelin albums; a charity concert headlined by former Great Big Sea frontman Alan Doyle; and a performance by Luke and the Apostles as part of a Yorkville Heritage plaque unveiling. 

Jimmy Page with 888 Yonge Street executive director William RussellCourtesyPhoto

Billboard spoke with 888 Yonge Street executive director William Russell about how a tech company became involved in the live touring business and what its plans are for the space.

How did you hook up with the Toronto Jazz Festival and have Randy Bachman as first official event the public could purchase tickets for?

Jazz Festival found us. We have been working with [the City of] Toronto and had a Yorkville Heritage event plaque unveiling. We had Gordon Lightfoot in the space and Howard [Kerbel], who is the CEO of Toronto festival, I believe was there for the event and thought it would be perfect.

Info-Tech bought the building and you work for them or they brought you in to manage and book the hall?

The answer is both. It's a tech company that bought the building. We had initially thought of ways we could use The Concert Hall as office space but keep the furniture easily moveable, so that we could use it as a concert hall whenever there was opportunity. We didn't actually ever do that. We just kept it as a concert hall. So it's been our plan from the start to getting around to running an events business formally in the space again. We decided in the last six months and have been ramping that up. Toronto Jazz Fest is a soft launch, I suppose.

There is always uproar in this city when a historic venue gets taken over by a massive non-music corporation. Where does Info-Tech's desire come from to get in the music biz? Is founder Joel McLean a big music lover or are you, yourself?

Both Joel and myself are huge music lovers. I'm a live music junkie and have been my entire life. Music is what I do in my spare time and now I have the luxury of doing it in my professional time as well. We talk about being a little bit disappointed in some of the media when we purchased the building because they were painting us as being a boring technology company, which we are the furthest thing from to be completely honest.

In what way aren't you a boring technology company?

You'd have to come see the space. Let me tell you -- we moved in and we said, "This is amazing. We own the Concert Hall, which is where everyone played and such an amazing venue. What do we do to make sure we embrace that and celebrate that?'  And we went all out to do that. All of our boardrooms are named after bands that played there.  We have a Led Zeppelin boardroom, a Pearl Jam boardroom, a Rolling Stones boardroom, The Who boardroom, a Frank Sinatra boardroom, Grateful Dead boardroom. You name it. We even have a Slayer boardroom featuring two concert t-shirts from those shows mounted in shadow boxes so that the front and back can be seen. My mission to fill all the boardrooms with memorabilia, preferably from their Concert Hall shows.

   Courtesy of Gotham Studios

How many rooms are in the building?

I don't know the exact number of rooms, but it's six floors and basement. It's deceitfully large once you get inside.  There's probably about 25 to 30 boardrooms.

Did you keep that vintage scissor gate elevator?

Absolutely. They need love. What we did is hired a full-time lift operator who I think would be one of the last remaining ones in Canada, if not the last one. I don't know for sure. But Michael [Bathurst] is our lift operator and he spends his day both playing music for people -- his set up is a Bluetooth speaker and an iPad -- and he spends his day playing music for people in the elevator and shuttling them between floors. There's actually two elevators in there. One we use for moving our maintenance people around and one we use for staff.

Did you touch the grand poobah room, I call it, with its red thrones where the freemasons held their meetings over a hundred years ago and where the Polaris Music Prize held its grand jury debates?

Absolutely not. It's remained in all its splendor. We refer to it as The Red Room or our VIP boardroom, for our other business [Info-Tech]. I think we replaced the carpet because it was very worn out but other than that we put some new tables that have inlays of the Masonic logo, The Concert Hall logo, and the Info-Tech Research Group logo to embrace the history of the building.  And Mick Jagger's snooker table is in the space as well.

What is the capacity of the Concert Hall now?

When all is said and done, we're going to operate with a capacity of 1200. We're looking at our desire to share the space with as many people as possible with our desire to operate as a premium vent location, so I think that means not overcrowding.  I know a tight capacity has been as high as 1500 in the past, but we're going to operate at 1200.

Any upgrades to stage, light, sound?

We put in digital theatre-class projector and screen in the main Concert Hall, and the screen is hidden behind the proscenium, so it doesn't change the look of the hall at all when we use it for presentations or events, or watching movies if we feel like it. We put in a very basic PA when we first bought the space to handle talking heads. We're now in the process of upgrading the PA to something that makes more sense to run an events business with. 

So after hours this space is available to be rented for concerts?  Are you in touch with the promoters and booking agencies?

It's available both day and evening. I envision live performance in the evenings and in the daytime host more corporate style events. Our goal with the space is to establish it as one of Toronto's premiere event venues that would encompass both music and more corporate events and perhaps even weddings and that sort of thing. As far as Live Nation and all, a lot of the promoters have been reaching out to us now that we announced Jazz Fest and we are building those relationships with them. We're talking to everybody.

So it will be a regular venue to see live acts again.

That's specifically our goal.

Do you not have staff there in the daytime?

When we do not have events going on, our staff used it as a social space. The stage is set up as a bit of a lounge, a coffee table and couple of comfortable chairs. We have turntables and a vinyl collection, which plays through the house PA. Staff can gather there, have coffee together or a glass of wine at the end of the day, spin some vinyl or play some music on the jukebox. And when it is in use, we just keep our staff out of there.

We have a couple of venue-specific operational challenges we work around.  We ask that soundcheck is either scheduled at noon when our employees are taking lunch and it won't be as disruptive as or at 5 o'oclock. Or, if we don't have event the day previously, then we ask load in the previous day and do soundcheck the night before, but so far that hasn't presented a major problem. Most people just do their soundcheck at 5 o'clock and often they invite our staff to watch soundcheck if they want, which is a nice little perk.  We're had people say, ‘No, we need the space closed out which we honour.'

What are your memories of the space? Did you see a lot of shows there?

I did. The one that means the most to me was seeing the Pixies with Frank Black.  I remember exactly where I was sitting in the space and I remember being absolutely blown away by the show and the venue and, of course, the walls sweating, which is what the space was famous for.

Apple Music Quer Cortar Um Pouco As Receitas Das Gravadoras No Serviço De Streaming

Apple reportedly wants music labels to take a smaller revenue cut from its streaming service

Apple is planning to renegotiate the terms with music labels to reduce their revenue cut from its streaming service, according to a Bloomberg report.

The deal Apple has with record labels is due to the expire at the end of the month, and it includes both Apple Music as well as iTunes, Apple's digital music store.

Bloomberg's report says that Apple is seeking to give record labels a smaller cut of its streaming service's revenue to get closer to rival Spotify.

The Swedish startup recently closed a deal that reduced the rate from 55% to 52%, Bloomberg says, while Apple Music currently sits at 58%.

Spotify's revenue hit $3.5 billion (£2.7 billion) last year, and its continued user base growthhelped the company to convince music labels to accept the smaller cut.

If Apple wants to come closer to Spotify's rate, it will have to similarly expand its customer base. However, if the Cupertino giant won't be able to seal an agreement with music labels by the end of June, current terms will "likely be extended," Bloomberg reports.