CMU Digest

CMU Digest 19.11.18: Article thirteen, Viagogo, EMI, NetEase, Ed Sheeran

By | Published on Monday 19 November 2018

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

The back and forth on article thirteen continued. Google is still trying to get a last minute rewrite of the safe harbour reforming section of the new European Copyright Directive, which will increase the liabilities of user-upload sites like YouTube. The CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki, wrote an op-ed for the Financial Times saying that the copyright reform would have “unintended consequences” that will negatively impact on the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of individual creators. Responding via the FT’s letters page, indie labels trade group IMPALA said that, on the contrary, article thirteen would make things “clearer, fairer and sustainable for all” creators, big and small. [READ MORE]

Ed Sheeran promoter Stuart Galbraith declared his company’s anti-touting campaign a success. Picking up a prize at the AMA Awards for the efforts of DHP Family and his company Kilimanjaro Live in combatting the touts, Galbraith said that by cancelling touted tickets for Sheeran’s UK shows the live firms had saved fans £800,000 and cost ticket resale platform Viagogo nearly £2 million. He then added that, in the main, touts were not buying up tickets for Sheeran’s next round of shows because both fans and touts had got the message. [READ MORE]

Sony announced that it had completed its acquisition of EMI Music Publishing. Sony led a consortium of investors to buy the EMI songs business in 2012 and has now bought those other investors out of the venture, allowing it to properly merge EMI Music Publishing with its own Sony/ATV publishing outfit. The deal was controversial among the music community but got approval from European Union competition regulators last month. Its the first time since 1995 that Sony has wholly owned its global music publishing business. [READ MORE]

Chinese web firm NetEast raised $600 million to invest in its Cloud Music streaming service. The new finance will allow NetEast Cloud Music to better take on China’s market leading streaming music platform, Tencent’s QQ Music. Among the new backers is Baidu, another Chinese web giant that used to have its own ambitions in the digital music domain. The funding round comes as Tencent prepares to spin off its music division via an IPO in the US. [READ MORE]

Ed Sheeran settled another of the song theft lawsuits that have been filed against him. He and Johnny McDaid, Steve Mac and Amy Wadge were sued over a song they co-wrote for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill called ‘The Rest Of Our Life’. Australian songwriters Sean Carey and Beau Golden said that the song “blatantly” copying something they wrote back in 2014. But the judge overseeing the case has now been told that “all parties have agreed in principle” to an out-of-court settlement, terms of which are not known. [READ MORE]

The big deals from the last seven days in the music business…
• Beyonce bought Philip Green’s Arcadia Group out of their Ivy Park joint venture [INFO]
• Pulse Films and Paramount Television signed a deal to make a TV show out of Dan Hancox’s book on the history of grime, ‘Inner City Pressure’ [INFO]
• Keith Richards signed a deal with BMG for his solo records [INFO]
• Mute signed Káryyn [INFO]
• Bucks Music signed producer Max Chapman [INFO]
• Universal Music Publishing signed You Me At Six [INFO]



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