Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 13, 2007, Winnipeg, Manitoba A12 Manitoba Winnipeg free press thursday december 13, 2007 gift enables Folk fest to have online store by Geoff Kirbyson t he Winnipeg Folk festival is about to get plugged in and enter the electronic age. Thanks to a $100,000 gift of technology from a former Winnipeg Ger the venera ble music festival will Christen its own online store next week. Trudy Schroeder executive director of the Folk fest said the virtual store will enable it to expand the promotion of artists who have per formed at Birds Hill Park for the last 34 Summers As Well As sell their cd. She said the festival would to have been Able to take the financial risk to launch a site on its own and she feels fortunate to have connected with Dave Jaworski a former do at the University of Manitoba radio station in the 1970s and the ceo of pass along networks a Nashville based Media distribution Developer. Pass along will provide the internet infrastructure a Commerce interface catalogue of songs and the album Art for the site . Well be better Able to serve our Man Date of getting music into Peoples lives and being part of a technological Revo Lution that enhances their ability to hear diversified musical styles and forms she said. The Folk fest will receive one dime for every song sold through the site which will go live dec. 20. The prices will Range from 33 cents to $1.29 ? depend ing on each songs popularity ? with the vast majority set at 99 cents each. Buffy St. Marie who was recently presented with the Winnipeg Folk festivals Artis tic achievement award for 2007, will be the Sites first featured artist. Schroeder said even during an age when sales of recorded music Are slip Ping at the retail level annual sales of cd at the Folk fest typically ring in at about $200,000. Jaworski said his donation is his Way of giving Back to his Hometown and help ing out a local institution that provided one of the seminal events of his life. He attended the Winnipeg Folk festival a number of times but it was his first experience at the event in 1979 that got him hooked on live music. He still has an official sticker from that festival on his guitar Case. It really impacted me. I spent every Day there from morning to night and i was bit by the live music Bug. It was the experience. You can get so close to the stage and interact with the artists. You feel connected. Music is great but its even better live. Anybody who has attended the Folk fest can now support it and stay connected with the artists that they love he said. Pass along a total music catalogue boasts More than three million songs from artists such As Madonna col play the guess who and the tragically hip. Pass along is making two other technological elements available to the Folk fests site. The first is an contour wid get that can be downloaded to your com Puter. It will scan the music already on your hard drive and let you know when those artists will be performing in the area. The second is called roster a feature that will enable the Folk fest to compile set playlists of artists who have per formed at the festival since 1974. It will allow us to put together representative samples of the artists at the festival. People can either download the entire years Worth of music or pick and choose but they la be connected with the music they be heard at our festival she said. Street blocked off cameraman arrested by Lindsey Wiebe and Nick Martin a cameraman was arrested after trying to tape a police Inci Dent in West Kildonan wednesday afternoon according to Csc to. The cameraman started filming As police arrived at a Mur Ray Avenue Home according to a report on the broadcasters website but police ordered him to Stop. The cameraman argued he was on Public property and should have been allowed to tape the scene according to Csc. The Man was arrested and his camera and tape were seized. He reportedly has not been charged. The unspecified incident at a Home on Murray Avenue had police tight lipped and Neighbours baffled Over what might have taken place in the quiet subdivision of two Storey Homes. Police reportedly arrived on the residential Street wednes Day afternoon and closed off the Roadway Between main Street and Ferrier Street. By evening officers were using a Loudspeaker to try to get residents of a Home in the 400 Block to come out. We Are just exercising As much caution As possible for residents in the area said Winnipeg police service spokesman const. Jason Michalyshin later that night. Michalyshin said the incident was not a standoff but would it elaborate on the nature of the investigation. We Are in a residential area and we Don to want to take any chances he said. Murray residents just West of the police Roadblock were completely in the dark wednesday night. I could to get into my House right away. I had to go through the Community Centre said a Man in the 470 Block. The Man said he was two blocks West of the House that was drawing police interest. He a just had a Call from a neigh Bour equally starved for information i want to know too said the resident. They Arent saying nothing said another resident of the 470 Block. I just see a police car on the Corner one in the Back some evacuated residents had come into the red River Community Centre at the Northwest Corner of Murray and main but were going to spend the night elsewhere said the Rocc a vice president who would give her name Only As Linda. They wont be spending the night Here ? there really Arent any facilities she said. There a a woman Here with two Little children who has nowhere else to go said Linda who was helping the woman find somewhere to spend the night. There were rumours going Back and Forth but no one knew what was happening said Linda. She said one resident saw police arrest someone on Murray opposite the Centre. They grabbed someone out of a vehicle and handcuffed them she said. Linda said police first blocked off Murray at main at 2 30 p.m., then moved the Roadblock West of the Community Cen tre. Police cars were still blocking off Murray Between Dan Ford drive and Swinford Way wednesday evening. Murray is located at the South end of the Riverbend subdivision West of main Street and just North of the chief pegu is Trail. . ;