Tuesday 31 January 2017, 11:50 | By

Eventbrite buys Ticketscript

Business News Deals Live Business Top Stories

Eventbrite

Two of the big self-service ticketing set-ups are coming together in a deal which, the two firms say, will create “Europe’s third largest ticketing platform”. US-based Eventbrite is buying Dutch company Ticketscript.

Ticketscript was founded in 2006 and is active in five European markets, including Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium and the UK. Eventbrite went live in San Francisco the same year, before formally arriving in the UK market in 2011. In Europe, it currently has active operations in Britain, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands.

Both companies provide a range of ticketing services for promoters and producers, with a particular focus on mobile-friendly ticket selling and tools to help event organisers check in ticket-holders and access and crunch all the customer data. The two firm’s European operations together processed more than 35 million tickets worth over €500 million for nearly a million events last year.

Confirming the deal, Ticketscript CEO Frans Jonker, who will become Eventbrite’s GM for Continental Europe, told reporters: “We have been building significant market presence in Europe for ten years, with a focus on self-service ticketing for music events. We share Eventbrite’s passion for allowing event organisers to control their event marketing and ticketing, whilst retaining their end customer data. Joining forces with Eventbrite, the global innovation leader in event technology, will no doubt help further accelerate the digital transformation of the European live experience industry”.

Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz added: “This acquisition supercharges Eventbrite’s footprint in Europe and brings ten additional years of traction in the music space and experience in European markets to our business. It perfectly aligns with our strategic vision to become the world’s leading marketplace for live experiences, and adds significant assets and technical power to our platform. We are looking forward to this new partnership combining the best solutions from both companies, and bringing them to our customers around the world”.

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Tuesday 31 January 2017, 11:49 | By

America’s Copyright Alert System is wound down

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal

As UK internet service providers get ready to finally start sending ‘educational emails’ to suspected file-sharers as identified by rights owners, a similar scheme that went live in the US in 2013 – the Copyright Alert System – is being officially wound down.

Whereas the UK educational emails are the result of a government-led initiative, and ultimately an obligation on the ISPs to comply contained in the 2010 Digital Economy Act, the US scheme was voluntary. Various major net firms opted to work with the music and movie industries by committing to forward warning letters to suspected online copyright infringers, warning said web users that they could be sued for copyright infringement.

With the CAS having been originally agreed in 2011 before going live in 2013, last we heard participants in the scheme – while agreeing to continue with the letter forwarding in the short term – were considering the future of the programme.

Then late last week the organisation that oversaw the initiative said: “After four years of extensive consumer education and engagement, the Copyright Alert System will conclude its work. The programme demonstrated that real progress is possible when content creators, internet innovators and consumer advocates come together in a collaborative and consensus-driven process”.

While some questioned the tangible success of the letter sending – with many file-sharers just choosing to ignore any correspondence – last week’s statement insisted that the “CAS succeeded in educating many people about the availability of legal content, as well as about issues associated with online infringement”.

It added: “We want to thank everyone who put in the hard work to develop this programme and make it a success, including past and present members of our advisory board. While this particular programme is ending, the parties remain committed to voluntary and co-operative efforts to address these issues”.

Most music and movie firms still believe that ISPs should do more to tackle piracy on their networks, but the Copyright Alert System helped improve relationships between the rights owners and the net firms in the US. Meanwhile the one big internet provider Stateside that didn’t participate in the programme – Cox Communications – found itself on the receiving end of a massive copyright infringement lawsuit from BMG, the appeal of which is ongoing.

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Tuesday 31 January 2017, 11:47 | By

HMV Canada boss discusses company’s collapse

Business News HMV Timeline Retail

HMV

So, who is to blame for the collapse of HMV Canada? According to CEO Nick Williams, streaming, some of the big labels and studios, and people in general. The Kids, though, they’re alright.

As previously reported, HMV Canada was put into receivership by the Ontario Superior Court on Friday, ordering all 102 of its stores to be wound down by 30 Apr. Around 60 staff were laid off immediately, with others being kept on to facilitate the shutdown.

The Canadian HMV company was acquired by restructuring specialist Hilco from the UK-based HMV Group in 2011, two years before Hilco bought HMV UK as well. The parent company is now one of the creditors, who are collectively owed around $56 million.

In a press release announcing the closure, the company said that “Canada has experienced more significant declines [in CD and DVD sales] in each of the last two years than has been seen in most other major markets”.

Speaking to Billboard, Williams went into more detail about what went wrong. Part of the problem stemmed from restructuring post the 2011 acquisition, he said. A number of larger entertainment firms had not agreed to the new terms negotiated with other suppliers back then.

“We just couldn’t get everybody to commit to the model”, he explains. “The problem is that you need everybody to commit because we can’t buy our content from anywhere else; it has to come from those majors, so we are totally reliant on them providing us with their owned titles. So the offer was not as strong as it had to be for our consumers without some of those studios in it”.

That was then amplified by those declines in physical product sales, he adds: “The last two years have become difficult really for two reasons: one, of course, both the labels and the studios have other avenues to market; and subscription services and streaming services have become more dominant and subsequently have had an impact on the decline of our sales”.

The retailer had hoped to survive those declines by diversifying its product range, Williams added. “We’ve obviously been engineering our model, so to speak”, he said, “so that we can find other ways to bring revenues to the business”.

A big part of that was convincing a new generation of consumers to come through the doors – no mean feat when The Kids are not at all interested in your shiny discs. However, their love of t-shirts did help to slow the march to administration somewhat – and the vinyl revival also helped to keep things rolling for a time.

“The reality is that a younger audience is less into purchasing music and film than the generation ahead of them”, says Williams. “So we had to find a way to get the youngsters back in. Bringing in pop culture items and fashion and things that are relative to popular culture certainly did that job for us”.

Williams also says that he believes that diversification could have worked had the firm’s partners been willing to give HMV more time. “Arguably people had written off the brand many times over and we’ve felt that we’ve always been able to bounce back and provide something that is still relevant to the market”, he said. “Unfortunately, now we’re at a point where we were just not able to convince all of our suppliers and partners to do that”.

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Tuesday 31 January 2017, 11:46 | By

AEG Live buys into New York’s The Bowery Presents

Business News Deals Live Business

AEG

Hey, look at this, a live music acquisition that doesn’t involved Live Nation. They do happen. Three times a year usually. Here’s number two. Live Nation’s chief rival AEG Live has taken a stake in New York-based venue owner and gig promoter The Bowery Presents.

Bowery Presents operates a number of venues in New York, as well as venues elsewhere in the Northeastern United States, including Boston, Portland and Philadelphia. Its principal partners Jim Glancy and John Moore will continue to run the business, alongside AEG Live’s SVP for the region, Mark Shulman.

Rumours of the deal having circulated for the best part of a year, AEG says that its new alliance with The Bowery Presents will allow it to “stay true to its entrepreneurial culture” while providing “the support and investment to continue to drive growth and innovation and expand its venue partnerships”.

Confirming the deal, AEG Live CEO Jay Marciano said yesterday: “The Bowery Presents and AEG Live share a passion and commitment to delivering the best music experiences to fans. Jim and John have built an incredibly respected organisation with a proven track record of success and we are pleased that they chose to partner with us. We look forward to working closely with them to further grow The Bowery Presents brand”.

For its side of the deal, Moore at The Bowery Presents added: “We are proud to have built this company based on our love of live music and passion for both the fan and artist experiences. The Bowery Presents is excited about all of the opportunities to grow and evolve as a company with our new partners at AEG Live. Brooklyn Steel is a perfect example of the type of venue and concert experience we will continue to deliver to fans and artists under our partnership”.

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Tuesday 31 January 2017, 11:44 | By

Ticketbis says its research shows Italians approved of ticket reselling

Business News Live Business

Ticket touts

Hey everybody, nearly two thirds of all Italians think ticket touting is the business. As far as they’re all concerned, the reselling of tickets at hiked up prices on shady website is eccellente! Meraviglioso! Favoloso! Eccezionale! Fantastico! Magnifico! And other adjectives Google may or may not have correctly translated.

How do we know this? Because of some new research which was very kindly commissioned by the not-at-all-biased dudes over at Ticketbis, the secondary ticketing platform that was bought by eBay’s StubHub last year. The ticket resale firm hired research company Apco Insight to do the questioning.

The survey focused on whether or not consumers felt that tickets were products they owned and could therefore resell – that being one element of the secondary ticketing debate, the counter view being that tickets are actually contracts between promoters and fans, which usually include a term that says the contract becomes void if transferred to another party.

According to IQ, it was that question to which nearly two thirds of respondents answered in the affirmative, with 63% saying that they considered a ticket to be a product they owned once money had changed hands, with 51% adding that they should then have the right to resell tickets they own after purchase.

Presumably Apco Insight didn’t ask those it was surveying whether they would prefer to buy a ticket off a primary seller at face value, or off a tout who bought up half the tickets as they went on sale at three times that price. But the survey did ask about usage of resale platforms, finding that just over a quarter of respondents had used a secondary ticketing site to access tickets to sold out events, with the number of users going up for those under 34.

Ticketbis was asking questions of Italian ticket-buyers following moves in Italy late last year to basically ban ticket touting, so that only promoters and their approved ticket agents can sell tickets to events. Though the new rules should still allow some low-key reselling by individuals who genuinely buy a ticket intending to go to a show and then can’t attend.

Commenting on his survey, Ticketbis CEO Ander Michelena said that the research proved that Italian lawmakers were wrong to rush through “hastily” produced anti-touting rules. He told reporters: “As this research shows, the resale of tickets is a complex issue that needs to be understood in all its aspects. The legislation promoted by the Ministry Of Culture was a hasty decision which will push the resale of tickets to the black market”.

He concluded: “We encourage policymakers to make every necessary step to correct regulation that will be harmful for Italian consumers while creating a climate of mistrust for start-ups and those working in the tech sector”.

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Tuesday 31 January 2017, 11:43 | By

Billboard Hot 100 to include Pandora data

Business News Deals Digital Labels & Publishers

Pandora

Your pals over there at Pandora are now slipping all their data – including any that might have fallen on the floor, they’ll make sure that the stat janitors do a good sweep of the office first – over to the big mighty Billboard Hot 100 chart of songs that are big and mighty and, most importantly of all, HOT, in every one of those United States of Trumpton.

You might wonder why it’s taken so long for the US-based streaming service – a major player Stateside – to be included in Billboard’s main tracks chart. But stop wondering, because I don’t know. And it would be dead embarrassing if you were to ask a question I didn’t know the answer to. That happened once before in 2009. Still not recovered.

You might think it’s because Pandora – which is still to launch its fully on-demand Spotify competitor – is a personalised radio service, where the firm’s algorithm controls much of what a user listens to, rather than said listener logging in a choosing a track. Though the Hot 100 is interested in such machine-controlled listening and already includes data from some Pandora competitors, albeit giving on-demand streams a higher weighting to those that are pumped out by a personalised radio service.

Whatever, everyone’s very excited about Pandora stats finally being added to the big Billboard chart. And at least two people are “THRILLED”. “Who’s that?” you ask. Well, that would be telling. And I’m not telling. That information is classified.

“Billboard’s unrivalled charts are the definitive source for ranking music popularity”, says Co-President of the Billboard Media Group, John Amato, which basically makes that sentence a massive brag. It would have been better to get someone from Pandora to say that.

“For decades, the charts have acted as a place where both artists measure success and fans discover music”, adds the Billboard boss. “Close to 80 million music lovers listen to Pandora every month and we look forward to bringing our brands together to incorporate Pandora’s data into our charts”.

But what does Pandora chief Tim Westergren think? Well, he reckons that: “Over the last few years, Pandora has shared more and more data with the music industry. We started with artists and managers, then direct deal label partners, and now Billboard for inclusion in the iconic Hot 100 chart. With each step along the way our partners have been shocked by the sheer size of Pandora’s audience”.

Hey, hang on, I’m suspecting we’re about to get a massive brag from Westergren now as well. “Pandora is now the number one radio station in 87 US markets and represents roughly 10% of all radio listening”. Yep, there it is. “With the inclusion of Pandora data, the Billboard charts that have guided listeners and been so central to the music industry for decades now reflect a truer measure of a song’s popularity today”.

Well that’s good, isn’t it? “I’m THRILLED that the ‘Pandora effect’ will now be formally recognised in the industry’s gold standard for measurement”, the Pandora boss adds. Oh, I let that slip through there didn’t I? Yeah, OK, Westergren is one of the THRILLees.

“Next Big Sound has been a data partner of Billboard since 2010 with the introduction of the Social 50 chart”, adds Alex White, of Pandora’s stats unit Next Big Sound, for some not entirely clear reason, because no one actually asked. Perhaps he was responding to you wondering why it’s taken so long for Billboard to start counting Pandora plays – basically, it wasn’t his fault.

“Based on our years of data expertise across social and streaming sources, we know the staggering volume of Pandora data that has not been counted”, White adds. “We project that the Pandora data will have material impact on the chart positions. I am excited that the Hot 100 will now include the enormous number of spins on Pandora”.

So, Westergren’s “THRILLED”, White’s “excited” and Amato is “looking forward”. Who else is “THRILLED” you want to know. Well, as a prize for making it this far, I’ll tell you. It was Billboard’s VP Of Charts & Data Development Silvio Pietroluongo of course!

Says he: “We’re THRILLED to bring Pandora aboard as a contributor to our songs charts. The music tastes and listening habits of Pandora’s large and influential user base is something that we’ve longed to include as a measure of song popularity in the Hot 100 and various other Billboard charts”.

The end. Of this article I mean. Not Billboard. Or Pandora. Or human civilisation. Though who knows where we’ll be by tea time?

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Tuesday 31 January 2017, 11:41 | By

X-Factor Australia axed

Business News Media

X-Factor

‘X-Factor’ has been axed in Australia, making the eighth series last November the talent show’s last in the country. Broadcaster Seven has decided not to recommission the programme.

For the last series, Iggy Azalea, Adam Lambert and Mel B were brought in to join former ‘Australian Idol’ winner and the country’s 2015 Eurovision entrant Guy Sebastian on the judging panel. Speculation that the show would be coming to an end, after that series was poorly received, have now been confirmed.

“‘X-Factor’ is not coming back”, Seven’s Head Of Programming Angus Ross told TV Tonight, before going on to note poor ratings in general for the network at the end of 2016. “Obviously the back half of the year wasn’t as successful as the front half of the year for us. We walk away with ‘Secret Daughter’ as a win from the back half, but there was a bit of disappointment with some of the other shows”.

“We are very hard markers on ourselves, versus others”, he added. “Some numbers that may get a pass mark on other networks don’t get a pass mark with us. So we have a number of slots to fill and over the next couple of months we’ll be announcing a lot more”.

So, there you go, maybe ‘X-Factor’ didn’t do so badly in Australia. Seven just has really high standards. Though it is the second time that the Aussie version of the show has been dropped for bringing in low viewer numbers – the same having happened after the first series on Network Ten in 2005.

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Tuesday 31 January 2017, 11:40 | By

Shirley Collins to be joined by Graham Coxon and more for live shows

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Shirley Collins

Resurgent folk star Shirley Collins, who released ‘Lodestar’, her first album for 38 years, in 2016, has announced a host of guests for her upcoming tour dates, including Blur’s Graham Coxon.

As well as a core band – Ian Kearey, Ossian Brown, Dave Arthur, Alex Neilson and Pip Barnes – Collins will be joined variously at the shows by Coxon, Alasdair Roberts, Sam Lee, Lisa Knapp, and no less than two different morris dancing groups, among others. All the shows will also have visuals from Nick Abrahams, who directed the ‘Death And The Lady’ video:

Here are all the dates and guests:

4 Feb: Glasgow, Town Hall – Alasdair Roberts, Sam Lee, Jayme Stone
11 Feb: Bristol, Colston Hall – Graham Coxon, Sam Lee, Olivia Chaney, Boss Morris
18 Feb: London: Barbican – Graham Coxon, Alasdair Roberts, John Kirkpatrick, Lisa Knapp, Olivia Chaney, Brighton Morris Men, Boss Morris
4 Feb: Gateshead, The Sage – Alasdair Roberts, Emily Portman, Boss Morris
23 Apr: Warwick Arts Centre – John Kirkpatrick, Lisa Knapp, Boss Morris
6 May: Liverpool, Philharmonic Hall – Alasdair Roberts, Olivia Chaney, Boss Morris

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Tuesday 31 January 2017, 11:32 | By

CMU One Liners: BMG, Virgin Records, MPA, more

Artist News Awards Business News Deals Gigs & Festivals Industry People Labels & Publishers Live Business One Liners Releases

BMG

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• BMG UK’s Executive VP Alexi Cory-Smith is now President, Repertoire & Marketing. She told Music Week that the new title is “more of an affirmation” of her existing role leading the UK side of BMG alongside EVP/CFO Paul Wilson, rather than her taking on a new job.

• David Wolter has been named EVP of Virgin Records in the US. He joins the Universal label after nine years at Sony Music, but before that he was VP of A&R at the then EMI-owned Virgin label. Universal’s Capitol Music Group, under which Virgin US sits, says the appointment is part of a bid to “rebuild” the “historic label” Stateside.

• The UK’s Music Publishers Association has launched a new student membership, which will sit alongside its publisher and corporate association membership categories.

• Music focused booking agency Coda has announced a partnership with Independent Talent Group, a talent agency operating in the acting and media domain. The deal will give the two agencies access to their respective rosters. The two firms have also launched a new joint fund to invest in live projects in Europe.

• Ed Sheeran’s gone and put out the video for ‘Shape Of You’.

• Alex Lahey has released the video for new single ‘Wes Anderson’, marking her new record deal with Dead Oceans. She’ll be supporting Tegan & Sara on their UK tour next month.

• Moon Duo have released the video for ‘Cold Fear’, from their upcoming new album ‘Architechture Vol 1’.

• The Great Escape added another 100 acts to its 2017 line-up this morning, including another spotlight show in the form of the Slaves Pier Party. Yep, Slaves will be taking over Brighton Pier for a show.

• Sigur Rós will be playing shows in the UK in September – two at Manchester’s Apollo, two at the Hammersmith Apollo, and just one at the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow. Not sure why Glasgow should be punished for not having an Apollo. Anyway, here’s a video trailer.

• Dermot O’Leary and Emma Willis will host next month’s BRIT Awards. As previously reported, Michael Buble had been due to host, but has put projects on hold after his three year old son was diagnosed with leukaemia. Willis hosted the recent BRITs nominations show on ITV, while O’Leary once compiled a Spotify playlist for CMU.

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Tuesday 31 January 2017, 11:28 | By

Spotify adverts fuel rumours of Prince’s return to streaming services

And Finally Artist News Business News Deals Digital

Prince

Is Prince’s music about to return to the streaming services (other than Tidal)? That seems to be what Spotify is suggesting, having pasted up a load of solid purple adverting posters in New York’s Union Square subway station yesterday. I have also painted my hi-fi purple in the hope that this works.

Prince pulled his music down from all streaming services except Tidal in 2015, as well as making what would be his final two albums available exclusively to Jay-Z’s platform. The legality of that arrangement is currently in dispute – the musician’s estate arguing that the only piece of paperwork related to any exclusivity deal with Tidal is a letter referring only to the first of those two final albums. On the back of that, the estate went legal last November.

Claiming that Prince, prior to this untimely death, wasn’t aware that Tidal, and only Tidal, was streaming his music – including two albums delivered only to that one company – seems foolish, of course. However, it’s generally thought that the estate is quibbling over whether or not those deals were actually signed because of a desire to get Prince’s music more widely available again.

That has become more urgent, because the estate reportedly wants that music back on all the streaming services in time for an expected boost in attention when the Grammy Awards pays tribute to the musician next month.

However, according to Billboard, one of the outgoing administrators of Prince’s estate, L Londell McMillan, said just last week that no agreements were yet in place, and it was not assured that they would be before the Grammys. However, Spotify’s new adverts would suggest that this has changed – or at least that Spotify is confident that it’s all now a formality.

Earlier this month, Tidal fought back against the estate’s lawsuit, arguing that Prince had a well established way of doing deals, and regardless of what had or hadn’t been signed, the company was acting in accordance with his wishes. It also claimed that the “plaintiffs are not the real parties in interest with respect to the claims asserted”.

It’s entirely likely that this bold talk was intended to force a better settlement – knowing the urgency with which the estate wants this all sorted. If Tidal could convince them that it was willing to take this all the way to the courtroom, then that strengthens its negotiating position.

All this is based on a purple poster bearing a Spotify logo though. Prince didn’t own the colour purple. It can also signify royalty. So maybe this is just Spotify’s new way of distributing artist payments.

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Tuesday 31 January 2017, 10:21 | By

Approved: Half Waif

CMU Approved

Half Waif

Half Waif, aka Nandi Rose Plunkett, is preparing to release her new album later this year, but before that she will return with a new EP, ‘Form/a’, on 24 Feb. It’s her first release through Cascine and follows on from last year’s ‘Probable Depths’ LP.

“There’s an inherent restlessness in the way that I write and think about sound”, says Plunkett. “I’m the daughter of a refugee, and somewhere in me is this innate story of searching for a home. As a result, I have many – a collection of places that I latch onto, that inspire me, that fuse themselves to me. I’m sentimental, nostalgic – yet constantly seeking what’s next, excavating the sound of my past and colouring it to make the sound of my future”.

She continues: “I’m a child of divorce, fiercely loved but forced into independence at a young age; I rocket into relationships with the desire to find roots, commonality, to create stillness in the midst of public noise. In this way, my songs are like the notes of a large scavenger hunt, clues pinned to trees I have known, or tucked under rocks on my path, urging the listener to keep looking a little deeper, because maybe they will find something special in the end”.

The new EP’s first single, ‘Severed Logic’, is out now. Listen here:

Stay up to date with all of the artists featured in the CMU Approved column in 2017 by subscribing to our Spotify playlist.

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Monday 30 January 2017, 12:18 | By

HMV Canada goes into receivership

Business News HMV Timeline Retail Top Stories

HMV

The HMV Canada business was formally put into receivership in the Ontario Superior Court on Friday. Some of the company’s 100+ stores will remain open for a few months in order to liquidate stock, though – according to legal documents obtained by the CBC – all operations must cease by 30 Apr. Many staff at HMV Canada’s head office were laid off as soon as the receivership was confirmed last week.

Following a tumultuous decade for music retail ending in the high profile collapse of HMV UK in early 2013, it’s felt like the last few years have been a little more stable for high street record sellers, in Britain at least.

Hilco managed to keep a streamlined network of HMV stores open over here. And many of those indie record shops still operating seemed to be doing alright, possibly benefiting from the government finally closing the VAT loophole previously enjoyed by online retailers, while the decline in CD sales slowed and the good old vinyl revival stomped on. A decade of closures also meant there was also a lot less competition.

Though with CD sales still slipping, the supermarkets tapping into the vinyl revival and artists getting ever more sophisticated with direct-to-fan, it feels like last year was yet another tricky one for at least some of those still trying to sell music on the high street. After a couple of years when we got to actually report on new record shops opening, in 2016 it was more common to hear about old favourites winding down.

So what does this all mean for HMV at large, which despite efforts to get its online business going again since the Hilco acquisition is still really mainly a high street affair? Well, in the UK it’s currently business as usual, but the collapse of HMV Canada follows the closure of the retailer’s Irish business last year.

Hilco acquired HMV Canada from the then faltering HMV plc in 2011. The Canadian business became a standalone entity, for a time dabbling in the streaming music space as the country’s record industry saw the same shift from physical to digital as elsewhere. HMV Canada then came into common ownership with HMV UK when Hilco rescued the British version of the business in 2013.

As with the UK company, HMV Canada tried to reduce its overheads by switching to smaller and cheaper retail units, while ramping up its vinyl and merchandise product lines. But that seemingly wasn’t enough to rescue the business, and efforts to get more support from the music and movie industries didn’t pay off either. HMV Canada collapses owing a reported $56 million to suppliers, which include the labels, while also owing a significant sum to Hilco itself.

Court papers filed on Friday said that “the company and major suppliers were unable to reach an agreement, on mutually acceptable terms to sustain HMV’s operations and support a recovery”. Gordon Brothers Canada ULC and Merchant Retail Solutions ULC were appointed by the judge overseeing the receivership to sell off the firm’s remaining assets.

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Monday 30 January 2017, 12:15 | By

New dispute over Flo & Eddie’s settlement with Sirius following New York ruling

Business News Labels & Publishers Legal

Flo & Eddie

Those paying attention to such things may remember that one-time Turtles Flo & Eddie last November reached a settlement with US satellite broadcaster Sirius XM over its playing of pre-1972 sound recordings without licence. There had been much debate over whether or not the media firm needed to pay artists and labels royalties when they played tracks that pre-dated 1972, because of various complexities around American copyright rules for sound recordings.

Flo & Eddie sued Sirius in three states over the issue, winning in California, the victory from which stemmed the out-of-court settlement on damages. That settlement was somewhat complicated, because the damages, future royalties and legal fees to be paid by the broadcaster to Flo & Eddie and other heritage acts linked to what had become a class action were all reliant on the outcome of ongoing legal action on the same issue in other states. The package had the potential to reach $99 million.

A few weeks after that settlement was reached, just before Christmas, appeal judges in New York State seemed to rule in favour of Sirius after considering whether royalties were due on pre-1972 catalogue there. But, it seems, the two sides are now arguing over what precisely those appeal judges ruled on, and what impact that should have on the pre-agreed settlement package.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, lawyers for Flo & Eddie claim in a new filing that: “The New York Court Of Appeals answer to the certified question regarding New York copyright law [and performing rights] was ‘no’, but that court did not resolve the broader issue of whether Sirius XM’s public performances of pre-1972 recordings can give rise to liability under New York law. Because there is an open question under New York law as to whether Sirius XM was ‘entitled’ to publicly perform their recordings, plaintiffs by definition ‘prevailed’ and are entitled to additional relief under the terms of the Settlement Agreement”.

Not so, says Sirus, whose lawyer writes: “Class counsel has taken the remarkable position that Flo & Eddie prevailed on the performance right issue in the New York Court Of Appeals – meaning the royalty rate will not be reduced, Sirius XM is required to pay class members an additional $5 million, and class counsel is entitled to increased fees. This position is indefensible and reflects an attempt to rewrite and repudiate the stipulation, in violation of its plain terms and the parties’ extensively documented negotiations”.

So that’s all fun. The court overseeing the case, which has only just granted preliminary approval of the Sirius/Flo & Eddie deal, will consider the new dispute over what the New York ruling means for that settlement in March.

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Monday 30 January 2017, 12:13 | By

Facebook headhunts YouTube exec to head up music licensing

Business News Digital Industry People

Facebook

Facebook has hired Tamara Hrivnak from YouTube to work on the social network’s “global music strategy”, as it moves more into those murky safe harbour waters.

I kind of like the fact that Facebook is slowly joining YouTube on the music industry’s hate list. After all, “fucking Facebook” alliterates. And who doesn’t like a bit of alliteration? No one, that’s who. Go on, say it: “fucking Facebook” is much more fun than “fucking YouTube”.

The music industry has been slowly falling out with Facebook, of course, as the social network has shifted ever more into video territory, encouraging users to upload videos galore that often then get prioritised in other users’ feeds. But what if those videos contain music? What about that, hey?

Facebook launched its rival to YouTube’s rights management system Content ID last year, called Rights Manager. But so far, while that system has enabled music rights owners to remove videos uploaded that contain their music without permission, it hasn’t offer labels or publishers the option to monetise their content. You know, like big bad YouTube does.

While Facebook’s video content doesn’t quite compete with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music in the way YouTube does, the music industry has become increasingly tetchy about the social network’s use of music without licence. Though behinds the scenes conversations have been ongoing, and last year Facebook began the search for a new music licensing chief.

To that end it has headhunted Hrivnak who knows a thing or two about the challenges of licensing music on user-upload platforms, partly because of her previous role at music publisher Warner/Chappell, but really from her most recent job as Director Of Music Partnerships at Google Play and fucking YouTube.

Hrivnak confirmed her new gig in a Facebook post, announcing she had been hired to “to lead global music strategy and business development” for the social media giant.

There has been chatter about Facebook moving formally into the music domain for years, gossipers sometimes suggesting that the social network might launch its own full-on streaming service. Though it seems more likely Hrivnak has been hired to find a way to license the music that appears in videos uploaded to its platform, which in itself is no simple task, given that likely means seeking deals similar to those enjoyed by YouTube, which everyone in the music industry hates.

We discuss quite how the music industry’s relationship with Facebook could play out this year in the latest CMU Trends article, ‘Five contenders for music’s enemy number one’.

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Monday 30 January 2017, 12:10 | By

Who might be enemy number one of music in 2017?

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Live Business Management & Funding

YouTube

CMU Trends returns for the new year this week, considering who the top contenders might be for the position of ‘enemy number one’ of the music industry in 2017.

CMU Trends provides regular reports that analyse key developments in the music business and explain how different aspects of the sector work, digging a little deeper and explaining the inner workings of the music industry. We publish about 30 CMU Trends articles each year, covering digital, copyright, retail, marketing, ticketing, funding and direct-to-fan, among other topics, along the way. Premium subscribers to CMU have access to all these articles, both online and as PDF downloads.

The first CMU Trends of 2017, which is available to all as a free read, considers who is most likely to have a high profile falling out with the music industry this year. It considers the ongoing tensions with YouTube, the licensing challenges ahead for Facebook, the potential pitfalls as Spotify heads to IPO, the music industry’s legal battles with the US radio industry, and the ongoing campaign against secondary ticketing.

Says the article: “As 2017 gets fully underway, the music industry continues to evolve as rapidly as ever. It can be hard to keep up with which challenges and opportunities you should focus on, which tools and tactics you should employ, and which services you should be courting the most. But more importantly, who we can blame when it all goes wrong? CMU Trends presents five contenders for enemy number one of the music industry in 2017”.

Read the first CMU Trends of the year here, and sign up to become a premium subscriber to access all upcoming and past CMU Trends articles, plus our weekly news digest and discounts to CMU Insights seminars and masterclasses, here for just £5 a month.

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Monday 30 January 2017, 12:07 | By

Elton John to write music for The Devil Wears Prada musical

Artist News

Elton John

Elton John is to write music for a new Broadway adaptation of Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 novel ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, with lyrics by Paul Rudnick. Already turned into a bad film starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway in 2006, it’s not exactly clear when this all-singing, all-dancing version will hit the stage.

“Re-imagining ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ for the musical theatre is super exciting”, says John. “I’m a huge fan of both the book and the feature film, and a huge aficionado of the fashion world. I can’t wait to sink my musical teeth into this hunk of popular culture”.

Producers Kevin McCollum and Bob Cohen harmonised: “To bring ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ to the stage, we knew we needed to find artists as inimitable as the characters in the story. We needed artists whose work has run the gamut from music and publishing to drama and fashion. We could only think of two names: Elton John and Paul Rudnick”.

Well, it’s lucky they were both available then.

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Monday 30 January 2017, 12:05 | By

Lucie Jones to represent the UK at Eurovision

Artist News Awards

Lucie Jones

Well, it has been decided, too late to change it now: Lucie Jones will represent the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev this May with ‘Never Give Up On You’. Actually, it’s possibly our strongest effort for years, and co-written by a former winner, but it’s not like anyone in Europe’s actually going to vote for the UK this year.

Jones was selected on Friday from six hopefuls on ‘Eurovision: You Decide’ – a public vote to pick an entrant being held for the second year running, rather than just letting a shady BBC committee choose something at random. Having appeared in various musicals, including ‘Les Miserables’, ‘Legally Blonde’ and ‘Rent’, she may be more familiar to the general public for coming eighth in the 2009 series of ‘X-Factor’.

‘Never Give Up On You’ was co-written by Emmelie de Forest, who won Eurovision for Denmark in 2013, along with The Treatment and Lawrie Martin.

“I’m very excited”, said Jones, after her win. “I’m still shaking a little bit. I can’t believe that people chose me. How wonderful is that? Representing the UK as a singer, it’s such an honour”.

Watch Jones perform ‘Never Give Up On You’ here:

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Monday 30 January 2017, 12:02 | By

Jamiroquai announce new album

Artist News Releases

Jamiroquai

Jamiroquai have announced that new album, so that’s definitely happening then. It’s called ‘Automation’ and was produced by the band’s Jay Kay and Matt Johnson.

“The inspiration for ‘Automaton’ is in recognition of the rise of artificial intelligence and technology in our world today and how we as humans are beginning to forget the more pleasant, simple and eloquent things in life and in our environment including our relationship with one another as human beings”, says Jay Kay.

That was a very long sentence. Here’s a shorter one: Watch the video for the first single, also called ‘Automaton’, here:

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Monday 30 January 2017, 11:59 | By

Mastodon announce new album

Artist News Releases

Mastodon

Mastodon have announced that they will release their eighth album, ‘Emperor Of Sand’, on 31 Mar.

“Emperor Of Sand is like the grim reaper”, says drummer Brann Dailor. “Sand represents time. If you or anyone you know has ever received a terminal diagnosis, the first thought is about time. Invariably, you ask, ‘How much time is left?'”

Yes, you do, don’t you. Bassist Troy Sanders adds: “We’re reflecting on mortality. To that end, the album ties into our entire discography. It’s seventeen years in the making, but it’s also a direct reaction to the last two years. We tend to draw inspiration from very real things in our lives”.

Here’s the first single, ‘Sultan’s Curse’:

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Monday 30 January 2017, 11:53 | By

CMU’s One Liners: Ciara, Missy Elliott, Stefflon Don, more

Artist News Business News Deals Labels & Publishers One Liners Releases

Ciara

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Warner Bros Records in the US has signed a new deal with Ciara. “We welcome Ciara to Warner Bros Records and look forward to the next chapter of her storied music career”, says CEO Cameron Strang.

• Missy Elliott is back with new single ‘I’m Better’, featuring Lamb. Watch the video here.

• Stefflon Don is back with ‘Real Ting Remix’, featuring Giggs.

• Dave has released new track ‘Samantha’, featuring J Hus.

• Skott has released new single ‘Glitter & Gloss’. She’s also announced that she will play Omeara in London on 7 Mar.

• Capital X have released new single ‘Diamond Hard’.

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Monday 30 January 2017, 11:45 | By

Madonna is “disgusting”, says Donald Trump

And Finally Artist News

Madonna

Donald Trump thinks Madonna is “disgusting”.

“Honestly, she’s disgusting”, Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview on Friday.

He was referring to her comments at the Women’s March in Washington, DC earlier this month. As much previously noted, the singer said that her anger at Trump’s policies had led her to think about blowing up the White House, but that violence was not the way forward in opposing him.

“I think [Madonna] hurt herself very badly”, said Trump. “I think she hurt that whole…”

“Cause”, prompted Hannity.

“Cause, yeah”, agreed Trump. “I thought her and a couple of others, but I thought she was, in particular, I thought what she said was disgraceful to our country”.

Is it really a disgrace to acknowledge that humans largely involuntarily have thoughts that should not be acted upon? For the most part, people recognise how damaging some of those thoughts would be to others and don’t act on them, thus shoring up their own moral code. Others sign lots of executive orders.

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Monday 30 January 2017, 11:13 | By

Approved: Tei Shi

CMU Approved

Tei Shi

Two years on from her brilliant ‘Bassically’ single – and the ‘Verde’ EP from which it came – Tei Shi has announced that she will release her debut album, ‘Crawl Space’, on 31 Mar.

Lead single ‘Keep Running’ blends R&B slickness with the glow of 80s pop, creating the sonic representation of a confident walk back into the room.

“‘Keep Running’ was the first new track I wrote shortly after releasing my last EP”, she says. “It’s a kind of call to arms to someone you love, to take on and confront all of life’s obstacles together. To fight to stay together through thick and thin. A ride or die kind of love”.

Watch the video for ‘Keep Running’ here:

Stay up to date with all of the artists featured in the CMU Approved column in 2017 by subscribing to our Spotify playlist.

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Monday 30 January 2017, 09:09 | By

Trends: Five contenders for music’s enemy number one

CMU Trends Digital Legal Live Business Media

YouTube

As 2017 gets fully underway, the music industry continues to evolve as rapidly as ever. It can be hard to keep up with which challenges and opportunities you should focus on, which tools and tactics you should employ, and which services you should be courting the most. But more importantly, who we can blame when it all goes wrong? CMU Trends presents five contenders for enemy number one of the music industry in 2017.

1. YOUTUBE
For the music industry’s lobbyists, 2016 was dominated by a one big issue, and that issue was safe harbours. The International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry had already put safe harbours at the top of its agenda in 2015, though last year’s copyright review in Europe and the specific safe harbour review Stateside meant that this topic continued to dominate the conversation last year too.

The safe harbours – which originate in copyright law in the US and an e-commerce directive in the European Union – say that internet companies cannot be held liable for copyright infringement when their customers use their servers and networks to distribute copyright material without licence, provided said net firms give rights owners a system via which to remove infringing content.

Originally intended for internet service providers and server hosting companies, the safe harbours are also used by user-upload platforms which routinely host publicly available content without the permission of the relevant copyright owners. Said rights owners could only sue said user-upload platforms if they failed to operate some kind of takedown system, the specifics of which aren’t particularly well defined in the law.

The music industry argues that user-upload platforms – or at least some kinds of user-upload platforms – should not qualify for safe harbour protection, and that instead these services should be obliged to ensure themselves that they do not stream unlicensed content, rather than providing some kind of takedown system and then pushing that obligation onto the copyright owner.

When the music industry talks about user-upload platforms exploiting a copyright loophole enabled by an overly wide definition of safe harbours in US and European law, they might be talking about a number of different services. But really they are talking about YouTube. And while the industry’s lobbying efforts sometimes skirt around that fact, in 2016 the music community’s campaigning against safe harbours tended to more overtly target the Google-owned video site.

The reason for this is pretty simple: YouTube is the biggest streaming music platform in the world, yet it pays nominal royalties when compared to Spotify and Apple Music. The reason for this is twofold: first, YouTube is a predominantly ad-funded set-up, despite the launch of subscription service YouTube Red in the US; and second, unlike the audio streaming services, YouTube won’t commit to pay rights owners a minimum rate per stream, instead only agreeing to share revenues where ads are sold and streamed.

The majors, of course, agreed to these less favourable terms in the early days of YouTube, and most music rights owners continue to have licensing arrangements with the video site despite the Google firm’s enemy number one status.

Though those original deals were mainly done because back then the subscription streaming market was only just emerging, the labels were keen to capitalise on the new potential of ad income, and YouTube had become a key marketing platform to promote download sales in those markets where iTunes had just taken off big time.

Fast forward to 2015, and the subscription streaming market is booming, the labels have become disheartened with the potential of advertising revenue, and iTunes sales are tanking, meaning a play of a new track on YouTube too often promotes merely another play on YouTube, with no opportunity to upsell a more lucrative product, especially for labels who aren’t necessarily cut into an artist’s other revenue streams.

Today the record companies and music publishers are convinced that YouTube and Google are getting unfairy rich – in data as well as revenue – from their content, while the existence of the free video site is hindering the growth of the more lucrative (for the music industry) audio streaming services, especially amongst the youth demographic.

Meanwhile, because YouTube continues to refuse to commit to pay minimum guarantees, the music industry’s kickback from the video site is linked to ad sales not video views. Hence the stats to the effect that while the rapid growth in users and streams on Spotify results in an equivalent growth in royalties for the music industry, YouTube’s viewing figures can double while the music community’s pay out remains more or less static.

The safe harbours are key here because they greatly weaken the music industry’s negotiating hand. In a bid to force YouTube into a better deal (for the rights owners), the majors could threaten to pull all their music off the video platform.

Except YouTube’s users would continue to upload the labels’ music, and because of the safe harbours it would be up to the labels to constantly monitor the YouTube platform and request that user-uploaded content be removed. YouTube’s rights management platform Content ID would help to an extent, but it would still require a resource spend by the music companies, who in return would see zero revenue.

If only those safe harbours could be rewritten, so that a YouTube-type service no longer qualified for protection, meaning that the obligation to ensure the majors’ music was no longer on the Google site fell to YouTube itself. Unlikely to want to take on such a task, YouTube would be forced to sign up to more favourable terms (for the labels).

The US Copyright Office’s review of safe harbours, announced at the end of 2015, provided an opportunity for the music community to shout loudly about the YouTube problem in 2016. Though, rather than reporting back on that review, in November the copyright body announced a second stage of investigation.

Meanwhile the creative industries’ champion at the top of the Copyright Office, Maria Pallante, was fired. And – even if that review did propose a radical overhaul of US safe harbour rules to YouTube’s disadvantage – the Copyright Office doesn’t write copyright law. The music industry would then have to take that conclusion and push for a statutory rewrite through a Congress that may well be distracted with other matters.

For that reason, despite a high profile artist-led “YouTube is evil” campaign Stateside last year, which forced the usually uncommunicative Google division onto the defensive in the public domain, the music industry is really focusing its lobbying efforts on the European Union and its draft new copyright directive.

Despite lawmakers in Brussels initially seeming reluctant to take on safe harbours as part of their big overhaul of copyright law – unclear on how to rewrite safe harbour rules in a way that limits the protection of sites like YouTube without having a big negative impact on social media and other popular internet services – in the end Article 13 of the draft copyright directive did have a stab. Which in itself was an achievement on the part of the music industry’s lobbying team.

Though, while YouTube expressed reservations about Article 13’s wording – a positive development in the eyes of the music business – as it’s currently written there is enough ambiguity that the Google site could have a good go at claiming to be compliant with the new obligations set out in the directive, and therefore still be protected by the safe harbour, without actually changing its operations.

That claim could be the challenged in the courts, but with the implementation of the final directive and any resulting lawsuit, we are likely talking years before there is any resolution on this matter. And where will the digital music market be by then?

With that copyright directive working its way through the motions this year – and with both Google and the music industry lobbying hard to revise Article 13 in a way that removes any ambiguities to their respective advantage – safe harbours will continue to be at the top of the music community’s lobbying agenda.

This means we can expect plenty more quiet briefings against YouTube from the music industry and – especially when releasing official stats and figures – some louder shouting against the Google site and the way it “distorts” the digital music market. Just last week musician Jean-Michel Jarre used his first speech of the year as President of collecting societies organisation CISAC, in front of Italian lawmakers, to hone in on this issue and express his hopes that the EU might find a solution.

Meanwhile, alongside its lobbying efforts against the labels and publishers, YouTube continues to try and placate the music industry. It remains to be seen if its hiring of record industry veteran Lyor Cohen last year as Global Head Of Music results in any bridge building, though at the same time the Google firm will likely continue to court younger artists and managers for whom YouTube is an incredibly important fan engagement tool, a fact that – for those artists – counters the low royalty payments.

2. FACEBOOK
If anything takes the heat off YouTube a little in 2017, it could be the music industry’s increasing concerns about Facebook, which utilises the same safe harbours as Google, but without paying any royalties at all to the music community.

The big shift at Facebook of late, of course, has been to video content. The social media giant sees video as key to its future consumer offer and advertising business, and prioritises video content in its users’ feeds. That has resulted in an ever increasing number of users uploading and sharing video content that is hosted on Facebook’s servers, putting it ever more closely in competition with the Google service.

As occurred with YouTube nearly a decade ago, Facebook’s shift to video has resulted in different responses from two different strands of the music industry. Music marketers have been quick to embrace the change, pushing video content from their artists into Facebook users’ feeds. Meanwhile those on the licensing side of the business have started to despair.

The social media firm formally unveiled Rights Manager – it’s rival to YouTube’s Content ID – last April, giving rights owners the power to remove their content from the Facebook platform when it is uploaded by users without permission. But, while big bad YouTube’s Content ID also provides rights owners with monetisation tools, Rights Manager is currently all about takedown. Which is to say, it’s a technology mainly designed to assure Facebook safe harbour protection.

That said, behind the scenes Facebook has been talking about and experimented with ways to enable rights owners – including music firms – to monetise their content on the social network, sharing in ad income just like with YouTube. Though progress has been slow going to date. And there remain practical issues such as – because Facebook drops ads into the recommended videos feed rather than employing YouTube-style pre-rolls and in-video-banners – how do you decide which rights owners to share ad income with?

With some music rights owners – especially publishers – employing Rights Manager more prolifically, so that user-generated content containing their songs is increasingly blocked, there is a new incentive for Facebook to finally sort out the monetisation side of its rights management system.

Though given its starting point will likely be a YouTube style revenue share model – ie the very model the music industry has spent the last two years slating – securing licensing deals from the labels and publishers will likely be challenging. Facebook has just headhunted a YouTube exec, Tamara Hrivnak, to help it rise to that challenge.

One thing Facebook may well rely on is that its video experience is different to that of YouTube, in that generally users watch videos pushed to them in their feeds, rather than rocking up to the Facebook website with a specific musical request in mind.

In that way, as it currently stands, Facebook is more of a marketing platform and less of a direct competitor to Spotify and Apple Music. Facebook, therefore, could argue that it is more proactive in promoting new artists and tracks, while less likely to take custom away from the more lucrative audio streaming services.

The music industry might buy that line – especially if it reduces the marketing power of YouTube – though with services like Facebook evolving so fast, who’s to say it won’t more directly compete with the on-demand streaming platforms in the near future?

That, combined with any tough negotiating on its licensing deals, could as yet make Facebook enemy number one for the music industry this year.

3. SPOTIFY
In the context of the debate around YouTube and Facebook, Spotify is the hero of the music industry. So how could it become enemy number one?

Well, remember, artists and labels always had a love/hate relationship with the major retailers and big media platforms back the heyday of the compact disc. The music industry is more than capable of despising the people which control its primary routes to market, while concurrently courting and schmoozing the same execs in a desperate bid to ensure its releases are put in front of customers first.

Whereas in the olden days a small number of major music retailers and media would dominate in each market, platforms like Spotify will dominate on a near global basis. With great power comes great resentment.

In 2017, of course, all eyes will be on Spotify’s march toward its Initial Public Offering, and its attempt to secure the most favourable new deals from the majors before heading to Wall Street for what, it’s hoped, will be a big cash-in for the firm’s founders, early backers and the record companies with equity in the streaming company.

Spotify is now a key business partner for the global recorded music industry, and in some markets by far the single biggest revenue generator. But it remains very much a loss-making business, shouldering the costs of aggressive growth and the minimum guarantees it promises rights owners oblivious of what revenues come in from its subscribers and advertisers.

Those pre-IPO licensing deals will put pressure on the firm’s relationship with the music industry – indeed they already are.

Demands from the music publishing sector to increase the revenue share deal offered to the owners of the song copyrights has forced Spotify – which remains adamant it ultimately needs to keep about 30% of its income to be a viable business long-term – to seek a better rate from the labels and distributors that control the recording rights.

Word is that Spotify is attempting to achieve this by offering other kickbacks to the labels, possibly exploiting its increased power as a curator and opinion former among its 40 million plus paying subscribers.

The record companies know that these pre-IPO deals could be their last chance to play hardball with Spotify, which is under pressure to get to a stock exchange sooner rather than later because of the way it structured some major money lending agreements. Though at the same time, the labels as much as Spotify’s backers need a successful IPO, the record industry’s recent return to growth now being so dependent on a small number of loss-making streaming services, Spotify being the most prominent.

Apple Music is the second major player in subscription streaming, of course, and some would argue it’s the only other global service with enough momentum to last the distance. It’s felt, at times, that some major label execs, especially in the US, prefer Apple Music to Spotify. Though no one in the music community would benefit from there being just one global player in streaming.

Also, while Apple’s future will seemingly increasingly rely on providing ‘services’ alongside selling ‘devices’, you do sometimes wonder whether that automatically means the tech giant is entirely committed to music services long-term. Apple launched iTunes so that it could sell iPods and – while it enjoyed its subsequent stint as the biggest player in digital music – that doesn’t mean the company is committed to always play the digital music game. Especially if it becomes obvious subscription streaming will always be a very risky business to be in.

All of which empowers Spotify at the pre-IPO negotiating table. Though the deal-making will remain tense, and that’s before you get to the inevitable moves by a post-IPO Spotify to limit its ongoing losses.

Add in the ongoing disputes over mechanical royalties Stateside and increased resentment over Spotify taking ever tighter control of curation on its platform – previously something it left to labels, opinion formers and bedroom DJs – and the music industry could become ever more critical of this key business partner as the years go by.

4. AMERICAN RADIO
Talking about love/hate relationships, let’s talk about the American radio industry. The US music business has long resented the big broadcasters Stateside, who pay relatively nominal royalties into the music community, justifying that position on the basis airplay helps promote artists and records.

That’s a position the labels and publishers have never really liked, and one that they argue becomes ever less credible as music revenues increasingly come from streaming platforms that you could say compete head-on with radio. Meanwhile, despite plenty of research that says radio stations continue to play a key role in new music discovery, that is less true amongst a youth demographic that is much less likely to tune into AM or FM.

The music industry has a particularly tetchy relationship with the American radio industry, as opposed to the radio business worldwide, because of some peculiarities of US copyright law.

First, the fact that, under US-wide federal law, AM/FM stations are not obliged to get a licence from or pay any royalties at all to recording artists and labels. Secondly, the fact that on the publishing side the collective licensing system is heavily regulated via the BMI and ASCAP consent decrees, with royalties set in the rate courts that, many songwriters and publishers reckon, distort the music rights market downwards.

There have been numerous attempts to bring US copyright law in line with the rest of the world by adding a full-on performing right as part of the sound recording copyright, which would oblige broadcasters to pay royalties to artists and labels. Record industry lobbying group musicFIRST wrote to the newly appointed Congress in Washington earlier this month again calling for a performing right for recordings.

It seems unlikely the current Congress will move on this issue, even if the music community maintains recent efforts to be vocal on the topic, in both the US and beyond. Of more interest is the slow shift of radio listening to online channels, where royalties are due to labels as well as publishers.

America’s biggest broadcaster, iHeart, continues to push listeners to its online service, which integrates traditional radio programming with a personalised radio and on-demand streaming experience.

While in some ways iHeartRadio now competes with Spotify and Apple Music, you could argue that it is skewed towards a different demographic, and therefore could help grow the subscription streaming market, pulling in a more mainstream audience who currently get most of their music from the radio. In doing so iHeart could help the streaming music market in the US evolve, while also ensuring that an increasing number of radio listeners shift to platforms where artists and labels earn.

On the song rights side – where royalties are due from AM/FM stations – all eyes will be on the legal stand off between Irving Azoff’s Global Music Rights and the Radio Music License Committee. By setting up a much smaller ‘performing rights organisation’ to compete with ASCAP and BMI, but not subject to the aforementioned consent decrees, veteran artist manager Azoff hopes to take the deal-making outside the rate courts and into the open market.

The RMLC is crying “monopoly”, despite GMR only representing the works of 73 songwriters, and hopes to force Azoff’s mini PRO to agree to third party mediation on royalty rates, similar to the commitment made by the other smaller PRO in the US, SESAC. Azoff is currently standing firm, and the resulting court case will be interesting to watch.

Meanwhile, back at BMI and ASCAP, the two big PROs continue to fight efforts to force them to offer music users so called 100% licences. It was the music publishing sector’s unsuccessful attempt to reform the draconian consent decrees that resulted in the US Department Of Justice saying that BMI and ASCAP had to operate a 100% licensing system.

That would mean a broadcaster could make use of a co-owned song under a BMI or ASCAP licence even if the society only repped 1% of the copyright. Such an arrangement would reduce the impact of AM/FM stations not being able to agree terms with GMR, because they would still be able to legally play any song by a GMR artist where there was a co-writer still allied to one of the bigger PROs.

The court that oversees the BMI consent decree almost immediately rejected the DoJ’s conclusion on 100% licensing last year, though the government department is appealing that ruling. Meaning yet another big court battle that pitches the music community against the US broadcasters in 2017.

5. THE SECONDARY TICKETING PLATFORMS
Although the record labels and music publishers generally have the more prolific lobbying machine, the other big political issue in music last year came from the live sector: secondary ticketing.

Efforts to combat the continued growth of online ticket touting came from the artist and indie community, partly because the biggest corporate player in live music – Live Nation – also owns some key secondary ticketing sites, meaning its lobbyists are usually arguing for less rather than more regulation of the resale of tickets online for profit.

CMU Trends reviewed the increasingly vocal campaign against secondary ticketing last month, so there’s no need to discuss those efforts in great detail here again. Except to note that the campaign continues, and is spreading, with the Irish government announcing a review of secondary ticketing – and the country’s competition commission of the wider ticketing sector – just last week.

Of the various secondary ticketing sites, which continue to insist they offer more consumer protection and are therefore the lesser evil, eBay’s StubHub – arguably the highest profile resale operation – will likely continue to feel the most heat as artists continue to shout loudly about this issue, and politicians in at least some countries start to take notice and seek to regulate.

Though in some ways Live Nation’s involvement in the resale sector – while concurrently being the largest concert promoter, a global venue owner and primary ticketing agent, and a significant player in artist management – is perhaps more interesting. The live firm remains committed to its secondary ticketing business interests, but you still wonder whether that commitment would remain if major US artists followed the lead of their UK counterparts in becoming so vocal on this issue.

While the secondary ticketing campaign has tended to be fought on a country by country basis to date, if the various campaigns around the globe were to unite worldwide, it could be that music’s enemy number one in 2017 comes from the touting domain rather than the world of streaming and radio.

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Monday 30 January 2017, 09:00 | By

CMU Digest 30.01.17: Digital Economy Bill, Tidal, Irish ticketing, Get It Right, Apple, Global Music Rights

CMU Digest

Houses Of Parliament

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

Lord Clement Jones proposed an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill that could provide artists with more transparency over digital royalties. The proposed new rule would oblige labels and publishers to provide “timely, adequate and sufficient information on the exploitation of [artists and songwriters’] works and performances” including “information on modes of exploitation, revenues generated and remuneration due”. The amendment is due to be discussed in Parliament this week. [READ MORE]

Tidal announced that it had sold a 33% stake in the streaming business to American tel co Sprint, which had been linked to a deal with the firm ever since Jay-Z bought it in 2015. The acquisition will give Tidal a cash boost and access to Sprint’s 45 million customers. It came as Norwegian media said that Tidal’s user-base was under a million, despite it once claiming three million subscribers. [READ MORE]

Ireland’s Competition And Consumer Protection Commission announced a review of the country’s ticketing sector that will investigate “suspected breaches of competition law in relation to the provision of tickets and the operation of ticketing services for live events”. It follows an announcement by the Irish government of a public consultation on secondary ticketing. [READ MORE]

An FAQ site about piracy was launched under the ‘Get It Right From A Genuine Site’ banner. It’s assumed that the new site has gone live as UK internet service providers prepare to finally send out educational emails to customers suspecting of accessing unlicensed sources of content online. ISPs are obliged to send out such letters under the 2010 Digital Economy Act, and agreed to do so as part of the Creative Content UK initiative launched in 2014. [READ MORE]

Apple was sued over a its use of a Jamie XX track in an iPhone ad. The litigation comes from singer Jerome Lawson, whose vocals were sampled in the Jamie XX record. It’s not a copyright case, Lawson is instead suing on the grounds his personality rights under Californian law were breached, because the use of the track by Apple implied he endorsed its product. It will be an interested test case of what personality rights say about sampling and sync. [READ MORE]

Mini US performing rights organisation Global Music Rights filed papers calling for the US radio industry’s lawsuit against it to be dismissed. GMR said that allegations by the Radio Music License Committee that it was exploiting a monopoly were ridiculous, given it represents 73 songwriters and about one eighth of 1% of the US song repertoire. [READ MORE]

The big deals from the last seven days in the music business…
• Live Nation announced a JV with Metropolis Music [INFO]
• Live Nation took a controlling stake in Cuffe & Taylor [INFO]
• [PIAS] bought Aussie distributor Inertia Music [INFO]
• Proper announced a digital tie up with IDOL [INFO]
• Ticketfly announced a tie-up with ticket resale platform Lyte [INFO]
• Management firm Roar bought comedy agency CKP [INFO]
• Celador Radio bought Anglian Radio [INFO]
• BMG signed Nickelback [INFO]
• Warner/Chappell signed Swifta Beater [INFO]
• Anti- signed Jade Jackson [INFO]

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Friday 27 January 2017, 11:52 | By

Transparency amendment proposed for Digital Economy Bill

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal Top Stories

Houses Of Parliament

The previously reported Digital Economy Bill – last seen in these parts being amended in a bid to ban ticket touting bots – has now moved over to the House Of Lords, where Liberal Democrat peer Tim Clement-Jones has proposed a new amendment seeking to help artists get more transparency about the way their music is being exploited by digital platforms, via the labels or publishers which control the rights in their work.

The lack of transparency in the way streaming services are licensed by the music industry, and in particular the lack of information available to artists and songwriters about the deals done between digital platforms and the record labels, music publishers and collecting societies, has been a big talking point in the music community for some time.

It was also a key issue raised by artist managers during the roundtables that informed part two of the Music Managers Forum’s ‘Dissecting The Digital Dollar’ report, which was produced by CMU Insights.

The draft European Copyright Directive published last year also includes some provisions to force corporate music rights owners to provide more information to songwriters and artists about the digital income generated by their songs and recordings. Though many artist managers feel that as it is currently worded the proposed European legislation leaves too many get-outs and exceptions for those new transparency rules to be truly effective.

Seeking to put the issue on the agenda in Westminster too, Clement-Jones proposes a new section to the Digital Economy Bill that says: “Authors, artists and performers shall receive on a regular basis timely, adequate and sufficient information on the exploitation of their works and performances from those to whom they have licensed or transferred their rights as well as subsequent transferees or licensees, [including] information on modes of exploitation, revenues generated and remuneration due”.

Adding that this new measure might require artists/songwriters and labels/publishers to agree a code of practice on transparency, the proposed amendment goes on: “Any such code of practice is to provide that each creator is to be entitled to a statement of income generated under such licence or transfer arrangements at regular intervals during each annual accounting period, and provide an explanation as to how the creator’s remuneration has been calculated referencing any contract terms relevant to the calculation”.

Of course, most labels and publishers will already be providing some of this information as routine to artists and songwriters on their rosters, but the management community feels that when it comes to streaming income key information about a label or publisher’s specific deal and relationship with each digital platform is unavailable to them.

This makes it hard for managers to audit whether the royalties their clients receive are correct, and to assess which streaming services are offering the best deals, and should therefore be more proactively supported by their acts.

The amendment, which is among many proposed by different Lords due to be discussed in the House from next week, has been welcomed by the Music Managers Forum. The trade body’s CEO Annabella Coldrick told CMU: “The recorded music business is fast evolving from a sales-based to a licensing-based model. This is an exciting and tectonic shift – as an entire market adapts to the complexities of streaming, of micropayments, and of NDAs”.

She goes on: “It is a difficult moment. But it also provides the opportunity to cast aside outdated accounting practices and to build trust and confidence amongst fans that when they subscribe to a streaming service those who create the music will share in its success. We are pleased to see this amendment from Lord Clement-Jones and hope that it may lead to action to address the transparency issue”.

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Friday 27 January 2017, 11:50 | By

Chief Keef arrested over alleged robbery

Artist News Legal

Chief Keef

Chief Keef has reportedly been arrested following accusations that he beat and robbed producer Ramsay Tha Great at his home last week.

According to TMZ, police took Keef and one other individual into custody last night. This follows a series of Instagram posts over the last week, in which Ramsay Tha Great claimed that the rapper had come into his house with an AK-47 and five friends to back him up, beating the producer and stealing a Rolex watch, ring and $1600 in cash from him.

In his first post on the matter last week, Ramsay wrote directly to Chief Keef: “Now, if I was a celebrity, I wouldn’t come [and] personally jump a person with … five friends and a AK-47. That’s just dumb, you’re famous. Now I’m taking everything from you. You really just fucked up, dude. Coming to my house with your phone in your pocket with the location on… yea I’m pressing charges on yo ass. You a fucking low life MF. Niggas out here tryna do positive shit and you still on some goofy Chicago shit. We’ll see you in court”.

In subsequent videos, he has hit out at people who have criticised him for going to the police over the incident rather than directly retaliating, saying: “I think I’m showing an example to the young black man from my city that we can do it a different way. We don’t have to kill each other, like they want us to do … I think black lives matter, and that’s why I took the route that I took”.

Police have confirmed to Billboard that two men were indeed arrested on charges of home invasion and robbery yesterday, though did not give any names.

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Friday 27 January 2017, 11:46 | By

Proper announces digital tie up with IDOL

Business News Deals Digital Labels & Publishers

IDOL

Music distribution firm Proper Music Group has signed a deal with digital distributor IDOL which will see the latter manage the former’s growing digital activity. Proper says that the alliance will enable it to “enhance its current digital distribution to match its industry-leading physical distribution services”.

And if you think that’s it, you’d be a fool. Oh no, there’s more. “Working with IDOL will allow Proper to offer an independent service from start to finish”, says Proper. “IDOL’s sophisticated playlist data, which is rolled into refined analytics programming, will also provide Proper and its label clients with an even more expansive understanding of audience demographics and consumption patterns”. And who doesn’t dig those audience demographics and consumption patterns?

“This partnership with Proper Music Group is certainly a milestone in our UK expansion and international development in general”, says IDOL boss Pascal Bittard. “We are THRILLED to work with such a key and like-minded actor of the independent community and have no doubt about the great results our two companies can achieve together”.

Meanwhile Proper chief Drew Hill adds: “It’s great to be partnering with such a proudly independent organisation as IDOL. Proper are wholly committed to providing exemplary digital services to our label clients, and this partnership will ensure we can deliver that”.

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Friday 27 January 2017, 11:43 | By

Billboard revamps genre album charts

Business News Labels & Publishers

Billboard

Billboard has announced that it is revamping its genre-focussed album charts to include streaming and tracks sales data, following on from changes made to the Billboard 200 album chart in 2014.

From next Tuesday, the various US genre charts will record ten track sales and 1500 streams as each being equivalent to one album sale. One album sale will still equal one album sale, in case you wondered. Billboard says that this consumption model better reflects what people are listening to.

“We’ve been THRILLED with the reception to the Billboard 200 album consumption methodology and how it reflects album popularity in today’s world, where music is accessible on so many platforms”, says VP Charts And Data Development at Billboard, Silvio Pietroluongo. “The conversion of genre album charts to consumption reinforces how this approach has become the accepted measure of album success”.

Not everyone thinks this way of compiling charts is brilliant, of course. And to placate those people, Billboard will continue to publish charts based on album sales data only. I’m not sure that will actually placate them, but whatever.

On-demand services that will provide data for counting are: Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music, SoundCloud, Slacker, Napster, Google Play and Groove Music. As with the Billboard 200 chart, YouTube data will not be counted, although it is included in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

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Friday 27 January 2017, 11:40 | By

Irish competition regulator to investigate the ticketing sector

Business News Legal Live Business

Ticket touts

Ireland’s Competition And Consumer Protection Commission has announced an investigation in the country’s ticketing sector.

The government agency says it will investigate “suspected breaches of competition law in relation to the provision of tickets and the operation of ticketing services for live events. The investigation will focus primarily on potentially anti-competitive conduct by operators including those involved in providing tickets and ticketing services, promoters and venues”.

Secondary ticketing has been a talking point in Ireland of late, as in the UK and elsewhere, with particular chatter about how quickly tickets for U2’s show at Croke Park in Dublin later this year sold out, before appearing at majorly hiked up prices on the touting platforms. Irish MPs called for regulation of the ticket resale sector earlier this week as the country’s government announced a public consultation on the issues around touting.

Though the CCPC investigation will seemingly go further than that. The watchdog said yesterday: “As part of the investigation, the CCPC has issued witness summonses and formal requirements for information to a number of parties involved in the sector. The CCPC welcomes contacts from parties in the sector who may have information that they feel is relevant to the investigation”.

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Friday 27 January 2017, 11:38 | By

BBC Radio 3 to set Malala Yousafzai speech to music for International Women’s Day

Artist News Business News Media

Malala Yousafzai

BBC Radio 3 has announced a load of special programming for this year’s International Women’s Day on 8 Mar. It will include a recording of Malala Yousafzai’s 2013 UN speech set to music by composer Kate Whitley.

Yousafzai, the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban when she was fifteen years old, says of the commission: “I am honoured and excited that my speech inspired a composer to set it to music and that it will be performed and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on International Women’s Day by the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales in Cardiff”.

She went on: “As the speech is a call to raise our voices, it makes me very happy that it will be sung by a large choir, that so many voices will rise to share the message of education for all. It is wonderful that the message and the music will reach many more people through the live radio broadcast”.

Whitely adds: “I feel very lucky to have been asked by Radio 3 to write a piece for such an important day celebrating women around the world! The theme for International Women’s Day 2017 is ‘Be Bold For Change’ – trying to find ways to make a more gender inclusive world – which chimes exactly with what Malala’s text is about”.

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