Thursday 29 December 2016, 12:19 | By

New scandal for Russian collecting societies

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Russian flag

If you’ve been enjoying the controversies surrounding the Russian collecting society RAO over the last eighteen months, well, here’s a new controversy, and this one involves Russia’s other music rights organisations RSP and VOIS too. Woo!

According to Billboard, all three collecting societies have been accused by the Russian banking watchdog of involvement in a scam that funnelled in the region of $70 million out of the now defunct Mostransbank. The finance authority alleges that the societies had fake loan agreements with the lender via which money was transferred into makeshift companies.

But all three societies strongly deny the allegations. The song rights focused RAO says it had an account with Mostransbank but no loan agreements. Meanwhile a rep for both the recording rights focused VOIS and private copy levy collector RSP told Billboard that both organisations had reported irregularities with their Mostransbank accounts in 2015, and that they now looked forward to cooperating with law enforcement officials as they investigate the circumstances that led to the collapse of the banking business.

As previously reported, RAO was accused of embezzlement in September 2015, resulting in its General Director Sergei Fedotov being arrested and jailed. That scandal led to new proposals that a government agency take over the collective licensing of music rights in the Russia in place of the industry’s three societies.

The music community has in the main opposed that proposal, with reps from the Russian divisions of Warner Music, Universal Music and Sony Music amongst those to speak out against government-controlled collective licensing in an open letter that claimed going that route would contravene global copyright treaties.

Though, earlier this month the RAO itself proposed that a government-owned media company take control of the organisation, telling Billboard that such a move was now desirable because the society is “facing administrative and financial issues”.

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Monday 26 December 2016, 10:11 | By

Sony and Warner lead tributes to George Michael

Artist News

Sony Music and Warner/Chappell have led a flood of tributes for George Michael, who died yesterday aged 53.

Even in a year when the headlines were too often dominated by the passing of a pop music legend, Michael’s death still shocked many yesterday. The South Central Ambulance service was called to the singer songwriter’s Oxfordshire home at lunch time. Police told reporters that “at this stage the death is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious”, while his manager later stated that the star had died of heart failure.

Michael’s death was confirmed by his publicist, who told reporters: “It is with great sadness that we can confirm our beloved son, brother and friend George passed away peacefully at home over the Christmas period. The family would ask that their privacy be respected at this difficult and emotional time. There will be no further comment at this stage”.

The boss of Michael’s publisher Warner/Chappell, Jon Platt, was amongst the plethora of music people to pay tribute over night. He said: “We are all deeply saddened to hear that George Michael has passed away. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family and his friends. We join millions of fans in mourning the untimely passing of this towering talent. He was the epitome of the consummate pop star, a singer songwriter who enthralled the world, always keeping us guessing where his music would take us next”.

He went on: “After the global phenomenon of Wham!, George transformed himself and his art, emerging as a solo superstar who then tirelessly broke new ground and set higher standards. He was an artist in every sense – a soulful vocalist, an unforgettable performer and, above all, a uniquely gifted songwriter. From pop tunes to dance anthems, from confessional ballads to social commentary, he perfected almost every kind of song, creating too many timeless hits to mention. His music will entertain, move, comfort and inspire people for generations to come. We will miss you”.

On the recordings side, Michael returned to Sony Music in 2003 after falling out with the major in a high profile legal battle a decade earlier. It released what was to be his final studio album ‘Patience’ the following year. The record company said last night: “George Michael was a supremely gifted artist and a true music icon. Sony Music had the privilege to have worked with him over several decades on a number of his legendary releases, and we join the world in mourning the loss of a great superstar. Our condolences go out to his family during this difficult time”.

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Friday 23 December 2016, 16:59 | By

Mavin Gaye’s family submit opposition to Blurred Lines appeal

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Robin Thicke

Marvin Gaye’s family have responded to attempts by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams to overturn the high profile ruling in the ‘Blurred Lines’ song-theft case.

As much previously reported, in 2015 a court ruled that Thicke n Pharrell had ripped off Gaye’s ‘Got To Give It Up’ when writing their often controversial hit ‘Blurred Lines’. Although the initial damages sum awarded to the Gayes was cut a little by the judge, it still topped $5 million in addition to a share in ongoing royalties generated by the ‘Blurred Lines’ song copyright.

As also previously reported, in August this year 212 artists signed an amicus brief supporting Thick n Pharrell in their appeal of the ‘Blurred Lines’ ruling, with an eclectic bunch of artists – including John Oates, Linkin Park, The Go-Gos and Hans Zimmer – arguing that the judgment in the plagiarism case set a dangerous precedent.

That court submission said: “The verdict in this case threatens to punish songwriters for creating new music that is inspired by prior works. All music shares inspiration from prior musical works, especially within a particular musical genre”.

Key to Thicke n Pharrell’s appeal is a US copyright law technicality. The legal battle is over the song copyright, not the rights in the recording, and American copyright rules traditionally say that only the composition of a song as submitted with the US Copyright Office is protected by the song right.

Which means copyright does not protect those elements of the song that appear in the original recording but which were not in the original submitted composition (today the recording could be the submission, but that wasn’t always so). And crucially, Thicke n Pharrell’s side argue that, if there is any commonality between ‘Blurred Lines’ and ‘Got To Give It Up’, it’s those non-protected elements.

All of this was debated before the original ‘Blurred Lines’ court case even got properly underway, with the judge there basically agreeing with Thicke n Pharrell’s interpretation of US copyright law. As a result, the Gaye family’s lawyers were banned from playing the original recording of ‘Got To Give It Up’ in court, instead having to rely on a performance of the registered song.

But, argue Team Thicke n Pharrell, once the case was up and running the judge didn’t enforce his own interpretation of that copyright technicality very well, allowing witnesses for the Gaye family to talk about elements of ‘Got To Give It Up’ beyond the core composition. They also argue that the judge failed to properly caution the jury about considering elements of the Gaye track that were beyond the protection of the song copyright.

Those arguments were core to the appeal documents Thick n Pharrell submitted in August. And while a response submitted by the Gaye family’s lawyer yesterday covers various issues and arguments, the debate around what is and is not protected by the song copyright is a key element of that submission too.

While obviously happy with the outcome of the ‘Blurred Lines’ case, the Gaye family’s chief lawyer, Richard Busch, argues that their victory actually came despite the original judge getting it wrong on the issue of what is protected by the ‘Got To Give It Up’ copyright. He argues that the limitation approved by the judge is the result of a technicality with regards how copyrights were registered in the US until 1978, and that that technicality shouldn’t be used to limit copyright protection four decades on.

Indeed, according to Busch, it’s this element of the original case that actually sets the dangerous precedent. According to The Hollywood Reporter he writes: “The issue is of considerable importance for the many studio compositions created before 1978. If protection turns on the happenstance of a decades-old – and long since abandoned – Copyright Office practice, along with the degree of attentiveness of the transcriber, an open invitation to taking will be the consequence”.

Basically Busch is arguing that the copyright protection should apply to the song as released rather than registered, not least because many legendary pop songwriters, including Gaye, couldn’t read sheet music, so the versions logged with the Copyright Office were actually someone else’s notation. Notes the new submission: “Marvin Gaye is hardly the only Hall Of Fame artist and composer who did not read or write notation. Motown founder and music guru Berry Gordy did not read music [either]”.

It goes on: “Nor did Michael Jackson or Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton. The King, Elvis Presley, was yet another legend who composed before sound recordings could be deposited and did not know how to read or write musical notation. They and countless others created timeless, unique and original compositions before 1978. No doubt all would be surprised to learn that their compositions are protected only to the extent that a transcriber happened to notate elements on a lead sheet”.

So, to conclude, the Gaye family don’t think there should be an appeal hearing at all, but if there is, they will argue that the judge in the first trial did a perfectly fine job of enforcing his own copyright limitation on the case, even though he was entirely wrong to apply that limitation in the first place.

It remains to be seen how the Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals now responds.

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Friday 23 December 2016, 10:46 | By

CMU Podcast: Review Of The Music Business Year 2016

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal Live Business Setlist

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last year in this bumper double edition of the CMU Podcast. We discuss the continued growth of the streaming market, the increasingly proactive campaign against secondary ticketing, the safe harbours debate, and our five favourite ‘and finally’ stories of 2016. The CMU Podcast is sponsored by 7digital.

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Wednesday 21 December 2016, 16:35 | By

New York appeals court decides there isn’t a performing right on golden oldie recordings after all

Business News Labels & Publishers Legal Top Stories

Flo & Eddie

If you thought that the radio royalty element of the good old pre-1972 copyright debate in the US was all over, think again. An appeals court in New York has decided that satellite broadcaster Sirius XM doesn’t have to pay royalties to artists and labels when it plays 1960s recordings.

Members of the Copyright Technicality Fan Club will recall that this all stems from the fact US-wide federal copyright law only protects sound recordings released since 1972, with older tracks getting their protection from state-level copyright law.

Meanwhile US copyright law is unusual in that there is no general ‘performing right’ as part of the sound recording copyright. So whereas elsewhere in the world AM/FM radio stations that play music need licences from both labels and music publishers (covering, respectively, recording and song copyrights), in the US broadcasters only need the latter. Except online and satellite broadcasters, because federal copyright law does provide a ‘digital performing right’ to sound recording owners.

But what about those often quite dated state copyright laws? They are often ambiguous about performing rights and sound recordings, but certainly don’t include any specific rules about online and satellite stations. Meanwhile, AM/FM stations have never paid royalties to labels for the records they play, however old the tracks may be. To that end both Sirius and Pandora decided that, while they must pay royalties to labels and artists for post-1972 catalogue, when they play older tracks no royalties are due.

But some in the artist and label community reckoned that royalties should be paid on those older tracks. Flo & Eddie – former members of ‘Happy Together’ band The Turtles – went legal on the matter, launching litigation in three states and arguing that there was, in fact, a performing right for sound recordings in state level copyright law.

Though given state laws make no distinction between AM/FM and satellite/online radio services, that would mean traditional radio stations should have been paying royalties to labels whenever they played golden oldies all these years, which they had not.

Nevertheless, when the matter reached the Californian courts, Flo & Eddie won, setting a landmark precedent that led to multi-million dollar settlements between the record industry and Sirius and Pandora, and just last month between Sirius and Flo & Eddie.

The duo initially enjoyed success on the issue in the New York courts too, where one judge specifically pondered whether the fact the labels had never demanded royalties from traditional radio stations for playing 1960s tracks implied there was, in fact, no sound recording performing right under the state’s copyright system. But that judge decided that the failure by the labels to claim royalties shouldn’t make any difference.

However, Sirius appealed the New York case, and an appeals court there yesterday reached a different conclusion on that last point. It would be “illogical”, said one appeals judge, to decide that a performing right had been lingering there in New York copyright law all these decades yet no rights owner or court had ever sought to enforce it. Illogical I tell you! And judge Leslie Stein even sneaked a little joke into her ruling, so she must be right.

“It would be illogical to conclude that the right of public performance would have existed for decades without the courts recognising such a right as a matter of state common law, and in the absence of any artist or record company attempting to enforce that right in this state until now”, wrote Stein.

She added that she agreed with legal reps for Sirius that there was a “broad understanding” in both federal and state law that the sound recording copyright does not include a general performing right.

And that’s because artists and labels get lots of lovely promotion when their music is played on the radio, so shouldn’t be paid for it too – that being the US radio industry’s longtime argument as to why they shouldn’t give cash to the labels. And just because slumping record sales possibly lower the value of all that free promo, that’s no reason for judges to infer a new right for the labels, the judge went on.

“Common sense supports the explanation”, she wrote, “that the record companies and artists had a symbiotic relationship with radio stations, and wanted them to play their records to encourage name recognition and corresponding album sales”. And, she continued – oh, and by the way, the joke’s coming up, “those participants have co-existed for many years and, until now, were apparently ‘happy together’”. Ha, ha! Happy together! See. That’s Flo & Eddie’s most famous hit. Good times. Yeah, OK, I oversold it slightly by saying there was a joke in here. Sorry.

“While changing technology may have rendered it more challenging for the record companies and performing artists to profit from the sale of recordings”, she continued, “these changes, alone, do not now warrant the precipitous creation of a common law right that has not previously existed. Simply stated, New York’s common law copyright has never recognised a right of public performance for pre-1972 sound recordings. Because the consequences of doing so could be extensive and far-reaching, and there are many competing interests at stake, which we are not equipped to address, we decline to create such a right for the first time now”.

One of the far-reaching consequences with inferring a general performing right for pre-1972 sound recordings is that AM/FM stations could be sued back into the dim and distant past for playing 1960s tracks without licence. Indeed music firm ABS Entertainment launched such a case against CBS last year, the media firm having to employ a technicality that even the CTFC’s most ardent members felt was a little bit cheeky: that CBS stations played remastered versions of golden oldies, and the remastering reset the copyright at a point sometime after 1972.

A total of six judges considered the appeal in the New York Flo & Eddie dispute, with four siding with Sirius. Though one of the other judges who concluded there wasn’t a general performing right for pre-1972 sound recordings was keen to state that that didn’t mean on-demand streaming services could side-step paying royalties to the labels on golden oldies as well.

Technically a stream requires making a copy anyway – so even without a state-level general performing right or a federal-level digital performing right, Spotify and Apple Music would still require a licence from the labels. Though you could say that, technically speaking, personalised radio services are also making copies in the delivery of a stream, yet in the US it has generally been agreed that Pandora et al are only exploiting the (digital) performing rights of the copyright.

But anyway, the big question now is what does this mean for Sirius, Pandora, the record labels, and any heritage artists who joined Flo & Eddie’s class action?

The settlement between Sirius and Flo & Eddie acknowledged that the duo’s court cases in New York and Florida were still subject to appeal, and the size of the damages settlement agreed was dependent on the outcome of those cases. It’s not clear if this new ruling has any impact on the separate settlements between Sirius, Pandora and the major record companies.

Meanwhile, moving forward, if California says there is a performing right for recordings in its copyright laws but New York says there is not in theirs, it could mean that label royalties have to be paid in some states but not others. It’s not clear what the technical and constitutional implications of that would be.

Of course, another argument the music industry could use here is that it’s a bit mad for key elements of federal copyright law – like the digital performing right – to not apply to recordings protected under state laws, and that federal copyright rules of this kind should be applied across the board.

The music companies weren’t originally so keen on that argument though, because they were concurrently trying to argue that the safe harbours – which they hate so much and which also come from federal law – shouldn’t apply on pre-1972 recordings. The record industry lost that argument, though is currently trying to get the US Supreme Court to review that judgment, so probably doesn’t want to start shouting about the key principles of federal copyright law being applied to older sound recordings just yet.

Meanwhile, with the likes of Pandora entering into wider deals with the record companies in order to launch fully on-demand streaming services, it could be that issues like this can be settled within those agreements. But that doesn’t necessarily help the likes of Sirius. So, maybe there is more lobbying and litigation to come before we can all be genuinely happy together. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Merry Christmas everybody!

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Tuesday 20 December 2016, 12:04 | By

73 jobs lost as music media firm TeamRock collapses

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TeamRock

Music media firm TeamRock fell into administration yesterday putting 73 people out of work just as the Christmas break beckoned. The firm’s administrators say that the radio and magazine company had traded at a loss “for a significant period of time, with consequent constraints on the cash position”.

TeamRock was founded in 2012, though first really appeared the music industry’s radar the following year when it acquired the Metal Hammer and Classic Rock titles from Future Publishing. With its founders John Myers and Billy Anderson both coming from a radio background, it was no surprise when TeamRock then announced a radio station alongside the magazines. The various outlets were then brought together in one online hub trading under the TeamRock name.

The company went through a period of growth, in terms of headcount and output, including launching new titles, though last year it took its radio service off the DAB digital radio network. Its radio programmes continued to be available online though, with plans for global expansion of that side of the business.

Despite all that, TeamRock – like many music media companies – seemingly struggled to monetise its sizeable online audience; online being the key to long-term success in the music media domain as sales of print magazines decline pretty much across the board. A move into ticketing via an alliance with The Ticket Factory was announced in August, but presumably that was too little too late in terms of generating new revenue streams.

A total of 73 of the company’s 80 staff members were immediately laid off as the company went into administration yesterday. The remaining seven staff will be kept on in the short term to assist administrators in both of the company’s offices, one in London and one near Glasgow. Those administrators are hoping that a buyer can be found for some of TeamRock’s assets, with the long-standing magazine brands the company acquired from Future most likely to attract possible bidders.

Administrator FRP Advisory said that a number of cost-cutting measures had been implemented at the firm to try and improve its financial position, but those had not be sufficient, and management couldn’t find any new investment or a buyer for the business. This left the company “with no viable option other than to enter administration and to immediately cease trading”.

FRP Advisory’s Tom MacLennan said: “The company explored every option to secure the long-term future of the business, however the constraints on the cash position of the business were such that administration was the only viable option. The administration presents an excellent opportunity to acquire high profile rock music titles, products and brands that have a substantial global following”.

On possible bidders for those assets, MacLennan continued: “The brands and assets could appeal to a music media business looking to expand its portfolio, or an entrepreneur that sees the potential for developing the brands”.

“The business has now ceased trading”, he concluded, confirming the immediate redundancies. “Given the financial situation of the company, unfortunately 73 staff have been made redundant with immediate effect. Seven staff will be retained in the short term to assist the administrators with magazine publishing, website maintenance and other matters. Our priority is to work closely with all agencies and services to ensure employees receive every support and assistance at this very difficult time”.

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Tuesday 20 December 2016, 12:01 | By

Capitol takes safe harbour on pre-1972 recordings case to Supreme Court

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal Media

1972

If you thought that Sirius and Pandora starting to do licensing deals in relation to pre-1972 sound recordings brought to an end all that debate around how, exactly, American copyright law works on golden oldies, well, not quite.

As previously reported, US-wide federal copyright law only protects sound recordings released since 1972, with older records protected by state-level copyright law. Because American satellite and online radio services like Sirius and Pandora are specifically obliged to pay the labels royalties when they play their tracks under federal law, they argued no such royalties were due on older records. Though courts in California and New York eventually decided that there was probably an obligation to pay royalties under state law too.

There is another side to this whole copyright technicality fest though. Because the safe harbours that everyone in the music industry now hates so much also come from federal copyright law. It’s the safe harbours that allow user-upload sites to avoid liability for copyright infringement when their users post videos containing unlicensed music. But, wondered the record industry, what if an uploaded video contains a track from the 1960s? Given that that recording is protected by state law, perhaps the safe harbour should not apply?

If that was the case, it would be a sneaky way for labels to put pressure on safe harbour dwelling user-upload websites that will inevitably end up hosting files or videos containing 1960s tracks. And while it was busy trying to find a way to sue pesky safe harbour dwelling Grooveshark out of business, Universal Music tried filing a lawsuit over the pre-1972 tracks that the user-upload streaming service hosted. Though in the end the case never got to court.

So the real test case on this issue was that pursued by Capitol – a former EMI label and now also part of Universal – against YouTube rival Vimeo. This legal battle has been rumbling on since 2009, but back in June America’s Second Circuit court ruled in favour of the video site, saying that exempting older recordings from the safe harbour principle would “defeat the very purpose Congress sought to achieve in passing [it]”.

The Second Circuit then refused to rehear the case back in August, but last week Capitol filed papers with the US Supreme Court. It wants judges at the top court to consider the case, with the label’s lawyer arguing – according to The Hollywood Reporter – that “Section 301(c) of the Copyright Act explicitly protects state law remedies for infringement of pre-72 sound recordings until February 2067”.

Capitol’s filing also says that the Second Circuit judgement conflicts with rulings in the New York state courts, while urging the Supreme Court to take the case because the “Second Circuit’s decision … diminishes the legal protections enjoyed by owners of every sound recording made in the United States prior to 15 Feb 1972 – including among them works of immense cultural and commercial significance like those of The Temptations and The Supremes, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Pablo Casals and Yehudi Menuhin, to name just a few”.

We will have to see if the Supreme Court now takes the case. If so, that’ll be more pre-1972 copyright wrangling for us all to enjoy in 2017. Good times.

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Tuesday 20 December 2016, 11:58 | By

PRS welcomes jailing of prolific file-sharer

Business News Labels & Publishers Legal

PRS For Music

PRS has welcomed the sentencing last week of a prolific file-sharer, who was handed a one year prison sentence after pleading guilty to illegally distributing chart hits online.

As previously reported, Liverpool-based Wayne Evans was arrested in September last year, accused of uploading a cappella tracks to his own ad-funded website, DeeJayPortal, as well as bundling each week’s Top 40 singles and uploading them to various torrent sites. The arrest was the result of a joint investigation between collecting society PRS For Music and their best buds over at the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (aka PIPCU).

When Evans finally appeared at Liverpool Crown Court in October he pleaded guilty to two charges of distributing an article infringing copyright and one of possessing or controlling an article for use in fraud. He was back in court last week for sentencing, resulting in the twelve months of jail time.

It’s the first custodial sentence to come out of a joint anti-piracy investigation involving PRS and PIPCU, making it a “milestone case”, said the collecting society. It’s litigation and anti-piracy man Simon Bourn said: “Music piracy on a commercial scale is a serious criminal offence and this sentencing by the Crown Court acknowledges that”.

He went on: “Copyright infringement has a severe impact on the livelihoods of creators and so it is important that PRS For Music, alongside PIPCU, continues to champion and protect our members’ rights. We hope that today’s sentencing sends a message to all those involved in this type of criminal activity, that consequences will follow”.

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Tuesday 20 December 2016, 11:57 | By

Kobalt to administer Elvis songs catalogue

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

Elvis Presley

Kobalt has signed a deal with the Authentic Brands Group and Elvis Presley Enterprises to administer the Presley estate’s interests in the late king of rock n roll’s songs catalogue, he having co-published many of the songs he recorded even when he didn’t write them.

“We are THRILLED to partner with Kobalt to ensure that Elvis’s legacy as the king of rock n roll lives on forever”, says Jamie Salter, Chairman and CEO of ABG.

Because it’s Christmas and everyone is in a good mood (and possibly drunk), he isn’t the only one far too excited about all of this.

“We are THRILLED to represent such an iconic artist and a catalogue of such timeless songs”, squeals Kobalt’s Laurent Hubert. “There is not a more groundbreaking artist that fits so well with Kobalt’s innovative approach to the music business”.

OK, I suppose getting your hands on all those songs Elvis made famous is something to be excited about. Still, it might be an idea to temper your language a bit, guys. You don’t want to get too carried away.

“This is an absolutely momentous deal”, booms Kobalt CEO Willard Ahdritz, apparently having listened to nothing I just said. “We are happy to be working with Authentic Brands Group and are humbled by the great job they do. Elvis’s music will continue to influence future generations and we are honoured to be a part of that”.

Uh huh huh.

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Tuesday 20 December 2016, 11:56 | By

Competition And Markets Authority launches “enforcement investigation” into secondary ticketing sites

Business News Legal Live Business

Ticket touts

The Competition And Markets Authority – or the CMA to its closest friends – yesterday announced it was launching an ‘enforcement investigation’ into, and I quote, “suspected breaches of consumer protection law in the online secondary tickets market”. This, the competition regulator said, “follows concerns that people are not getting the full range of information required by law when buying tickets put up for resale”.

The CMA was already reviewing the four main secondary ticketing sites in the UK – Viagogo, eBay’s StubHub and Live Nation/Ticketmaster’s Seatwave and Get Me In! – to check if they were complying with undertakings they had previously made to improve the information they provide about tickets for sale on their sites. The authority said yesterday that that review concluded one of the four sites had more work to do, while the other three had changed their websites so to fall in line with their undertakings.

However – much like when Parliament’s culture select committee sat down to discuss the bots used by ticket touts to access tickets – that initial review of the ticketing market has thrown up all sorts of other concerns. “The review also revealed wider concerns about information provision and compliance with consumer protection law across the sector as a whole”, the CMA said, hence its new and more significant enforcement investigation.

Confirming this new investigation will look into the industrial-level touts themselves as well as the resale sites, the authority continued: “In this enforcement investigation the CMA will consider whether, in its view, both the businesses selling tickets and the secondary ticketing platforms advertising them are failing to provide the full range of information in breach of the law and, if so, take enforcement action. In addition, the CMA is also working with event organisers to help ensure that any terms used to restrict the resale of their tickets are fair for consumers”.

The new CMA investigation comes as the secondary ticketing market – and especially industrial-level touts and the resale platforms they utilise – come under increased pressure from lawmakers and those in the industry who would like to see rampant ticket touting abolished. The use of ticket touting bots could soon be outlawed in the Digital Economy Bill and it’s hoped ministers will announce plans to ramp up the day-to-day enforcement of existing secondary ticketing regulation when they respond to the government’s own Waterson Report on the sector in the new year.

Confirming its new investigation yesterday, the CMA’s acting CEO Andrea Coscelli said: “A night out at a concert or a trip to a big match is something that millions of people look forward to. So it’s important they know who they are buying from and whether there are any restrictions that could stop them using the ticket. We have heard concerns about a lack of transparency over who is buying up tickets from the primary market. We also think that it is essential that those consumers who buy tickets from the secondary market are made aware if there is a risk that they will be turned away at the door”.

He added: “We have therefore decided to open a sector-wide investigation to ensure that customers are made aware of important information that they are legally entitled to. If we find breaches of consumer law, we will take enforcement action”.

Sharon Hodgson, the Labour MP who has been calling for better regulation of the secondary ticketing market for years, and who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Ticket Abuse, welcomed the CMA’s announcement. She said yesterday: “It is welcome that there will now finally be enforcement of the consumer rights legislation on the statute book and the undertakings agreed between the big four and the CMA. The non-compliance evidence found by the CMA backs up the often daily accounts, both online and in the press, that fans are being ripped off or not getting all the information they need when buying off secondary websites. This is one part of a multi-faceted problem in this broken market”.

Referencing the secondary ticketing regulation she helped get into last year’s Consumer Rights Act, Hodgson added: “We know that non-compliance is rife within the market, and now that the Consumer Rights Act has been on the statute book for over a year, it is paramount that enforcement action is taken seriously and swiftly. Alongside this, we need to see the government taking action on the issue of bulk purchasing of tickets for the sole intention of resale, otherwise this market will remain broken and fans will be continually ripped off”.

Meanwhile the music industry’s anti-tout campaign FanFair also welcomed the CMA’s new investigation, while also again calling on the government to respond to Waterson. It told reporters yesterday: “An enforcement investigation into online secondary ticketing is to be welcomed. Gig goers need transparency. They should know when the terms and conditions on their tickets prevent resale, and we welcome proper enforcement of the existing law so that real fans have a fair chance to buy tickets and stop them being scooped up by touts”.

It went on: “The CMA looking at who these ‘professional sellers’ are and how they obtain their tickets is a positive development. However, UK audiences will be continue to be frustrated that measures to genuinely fix ticket resale are not being taken sooner – and while other countries take swift and decisive actions, British fans continue to be ripped off by touts operating under cover on the big four resale sites. We call on the government to respond to recommendations made in the Waterson Review on secondary ticketing, and welcome the potential of a full inquiry by the [culture] select committee in the new year”.

As previously reported, FanFair is also encouraging artist managers, promoters, agents and ticketing platforms to sign up to a ‘declaration’ which “asks that supporters take five actions to ensure face value tickets reach fans, as well as measures to disrupt the practices of online ticket touts”.

Following the news yesterday that See Tickets had signed up to that, another major primary ticketing firm, Eventim, has also now backed the declaration, as have alt.tickets and Resident Advisor. Very soon that’ll be pretty much every primary ticketing firm on board except, well, you know who.

Premium CMU subscribers can catch up on all the other recent developments in the secondary ticketing debate via the latest CMU Trends article here.

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Tuesday 20 December 2016, 11:54 | By

BBC magazine maker could be bought by German firm

Business News Deals Media

BBC

The media firm that publishes the BBC’s magazines, including the classical-focused BBC Music print title, seems set to be bought by German publisher Hubert Burda, according to various sources.

Immediate Media has published the various BBC-branded magazines, print titles based around some of the Corporation’s TV shows and the flagship listings publication Radio Times since doing a deal with the Beeb’s commercial division, BBC Worldwide, in 2011.

Under that arrangement, Immediate bought some of the BBC’s print titles, secured a licence to publish others, and did a deal to produce others still on a contract publishing basis. The firm’s ongoing relationship with BBC Worldwide means the Beeb’s commercial wing will have to approve the Hubert Burda deal before it can go ahead.

Immediate is currently owned by private equity outfit Exponent, and has grown beyond the BBC magazines it produces, now publishing a total 60 magazines and digital media brands. The takeover deal is said to be worth up to £275 million.

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Tuesday 20 December 2016, 11:53 | By

Camila Cabello leaves Fifth Harmony, as angry statements fly back and forth

Artist News

Fifth Harmony

Fifth Harmony announced yesterday that Camila Cabello has left the group. Initially looking slightly acrimonious, it quickly became massively acrimonious, as contradictory statements shot back and forth.

Cabello last appeared with the group at Y100’s Jingle Ball in Miami on Sunday, outwardly giving no hint that she was about to leave, although there have been rumours of a rift for some time. An initial statement from the group suggested that it had been a surprise to the outfit’s other members too, and that they had been informed of her departure by her management, rather than by Cabello herself. Although subsequent statements have revealed that this was actually a long time coming.

The group were formed on the second series of the US version of ‘X-Factor’, signing a joint deal with Sony labels Syco and Epic in early 2013. To date they have released two albums, 2015’s ‘Reflection’ and this year’s ‘7/27’, the latter going to number six in the UK chart.

In a statement posted on Facebook yesterday, Fifth Harmony said: “After four and a half years of being together, we have been informed by her representatives that Camila has decided to leave Fifth Harmony. We wish her well”.

They added that the remaining four members of the group “will continue on”.

“We are four strong, committed women who will continue with Fifth Harmony as well as our solo endeavours”, they said. “We are excited for our future, and we can’t wait for what the new year brings”.

As alluded to there, the various members have already embarked on their own solo projects outside the group. Cabello recently released a solo single with rapper Machine Gun Kelly, ‘Bad Things’. Prior to that, she released ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ with Shawn Mendes in 2015.

Firing back at the group, Cabello said in her own statement last night: “I was shocked to read the statement the Fifth Harmony [Facebook] account posted without my knowing. The girls were aware of my feelings through the long, much needed conversations about the future we had during the tour”.

She went on: “Saying that they were just informed through my representatives that I was ‘leaving the group’ is simply not true. Just like the other girls said in their statement about their plans, I had also planned to continue with my own solo endeavours in the new year, but I did not intend to end things with Fifth Harmony this way”.

So now it looks like she was kicked out, and that it was she who wasn’t expecting Monday’s announcement. But this version of events was also quickly contested.

In a new statement, which Fifth Harmony insisted would be their last, they said: “Over the past several months we have consistently made every effort to sit down and discuss the future of Fifth Harmony with Camila. We have spent the past year and a half (since her initial solo endeavour) trying to communicate to her and her team all of the reasons why we felt Fifth Harmony deserved at least one more album of her time, given the success of the last year that we’d all worked so hard for”.

“We called for group meetings, which she refused. We asked [Epic boss] LA Reid and the label to step in and try to set up meeting, which again she refused”, they continued. “We even went as far as group counselling, which she did not show up to. So no, after of rejection from her and her team, these supposed ‘lengthy conversations’ in fact next happened, although we pleaded”.

Despite their initial suggestion that Cabello’s departure had been a surprise, they added in the second statement: “In mid-November, we were informed via her manager that Camila was leaving the group. At that time we were informed that 18 Dec would be her final performance with Fifth Harmony”.

Saying that they were “truly hurt” by this, they reiterated again that they will continue as a four piece into 2017.

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Tuesday 20 December 2016, 11:44 | By

Chairlift announce split

Artist News

Chairlift

Chairlift have announced that they will split after a final run of shows next year. The duo released their third and final album, ‘Moth’, in January this year.

In a statement late last week, they said: “It’s been an incredible ten years as a band, and it blows our minds to be able to say that every goal we had when we started recording in 2006 has been accomplished. We’ve been lucky enough to have the sweetest, coolest, most loyal fans an artist could ask for. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the love and support you’ve given us, for bringing us all over the world, for waiting to meet us after shows, for learning to dance moves, and for singing loudly”.

As for their future plans, they added: “Patrick [Wimberly] will be going on to produce records full-time, and Caroline [Polachek] to make music as a solo artist. The two of us are family at this point, and will undoubtedly turn up on each other’s work in the future, but the time has come to take the next step towards where our passion is pulling us”.

To date, Wimberly’s production credits include Beyonce, Solange, Das Racist and Wet tracks. Polachek released her debut solo album under the name Ramona Lisa in 2014. She also wrote Beyonce’s ‘No Angel’.

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Tuesday 20 December 2016, 11:42 | By

CMU’s One Liners: ASCAP, Music Venue Trust, The Black Keys, more

Artist News Business News Deals Digital Labels & Publishers Live Business One Liners Releases

ASCAP

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• US collecting society ASCAP and Nielsen have announced a new “strategic data partnership” – the best of all the different types of data partnership. Even better, it will be “multi-pronged” and “long-term”. “Nielsen’s data will bring additional frequency and breadth to ASCAP’s reporting, enabling ASCAP’s members to have a 360° view of the performance landscape for their music, while enabling faster and more accurate reporting and tracking across all platforms”, says ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews.

• The Music Venue Trust has added Ministry Of Sound’s Lohan Presencer and Creative United’s Sarah Thirtle to its board of trustees. “A strong board is essential to push forward on all aspects of our work”, says MVT’s Beverley Whitrick.

• Live Nation France has launched a new artist management company, called #NP, which will be headed up by former UMG France president Pascal Nègre. Shall we start a sweepstake on how long it will be before they drop the #? “I’m delighted to join forces with Live Nation France”, says Nègre, which is lucky.

• The Black Keys have put their most recent albums on Spotify – 2011’s ‘El Camino’ in full and 2014’s ‘Turn Blue’ in part – after a lengthy hold out. “After five years of struggling with this we agreed to put the keys songs on Spotify”, said drummer Patrick Carney on Twitter. “I’d rather people hear our music than not. No advance or money was exchanged. I’m still an advocate for artists to be paid fairly. I’m still apprehensive”.

• Rihanna has released a boxset featuring all eight of her albums on vinyl, just too late for Christmas. It’s the first time several of the records have been available on vinyl. Watch a video to show what vinyl looks like here.

• Clean Bandit and Rag N Bone Man are currently vying for this Friday’s Christmas number one spot – though Little Mix are gaining fast. Inspiral Carpets and The London Hospices Choir, who both started strong over the weekend, have both now slipped down the chart. Is it too late to get Rage Against The Machine to the top again?

• If it’s playlists you like – and why wouldn’t you? – don’t forget that CMU’s Spotify profile has plenty of the bloody things to get you through the festive period. Check us out here.

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Tuesday 20 December 2016, 11:38 | By

David Bowie almost played Gandalf in Lord Of The Rings

And Finally Artist News

David Bowie

David Bowie wasn’t in the ‘Lord Of The Rings’ films. We all know that. But he might have been. He just wasn’t.

Right, so, it’s been a rumour for a while now that Bowie was lined up to play Gandalf in the film series, a role which instead went to Ian McKellan. Back in January, Dominic Monaghan, who played Merry in the films, recalled to the Huffington Post: “I was at the Hubbard’s, which is a pretty notorious casting agency office in London, doing an audition for ‘Lord Of The Rings’. As I was reading a magazine waiting, David Bowie came in and signed his little list and went in. And I’m assuming he read for Gandalf. I can’t think of anything else he would’ve read for”.

Actually, he apparently wanted to play elf king Elrond (I guess having already played the goblin king Jareth in ‘Labyrinth’, it would have been nice to go for the set). It was Peter Jackson who thought he would be better suited to Galdalf.

We know this, because casting director Amy Hubbard has now been speaking to the Huffington Post, and she has cleared up the whole mystery. Why didn’t he play either role? Was his audition terrible? Was there are fight? Oh, the drama!

“He was unavailable”, explained Hubbard, disappointingly. “It was a very quick conversation with the legendary Chris Andrews at CAA. I do believe that [Bowie] went over and played for everybody at the Millennium party. That would’ve been New Year’s Eve in the year 1999, which was when the films were being shot. He went over and entertained everybody, but he never auditioned. That’s for sure”.

Back in 1999, of course, Bowie was working on his soundtrack for videogame ‘Omikron: The Nomad Soul’, in which he also appeared as a character. So, yeah, there’s that.

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Tuesday 20 December 2016, 11:27 | By

Vigsy’s Festive Club Tips

Club Tip CMU Approved

Norman Jay

The festive season is upon us yet again, and there are some great nights out to be had. New Year’s Eve this year is bursting with quality offerings, so it was tough to get it down to this shortlist. I’ve done it though, and thrown in a few extras to keep you going. Merry Christmas and happy new year!

Boxing Day: Backto95 at The Scala
Backto95 hits the Scala for this Boxing Day bash, taking us back 21 years. Norris Windross headlines the main room, with Mike Lloyd also appearing on that bill. Other highlights of the vast line-up include Top Buzz and JJ Frost, who’ll be taking us back to the jungle, and the Firin Squad in room three, taking it more soulful. The night will also be supporting the Stand Up To Cancer charity.
Monday 26 Dec, The Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9NL, £25, 10pm-5am. More info here.

NYE: Love Rave at The Coronet
Moondance and United Dance present this monster of a New Year’s Eve party at the Coronet over four areas. There are many, many names on the bill, but the biggies are Danny Byrd, Doc Scot, DJ Storm, JJ Frost, Mickey Finn and Jason Kaye. Check out the full line-up though, there are many, many, many more.
Saturday 31 Dec, Coronet Theatre, 28 New Kent Road, London, SE1 6TJ, £35, 8pm-6am. More info here.

NYE: Up On The Roof at The Prince Of Wales
Norman Jay heads this one up, interestingly supported by Colin Dale, the superb tech DJ of 1990s Kiss FM. Jay will be doing a four hour set that will straddle the all-important midnight marker. And there’s a silent disco up on the terrace too, for those who want to gaze at the stars.
Saturday 31 Dec: The Prince Of Wales, 467 Brixton Road, London, SW9 8HH, £35, 8pm-6am. More info here.

NYE: ATG at Junction House
Zed Bias heads to Junction House up in Dalston to headline this night. You will also find garage stalwart Dave Jones aka Maddslinky, plus Oneman and El-B, among others. They roll till 7am.
Saturday 31 Dec: Junction House, 578 Kingsland Road, London, E8 4AH, £20, 9pm-7am. More info here.

New Year’s Day: Promised Land at Egg London
We’ve come this far, so why stop now? Keeping the party going on New Year’s Day, Egg sees Promised Land hit hard with Adamski, Terry Farley, Xpress2, Soul Avengerz and more. The main room promises to “take you through the years of house from the birth through to today’s music”. Nuff said.
Sunday 1 Jan, Egg London, 200 York Way, London, N7 9AX, £25, 9pm-7am. More info here.

New Year’s Day: Rekids at Oval Space
Also on New Year’s Day, Oval Space sees technomeister Robert Hood up there headlining. This Detroit wizard is backed up by Radio Slave and Ryan Elliott, busting out NYD techy mayhem.
Sunday 1 Jan, Oval Space, 29-32 The Oval, London, E2 9DT, £25, 11pm-6am. More info here.

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Monday 19 December 2016, 11:33 | By

See Tickets among ticketing platforms to sign up to FanFair’s anti-tout declaration

Business News Deals Digital Live Business Top Stories

FanFair

The FanFair Alliance has announced that four more ticketing platforms have signed up to its declaration against online ticket touts, including Vivendi’s See Tickets.

As much previously reported, FanFair, launched earlier this year, is campaigning to slow the flood of tickets that flow from the primary ticketing sites onto the secondary market, while seeking extra regulation of the touting business.

The UK-based campaign has been leading the charge to get a specific touting bots ban added to the Digital Economy Bill that is working it’s way through Parliament. But it has also been calling on people within the music industry to do their bit to ensure more tickets to in-demand events are sold directly to fans, and that when tickets are resold, they are sold on at face value, or near enough.

A key part of that is the FanFair Declaration which “asks that supporters take five actions to ensure face value tickets reach fans, as well as measures to disrupt the practices of online ticket touts”. Managers, agents, promoters, trade groups and ticketing platforms are amongst those to have already signed up to the declaration.

The latest signatories also include Skiddle, The Ticket Factory and Gigantic, the latter of which recently announced a tie-up with Twickets, which helps individuals looking to resell tickets for events they can no longer attend at face value. The four new signees join rival ticketing platforms Songkick, Dice, Music Glue, Active Ticketing, Billetto, Pledge, Scarlet Mist, WeGotTickets and the aforementioned Twickets in backing the declaration.

Confirming all this, FanFair Campaign Manager Adam Webb told reporters: “There is a clear trend emerging between those who want to tackle industrial-scale touting and those who profit from it, and we are delighted that Gigantic, See Tickets, Skiddle and The Ticket Factory have signed the FanFair Declaration. We will be encouraging more to come on board in 2017. Working together, and with the right political support, our goal is to help recalibrate the ticketing market to make it fairer and more transparent to fans”.

Back in Westminster, with momentum gathering for the ban on the bots used by touts to access large quantities of tickets off the primary sites, FanFair is also calling on the government to enact other recommendations contained within Professor Michael Waterson’s review of the secondary ticketing market, which was instigated by the 2015 Consumer Rights Act and published earlier this year.

Premium CMU subscribers can catch up on all the many recent developments in the secondary ticketing debate via the latest CMU Trends article.

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Monday 19 December 2016, 11:31 | By

Anthrax fear they could lose airplay as a result of the RMLC v GMR legal battle

Artist News Business News Legal Media

Anthrax

Personally I think that “a dark chasm of mystery” sounds rather exciting, though I suppose when you keep banging on about how there needs to be more transparency in the music licensing process, you can’t then turn around and call for more mystery. However intriguing that dark chasm of mystery might sound.

Metallers Anthrax have hit out at Irving Azoff’s Global Music Rights for including them in a list of artists whose songs are represented by the veteran artist manager’s mini performing rights organisation. Given that GMR is limbering up for an unholy legal battle with the American radio industry, Anthrax fear that by being included on the list US radio stations will stop playing their music.

As previously reported, Azoff set up Global Music Rights to represent premiere league songwriters in the performing rights licensing domain. He reckons that a boutique rights agency representing only top name writers can secure better royalty rates than the big American PROs ASCAP and BMI, and even the smaller SESAC, which are all subject to some sort of regulation or mediation when negotiating licensing deals.

The US radio industry doesn’t like the sound of paying higher royalty rates, and the Radio Music Licence Committee that negotiates such deals for American broadcasters has now gone legal accusing GMR of creating and exploiting a monopoly. Meanwhile GMR is suing the RMLC, arguing that given the size of the repertoire it represents it doesn’t have anything like a monopoly, but by insisting it speak for the entire radio industry as one, the RMLC is definitely monopolistic.

If no settlement can be reached, the dispute could result in US radio stations at least temporarily pulling any songs in which GMR writers have a stake from their output. Azoff may insist on such a move in order to put pressure on the stations, or the stations might instigate the songs-pull themselves in order to put pressure on Azoff. Or the broadcasters’ lawyers might say playing GMR-repped songs without licence could result in a copyright infringement action.

Which is why Anthrax don’t like being on the list of artists whose music is repped by GMR. Because, say they, no member of Anthrax is affiliated with GMR in any way. Rather, they assume they have made it to the list because of an old cover of Metallica track ‘Phantom Lord’, the latter metal outfit being part of the GMR party.

In an open letter Anthrax write: “The credited composers for ‘Phantom Lord’ are our good friends James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and then-Metallica member Dave Mustaine. As you included Metallica and Megadeth on your GMR rights list, we believe our having recorded that one song some seventeen years ago may be the only reason we are included on your list”. That’s a bit misleading, they reckon.

“Mr Azoff”, they continue, “you and the songwriters you represent have every right to fight for fair compensation, and we would completely understand if you were to inform the more than 10,000 US-based radio stations that they cannot programme the Anthrax cover of ‘Phantom Lord’ unless they agree to the GMR licensing terms”.

“But you don’t provide that information, you’ve merely listed ‘Anthrax'”, they add. “Which does nothing other than create a dark chasm of mystery for radio programmers. Without offering responsible specificity for the programmers, such as the actual title of the song that we recorded, written by the particular GMR client, you’ve created a precarious situation”.

Ah, dark chasms and precarious situations. What a time to be alive! Team Anthrax go to great lengths to insist that they “appreciate anyone’s efforts to see that [musicians and songwriters] are paid a fair wage for the use of our music”, but they say that Azoff’s misleading list “could be very damaging to us and to our fellow performers who may find themselves in a similar situation”.

They conclude: “Please do the right thing, not just for Anthrax, but for all of the artists you’ve listed on your GMR site – provide specific information to radio about what songs are affected and cannot be programmed without the required GMR licence”.

For his part Azoff responded via Twitter to suggest Anthax take some time off press releasing open letters and get on the phone. He tweeted at the band: “If you want to reach me, you don’t need a press release. Just return my call”.

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Monday 19 December 2016, 11:24 | By

Visit Florida CEO resigns following $1 million Pitbull deal controversy

Artist News Brands & Merch Business News Legal

Pitbull

The head of Florida’s tourism board, Will Seccombe, has resigned after it emerged that he paid Pitbull $1 million to be a “celebrity ambassador” for the state.

Controversy erupted around the deal after the Florida state government sued to have details of the secret agreement between the popstar and Visit Florida released last week. Pitbull’s lawyers argued that the contract should be kept under wraps, due to trade secret concerns. However, on Thursday, the rapper himself undid all of that by posting the full contract on Twitter.

In a statement, Pitbull said: “It’s been an honour to represent Miami and the Sunshine State. I’ve taken Miami and Florida worldwide – WAY before any contract, and will continue to do so after”. Yes, who had ever heard of Florida outside the US before Pitbull came along? No one, that’s who.

Among the commitments in the one year deal, signed in August last year, Pitbull agreed to perform a New Year’s Eve show in Miami with a live broadcast on the Fox Network, to make a video for his song ‘Sexy Beaches’ which prominently featured Florida’s (presumably sexy) beaches, and to display the “#LoveFL” hashtag on screens at his live shows during the term of the agreement.

Following the release of the contract, Florida Governor Rick Scott wrote to Visit Florida chair William D Talbert III calling on Seccombe to resign in a bid to improve transparency at the publicly funded agency.

“I believe it would be best for the future efforts of Visit Florida for Will to step down and allow new leadership to come in at this critical time”, wrote Scott on Friday.

It was later confirmed that Seccombe had agreed to stand down and “will be working with the Visit Florida board of directors on next steps” over the next few weeks, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Visit Florida’s Chief Operating Officer Vangie Fields and Chief Marketing Officer Paul Phipps also resigned on Friday.

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Monday 19 December 2016, 11:23 | By

Warner’s ADA signs up Defdisco

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

Defdisco

Warner Music’s label services division ADA has signed up US music company Defdisco. The partnership further boosts the indie’s operations, which have been built up over the last two years by pairing new acts with brands and sync opportunities.

“The quality of the artists, brands and agencies we are working with on both sides of the pond is first rate”, says Defdisco’s co-founder Barry Gilbey. “Defdisco’s understanding of music publishing and digital culture, and how they fit together for brands and broadcast, is very exciting for the future”.

“For us this relationship really is proof of concept. We set out to build a record label for how things work today: music, sync and brand”, adds Paul Herron, who works out of the company’s UK office in Sheffield.

“I’ve always described Defdisco as a ‘mini-major’ and now we truly are”, he adds, entirely incorrectly. “Joining forces with ADA Warner gives our artists, and the brands we work with, worldwide exposure faster and better than we could ever do on our own”.

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Monday 19 December 2016, 11:20 | By

Chart revamp means more streams needed to equal a sale

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers

Official Charts Company

So, are you all excited about this week’s race for the Christmas number one spot? Perhaps thingy will win it. Or whatnot. I reckon it’ll be whatnot. But what an exciting battle it’s proving to be. Good luck thingy!

Anyway, the charts. Everyone likes chatting about the charts don’t they? Well, some people do. Record industry people for example. They like chatting about the charts, don’t they? Though it’s true that that chart chat might these days mainly consist of waffling on about how the inclusion of streaming data has “broken” the Top 40.

Worry not though, that’s all about to be fixed. From January, rather than 100 streams being equated to the sale of a track, it’ll take 150 whole streams for a dash to be chalked on the big chart counting board.

It’s hoped that the statistical rejig will halt a recent trend for the big streaming hits to clog up the charts for weeks on end, stopping newer releases and newer talent from getting a few days of chart-style glory. I mean, Drake’s ‘One Dance’ spent fifteen weeks at number one earlier this year and, as Bryan Adams will tell you, shit like that never happened in the old days.

Says chief chart overseer Martin Talbot about updating the Official Charts Company’s methodology just two and half years after first putting streaming data into the main singles chart: “It is testament to the rapidly changing nature of music consumption in the UK – and the huge shift we are seeing towards streaming – that we are updating the way we measure the contribution of streams to the make-up of the official charts as quickly as we are. Streaming is growing exponentially and the weighting we use to reflect its impact will inevitably keep evolving with it”.

Bruno Brookes was unavailable for comment.

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Monday 19 December 2016, 11:14 | By

Nine Inch Nails announce new EP, vinyl reissues

Artist News Releases

Nine Inch Nails

Trent Reznor has announced that a new Nine Inch Nails EP, ‘Not The Actual Events’, will be released this Friday. Just in case you were starting to worry that his promise of new music from the project this year was going to come to nothing.

“It’s an unfriendly, fairly impenetrable record that we needed to make”, says Reznor of the EP, recorded with his soundtracking partner Atticus Ross. “It’s an EP because that ended up being the proper length to tell that story”.

The EP will be released digitally on 23 Dec. Pre-orders are also being taken for a vinyl edition and a high quality audio version with “physical component”. Those will be shipped in the spring and this coming January respectively.

As well as that, Reznor has announced a new series of vinyl reissues, which will see NIN’s ‘Broken’ EP, ‘The Downward Spiral’ and ‘The Fragile’ available remastered and pressed on 180g vinyl.

“We want to present the catalogue as it was intended to be, with no compromises”, says Reznor. “That means a careful remastering of the audio from the original sources, a painstaking recreation of the artwork, pristine materials, some surprises and an insane attention to detail that you probably won’t notice, but it matters to us. No extra bullshit and gimmicks – the ‘real’ records in their truest form”.

If you’re a fan of bullshit extras and gimmicks though, he’s also got you covered. In addition to all of this, Reznor’s also announced another limited edition release, ‘The Fragile: Deviations 1’, which features instrumentals, alternate versions and previously unreleased tracks from the recording sessions of ‘The Fragile’.

“‘The Fragile’ occupies a very interesting and intimate place in my heart”, explains Reznor. “I was going through a turbulent time in my life when making it and revisiting it has become a form of therapy for me. As an experiment, I removed all the vocals from the record and found it became a truly changed experience that worked on a different yet compelling level. ‘The Fragile: Deviations 1’ represents Atticus and I embellishing the original record with a number of tracks from those sessions we didn’t use before. The result paints a complementary but different picture we wanted to share”.

A high quality download of that release will be available on Thursday this week, although it will not be released digitally elsewhere. The vinyl edition will also not be re-pressed once it has sold out. Hooray for extras and gimmicks!

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Monday 19 December 2016, 11:09 | By

Julia Holter to launch Domino’s new live album series, Documents

Artist News Releases

Julia Holter

Domino has launched a new series of live albums, Domino Documents. First to contribute is Julia Holter with ‘In The Same Room’, recorded at RAK Studios, which is due to be released on 31 Mar.

“Documents [is] an irregular new series of live studio recordings designed to capture the ever-evolving arrangements of our artists and their bands in high fidelity”, says the label. “Taking its inspiration from classic BBC sessions, each Documents release will be recorded in no more than a day or two at a world class studio in London. Or at least that’s the plan”.

“The first official Documents release is ‘In The Same Room’ by Julia Holter”, the label continues. “Although Domino count Villagers’ ‘Where Have You Been All My Life?’ as the honorary inaugural Document in all but name”.

Too late, we’ve already said Julia Holter is first twice. Bad luck, Villagers.

Listen to Holter’s live version of ‘So Lillies’ here:

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Monday 19 December 2016, 11:05 | By

Brian Eno to release ‘endless’ album

Artist News Digital Releases

Brian Eno

Brian Eno has revealed that his new album, ‘Reflection’, will see him achieve a long held goal to create an ambient record that does not end.

As well as releases in time-limited standard formats, the album will be available through apps for iOS and Apple TV on which the music on the record will play endlessly until the sun explodes and destroys all evidence of the human race having ever existed. Either that or until you get bored and turn it off. Whichever comes first.

“‘Reflection’ is the most recent of my ambient experiments and represents the most sophisticated of them so far”, says Eno, explaining his ambitions for the app-version of his new record. “My original intention with ambient music was to make endless music, music that would be there as long as you wanted it to be. I wanted also that this music would unfold differently all the time – ‘like sitting by a river’: it’s always the same river, but it’s always changing”.

He continues: “Recordings – whether vinyl, cassette or CD – are limited in length, and replay identically each time you listen to them. So in the past I was limited to making the systems which make the music, but then recording 30 minutes or an hour and releasing that. ‘Reflection’ in its album form – on vinyl or CD – is like this. But the app by which ‘Reflection’ is produced is not restricted: it creates an endless and endlessly changing version of the piece of music”.

“The creation of a piece of music like this falls into three stages: the first is the selection of sonic materials and a musical mode – a constellation of musical relationships”, he carries on further still. I’ll tell you what; this quote is starting to feel endless. “These are then patterned and explored by a system of algorithms which vary and permutate the initial elements I feed into them, resulting in a constantly morphing stream (or river) of music. The third stage is listening. Once I have the system up and running I spend a long time – many days and weeks in fact – seeing what it does and fine-tuning the materials and sets of rules that run the algorithms. It’s a lot like gardening: you plant the seeds and then you keep tending to them until you get a garden you like”.

The album is out on 1 Jan.

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Monday 19 December 2016, 11:04 | By

Song, By Toad releases Die Hard themed Christmas single for charity

Artist News Business News Releases

Yippee Kay Yule

Song, By Toad Records has released a charity single for Christmas. Titled ‘Yippee Kay Yule’, it features songs from eagleowl and Jonnie Common. It is also, as you may have guessed, ‘Die Hard’ themed.

“Because the world had a collective idiot spasm in 2016 and elected all sorts of lunatics to run our countries (yeah yeah Canada, piss off) loads of crucial work is being undermined in a wide variety of areas, and we feel it is our duty to help address this”, says label boss Matthew Young. “Consequently all revenue (not just all profit) from this release will be going to charities which protect the NHS, support migrants, refugees, victims of rape and domestic abuse, and those who suffer physical or mental disabilities – you know, the work our governments should be doing, if they weren’t a bunch of total wankers”.

In addition to that, the label will match those revenues, so whatever you pay counts as double.

You can get eagleowl’s ‘Let’s Save Christmas (The Ballad Of Nakatomi Plaza)’ and ‘Yippee Key Yule Father Christmas’ for £2 (or more, if you like) on Bandcamp here:

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Monday 19 December 2016, 11:00 | By

Liam Payne is “certain” that One Direction will return

And Finally Artist News

One Direction

One Direction will “100%” get back together at some point in the future. Not my words, people. The words of Liam ‘Big Payno’ Payne. Such is his lack of confidence in his own solo career, and those of his former bandmates.

During a Twitter Q&A on Saturday, Payno was (inevitably) asked if his former group would ever reunite, having gone on ‘hiatus’ last year. “I’m 100% certain that we will”, he replied. Even though you can’t ever be 100% certain about anything. Irresponsible.

He also said of his solo album that he is “making it right now” and that it would be available “soon”. Asked to define “soon”, he came up with a pretty good response.

And if you were wondering who his favourite artist is, it’s Drake. Yep, Drake. Not Harry. Not Louis. Not Niall. Not even Zayn. You heard it here first, he thinks the solo work of every other member of 1D is shit. Good luck getting back together with them once they find that out.

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Monday 19 December 2016, 10:25 | By

Playlist: CMU Approved in 2016

CMU Approved CMU Playlists

Frank Ocean

As always, every day in 2016, except Fridays obviously, and Saturdays, and Sundays, but on every other single day, apart from bank holidays, but on all the rest, we selected artists and tracks from the ocean of new music on which we sail in order to grant them official CMU Approved status.

A total of 190 artists were approved along the way. It’s possible you missed a couple, which is a shame, because every single one of them was brilliant. It’s alright though, because we’ve been collecting them all in a Spotify playlist.

Well, most of them. Actually, 179 have the song we wrote about available on the streaming service, which is a massive improvement on previous years. All in all, that’s just shy of twelve hours of music, which should keep you going for the two weeks or so before the column returns for 2017.

It kicks off with our five artists of the year: Frank Ocean, Riz MC, Anna Meredith, Lady Leshurr and Moddi.

Listen to it all here:

Tracklist:

Frank Ocean – Nikes
Swet Shop Boys – T5
Anna Meredith – The Vapours
Lady Leshurr – Queen’s Speech 6
Moddi – Army Dreamers
Young Juvenile Youth – Youth
Lully – Sans Chapeau
Anna Straker – Serious
Rodes Rollins – Young & Thriving
Bargou 08 – Mamchout
Bloom Twins – Set Us Free
Brutus – All Along
Sad Palace – Breeze
Jay Daniel – Knowledge Of Selfie
Alyusha – Moshi Moshi
The Very Nice Interesting Singer Man – One Step At A Time
Cavegreen – Witches Dream
Else Born – This Time/Remember
Nathan Fake & Prurient – Degreelessness
Adna – Overthinking
Avante Black – Drug Money
HMS Morris – From The Neck Down
Childcare – Film Club
Noga Erez – Dance While You Shoot
Wednesday Campanella – Aladdin
Leonie Evans – Mi Balcon
Ayelle – No Harm
Frederic Robinson – Breathing
Knight$ – What’s Your Poison
Fifi Rong – Future Never Comes
Confidence Man – Boyfriend (Repeat)
Ama Lou – TBC
worriedaboutsatan – From A Dead Man (Part 2)
Estrons – I’m Not Your Girl
Trills – Mud And Gold
Many Voices Speak – Video Child
Keir – Probably
Michelle O Faith – Birthday Blues
Wildhart – Shake Off
Yentax – Yentax Error
Andrew Broder – Apeggehater
Menace Beach – Maybe We’ll Drown
Girl Ray – Trouble
Silja Sol – Dyrene
Cosima – Girls Who Get Ready
Debz – Plastic Wrap
Robin Richards – Liquidators
Cherryade – Houdini
Paffgen – Channel View
Skott – Amelia
Sacred Paws – Everyday
Katie Gately – Lift
Prides – Are You Ready?
Conrad Schnitzler & Schneider TM – Doozer
Dany Rodriguez – November
Radian – Scary Objects
Cristian Vogel – Cubic Haze
Kelly Lee Owens – CBM
Empathy Test – Demons
Baby Baby – Hang In There
Cherry Glazerr – Told You I’d Be With The Guys
Lulu James – It’s The Time
Konni Kass – Time
Modern Studies – Dive Bombing
Soccer96 – Megadrive Lamborghini
I Am Karate – Swayze
Wovoka Gentle – When Cameron Was In Egypt’s Land, Let My Cameron Go
Vanessa Anne Redd – Behind The Wall
Cocoa Futures – The Blue
Diamond – Bad Girls
Adam Betts – Drumbones
Oddarrang – Mass I-III
Bat And Ball – Cruel Cats
Myrkur – Jeg Er Guden
SaraSara – Euphoria
Minor Victories – Cogs
Motion Graphics – Lense
Clipping – Baby Don’t Sleep
Neamo Kid – Schoolyard
Bayonne – Spectrolite
Lung Dart – Healthy Functional Tissue
The Garden – Call This # Now
Xander Harris – Buckle Bunny
Holychild – Power Play
Yip Man – For Your Own Good
The Pictish Trail – Dead Connection
Noréll – Howl
Mieux – Rust
Mass Gothic – Nice Night
Toothless -Palm’s Backside
Jerkcurb – Night On Earth
Roch – Vienna
Riz MC – Englistan
Miamigo – Forever
Tycho – Division
Will Joseph Cook – Take Me Dancing
Exploded View – Orlando
Suzanne Ciani & Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Closed Circuit
Lola Colt – Moonlight Mixing
MJ Hibbett & The Validators – 20 Things To Do Before You’re 30
Portishead – SOS
Bad Willow – Ringer
Death Team – Jump
Darkstar – Reformer (feat Empress Of)
Pascal Pinon – 53
Danny Brown – When It Rain
Efterklang – Cities Of Glass
NZCA Lines – Oh… (Call Me Back)
RABBII – New Friends
Sälen – Diseasey
Ida Long – Mannen På Taket
Villas – Fuckin Round On You
Hilary Woods – Bathing
Zyna Hel – Catacombs
The Erised – Liar
Effie – Pressure
The Fin – White Breath
Vessels – Are You Trending?
Moonface & Siinai – Them Call Themselves Old Punks
Pink Oculus – Overdue
Jim Perkins & Tom Gaisford – Kyrie
Maria Usbeck – Jungla Inquieta
Dems – Gold
Magical Mistakes – Annihilated
Jain – Come
Basia Bulat – Long Goodbye
Moddi – Punk Prayer
The Hearing – Robot Vs Human Heart
Rex Domino – Sam’s Spoon
Amanda Mair – Wednesday
The Bridport Dagger – Harry Dean Stanton
Parc en Ciel – pH
Colder – Inside
Lyra – Rabbit In The Headlights
Annabel Jones – IOU
Sh?m – Mob Boss
William Tyler – Gone Clear
Anchorsong – Expo
Slowolf x Kimbra – White Feathers
Dälek – Control
Fakear – Sheer-Khan
Rukhsana Merrise – Money
Femme En Fourrure – Seer
Ofelia K – Cinco
Anna Of The North – Baby
Wesley Gonzales – I Spoke To Euan
Jennifer Evans – Bakkos
Marcus Whale – My Captain
I Wear Experiment – Patience
Le Voir – Gravity
Babymetal – Karate
Fiordmoss – Madstone
Mikeneko Homeless x Masayoshi Iimori – America (feat Nagi Nemoto)
A Ching Zeng Compilation Called Yumi
Iiris – Hope
Omaar – Heartbreak
Mitski – Your Best American Girl
Brodka – Horses
Dcnxtr – Summer Rain
NY*AK – Dollar
White Lung – Hungry
Gold Panda – Time Eater
Hana – Clay
Orka – Grind
Teleman – Dusseldorf
Berger – Apologize
Nevermen – Mr Mistake
Jorja Smith – Blue Lights
Let’s Eat Grandma – Deep Six Textbook
The Invisible – Save You
Joy Crookes – New Manhattan
Highasakite – Someone Who’ll Get It
Rina Sawayama – Where U Are
Guns – I Know Exactly How It Feels
Sophie Beem – Skyline
Synne Sanden – Sweet Electricity
Three Trapped Tigers – Silent Earthling
Jibóia – Ankara
Colour – Nowhere
PJ Harvey – The Wheel
A Nighthawk – Dune
EinarIndra – Sometimes I’m Wrong
Lovespeake – DNA
Ekkah – Small Talk
Fort Romeau – Seventyfour
Sofi Tukker – Matadora
FEMM – PoW!
PAUW – Visions
Steve Mason – Planet Sizes
LCD Soundsystem – Christmas Will Break Your Heart

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Monday 19 December 2016, 08:55 | By

Trends: Tackling the touts in 2016 – A recap

CMU Trends Legal Live Business

Ticket touts

Back in July, CMU Trends reviewed the secondary ticketing debate from the early days of online touting through the various occasions the issue has appeared on the news or political agenda to the launch of the music industry’s FanFair campaign this summer. Since then there seems to have been more discussion on this issue than at any time before, certainly in the UK, but also in the US, Italy and elsewhere. All of which has prompted this follow-on review.

In the UK, the latest round of debate on the secondary ticketing market began with the Consumer Rights Act in 2015, in which MPs Sharon Hodgson and Mike Weatherley successfully managed to insert a little regulation of the resale of tickets online, forcing sellers to provide seat numbers, the face value of the ticket being sold and any restrictions put in place by the promoter.

Whether any of that has had any real impact as yet is debatable. No one is really enforcing the new rules, and Hodgson and Weatherley failed to get through a key extra measure that would have forced sellers to reveal their identities. The CRA also obligated the government to commission a review of the secondary ticketing market though, which it did. Professor Michael Waterson’s report was subsequently published in May.

The impacts of Waterson’s review and subsequent proposals to date are also debatable. The result of the European referendum meant that the government had things on its mind other than ticket touting, and ministers are yet to formally respond to the professor’s findings. However, CRA debates in Parliament closely followed by Waterson’s review kept touting on the agenda long enough for those in the music community who oppose rampant touting to rally and organise.

After early efforts to regulate the then emerging secondary ticketing market in the UK pretty much failed a decade ago, it seemed that artists, agents, promoters and managers opposed to touting learned to accept it as an unavoidable consequence of working with in-demand artists. Others in the industry adopted an “if you can’t beat them join them” approach, touting their own tickets, or doing deals with touts or touting sites that allowed them to share in the profit of tickets being sold on the secondary market.

This time the anti-tout brigade seems more confident that it can, if not stop touting outright, at least limit the number of tickets that flood onto the secondary market, while making things trickier for the industrial-level touts who pull the most profits out of the resale domain. That can be achieved as much by making improvements to the primary ticketing market and embracing new technologies as pushing for extra regulation, though that is part of it too.

THE BATTLE WITH THE BOTS
In the UK, most progress has been made in recent months on the bots issue; which is to say in the push for new regulation outlawing the use of special software by the touts to buy up large quantities of tickets off primary sites as soon as they officially go on sale. The bots are why the touts often beat fans in getting tickets off the primary sites for in-demand events, forcing the latter to buy their tickets from the former at a mark-up via a secondary ticketing site.

Outlawing the use of bots is arguably the easiest bit of anti-touting regulation for the music community to lobby for. First because the touts using technological tricks to basically push in at the front of the queue seems wholly unfair. Secondly because the secondary ticketing sites like Viagogo, eBay’s StubHub and Live Nation’s Seatwave and Get Me In! – which generally oppose the regulation of the resale market – say they support a bots ban.

Indeed, when Nigel Adams MP – the Conservative chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Music – proposed inserting a bots ban into the Digital Economy Bill that is currently working its way through Parliament, StubHub told reporters that it “supports legislation to tackle bot misuse. The misuse of these programmes harms all aspects of the ticketing industry, most importantly fans. We have consistently supported anti-bots legislation and recently gave evidence to the US Senate Commerce Committee on this subject”.

For its part, the UK government officially agrees that something should be done about the bots, though initially urged Adams to withdraw his DEB amendment on the basis that the use of such software may already be illegal under the Computer Misuse Act. However, when Parliament’s culture select committee called a special hearing to consider the issue, the secondary sites in attendance performed so poorly, members of the committee called for the specific bot ban in the DEB to be reinstated.

So it looks increasingly likely that we’ll have confirmation one way or another that it is illegal to use ticket tout bots in the UK at some point next year. Meanwhile US lawmakers have got their ban on the statute book quicker, with Congress passing its Better Online Ticket Sales Act in time for President Obama to sign it into law.

To date, most debate about regulating the secondary ticketing market in the US has occurred at a state rather than US-wide federal level, with New York State being the most prolific in this domain. Indeed, New York State recently ramped up its own bots ban so that touts using such software could soon face jail time.

Issues around the resale market – and especially the bots issue – started to get some consideration in Washington last year, leading to the BOTS Act, which was passed by Senate first and then the House Of Representatives earlier this month. As a result of the legislation, the use of ticket tout bots will be defined as an “unfair and deceptive practice” under the Federal Trade Commission Act, which will empower the FTC to pursue cases against people using such technology.

Proving once again that these moves are, officially at least, supported by the secondary ticketing sites, Live Nation’s Ticketmaster – which operates various resale sites around the world in addition to the aforementioned Seatwave and Get Me In! – responded to the BOTS Act becoming law by saying: “On behalf of artists, venues, teams, and especially fans, Ticketmaster is pleased that the BOTS Act is now a federal law. Ticketmaster worked closely with legislators to develop the BOTS Act and we believe its passage is a critical step in raising awareness and regulating the unauthorised use of bots”.

Assuming that the UK Parliament follows Congress’s lead and passes a bots ban in 2017, the next interesting test is if and how the new rules will be enforced on either side of the Atlantic. The secondary sites will say that they can’t monitor where their sellers source their tickets, and will argue that it’s the primary sellers who should be doing more to stop bots from accessing their platforms (though – in Ticketmaster’s case – that’s one part of the business passing the buck to another part of the business).

It seems certain that in order to be effective the state will need to enforce the ban, which means the FTC in the US and, most likely, trading standards in the UK. Though that needs budget, and Mike Andrew of the UK’s National Trading Standards’ e-Crime Unit recently told the BBC that budget cuts make it hard for trading standards officials at a local level to invest time into enforcing rules on things like ticket touting.

BEYOND THE BOTS
Even if a bots ban could be effective, it is very much step one towards tackling the touts. Industrial scale touting operations source tickets from various sources, some having teams of people who manually tap primary sites, while others access tickets from contacts within the music industry.

Indeed, when the Daily Record recently challenged a Canada-based tout selling tickets for UK shows at hiked up prices, he said “we have contracts with venues that allow us to buy certain allotments in exchange for a yearly fee, so we reduce their risk in case they can’t attract the big acts”.

It’s still not clear if that’s him exploiting schemes intended for companies seeking tickets for hospitality purposes, or whether his contacts are knowingly passing tickets over to the secondary ticketing market in return for a share of the profit. It’s possibly both.

Probably the next step in regulating the touting market after any bots ban has been introduced is pushing for a whole load more transparency, through both new legislation and industry-led initiatives. That includes separating occasional resellers from industrial-scale touts, reviewing the operations of those who tout as a business, and trying to identify the source of tickets being resold.

Although the Consumer Rights Act only introduced light specific regulation of ticket touting, Waterson pointed out that those touting on an industrial scale – ie who are truly in the business of reselling tickets – are subject to a range of general consumer rights laws that don’t apply to the more casual reseller. To that end, he said, secondary sites should be doing more to distinguish the kinds of resellers – ie casual v industrial.

The resale sites probably do need to take the lead there, voluntarily or by force. Could and would Parliament achieve that through new laws if voluntary measures aren’t taken? Certainly at the aforementioned select committee on ticket touting, it’s fair to say MPs were not impressed by the responses offered by representatives of the secondary sites present.

While Ticketmaster subsequently complained that the meeting strayed from its intended remit – ie bots – into more general issues around secondary ticketing, meaning it didn’t have the right people in the room to answer the committee’s questions, it does feel that there is now more support in Parliament for further regulation of the ticketing market than at any time before.

For its part, the government seems somewhat less keen to go beyond the bots ban, though it is preparing to finally respond to Waterson’s report, and some of his key recommendations could be achieved without any additional new laws, by enforcing those rules that already exist and clarifying the obligations of the secondary sites under those regulations.

Meanwhile, an investigation by HMRC into the alleged under reporting of income by some industrial-level touts – requested by the select committee – could provide some further insight into those reseller’s operations, or at least identify who they are.

The FanFair Alliance will continue to put pressure on lawmakers and officials on all these issues, while also sensibly encouraging artists, managers, promoters and primary ticket sellers who oppose rampant touting to do everything they can to limit to flow of tickets to the secondary sites.

Partly because that in itself should result in more tickets being sold direct to fans at face value, and partly because it stops government from resisting further enforcement or regulation where required by using the classic argument in favour of inaction: “well, really the industry should be doing more itself”.

No one in the UK is currently proposing an outright ban of touting, with Waterson questioning the effectiveness of the more extreme regulation introduced in France.

Though all eyes will be on Italy, where ticket touting has also been a big talking point of late, partly the result of a TV show exposé of the resale market and the boss of the local Live Nation division admitting on that programme that his company had provided a small number of tickets to a small number of its shows to the secondary market.

On the back of all that, the Italian parliament passed a law basically outlawing ticket touting across the board, meaning that only companies or individual’s approved by a show’s promoter can sell or resell tickets to said show.

Of course, somewhat ironically given the hoo haa around the local Live Nation chief’s comments, that wouldn’t actually stop his company from putting tickets to its own shows onto the secondary market. However, the new legislation could still constitute the most draconian anti-tout law in the world.

Political upheaval in Italy following a recent referendum on constitutional reform could as yet delay or scupper the touting ban, and there still remains the issue of if and how the ban will be enforced. Though it will be interesting to see what happens next in Italy, and whether it will counter the often held assumption “banning touting outright just won’t work”.

Either way, as we head in 2017, it feels like there is now an unprecedented momentum within the music community – especially in the UK – to try and limit the number of tickets that flow from primary to secondary sites, and to ensure that as many members of an artist’s core fanbase as possible can get tickets at the face value price.

If nothing else, that puts pressure on those within the music community who have in recent years got themselves involved in the touting game, in one way or another. And, of course, that also means Live Nation and Ticketmaster.

For now the live music giant remains adamant that the secondary market can be a legitimate part of the wider ticketing game, and that the best approach is for the industry to embrace the ticket resale business. But what happens if it gets to the point where that puts Live Nation – as dominant as it may be in live music – at odds with pretty much everyone else in the music community?

Meanwhile, there are those who reckon that technology rather than regulation will ultimately stop the touts. We’ll see if that anti-touting ticketing technology gains any traction anytime soon.

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Monday 19 December 2016, 06:57 | By

CMU Digest 19.12.16: OneMusic Australia, BOTS Act, gig licensing, Trump letter, Bestival, RCA

CMU Digest

APRA/AMCOS

The key stories from the last seven days in the music business…

The Australian music industry’s collecting societies – PPCA on the recordings side and APRA/AMCOS on the publishing side – announced a plan to launch OneMusic Australia, which will offer a one-stop public performance licence for licensees in the country, covering both the recording and song rights in one agreement. The initiative replicates a similar scheme in New Zealand that APRA/AMCOS is also involved in. It also comes as UK societies PPL and PRS prepare to launch their new joint venture that will provide one-stop licences for the public performance of recordings. [READ MORE]

President Obama signed into law the Better Online Ticket Sales Act passed by US Congress earlier this month which basically outlaws the use of so called bots by ticket touts to buy up large quantities of tickets off primary sites. Previously ticketing touting regulation in the US has happened at a state level, but this means that the use of bots will now be illegal across the whole of the US. [READ MORE]

The UK government opposed proposals to add ‘cultural benefit’ to the list of criteria considered by local councils when reviewing live music licence requests. Liberal lord Tim Clement-Jones had proposed adding the new criteria via an amendment to the Policing And Crime Bill. A government rep said that they felt the proposed change was unnecessary and would “run in contradiction to the other licensing objectives, all of which are aimed at harm reduction”. Clement-Jones withdrew the proposal but will continue to push for this latest reform of live music licensing rules. [READ MORE]

The US music industry sent an open letter to President-Elect Donald Trump as he met with reps of big tech. Signed by pretty much every trade organisation in the American music community, the letter focused on how the internet industry could do more to combat piracy, while encouraging the new President to reform the safe harbours that allow companies like YouTube to operate opt-out rather than opt-in streaming services. [READ MORE]

Rob da Bank announced that Bestival will move to a new site in Dorset. The annual festival has been held on the Isle Of Wight since its launch in 2004. The festival will now be based at the same location as its sister event Camp Bestival. Da Bank said that – while he was sad to leave the IOW – the move was necessary to ensure the event remained commercially viable. [READ MORE]

Sony Music UK announced that the boss of the Ministry Of Sound Recordings label – which is now part of the major – will now also oversee its RCA UK division. David Dollimore takes over the top role at RCA from outgoing exec Colin Barlow. The move follows a recent change in senior management at the other big Sony UK frontline label Columbia, which is now being run by Ferdy Unger-Hamilton. [READ MORE]

The big deals from the last seven days in the music business…
• America’s Radio Music Licence Committee signed a new deal with US PRO ASCAP [INFO]
• Koko founder Oliver Bengough took back control of the venue [INFO]
• Record producer Young Guru announced a JV with The Marketing Arm [INFO]
• Ticketmaster announced an alliance with Shazam to make an interactive ticket [INFO]
• DJ Mag signed a licensing deal with Chinese company East21 Music Group [INFO]
• Domino signed Fat White Family [INFO]

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Friday 16 December 2016, 12:02 | By

Barack Obama signs US ticket touting bots ban into law

Business News Digital Legal Live Business Top Stories

Ticket touts

Your old mucker Barack Obama has found time in his busy schedule of wondering what the fuck’s going to happen to his entire frickin country as of 20 Jan next year to sign into law the previously reported new legislation that will outlaw the use of ticket tout bots in the US.

As previously noted, attempts to regulate or limit the resale of tickets online in the US have generally occurred at a state level, with New York State probably having done the most work in this domain. It recently ramped up its own ban on the use of the so called bots – software that enables ticket touts to buy up large quantities of tickets from primary sites – so that using such technology could result in jail time.

However, lawmakers in Washington have been increasingly talking about banning the bots as well, very possibly because someone came up with the name the ‘Better Online Ticket Sales Act’ (yeah, that’s the BOTS Act) and couldn’t resist using it.

The new law means that the use of tout bots will be defined as an “unfair and deceptive practice” under the Federal Trade Commission Act, which will empower the FTC to pursue cases against people using such technology.

The act got Congressional approval earlier this month, while Obama gave his approval to the legislation yesterday. His press rep said that the new US-wider measure would “prohibit the circumvention of control measures used by internet ticket sellers to ensure equitable consumer access to tickets for certain events”. Good times.

The bots ban is the least controversial bit of secondary ticketing regulation, in that it is generally supported by the resale sites like StubHub, Viagogo and the Ticketmaster-owned touting platforms, which otherwise oppose efforts to regulate or limit the resale of tickets for profit by third parties.

Proving that fact, Live Nation’s Ticketmaster was quick to welcome the passing of the BOTS Act Stateside, telling reporters: “On behalf of artists, venues, teams, and especially fans, Ticketmaster is pleased that the BOTS Act is now a federal law. Ticketmaster worked closely with legislators to develop the BOTS Act and we believe its passage is a critical step in raising awareness and regulating the unauthorised use of bots”.

Though cynics – and I met a cynic once – might argue that the secondary sites supporting the bots ban is mainly a diversion tactic, to keep other forms of regulation off the agenda. Because while bots are definitely part of the problem, ticket touts have other ways to access large quantities of tickets to in-demand events, either by simply employing a team of individuals to log-on and buy them, or by getting a brown envelope stuffed full with tickets off helpful contacts within the music industry.

Still, the anti-tout brigade see the ban of bots as a good first step. Here in the UK it is hoped that a similar new law will come into effect via the in-development Digital Economy Act, despite government ministers saying the use of such software may already be illegal under the Computer Misuse Act.

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