Friday 29 June 2018, 13:57 | By Chris Cooke

Senate committee approves Music Modernization Act 

Business News Labels & Publishers Legal Top Stories

Music copyright reform in the US marches on with the judiciary committee in Senate yesterday approving a slightly amended version of the Music Modernization Act.

This is the legislation that seeks to set up a mechanical rights collecting society Stateside, reform the way the US rate courts and Copyright Royalty Board fix royalty rates, clear up the confusion around whether pre-1972 sound recordings should get royalties from online radio services, and formalise the way record producers share in that latter income stream.

The MMA that is now moving through Congress actually brings together a number of different copyright reform proposals, including the original MMA plus the CLASSICS Act and the AMP Act. If passed, it will address a number – though not all – of the weird quirks of American copyright law, as outlined in this CMU Trends article here.

The legislation is backed by groups representing pretty much all strands of the music rights business, as well as the streaming sector, which desperately wants a mechanical rights society in the US to help with the payment of mechanical royalties to songwriters and music publishers. The lack of such a society has led to some American songwriters going unpaid and the streaming services being sued for billions.

The MMA was passed by the lower chamber of Congress, the House Of Representatives, in a super speedy fashion. Senate has been giving the whole thing a little more scrutiny, though the music industry’s lobbyists hope that yesterday’s unanimous approval from the all important judiciary committee means their proposals are now on their way to getting the all clear from Senate at large. Then just the Donald needs to give the reforms the nod, at which point he’ll presumably claim to have single-handedly fixed the music business.

Some amendments have been made to the proposals in Senate. According to the National Music Publishers Association, those amendments will mean increased oversight of and transparency at the all-new mechanical rights collecting society that is set to be created. Plus new obligations to educate songwriters and rights owners on how said society’s unclaimed royalties process will work. There is also a new measure to ensure communication between the US Department Of Justice and Congress regarding any future reform of the consent decrees that regulate performing right collecting societies BMI and ASCAP.

Those changes were especially welcomed by campaigners at the Content Creators Coalition and MusicAnswers, which are both led by songwriters and artists. Though both organisations say that – while they support the MMA – various concerns remain about the new collecting society it will create, including how the organisation will be governed. In particular, that there will be more publishers than writers on its board, despite an earlier compromise which did increase the number of writers involved in the governance process.

In a joint statement, the two groups said that, while they continue to back the MMA, they “urge the full Senate and the House to consider further improvements to these flawed provisions and we call on the Copyright Office to ensure in implementation of the final legislation that no stakeholder group can dominate the [new society] and that all royalties are distributed in a fair and equitable and non-self-interested manner”.

Most of the other music industry trade organisations in the US have welcomed the MMA getting one step closer to becoming law. And you know what that means don’t you? Yes, a big parade of quotes you won’t bother reading. Basically they all say: “Hurrah! Woo! Good one! We’re fixing out-dated laws! It’s good news for songwriters! It’s good news for legacy artists! Unprecedented collaboration! Bipartisan! We love you Congress dudes!”

And here are the quotes…

Digital Media Association CEO Chris Harrison: “The Music Modernization Act grew stronger in the Senate and remains a bright, bipartisan light for an industry that is ready to stream forward to a better future. [The amendments] bring greater transparency and make it easier for songwriters and copyright owners to verify the accuracy of royalty payments made, while ensuring the efficient and cost-effective operation of the [new society]. Streaming services have literally saved the music industry, delivering better experiences at a better value, and growing revenue for creators. We are glad to see Congress is looking to the streaming future, and moving away from the music mess of the past”.

National Music Publishers Association CEO David Israelite: “Today’s vote is a huge step towards the Music Modernization Act becoming law. We are pleased that the MMA as approved by the committee builds upon the fundamental compromise between music creators and digital services that will greatly benefit songwriters. With the many important stakeholders involved, it is no small feat for the MMA to have made it this far, and once the MMA is signed into law, songwriters will see more of the money they deserve from streaming services who currently operate off of laws from 1909 and consent decrees from 1941”.

The top guard at the Association Of Independent Music Publishers: “The AIMP applauds the Senate judiciary committee’s unanimous passage of the Music Modernization Act, putting the much-needed legislation one step closer to being enacted. With support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, plus unprecedented cooperation between the music and technology industries, the MMA will update the music licensing system for today’s online world and correct long-standing problems that have denied songwriters and publishers full control over their works”

musicFIRST Coalition Executive Director Chris Israel: “We applaud the Senate judiciary committee for taking a major step today to finally update the outdated laws that currently govern the music industry and harm thousands of music creators by not properly valuing their work. Among them are generations of legacy artists who recorded songs before February 15, 1972 and may finally get justice and fair compensation for use of their songs on digital platforms and satellite radio”.

SoundExchange CEO Michael Huppe: “Today, lawmakers continued to make progress on legislation that will result in the most comprehensive music licensing reform in our lifetimes. Music creators have waited long enough for Congress to reform our nation’s outdated copyright laws. Now it’s time for the full Senate to vote on the Music Modernization Act and send a bill to the president for his signature”.

ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews: “We are happy to see this legislation move forward with such broad bipartisan support. While there is still more work to be done to create a fair environment for songwriters in the digital age, we hope the Senate will move swiftly to pass a version of this bill that preserves the much-needed benefits for music creators”.

READ MORE ABOUT: Music Modernization Act

Friday 29 June 2018, 13:55 | By Chris Cooke

Ed Sheeran sued over alleged Marvin Gaye rip off, again 

Business News Legal

Ed Sheeran is being sued over allegations his track ‘Thinking Out Loud’ rips off Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’.

And if that allegation sounds familiar, well, you’re probably thinking about that time Ed Sheeran was sued over allegations his track ‘Thinking Out Loud’ rips off Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’. But please note, the news today is that Ed Sheeran is being sued over allegations his track ‘Thinking Out Loud’ rips off Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’. Yeah, think about that out loud. And then let’s get it on, I guess.

So yes, back in 2016, when accusing Ed Sheeran of song-theft was an almost new fad among music lawyers, the heirs of ‘Let’s Get It On’ co-writer Ed Townsend went legal. They alleged that Sheeran had borrowed – without permission – the “melody, harmony and rhythm compositions” of ‘Let’s Get It On’ for ‘Thinking Out Loud’.

Cue two years of musicologists musing on just how similar the two tracks are – or not – possibly depending on who’s paying their bills. And, of course, lots of legal wiffle waffle about what can and can’t be protected by copyright, generally along the lines of: “it’s a vibe man, that’s just a common chord progression, these are just standard features of pop music for pity’s sake, fuck off all of you and pay me my share of the dosh”. You know, standard legal arguments presented by pretty standard legal types.

Oh, and then there’s an entire side squabble over whether or not one of Townsend’s heirs can be involved in this case at all, because she was adopted at birth and there’s a dispute over whether or not that means she can or can’t inherit her father’s share of the song. Or something like that. To be honest, I tuned out of all this squabbling long ago.

But hey, what about this new lawsuit? Well, copyrights are often co-owned, right? And the really fun sounding music rights firm Structured Asset Sales says that it has a stake in ‘Let’s Get It On’, so it too has been ripped off by that song-thieving scamp Master Sheeran esq.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, SAS tried to get itself added as a plaintiff on the original lawsuit filed against Sheeran, but was knocked back by the judge. It’s actually appealing that decision, but yesterday filed its own standalone lawsuit in the meantime.

Assuming it gets to proceed, presumably the outcome of this new case will very much depend on the outcome of the original one. Indeed, so similar are the two actions, if Townsend’s heirs lose their litigation against Sheeran, perhaps they could have a go at suing SAS for ripping off their lawsuit.

READ MORE ABOUT: Ed Sheeran | Ed Townsend | Marvin Gaye | Structured Asset Sales

Friday 29 June 2018, 13:45 | By Andy Malt

Instagram makes use of Facebook music licences in Stories

Business News Digital

When Facebook announced its big, advance-heavy, bloody-long-time-coming licensing deals with various music companies and collecting societies earlier this year, it was keen to state that said deals also covered Facebook’s other businesses. You know, like lovely Instagram and that whole Oculus VR thing that they keep banging on about.

Well, now Instagram is making good use of those licenses. The social media app has added a music library to its Stories feature and made a swipe at lip-sync app Musical.ly in the process. Announcing that 400 million Instagram users are now using Stories every day, the Facebook app added the new music functionality yesterday. Users can pick tracks to feature in their posts and select what bit of that track they want to use.

While this means that people can add music to any old shitty video they like, the play for Musical.ly’s turf comes in the fact that you can select your music before you record your video. This leaves you free to lip-sync along with it if you so wish.

Music features of this kind are already being tested on Facebook itself, of course, but they are possibly more likely to take off in a major way on Instagram. The ability to add music is now available on the platform’s iOS app in “selected countries” and it promises an update to its Android app “soon”.

READ MORE ABOUT: Facebook | Instagram

Friday 29 June 2018, 13:44 | By Andy Malt

WhoSampled adds audio recognition to mobile app

Business News Digital

WhoSampled has announced that it has added a song recognition function to its mobile app. So now you can wave your phone at some music to find out what it’s sampling. Better than having to know the name of the track you’re currently listening to and then typing in its name, I’m sure you’ll all agree.

“We had always dreamed of adding these features from the moment we launched the app six years ago”, says WhoSampled CEO Nadav Poraz. “You can identify the song playing around you, then dig deeper and find out what other song was sampled in the song you’re hearing. For example, the chorus or riff might sound familiar but not from the song that is playing, it’s from somewhere else”.

He adds: “Other music recognition apps will tell you the name of the song you’re hearing, but WhoSampled is the only app that will give you the answer you’re looking for, allow you to understand the origins of the composition and reveal the other recordings that sampled it”.

The new version of the WhoSampled app is available now.

READ MORE ABOUT: WhoSampled

Friday 29 June 2018, 13:43 | By Andy Malt

Lewis Hamilton refuses to say if he’s on the new Christina Aguilera album

Artist News

Do you remember a few weeks ago when you noticed that six thousand opinion pieces had been written saying that Christina Aguilera wasn’t getting the recognition she deserved for her new album? Yeah, still didn’t listen to it, did you? It’s alright, it’s really not that amazing. I mean, it’s fine, but I’m not about to write an essay about it. But, anyway, by not listening to it, you also missed Lewis Hamilton’s debut as a vocalist. Or did you?

Come on, I can see how people telling you that the new Christina Aguilera album is really good might not be enough to get you to listen to it. But the possibility of hearing a Formula One driver sing must surely have got you rushing to hit play. No?

Well, whatever. On one of the songs on the album, ‘Pipe’, there’s a vocalist credited only as XNDA. Aguilera is remaining tight-lipped about who that singer is, but has said that she’s very excited for everyone to discover the identity of her “multi-talented” collaborator.

The rumour going around now is that it’s Hamilton. Which makes sense, because we already know he has ambitions to be a pop star. Is he now on the road to becoming one? Well, all you have to do is ask.

Actually, it turns out that asking doesn’t really help. Ahead of this week’s Austria Grand Prix, he was quizzed on the matter several times, but refused to confirm or deny his involvement in the song. “My sole goal right now and focus is fully Formula One”, he said, according to Reuters.

He added that he’d already been asked about this at a previous race and was no more inclined to discuss possible pop collaborations now than then. “It’s not really something I want to speak about, I’m here really to talk and focus solely on trying to win this championship and that’s really where all my energy is at the moment,” he said.

Asked if that meant he was denying that it was his voice on the song, he shrugged: “As I said, I’m just here to… I don’t really know what to say”.

Don’t say it Lewis… SING IT!

READ MORE ABOUT: Christina Aguilera | Lewis Hamilton

Friday 29 June 2018, 13:42 | By Andy Malt

Alice In Chains announce new album, release new single

Artist News Releases

Alice In Chains have announced that they will release their first album for five years later this summer. Titled ‘Rainer Fog’, it will be released through BMG on 24 Aug. As well as announcing the new album, the band have also released new single ‘So Far Under’.

Of that song, the band’s William DuVall says: “It’s about feeling completely up against it – outnumbered, surrounded, facing seemingly unbeatable odds and being really pissed off about it. It was inspired by personal circumstances, as well as events in the wider world. But it’s not as resigned to defeat as it may seem. The lyric is a cold, hard assessment of a difficult situation, but the music has a message all its own. There’s still room to flip the script”.

He goes on: “Every aspect of writing and recording this song will always be remembered with a lot of joy – from recording the basic tracks and the guitar solo at Studio X in Seattle to doing further overdubs at Nick Raskulinecz’s studio in rural Tennessee. Everyone in the band and our studio team really stepped up and knocked it out of the park on this one. We’re extremely proud of this song and the entire album”.

I like the bit where it sounds like a warped tape. Despite that ‘cassette revival’ you keep talking about, kids in general today know nothing of warped tapes. This is almost certainly the root cause of everything that’s wrong with the world today.

Anyway, listen to ‘So Far Under’ here…

READ MORE ABOUT: Alice In Chains

Friday 29 June 2018, 13:41 | By Andy Malt

One Liners: XXXTentacion, Guns N Roses, Axwell Ingrosso, more

Artist News Gigs & Festivals One Liners Releases

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Get a daily news summary, our latest job ads and more via our Messenger bot. Click here to get started.

• Following a memorial service for murdered rapper XXXTentacion on Wednesday, a new music video for his song ‘Sad!’ was released yesterday. Filmed before his death, it portrays him attending his own funeral.

• Guns N Roses are opening a pop-up shop in London selling their new ‘Appetite For Destruction’ re-issue, among other things. Taking up four rooms in Camden Stables, there will be GNR beer, wine and gin, screenings of their 1988 Ritz show, and free GNR tattoos. It opened this morning and will be gone once the weekend ends, so hurry.

• Guns N Roses, you say? Axl Rose’s piano demo of ‘November Rain’? Yes.

• Axwell Ingrosso have released new track ‘Dancing Alone’, featuring Rømans.

• The Smashing Pumpkins have released the video for new single ‘Solara’. They’ve also announced that they will play Wembley Arena on 16 Oct.

• Death Cab For Cutie have released a lyric video for new single ‘Gold Rush’.

• How To Dress Well has released new song ‘Vacant Boat (shred) | Non-Killing 1 | The Anteroom | False Skull 1’.

• Mt Joy have announced that they will tour the UK in October and November, including a show at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen in London on 1 Nov. Their debut album gets a physical release on 27 Jul.

• Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily – updated every Friday.

READ MORE ABOUT: Axwell /\ Ingrosso | Death Cab For Cutie | Guns N Roses | How To Dress Well | Mt Joy | Smashing Pumpkins | XXXTentacion

Friday 29 June 2018, 13:39 | By Chris Cooke

Beef Of The Week #410: The tech lobby v Article 13

And Finally Beef Of The Week Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal

Forget petty pop star squabbles, the real beefing in the world of music this week has been happening in Brussels where the tech lobby has been mounting a massive campaign to scupper the music industry’s hopes of reforming the copyright safe harbour. Indeed, so proactive has that lobby become with its late-in-the-day mantras of “no more cat memes” and “they’re going to fuck up the internet”, the music community has been put on defcon one as the draft new copyright directive goes to the European Parliament for a full vote.

Of course, big tech and copyright critics have had issues with some of the proposals contained in the draft new copyright directive from the off, and safe harbour reform has been among the most controversial of the proposals throughout.

The copyright safe harbour means that internet companies cannot be held liable for copyright infringement whenever their users use their platforms to distribute other people’s content without licence. Safe harbour dwellers have that protection providing they have a system in place via which copyright owners can demand that infringing content be removed.

The safe harbour concept first came about in the early days of the web in the 1990s, but in recent years copyright owners – and especially the music industry – have questioned the range of internet companies that now claim protection under this principle.

In particular, they question whether the law-makers who created the safe harbour ever intended user-upload websites like YouTube to be protected. After all, the argument goes, these are not mere intermediaries in the content distribution process, they take the content that users upload and use it to build ad-funded media platforms.

What’s more, the music companies complain, firms like YouTube have exploited the safe harbour when negotiating licensing deals with the music industry by basically saying: “we have your content already, agree to our terms or spend the rest of your lives having to ask for your music to be removed”. As a result, YouTube pays much lower royalties than those music services not exploiting the safe harbour, like Spotify and Apple Music. Which creates the much talked about ‘value gap’.

As soon as the European Commission announced a digitally-focused review of copyright law a few years back, the music industry saw an opportunity to get safe harbours reformed in a way that prevented the likes of YouTube from exploiting the principle to keep its royalty bills down. And while the whole safe harbour thing wasn’t prioritised in early documents relating to the latest European copyright review, when the first draft of the directive was published in September 2016 safe harbour reform was included. In the somewhat ominously numbered article thirteen.

Since then, the music industry has really rallied on this issue, with organisations representing major and indie labels, music publishers, collecting societies, artists, songwriters, session musicians, record producers and artist managers all shouting ever louder as one about the ‘value gap’ and how it’s definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely hindering the growth of the legit digital music market.

In the most part, all that shouting seems to have been working. While there are a diversity of opinions in the two key institutions of the European Union – the European Parliament and the EU Council – it does feel like the music industry, now backed by the wider copyright industries on this issue, have had more momentum as the copyright directive debates have rumbled on and countless amendments have been drafted and discussed.

That said, the current draft of article thirteen as passed by the European Parliament’s JURI committee last week is so long and waffley it’s hard to work out what it says really. But the music industry have widely welcomed the passing of that draft while the tech lobby has gone into full-on doomsday prophesising, so I think that tells you that to date the music industry’s lobbyists have managed to lead the agenda on this point.

But as the big votes in Parliament and Council loom, the tech sector has upped its game, with social feeds and tech sites now awash with articles and statements and videos declaring that Brussels is about to fuck up the internet big time, banning memes, outlawing links (that’s actually article eleven) and censoring internet users everywhere. And if you think there’s a lot of that on the social networks and in the tech press, you should see the inbox of the average MEP.

Of course, it’s right to be concerned about the unintended consequences of any new legislation. And there’s also the question as to what extent article thirteen will really strengthen the negotiating hand of rights owners when deal-making with the likes of YouTube. Which, of course, has already agreed to slightly more favourable deals with the labels as it evolves its own subscription ambitions and faces new competition for video views from Facebook. Though maybe it was impending safe harbour reform that got YouTube to compromise. Maybe.

Either way, the music industry reckons that the tech lobby is employing a whole load of exaggeration and misinformation in its last ditch attempt to block articles eleven and thirteen, not least with the “it’ll break the internet” hyperbole. And on that specific claim, indie label-repping IMPALA says it is feeling a little déjà vu.

In an email sent to MEPs – also signed by pretty much ever acronym the wider copyright industries ever dreamt up – IMPALA stated: “There is a cynical campaign from tech companies flooding the inboxes of MEPs with scaremongering that the copyright directive would be the end of the internet. Please note that this is the 20th anniversary of their first claim that copyright provisions would break the internet. This has never happened”.

Actually, at the heart of all this is a more interesting question that was also raised – though not answered – in the long-running ‘dancing baby case’ in the US, that was recently settled out of court. What those opposing article thirteen don’t usually say – when shouting about the EU stopping its citizens from sharing other people’s creative work online – is that, in many cases, such sharing without the creator’s permission is already copyright infringement. What article thirteen does is make that fact the problem of the platform facilitating the sharing.

That said, there are always some limitations to copyright restrictions, which may take the form of specific copyright exceptions or – such as in the US – stem from more vague concepts like ‘fair use’. Those limitations will still apply whatever waffley form of article thirteen is passed. Though, can automated content filters, like those already developed by some of the bigger content sharing platforms – and which may be obligated under article thirteen – deal with something as nuanced as copyright exceptions and fair use?

Still, this is no time for nuance. In the short term, Parliament votes next week. The tech lobby fights on while the music industry’s trade bodies and collecting societies are calling on their members across the music community to rally together for the final push. Good luck everybody, good luck.

You know, things were so much easier when pop beefing meant Adam Buxton dissing Stereophonics.

READ MORE ABOUT: European Copyright Directive | The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA)

Friday 29 June 2018, 13:30 | By Paul Vig

Vigsy’s Club Tip: Blueprint at E1 London

Club Tip CMU Approved

It’s the latest night presented under Ray Keith’s Blueprint brand and what a line-up has been pulled together for this outing at the E1 venue.

LTJ Bukem leads the proceedings, but he’s joined by a fine flurry of names that should impress all drum n bass fans. That list includes Grooverider, Fabio, Potential Badboy, Kenny Ken, Ragga Twins, 2SHY MC, Moose, Navigator, Miss Melody and Keith himself.

With a damn decent sound system to boot, this will be a hot ticket on this rather hot London night.

Friday 29 Jun, E1 London, 110 Pennington Street, London E1W 2BB, £15, 10am-6am, info here.

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

READ MORE ABOUT: LTJ Bukem | Ray Keith

Thursday 28 June 2018, 12:14 | By Chris Cooke

Sony announces deal to represent Prince’s recordings

Artist News Business News Deals Labels & Publishers Top Stories

Sony Music has confirmed that it has signed a deal with the Prince estate to represent some, many, hey maybe ultimately most of the late musician’s recordings. And what could possibly go wrong with that? Nothing. I’m sure it will all be fine. Deals with the Prince estate never run into any bother. It’s all going to be great.

As you may remember, following Prince’s death, his estate got busy negotiating deals with all the big music companies about representing his legacy and repertoire. Well, I say “all the big music companies”. As it turned out mainly Universal, which scored three deals to respectively represent Prince’s recordings, songs and merchandise business.

However, the first of those then started to untangle. The deal covered recordings Prince had released through his own label since 1995, a load of previously unreleased tracks sitting in the Prince archive, and some of the musician’s most famous records, which had been originally released by Warner Music.

Prince famously fell out with Warner in the 1990s, of course, but had actually made up with the mini-major before his death in 2016. In a 2014 deal with Warner, Prince managed to reclaim some of the rights in some of the records he released between 1978 and the mid-1990s. But he also agreed to license some of those reclaimed rights back to Warner.

It turned out that that 2014 agreement was somewhat complex. Universal started to become concerned that some of the recordings it thought it was getting access to via its deal with the estate were actually still in the control of Warner. To that end it asked to see the Warner deal. The mega-major’s lawyers then announced that they couldn’t work out quite what rights Warner had, and therefore they didn’t know what rights their client had either.

Ultimately the Universal recordings deal was cancelled and the estate started shopping that side of Prince’s oeuvre around the other music companies again. A deal with Warner might have made most sense, given the continued confusion surrounding its 2014 deal. But then the mini-major may have sought to exploit that fact to reduce its upfront financial commitments. Either way, Sony has taken on the challenge of working out which Prince records are available for it to control and then getting on with controlling them.

Presumably seeking to avoid any future confusion, Sony was pretty specific as to which records it reckons this new deal covers when announcing the new arrangement yesterday.

That announcement stated that the deal gives its catalogue division Legacy Recordings, “worldwide rights beginning immediately to nineteen previously released album titles (originally released between 1995-2010). The list of album titles includes ‘The Gold Experience’ (1995), ‘Emancipation’ (1996), ‘Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic’ (1999), ‘The Rainbow Children’ (2001) and ‘3121’ (2006), as well as titles originally distributed by Sony including ‘Musicology’ (2004) and ‘Planet Earth’ (2007)”.

Prince’s latter albums, released after he had made up with Warner, and so some of which it distributed, will be part of the new Sony deal eventually. “Additional album titles from the 2014-2015 era will also be distributed with worldwide rights under the deal in the future”, says the major. That, of course, will also include the musician’s final two albums that Tidal had the exclusive dibs on.

It’s not all about albums though, and Sony confirms that it will also be distributing some singles, b-sides, remixes, live recordings and music videos that were put out between 1995 and 2010 – though all “previously released” it clarifies, so presumably the Legacy team won’t get to dive deeply into Prince’s vast archive of never actually released music. Some of which has already been promised to Tidal as another exclusive, of course.

But fuck all that, what about all the hits from the 1980s? That’s what we want to know about. “Starting in 2021”, the official statement continues, “Sony/Legacy’s distribution rights will be expanded to include twelve Prince non-soundtrack catalogue albums, featuring iconic music recorded by the artist from the 1978-1996 era for distribution in the United States”.

That’s what we’re talking about. In 2021, it seems, Sony will get to rep the US rights Prince negotiated away from Warner in his 2014 arrangement.

“Music from this period covered under the agreement”, Sony adds, “includes the highly renowned albums ‘Prince’ (1979), ‘Dirty Mind’ (1980), ‘Controversy’ (1981), ‘1999’ (1982), ‘Around The World In A Day’ (1985), ‘Sign ‘O’ The Times’ (1987), ‘Lovesexy’ (1988), ‘Diamonds And Pearls’ (1991) and ‘[Love Symbol]’ (1992) as well as hit singles ‘1999’, ‘Little Red Corvette’, ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’, ‘Raspberry Beret’ and much more”.

So that’s nice, isn’t it? Hey Richard Story – President of the SME Commercial Music Group – and Troy Carter – entertainment advisor to the Prince estate – say something quickly before people start questioning whether this deal also conflicts with Warner’s existing agreement and/or Prince’s heirs start moaning loudly about not being consulted and not being happy with the deal.

“A true artist and visionary, Prince changed the world with his music, bringing love, joy and inspiration to millions,” says Story. “Sony Music is honoured to play a part in keeping Prince’s music alive and making it available for generations of lifelong listeners and future fans”.

“The Sony team’s enthusiasm and deep knowledge of Prince’s music make them the ideal partner to release these iconic bodies of work”, adds Carter. “We’re looking forward to working with the heirs and Sony on giving fans what they’ve been waiting for – more great music from Prince”.

READ MORE ABOUT: Prince | Sony Music

Thursday 28 June 2018, 12:12 | By Chris Cooke

Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine ordered to pay $25 million to former Beats partner

Business News Digital Legal

A jury has ruled that the Beats headphones company – now an Apple subsidiary, of course – owes a former business partner $25.2 million in unpaid royalties. It brings to an end a long running legal squabble between Beats, its founders Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine, and a business man called Steven Lamar.

No one disputes that Lamar was involved in the Beats By Dre business at the outset. Though no one can quite agree who first had the idea, back in 2006, of sticking Dre’s name on the side of some mediocre headphones and then hiking up the price, with both Lamar and Dre claiming they came up with that trick. But Lamar was definitely involved in pulling together the people who first put that plan into action.

However, that happy alliance soon fell apart and Lamar parted company with Dre and Iovine. Although not without an agreement that said that he and his other business partners would share in a 4% royalty on future sales of Beats headphones, in return for the work they’d done to get the business started.

The big dispute which was back in court this month was over quite what the royalty commitment in that 2007 contract related to. Which is to say was Lamar just due a royalty on the specific headphone product he contributed to, or on subsequent evolutions of that product as well? Lamar reckoned the latter and said he was due $100 million. And given Dre and Iovine later sold the Beats business to Apple for $3 billion, he suggested that that wasn’t too big an ask.

Having bounced around various courts, the dispute finally arrived in the LA Superior Court earlier this month where a jury was charged with the task of working out what that 2007 agreement said. In the end they decided that the royalty commitment related to three sets of Beats headphones, somewhat less than Lamar had hoped, but still enough to conclude that he was due another $25 million.

Although that’s not quite the payday Lamar had hoped for, his legal reps nevertheless welcomed yesterday’s ruling. Speaking outside the court, lawyer Stephen E Morrissey said: “The jury really validated our theory of the case, that Mr Lamar was involved in the founding of Beats. It’s not everything we were asking for, but we’re happy”.

READ MORE ABOUT: Beats By Dre | Dr Dre | Jimmy Iovine | Steven Lamar

Thursday 28 June 2018, 12:10 | By Andy Malt

Merlin indie label members seeing rapid streaming growth, report finds

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers

As it reaches its tenth anniversary, indie label repping digital rights agency Merlin has published a report examining the performance of its members’ recording catalogues in the streaming market.

According to the organisation’s findings, independent music is performing strongly with all important premium streaming subscribers. Analysis of half a trillion streams over a four year period by research firm Enders found that independent music enjoys a 25% higher market share on paid streaming accounts versus free.

Given streaming revenues overall continue to grow – and indie labels retain a strong share of premium subscriber consumption – ever increasing monies are flowing through Merlin to its members. The group says that it is has distributed half a billion dollars in the last twelve months, whereas it took nine years for the organisation to generate its first billion dollars. Income has increased twelvefold since 2012.

A total of 68% of Merlin members now report that the majority of their digital income comes from streaming – up from 20% in 2014. The shift to streaming has also resulted in labels generating income from an ever increasing number of markets worldwide, with growth particularly strong in Latin America and Asia. Nearly half of the indie labels surveyed for the report said that the majority of their digital revenues are now non-domestic .

Merlin CEO Charles Caldas adds: “The advent of music streaming has transformed how independent labels operate, and how digital services perceive the value of our rights. Where once we were fragmented, we now act in unison. Where we were treated inequitably, we sit at the head of licensing discussions. Indies are not only thriving in the new market, we are leading it”.

“This situation hasn’t occurred by accident and Merlin has, I believe, played a significant role in our progress”, he goes on. “I certainly hope this impact report provides at least some flavour of what we’ve achieved in the past decade and a trajectory of where we’re heading”.

As for how the streaming market in general and Merlin’s operations in particular have evolved over the last decade, he concludes: “Had you asked any of our founding board members in 2008 whether they’d anticipate Merlin distributing over $500 million per year, or that we’d open new global markets in Latin America, Asia and China, I suspect they’d have laughed you out of the room. But that’s where we are, and what we’re building upon. And most exciting of all, it feels like we’re only getting started”.

Read the full report here. And watch a video here:

Merlin 10th Anniversary from Chaida Kapfunde on Vimeo.

READ MORE ABOUT: Merlin

Thursday 28 June 2018, 12:08 | By Andy Malt

Young Fathers decline invitation to re-join Ruhrtriennale festival line up

Artist News Business News Gigs & Festivals Live Business

Young Fathers have turned down an invitation to re-join the line up of Germany’s Ruhrtriennale festival.

The hip hop trio were dropped from the event’s bill because of their support for the pro-Palestine ‘Boycott, Divestment And Sanctions’ movement. BDS is a campaigning group that says it is working “to end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law”.

Discussing that decision last week, the festival’s Artistic Director Stefanie Carp said: “I again wish to stress that, in my view, criticism of the current policy of the government of the State of Israel is not automatically anti-Semitic”. However, she added, “I personally reject boycott in connection with Israel, but also in other contexts [too], and especially in the field of art. Artists do not represent nations or ideological discourses”.

That said, and despite Young Fathers refusing to distance themselves from BDS, Carp added that she now wanted the band to play her event again. She said: “I wish to invite the Young Fathers again to the concert in Bochum on 18 Aug 2018, although I do not share their attitude to the BDS”.

She went on: “I believe that we need to allow the different perspectives and narratives, because this openness is the dramaturgic credo of our programme. I therefore have to defend the freedom of the arts, and do not, under any circumstances, even indirectly, wish to exercise censorship”.

However, a rep for the festival has now told The Guardian that the band have turned down the new invitation and so will remain off the line up.

READ MORE ABOUT: Ruhrtriennale | Young Fathers

Thursday 28 June 2018, 12:04 | By Chris Cooke

Kilimanjaro owner sells stake in UK classical music promoter

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers Live Business

German music company DEAG – which also has a controlling stake in UK tour promoter Kilimanjaro – has announced a double sided deal with Sony Music.

First, it is buying the major out of an existing joint venture called DEAG Classics. But secondly, DEAG Classics will then sell back to Sony its shares in UK-based classical music promoter Raymond Gubbay Limited. However, says the company, this won’t affect any joint projects being undertaken by Raymond Gubbay and the aforementioned Kilimanjaro. So now you know.

Confirming the sale of its stake in Raymond Gubbay Limited, DEAG’s Detlef Kornett said earlier this week: “DEAG and I am grateful for the integrity, loyalty and the tremendous success we have experienced in partnering with RGL Ltd, in particular with its senior management Debra Eagers, Anthony Findlay and Jonathan Marks and their staff”.

He went on: “We have seen through a fundamental change to the business of RGL while profitability increased in our time and the transaction allows RGL to prosper and at the same time the DEAG Classics business to continue to thrive, also in the UK”.

Meanwhile the boss of Kilimanjaro, Stuart Galbraith, said his business would continue to enjoy the opportunity to work with other divisions of DEAG, but also with Raymond Gubbay Limited, despite it no longer being part of the group. “There are numerous opportunities for us to grow our business which we will be able to continue to exploit”, he added.

READ MORE ABOUT: DEAG | Kilimanjaro Live | Raymond Gubbay | Sony Music

Thursday 28 June 2018, 12:00 | By CMU Editorial

Artist:Entrepreneur Day heads to Manchester with Brighter Sound

Business News Education & Events

The date has been set for the next edition of the Artist:Entrepreneur Day, the artist-to-artist education programme from the Featured Artists Coalition and CMU:DIY. This time FAC and CMU are teaming up with Brighter Sound to bring the A:E experience to Manchester, at Band On The Wall on Friday 20 July.

The A:E Day is a practical guide for early-career artists, explaining how they can grow a business around their music. Each edition is led by three of FAC’s ‘advocate artists’ – this time Roxanne De Bastion, ShaoDow and Femme – who open up their own artist businesses and describe their routes to success. The artists also question a range of industry experts, while CMU’s Chris Cooke is on hand to present A:E Guides on revenues, rights, gigging, marketing and business partners.

FAC CEO Lucie Caswell says: “The feedback from our recent London A:E Day was overwhelmingly great, so it is really exciting to be announcing our next edition in Manchester already. We are touring this programme all around the country over the next year, empowering young artists as we go. We are really looking forward to being in Manchester and sharing our knowledge with the city’s talented artist community, thanks to our partnership with Brighter Sound”.

Brighter Sound Head Of Programmes Kate Lowes adds: “It’s more important than ever for artists to take control of their own businesses. Part of our role is to make sure the young and emerging talent we work with has the information they need to be able to do just that. It’s great to team up with the Featured Artists Coalition and CMU:DIY to make that happen artist to artist, allowing artist entrepreneurs to learn from their contemporaries”.

Tickets for the day will be on sale soon at artistentrepreneurday.com

READ MORE ABOUT: Artist:Entrepreneur Day | CMU:DIY | Featured Artists Coalition (FAC)

Thursday 28 June 2018, 11:53 | By Andy Malt

Joe Jackson dies

Business News Industry People

Joe Jackson, father and former manager of Michael and Janet Jackson, and the Jackson Five, has died. He was 89.

In a statement confirming his passing, co-executors of the Michael Jackson estate, John Branca and John McClain, said: “We are deeply saddened by Mr Jackson’s passing and extend our heartfelt condolences to [his wife] Mrs Katherine Jackson and the family. Joe was a strong man who acknowledged his own imperfections and heroically delivered his sons and daughters from the steel mills of Gary, Indiana to worldwide pop superstardom”.

The father of eleven children, Jackson was recently reported to have been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Until as recently as last week, he was refusing to allow his family to visit him, although he did eventually agree to see them.

There was also some confusion last week when a tweet appeared on Jackson’s Twitter account appearing to say goodbye, reading: “I have seen more sunsets than I have left to see. The sun rises when the time comes and whether you like it or not the sun sets when the time comes”.

However, his granddaughter Paris Jackson stated that, while it was “a beautiful tweet”, there was “no possible way” Jackson Senior had sent it, as she had been with him at the time it was posted.

Joe Jackson is credited with driving the early success of his musical children as their manager. But those children also spoke of an angry and violent father. Michael in particular recalled being regularly beaten, as well as being bullied by his father for his “fat nose”.

Michael fired his father as his manager in 1979. In an interview in 1993, he told Oprah Winfrey that he had been so frightened of Jackson Senior as a child that he would sometimes vomit when he saw him. Although he also said in the same interview that he forgave him. In an interview shortly before his own death in 2009, he said that his father had become a better person as he aged, and was a good grandfather.

READ MORE ABOUT: Jackson Five | Janet Jackson | Joe Jackson | Michael Jackson

Thursday 28 June 2018, 11:28 | By Andy Malt

Rolo Tomassi announce UK tour dates

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Rolo Tomassi have announced that they will tour the UK in October and November this year.

“We’re delighted to announce a new selection of headline dates in celebration of our new album ‘Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It'”, say the band. “This will be our first time visiting some of these cities in a number of years and also includes our biggest ever headline show at the Scala in London”.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow. Here are the dates:

30 Oct: Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
31 Oct: Bournemouth, The Anvil
1 Nov: Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach
2 Nov: Norwich, Waterfront
9 Nov: London, The Scala

READ MORE ABOUT: Rolo Tomassi

Thursday 28 June 2018, 11:27 | By Andy Malt

One Liners: Live Nation, Manners McDade, Years & Years, more

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

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Get a daily news summary, our latest job ads and more via our Messenger bot. Click here to get started.

• Live Nation has taken a majority stake in US promoter Red Mountain Entertainment. The company will become a subsidiary of Live Nation, but continue to operate from its offices in Alabama. “Terrific”, says Live Nation’s Bob Roux.

• Music publisher and composer management firm Manners McDade has appointed Harriet Moss as its new Managing Director. “I never thought I would find someone who I could trust so implicitly with my business”, says company founder Catherine Manners. “But Harriet Moss is an extraordinary young woman and I’m incredibly proud of her”.

• Years & Years have released new single ‘All For You’. Their new album, ‘Palo Alto’, is out next week.

• Migos have released the video for ‘Narcos’.

• Charli XCX has released the video for ‘5 In The Morning’.

• Mr Twin Sister have released new single ‘Jaipur’.

• Lucianblomkamp has released a live version of new single ‘Endless’.

• J-pop trio Perfume will release their seventh album, ‘Future Pop’, on 15 Aug. Here’s recent single, ‘Mugenmirai’.

• Dena has released new single ‘So Wrong’, featuring Sean Nicholas Savage. She’s also announced that her new album, ‘If It’s Written’, will be out on 14 Sep.

• US Girls will play the Islington Assembly Hall in London on 22 Nov. Tickets go on sale tomorrow.

• Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily – updated every Friday.

READ MORE ABOUT: Charli XCX | Dena | Harriet Moss | Live Nation | Lucianblomkamp | Manners McDade | Migos | Mr Twin Sister | Perfume | Red Mountain Entertainment | US Girls | Years & Years

Thursday 28 June 2018, 11:24 | By Andy Malt

Ed Sheeran discusses running off stage for a wee

And Finally Artist News Gigs & Festivals Live Business

Ed Sheeran has discussed what it’s like to try to hold in a wee in front of tens of thousands of people. Not that much fun, it turns out. Which is why he eventually cracked and twice ran off stage to visit the toilet when performing in Cardiff last weekend.

Speaking to Big Narstie on the rapper’s new Channel 4 show, which will air tomorrow night, Sheeran explains: “I’ve never done that before. You know, when you gotta go, you gotta go”. He adds that he reckoned interrupting the show was “far better than a picture in the paper the next day”, by which he presumably means a picture of him performing in damp trousers.

On the thought process he went through before deciding he’d better just go, he says: “I was there, I was playing, I was singing – but it was getting worse and worse and worse; you know when you start sweating?” The problem is, because I play the show solo, I can’t just be like ‘hey band, start playing!’ So I literally had to put the guitar down and be like, ‘talk among yourselves’. Usually, the adrenaline and all the water you drink, you sweat out. But I drank so much water before the show”.

“I read that the next day someone said, ‘I’m disappointed'”, he notes, despite his toilet breaks being super speedy and – as he said – as a totally solo performing act there wasn’t really any other option. “I mean, I still played the whole show!”

READ MORE ABOUT: Ed Sheeran

Thursday 28 June 2018, 10:02 | By Andy Malt

Approved: Moonoversun

CMU Approved

Following the release of ‘Flux’ through Art Is Hard’s badge-based Pin Pal Club, Moonoversun emerged with their debut single proper – ‘Girls/Boys’ – in March. Now they’re back with ‘Friendz’, further establishing their carefully furrowed position in pop.

“Our music is a multimedia explosion”, say the duo. “Our visual aesthetic is just as important to us as the music itself – we want to represent ourselves within both elements”.

As for the new single, they go on: “This song is about fighting back against all the fake bitches in the world, never let anyone drag you down. You have to surround yourself with positivity and real friends otherwise what’s the point?”

You can catch them live at The Others in Stoke Newington this Friday, as part of the Clubhouse night. Free tickets available here.

Listen to ‘Friendz’ here.

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

READ MORE ABOUT: Moonoversun

Wednesday 27 June 2018, 11:39 | By Chris Cooke

Jay-Z disputes claims of unpaid fees over Tidal acquisition

Business News Digital Legal Top Stories

Jay-Z has reportedly hit out at two Swedish companies which advised on his 2015 acquisition of the streaming music business that became Tidal. He says that their claims fees remain unpaid are untrue, and that they didn’t do everything they were meant to do anyway.

Yes, it’s another Tidal legal squabble. I’m thinking of pitching a Tidal Legal Squabble sticker album to Panini. You’d buy that, right? “Collect all six billion stickers” it would say on the cover. Then there’d only be room for 60 stickers inside. Allegedly. There’d be stickers to collect of all of Prince’s heirs, split into Tidal lovers and Tidal haters. Though I reckon that the photo of Kanye typing “never, never, never” into Twitter would be the hardest sticker to find.

Anyway, this legal squabble is between Jay-Z and two Swedish companies – Roschier and SEB – which, according to gossip site The Blast, reckon they are still respectively owed $294,000 and $304,383 for their work on the rapper’s acquisition of WiMP.

As you might remember, when Jay-Z decided that what the world needed was a rapper-controlled artist-friendly streaming firm, rather than just setting one up from scratch, he bought Norwegian digital music start-up WiMP. It had already launched the Tidal brand in English-speaking markets where WiMP was a terrible name to operate under.

Roschier and SEB seemingly offered legal and financial advice on that purchase, subsequently invoicing for their time. They say that Jay-Z’s company paid some of their fees back in 2015, but that the balances of their invoices remain unpaid. To that end they went legal back in May seeking the allegedly unpaid monies.

According to The Blast, Jay-Z has now responded to that legal action stating that the two companies “performed certain services for which they have been paid”. The extra fees they both now claim they are due, the response reportedly reckons, were actually the result of the two firms’ “own culpable conduct in overbilling” the rapper’s business.

And, just in case you’re feeling sorry for the legal and money dudes at Roschier and SEB, Jay-Zs response apparently adds that the two companies did not “perform under the contracts they now seek to enforce”.

With all that in mind, Jay-Z’s company S Carter Enterprises has requested that the judge dismiss his former advisors’ cases entirely. Just imagine that request in sticker form! It’s a winner.

READ MORE ABOUT: Jay-Z | Tidal

Wednesday 27 June 2018, 11:37 | By Chris Cooke

Gamers debate copyright claims as labels issue takedowns against Twitch

Business News Labels & Publishers Legal

As the campaigning continues in Brussels over the European Copyright Directive and the increased liabilities it may create for user-upload sites, there has been a flurry of chatter about the record industry issuing takedowns against Twitch. That being the rather popular Amazon-owned video-game-focused streaming platform.

The chatter began after a small number of gamers who stream all their gaming shenanigans on the platform started reporting last week that they were getting copyright alerts from Twitch.

Each alert said that a takedown request had been issued against the gamer’s channel by the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry because uncleared music appeared in their videos. As a result of the takedown, issued under US law, offending content would be removed from the gamer’s archive and their access to the entire platform was restricted for 24 hours.

One Twitch streamer called Josh Allen then posted on Twitter: “Just clearing up some misinformation: Twitch isn’t banning people for streaming music, they’re responding to a DMCA takedown notice issued by @IFPI_org. Twitch has no choice in the matter; they are legally obligated to do this when issued a DMCA notice”.

Those tweets have resulted in plenty of debate on Reddit since last weekend on the ins and outs, and pros and cons, and rights and wrongs, of the record industry seeking to block uncleared music from appearing on a platform like Twitch, where the music is generally very much in the background.

Quite when and why IFPI decided to start issuing takedowns against Twitch isn’t clear. Of course record companies and their trade bodies now routinely issued a flood of takedowns every day against user-upload sites where music appears without licence.

Although many gamers would argue that background music in their live gaming streams is very much a periphery part of their content, some in the music industry might argue it nevertheless plays its part in the overall experience. And if both Twitch and its partners – ie the gamers who stream – are earning a share of ad income, maybe the music makers should be too.

It remains to be seen if the label-led takedowns against Twitch channels become more frequent and – if so – if Amazon would look for some sort of licensing deal to overcome the issue. Or maybe the gamers on Twitch will just follow the lead of many YouTubers and start playing their games with only music from one-stop-licence library music firm Epidemic Sound in the background. That way they can pay a nominal licence fee upfront and not have to worry about any label-instigated 24 hour lock outs.

READ MORE ABOUT: International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry (IFPI) | Twitch

Wednesday 27 June 2018, 11:34 | By Chris Cooke

PRS announces deal with music data platform Auddly

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

UK collecting society PRS For Music yesterday announced it had signed a long-term licensing agreement with Auddly, the start-up business that has developed a platform that makes it easier for artists and songwriters to ensure that accurate data is pumped into the system each time they create some new music.

The lack of a decent one-stop global database documenting what songs are contained in what recordings, and who wrote and published those songs, and who recorded and released those records, has caused all sorts of issues over the years. More so as music consumption has switched from CDs to downloads and onto streams.

Various collecting societies, rights owners and start-ups are trying to tackle the problem of legacy music data. But Auddly – led by producer and songwriter Niclas Molinder and backed by Max Martin and ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus – recognised that there were also challenges around new works. Often the only people who really know who created a song and performed on a track are the artists, who aren’t necessarily very good at documenting who was involved and what was agreed in terms of how copyrights are being split.

The Auddly platform helps with that process. And under the new agreement, from next year PRS members will have access to a new Auddly-powered tool which, the two organisations say, will “enable earlier registration of more accurate and authoritative data, and in turn help PRS to improve the speed and accuracy of royalty distributions made to its members”.

We know for certain that at least one PRS member is very excited about the new arrangement. That being Ulvaeus himself, who said yesterday: “When I joined PRS For Music a few years ago, long before Auddly, I did so because I had the feeling that PRS were at the forefront of collecting societies. They seemed flexible and willing to adapt to future technologies and – as I am a bit of a tech geek – I like that. Well, I was right!”

On the new deal, he added: “I’m immensely grateful to PRS for sharing our vision. We share the goal to help songwriters get quick and fair payments, and get credits whenever and wherever their songs are played. Now’s the time for the world to realise that no one in the music industry is more important than us songwriters! It all starts with a song!”

Speaking for PRS itself, the society’s boss man Robert Ashcroft added: “Björn Ulvaeus is one of the industry’s leading visionaries. With today’s trillions of individual streams on the internet, early and authoritative song registration are vital if songwriters and composers are to be properly paid for their creative works. In founding and developing Auddly together with Niclas, Björn has made a massive contribution to all other songwriters, to add to his own legendary career as a creator himself. I would like to thank him, on behalf of all PRS members, for his vision and for his determination in developing Auddly”.

READ MORE ABOUT: Auddly | PRS For Music

Wednesday 27 June 2018, 11:32 | By Andy Malt

Sony launches new label, Since 93

Business News Labels & Publishers

Sony Music UK has announced the launch of a new label called Since 93. Aimed at developing new artists, the company will be headed up by Glyn Aikins and Riki Bleau.

“Glyn and Riki have a great knack for discovering and nurturing artists who have defined the musical landscape in recent years”, says Sony Music UK CEO Jason Iley. “They are bringing to Sony Music their ambition, enthusiasm and a clear vision for the Since 93 label, that will see them continue to set the agenda. I’m delighted to be working alongside them”.

Artists signed by Aikins during his career include Emeli Sande, So Solid Crew, Roll Depp, Lethal Bizzle and Naughty Boy. Bleau, meanwhile, also claims Naughty Boy and Emeli Sande, who he signed to their first publishing deals, as well as Labrinth and Sam Smith.

“You can’t imagine what it means to join the Sony family to realise a long held ambition and vision”, says Aikins. “Jason Iley and [President of RCA Records and Ministry Of Sound] David Dollimore have been tremendous with their support and partnership, making Sony the perfect place for Since 93 Records. I’m delighted to work with Riki Bleau, a long term colleague and friend. With Since 93 we’re building a label uniquely placed in British culture with a truly global outlook”.

Bleau adds: “Having sat with David and Jason it was clear I’d be given the freedom and support to make Since 93 Records into a global powerhouse. To work with Glyn Aikins, who I’ve shared so much success with, is a blessing. We want to be up there with the greats of the past creating a label of the future”.

Since 93 launches with rappers Fredo, Loski and Aitch on its roster.

READ MORE ABOUT: David Dollimore | Glyn Aikins | Jason Iley | Riki Bleau | Since 93 | Sony Music

Wednesday 27 June 2018, 11:28 | By Andy Malt

Ed Sheeran helps 10,000 fans seek refunds from Viagogo

Artist News Business News Gigs & Festivals Live Business

Ed Sheeran’s tour promoter Kilimanjaro Live says that it helped around 10,000 fans seek refunds from Viagogo at the musician’s recent UK dates.

Sheeran and his team, of course, went to great lengths on this tour to try to stop fans from paying marked up prices for tickets on secondary ticketing sites. That included a commitment to cancel any tickets they knew to have been touted.

So strong was that commitment, most secondary sites agreed not to list tickets for his shows. Although, obviously, pesky Viagogo refused to comply. Which meant lots of tickets were sold via the platform, most of which Team Sheeran spotted and cancelled.

However, keen not to have too many upset fans being turned away at the door, Kilimanjaro had a system in place whereby people showing up with cancelled touted tickets were sold replacements at face value. They were also given a letter stating that their touted ticket had been rejected. That should enable them to get a full refund from Viagogo, which promises a “100% guarantee” to refund monies if tickets don’t get a buyer into a show.

Sheeran wasn’t the first artist to implement this kind of anti-touting policy, although it’s probably not been done at quite this scale before. At Wembley Stadium there were six ‘Victim Of Viagogo’ box office windows dealing with cancelled tickets. And during Sheeran’s four night run in Cardiff, Kilimanjaro boss Stuart Galbraith tells the BBC that his team processed queries from nearly 2000 Viagogo customers, some of whom had paid thousands of pounds to touts through the site.

While Viagogo has not commented on the Sheeran tour specifically, its website states that it believes the practice of promoters cancelling resold tickets to be “highly unfair … unenforceable, and illegal”. Although the UK’s Consumer Rights Act is pretty clear that a touted ticket can be cancelled providing “a term of the original contract for the sale of the ticket provided for its cancellation if it was offered for resale by that buyer”.

READ MORE ABOUT: Ed Sheeran | Kilimanjaro Live | Viagogo

Wednesday 27 June 2018, 11:26 | By Chris Cooke

BBC launches new app aggregating its audio output

Business News Digital Media

Your good mates over there at the BBC yesterday unveiled a new app called BBC Sounds. It’s basically an evolution of the existing BBC RadioPlayer app, but with more personalisation, and an experience perhaps more akin to an on-demand music service.

BBC Sounds aggregates the Corporation’s radio stations and programmes, as well as music output like sessions and mixes, plus all the BBC-made podcasts, and presents them all in one place. There are recommendations, the option to subscribe to programmes or podcasts, and mood-based as well as genre categories.

In a blog post announcing the new app – which is available from the Apple, Google and Amazon app stores – the head of BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, Dan Taylor-Watt, writes: “Over the past year or so we’ve talked a lot about how we need to reinvent the BBC for a new generation”.

He goes on: “Every user’s experience of BBC Sounds will be unique as it’s designed to learn from your listening habits, providing one-tap access to the latest episodes of your favourite BBC podcasts and radio shows and introducing you to new audio you wouldn’t otherwise have discovered from the 80,000 – yes, really! – hours available”.

So, do you think that means ‘sounds’ is going to become the new catch-all term to refer to audio content, whether radio, podcast or music-based? On the off chance it is, don’t forget to tap into these CMU ‘sounds’.

READ MORE ABOUT: BBC | BBC Radio

Wednesday 27 June 2018, 11:17 | By Andy Malt

The Joy Formidable bear new album

Artist News Gigs & Festivals Releases

The Joy Formidable have announced that they will release their new album, ‘Aaarth’, in the autumn. Along with this news, they’ve also released new single ‘The Wrong Side’.

“With life not always being that kind, you can either go down a really dark hole or you can smear yourself with colour and reverie and try to forget”, says vocalist and guitarist Ritzy Bryan. “That’s what we did with ‘Aaarth’; we threw ourselves into this beautiful vivacious collage of experimentation, real meets unreal, and stopped giving a fuck about things that didn’t matter, and started caring more about the things that are worth your time”.

She continues: “‘Aaarth’ marks a transformative, near-psychedelic rebirth that channels long-held anger, soundtracking a chaotic global period of injustice and division, setting it against a deeply poignant backdrop of personal experiences and healing. Although the album came into being as the band travelled the globe and recorded in their mobile recording studio, the music intertwines the whispering hills of Wales with the otherworldly rainbow canyons of the Utah/Arizona border.

“We’ve definitely made a colourful, mystical collage with this record, partly because of our surroundings”, she adds. “Those multi-coloured sunsets and the primaeval elements of nature in the Southwest – it’s emboldened our imaginations in the songwriting and the production”.

“I love stories and seeing symbolism and meaning change with different cultures and interpretations” she goes on. “I see it in my lyrics, a lot of the imagery plays on being ambivalent because I’m often expressing a lot of things at once. That’s true of the title; it falls somewhere between a scream, an exaltation, a play on words, and then this motif of the bear – ‘arth’ in Welsh – that spiritually represents strength, wisdom and healing”.

The album will be out on 28 Sep, and the band will play a handful of UK shows in August before heading off to support Foo Fighters in the US in September.

Listen to ‘The Wrong Side’ here:

READ MORE ABOUT: The Joy Formidable

Wednesday 27 June 2018, 11:11 | By Andy Malt

Tove Styrke announces first UK headline tour

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Tove Styrke has announced her first UK headline tour this autumn. The run of dates follows a show at The Borderline in London earlier this month.

“After the seriously otherworldly experience we had at The Borderline in London two weeks ago it feels like such a rush to announce that not only will I be back playing in London again, but also a couple of other cities around the UK”, she says. “It’s been three years since I was supporting Years & Years in the UK where I had such an amazing time and finally I get to see you guys again – on my very first UK headline tour! Can’t wait to sing, dance, hang and sway with you. It’s gonna be a party!”

As she announced the tour, the lyric video for new single ‘On The Low’ also went live:

Here are the tour dates:

28 Oct: Bristol, The Fleece
29 Oct: Manchester, Night & Day Café
30 Oct: Brighton, Patterns
1 Nov: Birmingham, Institute 3
2 Nov: London, Heaven

READ MORE ABOUT: Tove Styrke

Wednesday 27 June 2018, 11:06 | By Andy Malt

One Liners: Pivotal, Chaka Khan, Paramore, more

Artist News Business News Education & Events Gigs & Festivals One Liners Releases

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Get a daily news summary, our latest job ads and more via our Messenger bot. Click here to get started.

• A new music conference is launching in Birmingham in September called Pivotal. It has evolved out of the regular MMF-backed Birmingham Tribes networking meetings and also involves the Birmingham Music Coalition, a new organisation that will officially launch at the conference. CMU Insights will be among the companies leading sessions. More details at pivotalmusic.co.uk

• Chaka Khan has teamed up with producer Switch for new single ‘Like Sugar’. The track is the first release on Switch’s own Diary Records, which will also put out Khan’s upcoming new album. Here’s the video for the track.

• Paramore have released the video for ‘Caught In The Middle’, from their latest album ‘After Laughter’.

• Young Fathers have released the video for ‘Holy Ghost’ from their ‘Cocoa Sugar’ album.

• Mitski has released the video for new single ‘Nobody’. Her new album, ‘Be The Cowboy’, is due out on 17 Aug.

• Popcaan has released two new tracks, ‘Wine For Me’ and ‘Firm And Strong’. His new album, ‘Forever’, is out on 20 Jul.

• With Glastonbury 2019 now a year away, it’s time to start guessing who might headline the festival. Madonna, reckons the Sun. Meanwhile, according to Betway, betting types are putting their money on Led Zeppelin and Fleetwood Mac. Imagine if that was the actual line up. Christ.

• Pearl Jam have rescheduled their postponed London show at the O2 Arena for 17 Jul. The original gig was cancelled after frontman Eddie Vedder “completely lost his voice”. All tickets for the original show will remain valid for the new date.

• Coheed And Cambria have announced that they will tour the UK in October, finishing up at the Roundhouse in London on 16 Oct. Their new album, ‘The Unheavenly Creatures’, is due out on 5 Oct.

• Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily – updated every Friday.

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Wednesday 27 June 2018, 11:00 | By Andy Malt

Anti-racism event to coincide with Morrissey show in Manchester

And Finally Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Former Haçienda DJ Dave Haslam has announced a free party for lapsed Morrissey fans. The One Nation Under A Groove all-dayer will coincide with the former Smiths frontman’s second show at Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl next month. Raising money for Love Music Hate Racism, the event is a “response to Morrissey’s divisive views, and his support for the far right”.

Morrissey has, of course, come in for a great deal of criticism for comments he has made in interviews in recent years, and ever more so of late.

Although he has dismissed many of these as the media twisting his words, he has also said some unsavoury things in more ‘friendly’ outlets, including on his own website. Recently, in an interview with a fan site, he expressed solidarity with jailed EDL founder Tommy Robinson and support for a far right political party.

“Morrissey hasn’t lived in [Manchester] for 30 years”, says Haslam on the event’s Facebook page. “He lives abroad in tax exile and has now joined the ranks of various right-wing politicians, tax exiles, tabloids, and media hate-slingers seeking to divide our community”.

“Manchester is our home, it’s a city built on immigration, a city with an amazing legacy of great bands and wonderful clubs”, he continues. “How do we counter the hate? Let the music do the talking; by throwing a free party, a celebratory all-dayer of beautifully diverse soul-filled, hope-filled music”.

On the line up for the event are Haslam himself, Greg Thorpe, Ifran Rainy, Chad Jackson, Katbrownsugar, Abigail Ward, The Orielles and more.

Earlier this week, former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr said that he felt no loyalty to his former bandmate and denounced Morrissey’s political views. “I don’t feel the need to stick by anyone unless I agree with what they’re saying”, he told Channel 4 News. “Of course I disagree with what he’s saying. I don’t think that’s really a surprise that I would disagree with what Morrissey’s saying. I think everyone would expect that I disagree”.

One Nation Under A Groove is set to take place at Revolution on Manchester’s Deansgate Lock’s on 8 Jul from 3pm to midnight. Haslam also notes that “Morrissey fans on their way to or back from his concert are more than welcome”.

READ MORE ABOUT: Dave Haslam | Morrissey

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