CMU Digest

CMU Digest 22.08.16: Ticket touts, RAO, Fabric, Reddit, MegaUpload, Cash Money

By | Published on Monday 22 August 2016

Ticket touts

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

Sharon Hodgson MP put new pressure on the government over ticket touting,after reporting how many touts were selling tickets at a recent football game at Wembley, even though it is illegal to tout tickets to football matches. As a starting point, Hodgson wants new Culture Secretary Karen Bradley to start work implementing the recommendations of the recent government review of secondary ticketing. [READ MORE]

The organisation that collects a private copy levy in Russia announced that it was ended its alliance with collecting society RAO. RSP will start paying RAO’s songwriter and publisher members any royalties they are due directly. Russian society RAO is currently battling allegations of fraud that resulted in its chief being arrested. [READ MORE]

Fabric confirmed it was cancelling another weekend of events in the wake of two recent drug-related deaths at the London venue. It transpired that the club’s licence has actually been suspended at the request of the Metropolitan Police, pending a review by Islington Council’s licensing sub-committee, which should happen in the next month. [READ MORE]

Reddit pushed back on efforts by Warner Music to get the IP address of a user who published the link to a pre-release copy of Twenty One Pilots track ‘Heathens’. The major says the leak screwed up its marketing plans for the record. It seems to think an employee must have been involved in the leak, but Reddit argued that the label didn’t have a good enough case for it to assist in trying to identify the leaker. [READ MORE]

An American appeals court denied Kim Dotcom’s latest attempt to regain assets seized when the US government shut down his MegaUpload operation in 2012 on copyright grounds. Judges said that while Dotcom continues to fight extradition he qualifies as a fugitive so is not entitled to get his money back. Needless to say, Dotcom’s lawyers vowed to appeal again. [READ MORE]

Universal imprint Cash Money announced an alliance with Apple Music. Despite some initial chatter over whether or not this was a record company locking itself to one streaming platform for exclusives, it transpired the partnership was to create a new documentary about the label and its founder. As well as scoring exclusives, original content is another way streaming services are endeavouring to differentiate themselves. [READ MORE]

The big deals from the last seven days in the music business…
• The Madison Square Garden Company bought into Townsquare [INFO]
• Karma Artists and Imagem partnered on a new publishing company [INFO]
• Hospital Records signed up to Proper Music for distribution [INFO]
• Universal announced a deal with INXS-repping Petrol Records [INFO]
• Producer Shift K3Y launched an imprint with Sony [INFO]
• David Gray signed with Kobalt Label Services for a greatest hits release [INFO]
• Capitol signed Paul McCartney [INFO]



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