Björn Ulvaeus opens the 2020 PRSAGM

►PRS member and President of cisacnews
Björn Ulvaeus opens the 2020 PRSAGM.
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· 18 de agosto

# News
The PRS AGM was opened by legendary songwriter, PRS for Music member and recently appointed President of CISAC, Björn Ulvaeus, with a special keynote speech.

"The timing is perfect for PRS to take the decision to become more efficient, flexible and quicker on its feet, which I'm certain the new governance plan will achieve. Congratulations Andrea and the people you've worked with for doing a great job".

Björn Ulvaeus, songwriter and PRS for Music member

video: https://www.facebook.com/abbaregistro/videos/668247587115867
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Historic governance changes approved at PRS AGM 2020
First proposed major governance changes for PRS in 20 years approved by members at the virtual PRS Annual General Meeting

PRS logo on marque page
In a landmark moment for the Performing Right Society (PRS), the most significant governance changes for the organisation in 20 years were approved by members at the PRS 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday 18 August.

With over 1,000 songwriter, composer and music publisher members engaged either on the day, or through the voting process, this year’s AGM set a record for the highest participation in PRS AGM history. Held virtually due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, it was also the first AGM to be led by Andrea C. Martin since joining the organisation as CEO in 2019, a year that saw record results achieved.

The product of an extensive review by independent experts based on best practice in company governance, the newly approved governance changes include:

PRS Board becoming a smaller ‘Members' Council’ with fewer Directors and focused on member engagement
Appointment of a new Writer President
A new electoral college system for Director appointments
Maximum terms of service for Board Directors
Streamlined decision-making through refocused committee reporting structures to give greater time to focus on strategic issues
The PRS for Music Executive Board, will become simply, the Board, with a renewed focus on strategic delivery and commercial operation, empowering PRS’ Executive Leadership Team to manage the business with full accountability to the Board.

Early on, I recognised that to create a new PRS, a new governance structure would be required. Change is never an easy thing to embrace but standing still in a world of now 19 trillion performances, and growing, across multi-territories and with fragmented rights is not an option. The new governance will make PRS more flexible, more fleet-of-foot in our decision-making process and more cost-effective. On behalf of everyone at PRS, we are excited by the challenges ahead and motivated by change.

Andrea C. Martin, CEO, PRS for Music
I am incredibly pleased to see that our proposed governance changes have been approved. These historic changes will allow us to deliver more engagement, efficiency and transparency for our members. Furthermore, we anticipate the approved changes will lead to more opportunities for members to join the Board and by association we hope for greater diversity on the Board in the future.

Nigel Elderton, Chairman, PRS for Music
It is hoped that a key outcome of the new governance structure is better engagement for candidacy which will lead to improved diversity on the Board.

Any reflection on the year to date must include Black Lives Matter, and the long overdue global debate about social inequality and injustice.

I am completely committed to positive change within PRS and the whole music industry, but first and foremost we must educate ourselves. Personally, I know I have learned a lot in the last few weeks in my discussions with employees. We will accelerate measures to ensure diversity of our membership is reflected in the make-up of the management and Board. We have already started to take action.

Andrea C. Martin, CEO, PRS for Music


In her first keynote speech as PRS for Music CEO, Andrea C. Martin spoke of company-wide initiatives created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic including the PRS Emergency Relief Fund and PRS Presents LCKDWN, a re-invigorated corporate culture and greater focus around key strategic goals, the positive progress of joint ventures PPL PRS and ICE, PRS for Music’s place within the UK music landscape and the crucial need of the new governance structure, and continued evolution to better support its members.

Further speeches were delivered by Chairman Nigel Elderton, who set out the importance of new governance, the difficulties of the last six months and how the wider music industry can recover. Chief Financial Officer, Steve Powell, provided a financial overview of PRS for Music’s record 2019, in revenues and distributions, alongside the estimated impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The PRS AGM was opened by legendary songwriter, PRS for Music member and recently appointed President of CISAC, Björn Ulvaeus, with a special keynote speech.

The timing is perfect for PRS to take the decision to become more efficient, flexible and quicker on its feet, which I'm certain the new governance plan will achieve. Congratulations Andrea and the people you've worked with for doing a great job.

Björn Ulvaeus, songwriter and PRS for Music member
About PRS for Music
PRS for Music represents the rights of songwriters, composers and music publishers in the UK and around the world. As a membership organisation it works to ensure that creators are paid whenever their musical compositions and songs are streamed, downloaded, broadcast, performed and played in public. In 2019, 18.8 trillion performances of music were reported to PRS for Music with £810.8m collected on behalf of its members, making it one of the world’s leading music collective management organisations.

PRS for Music’s public performance licensing is carried out on PRS for Music’s behalf by PPL PRS Ltd, the joint venture between PPL and PRS for Music.
prsformusic.com

Flashback 1982: Abba CD Is World’s First

Aug 18, 2020

# Notes
Flashback 1982: Abba CD Is World’s First
Hace 38 años se lanzó el primer Compact Disk (CD)
Fue el 17 de agosto (1982) cuando Royal Philips Electronics fabrica el primer disco compacto (CD) de la historia

Lunes, Agosto 17, 2020 | Foto / YouTube / ABC Science
A lo largo de la historia hemos visto cómo el mundo se ha ido transformando y los inventos que han revolucionado la música, como lo fue el CD.
Fue el 17 de agosto (1982) cuando Royal Philips Electronics fabrica el primer disco compacto (CD) de la historia.
El primer CD fabricado en la planta de Philips fue "The Visitors" de ABBA y fue lanzado en noviembre de 1982.
Fue en la fábrica de Philips donde se fabricó el primer CD del mundo, la cual se encontraba en Langenhagen, a las afueras de Hannover, Alemania y pertenecía a Polygram (la compañía de grabación, que Philips poseía en ese momento).
En ese momento, se introdujeron los CD´s en el mercado en noviembre de 1982, con un catálogo de 150 títulos aproximadamente.
Los primeros CDs y reproductor de CD (incluyendo CD100 Philips) se lanzan en Japón en noviembre, seguido de una introducción en el mercado de Estados Unidos y Europa en marzo de 1983.
Y el éxito del producto fue innegable, ya que Philips junto a Sony fabricaron más de 200 mil millones de CDs en los siguientes 25 años.
La calidad del CD marcó el inicio de la transición de la tecnología analógica a la música digital, además se convirtió en un catalizador para la innovación en el entretenimiento digital, ayudando a preparar el terreno para el lanzamiento del DVD y la introducción actual de medios ópticos Blu-ray.

https://www.e-consulta.com/…/hace-38-anos-se-lanzo-el-prime…
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Flashback 1982: Abba CD Is World’s First
SV Staff | Aug 18, 2016
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Say what you will about Abba but the ‘70s pop band is able to lay claim a small but significant piece of tech history. The Swedish group’s final studio album The Visitors was the world’s first commercially produced CD when it rolled off the production line 34 years ago this week at the Philips/Polygram-owned CD manufacturing plant in Langenhagen, Germany.
The disc was one of 50 discs produced in October 1982 to support the launch of the Compact Disc, the original digital music format from Sony and Philips that would go on to replace the vinyl LP (which is currently enjoying a nice resurgence). By the time the CD went on sale in Japan in November of that year, about 150 titles—mostly classical—had been produced. The format was introduced in the U.S. and Europe in March of 1983.

https://www.soundandvision.com/…/flashback-1982-abba-cd-wor…’s-first
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Manufactured By – Polygram, Hanover, West Germany
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Polar Music International AB
Copyright (c) – Polar Music International AB
Recorded At – Polar Studios
Mixed At – Polar Studios
Notas
The first Abba CDs ever produced were never designed for public consumption. Indeed, they predate the release of the first CDs to the general public. The story of Abba on CD began in the technical laboratories of PolyGram in West Germany.

In the run-up to the official launch of the CD format in March 1983, PolyGram produced a number of different prototype discs of differing musical genres to test their manufacturing processes and eventually promote the new format among the press.

The chosen pop CD prototype was The Visitors, seemingly chosen because it had been mostly digitally recorded and it was the then latest record by PolyGram’s best-selling European artist, Abba.

In all, there were three different prototypes of The Visitors produced, each with different characteristics. Only one of these versions is known to be playable – the other two only appear to have been preserved encased in plastic in commemorative pieces presented to PolyGram staff to celebrate the launch of the new format.

All three versions have identical disc faces, which feature a different textual layout to the publicly released version. The most notable of these is that the catalogue number is printed as 8000 112 on the prototypes but appears as 800 011-2 on the released version.

ABBA - The Visitors (Prototype 1)
The first version can be identified from its data side, which features no matrix number etched on the inner hub and strange grooves throughout the disc unlike any subsequent CDs. It is highly unlikely to have been playable.

ABBA - The Visitors (Prototype 2)
The second version may have been playable but it is doubtful whether it played The Visitors. The data side’s matrix number is 400 029-2, which corresponds with the early classical release, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra’s version of Tchaikovsky’s Symphonie Nr. 6. As a result, it seems likely that this ‘dummy’ version was produced for marketing purposes.

ABBA - The Visitors (Prototype 3)
The third version was definitely playable and was sent out to the press with pre-production CD players for review purposes. Among these reviewers were Bjorn, Benny and Abba’s manager Stig Anderson, who were presented with copies (and a CD player) by PolyGram in August 1982. While the third version was essentially the finished product, it wasn’t the one that made it into the shops in 1983.

ABBA - The Visitors (Commercial Release)
For a start, the text print on the CD had been changed to exclude track running times so that there was more space for producing and publishing credits. The digits in the title’s catalogue number had also been reshuffled to follow the familiar pattern adopted by all PolyGram CD releases until the late 1990s.

In addition, it is possible that the actual mastering on the disc was also changed – early reviewers of the disc had observed that tape hiss was audible during the segue between Slipping Through My Fingers, which was recorded on analogue equipment, and Like An Angel Passing Through My Room, which had been recorded digitally. This hiss isn’t evident on the commercially released version of the album.

https://www.discogs.com/ABBA-The-Visitors/release/8771945

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On 17 August 1982, Royal Philips Electronics manufactured the worlds first compact disc at a Philips factory in Langenhagen, just outside of Hanover, Germany.

The invention of the CD brought in a technological revolution in the music industry as CDs marked the beginning of the shift from analog to digital music technology. The CD became a catalyst for further innovation in digital entertainment, helping pave the way for the launch of DVD and subsequent digital media.

The Philips factory in Germany, where the worlds first CD was pressed, belonged to Polygram the recording company owned by Philips at the time. The first CD to be manufactured at the plant was The Visitors by ABBA. By the time CDs were introduced on the market in November 1982, a catalog of around 150 titles mainly classical music had been produced. The first CDs and CD players including Philips CD100 were introduced in Japan in November, followed by a US and European market introduction in March of 1983.

Philips and Sony partnered to develop the CD. As early as 1979, Philips and Sony set up a joint task force of engineers to design the new digital audio disc. Many decisions were made in the year to follow, such as the disc diameter. The original target storage capacity for a CD was one hour of audio content, and a disc diameter of 115 mm was sufficient for this. However, both parties extended the capacity to 74 minutes to accommodate a complete performance of Beethovens 9th Symphony.

In June 1980, the new standard was proposed by Philips and Sony as the Red Book,containing all the technical specification for all CD and CD-Rom standards.

Piet Kramer, who at the time was a member of the optical group at Philips that made a significant contribution to the CD technology, commented on Philips and Sonys collaborative work: When Philips teamed up with Sony to develop the CD, our first target was to win over the world for the CD. We did this by collaborating openly to agree on a new standard. For Philips, this open innovation was a new approach and it paid off. In the late 70s and early 80s, we never imagined that one day the computing and entertainment industries would also opt for the digital CD for storing the growing volume of data for computer programs and movies.

As music industry sales of CDs started to take off in 1983, more than 1,000 different titles were on the market. In 1985, one of the most famous bands in the world, Dire Straits, adopted the CD. The infamous album Brothers in Arms,one of the first fully-digital recordings (DDD) to be brought to market, went on to become the top selling CD at the time and the third greatest selling CD of the decade. The joint collaboration with Philips entailed Philips and Dire Straits jointly promoting the sound quality of the CD to consumers. Brothers in Arms became the first album to sell more than one million copies in this new format, marking the success of the CD as the emerging format of choice for music quality.

The Compact Disc, is the forefather of todays extensive family of optical discs for a wide range of applications such as CD-Rom, CD-R and CD-RW, DVD, DVD R, DVD RW and beyond. Philips estimates that during the past 25 years, since the first CD was pressed at the Philips factory near Hanover, Germany, more than 200 billion CDs have been sold worldwide.

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=7304

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Can Nine please remaster ABBA special next?

Today I found this article from .July 25th, 2020, Here the journalist wrote about the documentary The Best of ABBA.. . "Filmed at TCNN9 as a Bandstand special and introduced by Daryl Somers, this drew higher ratings than the 1969 moon landing".
And in the midle of the note... You can read: ABBA have just confirmed they will release 5 new songs in 2021 (Nine has rights to upcoming TV special) plus an ABBA-tar hologram tour....
It is the second time that I read about these agreements

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Can Nine please remaster ABBA special next?
July 25th, 2020 By David Knox
News, Video,

After a recent Beatles remastered concert, I’m going to suggest Nine dig into its vaults for the 1976 special The Best of ABBA.

Filmed at TCNN9 as a Bandstand special and introduced by Daryl Somers, this drew higher ratings than the 1969 moon landing.
Produced at the time by Grundy, it also featured an appearance by country singer Lucky Starr. It was repackaged as ABBA in Australia with a barbecue and cruise on the Hawkesbury River, a visit to Taronga Zoo and throwing boomerangs (to Bang-a-Boomerang of course).
ABBA have just confirmed they will release 5 new songs in 2021 (Nine has rights to upcoming TV special) plus an ABBA-tar hologram tour.Introduction to the show by host Daryl Somers
Mamma Mia
Introduction by Björn; Frida, Agnetha and Benny introduce themselves
Hasta Mañana
Ring Ring
Introduction by Frida
Tropical Loveland
Introduction by Agnetha
Waterloo
I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
Introduction by Agnetha and Frida
Rock Me
song by guest Lucky Starr
Interview with Lucky Starr, Björn and Benny
song by Lucky Starr
Honey, Honey
Introduction by Frida
Fernando
So Long
Introduction by Benny
SOS
So Long
closing credits, medley of clips from special: Mamma Mia; Ring Ring; Waterloo; I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do; Honey, Honey; Rock Me; Fernando; SOS

https://tvtonight.com.au