Experience It: Steve Harvey’s Freedom Party

Photos by Patrice Tudor, PT Photography

Premier Syndicated Radio host Steve Harvey partnered with the Ford Motor Company to create a unique party experience that launched a four-day fundraiser for his Steve Harvey Foundation Mentoring for Young Men at AmericasMart in downtown Atlanta. Carried on Radio One urban AC WAMJ-FM (Magic 107.5) in Atlanta, Harvey also used the occasion to show appreciation to his listeners in the area.

Commented Crystal Worthem, Multicultural Marketing Manager, Ford Motor Company, who had the new 2010 Ford SHO on hand for listeners to experience: “We are extremely excited about teaming up with Steve Harvey and The Steve Harvey Foundation for an event that is geared toward empowering young men. By taking part in this event we are able to continue in our efforts to empower and educate our youth within the community while simultaneously teaming up with an organization who shares our vision for giving back.”

One-hundred young men, ages 13-18 enrolled in grades 8-11 from a single female head of household family from around the country, will be pre-selected to travel to Dallas, Texas with a parent or guardian for a weekend of mentoring.

Doug E. Fresh performed for the fans, who were joined by celebrities that included NBA greats like Dr. J and Kevin Willis, actor Emmanuel Lewis, 100 Black Men of America’s Thomas Dortch, and WSB-TV anchor Jovita Moore.

Harvey, who launched this mentoring aspect of his foundation earlier this year, explained: “Our mentoring program for young men is designed to give boys the blueprint to manhood and to open their minds to enable them to envision and one day realize their dreams.”

HARNESSING THE WILD, WILD EAST THE MAKING OF A MUSIC INDUSTRY IN CHINA

Unlike the U.S., where copyright conundrums abound, China has a chance to create a music industry with a completely fresh approach to copyright consumption.
I was recently invited to join the American delegation attending the International Creative Industries Summit in Shanghai, China.  The intensive two-day summit, which occurred April 21-22, 2009, was   poised to be a historic event to witness.  For me, it was rife with irony and provided a fascinating contrast to the “established” western music industry.
For perspective, one only needs to study the rise of the Shanghai skyline to understand the marked difference between its humble past and burgeoning future.  As recent as the ‘90s, the Huang Po River, which dissects downtown Shanghai, wasn’t much more than the embankment of a shantytown; whereas today, Shanghai boasts skyscrapers that rival anything Manhattan has to offer.
Similarly, the would-be music industry we were there to help shape, could have the same kind of meteoric rise.  In fact, it could quickly become the largest music market in the world.  After all, it has nowhere to go but up, and China itself is the world’s largest start up.
I was among a handful of digital media and traditional music industry experts who came to listen to, and help steer, the first steps of a Chinese music industry where, despite infrastructure and a booming population, no music industry exists to date.  Massive piracy, however, is readily rampant.
This point was driven home by Mr. Xiaofeng Xu, Researcher, Peking University, Institute of Culture Industry, who made a forthright presentation entitled “The New Money-making Model within the Culture Industry.”  Poignantly, as his presentation began, he commented, “I am supposed to come here and speak with you about the new business models in the music industry here – but I am not even aware of an existing, old model.”
Having attended more conferences, summits, courtroom show downs, and symposiums on copyright in the digital realm than I could ever recount, it sometimes felt like a déjà vu hearing the same issues addressed repeatedly. I kept thinking, “Whatever you do here, don’t replicate the mess created in the western world” where copyright conglomerates have stymied innovation since digital music came onto the scene with the launch of MP3.com in 1998.
In an earlier column this year, I explored how at MIDEM in January there were many examples of how this is finally beginning to change – after a decade lost to mindless litigation and DRM dogma.
Moreover, as Jingming Qu, General Director of the Music Copyright Society of China pontificated, “Innovation is being driven here by a developing economy.” He illustrated the primary challenges to their agenda to build a music industry include piracy, a perceived lack of value for music despite mass consumption of it, and the potential for monopolies to be created that would ultimately be unfair to artists.
Mr. Qu argued that — without music — everything from discos and radio stations to search engines, wouldn’t exist, or would have significantly less value.
Thomas Reemer, CEO of CUGate, explored this point during his presentation where he demonstrated that Google’s recent digital music foray in China, in partnership with the major labels, is supposed to include a revenue share from the MP3 search activity at its search engine. One only needs to go experience it to realize his point that the experience is completely absent of any potential revenue sharing and, furthermore, there are no ads to click or albums to buy.  Google’s partnership with the major labels in China was widely dismissed as a misstep by most attendees, though some argued it was better than nothing.
Mr. Reemer added that studies show P2P users actually possess a high level of respect for copyrights, but not for the business models in place to date.
CUGate’s offering, he asserted, affords the “feels free” experience but still monetizes the frenetic energy associated with file sharing. CUGate shares the Chinese government’s inclination towards an ISP based solution to monetize the feel free model, which is finally gathering momentum in the Western world, if only philosophically.
At the recent hopping, San Fran Music Tech Summit, this topic was hotly debated on a panel aptly titled “Monetization - Idealism in Practice” where long time advocate Jim Griffin was pimping Choruss, a major label backed approach aimed at the college market initially and  - potentially - to ISPs, if successful.
Regardless of the rhetoric, what’s clear is that nearly 40% of Asian youth are listening to even more music than they were a year ago, according to Synovate Music Matters Survey, and there are more than 300 million broadband internet users in China – a 42% increase in only two years, as cited by China Internet Network Info Center.
In 2008, China Mobile reported US$2.4 billion in revenue from mobile music downloads and ringtones alone, according to JLM Pacific Epoch.
Hopefully, China will embrace the unique opportunity that it is faced with in a timelier and more progressive manner than the Western world did, especially since our futures seem inextricably tied.
The International Creative Industries Summit will occur again next year and this month, Music Matters will host a unique Asian forum for uniting the world’s creative and technology industries.
Just as the music industry in the West begins to intelligently grapple with digital in a meaningful way, the East is recognizing that the potential for an industry even exists.  It’s an astounding paradox and an amazing opportunity that I look forward to being actively involved in for years to come.

About the Author: Hal Bringman, founder of NVPR, is a communications strategist and digital media expert. Long before Steve Jobs ever figured out what an MP3 file was, the firm has been guiding the digital music revolution since launching MP3.com, Napster, and many other major digital media brands. The company has launched and built many of the biggest or most talked about brands in mobile entertainment and digital media. Based in Los Angeles and Buenos Aires, the team is actively dedicated to launch global PR/marketing campaigns, accelerate business development and revamp websites.  Reach Hal Bringman at hal@nvpr.com, or follow on Twitter @halbringman.

NABOB Celebrates 25th Awards Dinner

After an impromptu but welcomed blessing by Chaka Khan, NABOB Chairman of the Board, Pierre M. Sutton literally burst into words of support for President Obama. And a good thing since Obama-nominated 82nd Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. was among this year’s honorees during NABOB’s 25th Annual Communications Awards Dinner at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. This year’s honorees included Chaka Khan, Mo’Nique, Andrae Crouch, Keyshia Cole, Jerry “The Ice Man” Butler, Eric Holder, and Cicely Tyson. MoNique was unable to attend due to the death of her grandmother. Steve Harvey hosted the gala that included Music Hall of Fame legend Kenny Gamble and gospel pioneer Hezekiah Walker among the presenters.
Following the traditional dinner, NABOB winners Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash—LaBelle–took the stage, performing songs from their current disc Back To Now. They ended with the trio’s 1974 hit “Lady Marmalade,” which really got the crowd to dancing. “I am not just an entertainer,” Patti LaBelle told the crowd. “We’re in a depression and things are happening to us that we never thought would happen to us. People are losing homes, losing cars, losing the health

benefits. We have to be real up in here.”
Fellow honoree Andrae Crouch told the crowd he felt blessed to be recognized and thankful for his good health. “I’ve had cancer four times,” he related. “And God healed me every time.”
Actress Cicely Tyson accepted her award, saying, “The first word that struck me in the name of the organization was Black broadcasters. The second thing was that it was national. The third was that it has been in existence for 26 years. That tells me that for 26 years they have been telling us who we are, what we are and why we are. It is the only group of people that brought us news about ourselves across this country.”
Keyshia Cole thanked the audience and said she didn’t want to cry because of her “hard girl” persona. “But you are such a great inspiration to me and I thank God because He’s given me the knowledge and I’m gonna be married to 60 years one day.”
Chaka Khan expressed that God gave her a voice “not just so that you could hear me sing, but for you to hear me say that we need to save our children.”
The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) is a non-profit corporation of African American owners of radio and television stations across the country.

Makeba Riddick: A Songwriter’s Dream

Calling singing and songwriting her hobbies since the age of seven, Makeba Riddick always felt a successful career as a musician was just a dream. But it’s her song on T.I., “Live Your Life,” that became the #1 single in the country and the #1 digital download. That distant dream is now a serious reality.

Born in Baltimore, MD, Makeba’s love for music would lead her to the Berklee School Of Music in Boston. With actually being a musician still only a dream, she majored in music business and only minored in songwriting. After graduating in only three years, she moved to New York and used her music business degree to begin working at record labels. She still didn’t know she would ever become a songwriter. With the music bug still in her system though, she was working at labels during the day and doing song demos at night with different producers around the city, until one producer finally convinced her to do music professionally.

The strong catalog she had amassed soon made its way to Dave McPherson who selected one of her songs for Jennifer Lopez’s This Is Me … Then album. Her song, “All I Have,” made it all the way to #1 on the charts. She got a publishing deal with P. Diddy and the whirlwind began.

“It was really surreal,” she explains. “I always grew up admiring Puff Daddy and here I was with him telling me about how awesome that I was going to be.” She was only 20, living in a foreign city without any family, but every week she was in the studio with producers like Cory Rooney, Mario Winans, Troy Oliver and the Souldiggaz.

Upon moving to Los Angeles, she got her next big break in 2006 while working with her dream producer, Rodney Jerkins. He told her he saw something special in her and the songs they worked on together ended up on Beyoncé’s album.

She was then introduced to a budding young artist named Rihanna, with whom she started writing and developing songs. Within two years, Rihanna would become a household name, selling more than seven million copies of Good Girl Gone Bad and establishing Makeba as the go-to songwriter. With Rihanna’s sound she was able to really carve out her own niche. A&R knew it could rely on her to supply them with that perfect pop sound that everyone could relate to.

When asked what makes her songwriting unique, Makeba says she tries to make her “lyrics inspirational. Even if it may be an urban or pop song that you might think would only appeal to some, I try to write songs that make people say, ‘I have been through that or I have felt that.’ Stuff that makes people feel connected to each other as humans.”

Finding that commonality in all of us is what will make her a great pop songwriter for years to come and not just a flash in the pan urban songwriter.

In terms of her own musical tastes, Makeba stays true to her roots as a student of music by always listening to different material. She may be writing for Rihanna or Beyoncé but she might be listening to the Killers. It keeps her “unique and different. You have got to be a student of music to inspire others with your music.”

Makeba has written or co-written for everyone from Mariah Carey to Michelle Williams; Jessica Simpson to Fantasia; the Black Eyed Peas to Danity Kane; Avant to Solange Knowles. Most recently, she co-wrote “Ave Maria” on Beyoncé’s latest I am… Sasha Fierce and has been working closely with P. Diddy on all his new projects as well as Lil Jon. She has also been writing on the upcoming new Toni Braxton album and has begun work on Rihanna’s new album.

And humble as ever, Makeba is still amazed that all of this keeps happening to her.

“NEWBOs: The Rise of America’s New Black Overclass”

The Wedding of Evelyn Ann Miller and Thomas Carl Randolph, II

I felt like her father when I attended BRE VP of Marketing Monique Idlett Mosley’s wedding to Timothy Mosley in Aruba last year, little realizing that Monique was really taking me through the dress rehearsal for my own daughter’s wedding. On December 27, 2008, I walked the baby girl that had graced the five-year anniversary cover of BRE Magazine when she was only two down the aisle to marry her best friend, lover and soul partner, Thomas Carl Randolph, II. Composure was all over for me when I saw her walk down the stairs to Stevie Wonder’s “Ribbon In the Sky,” and, when we danced the father-daughter dance to Luther’s “One Last Dance With My Father,” there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. Fortunately waving my handkerchief and sashaying out to a New Orleans second-line parade kept my emotions in perspective as did the ladies’ spirited dance to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (You Should’ve Put A Ring On It)”—a new wedding anthem for today’s generation.

The well wishes of the many friends who gathered for this moment and the personal testimonies of the new married couple’s friends just intensified the moment. And my happiness was compounded with the official welcoming of my new son and his parents, Thomas and Jacqueline, to our family unit. My heart was full, my joy overflowed. This was my little girl, my beauty, the life that daily lifts my spirits, the love made in heaven…this time it was personal.

Photography by Allen King

Wedding Coordination by William Miller

 

The Commander-in-Chief Inaugural Ball

When I answered my phone, Suzanne Coston asked, “Are you available,” which is Tvspeak for you’ve got a job offer. I said “Who is it for?” She answered, “The Commander in Chief.”  “The Commander in Chief of what?” She sort of laughed and said, “The United States.” 

After about two seconds considering a big money job I was setting aside, I said, “When do we go?”  The reply: “Tomorrow—a week out.”

Blissfully excited, we had no idea what the next week would bring us.  We soon decided we’d lost our minds, but in the name of being part of history and in the name of Barack Obama, here we were, trying to translate what WHCA, PIC, AFIDS and all the other designations meant as we set course to produce the Commander-in-Chief’s Inaugural Ball, one of the ten official balls that was exclusively dedicated to the Armed Services, for live broadcast over The Pentagon Channel to all ships, barracks, hospitals and military installations around the world.

We had no production office, no production staff and only two acts set when we walked in the door. We knew other people in town and were able to borrow Ted Sroka from the MTV Ball for a quick run at script supervising. We got offers of other people, but being credentialed for one event doesn’t get you access to others without that mysterious something called the Underlay, which we learned was akin to the Holy Grail.

In hotel lobbies and banquet rooms, on dinner tables and couches with cell phones sometimes at both ears, we patchworked the event.  We called everybody in town who might be available to perform.  After we pulled them, we had to hope to get them through the Secret Service portal to be able to be allowed in the room. Meanwhile, since we had only one stage we had to figure out how to run them off and on and, by the way, do it live with no break-aways to the Pentagon Channel for commercials, since there is no such thing.

My head was spinning with the Presidential Inaugural Committee, all five divisions of the Military, the Secret Service, the Senior Enlisted guys who were co-hosting the event, big dogs from the Pentagon Channel (our favorite Lt. Colonel Melinda Morgan), and the various ranking people from Public Affairs–Major Andra Higgs, LtCommander Charles Summers and Tom Menegrin, who directed the show from a truck a football field away. Lt. Commander Brenda Steele and Lt. Karen Love hung in there with us. Hoorahs, Aye Ayes and Who-ah to Colonel Hiram Bell and all the other brass.

We squeezed somewhere to watch Sunday’s HBO event on the Lincoln steps. Tears came when 89-year-old Pete Seeger, sang  “This Land Is Your Land.” Half-a-million people there got to hear this old song we all sang in the ‘60s when protest was part of the air we breathed. “In the squares of the city,” Woody Guthrie wrote, “by the shadow of the steeple, by the relief office–I saw my people.”  Every day of the week, we did see our people–all social and economic strata, with their faces full of happiness, glowing with triumph.

On Inaugural Day, I walked out of our hotel, The Liaison, just about a block away from the Capitol and looked West. It was 4 am yet there was already an incomprehensible mass of peaceful citizens, gently trying to move forward, just wanting to be there when he Actually, Swear to God, Unthinkably, Gloriously became the 44^th President of the United States. Two-million people standing for eight hours and not one arrest, just tears, hugs and cheers.

Executive producer Suzanne de Passe, who committed us to the project under her newly formed iDream Productions banner, used her considerable personal clout and got George Lopez to host, Smokey Robinson to perform and Chris Tucker to do some stand-up during the ball. Coston had to wrangle Josh Groban, Jordin Sparks and Jon Bon Jovi. I had to figure out how to make their introductions relate to the crowd. Did you know that Bon Jovi is the son of two Marines? See what I mean?  We were given “the world’s greatest ‘70s tribute band named Right On. It was hysterical to see these guys in four-inch platforms and lots of gold glitter up there jammin’ away, but the crowd loved them.

At the ball of some 2,000 were more than 300 wounded warriors from Walter Reed Hospital. One young man sat in his dress uniform, medals pinned to his chest with no legs, one arm and a smile that couldn’t be extinguished. I could barely breathe standing next to him and walked to the teleprompter unable to read the screen for the tears, but  we were here to put on the best show for these young fighters and the families of the fallen heroes who had died in service.

 The President spent more than 15 minutes at this ball. W-a-a-ay more than any others. He joked with soldiers live from Afghanistan. He thanked all the troops  in the room. They were young and enthusiastic and cheered like crazy at their very first opportunity to salute their new Commander In Chief.

Luckily the beautiful old building we were in had a fountain right in front of our stage and we were able to cover it with the Presidential seal—a glorious backdrop for when Obama danced with his First Lady and then as they each danced with a member of the active military. Watching him up close, listening oh-so-carefully, it’s clear to me he is the President of Dr. King’s Dream and will make us all proud to be Americans again.

MIDEM 2009: Setting Music Free

The annual music industry happening, MIDEM, is a must attend event for global players in the music business.  This year’s MIDEM attendees were welcomed by moody skies over Cannes, which were symbolic of the state of the industry overall.  Along La Croisette, rain pelted delegates darting from the Palais de Festivals to the deal making hubs of the Majestic and Carlton hotel bars. 

             The gloom, however, wasn’t reserved for the weather outside, but made its presence known throughout MIDEM and MIDEMNet, whose combined attendance was down 12% hovering around 8,000 delegates, due largely to global economic woes, and perhaps more poignantly, to empirical evidence of a fundamental and permanent shift in the music business.

             For instance, attendance by physical distribution companies, CD manufacturers and record labels was down, according to MIDEM director Dominique Leguern who added, “It’s not a music industry crisis, it’s a CD crisis.”

             Leguern said they would consider amalgamating MIDEM with its digital music sister event MIDEMNet at future conferences as the industry evolves into a fully digital domain.  Leguern was quick to assert the many positives from the conference, however, which also saw 300 artists play live and attracted delegates from more than 80 countries.

           

 ”The industry as a whole has turned a page,” said Leguern. “It accepts the CD era is decreasing fast and new revenues will come from other business models. Some of the old issues like DRM are over so we can move into a new era.”

             Indeed, much of the mind-numbing rhetoric and head-in-the-sand anti-digital posturing was absent this year as companies exchanged optimistic ideas about how to move the industry forward from a product-based business to a service-oriented one.

             “One thing I would change in the music business is a mindset. It’s about being optimistic about the opportunities we have in front of us. We have to accept the principle that a product-based model is under severe stress. There are two primary sets of people in this business that matter–artists and fans–and we should all focus on them. And the Internet gives us a real opportunity to develop long-term careers between artists and fans. That’s a huge challenge but a huge opportunity for us all,” said Brian Message, co-manager of Radiohead. 

Message spearheaded the successful experiment of selling Radiohead’s In Rainbows by allowing fans to pay what they deemed fair for a digital copy before CDs were made available at retail. 

Reggae singer/songwriter, producer and promoter Bohbi FM added, “If I could change something in the music industry, it would be to invest in new acts. Put the money in unknown artists. Because for the last 20 years, we are hearing the same acts all the time. We need a change.”

The increasing impact of brands, advertising and technology companies at this year’s conference were signs of things to come as these sectors shape both the future of MIDEM, specifically, and the music business overall.

Announced at Cannes was a pact between U.K. dance act Groove Armada and global drinks brand Bacardi in an online mechanism that will harness the power of social network sites to distribute the band’s new EP.

 

In addition to being available on traditional download stores on March 2, the new EP will be launched via an online sharing service, www.bliveshare.com. Users who are over the legal drinking age sign up and get to download the first track in MP3 format for free; then, to get track two, they have to share track one with 20 people, either by emailing directly or using a Facebook app or widget embedded on other social networks.

Andy Cato from Groove Armada explained: “Over the last few years, a lot of music has become free, and while there will be an on-going market in recorded music for a while, the wave of free music is overwhelming.  We wanted to find a way of embracing the fact there is free music out there–but giving it value again.”

Rapper Kanye West’s blog was a hot topic at MIDEM.  Embracing the 1:1 relationship possible between fans and an artist, he was described as one of the most effective communicators with his fans, during a panel discussion at the MIDEMNet conference.  The “Serving Artists, Serving Fans” discussion focused on generating value and revenue streams from the relationship between fans and artists.

Bryan Calhoun, VP of new media and external affairs at Sound Exchange, is a consultant to Kanye West and says the rapper is “very active with communicating with his fans” on his blog and sometime posts seven or eight times a day. His music recommendations on the site have made him something of a tastemaker, or “curator for what is cool,” Calhoun commented.

“It’s definitely him,” Calhoun added, referring to the entries at www.kanyeuniversecity.com/blog. “It’s totally authentic. You can’t pay to put things on there–people have tried.”  The “significant amount of traffic” to the blog also means it makes money from advertising, Calhoun added.

Announcements to fans are specifically from West, never attributed to his label, which Calhoun said is crucial in personalizing the service and making the connection. He stressed that West is “very particular” about the messaging and there is complete control over his online activity at the blog and other platforms. 

 

Other advertising exploits, aimed at making music ‘feel free’ to consumers, included Coca-Cola and Warner Music partnering on a download release as part of the brand’s new “Open Happiness” global marketing campaign. The track, titled “Open Happiness,” was announced during the “Exploring New Models For Brands and Music Partnerships” panel.  Umut Ozaydinli, music-marketing manager for Coca-Cola’s Worldwide Sports and Entertainment Marketing division, said the track would be marketed via billions of cans of Coke.

Artist Jill Sobule chronicled her fan-financed album, which aimed at raising $90,000 to cover the costs of making a new album, and was readily achieved. One fan even donated $10,000 individually, which was rewarded with a guest vocal spot on one of the recordings. 

Tom Bywater, CEO and founder of Power Amp Music, which supplies financing to artists, said, “Investments in established artists make sense in any economic climate because music is part of our cultural DNA and it will never go away, no matter how people consume it changes. The recorded music business has suffered in recent years from the decline of CD sales, but live music, merchandising, music publishing and other income streams, such as sponsorship and branding, have all grown steadily and more than offset the decline in revenue from CD sales.”

Mike Masnick from TechDirt pointed to the session on how the Chinese music model had evolved. Almost no one buys music there, but it’s still a huge moneymaker for musicians. JY Park, President and artist, JYP Entertainment, had mentioned in his presentation that his musicians make a ton of money from brand sponsorships in China. But there were numerous other examples of musicians in China making plenty of money through mobile subscription services. For example, some musicians get fans to sign up for special subscriptions that represent the only way for them to potentially get tickets to see those acts perform live.

In advance of MIDEM, Omnifone and Gracenote announced a partnership that resonates this particular approach. The combined technologies of Gracenote and Omnifone provide consumers with a personalized, holistic music experience delivering immediate and unlimited access to millions of music tracks, and the freedom to download, make playlists, get recommendations, play music wherever they are, whenever they want, on any device they choose. 

“Making the Emerging Markets accountable is the key for the future of the Global Music Industry. As the old players helped destroy the business in China and Russia by selling for too little than they could afford in order to be able to pay their artists the royalties they had agreed to, they will not be the ones that can be trusted with building New Markets. It is clear that the consumer will pay for bandwidth and amount of traffic and that this money will be handed over to the traffic drivers like artists, TV, film studios, etc. The East will be first with this as they don’t have to fight existing players who protect old models. And then the rest will follow once they have seen how much sense it all makes.” –Thomas Reemer

CEO www.cugate.com 

For example, users can create a comprehensive Beyoncé playlist at home on their PC using a combination of their own collection and the unlimited music service, and start playing it in their living rooms, then, get in their cars, and have it pick up where they left off.   Later, when they are at a club, they can search for music they are looking for, then download it and have it synched to all of their devices, and get recommendations for other music they might like based on genre or user generated recommendations.

On each device, the most appropriate file format and user interface is presented to ensure the best possible user experience for that environment.

Jupiter Research forecast says U.S. digital music sales will grow by 17 percent per year on average over the next five years to make up 41 percent of sales by 2013, while Juniper Research predicts the success of unlimited music services on mobile platforms will significantly grow digital music revenues, with subscription-based unlimited digital music services overtaking “first generation” pay-per-track services and be worth U.S. $3.3 billion by 2012. 

“Omnifone’s partnership with Gracenote will make connected unlimited music services a reality in the living room, in the car, on mobile devices, and computers; everywhere we go our music collections, playlists, and recommendations will follow seamlessly, automatically and without wires.

Historically, unlimited music service providers have focused on mobile and PC platforms, but consumers want access to music in the living room and the car, as much as the mobile and desktop computer,” said Rob Lewis, CEO of Omnifone. “This announcement means music lovers will soon have the freedom to access and consume unlimited music legally, across a wide range of device platforms, with the most appropriate user interface and file format for each device, synchronized automatically rather than having to side-load, back-up or rip compact discs.”

One thing that is constant is change.  We can only hope the optimism and experimental mindset reflected at MIDEM continues throughout the year and beyond.  Perhaps the brightest part of the entire event was sitting in the Sunset Marquis VIP room and watching Barack Obama being sworn in as the 44^th President of the United States–and celebrating with dance and music.  Yes we can!  

Let Freedom Sing

The song “Strange Fruit” evokes imagery as ominous as any song ever written. Since her soul sang it so bitterly and true, most people think the great Lady Day wrote it. She didn’t. It began as a poem written by a Jewish English teacher in the Bronx who later put his own music to it.  But what Billie did do is infuse so much of herself and her life’s pain into performing the song, it achieved what Abel Meeropol wanted in the first place: becoming a focal point for the anti-lynching movement in the ‘40s. After she persuaded Commodores Records to release it, it became her best-selling record. “Strange Fruit” then inspired performers for all the generations to follow. This song somehow crystallizes the intent of Time Life in its new 3-CD set released for Black History Month 2009, entitled Let Freedom Sing-The Music of the Civil Rights Movement.

Time Life’s Senior VP of Audio & Video Retail, Mike Jason, executive producer of the 58-song set, says “We thought this was the most compelling story in the last 100 years. The idea was to show the evolution of this story with songs that reflect how the situations inspired the music and the music drove the movement.”

Jason added that it took three years from inception to completion.

“We understood the importance of bringing the story to life and taking the time to get it right,” said  Michael Mitchell, Time Life’s VP of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships.

Relying on the socially conscious artist Chuck D to introduce the set was an inspired choice, making the set instantly contemporary and meaningful to some who might view the Civil Rights Movement as something from back in the day. Chuck stresses how these blues, gospel, folk and R&B songs were a constant source of inspiration and pride in the African-American community. “Way before an iPod, these songs rang in my head as they navigated me through my near half a century life,” he declares. “You don’t get a black president overnight.” Included in the set is Chuck’s “The Pride” from 1996, which adds an even more contemporary impact.

The new President “adapted the words of Sam Cooke’s ‘Change Is Gonna Come’ in his acceptance speech,” notes Mitchell, adding, “For centuries, music vividly communicated injustices, especially for African-Americans in the South. This set encapsulates the struggles that eventually allowed African Americans, like me, to rise within our chosen professions, and allowed  Barack Obama to become the 44^th President of the United States.”

The set weaves the familiar with the lesser known and undiscovered. There is a bitter indictment of the treatment of African Americans in the Armed Forces during World War II in “Uncle Sam Says.”  “No Restricted Signs” and “Black, Brown and White” reveal the segregation that greeted returning servicemen.  Here are looks at the tenor of the ‘50s with the bus boycotts, the lynching of Emmett Till, the enforced integration of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the lunch counter sit-ins.

Nat King Cole recorded the song “We Are Americans Too” just one month after some white supremacists assaulted him on stage during a concert in April 1956 in Montgomery, Alabama. He never performed another concert in the South. Because Cole’s repertoire consisted almost entirely of love songs, “We Are Americans Too” was a dramatic change of pace, written more than a decade earlier. But Cole’s record label, Capitol, never released “We Are Americans Too,” offering the explanation that ‘there was too much at stake.

The escalating bitterness of the ‘60s is captured in songs like Phil Ochs’ “Too Many Martyrs” and John Lee Hooker’s “The Motor City Is Burning.” The riots following Dr. King’s assassination are there in George Perkins’ “Cryin’ in the Streets.” The Black Power era is reflected in Sly & the Family Stone’s “Stand,” Curtis Mayfield’s “We the People Who Are Darker than Blue,” Lee Dorsey’s “Yes We Can” and Gil Scott Heron’s classic, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”

Some of the songs are well-known: “Respect,” “Change Is Gonna Come,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “We Shall Overcome,” “Say It Loud I’m Black and I’m Proud,” “People Get Ready,” “Get up—Stand Up” and many more.

After so much time and passion invested into making these CDs, Jason was concerned that the set ‘would end up on a shelf somewhere.”  He was excited when the project evolved into a full-length documentary in a deal between Brainstorm Media, Time Life, TV One and MarVista Entertainment.

Hosted by Academy Award winner Louis Gossett Jr., ‘Let Freedom Sing’ begins in the era between the wars when jazz and blues evolved from songs sung by African-Americans in church and in the fields. It features rare footage from the ‘60’s, while tracing the influence of Civil Rights-inspired music around the world and revealing the enduring impact it retains on today’s popular music.

The film includes interviews with musicians, civil rights activists, historians and others including former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young; actress Ruby Dee, influential musicians Pete Seeger, Gladys Knight, Jimmy Carter and the Blind Boys of Alabama, Ruth Brown, Jerry Butler and Chuck D; and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) co-founder Dr. Bernard Lafayette.

TV One will premiere the documentary during Black History Month. Then PBS will use a version of the documentary during fund-raising time and Time Life will subsequently release the film on DVD. 

A few excerpts from the liner notes illuminate the quality of the set.  Big Bill Broonzy wrote Brownie McGhee’s “Black, Brown and White” singing about what goes on in the employment line: “If you’re white, you alright / If you’re brown, stick around / But if you’re black, oh brother / get back.’ “

In Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam,” noted music historian Colin Escott, who helped produce the compilation along with Bas Hartong and Jason, tells of Simone writing this song in 1963 after hearing about the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers in Mississippi. “I suddenly realized what it was to be black in America . . . it came as a rush of fury, hatred and determination.” Sample lyric: “Alabama’s gotten me so upset / Tennessee made me lose my rest / And everybody knows about Mississippi goddam.”

Lee Dorsey’s “Yes, We Can.” Long before will.i.am wrote a song based on Obama’s campaign line, Allen Toussaint wrote this idealistic number for Dorsey, who had enjoyed success earlier with Toussaint’s “Working in the Coal Mine.”

George Perkins & the Silver Stars’ “Cryin’ in the Streets, Part 1.” Recorded just months after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in ‘68, this mournful track features some chilling falsetto shrieks that convey the deep desperation and despair of the time.

The set is lovingly crafted, well researched and executed. The packaging evokes memories of the past from the photos of the “Equal-Rights in ’63” campaign button to the “Colored Waiting Room” sign. Chuck D sums it up well in his intro: “There’s a reason why listening to the past 100 years of black music can bring a sense of voice, sound, meaning, joy and pain…as well as a historical time-line.”

Time Life delivers well on the promise of remembering the past while celebrating the present.