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Business News
The ten most-read news stories on the CMU site in May 2015
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 1 June 2015
It was another busy month on the CMU website, but taking the crown for the most-read news story in May was a hard-hitting report on Maroon 5’s Adam Levine having a bag of icing sugar emptied on his head. I assume people were flocking to read the batter-related joke I wrote for it.
Other items of note in the top ten include a 2014 report on the launch of Irving Azoff’s new collecting society Global Music Rights. Its sudden re-appearance was seemingly fuelled by interest in Azoff and his business affairs amongst the One Direction fanbase, mainly as a result of him and his family hanging out with Harry Styles from time to time.
The leak of Sony’s 2011 Spotify contract also featured, of course. As did the ongoing debate over whether or not SoundCloud can actually transition into becoming a money-making service for the music industry. However, above both of those were reports that Apple has been pressuring record labels to cut off freemium services entirely, which would have drastic implications for both Spotify and SoundCloud, in the unlikely event it was to actually happen.
Meanwhile, three of our top five features were Great Escape related – us having hosted our CMU Insights conference at the festival in the middle of May. We had Dan Le Sac’s open letter to David Cameron, which he presented as part of the #VoteForMusic keynote session, a report on Spotify’s Director Of Label Relations Will Hope’s keynote speech, and another on a debate that followed Hope’s session looking at how streaming is changing music marketing. For more reports on CMU Insights @ The Great Escape click here.
The most-read feature last month, though, was Dan Le Sac’s column on self-releasing albums from April, while a Beef Of The Week column on Neil Young’s new anti-Starbucks concept album was sandwiched in at number three.
The top ten most-read news stories in full:
01: Sugar? No thanks. Maroon 5’s Adam Levine changes his tune
02: Original Faith No More guitarist Jim Martin was asked to join reunion, says Billy Gould
03: Irving Azoff vows to increase performance royalties by 30% with his new PRO
04: Apple accused of pressuring the record industry to abandon freemium streams
05: Scottish Album Of The Year Award shortlist announced
06: All-new Grooveshark taken down twice and counting
07: Pirate Bay co-founder appeals domain ruling
08: Sony’s 2011 Spotify contract leaks
09: International Artist Organisation responds to Sony/Spotify contract leak
10: Sony to take down more music from SoundCloud, while Ultra boss says it’s years away from making money
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