Epic Games sold Bandcamp to Songtradr. The gaming company, best known as the owner of Fortnite, only acquired the direct-to-fan platform in March last year. Despite much speculation at the time has to how Epic might integrate Bandcamp with its other businesses, in the end the direct-to-fan firm remained pretty much autonomous from its parent company. Epic confirmed the sale of Bandcamp as it also announced a 16% downsizing of its workforce. US-based music licensing marketplace Songtradr has been very acquisitive in recent years and, on confirming its latest purchase, said that it will “continue to operate Bandcamp as a marketplace and music community with an artist-first revenue share”.
Sam Taylor
Rick Astley settled his publicity rights lawsuit against the rapper Yung Gravy. The legal battle related to the latter's track 'Betty (Get Money)', which is built upon the former's hit 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. The rapper and his team recreated Astley's 1980s track rather than sampling the original, so that they only have to get a licence covering the song rights, which they secured from the song's writers Stock Aiken and Waterman. However, they hired a soundalike to recreate Astley's distinctive vocals. Therefore, although no copyright had been infringed, Astley argued that 'Betty' infringed his publicity rights, because many people assumed it was his vocals on the track. To what extent publicity rights can protect a voice has become a big talking point of late because of the generative AI models that can imitate the vocals of specific artists.
Chris Cooke
Universal Music and Sony Music filed legal documents known as ‘charges’ through Companies House in the UK which give them wide-ranging control over the assets of Utopia Distribution Services Limited. Sources said that the charges were filed after UDS turned to its major label partners to secure operational financing because its parent company, Utopia Music, was unable to advance the necessary funds. UDS is one of two physical distribution companies owned by Utopia, created through the acquisition of assets from the defunct Cinram Novum. The intervention of the majors basically insulates the distribution firm - which provides a key logistical framework for the UK record industry - from any issues elsewhere in the Utopia group, which this year has sold off many of its previous acquisitions and shut down two research and development businesses.
Sam Taylor
It emerged that Vivendi is considering selling See Tickets. The French company, which previously owned Universal Music and still has a 10% stake in the music major, also has a division with interests in live entertainment, including some festivals and the ticketing company. See Tickets, which began as the ticketing spin-off of a Nottingham record shop, now operates in a number European markets and North America. Sources speaking to Sky News said that bosses at Vivendi realise that their live music company, called Vivendi Village, is a small player compared to live entertainment giants AEG and Live Nation, and as a result they are planning on exiting the sector. Advisors have been appointed for a possible sale, although the sources stressed that no final decision has as yet been made.
Chris Cooke
Live Nation announced a scheme to support artists playing its club level venues in the US. It is backed by Willie Nelson and named after his song 'On The Road Again'. Artists performing at Live Nation's network of US club venues will be given an additional $1500 towards travel costs and won't be charged any commission on merchandise sales. With the upper end of live music booming but the mid-tier struggling due to rising productions costs and ever tighter profit margins, the scheme has been welcomed by the music community, and especially those who have been calling on venues to stop charging merch fees. Although some did point out that the scheme only currently applies to around 85 venues in the US and that Live Nation has so far only committed to provide the extra support until the end of the year.
Chris Cooke