Media: Rockers ditch Warner to sell online

The Mint Chicks are committing their fortunes to the digital future. Photo / Getty Images

Kiwi indie rockers the Mint Chicks have parted ways with Warner Music and taken up with the tiny online firm musichype.com.

It is not the first band to throw its weight into independent online sales.

But it is another sign of the dynamic change facing the big multinational record companies, which have been decimated by pirated online music.

Traditionally musos moved heaven and hell to sign with a major Hollywood label - giving them a shot at the big time.

But the Mint Chicks decided Warner's potential marketing firepower was doing them little good. They were out of contract and decided not to negotiate to re-sign, a record industry source said.

The band - which splits its time between Auckland and Portland, Oregon - is the first act on musichype.com, a music platform chaired by Dave Moskovitz which aims to expand into the United States market.

The site will soon start selling the Mint Chicks' new EP Bad Buzz.

Moskovitz said the underlying business idea for the music platform was that by better engaging with their fan base through musichype.com, bands would get more people into concerts and a bigger share of online sales revenue.

"Musicians these days make most of their money out of merchandising and bums on seats at their gigs. The traditional model is for big labels to hoover much of the money out of online sales. If they sell a single on iTunes for US99c they get only US5c or US10c."

So how will a small website compete with the marketing firepower of a major Hollywood record label like Warner Music?

Moskovitz said social media sites like Facebook would have a big role.

"The experience of many bands is that they [the major labels] do bugger all unless you are a big star like Beyonce."

Mint Chick Ruban Nielson said: "We were looking to do things different. The major labels are slow-moving, risk-averse dinosaurs, and increasingly irrelevant."

He is clearly optimistic that the future is brighter with indie digital distribution.

AN INKY TRAIL

Who will replace Shayne Currie as editor of the Herald on Sunday? Currie has been appointed as one of two deputy editors at the daily New Zealand Herald and starts on February 22, leading to speculation about who might be applying.

One name that springs to mind is Bill Ralston, a former HoS columnist and head of news and current affairs at TVNZ.

Another person who would fit the mould is sports editor Paul Lewis. Also Bryce Johns, the editor of the Waikato Times, who had been tipped as a contender for the Sunday Star-Times and Dominion Post.

Meanwhile in other newspaper movements, one of Fairfax Media's top journalists - Independent deputy editor Gareth Vaughan - has left to join Bernard Hickey at banking and business website interest.co.nz.

Business Herald senior writer and Stock Takes columnist Adam Bennett is moving to work for the New Zealand Herald in the Parliamentary Press Gallery.

CELEBRITY RESCUE

These are interesting times in the Sunday market with the once-beleaguered Sunday News emerging over the past few months as the main editorial competitor for the Herald on Sunday.

Coverage of the Robin Brooke fiasco in Fiji - where Brooke has been accused of grabbing the buttocks of a 15-year-old girl - was a case in point.

The HoS followed a Sunday News scoop photo of Brooke in drag with a heartfelt report on "Brooke's baby anguish".

Star columnist Paul Holmes stepped in for an understanding celebrity rescue - reprising his role with fellow celeb Tony Veitch.

The effect of the Holmes column was to undermine the allegations that Brooke groped a young girl and grabbed a teenage boy by the throat.

MORE TO COME

The film industry is waiting expectantly for the Peter Jackson/David Court report on the New Zealand Film Commission.

But it will be some time yet, as the Government is still waiting for a copy. Jackson is still to return from holiday after the release of The Lovely Bones.

A spokesman for Arts Minister Chris Finlayson said there was no deadline for the report, so it was not a question of it being late.

It is expected to lead to a legislated revamp of the commission, which has a key role in the local film industry.

One industry source said the commission was in limbo waiting to find its future.

While we are still on film, I'd like to revisit a report in an end-of-year A to Z column that stated that New Zealand taxpayers were expected to contribute more than $50 million to Hollywood for Avatar, with a proportion spent in this country.

Media recently reported that the film had received $45 million under the Large Budget Screen Production Grant. But the Ministry of Economic Development confirmed that Avatar had not yet sent in its final grant application. I'm betting that will take it over $50 million.

RULE BRITANNIA

The overseas investment authorisation for high-profile company MediaWorks has highlighted the opaque nature of private equity - with ownership made up from widely disparate individual investments and bank loans.

Investors associated with the Australian-owned Ironbridge Capital contributed to a $70 million cash injection for MediaWorks alongside other unnamed investors. Ironbridge - which clearly controls MediaWorks - has declined to identify the other investors.

A recent decision authorising the restructuring under the Overseas Investment Act notes that British investment now makes up the majority (59.2 per cent) of investment in MediaWorks, which includes TV3, C4 and half New Zealand's commercial radio stations including RadioLive, The Edge, The Rock, More FM, Solid Gold and The Breeze.

Asked for comment, Ironbridge New Zealand director Kerry Macintosh said funds associated with Ironbridge retained the majority of MediaWorks and the OIA results simply reflected the quirks of New Zealand overseas ownership rules that recorded the domicile of investors.

Under last year's restructuring the holding company for MediaWorks changed from HT Media - made up of Ironbridge and others - to GR Media Holdings. HT took about a 35 per cent stake of GR Media.

HT Media is 36 per cent owned by Singaporean interests, 17.9 per cent Australian, 13.7 per cent from the Netherlands, 10 per cent from the US, 10 per cent from New Zealand, 4.9 per cent from Switzerland and 2.8 per cent from Japan and 2.4 per cent from various.

Under the new arrangements the stake held by United Kingdom investment has ballooned to 59.2 per cent with Australia 31.9 per cent and New Zealand 8.5 per cent.

According to Companies Office records, the Royal Bank of Scotland is a minority shareholder in GR Media Holdings, as is the Bank of New Zealand.

MediaWorks - especially the television operations - faced a tough 2009 along with other media. The company was also lumbered with heavy interest payments harking back to Ironbridge's purchase of the company in 2007 - at the height of the private equity acquisitions boom.

VELVET VICE

K Rd meets corporate America in a link between alternative publisher Vice and the US media giant CNN.

US-based Vice - which is part of a joint venture that markets in Australia and New Zealand - has signed a deal for its internet television arm VBS in a a content-sharing arrangement with CNN.com.

Under the terms of the agreement, every Wednesday from January 20, 2010, a new episode from VBS TV is featured at www.cnn.com/vbs.

An item about New Zealand will show on VBS soon based around tattoos.

Vice New Zealand part-owner Michael Slonim said the free magazine - which pulled back from some of its edgier alternative content recently - had been performing well and drawing advertising from young fashion brands.

SILVERSCREEN

Internationally recognised film director Vincent Ward has pointed out that the Silverscreen company which collapsed is different from the firm that made River Queen. Last week, in passing, the column noted the collapse of "film production company" Silverscreen.

Ward clarified the matter and said the production company that made River Queen had played no part in the collapse of Silverscreen Film.