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CMU Digest
CMU Digest 30.05.17: Manchester Arena, KickassTorrents, Prince, Pandora, PPLPRS Ltd, The Great Escape
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 30 May 2017
The key stories from the last seven days in the music business…
The music industry responded to the bomb attack on the Manchester Arena during an Ariana Grande concert which killed 22 people. While expressing both shock and sorrow, many in the music community also said that they were determined that the terrorist attack would not have a big impact on the UK’s wider live music programme. New UK Music boss Michael Dugher added: “Music has the power to bring people together and is so often a celebration of peace and love. We will not let terrorism and the politics of violence, hatred and division conquer that spirit”. [READ MORE]
The founder of KickassTorrents was granted bail in Poland. He had been in prison since his arrest last summer while efforts by the US authorities to extradite him to America to face charges of criminal copyright infringement go through the motions. Previous attempts to secure bail had failed, but earlier this month the Polish court suddenly changed its mind, though Ukranian Artem Vaulin is not allowed to leave the country until the extradition process is complete. [READ MORE]
The bank administrating the Prince estate recommended that the court rescind the $30 million deal previously done with Universal Music to represent the late musician’s recordings. The mega-major has said that it was mis-led with regards the rights that Warner Music still has over the most famous Prince albums stemming from a 2014 deal. Former Prince estate advisor L Londell McMillan has denied those allegations. [READ MORE]
Paypal sued Pandora over its new logo. The payments company says that the new branding the streaming service adopted last year is too similar to its logo – in particular the ‘P’ symbol Pandora now uses on its app icon. Paypal says its customers have been confused by the similar logos, resulting in them opening the wrong app on their smartphones. [READ MORE]
UK collecting societies PPL and PRS announced that their new joint venture will be known as PPLPRS Ltd. The joint public performance licence the JV will administer will be called TheMusicLicence. Former Experian exec Suzanne Smith has also been confirmed as the MD of the new licensing business. [READ MORE]
We have been reporting on panels presented by CMU Insights at The Great Escape earlier this month. Check out the reports published so far below…
• The top five visa mistakes made by musicians [READ]
• New music media business models – DJ Mag [READ]
• Tackling Addiction In The Music Community – Simon Mason [READ]
• When Music Gets Synchronised – TV and beyond [READ]
• Facilitating Export – UK Export Initiatives [READ]
Look out for more reports in the CMU Daily this week, plus from next week a series of six CMU Trends articles based on insights we presented at TGE, putting the focus on music media, music PR, royalty flows, direct licensing and drugs education.
The big deals from the last seven days in the music business…
• Bucks Music announced it was supporting Floor Sixx [INFO]
• Music Glue announced an alliance with merch firm Probity [INFO]
• Nugs.net announced a deal with MQA [INFO]
• Universal’s Interscope signed Ice Cube [INFO]
• BMG signed Fergie [INFO]
