Contributed by Jennifer Irizarry
@jennyfriend

A guy walks away from a career as an artist and performer and doesn't appear again on stage for 25 years. When he leaves performing, he is at the peak of his creative power, having just garnered Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe songwriting nominations. He disappears into the corporate media world, selling 70 million soundtracks for the biggest movies of the past two decades ( Avatar, Titanic, Slumdog Millionaire, Juno) as President of Fox Music from 1994-2012. 

Contributed by Jennifer Irizarry
@jennyfriend

On October 16, 2013, MasterPeace -the world's most innovative, grassroots and global peace movement- convened a panel of music industry insiders and social entrepreneurs at CMJ to discuss how music can advance social movements.

Moderated by Craig Zelizer, founder of the Peace and Development Collaborative, the panel included hip-hop artist The Narcicyst, MasterPeace Co-Founder Mohamed Helmy, Nusrat Durrani, GM of MTV World, and Jeb Gutelius, architect of Fun's pro-social arm, The Ally Coalition.

Check out highlights from the panel in the storify piece below:

Contributed by Jennifer Irizarry
@jennyfriend

Congratulations to Mongolian media mogul Nomin Chinbat, named one of The Hollywood Reporter's 25 Most Powerful Women in Global TV, who has made it her mission to bring Mongolian broadcast tv into the 21st century.  

As Nomin explains in her interview with C21, Mongol TV is the only network in the country that bucks the trend of rampant piracy. In this nation of just 3 million people, format knock-offs are par for the course but Chinbat is a modernizing pioneer, bringing awareness and respect for trademark rights to her work as an industry thought leader.

This is no surprise given that Mongol TV's rebrand was executed by Michel Rodrigue's The Format People who spearheaded nothing short of a revolution in Mongolian broadcasting by bringing over a team of over 30 international experts to train local talent and build Mongolian studios from the ground up.

Mongol TV was honored in June at Promax BDA with a bronze award for their on-air graphics campaign. 

MGC is proud to have Mongol TV as a client and be part of the next wave of quality broadcasting in Mongolia.

MasterPeace- arguably the world's fastest growing grassroots peace movement in the world with clubs in over 40 countries- kicked off its US expansion in LA, a city known globally for its trend-setting style. Befitting their passion for 'Music above Fighting', what better place to announce the launch of MasterPeace's US presence than the Sunset Marquis? MasterPeace marked the International Day of Peace with a celebration of peace through music at the iconic hotel in West Hollywood.

The evening featured performances from Russ Irwin (Aerosmith), Queen V and Run River North and was attended by over 100 guests. Pictured above far left: Alexandra Bizerova, Mohamed Helmy, Co-Founder MasterPeace, Downtown Julie Brown, and Martin Schuermann mingled at the VIP reception. Pictured in center photo: Steven Tyler and Mohamed Helmy pose for peace on the villa pool deck. 

Contributed by Jennifer Irizarry
@jennyfriend

Kraft is back.

Oscar-nominated songwriter and composer Robert Kraft returns to the stage with a performance at NYC's legendary Joe’s Pub on Wednesday, October 30 at 7pm. Robert then heads to LA for 'A Night with Robert Kraft' at Largo at the Coronet. 

The concerts celebrate the dual releases of both the 'Robert Kraft Boxed Set', featuring the never-before-released 'Robert Kraft Live at Town Hall NYC 1980' by Vivid Sounds Japan, plus a compilation album by Milan Records titled 'Consensual Sets', featuring Robert Kraft's greatest hits, including 'Who's Seducin' Who', 'Beat Generation', and 'Cafe Society.'

We caught up with Robert at the International Radio Festival in Zurich where he hosted a brand new edition of Screentracks, the radio show that takes you behind the scenes and behind the screens of your favorite movies. 

Check it out.

Contributed by guest blogger Benn Watson, VP International Sales, GRB Entertainment

I often get a look of shock and horror from my US colleagues and friends when I reminisce about the 5 Free TV channels we had in Australia during my childhood, and in fact, most of my life. No, I’m not 100 years old (though I often feel like it) and weren’t from a remote outback cattle station desperate for entertainment. That was the merely the reality of the Australia television industry up until 1995 when Foxtel entered the market with the countries first Pay TV platform with an amazing 20 channels. At the time, take-up of the new platform was slow and they’re offering of 1970’s US sitcoms barely justified the high price so most household entertainment needs relied on the 3 commercial networks, 2 public stations and VHS videos from Blockbuster.

The International Radio Festival (IRF) named Brody Ramone  as the winner of the 2013 "Best US/Canada College DJ competition." She is a DJ on WBGU (88.1 FM) a non-commercial, college radio station located on the campus of Bowling Green State University in Ohio.  WBGU is a student-run radio station, focusing on independent, underground music. Brody will present her show at the 4th Annual IRF, taking place Sept 4-8 at the Schloss Silhberg in Zurich. The contest partner is iBiquity Digital, the creators of HD Radio™ Technology; and media partners are CMJ and Mixcloud.com.

Brody Ramone began as a DJ at WBGU 2 years ago and is now one of the station’s co-Music Directors. Brody produces and hosts the indie show, 'Dirty Glitter' which is in regular rotation on Thursdays 9 pm – midnight EST/6-9pm PST.  She is a majoring in marketing.  "College radio is a great platform for highlighting emerging and independent musicians. I'm very happy to represent WBGU and am grateful to IRF for this award. I look forward to meeting all the great global DJs in Zurich," said Brody Ramone.

Over 75 submissions from the US and Canada were received via mixcloud.com. Applicants were asked to upload one of their radio shows to demonstrate their skill, personality and musical knowledge. The panel of judges included the Co-Founders of the IRF, Darryl von Daniken and Miguel Alvarez along with input from the IRF Advisory Board headed by President Dominique Leguern.

By guest blogger Benn Watson, Vice President, International Distribution, GRB Entertainment

Digital platforms are becoming even stronger in the Asia market – It doesn’t take much time walking around Seoul to realize that Korea is one of the leading manufacturers of mobile digital platforms in the world and a consequence it seems that everybody is consuming content everywhere. The challenge for content providers is whether to provide their content at the lower license fees offered by digital platforms or wait for the more lucrative linear license fees.

China is booming – really booming – everywhere! It’s starting with the Chinese film industry but it will soon move to television. The difficulty with the China is the massive control by their biggest state-run broadcaster CCTV. License fees are low but as competition gets greater expect to see more money competitive tendering by new digital players.

It's exciting to see new channels opening up in South East China. A&E's latest offering is the Lifetime channel which is targeting more female audiences. Female audiences in Asia are looking for more content specifically tailored to their needs and A&E is out to capture them.

contributed by Jennifer Irizarry
The only thing better than watching your favorite tv show is watching your favorite tv show while tweeting with a gaggle of strangers whose comments are often funny, insightful or snarky. These back channel conversations are useful for gaging and recording audience feedback and participation and Storify does a great job of capturing the mood while having the added benefit of strengthening relationships with fans on socials. The piece below was created for GRB Entertainment whose Emmy award-winning show Intervention premiered last Thursday. To follow GRB on Storify, visit their profile here.

contributed by Jennifer Irizarry