CMU Digest

CMU Digest 16.02.18: SGAE, touting rules, Dice, Songwriters Guild Of America, Music Moves Europe

By | Published on Friday 16 February 2018

SGAE

The key stories from the last week in the music business…

The International Confederation Of Music Publishers called for the Spanish collecting society SGAE to be suspended from the global grouping of performing rights organisations CISAC. SGAE has been dealing with yet another scandal since a police raid of its headquarters last summer. Last month ICMP criticised the society for barring the Spanish representatives from three global publishers from its board meeting late last year. The failure of SGAE to deal with that complaint resulted in the new demand of CISAC, which said it would review ICMP’s complaint. [READ MORE]

The UK government issued guidelines about the resale of tickets online. It mainly summarised and clarified existing rules that cover online ticket touting that stem from the 2015 Consumer Rights Act. However, it included one new rule, saying that sellers should publish any unique ticket number in addition to seat number when advertising a ticket for resale. This information would make it easier for promoters to cancel touted tickets. [READ MORE]

Mobile ticketing app Dice confirmed it now applied booking fees to certain tickets on its platform. The ticketing firm used to push its ‘no booking fees’ policy, but admitted it had stopped making that claim a year ago when it became clear it could only secure tickets to some shows by applying a booking fee. The whole matter came to light after the band Shame hit out at Dice for adding booking fees to some of their shows. Dice said that it only added booking fees where a promoter insisted it sell tickets that way, but said it probably should have communicated the policy change better when it first occurred. [READ MORE]

The Songwriters Guild Of America confirmed it would now back the Music Modernization Act in the US. The MMA seeks to overhaul how mechanical royalties are paid by streaming services Stateside by setting up a new collecting society. The SGA initially declined to support the proposals, but is now backing the legislation after some changes were made, mainly in relation to how the new society will be governed. [READ MORE]

A plethora of music industry trade groups backed a new European Commission initiative called Music Moves Europe, a pilot programme that could morph into a long-term EU platform for supporting the music industry. Pan-European indie label repping group IMPALA said: “Such a programme would be a strategic move to boost music, which is one of Europe’s key economic sectors. It would be a first and would help the sector to continue to shape and adapt to a fast-changing environment”. [READ MORE]

The big deals from the last seven days in the music business…
• Big Deal allied with Cy Coleman’s Notable Music [INFO]
• Absolute allied with Cherry Red on its recently acquired Warner catalogue [INFO]
• Kobalt signed Enrique Iglesias [INFO]



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