Friday 31 May 2013, 17:43 | By Andy Malt

Appeals court orders Terra Firma v Citigroup retrial

Business News EMI Sale Timeline Labels & Publishers Legal Top Stories

A New York appeals court has ordered a retrial in Guy Hands’ case against Citigroup, in relation to the bank’s conduct during his equity company Terra Firma’s takeover of the major music company EMI in 2007.

As previously reported, in 2010 Terra Firma failed to convince a New York jury that the only reason it bought faltering music company EMI for £4 billion at the moment that it did was because one of the US bank’s top advisors gave the equity firm false information about the intentions of another bidder. The deal resulted in Terra Firma being laden with heavy debts to the bank, which proved a bad situation to be in when the credit crunch occurred, not long after the transaction was completed.

In the first court battle Terra Firma failed to come up with any killer witnesses, and in the end (despite Citigroup’s reputation taking a bit of a bashing in the courtroom too) it took the jury just four and a half hours to rule in the bank’s favour. Three months later Citigroup repossessed EMI, leading to the company being split in two and sold off to Universal and Sony/ATV. And the rest, of course, is history.

And now, it seems, a lot of that history is going to be raked up again in a retrial. Following a request from Terra Firma’s lawyers last September, the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals today said that District Judge Jed Rakoff had incorrectly instructed the jury first time round on the relevant English law in the case – the sale having taken place in England, despite the original trial eventually being heard in the States – and therefore ruled that the whole case should be heard again.

While you await a date for the new trial, you can relive the original one in the CMU archive here.

Approved: Samurai Music at Fabric

Club Tip CMU Approved

Helping mark Samurai Music’s debut room takeover at Fabric this Friday will be one of drum n bass’ most stoic Amiga synth devotees, Dev Pandya, aka Paradox. A great showman, he’ll be bringing his kitbag packed with wonderfully analogue machines for a special live performance.

Paradox will be playing alongside sets from Lynx, Presha and Clarity. Elsewhere in the club, DJ Hype’s dnb juggernaut Playaz label takes over Room One, whilst Urban Nerds invite two garage legends, Matt Jam Lamont and Mike ‘Ruff Cut’ Lloyd to headline Room Two.

Friday 31 May, Fabric, 77a Charterhouse Street, Clerkenwell, EC1, 10pm-6am, £8-£17, more info here.

CMU Digest – 31 May 2013

Business News Week In Five

The five biggest stories in the music business this week…

01: Arts Council boss Alan Davey annoyed the record labels while defending his Momentum Music Fund. Justifying why tax-payers’ money should be given to aspiring musicians in more mainstream genres via the new fund, Davey said that new talent was being failed by major labels increasingly looking for “ready made” artists to sign. BPI boss Geoff Taylor called Davey’s remarks “ill-informed and out of touch”. In a blog post, Davey subsequently took back much of his criticism, though insisted that new artists now had to do more groundwork before labels would or could invest, and that is in that space where he hoped the new Arts Council initiative could help. CMU report | Davey’s blog

02: Marketing and communications staff changed at HMV. The company’s long-term communications chief Gennaro Castaldo announced he was moving to record industry trade body BPI. Meanwhile Marketing Week reported that the entertainment retailer, which is attempting a revival under its new owners Hilco, would soon announce a new head of marketing, who would likely replace Jill Thomas, the Senior Marketing Manager who has been leading marketing efforts at HMV since Hilco’s takeover. A rebrand is then likely to follow later this year, as well as a new cheaper marketing strategy. CMU report | Marketing Week report

03: Eircom prepared to shut its music service as web-blocking returned to the Irish courts. It emerged that Irish ISP Eircom would shut down its bespoke download and streaming platform next month. The service was set up as part of an agreement with the Irish record labels which also saw the net firm launch a web-blocking and three-strikes style system to combat piracy. Meanwhile, said labels were back in court in Ireland this week in an attempt to force Eircom’s rivals to also block rogue file-sharing website The Pirate Bay. Eircom report | Pirate Bay block report

04: It was rumoured British three-strikes could be delayed until 2017. According to blogger James Firth, sources in Westminster and Whitehall have said that the anti-piracy provisions of the 2010 Digital Economy Act are now unlikely to be implemented until after the next General Election, because of political sensitivities around the measures, and disagreements between the Department Of Media, Culture & Sport and the Treasury regarding how the programme would be funded. That would mean three-strikes warning letters would be unlikely to start being sent until 2016, or 2017 if it turned out amendments were required to the wording of the DEA. CMU report | James Firth blog

05: Channel 4 confirmed two Friday night TV shows were now ready to pilot. Having announced last year plans to launch three new music formats on its main channel, and after receiving over 100 pitches, the TV station said it now had two programmes in development that would pilot later this year. One is a music quiz show fronted by Nick Grimshaw, the other a music magazine programme hosted by, amongst others, Rizzle Kicks. CMU report | Guardian report

In CMU this week, I interviewed David Lowery of Camper Van Beethoven and music industry blog The Trichordist about ad-funded piracy, Lovefoxxx from CSS put together a rather fine playlist for us, and CMU Editor Andy Malt delved once again into the weird world of artist brand partnerships. Meanwhile, we approved of Jon Hopkins and Susanna with Siri Nilsen and Susanne Sundfør, plus Mac Demarco and his recent performances at Primavera Sound in Barcelona. Look out for a more detailed look back at Primavera Sound from CMU’s Aly Barchi next week.

CMU Beef Of The Week #159: Adam Levine v America (or possibly America v Adam Levine)

And Finally Artist News Beef Of The Week

Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine has caused a bit of bother this week, and not because he fronts one of the worst bands to ever exist. No, it’s because he hates America. Hates it. The whole country. Actively wishes it didn’t exist. He made this announcement on Tuesday’s night’s edition of the US version of ‘The Voice’, on which he is a judge.

Upset that viewers of the show had voted off two of his acts, Levine felt he could contain his rage no more, leapt out of his seat and shouted, “I hate this country!” Well, he might not have leapt out of his seat. As you can see from this clip, the camera wasn’t on him at the time. Also, maybe ‘shout’ is too strong a word. It’s probably more an exasperated mutter. You could even say it was a meaningless utterance of frustration said without thought.

You could say that, or you could do like many Americans online and angrily demand that Levine either apologise, or leave the country, or both.

“I was watching ‘The Voice’ last night, NBC’s singing competition, and I could not believe the words coming out of my flatscreen television”, wrote notoriously impartial news station Fox News’ commentator Todd Starnes, explaining the aftermath. Yeah, he has a flatscreen television. You wanna touch him?

Going on to describe long term Fox News adversary Levine’s almost-whisper as a “hissy fit”, Starnes noted that the singer, a “passionate supporter of President Obama”, had last year “warned the nation in a tweet: ‘Dear America, if you don’t re-elect Barack Obama, I’m gonna lose my shit'”.

I’m not really sure what that has to do with anything. I think it’s supposed to demonstrate that Levine has held the United States of America in contempt for some time now and can’t wait to see it sunk into the ocean. Especially since its residents failed to elect Barack Obama for a second term. Oh, wait, hang on…

Well, whatever, Levine addressed the situation with the level of attention it deserved – perhaps a little more – tweeting the dictionary definitions of ‘joke’, ‘humourless’, ‘lighthearted’ and ‘misunderstanding’ to his followers – some of whom misunderstood and thought he’d been hacked.

Many of the ones who did know what he was referring to were not placated by his response, taking offence to his highlighting their lack of a sense of humour, and keeping up the pressure. In fact, so strong was the campaign against him that it took less than 24 hours from the broadcast of the off hand remark that kicked it all off for him to issue a full public apology.

In a statement, Levine said: “I obviously love my country very much. My comments last night were made purely out of frustration. Being a part of ‘The Voice’, I am passionately invested in my team and want to see my artists succeed. Last night’s elimination of Judith and Sarah was confusing and downright emotional for me and my comments were made based on my personal dissatisfaction with the results. I am very connected to my artists and know they have long careers ahead, regardless of their outcome on the show”.

Oh America, I love you but you can’t half be a bit of a twat sometimes.

Approved: Ritual at Under The Bridge

Club Tip CMU Approved

Returning for its fourth outing, new-ish clubnight Ritual brings an eclectic mix of music to Chelsea this Saturday, with sets from Plump DJs, Zinc, The Correspondents and CMU’s own Eddy Temple-Morris, under the roof of the swanky Under The Bridge venue.

Taking top billing, Plump DJs will bring their mix of styles from techno to hip hop, while Eddy TM will handle, as is his modus operandi, “dance that rocks”, and The Correspondents will satisfy all your genre-mashing electro needs. And special guest DJ Zinc will bring in some house. Should be a heavy night.

Saturday 1 Jun, Under The Bridge, Stamford Bridge, Fulham Road, London, SW6 1HS, 10pm-3am, £15-£20, more information here.

UK three-strikes could now be delayed to 2017

Digital Top Stories

The British three-strikes system set out in the 2010 Digital Economy Act is unlikely to get going until at least 2016, according to digital policy blogger James Firth, who cites various Westminster and Whitehall sources in his post on the SRoC site.

As much previously reported, the copyright section of the DEA included provisions to help the content industries tackle online piracy, with the so called ‘graduated response’ system prioritised. Under the programme, heavily lobbied for by the music and other copyright industries, internet service providers would be obligated to send warning letters to customers who the rights owners reckoned were accessing illegal sources of content. The letters would demand the customer cease using unlicensed content services, with some to-be-determined penalty (eg bandwidth throttling) if they failed to comply.

Although rushed through Parliament in 2010 in the closing months of the last Labour government, with the support of the Conservative Party who then spearheaded the subsequent coalition executive, the three-strikes system outlined in the DEA is yet to go live. Efforts by some big ISPs to block the moves through judicial review have hindered things a little, though disagreements within government as to how exactly the system should work, and between the rights owners, ISPs and political types on who should cover the costs, have been the real delay.

With possible launch dates – ie the point at which a first batch of warning letters could be mailed out – constantly pushed back, last year a rep for the government’s Department Of Media, Culture & Sport admitted letter sending was now unlikely to happen until 2014 at the earliest. A reworked proposal of how three-strikes might work was then published last June by media regulator OfCom, which would likely manage any graduated response programme, resulting in yet another round of consultation.

According to Firth, one big problem remains how the programme would be funded. Although the current plan is a 75%/25% split between rights owners and net firms in covering the costs, Firth says that – aside from continued grumbling by the ISPs as to why they should pay anything – the Treasury has raised concerns that if the net companies are forced to contribute, then that’s a levy rather than a fee, and therefore the Treasury would have to be involved in shaping the initiative. To date the DMCS has had exclusive government responsibility for the graduated response programme.

In addition to that, Firth’s sources say that while the government in theory remains committed to the DEA’s copyright provisions, ministers fear three-strikes will be politically tricky, especially with some of the big ISPs still briefing against it, and news stories reporting on just how well the British music industry is doing despite rampant online piracy.

All of which means any launch will likely be pushed to beyond the next General Election, hence 2016 now seeming like the earliest date for warning letters to go out, with some already reckoning 2017 might be a more realistic start date, not least because the implementation of three-strikes might actually require some amendments to the DEA itself, which would likely be done via the also-now-delayed new Communications Act.

None of which will please the big rights owners who have been getting increasingly impatient about the constant DEA delays. Though – of course – in the meantime the content owners have been busy getting web-blocking injunctions against prolific file-sharing websites, something the DEA didn’t prioritise, but which the music and movie industry discovered was possible under existing copyright laws.

Web-blocking application back in courts in Ireland

Business News Digital Legal

Efforts by the major music companies to force internet service providers in Ireland to block access to The Pirate Bay were back in court this week.

As previously reported, the majors began legal action seeking injunctions to force UPC, Imagine, Vodafone, Digiweb, Three and Telefonica O2 Ireland to stop their customers from accessing the always controversial file-sharing site late last year, citing a new bit of Irish copyright law introduced in February 2012.

The judge hearing the case last December urged all parties to reach a voluntary agreement on the matter, though that never seemed especially likely. While one of the country’s biggest ISPs, Eircom, is already voluntarily blocking TPB, it seemed unlikely its competitors, and especially UPC, would do so without a court order.

Though when, with no such voluntary agreement reached, the music majors took their application for an injunction back to court this week, none of the net firms raised strong objections to the suggestion they should block the Bay, though UPC has queried the effectiveness of any such web-blocking and the possible impact on web users’ rights.

According to the Irish Times, Judge Brian McGovern said he would now consider submissions from all parties and make a ruling as soon as possible.

Of course all such web-blocks are pretty easy to circumvent if you want to. In the UK access to The Pirate Bay is already blocked via court order, and last week new blocks were instigated against Movie2K and Download4All after action by the film industry. But one guy who has set up proxies to help users get round any blockades told Radio 1 that such moves by the music and movie industries were pointless.

He told the BBC station: “In such an interconnected world, blocking and censoring websites is a wasteful venture. There are so many workarounds available that it makes me wonder what the point is of such a block in the first place. The proxy sites I have set up make it much easier to bypass these blocks. And setting up a proxy site is really simple as well. Hundreds of people around the world have set up proxy sites for The Pirate Bay alone”.

Of course the rights owning companies would likely argue that, while of course it’s easy to circumvent web-blocks if you want to, the existence of the blockades helps educate users about which sites infringe copyright and which are legit and legal to use.

Justin Bieber investigated over alleged dangerous driving

Legal

Justin Bieber is being investigated by police in relation to allegations of reckless driving. An LA County Sheriff’s Department spokesman told Reuters that two witnesses, including former NFL football player Keyshawn Johnson, reported seeing the singer driving at speed in a Ferrari through the gated community where he lives.

Bieber has apparently refused to be questioned by police, and now faces formal charges pending further investigation. He’s already fallen out of favour with his neighbours once this year, having received a battery charge following an incident with a neighbour over noise.

Big Boi cancels tour dates following knee injury

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Big Boi has had to cancel the best part of his May/June US tour, having had an operation to fix a knee-cap he damaged on stage earlier this week.

“God bless Atlanta Sports Medicine for a successful knee surgery fixed my torn Patella”, said the Outkast MC via Tumblr, adding a photo of him and his bandaged limb in a wheelchair.

Meanwhile rapper Killer Mike, who was meant to be joining him on the remainder of the ironically-titled ‘Shoes For Running’ tour, later tweeted that Big Boi was to take six weeks R&R to heal, adding that all cancelled dates will be “moved to September”.

These New Puritans stream new album

Releases

These New Puritans’ reliably strange new LP ‘Field Of Reeds’ is playing online via The Guardian in advance of its official release on 10 Jun.

It features French horns, existentialism, and, on several tracks, a “Magnetic Resonator Piano invented by Professor Andrew McPherson of the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary, University of London”. It’s excellent.

Listen here.

King Khan And The Shrines announce debut album

Releases

Berlin-based garage psych nonet King Khan And The Shrines have revealed details of what’s to be their first sacrifice on the long-playing altar (aka new LP) in six years. Its name, aptly given the gap since 2007’s ‘What Is!?’, is ‘Idle No More’, and it’ll be released via Merge on 3 Sep.

“The Shrines was my pirate ship and we sailed many a turbulent sea, spreading our music ‘like peanut butter’ all over the world. We celebrated our cult ‘underground’ status and became the kings we are through word of mouth and by making an ‘aural eyegasm’ that has often been called the ‘wildest show on earth'”, prattles King-Bama Lama Khan, adding that the new disc is the band’s most “refined” to date. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, King Khan and co’s 2012 track ‘Bite My Tongue’ will have to do:

Laura Veirs to release new album

Releases

Bella Union’s Laura Veirs is releasing a “beautiful, lush and at times deeply dark” new LP – her ninth to date – on 19 Aug. It features Jim James, KD Lang, Neko Case, Brian Blade and The Decemberists, so that’s nice.

Veirs, who was heavily pregnant whilst making ‘Warp And Weft’, says this of the ways in which that inspired her: “I’m haunted by the idea that something terrible could happen to my kids but that fear pushes me to embrace the moment. This record is an exploration of extremes – deep, dark suffering and intense, compassionate love”.

This is ‘Sun Song’, her collaboration with Neko Case:

Nancy Elizabeth to tour next month

Gigs & Festivals

Leaf Label-signed folkie Nancy Elizabeth will head out on a tour of the UK to play some of the songs off her latest album, ‘Dancing’, next month, ahead of appearances at the Latitude and Beacons festivals. She will also release a new single, a very different version of ‘Simon Says Dance’, on 17 Jun – you can catch the video for that below, along with the tour dates.

20 Jun: Liverpool, Leaf
21 Jun: Bristol, Cube Cinema
22 Jun: Cardiff, The Other Room, Porter’s
23 Jun: Exeter, Exeter Phoenix
25 Jun: Glasgow, The Glad Café
26 Jun: Hull, The Adelphi
27 Jun: Coventry, The Dog
28 Jun: London, The Dalston Victoria
29 Jun: Reading, South Street Arts Centre
30 Jun: Manchester, International Anthony Burgess Foundation
10 Jul: Leeds, Howard Assembly Room

Kurt Vile announces December tour dates

Gigs & Festivals

By way of an early Christmas present, longhaired singing star Kurt Vile has given fans a gift-wrapped set of mid-December live dates in aid of his new LP, ‘Wakin On A Pretty Daze’.

Take them in as you watch the ‘visuals’ to go with lead ‘Wakin’ single ‘Never Run Away’:

11 Dec: London, Shepherds Bush Empire
13 Dec: Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
14 Dec: Manchester, Academy 2
15 Dec: Glasgow, Arches
16 Dec: Bristol, The Fleece
17 Dec: Brighton, Concorde 2

Child Of Lov cancels all live dates

Gigs & Festivals

Alt-pop artist The Child Of Lov, real name Cole Williams, has rinsed his live itinerary of all its dates, which means he won’t be playing again until… well, whenever he changes his mind, really.

Sharing his reasoning in cancelling appearances at Glastonbury, Benicassim and Bestival with NME, Williams said: “If there’s one thing I know, it is that I have to be able to express myself in what I do musically. I will not go as far as saying that performing live is worth less artistically than producing and composing a record, but on a creative level, they are two entirely different things”.

He added: “Even though I do feel pressure to do a tour that involves some great festivals lately, I’ve come to realise that playing gigs cannot occupy a rewarding role if it is not exactly as I envisioned it, exactly as I want it, and exactly the way I know the audience deserves it”.

As we all try to translate what that’s meant to mean – perhaps it’s that he wasn’t happy watching this back – let’s have an artistically gratifying look at ‘Give Me’, a track taken from TCOL’s eponymous first LP:

Festival line-up update: Glastonbury, Roskilde, Wireless and more

Artist News Festival Line-Up Update Gigs & Festivals

So, it’s official. Knight Of The ‘Strictly’ Realm Sir Brucie Forsythe will, as per this Daily Mail article (and this total Glastonbury line-up revelation), be singing, dancing and playing “a bit of piano” at Glastonbury this year. The world will be able to watch that showbiz triple-threat transpire via live-stream as part of the BBC’s first ever ‘truly digital’ coverage of the festival, the Beeb having revealed its various TV, radio and digital stations will film and tape over 250 hours of content from all six of Glastonbury’s main stages, straight to whatever hi-tech gadget you’d care to name.

So, that’s Glasto done, what else? Well, there’s always the iTunes festival, which this year will feature a half-and-half rock n pop line-up – not least headliner Justin Timberlake, QOTSA, Jessie J, Primal Scream, Jake Bugg and Phoenix – with extra acts still tba. Tickets to all the London-based iFest’s one-off shows, as if you weren’t aware, are free, and available to apply for via this link.

And hey, guess what. Metallica have joined the likes of Kraftwerk, The National, Rihanna, Queens Of The Stone Age, Sigur Rós, Slipknot and Volbeat at Denmark’s Roskilde, the bill-topping slot representing Lars Ulrich et al’s only European show of 2013.

So that’s all quite exciting, as are the following additional festival additions:

BESTIVAL, Robin Hill Country Par, Isle Of Wight, 5-8 Sep: Hudson Mohawke, Crystal Fighters, Jon Hopkins, The Correspondents, Valerie June, East India Youth, Tythe, Le Carousel, Sean McGowan, Signals, Golden Fable, Cherishport, Sarah Close, New City Kings, The Slow Show, Troumaca, Velvet Stream, Wight Harmony, Mr Tom, Greg Wilson, Micky Finn, Bobby Tank, JFB Scratch, DJ Chris Tofu, Handsome Dave Rocker, Reeps1, Heavenly Jukebox, Intros Outros, Tythe, Jerome Hill, Ben Hoo, Long Jack, Mojo Filter, Pete Callard, Rev Milo Speedwagon, Tom Williams, Warm DJs, Olli Dutton, The Dudes. www.bestival.net

BRISFEST, Ashton Court Estate, Bristol, 21-22 Sep: Primal Scream, The Toddla T Sound, Fabio & Grooverider, Dr Meaker, Yes Sir Boss, Young Kato, The Boxettes, Land of the Giants, The John E Vistic Experience, Forestears, Kurtis Blow, DJ EZ, Chester P, DJ Dazee feat Carasel, and Ramson Badbones & Twizzy, Daisy Chapman, Bucucrasu, South Divide, The Trish Brown Band, Lund Quartet, Astroid Boys, Casimir, Beyond Rivers, The Cadbury Sisters, MAK, The St Pierre Snake Invasion, Typesun, Cheeba, Lumen, Cars On Fire, Hello Lazarus, Oxygen Thief, Isola Dusk, RSVP, Mankala, Amadou Diagne, Batch Gueye & The Band, Aji Pa Ti, Baila la Cumbia, Technical Itch, The DJ Producer, Ghost, MDS , Amen-Tal, Bashout Allstars, Clayton Blizzard, Billy Rowan, With Nell & I, Saskia Maxwell, Becky Elder, Louise Latham. www.brisfest.co.uk

BINGLEY MUSIC LIVE, Myrtle Park, Bingley, West Yorkshire, 3- Aug – 1 Sep: Theme Park, Dave McPherson, The Dirty Rivers, Kat Men, China Rats, The Dunwells. www.bingleymusiclive.com

DEER SHED, Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, North Yorkshire, 19-21 Jul: Velcro Hooks. www.deershedfestival.com

EDEN SESSIONS, Eden Project, Cornwall, dates tba: A*M*E. www.edenproject.com/sessions

FESTIVAL NO 6, Portmeirion, Wales, 13-15 Sep: Ramy Essam, Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir, Andrew Weatherall, Tracey Thorn. www.festivalnumber6.com

GLASTONBURY, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset, 26-30 Jun: Bruce Forsythe. www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk

GREEN MAN, Glanusk Park, Powys, Wales, 15-18 Aug: Patti Smith, Matt Berry, Jon Langford, Money. www.greenman.net

ITUNES FESTIVAL, Roundhouse, London, dates tba: Justin Timberlake, Jessie J, Queens Of The Stone Age, Phoenix, 30 Seconds To Mars, Jake Bugg, Primal Scream, Jack Johnson. www.itunesfestival.com

NASS, Royal Bath & West Showground, Somerset, 11-14 Jul: Skepta, Kids In Glass Houses, IDIOM, Mic Righteous. www.nassfestival.com

ØYA, Middelalderparken, Oslo, Norway, 6-10 Aug: Wu-Tang Clan, Kendrick Lamar, Lady, Mikal Cronin, Merchandise, The Staves, Konono No1, Andre Bratten, Alfred Hall, Hvitmalt Gjerde. www.oyafestivalen.com

ROSKILDE, Denmark, 4-7 Jul: Metallica. roskilde-festival.co.uk

WAKESTOCK, Abersoch, North Wales, 12-14 Jul: Little Comets, Lewis Watson, Catfish And The Bottlemen, Candelas. www.wakestock.co.uk

WIRELESS, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, 12-14 Jul: Wiz Kid, Little Mix, Tom Prior, Earth, Wind & Fire, Joey Bada$$, Roses Gabor, Chloe Howl, Jacob Banks, Dream Mclean, Cherub, Monsta, Rascals, Phlo Finister, B Smyth, Flume, Joel Compass, Kat Dahlia, Ed Drewett, Raleigh Ritchie, Knytronium, Etta Bond & Raf Riley, Sinead Harnett, Stylo G, Fuse ODG, B Smyth, Context, Mausi, Jetta, Purple Ferdinand, Sasha Keable. www.wirelessfestival.co.uk

Bruno Mars invests in NJOY e-cigarettes

Brands & Merch

Well, here’s a partnership we didn’t see coming, Bruno Mars is now an investor in NJOY electronic cigarettes. Details of the singer’s investment in the company haven’t been disclosed, but he did tweet about the e-fags earlier this month, alluding to their possible health benefits.

In a statement yesterday, Mars said: “I’ve been using NJOY Kings instead of cigarettes these days and I’m sticking to it. I believe in the product and the company’s mission”.

That’s nice. NJOY CEO Craig Weiss added: “Bruno Mars is an exciting addition to NJOY and we are pleased to have him on board. Adding Bruno to our team expands our reach, raising further awareness of the NJOY brand and our company mission to obsolete cigarettes. Many of our investors use our product and recognise the potential NJOY has to challenge the status quo and change people’s lives for the better”.

They’re still not good for you, you know.

Parlophone announces a Bromance alliance

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

The Parlophone Label Group – the bit of EMI that didn’t merge with Universal Music and is in the process of being swallowed by Warner – has announced a new alliance with Paris-based electro label Bromance Records.

The gist of the partnership, which is with the EMI Music France unit, is that Bromance will continue to sign and develop new EDM talent, while PLG will seek global opportunities for some of the independent’s roster. The first acts to have extended releases under the partnership are Gesaffelstein, Club Cheval and label co-founder Brodinski.

Confirming the alliance, Parlophone Label Group Marketing EVP Bart Cools told CMU: “I have a huge amount of respect for what Bromance have achieved in the last year. The label knows what it takes to create great music and can recognise real talent when they see it, as demonstrated by the calibre of artist already signed to the label. We are looking forward to building this new long-term relationship with them to maximise the opportunity for the artists they sign to have their music heard on a global platform”.

Facebook to launch verification for Pages

Digital

Facebook has launched Twitter-style verification badges to guarantee the authenticity of fan pages on its system. Although technically unofficial artist or celebrity pages are against Facebook rules, this has not stopped imposters from popping up for numerous artists, particularly those who don’t have an official presence on the social network.

In a post announcing the new initiative, the company said: “We’re launching verified Pages to help people find the authentic accounts of celebrities and other high-profile people and businesses on Facebook. Verified Pages have a small, blue check mark beside their name on timelines, in search results, and elsewhere on Facebook. Verified Pages belong to a small group of prominent public figures (celebrities, journalists, government officials, popular brands and businesses) with large audiences”.

Google streaming app coming to iOS soon, unofficial app already available

Digital

Google is planning to launch an iOS mobile app for its currently US-only Google Play Music All Access streaming service in the coming weeks, the company’s Sundar Pichai revealed at AllThingsD’s D11 conference yesterday.

The Next Web reports that Pichai said on stage: “In Google’s fundamental DNA … is that we wanted to be universally accessible, and I think that philosophy carries through to today. So our teams are working like crazy to make [our new streaming service] available on iOS, and in a few weeks we’ll launch Google Play Music All Access for iOS”.

However, if you’re already a Google Play Music All Access user, you need not wait, because there’s already an unofficial app available in the iTunes App Store. gMusic has been available to iPhone-owning users of Google’s locker service for some time, and this week it added support for the streaming service.

This is something Google previously said would contravene its terms of service, and would result in the company asking for it to be taken down by Apple. However, a Google spokesperson told Evolver.fm this week: “It’s hard to comment on someone else’s app without seeing it and understanding what it does in detail. That said, our system really isn’t built or optimized for third-party apps right now.”

More car stream tie-ups

Brands & Merch Digital

The latest alliance between a streaming music service and a car maker is Deezer and Mini, with the digital music platform added to the BMW Group-owned motor maker’s net-connected in-car entertainment system. Users can navigate the Deezer songs library via the in-built Mini joystick, dash screen and steering wheel.

Confirming the alliance, Deezer chief Axel Dauchez told CMU: “You can’t have a road trip without the right music, and you can’t enjoy a car without an amazing stereo. We’re excited about joining the iconic Mini brand in giving people the soundtrack they need for the open road. 25 million songs and one simple app should help people find the right song for the moment – wherever they’re going”.

Deezer’s Mini alliance follows the announcement earlier this month of a partnership between the main part of BMW and another streaming music platform, Rara.com, which will be available via the car maker’s ConnectedDrive Online Entertainment service in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.

Remarking on that tie-up, Rara.com CEO Jez Bell told CMU: “People listen to music in the car more than anywhere else, yet it’s still hard to enjoy digital music in the car. With 14 million tracks available on rara.com to stream instantly across five countries, we are looking forward to bringing the rara.com music experience to new BMW 5 Series users across Europe”.

Spotify Discover tab goes live

Digital

In case you didn’t notice, or maybe you didn’t care, until stumbling across this excellent little bit of reportage, obviously, but Spotify added the all-new Discover page to its web-based platform earlier this week.

And what does that mean? Well, “your hunt for the right music is over! Spotify’s Discover page continually seeks out personal recommendations for you”. And if that sounds like sales-speak pulled directly off the Spotify blog, that’s because it is.

The new discovery functionality was first promised by the streaming music service’s top man Daniel Ek last December, and is part of Spotify’s attempt to help its users navigate its vast catalogue of songs, something all players in the streaming music space are grappling with just now, based on the theory that such functionality is essential to ensure mainstream audience appeal.

Universal access to the Discover tab is currently only available in Spotify’s web-based player currently, though some desktop software users have already seen in activated in recent weeks. A full roll out to the streaming service’s desktop and mobile apps is expected in due course.

BBC announces Glastonbury 2013 plans

Media

The BBC yesterday confirmed its plans for covering this year’s Glastonbury Festival, with 120 live performances set to be aired over the three main days of the fest, via TV, radio, online and red button platforms – the most sets to be aired to date.

Corporation bosses also say this will be the most digitally-connected Glastonbury, with six stages and a roaming camera live streamed to the iPlayer, iPlayer Radio app and the Beeb’s Glastonbury website. Amongst the presenters set to host from festival site are Chris Evans, Steve Lamacq, Nick Grimshaw, Gemma Cairney, Lauren Laverne, Dermot O’Leary, Mark Radcliffe, Jo Whiley, Greg James and Craig Charles.

Confirming all this, the BBC’s Popular Music man Bob Shennan told CMU: “Glastonbury is one of the greatest pop music events in the world and we want to make this year’s coverage the next best thing for everyone who can’t make it in person to Worthy Farm. We aim to broadcast more of the festival than ever before, and reinvent music coverage as only the BBC can for music fans at home and on the move.”

While Glastonbury chief Michael Eavis added: “The BBC have stuck with us through thick and thin since 1997 and they’ve earned their stripes the hard way. It’s been quite a journey since 97 and to have a complete record of what we’ve been up to over the years is music history gold dust”.

Grimshaw says no to Styles and Donald at Glastonbury

And Finally

With Radio 1 breakfast show geezer Nick Grimshaw confirmed as one of the hosts of the BBC’s coverage of Glastonbury this year, does he think his best bro Harry Styles should be booked to play the festival to sing some of those One Direction hits?

Well no, obviously not. “I don’t think One Direction’s music sounds like the stuff that is historically supported by Glastonbury”, Grimmy told the Independent when questioned about when it’s right for pop to appear at Worthy Farm.

Noting that Beyonce “killed it” when she headlined the event, despite many originally expressing surprise at her booking, the Radio 1 DJ adds: “I think Rihanna could play it. I think Rihanna would be great to see. She did [the] Hackney [Weekend] and she was incredible”.

Rita Ora, booked to play the Pyramid Stage this year, will be fine because “I guess Rita’s music sort of takes loads of stuff from music like dub and reggae and house music that would be played at Glastonbury”.

But the Take That guys, like Styles’ boyband mates, should never expect the call. “I don’t think Take That should do it. I think Gary Barlow is really great at writing songs – I think he’s good – but I don’t think I really want to see Howard Donald on the Pyramid Stage”.

Ah, but Grimmy, what if he was “winding down” on Tricky, would that do it for you? More Glasto gold in the making, surely?

Howdy Partner #7: Let’s engage ourselves silly

Brands & Merch Howdy Partner

A big part of the brand partnership is ‘engagement’. It’s a cold and clinical way of saying that the result of any partnership should bring value, whether tangible or intangible, to both sides of the partnership, by giving fans of the artist involved a positive view of their involvement with the artist and the company itself. Which is an even more cold and clinical way of saying that it’s important to do cool shit.

The ‘cool shit’ you can do is, of course, only limited by the imaginations of those involved. Unfortunately, these are the imaginations of marketing people, so are in fact fairly limited. The ‘secret’ or ‘exclusive’ show is a staple, as we’ve discussed before.

Latest to jump on the ‘secret’ show bandwagon is MasterCard, signing up man-of-the-moment (well, man-of-the-moment-prior-to-Daft-Punk’s-arrival) Justin Timberlake to play an exclusive show in New York earlier this month, as well as getting involved in other exciting sounding “consumer engagement opportunities”.

It’s a promotion about as imaginative as the quote MasterCard’s marketing people pretended Timberlake had given them: “I’m thrilled to be a part of a collaboration that offers me the opportunity to connect and engage with fans and bring them closer to the music. MasterCard is a respected global brand and I look forward to working with them to bring something truly unique to their cardholders”.

First, no one ever says they’re “thrilled” about anything, except in quotes other people have written for them. Secondly, no one would ever have actually said any of the rest of that statement out loud either. One of these days a brand partnership press release is going to come with an artist quote that just says, “This seems like fun and if some faceless corporation is willing to pay for it, who am I to argue?” Then we’ll all throw our arms in the air, rejoice, and engage ourselves silly.

Another marketing partnership staple is the competition, though this is one area where there’s room for a little more imagination to be employed in how a band/brand’s contest is implemented. Psy and Kid Rock are currently battling it out for the silliest chores to be presented to fans as some sort of privilege to perform.

Psy is making them compete to become his personal chef on behalf of Korean fast food chain Bibigo. The winner gets to take home $40,000, but will also have to join his world tour and cook all the rapper’s food. I’m not exactly sure how long Psy’s tour is going to be, but this is at risk of looking less like a prize and more like a low-paid job.

If that sounds a bit too much like hard work, why not try Kid Rock’s competition? It’s basically the same but the winner just has to serve him Jim Beam whiskey backstage on his summer tour dates. You only get $10,000 for this one, but, hey, at least you can drink yourself insensible every night and then you won’t remember most of it even happened. (I’m sure Jim Beam would want me to point out here that you should always drink alcohol responsibly, and possibly that getting drunk whilst behind a bar is very unprofessional.)

Also touring the US with a brand in tow are One Direction, though to be fair they’re not attempting to enslave any fans in the process (you can see how that sort of thing might be more frowned upon with the 1D fanbase). They’ve gone for a straight sponsorship deal with biscuit manufacturer Nabisco. The best thing about this is that it means One Direction are currently sponsored by Ritz crackers. They’re mainly talking up Oreos, but we all know it’s the Ritz crackers that are most important.

Senior Director Of US Media And Consumer Engagement (yes, that is a job) at Mondelez International, the agency which brokered the deal, Stephen Chriss told Billboard: “We want to be laser-focused in who we work with. We might not be in music every day like some brands, but we want to bring a lot of touchpoints to a lot of customers and leveraging One Direction will help us do that effectively”.

Leveraging? Touchpoints? All this jargon is making me thirsty, and sadly Kid Rock’s drunk all the bourbon. Luckily, there’s plenty of Mountain Dew to go around, thanks to a couple of partnerships with the Pepsi-owned soft drink brand that have gone bad in the last month.

First, Pepsi found itself at the centre of some controversy when US commentator Boyce Watkins took offence to an advert made for Mountain Dew by Odd Future’s Tyler, The Creator. Yeah, something created by Tyler, The Creator proved to be controversial, who would have expected it? The third advert in a series in which a goat attacks a waitress and then briefly evades capture by the police, the commercial saw said waitress trying to identify the goat in a police line-up.

The rest of the line-up was made up of black men, which Boyce said enforced racist stereotypes, and also said that, as the goat taunts the waitress until she refuses to identify him, it also promoted violence against women. Tyler refuted all of this, but by then Pepsi had already pulled the entire campaign.

Just days later, Pepsi was forced to cancel another partnership between Mountain Dew and a rapper, this time Lil Wayne. In this case, the controversy was not related to anything Wayne had done within the partnership, but rather to some lyrics written for a remix of Future’s ‘Karate Chop’ that were derogatory to civil rights icon Emmett Till. Till’s family took exception and put pressure on the drinks brand to cut its ties with the rapper, which it eventually did, perhaps still reeling from the events of the previous week.

But, hey, let’s not end this on a downer. There’s always room for a mention of a new brand partnership that Taylor Swift’s involved in, and there’s always a new brand partnership that Taylor Swift’s involved in to mention. She’s promoted shops, shoes, pizza and soft drinks. And now, finally, she’s got her own fragrance in partnership with Ulta. Actually, it’s not her first, this is her third to hit the shelves. But while the first two were called Wonderstruck and Wonderstruck Enchanted, this one definitely feels more like her personal smell, it being named Taylor By Taylor Swift.

Taylor agrees that this one is more ‘her’, telling People: “My first two fragrances were more about fairytales, but this fragrance is more about my own style, so I wanted the name to be more personal”.

What do fairytales smell like? I don’t know, but Swift does tell us that her new perfume is “a mix of a lot of things: It’s sweet, it’s sophisticated, it draws you in. It’s really my way of translating classic, yet modern, into a perfume. I hope that wearing this fragrance makes fans feel that any look can be classic and chic”.

I know I said earlier that the artists in these partnerships don’t actually say any of this nonsense, but I like to think that Taylor actually insists on coming up with the quotes herself. I want to believe that she genuinely tells people that Diet Coke “gets” her, and that perfume can affect how you look. Maybe she does, maybe she doesn’t, but I think it’s telling that she never says she’s “thrilled” in any of these quotes.

Approved: Mac Demarco – Still Together (live at Primavera Sound 2013)

CMU Approved

I’ve waited way, way too long to catch Mac Demarco live and now, in the wake of this year’s Primavera Sound, I can finally say I have… twice. Admittedly, the two times I saw Demarco and his band play at the festival – the first at the site and one at a free post-fiesta show at Barcelona’s leafy green Parc Del Ciutadella – the setlists were near identical replicas, but when the first was so great, to have it repeated all over again was no bad thing, if only because Mac said “very sessy” a lot.

Appearing pretty wild-eyed and spent at the end of 40-odd back-to-back shows, Demarco was still a pro and always with it, winningly debonair in a ‘deviant lorry driver’ kind of way. In the Primavera clip I’ve chosen (or rather, taken off YouTube), he’s playing his tender set finale, ‘Still Together’, as features on last year’s lastingly likeable ‘2’ LP. It’s a serenade to his one and only real-life sweetheart Kiki, who was at Primavera (looking embarrassed and/or pleased) as he sang, and did this, to her.

So anyway, and with a less basic Primavera appraisal on its way soon, here’s a slightly wobbly ‘Still Together’ live performance, the original 2011 taping of which you can also hear via this link.

“Don’t be a Dr Nick”: Jacksons v AEG update

Business News Jacksons v AEG Timeline Legal Live Business Top Stories

The Jackson family’s legal team have been furthering their bid to show top managers at live music giant AEG in a bad light as one of the key executives involved in the ill-fated ‘This Is It’ venture has been giving testimony at the long-running Jacksons v AEG court case in LA this week.

Although AEG Live President Randy Phillips was more publicly associated with the planned ‘This Is It’ residency when it was first launched in early 2009, the company’s co-CEO Paul Gongaware played a key role in negotiating and then coordinating the firm’s partnership with Michael Jackson. And for the Jackson family, who claim AEG should be held liable for the late king of pop’s death in June 2009, certain emails sent by Gongaware, and his past associations with the singer, are key to the case.

As much previously reported, the Jackson family argue that AEG is liable for Jackson’s demise because it hired and put pressure on Conrad Murray, the doctor convicted of involuntary manslaughter for causing the singer’s death through negligent treatment. AEG counters that while its cash may have paid Murray’s bills, the doctor was hired and managed by Jackson directly, and execs at the live firm had no knowledge of or control over the treatment the medic dished out.

In some tough questioning of Gongaware this week, the Jackson lawyers have honed in on two key things, first what they have called the ‘smoking gun’ email in which the AEG exec seems to suggest the company did in fact wield influence over Murray, and second the claim that the witness should have been aware of Jackson’s health and drugs issues, because of his past work with the singer and concerns expressed by his own staff and contractors.

The “smoking gun” email is the one Gongaware sent to ‘This Is It’ director Kenny Ortega, after he expressed concerns that Jackson had missed rehearsals at Murray’s request. Just eleven days before the singer died from an overdose of the anaesthetic propofol, Gongaware wrote to Ortega: “We want to remind [Murray] that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary. We want to remind him what is expected of him”.

This email seems to contradict AEG’s insistence that it was merely advancing money to Jackson to pay Murray, and not directly employing the doctor, and also possibly suggests that management at the live firm were putting pressure onto the medic. Pressure, Jackson’s legal team would argue, along the lines of “get Jackson fit enough to perform, whatever it takes, or else”.

Though Gongaware would not concur. The AEG exec says he doesn’t remember writing the email. Indeed in a deposition given last December, and screened in court this week, Gongaware said he didn’t even know what the email meant. Although more willing to concede what the note seemed to mean in court this week, the AEG CEO maintained that it was a clumsy use of words, because his company never was directly paying Murray’s salary.

In questioning the insistence by AEG management that they were ignorant of Jackson’s drug dependencies, and the dangers around the treatments Murray may be administering, the Jackson family’s legal team took the questioning back to Gongaware’s work on the singer’s ‘Dangerous World Tour’ in the early 1990s, and further still to his involvement in the final tour of Elvis Presley in 1977.

There has long been a theory that Presley’s death was actually caused by the over consumption of prescription drugs designed to cure the singer’s insomnia – ie exactly as with Jackson. Presley’s doctor at the time, George Nichopoulos, was subsequently charged with over-prescribing medication to the singer, but was acquitted. Nevertheless, when Gongaware, who cut his teeth in concert promotion on the final Presley tour, was running Jackson’s ‘Dangerous’ trek fifteen years later, he alluded to “Dr Nick” in a conversation with the king of pop’s then private medic.

That medic was Dr Stuart Finkelstein. He has testified that, when providing pain relief medication to Jackson during the 1993 tour, he discussed with Gongaware a fear that the singer was showing signs of opiate addiction. Although both Finkelstein and other physicians working on the show still administered various pain relief drugs to Jackson, the doctor says he was concerned for the singer even then.

As was, it seems, Gongaware, who told Finkelstein “don’t be a Dr Nick”. That, Finkelstein says, was the tour boss “warning me, you know, don’t get all infatuated where you start administering meds to a rockstar and have the rockstar overdose and die on you”.

Therefore the AEG CEO, the Jackson family claim, knew about Michael Jackson’s drug dependencies, and the dangers of medics who struggle to say “no” when treating a powerful star. So why didn’t he use that knowledge to put measures in place to protect the king of pop he had just struck up a multi-million dollar business partnership with?

Other emails were then presented that, the Jacksons’ lawyers argue, show that Gongaware and AEG ignored various red flags in spring 2009. The AEG Live CEO himself sent an email to the PA of the boss of parent company AEG, Tim Leiweke, admitting to having “nightmares and cold sweats” about the then still in development ‘This Is It’ shows. But that wasn’t referring to any real concerns about the singer’s health, Gongaware countered this week. In fact it wasn’t really referring to anything. “It was just playing around, joking”, he said of the email. “[Leiweke’s PA] Carla is an absolute babe and I was just chatting her up”.

The flippant remark got some laughs in court, though others may have seen it in a more negative light, not least because the exec had already said he had a girlfriend who also worked for AEG. Other 2009 emails from Gongaware’s inbox showed the AEG boss encouraging his staff to be selective with the figures they shared with Jackson about the ‘This Is It’ project, so to focus on the bigger numbers, and also asking a colleague to use a colour scheme on a show calendar that made the days off more obvious, presumably in a bid to allay Jackson’s concerns than he was committing to too gruelling a production schedule.

So, yet more emails cleverly selected from the AEG servers to suggest the company’s chiefs held their star attraction in contempt, or were trying to pressure him into more shows than he was physically able to do, or just weren’t very nice people.

AEG’s legal team will presumably fight back against what they have already portrayed as corporate character assassination via a plethora of selective evidence that is, in their opinion, irrelevant to the core allegations in the case. Though, following the testimonies from Gongaware and last week his colleague Shawn Trell, the Jackson team are doing a pretty good job with the ‘bad light’ thing. Whether they are also convincing the jury of the live giant’s liability for Michael Jackson’s demise remains to be seen.

Velvet Underground settle with Warhol Foundation over banana

Business News Legal

The Velvet Underground have settled their legal grievances with The Andy Warhol Foundation over the iconic artwork from their 1967 album ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’.

As previously reported, reps for Lou Reed, John Cale and other former Velvet Underground members began legal proceedings last year over the commercial use by the Foundation of the famous Warhol banana image that appeared on the record. The use of the image on various products implied endorsement by the long defunct band, the claimants argued.

The Foundation initially called for the slightly complicated case – which ultimately relied, in the main, on trademark law – to be dismissed on legal grounds, but then earlier this month wrote to the court requesting the case be closed because a confidential out of court settlement had been reached between all parties. A judge has duly dismissed the case.

Hacker pleads guilty to stealing nude photos of Carly Rae Jepsen

Legal

A Canadian man has pleaded guilty to hacking into singer Carly Rae Jepsen’s computer and stealing naked photos of her – or, to be precise, the specific charges of mischief and possession of stolen property. Christopher Long was not expected to admit the crimes when he appeared before a court in Vancouver on Tuesday.

Long was originally charged with criminal harassment, unauthorised use of a computer and fraudulently obtaining telecommunications services, along with the charges he pleaded guilty to this week. He was arrested in March last year, following a complaint from Jepsen’s management, and formally charged in December.

It seems Long never actually posted the photographs online, though images which were claimed to show Jepsen topless did circulate in July last year. Those turned out to actually be similar looking US model Destiny Benedict.

George Michael leaves hospital following crash

Artist News

George Michael has left hospital, following a car accident earlier this month. As previously reported, Michael was seen falling out of a car in which he was travelling as a passenger at around 70 miles per hour on the M1. The exact circumstances behind the accident are still unknown.

Having been kept in hospital to monitor head injuries he sustained during the accident, the singer’s official website yesterday confirmed that he had been discharged, saying in a statement: “We can confirm that George Michael has been discharged from hospital and continues to rest and recuperate. He is well and thanks everyone for all the messages of support”.

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