6 MusicWeek 14.09.12 NEWS
Levy starts Peer nights
ORGANISERS PREDICT Q4 BOOST • DECISION TO LEAVE BEEB EXPLAINED
Mercurys gather momentum T
EVENTS BY TIM INGHAM
he new-look Mercury Music Prize will help bring more sales
momentum to the albums chosen for this year’s prestigious shortlist, according to organisers. The Barclaycard-sponsored
Sarah Levy has joined Peermusic UK as creative manager. In addition to working with and helping to develop its roster of artists and songwriters, including Adam Argyle and Newton Faulkner, she is responsible for signing new talent.
“I’m very excited to work with and help build on peer’s fantastic roster, across both writers and artists” SARAH LEVY
Levy will also organise Peer’s
new live night PULSE this year, which will showcase emerging artists. Each night will feature a different partner. The first will be Sony label Ugly Truth, with whom Peer have just celebrated Newton Faulkner’s No.1 album. This debut night will be in London with more details due soon. Said Levy: “I’m very excited
to work with and help build on Peer’s fantastic roster, across both writers and artists. Alongside finding and developing new talent, Peer has an amazing track record in working with marquee names, such as David Foster, Steve Mac and Ester Dean. With the company looking for an established writer to join our roster, I plan to bring in another such name.” Peer MD Nigel Elderton commented: “I am delighted to have Sarah join the UK creative team. She brings with her valuable experience and a passion for music which will be a great asset to our writers and to peers offices around the world.”
event will this year take place on Thursday, November 1 at Camden’s Roundhouse in London - despite usually arriving in September. For the first time in its history, Channel 4 will take on responsibilities as official broadcast partner, replacing historic media ally the BBC. The 12 nominees, announced
this week after Music Week went to press - but likely to contain the likes of Alt-J (right), Richard Hawley and Emeli Sandé - will each be given a chance to play at a new ‘Albums Of The Year Live’ gig in the run-up to the show, all of which will be shown on Channel 4. Mercury Prize MD Dan Ford
told Music Week: “It made sense for us to move the whole Albums of the Year project back until after the summer. “Over recent years it has been
increasingly difficult to maintain the momentum of the campaign during a period when there are so many festivals taking place and so many people away for their summer breaks. “Announcing the shortlist in
September will enable us to maintain the momentum of the promotional campaign all the way through to the Awards Show and further on into the Christmas retail period.” Discussing the shock move
away from the BBC, which has been the broadcast partner of the
Mercurys for 15 years, Ford added: “It was a difficult to make the move away from the BBC and we spent a long time carefully assessing all of the options available to us. “One of our key objectives
going forward is for the Prize to have more touch points with music fans, so that they have more opportunities to access, engage and interact with the Prize and the artists that we’re promoting - through live events,
Prize names: 2011 winner PJ Harvey (left) and 2012 hopefuls Alt-J (below)
www.musicweek.com
“Over recent years it has been increasingly difficult to maintain the momentum of the campaign during a period when there are so many festivals taking place” DAN FORD, MERCURY PRIZE
online content and importantly television coverage. “As a result of our new expanded events programme, the Prize is now producing more visual content than ever before and we need to ensure that as much of that content as possible is available to a TV audience. “Channel 4 were in a position to offer us an extensive package of programming that will guarantee that music fans have more opportunities than ever
before to enjoy Barclaycard Mercury Prize TV programmes.” Each of the 12 shortlisted
artists will be invited to play the special one-off ‘Albums Of The Year’ gigs in London as part of the series of events. These will be free to attend, although everyone will be asked to make a donation to War Child. “We have been aware that
the Prize usually tends to have to have two spikes of attention and interest around the shortlist announcement and the Awards Show,” added Ford. “Introducing the additional ‘Albums of the Year Live’ gigs will enable us to focus far greater attention on all of the shortlisted artists in the run-up to the Awards Show – particularly as the events will be filmed for broadcast on Channel 4 with additional content being made available online and for the labels to use at retail.”
Nova expands into digital movies
Independent distributor Nova has extended its list of digital services. As well as supplying thousands of tracks to audio- selling sites across the world, the firm can now place full- length music, documentary or
movies of all types onto iTunes, Netflix, Blinkbox (for international download), VOD or PSB placement. Nova MD Wilf Mann (left)
said: “We aim to add many more video titles to a growing roster in
this new branch of digital sales” Nova offers a tailored range of
sales, marketing and manufacturing services, whilst it distributes titles digitally and globally to stores via Universal Music Operations.
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