Friday 30 September 2011, 18:09 | By

Editor’s Letter – Friday 30 Sep 2011

CMU Weekly Editor's Letter

Andy Malt

On Sunday night I went to see Death Grips at XOYO in glittering East London. To say it was not really a Sunday night kinda show would be a bit of an understatement.

If you’re not familiar with Death Grips, they are MC Ride, producer Flatlander and Hella drummer Zach Hill. They make dark, unwelcoming, industrial hip hop, a sound which was represented on Sunday (other than by the music itself) by the lack of almost any discernable lighting or on stage banter. It was brilliant.

Mind suitably pummelled by the aggressive sounds of Death Grips, I stumbled out into late night Shoreditch and waited for my eyes to adjust to the night sky, which was considerably brighter than the lighting inside the venue.

The fact that I had just returned to London after a weekend in the countryside provided further contrast to add to my Sunday evening experiences.

I’m telling you about the contrasts I experienced the other night mainly so you can contrast this Editor’s Letter from last week’s, because I’m about to bang on about Facebook and Spotify again. Though with a week to reflect on the new look Facebook, and the various subsequent events relating to Spotify’s hook up with it, there are some new things to say.

As you’ll remember, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the social network’s big new redesign last week, and he put Spotify right at the heart of it. Although plenty of other content providers will be feeding endless amounts of user data into Facebook’s new activity tracker, it was Spotify’s Daniel Ek he called up on stage to talk about it. And although the latest redesign is yet to properly roll out, it’s Spotify which has probably garnered the most attention for hooking in to the evolving social network, though not with entirely positive results.

Spotify displeased a very vocal and sizeable minority of its users on Monday when it announced that from now on new users would have to sign up for the streaming service using their Facebook account. No Facebook account, no Spotify account. That’s it.

This assumes two things. Firstly, that everyone is happy to have a Facebook account. And secondly, that everyone who does is happy to use it to sign into other services. But not everyone in the world is a Facebook user, and many of those who are not – especially if they are web savvy enough to want to sign up to Spotify – have made a conscious decision, on whatever grounds, to not use the social network. Therefore, Spotify’s advice to just “set a Facebook account up and not use it” wasn’t very helpful. And even those who are Facebook users aren’t necessarily going to be comfortable with it having access to their wider online lives (even if it’s getting harder to stop that being so).

Then came the next change: Without really explaining properly what was happening, Spotify asked current users to agree to send data about every track they play via the service over to Facebook, so the social network could build a profile of their listening habits, and share details of every single track played with their friends. It is possible to turn this data sharing off, even if you inadvertantly allow it when presented with an update window by Spotify, but at the outset it wasn’t especially clear how to do this. Responding to criticism (and, to be fair, they did do this pretty quickly), Spotify added a ‘private mode’ to its software on Thursday.

Spotify argued that all these changes were justified because they added up to “creating an amazing new world of music discovery”. But even if you agree that this is where Facebook and Spotify are taking us, trying to force everyone to join them on their journey, from day one, isn’t really on, and is particularly unfair on those who object to having a profile on Facebook.

The way Spotify seems to have leaped so resolutely into the Facebook camp – and the way in which the company seemed to try to trick its customers to follow – was either a gross misjudgement, perhaps because the geeks at Spotify got carried away with Zuckerberg’s grand plans, or was perhaps the result of some sneaky deal with the social network, which got Ek top billing at Facebook’s party but tied his team to certain Facebook promoting commitments. Conspiracy theorists speculated that the reason Ek was so openly responding to criticism on Twitter on Monday night was so he could persuade Facebook to let him out of previous commitments.

That all seems a bit far-fetched – Ek was probably just doing the decent thing, and handling the critics head on rather than hiding behind a PR machine – but even if we assume good faith on Spotify’s part, and that they genuinely believe the Facebook hook up will deliver the holy grail of music discovery and that we’d be mad not to want to be part of it, does that justify the rush? After all, the immediate benefits of Spotify-hooked-to-Facebook for the user are few and far between (the benefits for Spotify itself, of course, are more obvious, the Zuckerberg induced hype has scored them a flood of new sign ups).

As I noted here last week, the changes Facebook are implementing provide a service akin to Last.fm – ie one that logs your online activity, and makes recommendations and tries to form communities based on your tastes – though rather than just logging the music you play on your computer, it will try to record everything you do online, from reading news stories to watching films. This information is then shared with your friends in real time. For the reasons outlined above (ie the almost forced participation), the newly shared data from Spotify is most obvious as a Facebook user, because now you’re being bombarded with information about every track every one of your friends (well, the opted in Spotify users) ever plays. It’s a huge amount of data I’ve subconsciously trained myself to ignore within five days.

It comes in constantly via Facebook’s new ‘ticker’. It flashes before your eyes so quickly it’s hard to take in, even if you’re not already ignoring it, which you almost certainly are. It’s hard to see how this will ever amount to an “amazing new world of music discovery”. Of course, this is presumably just stage one. But what’s stage two? Even if Facebook begins grouping together tracks, so it tells you “ten or so of your friends have listened to track X”, how does that help? It assumes that a play equals a recommendation. Which it doesn’t.

In my job I listen to a lot of new music that I definitely don’t want to inflict on others. Even some of the things I like, I might not want to explicitly recommend to all my friends. When Spotify announced its easier opt out button – the ‘private mode’ – it suggested this would be used to hide “guilty pleasures” you don’t want people knowing you listen to. But that misses the point – a play doesn’t equal a recommendation, whether it’s a guilty pleasure or not. On top of all that, because Facebook logs a track as soon as it begins playing, rather than (as Last.fm does) half way through, I found it was logging an awful lot of stuff I wasn’t actually listening to, but was skipping or stopping after a few seconds. Or on a couple of occasions, after I’d mistakenly clicked on a link and a track had automatically started playing. That doesn’t aid music discovery in any way at all.

By confusing tracks being played (or even just clicked on) with tracks being recommended, Facebook and Spotify’s bid to find this new world of music discovery is heading in the wrong direction. Which is why I’m not travelling with them, and have turned the tracking function off.

I’m hoping any of you out there who I’m friends with on Facebook appreciate my selfless act of not filling your newsfeeds with pointless information. I’ll continue to help out by not installing any other tracking apps either. Because, frankly, who wants to be told every time I click on a link to a news story, which I may or may not then read or enjoy or find useful or want to recommend. If I want to recommend something on Facebook, I’ll just carry on linking to it manually, as before.

Of course Facebook and Spotify will say “that’s fine, we’re not forcing you to join us in this brave new world, so stop your moaning”. Which is fair enough. Except I suspect sharing information via Facebook in the old way will become an increasingly infuriating thing to do, as partner websites make it harder to link to and embed content without installing their activity-tracking-apps. I say “suspect”, I’ve seen that happen already this week.

I don’t want to sound like a luddite, and I’m willing to accept Facebook’s data capture frenzy might – might – result in some genuinely interesting services down the line. But until it does Facebook is going to have to do a lot to convince me that these new changes are a good idea. For the first time since I signed up to the world’s biggest social media network I’m genuinely thinking I might have to give up on it. I’ll just stick to Twitter, or maybe I’ll give Google+ another go. Maybe this will be the making of Google+. We’ll see.

Or perhaps I’m sounding like a luddite because that’s what I’ve become, the lone moaner who harks back to the good old days of the internet, aka 2009. Is that what Spotify getting all these sign ups since its hook up with Facebook actually means? Maybe I’ll just go back to standing in the dark listening to aggressive hip hop. That’s the future, I tell you!

Now, how about this week’s other news? Well, the trial of Michael Jackson’s former doctor got under way finally this week. Conrad Murray is, of course, accused of killing the late king of pop when he negligently administered a surgical anaesthetic, propofol, as a cure for insomnia. Murray’s defence will argue that Jackson was helplessly addicted to various prescription medicines, that their client was trying to wean him off them, but that the singer neverthless helped himself to a concoction of drugs on the day he died. And that it was those self-administered drugs that killed him.

As part of all that, the defence want to show what a mess Jackson was in prior to his death. To that end they wanted to show the singer’s famously shambolic press conference in London in early 2009 announcing his doomed O2 residency. Though before the trial got underway, the judge refused that request.

But it’s not the defence’s turn yet anyway. The prosecution have this week been putting forward their evidence, and have brought in a line of witnesses from Jackson’s PA to his security guards, whose testimonies appeared to show that Murray had been negligent in using propofol outside of a hospital, delayed calling paramedics after discovering Jackson’s body, and attempted to hide evidence that he had acted improperly. The case is expected to continue for up to another five weeks.

Meanwhile, the other big story this week, possibly showing how little actually happened, was that Bloc Party don’t know if Kele Okereke is still their frontman or not. Or vice versa, it’s confusing. Back in the digital domian, We7 also revamped its service yet again, pushing its personalised radio option even further forward and blocking free subscribers from using its on demand service at all.

Also, Sugar Hill Records founder Sylvia Robinson, a very significant character in the history of rap and hip hop, died from heart failure yesterday, aged 75.

And on a happier note, I interviewed the marvellous Sondre Lerche, and Slow Club put together a Powers Of Ten playlist for us. And, adding a more shocking element to this week’s features, Eddy Temple-Morris used his column to recount the story of when he broke his neck on live TV.

In the CMU Approved column this week were Gold Panda, Papercutz, Dems, and Achilles. And elsewhere we brought you a full stream of the new Feist album, the trailer for Sonic Youth‘s soon to be re-issued 1991 tour film, a hoax from Tyler, The Creator, a full track from Lou Reed and Metallica‘s ‘Lulu’ album (which, let’s just say, divides the room), plus the frankly horrifying news of Korn‘s dubstep album.

And if you fancy some spoken word action, then look no further than the brand new CMU podcast, which is out right now and features discussion of the Conrad Murray trial, Spotify and Facebook, We7, Bloc Party, and Rihanna getting told off by an Irish farmer.

Until next week,

Andy Malt
Editor, CMU

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Friday 30 September 2011, 16:00 | By

CMU Weekly Podcast – Friday 30 Sep 2011

Setlist

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review the week in music and the music business, including the Conrad Murray trial, Spotify, Facebook, We7, Bloc Party, Korn and Rihanna. Get the CMU Weekly Podcast every Friday by signing up via iTunes or RSS.

 

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Friday 30 September 2011, 12:28 | By

Approved: Fabric presents 20 Years Of Soma Records

Club Tip CMU Approved

Soma Records

Can Glasgow’s Soma Quality Recordings really be 20 years old? I mean can it? Well, it is, and the team behind it will be jetting down south of the border tomorrow night to take over two rooms at Fabric to celebrate that landmark, and the launch of a 20 years anniversary compilation.

Slam, Silicone Soul, The Black Dog (playing live) and the awesome Funk D’Void go back to back with Master H and Deepchord and the ever dependable Terry Farley. A good line up to mark a big anniversary of a smashing label that’s been championing great techno and house music for two decades. Congrats Soma – here’s to 20 more great years…

Saturday 1 Oct, Fabric, 77a Charterhouse Street, London, EC1M, 11pm-8am, £19 (£10 NUS/Mmembers), more info from www.fabriclondon.com

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Friday 30 September 2011, 12:27 | By

The music business week in five – 30 Sep 2011

Business News Week In Five

Chris Cooke

So, hello there, and how are you? Time to review the music business week once again. Actually, it’s not been an especially eventful week, has it? I think as the late summer heatwave kicked in, everyone was too occupied with the sunshine to be eventful. Or perhaps they were all distracted by the Conrad Murray trial. Or perhaps with the tech industry a flurry post Facebook’s big announcement last week, and with Amazon’s move into the tablet market, the music business decided it would be polite to keep quiet. Anyway, some stuff did happen, including this lot…

01: Citigroup set a deadline for EMI bids, or at least that’s what insiders were saying. The US bank has asked those bidders still in the running – believed to include all the usual suspects – to put in their final offers by next Wednesday. We assume the bankers are getting ever keen to have this deal done asap. It’s thought that bids for both the company outright and for its constituent parts are still being considered, so the future of EMI is still very much in the balance. CMU report | LA Times report

02: Spotify responded to the backlash over its Facebook tie up. After a few hours of glory as the only content partner Facebook’s chief geek Mark Zuckerberg got up on stage while announcing his company’s latest innovations last week, there was some pretty vocal criticism of Spotify online this week. Many took a dim view of the streaming service’s decision to force new users to sign up via their Facebook accounts, and of the way existing users may inadvertently sign up to the streaming service’s new Facebook integration, which shares lots more user information with the social network and the wider world. Team Spot stood by their decision to force new users to login via Facebook, but announced a new easy-to-use private listening option in the player, that, if activated, will ensure information about what music a user plays is not be passed onto the social network. On the up side, and despite all this online rage, new subscriptions for Spotify were rolling in big time. CMU report | FT report

03: We7 relaunched. The UK-based digital music company, which pushed its Pandora-style interactive radio service to the front last year, will now only offer that service to its freemium users. The We7 website was overhauled to accommodate the change. We7 says that, while interactive radio is cheaper to run than their previous fully on-demand music player, it has actually gone that route because it is the service that has proven most popular with its users. CMU report | Telegraph report

04: Absolute Radio’s owner confirmed ity would not sell. Current owner TIML indicated it might sell the national rock station earlier this year, and both rivals UTV and the station’s former owners Virgin were said to be interested. But it seems neither party were willing to pay the asking price. To that end TIML said this week that it has completed a business review and now intended to keep hold of the Absolute business for the foreseeable future. CMU report | Guardian report

05: Lady Gaga took legal action over domains and trademarks. The former, a bid to take ownership of the ladygaga.org domain, currently run as a fansite, failed this week, because the singer’s reps failed to show the current owner was acting in bad faith. The latter, a lawsuit against Excite Worldwide, which is trying to register the US trademark for Lady Gaga in the make-up space, started this week. The singer said Excite was trying to trade off her good reputation, and was interfering with her own moves to register a number of Gaga trademarks. CMU report | BBC report

And that’s your lot. Except, of course, there’ll be more discussion of the week’s big music stories on the CMU Weekly podcast, available at 4pm today from www.completemusicupdate.com/podcast

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

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Friday 30 September 2011, 12:26 | By

Michael Jackson doctor hid vials and saline bags: Murray trial update

Jacksons v AEG Timeline Legal Top Stories

Conrad Murray

Conrad Murray asked Michael Jackson’s bodyguard to grab vials of medicine and a saline bag, and to place them in another bag, as the late king of pop lay dying. Or so says the bodyguard in question, Alberto Alvarez, who testified on day three of the Murray trial in LA yesterday.

Alvarez told the court how he was in Jackson’s bedroom as Murray, the singer’s personal doctor, tried to resuscitate his patient. According to Reuters, he testified that: “While I was standing at the foot of the bed he [Murray] reached over and grabbed a handful of vials and then he said: ‘Here put them in a bag'”. Murray then took saline bags off an IV stand that contained a “milky white substance”, believed to be propofol, the drug that killed the singer in June 2009.

The prosecution, of course, claim that Murray negligently administered that drug, usually used in a hospital environment as a general anaesthetic, but used by Jackson as a sleeping aid. They also allege that Murray, presumably realising that he had been using surgical drugs in an inappropriate environment, tried to cover his tracks as his patient was dying, and in doing so delayed the call to emergency services.

Alvarez, one of the first people on the scene after Jackson’s “bad reaction” to the concoction of drugs he was using to induce sleep, described what he saw. “[Jackson] was laying on his back, with his hands extended out … his eyes were slightly open and his mouth was open”. The singer’s eldest two children followed Alvarez into the room and witnessed their father dying – a chef who had worked for Jackson, and who testified later in the day, suggested it was a frantic Murray who had asked for eldest son Prince to come to his father’s room. On Wednesday another security guard told the court how he had then removed the children from the bedroom once he realised what was occurring.

Alvarez added that he saw an IV stand, oxygen tubing and a device attacked to Jackson’s penis, apparently used to collect urine while a person is in a deep sleep. But, he said, there was no equipment monitoring the heart, blood pressure or anything else, something which the prosecution presumably reckon Murray should have been using if he was administering a drug like propofol.

Asked why he helped Murray clear away drugs rather than calling the emergency services, Alvarez added: “I believe that Dr Murray had the best intentions for Mr Jackson, so I didn’t question his authority at the time. I thought we were packing to get him ready to go to the hospital”. It was Alvarez who did eventually call for an ambulance, over 20 minutes after Murray had first found Jackson was not breathing. The 911 call was played to the court as the bodyguard gave his testimony.

As previously reported, Murray’s defence will argue that, unbeknownst to the doctor, Jackson fed himself the drugs that caused his untimely demise.

The case continues.

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Friday 30 September 2011, 12:24 | By

LA Reid regrets dropping Gaga

Business News Deals Industry People Labels & Publishers Top Stories

La Reid

One time Universal exec, now Sony man and ‘X-Factor USA’ judge, LA Reid has admitted that dropping Lady Gaga from his label was the “worst thing” he’d ever done in his music business career. Reid signed Gaga to his Island Def Jam label in 2006, initially believing her to be a pop superstar in the making, but subsequently disregarding her initial work on an album, seemingly because he was having a bad day.

He told Access Hollywood: “This artist came to my office… she played piano, she had on white go-go boots – like, all the way up to here, thigh high boots – she sat down at that piano, she played and she sang. When she was done, I said: ‘You are an amazing artist, a true star, and you will change music’, and I signed her. Her name was Lady Gaga. Then, a few months later, I got her demos, and it was a work in progress, and I was having a bad day. I’m telling you, I was having a bad day. And I said: ‘You know what? I really don’t like it. Let her have her freedom, let her go find her career’. It was the worst thing I’ve ever done”.

Gaga subsequently signed to an imprint of another Universal Music division, Interscope, and the rest, as they sometimes say, is history. Reid says that, while he may have failed to bring the Gaga to his former employer, he “redeemed” himself by bagging them a Bieber. He added: “I felt bad, but I swear to you, like a month later Justin Bieber came and redeemed me, so, you know, I survived it all. But I’m a little bit jealous, because the Twitter following, for example, the biggest ones are Bieber and Lady Gaga, so I would have felt like the king of the world! Instead I felt like half the king”.

As previously reported, Reid left Universal after various rejigs by the major’s new CEO Lucian Grainge, subsequently following Universal’s former boss Doug Morris to Sony where he is now heading up an expanded Epic Records while appearing on Sony’s ‘X-Factor’ franchise Stateside.

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Friday 30 September 2011, 12:23 | By

TI back on the streets

Legal

TI

TI is a free man. The rapper was released from a halfway house and back into normal society yesterday, which means he can get on with filming that reality TV show about his return to life on the outside.

As previously reported, the hip hopper, jailed for breaking probation conditions last year, was let out of prison a month early on 31 Aug, and told to serve out the rest of his sentence in the half way house in his home town of Atlanta. But shortly after arriving in Atlanta he was taken back into full custody, seemingly because he conducted business meetings on a luxury bus while travelling to the city, and that had been forbidden.

He was subsequently sent back to the halfway house on 15 Sep, where yesterday prison officials decided that he could go free. This should all be captured by VH1 for the aforementioned reality TV show documenting his return to the outside world, which is due to premiere on 5 Dec.

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Friday 30 September 2011, 12:21 | By

Sugar Hill Records’ Sylvia Robinson dies

Business News Obituaries

Sylvia Robinson

Founder of the Sugar Hill record label Sylvia Robinson died yesterday from heart failure, aged 75. Often referred to as the “mother of hip hop”, she was a pioneering figure in the genre, working as producer on its first commercial hit, The Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’, and later ‘The Message’ by Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five, as well as releasing them both.

Born Syliva Vanderpool in 1936 in New York, Robinson began a singing career in the 1950s, her first hit coming in 1956 as part of the duo Mickey & Sylvia with Mickey Baker. Entitled ‘Love Is Strange’, authorship of the song remains in some dispute; based on a guitar riff by Jody Williams, the writing of the lyrics has variously been claimed by Baker, Bo Diddley and Diddley’s then wife Ethel Smith.

In 1964, Sylvia married her husband Joe Robinson and in 1968 they formed their first record label, All Platinum Records. A notable hit from that label was ‘Shame, Shame, Shame’ by the Shirley Goodman fronted Shirley & Company, which Robinson also wrote. Another success story was ‘Love Is A Two Way Street’ by The Moments, a band put together by Robinson for All Platinum imprint Stang Records. The Robinson-penned song was a hit on the R&B charts at the time, and has since been sampled for Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ ‘New York State Of Mind’. In the early 70s, All Platinum also bought Chess Records after it went bankrupt.

Back as a performer, in 1973 Robinson had a solo hit with ‘Pillow Talk’, which was released by another of her labels Vibration Records. She had originally written the raunchy (particularly for the time) song with Al Green in mind as its performer. However, when he turned it down on moral and religious grounds, she recorded it herself, seeing it go to number three in the Billboard Hot 100 and number fourteen in the UK top 40.

But it was in 1979 that she and Joe founded Sugar Hill Records, which is almost certainly what she will be most remembered for. With financial backing from Roulette Records owner Morris Levy, Robinson launched the label after being inspired by seeing people rapping over instrumental records played by DJs. Recognising the potential of this new art form, both creatively and as a way to revive her then struggling company, she formed the Sugarhill Gang, both the group and the label named after the Sugar Hill area of Harlem in New York.

The Sugarhill Gang’s first single, ‘Rapper’s Delight’, went on to be a huge hit, the first commercial success for the burgeoning rap scene. After a run of other hits, the Robinsons bought Levy out of the label in the early 80s, and went on to be pioneers in early music videos and to release the first cassette single. ‘Rapper’s Delight’ was also the first hip hop track to spark a lawsuit for copyright infringement, having used an uncleared sample of ‘Good Times’ by Chic. There were no clear rules for royalty payments on the fairly new practice of sampling at that time. The suit was eventually settled out of court.

The Sugar Hill label’s early success faded a few years later. The label signed a marketing and distribution deal with MCA after the company began to take off, but the Robinsons later sued the company, accusing it of inflating its own profits by failing to report sales. Terms of the deal also meant that they sold the Chess Records catalogue, and that of Checkers Records (which they had also acquired), to MCA, so they couldn’t rely on that income when financial struggles forced them to close Sugar Hill in 1986. The legal battle with MCA continued on until 1991 when it was settled out of court, though the Robinsons received no money from the settlement. In 1995, the Sugar Hill master recordings were purchased by Rhino Records.

Later controversy came in 2008 when some members of The Sugarhill Gang sued the Robinsons over unpaid royalties, claims the couple firmly denied. However, despite these low points, Syliva Robinson will continue to remembered as a woman who rose up and achieved considerable success in a male-dominated industry, and who was certainly a catalyst for what has gone on to be the most successful musical genre worldwide.

She is survived by three sons, plus several grandchildren and great grandchildren.

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Friday 30 September 2011, 12:17 | By

DMAs presented

Awards

BT DMAs

So, BT has dished out another bucket full of Digital Music Awards, which is jolly nice of the telecoms company to do I’m sure we can all agree. Adam & Joe took Best Radio Show Or Podcast (or presumably both), which is good. And SoundCloud was declared Best Innovation, which is groovy. As for the rest, well, read the winners list in full and make your own mind up will you, I’m very busy.

Best Male Artist: Olly Murs
Best Female Artist: Jessie J
Best Group: JLS
Best International Artist or Group: Bruno Mars
Best Independent Artist or Group: Adele
Best Newcomer: Jessie J
Best Song: Jessie J feat BOB – Price Tag
Best Video: JLS with Tinie Tempah – Eyes Wide Shut
Breakthrough Artist Of The Year: Ed Sheeran
Artist Of The Year: The Streets

Best Place To Discover Music: Radio 1 online
Best Place To Hear Music: YouTube
Best Place To Buy Music: iTunes
Best Music App: Orange Glastonbury 2011 app
Best Event: Coca-Cola Music – 24 Hour Session with Maroon 5
Best Artist Promotion: Kaiser Chiefs – The Future is Medieval album launch
Best Radio Show Or Podcast: The Adam & Joe Show
Best Innovation Or Gadget: SoundCloud

People’s Choice Award For Best Official Site For An Artist: coldplay.com
People’s Choice Award For Best Fan Site For An Artist: coldplaying.com

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Friday 30 September 2011, 12:14 | By

Take That to release live Progress DVD

Releases

Take That

In yet another money-smart move, Take That have decided to release footage from their all-conquering Progress Live Tour on DVD, just in time to corner the Christmas market. Due out on 21 Nov, the deluxe double-disc package will feature behind-the-scenes and backstage bits, no doubt of Robbie strutting about in his pants as the other four look on with disdain. Hurrah!

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Friday 30 September 2011, 12:13 | By

Courtney Love to write autobiography

Artist News

Courtney Love

Courtney Love has signed a deal with HarperCollins imprint William Morrow to publish her autobiography. The company announced that the book would “set the record straight” regarding her life with Kurt Cobain, her drug problems and everything else she’s ever considered other people to have told lies about. Which would be everything.

Having read seemingly endless amounts of blogs and tweets from Love over the years, I’m fairly sure she’s set the record straight many times over. Though at least a book will be a bit more coherent. I’d not want to be her editor though. If they can manage to whip everything it into shape by then, the book is due out next autumn.

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Friday 30 September 2011, 12:12 | By

Tru Thoughts announces London showcase

Gigs & Festivals

Quantic

Electronic label Tru Thoughts is set to host a showcase night at London’s Koko on 19 Nov. Those attending can expect sets and performances from long-time roster artists Quantic, Belleruche, Nostalgia 77, Hidden Orchestra and Hint, plus appearances by fresh signings Omar, Anchorsong, Rodney P and Beta Hector. Guests will also receive a free mix CD as compiled by Tru Thoughts co-owner Robert Luis, who is also booked to DJ at the event.

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Friday 30 September 2011, 12:09 | By

Dananananaykroyd are no more

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Dananananaykroyd

With five years, two well-received albums and one CMU Powers Of Ten Playlist to their unspellable name, Glaswegian six-piece Dananananaykroyd have announced they are to part ways after a forthcoming final tour. Their last ever single, ‘Think And Feel’, will be released on 7 Nov. Stream it below.

Reads a statement from the group: “We all still love each other very much. For a band called Dananananaykroyd we’ve done more than we ever expected or possibly even intended and we’ve enjoyed nearly every step of the way. We’re very keen at the same time to make sure we’re never compromising or giving anything less than 100% and at this juncture of our collective lives, it makes sense to go out with a bang – which is exactly what this tour will be”.

Tour dates:

12 Oct: Bristol, Thekla
14 Oct: Leeds, Brainwash Festival
29 Oct: Glasgow, ABC
31 Oct: Manchester, Deaf Institute
1 Nov: Leicester, Firebug
3 Nov: Brighton, The Haunt
4 Nov: London, KCLSU
5 Nov: Derby, Victoria Inn
6 Nov: Stoke, Sugarmill
7 Nov: Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms
8 Nov: Exeter, Cavern
10 Nov: Oxford, Bullingdon
11 Nov: York, Fibbers
12 Nov: Newcastle, Cluny

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Friday 30 September 2011, 12:06 | By

Toyota looks to step up music partnerships platform in 2012

Brands & Merch

Scion A/V

Scion A/V, a US-based entertainment venture owned by car firm Toyota, is stepping up its music activity next year, according to Digital Music News.

Toyota has operated the Scion A/V online entertainment hub as part of its marketing for the Scion car range for a number of years, and music-wise struck up a number of partnerships with hip hop artists in the early years. Various artist partnerships have followed, some resulting in new releases. But next year, Scion plans to become a “fully developed music company” getting involved with, and funding, recordings, videos and touring for participating artists. Said artists will get marketing and tour support, and keep hold of any copyrights created by their work with the brand-owned venture.

In terms of music, Scion seems keen to be eclectic with its partnerships, a tie-up with alt metal outfit The Melvins amongst the recent announcements. Other artists involved include Steve Aoki, Switch, and King Kahn, and DMN says the car firm’s music enterprise could be working with 20 artists as of next year.

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Friday 30 September 2011, 12:02 | By

Peermusic promotes UK chief to European role

Business News Industry People Labels & Publishers

Peermusic

Independent music publisher Peermusic has announced Nigel Elderton as its new European President, reporting straight to CEO Ralph Peer II. London-based Elderton has been MD of the publisher’s UK operations for years, and will continue to perform this role.

Says Peer: “Nigel brings a wealth of experience and industry knowledge and a fine track record to his new responsibilities. I look forward to working with him in continuing our European growth”.

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Friday 30 September 2011, 11:58 | By

Edwyn Collins launches label

Business News Labels & Publishers

Edwyn Collins

Edwyn Collins has teamed up with James Endeacott, the former Rough Trade A&R and founder of 1965 Records, to launch a new label, to be called Analogue Enhanced Digital. The new venture will launch with four single releases, one for each week in October, from Broken Hands, Rotifer, Wide Sea and Linden. It’s not clear whether Collins plans to put out his own new material via the new venture, but presumably so.

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Friday 30 September 2011, 11:55 | By

EMMS Publicity celebrates tenth anniversary

Business News Management & Funding Marketing & PR

EMMS

Music PR agency EMMS publicity celebrates its tenth anniversary next month, and is doing so by making a bit of noise about Francis Neve, who is signed to the company’s previously reported newish management arm. EMMS will be giving away a free download of Bangatang’s remix of Neve’s first single ‘Brian’s Drying Up’.

Speaking to CMU, boss man Stephen Emms said: “We’re chuffed to be celebrating our first decade having worked with such incredible talent over the years, from Florence Welch to Jay Sean to David Guetta – to name three. This year we’ve continued to work with albums by some brilliant new and established names, including Scarlette Fever, Carl Cox and Jill Scott – as well as app brands, music venues like Koko and even the odd restaurant or two. We’ve also launched our management division with the very talented Francis Neve, whose new single ‘Dance Around The Fires’ is nothing short of astonishing”.

The Francis Neve remix is available to stream below, and will have the download function switched on for 24 hours on 3 Oct. Meanwhile, why not read ten facts about EMMS Publicity over on the company’s blog?

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Friday 30 September 2011, 11:53 | By

MySpace owner lays off staff

Digital

MySpace

MySpace’s new owner Specific Media has laid off just under 8% of its workforce, according to reports. The redundancies are seemingly part of the integration of the digital advertising company with its newish acquisition.

About half of MySpace’s 400 staff were let go when Specific Media took ownership of the flagging digital firm from News Corp, but these new lay offs are in addition to that, and seemingly includes employees in Specific’s existing workforce.

We are still awaiting Specific’s big announcement about the relaunch of MySpace, originally promised for August but now likely to occur at an advertising conference in New York next month. It is thought changes will see MySpace become an entirely music-based platform, possibly dabbling in Bandcamp/Topspin style territory by trying to enable artists to set up subscription-based fan services.

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Friday 30 September 2011, 11:52 | By

Spotify adds private listening option

Digital

Spotify

Spotify has announced it is adding a ‘private listening’ button to its player, so that users can easily stop the music platform from sharing data with Facebook while still having their Spotify accounts integrated with the social network (something all new users are obliged to do).

Following ranting from a very vocal minority of Spotify users who dislike the music service’s closer ties with Facebook, and the fact that – if Facebook tracking is enabled – Spotify posts updates on every single track ever played onto the social network, Team Spot’s top man Daniel Ek announced yesterday via Twitter: “We’re rolling out a new client as we speak where you can temporarily hide your guilty pleasures. It works like a browser’s private mode. … We call it ‘private listening’ and you can find it in the Spotify/File menu and toggle it on/off”.

To use the new private listening option users will need to upgrade to the latest version of the streaming music service’s player.

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Friday 30 September 2011, 11:50 | By

Absolute to air multiple Frank Skinner shows with different music

Media

Absolute Radio

So this is interesting. Absolute Radio plans to put out its Frank Skinner Show across all its stations, so on the main service and its 80s, 90s, 00s and Classic Rock spin offs, but with different songs so that the programme fits each channel’s music policy.

The Saturday morning show will air an hour later on the digital channels, with all the records swapped. Presumably that means the presenter won’t be able to announce the tracks he plays, unless some very clever editing is planned. The multiple versions of Skinner’s programme will start airing from tomorrow.

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Friday 30 September 2011, 11:50 | By

James Blake not a fan of US fratstep

And Finally

James Blake

Generally operating at the more considered end of dubstep, James Blake has revealed (if you can call it a revelation) that he’s not a big fan of the more beefy, slightly brainless efforts to make dubstep that have been coming out of the US with increasing frequency of late.

Actually asked about the lack of women in dubstep, Blake told the Boston Phoenix recently: “The things that drew me to dubstep in the first place weren’t necessarily the kind of testosterone-driven environments that you got from say, late jungle or some of the drum n bass stuff that was happening after that. I think the dubstep that has come over to the US, and certain producers – who I can’t even be bothered naming – have definitely hit upon a sort of frat-boy market where there’s this macho-ism being reflected in the sounds and the way the music makes you feel”.

He continued: “To me, that is a million miles away from where dubstep started. It’s a million miles away from the ethos of it. It’s been influenced so much by electro and rave, into who can make the dirtiest, filthiest bass sound, almost like a pissing competition, and that’s not really necessary. And I just think that largely that is not going to appeal to women. I find that whole side of things to be pretty frustrating, because that is a direct misrepresentation of the sound as far as I’m concerned”.

Read the full interview here.

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Friday 30 September 2011, 11:48 | By

CMU Beef Of The Week #80: Bloc Party v Bloc Party

And Finally Beef Of The Week

Bloc Party

So, this is most likely a big fuss about nothing. In fact, a cynic might suggest that this whole controversy over whether or not Kele Okereke is still Bloc Party’s frontman or not was some kind of carefully crafted PR stunt. But that cynic would be an idiot, because nothing about this seems careful at all, let alone crafted.

This story begins on 27 Dec last year, when a picture was posted to Bloc Party’s official Twitter profile showing all four members together (with a dog who had hitherto not been part of the band and has not been mentioned since). As people tried to decipher the cryptic message that was attached to the picture – “Merry Christmas from the Bloc” – experts all agreed that this meant that the band were definitely about to break the hiatus they had begun in 2009.

It looked more like that was a correct assessment in March, when Ash frontman Tim Wheeler told The Sun that Bloc Party guitarist Russell Lissack, who had been moonlighting with the band for about a year, was leaving. No one said he was leaving to rejoin Bloc Party, but hopes were raised further.

And those hopes were fulfilled the following month when Lissack confirmed that there was new Bloc Party material on the way. He told NME: “We met up at Christmas … and talked about doing another record. Kele and I started working on Bloc Party stuff together and separately. We’re having a bit of a break until the festivals are over, because people have commitments during the summer, but we’re going to get back properly in September and sit in a rehearsal studio to work on new band material”.

Bang! There you go, it’s happening. Definitely happening. Definitely. Except that come September, Okereke announced not that he was going into the studio with Bloc Party, but that he had already recorded a new solo EP and would be releasing it in October. Not very much about that would suggest he was about to start working with his bandmates on new Bloc Party material.

So, the obvious question came a few weeks later when he was interviewed by NME – what’s going on? “I was actually having lunch about three weeks ago, just here on Eighth Avenue and I saw somebody walk past and I recognised the haircut”, he said. “It was Russell. I was like: ‘Hey!’ but he didn’t see me and I followed him around the corner and then I saw Matt, Gordon and Russell [ie all his bandmates] all standing outside this rehearsal space. They all went inside”.

He added: “I hope I haven’t been fired. I don’t really know what’s going on, because we haven’t really spoken recently and I’m a bit too scared to ask”.

Asked to comment on Okereke’s remarks on Twitter, Lissack said: “I expect they [NME] will be announcing the auditions soon”. At the time, most took this to be a sarcastic comment, though a week later that is exactly what happened. Well, sort of.

In an interview with the music weekly, the guitarist said: “It’s not really a secret because Kele’s been pretty busy doing solo stuff and it looks like he’s going to be doing that a bit longer. The other three of us wanted to meet up and make music. We were talking about just doing an instrumental thing, but now we might get a singer as well, to properly put some music out and play some shows”.

Confirming that there had been no contact with the band’s former frontman, he added: “I haven’t spoken to Kele for a couple of months, I guess since the festivals when I was doing stuff with Ash. But there’s no bad vibes”.

That’s right, Lissack returned to Ash as well. Who’s the real bad guy here? It doesn’t really matter, the story was broken – Kele Okereke is being replaced as the frontman of the band he co-founded and that made him famous. His bandmates planned to carry on without the very man that many would probably see as their key member. Shocking news.

Of course, Lissack never actually said that Okereke was out of the band. Actually, saying “Kele’s been pretty busy doing solo stuff and it looks like he’s going to be doing that a bit longer” would more likely suggest that Lissack expected Okereke to come back at some point. But whatever, it did seem that the other members of Bloc Party were planning to do something without him.

Commenting on the NME story, Okereke wrote on his blog: “Hmm, I don’t know what to make of this. A big part of me is laughing HARD at all of this but another part of me is all like WTF? I’m quite curious as to what a Bloc Party audition would be like? I wonder if they would let me sit on the panel so I could be a judge Tyra Banks style?”

Maybe he could, that sounds like fun. And reality TV shows have been created on flimsier premises. Plus it would be fine, because Okereke is actually still a member of the band. We know this because Si White, who co-manages both Bloc Party and Kele’s solo career, tweeted on Wednesday: “For those that keep asking, Bloc Party’s membership consists of the same four people it has consisted of since 2003″.

To confirm, those people are Russell Lissack, Gordon Moakes, Matt Tong… and Kele Okereke.

The same day, the Bloc Party website was insisting that “Bloc Party is still Bloc Party”. Although that does tell us less about the current line-up. I mean, The Sugababes are apparently still The Sugababes, aren’t they?

But I think what’s happened here is simple confusion has allowed this story to run out of control. Back in April when he announced that the band were planning to work on new material, Lissack also said: “I’ve really missed playing some of our songs again. The time away has really just reignited the passion I have for Bloc Party”.

The real story, the story it’s somehow taken over 1000 words to get to, is that three quarters of Bloc Party are planning to do something together that might be quite cool, but which will ultimately be something of a side project while they wait to get back to work properly once Kele is available. They probably should have let Kele know this though.

But anyway, narked that they are being accused of making up the whole thing, the folks at NME have released the audio of their recent interviews with Okereke and Lissack conducted by writer Dan Smith, so you can make your own mind up.

Kele:

Russell:

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Thursday 29 September 2011, 12:06 | By

Approved: Dems – Houses EP

CMU Approved

Dems

Dems first appeared in the Approved slot way back in the mists of time when it was a freshly conceived solo project of a guy called Dan Moss. He threw a couple of free downloads up on Bandcamp and watched as they gained fast momentum, getting airplay on Xfm and later having ‘Lioness’ named a Record Of The Week by Rob da Bank on his Radio 1 show.

That was all more than a year ago now, and thankfully Moss took a step back from the hype and went away to properly fashion the venture into something that could survive such a sudden burst of attention. Now a three-piece, Dems return with their debut EP, ‘House’, in November. Released through Bad Life, it will feature two original songs, ‘House’ and ‘Down On You’, plus remixes by Evil Nine, TWR72 and Jean Nipon.

Maintaining the understated pop sound of those initial releases, there’s a slight melancholy to the music, but presented with upbeat rhythms and great hooks. Listen to both ‘House’ and ‘Down On You’ on SoundCloud.

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Thursday 29 September 2011, 12:05 | By

Playlist: Slow Club

CMU Playlists

Slow Club

Long-time residents at London-based label Moshi Moshi, folk-pop partnership Slow Club released ‘Paradise’, the successor to their 2009 debut ‘Yeah So’, earlier this month. A series of swoonsome spells interspersed with luscious, pastoral odes and unruly alt-rock numbers, the LP was produced by Luke Smith (Foals’ ‘Total Life Forever’) of now-defunct outfit Clor. As if to further boost the duo’s indie credo, much-lauded lead single ‘Two Cousins’ was covered by Malcolm Middleton and Aiden Moffat of Arab Strap. Well, I never.

Ahead of a live date tonight at Audio in Brighton, the duo’s Charles Watson agreed to outline the band’s favoured on-road listening fodder, a vintage/contemporary mixture born of constant shuffle button-pressing, with a Powers Of Ten Playlist.

He says, by way of an introduction: “Here’s some songs from bands we played loads in the van, in the studio, or who we saw on tour. I think our drive-time radio/iPod hopping has probably played a bigger role in shaping our new record more than any other single influence. We toured with lots of different kinds of people through strange wonderful places in the year leading up to making ‘Paradise’. Travel has given some records a new significance in our band. Other records are still not tolerated”.

CHARLES WATSON’S TEN
Click here to listen to Charles’ playlist in Spotify, and then read on to find out more about their selections.

01 Francois And The Atlas Mountains – Wonder
We met Francois a few years ago through the Fence Collective festivals. We both thought his gig at Homegame 2011 was the best we’ve ever seen. And he’s a totally amazing artist.

02 Shannon And The Clams – You Can Come Over
A three-piece from Oakland. Dylan Moran on drums.

03 Woods – Any Other Day
Bit more ballad-y than their earlier stuff. Like it.

04 Caribou – Kalli
TUNE!

05 Michael Jackson – Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough
At high speed on the M1.

06 Nico – Fairest Of The Seasons
Jackson Brown! Amazing words. Amazing song.

07 Johnny Flynn – The Water
Johnny Flynn and Laura Marling singing together. One of the best albums of 2010, I think.

08 TV On The Radio – Crying
Good really loud.

09 Hot Club de Paris – White Town Express
Hot Club de Paris get better and better and better and better.

10 Talking Heads – Heaven (Live)
One those songs that feels instantly like it’s been living in your brain forever. I prefer this live recording to the studio version though.

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Thursday 29 September 2011, 12:04 | By

Doctor called PA before paramedics: Murray trial update

Jacksons v AEG Timeline Legal Top Stories

Conrad Murray

The trial of Conrad Murray, the doctor accused of causing the death of Michael Jackson, continued yesterday as the prosecution attempted to present their version of what happened on the day the late king of pop died in 2009.

The prosecution, of course, claim that Murray caused Jackson’s untimely demise by negligently administering the drug propofol. They were also keen to show that the doctor failed to respond quickly enough when it became apparent that something very bad had happened to his patient.

A former Jackson PA and security guard, and an AEG Live lawyer who worked on Conrad Murray’s contract, all testified on day two of the trial. The PA, Michael Williams, confirmed that Murray called him at 12.12pm on 25 Jun 2009, sixteen minutes after the doctor had found Jackson unresponsive. Williams didn’t pick up, and Murray left an anxious sounding voicemail saying, simply, “call me right away”.

When Williams called back three minutes later Murray told him that Jackson has suffered “a bad reaction”, and that he should come to the mansion where the singer was living straight away, and send a security guard up to the singer’s quarters immediately. The PA added that while something was clearly wrong, Murray’s use of the words “a bad reaction” did not indicate that the emergency services should be called. So he contacted a security guard at the property, and then made his way to Jackson’s home.

That security guard was Faheem Muhammed, who also testified yesterday. He told the court that when he got to Jackson’s room he saw Murray seemingly trying to resuscitate the singer. Jackson’s two older children were there – “Paris was on the ground, balled up, crying … Prince had a shocked look” – so his first move was to take them out of the room. He then returned to the bedroom where, he says, Murray asked him if he knew CPR. It was at this point the emergency services were called.

By the time Williams got to Jackson’s home the ambulance had already arrived. “It was real frantic”, he told the court in his testimony. “I got there when the gurney [carrying Jackson] was coming down”. Williams accompanied Murray to the hospital where, he said, the doctor became anxious to return to the singer’s house once Jackson had been confirmed dead. Williams: “He said, ‘There’s some cream in Michael’s room that he wouldn’t want the world to know about’, and asked that I or someone else give him a ride back to the house, so that he could get the cream”. The implication on the prosecution’s part is that Murray was keen to hide the drugs he had administered to Jackson prior to his death.

Aside from painting a picture of what happened in the minutes immediately after Jackson’s cardiac arrest, the prosecution also focused on the singer’s health prior to that day. The defence are expected to claim the singer was ill, and fearful he would not be able to complete the 50 night O2 residency he had signed up to in a bid to pay off some of his mounting debts. But Williams confirmed Jackson seemed on good form in the days before his demise, performing well at the ‘This Is It’ rehearsals, and talking to fans outside the rehearsal venue in LA.

Meanwhile Kathy Jorrie, a lawyer working for ‘This Is It’ promoters AEG Live, told the court that Murray had told her himself, a number of times, in the days before Jackson’s death how healthy the singer was. Jorrie had been drawing up Murray’s contract for his continued work as Jackson’s personal medic once the singer relocated to the UK for the London residency. She told the court: “Dr Murray told me repeatedly that Michael Jackson was perfectly healthy, in excellent condition”.

The case continues.

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Thursday 29 September 2011, 12:02 | By

We7 relaunches, focuses on interactive radio

Digital Top Stories

We7

Spotify competitor We7 will relaunch today, possibly in a bid to stop us calling it a “Spotify competitor”. From this point onwards it’ll be “Pandora rival”. Not that those two services will compete head on in the same markets, for the time being at least.

So yes, We7, the UK-based digital music company which has dabbled with various different services over the years, many of them ad-funded, is throwing all its energy behind its ‘interactive radio’ platform. This is not really a surprise, as the company brought that element of the We7 offer right to the front last November, positioning the Spotify-style on-demand music-player element of the site as a secondary service. From today, the on-demand function will only be available to premium subscribers, with the main We7 site only displaying the cleaner, stripped down radio option.

Like Pandora, We7’s interactive radio platform puts together bespoke playlists for people based on a nugget of information the user provides at the start, such as genre, artist or song. There is additional interactivity, in that users can skip songs, log whether they like or dislike a track, and select the next song to be played themselves up to 50 times a month (or an unlimited amount of times for paying subscribers). There are also two mobile apps, a free to use mobile version of the radio offering, and an on-demand app only available for use by top tier premium subscribers.

As previously reported, when they first pushed interactive radio forward as a primary service last year, the We7 team claimed that stats showed it was actually the most popular element of their offer already. Cynics will no doubt note that the licensing costs for this kind of service are considerably less than for a truly on-demand platform, and that is presumably also a motivation for focusing on this element.

Though it is also true that many music fans – and possibly most casual music consumers – find the scale of a service like Spotify off-putting, and would prefer some automated curation on their behalf. Plus, of course, the interactive radio service better distinguishes We7 from Spotify, which has never really cracked the curation and recommendation element of streaming music.

Anyway, here’s what We7 chief Steve Purdham says: “We7 is about creating a smart, personal and intimate listening experience. We believe people want radio stations that are personally tailored to them with the opportunity to occasionally request songs. It’s like having your own personal DJ who knows what you want to hear. As music streaming moves from early adopters to the mainstream we want to be at the forefront of delivering a simple and easy to use service that everybody can engage with”.

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Thursday 29 September 2011, 12:00 | By

Gaga sues over trademark registration

Legal

Lady Gaga

While Lady Gaga may have failed to seize ownership of the dot org domain name using her moniker, she presumably reckons she has a better case for stopping a US firm from registering her stage name as a trademark in the make-up and, erm, bauble market.

Gaga is suing Excite Worldwide, claiming that the company is trying to cash in on her reputation by registering the trademarks, which it did, she says, without her permission.

The trademark applications are actually still going through the motions, and presumably Gaga plans to raise an objection with the US Trademark Office as well as possibly suing for damages. The lawsuit apparently also claims that Excite is interfering with her own efforts to register a range of Gaga trademarks.

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Thursday 29 September 2011, 11:58 | By

Lauryn Hill sued by stylist

Legal

Lauryn Hill

Lauryn Hill is being sued by a styling company which claims that the singer stole clothes it lent to her.

In a lawsuit filed at the LA County Superior Court and seen by TMZ, Via Davia Vintage claims that Hill was loaned “an entire wardrobe of high fashion items” for her 2007 European tour in exchange for a weekly fee for four weeks. However, the company says, Hill held onto all of the clothes for three months, kept 70% of the garments permanently and paid only a fraction of the fees due.

In July, Hill was also sued by guitarist Jay Gore, who said he was never paid for a gig he performed with her, also in 2007.

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Thursday 29 September 2011, 11:55 | By

Bloc Party comment on split rumours

Artist News

Bloc Party

Various people involved with Team Bloc Party have commented on reports that the band are seeking a replacement for frontman Kele Okereke.

As previously reported, guitarist Russell Lissack told NME this week: “Kele’s been pretty busy doing solo stuff and it looks like he’s going to be doing that a bit longer. The other three of us wanted to meet up and make music. We were talking about just doing an instrumental thing, but now we might get a singer as well, to properly put some music out and play some shows”.

Commenting on that, Okereke wrote on his blog: “Hmm, I don’t know what to make of this. A big part of me is laughing HARD at all of this but another part of me is all like WTF? I’m quite curious as to what a Bloc Party audition would be like? I wonder if they would let me sit on the panel so I could be a judge Tyra Banks style?”

Meanwhile, Si White, who co-manages both Bloc Party and Kele’s solo career, tweeted yesterday: “For those that keep asking, Bloc Party’s membership consists of the same four people it has consisted of since 2003”.

The band issued an even more succinct statement via their website, saying: “Bloc Party is still Bloc Party. See you soon”.

As previously noted, it’s not clear if any activity minus Okereke will be carried out as Bloc Party or under a separate name. Also, the inclusion of the line “it looks like he’s going to be doing that a bit longer” suggests that Lissack is expecting him to come back at some point.

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Thursday 29 September 2011, 11:53 | By

London Philharmonic record every national anthem (more or less)

Artist News

London 2012

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded no less than 200 national anthems ready for next year’s London Olympics. The recordings, recorded in just 52 hours at the Abbey Road Studios, will be used during medal presentation ceremonies at next year’s games. Though every anthem will also be played at the opening events of both the Olympics and Paralympics, so if any countries fail to win any medals, at least the Phil’s efforts won’t be wasted.

According to the BBC, Olympic rules dictate that each anthem is between 60 and 90 seconds. As the shortest, Uganda, is eighteen seconds long normally, and the longest, Uruguay, runs for nearly seven minutes, that involved some reworking. Though original arrangements were being used anyway, partly to give the performances a fresh spin, and partly to avoid any copyright issues around existing arrangements.

Conductor Philip Sheppard had 45 meetings with reps from all over the world to discuss his adaptations of each anthem. Meanwhile, the orchestra had a map on the floor of the studio so they could mark off each anthem as it was recorded. Sheppard told the Beeb: “My geography has definitely been sharpened!”

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