http://www.ccm.co.za/blog1.php

Life Events are proud to announce the return of Israel Houghton to South African shores. Due to immense public demand, Israel along with his dynamic band New Breed will bring their electrifying live performance and powerful ministry to the cities of Durban and Johannesburg on 8 and 11 August 2011.

Israel Houghton is an internationally recognized worship leader, recording artist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer. He has been in full time worship ministry since 1989. He has created a powerhouse of songs that have become standards in churches around the globe. Over the past decade, Israel has amassed a multitude of fans while breaking down any conceivable barrier and drawing together people of all races, ages and cultures through worship.

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Rough Diamond Projects and Integrity Media Africa are proud to announce the tour that Rap and Hip Hop fans have been begging for. The Unashamed International African Tour featuring the Grammy nominated artist Lecrae, headlining a stellar package with Trip Lee, Sho Baraka, Tedashi, Dj Official, PRO and KB, are heading to South African shores this November.

Lecrae and his fellow artists from Reach Records are currently leading the Christian Rap movement internationally. Rough Diamond’s spokesperson Greg Cassim says, “The majority of local Christian Rap fans own a Lecrae or Trip Lee album, and have spoken about how their music has changed their perception of the church. We believe that Lecrae and the Reach camp will invade South African culture and leave us with the building blocks in order to grow as local musicians and ministers”.

The live performance is where these artists excel, always aiming to set a very high standard for themselves. Church leaders are encouraged to show their support and join their youth in experiencing this once in a life time line up. This diverse package of music and testimony will have something for everyone - superior quality music with relevant, clear, thought proving messages - no matter the age or race.

These upcoming South African tour dates are set to be one of the highlights of this year’s live music calendar.

Cape Town November 25th 2011
Johannesburg November 26th 2011
More dates and venues to be confirmed shortly.

If anyone is interested in hosting this heavy weight line-up in their city they can email Gregory Cassim at gregory@roughdiamondprojects.com.

For more information, as-and-when-it-happens, find THE UNASHAMED INTERNATIONAL 2011 AFRICA TOUR page on Facebook as well as on the Rough Diamond website: www.roughdiamondprojects.com.

For a taste of Lecrae, watch his video for the track ‘Background’ from his current “Rehab”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHnZRZiCYHE.

By: Jakob Kuznicki

The Digital Music Report states that still 95% of all downloads remain illegal! People are buying more music, but the damage caused by piracy will cost the worldwide music industry more than a million creative jobs by 2015.

The international record industry has called on governments around the world to fight stronger against illegal music downloads from the internet. Frances Moore, the chairman of the World Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), said that countries like South Korea and France have already taken more stringent measures against piracy. Even though the demand for legal songs from the internet is growing, there are still 95% of all downloads are illegal.

The worldwide trend is still going away from the CD and is moving to music files from the internet. In 2010, sales of downloaded music rose by 6% to 4.6 billion U.S. dollars (3.4bn euros). Meanwhile, nearly a third of the total turnover for record companies comes from digital business.

The situation in Germany is still a little different. Germany is still a strong physical market. CDs still made up about 80% of sales in 2010. But the digital market continues to expand. For the past year sales grew by 33.2 percent!

For the first time worldwide a song has hit 10 million legal downloads: “Tik Tok” by U.S. pop singer Kesha was downloaded 12.8 million times. In second place was Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”, which was downloaded 9.7 million times.

The industry is looking forward to the future and hopes that the trend of legal downloads will grow. Cloud services just might increase the trend.

Creatively linking arms with its peers in the artist community has led to three artist nominations, and two producer credits, for veteran progressive band Jars of Clay for the 42nd Annual GMA Dove Awards.

Jars of Clay’s most recent release, the community-minded Jars of Clay Presents: The Shelter, picked up nominations as artist and producer in the Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year and Praise & Worship Album of the Year categories, while the band’s contribution to The Essential Christmas Collection project was also nominated for Christmas Album of the Year.

Reunion Records’ modern pop band Tenth Avenue North, hard charging off the success of its sophomore full-length release The Light Meets The Dark, has taken in four nominations for this year’s 42nd Annual Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, including nods in two categories in which the band received nominations last year.

Tenth Avenue North picked up nominations in the coveted categories Song of the Year (for lead vocalist/songwriter Mike Donehey’s work on “Hold My Heart” from Over And Underneath) and Group of the Year, as well as in the Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year (for The Light Meets The Dark) and Christmas Album (as part of The Essential Christmas Collection) categories.

The band was nominated in both the Song and Group general categories last year, taking home the Song of the Year trophy for the smash hit “By Your Side,” from its debut album Over And Underneath.

What will 2011 bring us musically? The guys over at Jesusfreakhideout.com seem to have an inside track on this year's Great Expectations - head over to http://jesusfreakhideout.com/features/highlights/2011/default.asp and see what we are looking forward to!