January 13, 2006 Major labels have put catalog mining into the hands of specialized divisions GRAMMY.com Nick Krewen If you’re a Ray Charles fan, Christmas has come early. To celebrate what would have been his 75th birthday, Rhino Entertainment recently issued a pair of Ray Charles albums — a posthumous duets project called Genius & Friends and the more elaborate Pure Genius: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959), an eight-disc set…
Actor Musicians Nick Krewen Grammy.com October 2003 Golden Globe or Golden Throat? There may be a sizeable increase in the number of actors pursuing their muse as recording artists these days, but trying to earn respect from the masses, the music industry and critics is still an uphill battle. Some, such as Hilary Duff or Jennifer Lopez, are talented television and movie multi-taskers who seem to have no trouble climbing…
Tribute labels Nick Krewen Grammy.com May 2003 Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but some record companies are using it in a low-key manner to help pay the bills. Behold the tribute record, that seemingly unassuming piece of product that sits innocuously on record racks alongside the CD catalog of your favorite artist. Unlike some of their higher end brethren that include star-driven lineups and often make…
GRAMMY Magazine – November 27, 2002 Searching The Web’s Haystack Is the Internet’s ability to help find and incubate talent coming of age? Nick Krewen Grammy.com When talking about the music business, Grant Dexter isn’t above using a few hockey analogies. And when it comes to artist development, the puck stops here, at the spacious Toronto headquarters of his Internet-driven record label, MapleMusicRecordings.com (www.maplemusicrecordings.com). Dexter says his record…
Survival Of The Fittest Nick Krewen Grammy.com July 2002 It’s one thing if you’re an established artist like Prince, who sold 40 million records during his Warner years and wants to forego the major label route in favor of his own Internet venture www.npgmusicclub.com. It’s another, however, if you’re an artist that was perfectly happy to be nestled in the bosom of a major record company, only to have…
