Pictured (Clockwise from top left): Heather Trotter, Max DaCosta, Lauren Manderbach, Allen Hodge.

117 Entertainment Group’s Zach Farnum has announced promotions and hirings for several staffers. Publicity Manager Heather Trotter rises to Director of Publicity, while Office Manager Max DaCosta rises to Management Associate. 117 Entertainment also welcomes Lauren Manderbach as Director of Digital Marketing and Allen Hodge as Tour Coordinator.

Trotter will continue to execute PR strategy and take lead on select projects for 117 Publicity’s roster which includes Jerry Lee Lewis, Randy Travis, Chuck Negron, Dallas Wayne, Drew Jacobs, James Carothers, Kalie Shorr, Kendall Gary, Lee Roy Parnell, Marta, Max T. Barnes, Mickey Gilley and the Nashville Association of Talent Directors. DaCosta will take over day-to-day responsibilities for 117 Management’s roster, including flagship artist Bobby Bare, with additional artists being announced in the coming months. He will continue to support 117 Live initiatives including the Chillin’ on the Lucie music festival in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Manderbach joins from her own marketing firm, Alloy Signature, where she worked on marketing and content creation for artists and brands. She has spent the past six months working with Johnny Lee and Bobby Bare on their digital strategies. Her background is in print layout, web and graphic design, photography and videography. She will continue to operate Alloy Signature in addition to her new role at 117 Entertainment.

“We have a very young and hungry team of people who have been absolutely rocking it for our clients across the board. The projects we are working on for clients across the board come in many shapes and sizes, so I need a team of people who can stretch and bend to their needs – this is that team,” said Farnum, 117 Entertainment’s President & CEO.

Vivendi, Universal Music Group’s (UMG) parent company in France, says it will begin to engage banks as it looks for strategic partner(s) in selling up to 50 percent of its stake in the music company, per its mid-year financial report issued today (July 30).

Recommendations were to have the transaction completed within the next 18 months, potentially by the fall, in order to extract the highest value as streaming continues to offset the decline in music sales.

UMG makes up a majority of Vivendi’s revenue. While Vivendi will establish a floor price for the entry of partners into UMG’s share capital, analysts have estimated the value to be worth from $20 billion to as much as $40 billion. An IPO was ruled out due to its complexity.

Recorded music revenues were reported to have grown by 7.4 percent as “subscription and streaming revenues more than offset the continued decline in both download and physical sales.” Music publishing revenues were reported to have grown by 11.1 percent, also driven by increased subscription and streaming revenues, as well as better performance revenues.

UMG is the largest of the “big three” record labels, ahead of Len Blavatnik’s Warner Music Group and Japanese-owned Sony Music Entertainment. UMG has been the only of the three to retain its bulk of shares in Spotify, estimated to be around 5 percent of the streaming service.

Ernie Santiago, owner of ESH Training LLC in Waipahu, Hawaii, lectures on event safety at the inaugural OSHA 30 Conference for Live Entertainment Production held at Middle Tennessee State University, June 11-17, 2018. The conference was the first of its kind held in the United States. (MTSU photo)

Middle Tennessee State University’s Department of Recording Industry recently hosted an Occupational Safety and Health Administration certification workshop earlier this summer, aimed at those working in Live Entertainment Production.

The inaugural OSHA 30 Conference for Live Entertainment Production was held June 11-17 and was conducted with encouragement from the Event Safety Alliance, or ESA, an international, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting “life safety first” throughout all phases of live event production and execution.

Frank Baird, assistant professor in MTSU’s Department of Recording Industry realized the need for face-to-face OSHA training for live entertainment workers while attending the ESA’s annual Event Safety Summit held at the Rock Lititz Campus in Lititz, Pennsylvania, last December. On Jan. 1, the state of Nevada began requiring some people working in the entertainment industry in Nevada to complete OSHA training and more states may decide to follow suit and enact similar legislation.

OSHA 30 is a federal, 30-hour, construction and general industry health and safety certification course.

“This was the first time a live event industry version of this OSHA course has been offered in the United States,” said Baird. “Attendees included live event industry leaders from the U.S. and the United Kingdom, live entertainment professionals from Nashville to Denver as well as our own MTSU faculty, staff and students.”

Middle Tennessee State University hosted the inaugural OSHA 30 Conference for Live Entertainment Production June 11-17. Pictured, from left, are OSHA 30 conference organizers Tim Roberts, director, The Event Safety Shop (TESS) in Bristol, United Kingdom; Dr. Donald Cooper, executive director, U.S. Event Safety Alliance; Ernie Santiago and Kathleen Santiago, owners, ESH Training LLC in Waipahu, Hawaii; Alan Hochfelsen, owner, Production Management in Aiea, Hawaii; Ken Paulson, dean of College of Media and Entertainment; and Frank Baird, assistant professor, MTSU Department of Recording Industry. (MTSU photo)