By KATHY DeSALVO
CHICAGO-After years of producing original music and sound design for its own projects, H-Gun Labs, a full-service production shop based in Chicago and San Francisco, is launching a standalone music company known as Plug’d Music and Sound Design to serve the spot, broadcast and film arenas.
The lineup of musical talent includes H-Gun staffers Robert Coddington, James Colao, Jack Dangers, David Metzger and Benjamin Stokes. In addition to being experienced audio engineers, Coddington, Colao and Stokes have served as H-Gun’s primary team of sound designers for its TV clientele. Stokes, a founding partner/director at H-Gun, has recorded several CDs as the founder of DHS (Dimensional Holofonic Sound) and as fictitious recording artist Tino.
A founding member of the band Meat Beat Manifesto, Dangers is a Nothing/Interscope recording artist who has released six albums and has toured extensively. Considered to be a pioneer in electronica, the San Francisco-based Dangers continues to produce records for internationally acclaimed artists and has produced music for such acts as Nine Inch Nails, David Bowie, David Byrne and Depeche Mode.
Metzger has been composing and producing music for over 12 years. He started out in New York, where he formed now defunct 505 Productions. In 1992, he relocated to Chicago, where he worked out of CAMP Music and his own shop, Metzger Music as well as freelanced. Among his commercial clients are Citibank, American Express, HBO, MSNBC and NASDAQ.
According to H-Gun partner/ executive producer Jim Deloye, Metzger had approached him last fall about working with H-Gun. The discussions with Metzger prompted the notion of forming Plug’d as a separate music/sound design entity, said Deloye.
"We’re not leveraging Plug’d off of H-Gun by any means," said Deloye. "The music on the reel, which right now is primarily Dave’s compositions, is kick-ass. We feel that Plug’d can compete with a lot of the top music houses once we get the word out."
Plug’d has signed Chicago-based independent rep Gabrielle Giebels to handle marketing duties for the company in the Midwest. Deloye related they are now in talks with several West Coast-based reps.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More