PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Clyne Media, Inc.
Tel: (615) 662-1616
Fax: (615) 662-1636
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THE RECORDING ACADEMY® PRODUCERS & ENGINEERS WING
FOCUSES ON TECHNICAL ISSUES AND ADVOCACY IN 2008
Unique Events Presented Nationwide Bring Together People and Ideas
To Highlight Music and Key Developments in Music Recording Technology
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (October 20, 2008) — Along
with a busy calendar of special events over the past 12 months, The
Recording Academy® Producers & Engineers Wing membership delivers
a broad range of practical information, services and inspiration to
the recording industry.
At the 125th AES Convention in San Francisco, The Recording
Academy and the P&E Wing continued to address issues facing the
changing audio industry, presenting their 20th annual GRAMMY® Producers
SoundTable on Saturday, October 4th. Titled "You Inc.: Career Strategies
for a New Economy" and moderated by producer/engineer Mike Clink
(Aerosmith, Guns n' Roses, Sarah Kelly), it featured panelists Sylvia
Massy, Keith Olsen, Phil Ramone, Carmen Rizzo and John Vanderslice,
focusing on what it takes to thrive in today's brave new music industry.
"Our P&E Wing members constitute a dynamic community
that works hard to improve our industry," stated Maureen Droney,
Senior Executive Director of the Producers & Engineers Wing. "It
is their efforts that keep the P&E Wing on the cutting edge, addressing
the critical issues affecting the art and craft of recorded music."
Other key areas of interest to audio professionals addressed
in the past year include new advances in technologies and best practices
for preparing, saving, archiving, storing and migrating digital music
files. This initiative has been brought to the forefront by the P&E
Wing's collaboration with BMS Chace and the Library of Congress on the
"Digital Archive Recording Metadata Schema and Collection Process"
project. A related initiative and paper, a joint effort with the Audio
Engineering Society titled "Recommendation for the Delivery of
Recorded Music Projects," has been updated and revised and is now
available in PDF format on the P&E Wing's Web site, www.producersandengineers.com.
Also produced by P&E Wing members is the well-received "Digital
Audio Workstation Guidelines for Music Production," a format-agnostic
document based on the previous document “Pro Tools Guidelines
for Music Production.” The P&E Wing also researched and revised
crediting definitions for the titles of producer and engineer as they
relate to GRAMMY Award eligibility.
In the past 12 months, the P&E Wing has also remained
highly visible by collaborating on more than 35 national and regional
events. A sampling of the kinds of informative events organized by the
Wing and its members underscores the breadth and depth of the group's
efforts, as well as the initiative shown by P&E Wing committees
in the 12 Recording Academy Chapters. In February, the P&E Wing
produced its first-ever GRAMMY Week event, "50 Years of Great GRAMMY
Recordings," a celebration at The Village Studios in Los Angeles
that featured musical selections from 50 years of GRAMMY winners, garnering
more than 600 attendees.
Other event highlights included:
• The San Francisco Chapter's 4-part "Life
of a Song" series; "50 Years of Great Jazz Recording"
at the International Association for Jazz Education conference in Toronto.
• "Festival Recording: Challenges, Techniques
& Preservation" at the Smithsonian Folkways Festival in Washington,
D.C.
• The Pacific Northwest Chapter's 2-day MusicTech
Summit.
• In partnership with Billboard magazine, a roundtable
in Las Vegas at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show with P&E Wing
members and representatives from Best Buy, Dell, Universal and MusicGiants.com
titled "The Digital Dilemma: Convenience vs. Quality."
• Surround Broadcast Conference at the 2008 National
Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas, where the Producers &
Engineers Wing presented "Golden Audio: Live Music Broadcasting
Lessons From The GRAMMYs," highlighting the fact that the GRAMMY
Awards telecast was produced exclusively in 5.1 surround for the 50th
Annual GRAMMY Awards.
• The Memphis Chapter and the Producers & Engineers
Wing hosted a lively discussion on the problems and complications surrounding
digital media storage for attendees of the 2008 International Folk Alliance
Conference. Titled "Protecting Your Assets," the panel teamed
Nashville-based P&E Wing members with noted Memphis archivists and
explored both the importance of protecting master recordings and the
current challenges facing the industry in doing so.
• The P&E Wing's participation at PotLuckCon
in New Orleans resulted in two panels on hip-hop/urban music, "Exploring
Hustle & Flow: Urban Hip-Hop Music in Film-Making" and "In
Their Own Words: Urban and Hip-Hop Producers Discuss Their Craft,"
along with another presentation of "Protecting Your Assets."
Also on the year's agenda was the innovative Producers'
Compensation Initiative, a study of producer compensation and where
it fits into today’s music business revenue models, as well as
a renewed emphasis on advocacy. The P&E Wing actively supports terrestrial
radio performance royalties through education about the Performance
Rights Act bill currently before Congress, and has also joined with
the manufacturers of professional wireless audio devices to educate
about the dangers inherent in current proposed legislation regarding
the use of spectrum "white spaces" for unlicensed wireless
consumer devices.
Established in 1957, The Recording Academy is an organization
of musicians, producers, engineers and recording professionals that
is dedicated to improving the cultural condition and quality of life
for music and its makers. Internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards
— the preeminent peer-recognized award for musical excellence
and the most credible brand in music — The Recording Academy is
responsible for groundbreaking professional development, cultural enrichment,
advocacy, education and human services programs. In its 50th year, The
Academy continues to focus on its mission of recognizing musical excellence,
advocating for the well-being of music makers and ensuring music remains
an indelible part of our culture. For more information about The Academy,
please visit www.grammy.com.
Currently, 6,000 professionals comprise the Producers
& Engineers Wing, which was established for producers, engineers,
remixers, manufacturers, technologists, and other related creative and
technical professionals in the recording community. This organized voice
for the recording community addresses issues that affect the craft of
recorded music, while ensuring its role in the development of new technologies,
recording and mastering recommendations, and archiving and preservation
initiatives. For more information, please visit www.producersandengineers.com.
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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Robert Clyne/Clyne Media, Inc./615.662.1616/robert@clynemedia.com
Lisa Roy/310.463.1563/lisaroyaudio@mac.com
Jennifer Keppel/The Recording Academy/310.392.3777/jenniferk@grammy.com