QUICK HITS: Americanafest • Symphonic • VNUE + StageIt • WMG
Craig Shelburne has been named the new Festival Producer for the Americana Music Association’s AMERICANAFEST, which is slated for September 13-17 in Nashville. He is also the Managing Editor at the Bluegrass Situation.
• Oz McGuire has been named VP of A&R and Business Development at Symphonic Distribution. He joins Symphonic from independent distributor Ingrooves Music Group.
• TuneCore has partnered with to makes its distributed music available on newly launched mobile music discovery platform Fwaygo.
Created by serial social media entrepreneur, musician and Fwaygo CEO Jeremy Greene alongside partners Mercari CEO John Lagerling and Fwaygo COO Janelle Greene, the company launched in beta late last year and has already attracted tens of thousands of users and gained the support of artists like rapper Young Thug, who uses Fwaygo to find new music and artists with whom to collaborate.
• VNUE has completed the acquisition of StageIt, one of the oldest and most well-known ticketed livestream companies. With the acquisition, the company will add livestream platform alongside its existing artist-centric services.
“Although it took longer for the related due diligence work and audit process, this is a match made in heaven, and it was finally time to make our mutual admiration a true union,” said VNUE CEO Zach Bair. “StageIt is a powerhouse platform, and is the perfect companion for VNUE’s artist-centric products and services. The value of the StageIt database with over one million subscribers, and the opportunity to leverage and monetize that database for future VNUE and StageIt business, is huge given the damage done to the music business by COVID. VNUE is perfectly positioned with our suite of products, including Set.fm and DiscLive, to create real value for artists, and for the company and its shareholders.”
StageIt Founder Evan Lowenstein agreed. “The vision for StageIt was always to give artists a platform that would allow them to connect with their fans directly and earn a living,” said Lowenstein. “Combining efforts with VNUE will now give artists even more revenue streams and better ways to connect with fans.”
• Warner Music Group (WMG) has launched a Global DEI Institute as part of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) commitments and the company’s first Environmental Social Governance (ESG) report.
The company’s first global head of DEI, Dr. Maurice A. Stinnett will work across WMG to build local implementation as well as to foster links to social impact initiatives in marginalized communities.
Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.
