The Association of Music Producers’ (AMP) West Coast chapter hosted its first “Battle of the Ad Bands” competition on Monday night (11/19) at The Mint in Los Angeles. The event–with proceeds benefiting The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation–drew a full house of 150 and six competing bands. Winning the $500 Grand Prize was the Crash Kings from S! Studios.
“The AMP Battle of the Ad Bands in the West is a great opportunity for the community to come together to seek out new talent, and help a really worthy cause,” said event chairman Liz Myers of Trivers/Myers Music. “We’re really excited with the turnout, knowing that we’ve raised much-needed funds for Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, the charity that supports public school music and gives instruments to talented musicians who otherwise couldn’t afford them .”
The musical acts competed in an American Idol-style talent competition. Judges included: Scott Cymbala of Elias Arts, Julie Ward of Groove Addicts, and head judge Stephen Dewey of Machine Head. Bands were invited from the ad business at large, including production companies, mix and editorial houses and ad agencies. Each group was allowed one ringer, and had 12 minutes to perform three songs. Covers were permitted—with one exception: a performance of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” in its original form was grounds for immediate removal from the stage. Bands were judged on originality, stage presence and talent.
Competing in the competition were: Devastating Karate from Rubin Postear & Associates; Hard to Nailer from AddMarketing; Crash Kings; Joanna Equilibria of Latin Sphere; The Monthlies out of TBWA/Chiat/Day; and The Exaggerators of WongDoody.
The style of the Crash Kings was described by judge Cymbala as “Ben Folds lives in a trailer park and runs a meth lab.”
AMP was founded in 1998 for the purpose of educating its members, and the production and advertising community as a whole, on all facets of music production, from creation to final use. Headquartered in New York, with regional chapters in Los Angeles, Chicago, Florida and Minneapolis, AMP is the first organization to represent the commercial music industry on a broad platform of creative, business and community matters.
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More