Wiener-Dog is a new film by writer/director Todd Solondz (Storytelling, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Palindromes) that tells four different stories all connected by one common character, a small wiener dog. The film stars Danny DeVito, Greta Gerwig, Julie Delpy, and Ellen Burstyn. Wiener-Dog will be released in theatres on June 24, 2016.
SOCAN Launches API’s to Drive Music Royalties Innovation
In another leading move, music rights organization SOCAN has unveiled an application program interface (API) portal that enables a marketplace of new innovative apps that will revolutionize how music creators and music publishers work with SOCAN to get paid when their music is played.
SOCAN is using API technology – the digital glue that links large databases such as SOCAN’s with apps, mobile phones, and websites – to push music royalty management innovation out to the marketplace, transforming how music rights are managed in the digital era.
The first two APIs announced today are “Song Registration” and “Concert Notification.” Song/Work Registration enables writers to use new workflow apps and software to register their songs more accurately with their music publishers, labels, digital services and SOCAN.
The Concert Notification API enables songwriters and music publishers to easily register their concerts with SOCAN to get paid faster and more accurately for their live performances.
SOCAN’s development partner and first user of the Concert Notification API is Montréal-based music publisher David Murphy et ©ie, which is now successfully registering clients’ concerts with SOCAN through the API, ensuring faster and accurate payment. SOCAN anticipates that other medium and large music publishers, along with third-party providers, will connect their copyright management systems to the SOCAN database in this manner.
Toronto-based SongSplits is “the world’s first cloud based split sheet,” enabling co-writers to negotiate their percentage contribution, or “splits,” and ensure that all of the associated data (title, writers, etc.) is accurate and thorough when it is registered with SOCAN via the Song/Work Registration API.
Montréal-based TGiT (“tag it”) is an open source music tagging software platform that allows music creators to manage the descriptive information, tags and metadata associated with their original compositions and sound recordings, for export to SOCAN through the Song/Work Registration API.
David Murphy et ©ie, SongSplits and TGiT each contributed to the creation of the first API’s and will continue to use them to develop future applications for their customers.
By ensuring that music creators can easily agree on and export the data that the music royalty system depends on, these apps and SOCAN’s API’s will go a long way to clean up missing, conflicting and inaccurate data that bogs down the current global royalty system, particularly in digital streaming.
“SOCAN is leading the transformation of music rights by using technology to get songwriters and music publishers paid fairly when their music is played, especially in the challenging digital music royalty area,” said Michael McCarty, Chief Membership & Business Development Officer at SOCAN. “We are enabling a new segment of what we call the ‘RightsTech’ industry – developers who are creating new digital tools that will help to modernize a royalty system that was developed for the vinyl era.”
Companies that wish to utilize the SOCAN API’s can do so at no cost through the SOCAN Developer Portal, where they can register, download software code, and develop and test their apps in a secure sandbox before going live, helping SOCAN members get paid when their music is played.
What Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” Would Sound Like With No Music
Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough was the band’s first single to be released in the United States, and the final single to be written by founding member Vince Clarke, who left the band in November 1981.
Which is surprising, because as you can see from this television performance, it’s actually without any music or words except a holler and a hoot from lead singer Dave Gahan, thanks to another great re-imaging from Mario Wienerroither.
At 96, Dr. Heimlich Uses His Own Maneuver on Choking Victim. Meta.
Since he invented the Heimlich maneuver, Dr. Henry J. Heimlich had spent decades demonstrating the lifesaving technique on people willing to play the role of a choking victim.
But this week, Dr. Heimlich, 96, said he got to do the real thing.
He used the abdomen-squeezing maneuver on Monday night on an 87-year-old woman who was choking at their senior residence community in Cincinnati, popping a morsel of meat out of her mouth.
That Time Timothy Leary Recorded An Album With Jimi Hendrix And Stephen Stills
Timothy Leary’s album, which was recorded in 1968, You Can Be Anyone This Time Around featured three “raps” by Leary backed with psychedelic music. The purpose of the album was to raise funds for Leary’s political candidacy for Governor of California.
The album includes musical contributions from Jimi Hendrix on bass for Live and Let Live, and other geniuses like Stephen Stills, John Sebastian, and Buddy Miles recording during an all-night jam session at the Record Plant.
The title track and “What Do You Turn On When You Turn On” both feature sampling of music by other artists, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Ravi Shankar. This is one of the earliest known examples of sampling on a commercial record, which later led to lawyers figuring out there might be some new business to be had.
The Tragically Hip’s Sales Have Gone Through The Roof
In the wake of the grim news last week that Tragically Hip frontman and lyricist Gord Downie has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, the band’s sales have soared.
According to Nielsen Canada SoundScan data, album sales for the band went from 340 last week to over 5,000 in the week, with their ’05 best-of album Yer Favourites re-entering the Billboard Canadian Albums consumption chart at #6 with 4,500 consumption units which combines sales, streams and track sales.
The album also places at #1 on the Catalogue albums chart with 2,500 album sales. Three more albums place in the Top 200: Fully Completely–at 90, Road Apples at 137 and Up To Here at 165.
Track sales from the band’s catalogue leap from 1,400 to over 15,000 in the week, including eight in the top 200 Digital Songs chart. On-Demand streams increased from over 400,000 in the previous week to well over two million–and exposure on radio increased by 28 percent.
Watch These Kids Play Star Wars Theme. With Lightsabers. Wait…What?
The students of Quebec’s École de l’Harmonie St Édouard and École secondaire de La Seigneurie turned in this excellent a few months ago, and it’s always great to see kids get involved in music at an early age.
Oh, and they play the theme with lightsabers. That is all.
This Goodbye Letter From Dog Owner Will Have You In Tears
The Animal Rescue Site is an excellent resource, and also allows pet owners to share their heartwarming rescue stories, and recently letter had me in tears, this post took a lot longer to do, and it was just copy and paste.
When I first adopted you, I whispered to you “You gotta live forever, ‘kay?” Over the years when I would imagine life without you, I would say again to you “You gotta live forever, ‘kay?”
My body still wants to take you for a walk. Your leash still hangs by the door waiting for the words “wanna go outside?” It’s been raining a lot this week and I instinctively look at the clock to see if it’s near time to take you out.
Whenever I eat some crackers or chips, I look to see where you are so I can throw you some.
You were the perfect dog for me. So quiet…so calm. You never peed or chewed on anything. You barked so infrequently that you would scare yourself when you did.
You were with me through all the good times and the bad. You never judged me, even when I weighed 200 lbs and was sweating to the oldies. You always had a wag of the tail for me.
I loved how I could always trust you with any child. When you got older and a little more grey in the face, some of the neighbor kids started calling you Granny.
Even when you could no longer chew the hard kibble and you weren’t so interested in your toys, and had to be walked more often, I loved you so much.
You trusted me right up to the end. You believed me when I told you that you didn’t have to live forever and it’s OK to go.
I felt the life leave your body and you took a piece of me with you.
I love you sweet Jessie girl, and I’ll see you at the bridge. 1998 – 2016
The Tragically Hip Add More Dates To “Man Machine Poem” Tour
Due to overwhelming demand, The Tragically Hip have added four dates to the Man Machine Poem Tour, including additional shows in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Toronto. Complete tour list below.
Tickets will be available on Friday, June 3 through Ticketmaster and the partner websites listed on Ticketmaster.
The Tragically Hip – Man Machine Poem Tour
Added dates in bold
Friday, July 22 Victoria, BC Save On Foods Memorial Centre
Sunday, July 24 Vancouver, BC Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena
Tuesday, July 26 Vancouver, BC Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena
Thursday, July 28 Edmonton, AB Rexall Place
Saturday, July 30 Edmonton, AB Rexall Place
Monday, August 1 Calgary, AB Scotiabank Saddledome
Wednesday, August 3 Calgary, AB Scotiabank Saddledome
Friday, August 5 Winnipeg, MB MTS Centre
Monday, August 8 London, ON Budweiser Gardens
Wednesday, August 10 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
Friday, August 12 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
Sunday, August 14 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
Tuesday, August 16 Hamilton, ON FirstOntario Centre
Thursday, August 18 Ottawa, ON Canadian Tire Centre
Saturday, August 20 Kingston, ON Rogers K-Rock Centre