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OASIS BANNED FROM CHINA A statement issued by Oasis revealed that the Chinese government revoked licenses for the two shows in Beijing and Shanghai from their promoters, Emma Entertainment and Ticketmaster China. The statement adds that despite the fact that the band had already been granted permission to play in the country, "officials within the Chinese Ministry Of Culture only recently discovered that Noel Gallagher appeared at a Free Tibet Benefit Concert on Randall's Island in New York in 1997, and have now deemed that the band are consequently unsuitable to perform to their fans in the Chinese Republic". The band are said to be "extremely disappointed" not to be able to play the shows, but will continue the rest of their South East Asia tour, including a show in Hong Kong, as planned. -------------------------------------------------- WINEHOUSE BACK IN THE UK As previously reported, the mother of Winehouse's husband Blake Fielder Civil, Georgette, was quoted in The People this weekend as saying that her son was planning to file for divorce as a result of Amy's alleged holiday fling. -------------------------------------------------- MONGREL DEBUT TO GET INDEPENDENT RELEASE As much previously reported, Mongrel includes Reverend And The Makers' Jon McClure and Joe Moskow, Babyshambles' Drew McConnell, rapper Lowkey and former Arctic Monkeys bassist Andy Nicholson. Current Arctic Monkey Matt Helders also drums on the album. Confirming his new band's decision to give away the album with the newspaper, McClure told CMU: "This move gives the widest possible platform to artists whose voices could otherwise be ignored and gets the music onto CD players across the land. It also calls into question the values of the recorded music industry. It is a pleasure to do this with The Independent, we are a truly independent band rather than one that just adopts indie values, so it is fitting we are doing this with this newspaper". PROSECUTION WANT THEM IN JAIL: PIRATE BAY TRIAL UPDATE According to Swedish paper The Local, while summing up for the prosecution in the case against Pirate Bay creators Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij, and funder Carl Lundstrom, legal man Haakan Roswall told the Stockholm court: "I believe that the correct punishment should be one year in prison and that is what I am requesting that the district court hand down in this case". Responding to the claims that, because The Pirate Bay's servers don't actually host any infringing content, and are not actually involved in the actual transfer of any files, they cannot be guilty of infringement, Roswall said: "A person who is holding someone's coat while they assault someone else is complicit in the crime". As previously reported, while questioning the very concept of copyright in the internet age outside the court, the four men behind the Pirate Bay have generally relied on more conventional defences in court - claiming ignorance of the infringement the site enables, stressing the aforementioned 'but we don't host any files' defence, and touching on elements of the good old Betamax defence ("the site has legitimate uses, so we can't be held responsible for illegitimate use"). Despite screwing things up a bit by dropping a bunch of charges right at the start of the trial, the prosecution do seem to have had the upper hand in court for much of the trial. It remains to be seen if the defence's summing up, due today, turns that around. A ruling isn't expected until next week. MUSE ON NEW MATERIAL Talking to 6Music, he added that the band's new album will have something of the classical about it, saying: "There's definitely a few things on the album which are segueing into each other and it's all very orchestral - that could take over the album, so it could actually be kind of classical, and move away from rock all together. We'll be knocking on Classic FM's door!" Those who prefer their Muse to rock, well, don't worry just yet, it seems this new album could go a number of ways yet. Continuing to chatter about the band's new material, he admitted: "We're creating a lot of material now and a lot of it's going off in all sorts of directions. Over the next couple of months I think we're gonna have to start narrowing it down and start saying, 'Right, what are we going to do here?' Because at the moment we're just enjoying totally exploring everything that we've got to offer really, but I think it's going very well". -------------------------------------------------- JULIETTE LEWIS ALBUM NEWS Lewis explained the reasons for the change in a statement: "Because this album is so sonically different than anything I've done before and captures many flavors of my emotional life and voice, [the band] needed an entirely new name. 'Terra Incognita' means unknown territory - and that's where I wanted to go musically. The guitars are more wild and atmospheric. The groove is dark and deep and allow for a lot of sonic contrasts. It took me five years to really cut my teeth both as a performer and as a songwriter and I wanted to break all the habits I'd gotten used to and let songs develop out of a groove or simple piano notes and melody". Juliette Lewis and her New Romantiques will appear at South by Southwest later this month. A release date for the new LP and more tour dates are yet to be announced. -------------------------------------------------- IGGY DOES JAZZ In a video interview posted on Iggypop.org, he said of the album, which is called 'Preliminaires': "It's a quieter album with some jazz overtones. That's because at one point I just got sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars, banging out crappy music. And I was starting to listen to a lot of New Orleans-era Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton type of jazz". U2 FORGET QUANTITY/QUALITY RULE That second LP, and future U2 albums, seem likely to come out via traditional record labels, because the band don't seem too keen on those new fangled self-releasing methods employed by some other artists. Asked about that kind of thing by The New York Times, The Edge said: "My instinct is to stick with the record [label] guys. They have to sell your records or sell the downloads, whatever it ends up being. To do that, first of all you've got to love and understand the music, and right now I'm not seeing any group that rivals the record labels on that front". Bono added nonsensically: "I'm interested in commerce. The excuse for bigness is that songs demand to be heard if they're any good. And without the kind of momentum of being in a big rock n roll band, you won't get your songs heard". -------------------------------------------------- PRINCE ON TARGET FOR PHYSICAL RELEASE -------------------------------------------------- MAXIMO PARK ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM TITLE The band will also be playing live around the UK in May to coincide with the release of the album, but all shows are sold out, so I'm not going to tell you any more about them. -------------------------------------------------- PASSION PIT ANNOUNCE DEBUT ALBUM Make Light -------------------------------------------------- NEW YORK DOLLS ALBUM NEWS They are also planning to appear at SXSW. In the meantime, here's that tracklisting: Cause I Sez So NEIL YOUNG ANNOUNCES UK SHOWS Tour dates: 23 Jun: Nottingham, Trent FM Arena ALBUM REVIEW: Favours For Sailors - Furious Sons (Tough Love Records) Buy from iTunes MTV'S ROCK STAR GAME NOT BOYCOTTING WARNER MUSIC, THEY'RE JUST NOT USING THEIR MUSIC All this follows comments made by Warner chief Edgar Bronfman Jr last year when he said that the record companies weren't getting their fair share from the then booming 'Guitar Hero' and 'Rock Star' franchises. He said that his company would be asking for high licence fees from the gaming companies moving forward. According to Billboard, MTV Games has so far refused to pay those higher licence fees. Because Warner won't except the old rates offered, various approaches by the 'Rock Band' makers to the major have been knocked back, so much so the gaming company has decided to stop asking until some kind of general deal can be reached between the two companies regarding rates. Some Warner artists have been available to download via the 'Rock Star' platform quite recently, but they all stem from deals reached before Bronfman's ruling last August. Insiders say Warner is happy to not participate in 'Rock Star' until a more favourable licensing deal can be done, in much the same way its catalogue is still not on YouTube following its demands for more money off them. That said, some wonder if that strategy will work with MTV Games - while YouTube's claims to be the world's biggest video jukebox are hindered by a lack of Warner content, the Rock Star download service is by no means comprehensive, so the lack of Warner artists will probably go unnoticed by most. MTV, that is to say, probably have less to lose on this one that Warner. -------------------------------------------------- UNIVERSAL FINANCIALS - PROFITS DOWN, BUT DIVERSIFICATION DELIVERING Although profits are going down, down, down, mainly as a result of the industry wide slump in record sales, Vivendi boasted that it was countering physical CD sale declines not only with growing digital music revenues, but also through its expanding publishing, management and merchandising divisions. That is Vivendi's way of saying that Universal execs did the right thing in boosting its music publishing catalogue by buying BMG Music Publishing in 2007, and by acquiring Sanctuary Music's management and merchandising businesses the same year. Survival through diversification through acquisition, and all that. Aside from the boasting, Vivendi admitted to spending 53 million euros on restructuring last year, which included its "rationalisation of the recorded music division", ie the subtle but significant downsizing of its record company workforce. -------------------------------------------------- TERRA FIRMA CHIEFS SHUN BONUS AS EMI SLASHES THE VALUE OF THEIR PORTFOLIO That slump has been mainly caused by Terra Firma's 2007 purchase of EMI. Despite efforts to cut costs and reinvent the music company, Hands has had to admit that EMI is realistically currently worth half the value it was once pegged at - so 1.3 billion euros instead of 2.6 billion. That means that even though other Terra Firma owned companies may have increased in value, the total value of the investment fund's assets is down considerably. Because of that fact Terra Firma's top partners will waive the £70 million they would otherwise have been due in bonuses. It's thought at least half of that amount would have gone to Hands himself, so his decision not to pay out the bonus is a little bit admirable. Though I'm sure he won't starve. You'd think someone who can afford to not take a £35 million bonus could afford a decent haircut wouldn't you? In the company's annual report, Hands wrote this: "Terra Firma will in March distribute back to investors the carried interest that had previously been earned ... and which would have formed the bulk of the reward for Terra Firma's senior team's hard work since 2004. This is absolutely right; our investors have suffered and therefore our rewards should suffer at the same time". -------------------------------------------------- LIVE NATION - FINANCIALS, GLOBAL DIVISION REJIG Meanwhile, the live music giant has announced a rejig of its Global Music Division, which oversees their worldwide tours and venue networks (and the US based House Of Blues division, for reasons I don't totally understand). The rejig includes the appointment of four new execs, as follows: Brian Yost will be Onsite Products President, John Rostas will be Global Venues President, Seth Matlins will be Global Chief Marketing Officer and Robert Peters will be Chief Strategic Officer. All four will be based in LA and report to the Global Music Division's CEO Jason Garner, who said these words in this order to Billboard: "Our job is to build a second-to-none team to connect artists to their fans in the most efficient way possible. These executives have all been highly successful in key positions at world class companies like GE and Disney. They bring a new level of experience and unique skill sets to bolster our great local teams in our mission of driving more fans to our concerts, reducing operational expenses, improving onsite revenue per fan, and building new global marketing partnerships for artists". -------------------------------------------------- ZAVVI BRAND TO STAY ONLINE The Hut boss Matthew Moulding says this: "Zavvi is a major player in entertainment retail, both in the UK and Ireland. Our aim is to capitalise on this well recognised high street brand and transform the business into a leading class online retailer, not only in entertainment, but also across lifestyle products. The new discounted price points, supported by significant future investment in customer driven functionality improvements, should enable us to create an exciting online retailer. The team is excited about the opportunities this acquisition presents and the growth plans across The Group will be supported by our continuing drive to add talented new members to the team across most disciplines". In sort of related news, the owners of the Virgin Megastore chain in the US, Related Cos, who have been slowly closing the record shops down so they can make more money leasing out their buildings to other retailers, have announced that all remaining Megastores in America will be shut down by the summer. There are six Megastores still in operation, though the New York Times Square shop is in the process of closing as we speak, and Related announced last week plans to shut the other New York megastore and one in San Francisco in May. That leaves three, which, reports say, will also all go by the summer. Related Cos bought the Megastores off Richard Branson's Virgin Group in 2007, around about the same time the UK Megastore chain had the management buyout that created the short lived Zavvi chain. -------------------------------------------------- PRS TO SPONSOR BME PRS For Music top man Steve Porter told CMU: "We've been at the heart of the UK music industry for several generations and without our work collecting royalties many of the musicians featured here would not have made it. The BME is a fantastic exhibition to be involved with and I'm delighted we're on board". BME chair Harvey Goldsmith added: "It's fantastic that PRS For Music are supporting the British Music Experience. By coming on board they are recognising the importance of the exhibition within the industry and bringing their expertise to the BME's education programme". -------------------------------------------------- SHERIDANS EXPAND EMPLOYMENT TEAM First up Neisha Glynternick has been promoted to become a partner within the team, while Daniela Cohen, previously with rival legal firm Mayer Brown, joins as an employment specialist. That means the employment team now has six members, three partners and three associates. Confirming the appointments, Sheridans Managing Partner Howard Jones said this: "I am delighted both for Neisha in her promotion and the fact that Daniela has joined us. We are committed to building further upon the growth [our employment team] have already achieved and I anticipate further appointments in the near future". -------------------------------------------------- SOUND ADVICE RECRUIT NEW ACCOUNTANT SLICETHEPIE AND BEBO HOOK UP Confriming the hook up, Slicethepie top man David Courtier-Dutton told CMU: "This unique partnership combines the passion and power of Bebo's massive fan and artist community with Slicethepie's proven filtering and financing platform to help artists get discovered in a faster and more equitable way than ever before. The combination of Slicethepie's proven financing model with Bebo's engaged community of music lovers gives these undiscovered artists a viable career path with unprecedented promotion and exposure on one of the most powerful social platforms in the world". Bebo's music chief Hal Stokes added: "Bebo is all about letting people connect with everyone and everything they care about. The relationship between music fans and artists has always been a close, emotional one. Now, for the first time, fans can actually help break an act, help them record their first single and help them get discovered. With Slicethepie we can unearth the best 'undiscovered' talent on Bebo and fast track them to a sustainable career in music while strengthening their bond with their fans". -------------------------------------------------- NOKIA CONSIDERING DRM-FREE VERSION OF COMES WITH MUSIC Talking of Nokia and music based products, word has it the phone maker is looking into launching a DRM-free version of its high profile though not especially well received Comes With Music service. As previously reported, Comes With Music is Nokia's much hyped download service through which owners of special handsets can download an unlimited number of permanent audio tracks from a big catalogue of music for free (well, the cost is bundled into the cost of the phone). The only problem (other than the fact Nokia never sent us the sample phone they always promised, their PR team being a bit rubbish and all) is that, while in theory providing 'permanent downloads', the tracks come with digital rights management encoding which locks them to the phone or PC to which they are downloaded - meaning they become redundant once a user buys a new mobile or computer. Unfortunately for Nokia, their new service was launched just as DRM was finally cut from a-la-carte download stores, and the DRM-free MP3 became the format of choice for most consumers. Although official figures are not known, some say that the uptake of Comes With Music has not met Nokia's expectations, and bosses there recognise that the widespread criticism of the service's use of DRM is probably to blame (even though that's necessarily a fair criticism, given the low cost of the service, there's no reason why Nokia customers can't use Comes With Music for short-term enjoyment and new music discovery, while still being able to afford to pay to download truly permanent copies of the few tracks they want to keep long term from other services like iTunes). Either way, Nokia's Director Of Global Digital Music Retail, former Sony Music man Adam Mirabella, is being quoted in the Asian media as saying a DRM-free version of the Comes With Music services is "on the roadmap". How that would work isn't clear, though the service Ericsson plans to launch to compete with Comes With Music doesn't make any claim that the DRMed downloads are permanent, but instead allows users to access MP3 copies of their most listened to tracks at the end of their subscription, which is arguably a good middle ground between the restricted unlimited play and a-la-carte download models. -------------------------------------------------- MSPOT LAUNCH DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER MAKE YOUR OWN RINGTONE SERVICE BBC ARTS AND MUSIC COMMISSIONER STEPS DOWN The BBC's 'Knowledge' department previously had two main units - those that commissioned programmes to be made in house like Kemp, and those that commissioned programmes from indies. Moving forward the department will be split into eight genre units, of which music and events will be one. The revamp will require existing BBC Knowledge execs to apply for the new posts. Kemp has been with the Beeb since 1994, and has been in his current role since 2005. With quite a wide remit, his music commissions were more of the arty kind, like the musical based 'Manchester Passion' and 'Liverpool Nativity' projects, plus music documentaries like 'Seven Ages Of Rock', 'Pop Britannia' and 'Soul Britannia'. Confirming his departure, Kemp told reporters: "It's been a privilege to work with some of the best television producers and talent in the industry while commissioning factual programmes at the BBC. Over the last four years I have worked across arts, music and religion - and the BBC has given me carte blanche to take risk, reinvent and reinvigorate these important arenas in public service TV. However, after 15 years I am ready for a new challenge and I'm genuinely excited about the possibilities that lie ahead". -------------------------------------------------- UKRD CHAIRMAN BUYS TLRC STAKE As previously reported, UKRD own 13 stations in the South of England, including Surrey station County Sound and Cornwall's Pirate FM, while TLRC's 19 stations are more widely spread across the country. Confirming his personal share purchase, Smallwood told Radio Today: "I saw an opportunity for an ideal investment and took it". It's not thought that UKRD and Smallwoods' investment in TLRC means there will be any formal hook up between the two radio companies. As previously reported, not only UKRD have been showing an interest in TLRC, and at one point it looked like Talk Sport owners UTV Radio may bid to buy it. -------------------------------------------------- NATIONAL LIBRARY ARCHIVING FANZINES The Library has recruited Chris Atton, a Professor of Media And Culture at Edinburgh's Napier University, who has written both for and about fanzines for almost 30 years to help with the archiving exercise. He told the BBC: "When people write the history of rock music, they inevitably turn to [mainstream] interviews with the musicians and taste makers of the day. What fanzines do is give us a way of accessing an audience from 30 or 50 years ago who were writing about music purely because of their love of that music. [Without them] the history of music will be written by the same select group of people - [relying on just mainstream music magazines] is the equivalent of the old history books that were full of stuff about kings and queens rather than looking at what the ordinary people were doing". If you want to get all nostalgic about the fanzines of old, check the full BBC article on the Library's archiving below. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7908705.stm -------------------------------------------------- ABSOLUTE USE THEIR U2 OBSESSION TO TEST NEW KIND OF RADIO AD The former Virgin Radio has been piloting a new kind of advert which at least one person has called the "blipvert", it's a ten second sting which plays out immediately after U2's terrible single 'Get On Your Boots' encouraging listeners to go download the track from iTunes. With the revenues to be generated from traditional radio advertising in decline, and some in the commercial radio sector of the opinion that the length of ad breaks need to be cut in order to compete with new ad-lite online music services, the blipvert could become a mainstay of radio broadcasts. They work best, though, when the ad is linked in someway to the editorial, or song, immediately before it, and it's the link between the U2 song and their blipvert on Absolute which is especially interesting (other UK stations have been dabbling with the short ad concept, but not linked to songs being played). Such a link, though, will obviously concern media regulator OfCom who like there to be a clear line between programming and advertising. A spokesman for the regulator told the Guardian that they were aware of the U2 blipverts on Absolute, and that they had advised the radio station that they must ensure listeners are in no doubt that those ten seconds are ad time not editorial recommendation. Another concern presumably would be that radio stations selling blipverts to record companies that follow an artists record aren't tempted to increase the airplay of said record in order to air more ads and earn more money - what would basically constitute payola. But Absolute Radio boss Clive Dickens is confident they have overcome both those concerns with their U2 promotion. He told the Guardian: "The song was already in the highest rotation it could have on Absolute Radio - 27 to 30 times a week - so they [the regulator] were confident any commercial relationship between us and [U2's record label] Universal was not influencing the number of times we play it. And they wanted to be confident that the consumer would know when they were being advertised to. We felt we came up with a creative that made it clear this was an advert. U2 typically don't market their stuff on the radio, and we sold it at a significant premium over normal spot advertising". -------------------------------------------------- TOTP DISCS FOR SALE www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEgK1uNzEpY&eurl= TOTAL ROCK WORLD ALBUM CHART 1. Bruce Springsteen - Working On A Dream (Sony/Columbia) PHOENIX NOT MENTAL, SAYS PUBLICIST Dobransky made the comments in an article in the LA Times last week, saying that Pheonix had behaved in a "socially inappropriate" way when he made an appearance on 'The Late Show' recently, and also criticising Stiller's mockery of him. "There is something wrong" he said "And it's beyond drug abuse. I was pretty offended by that skit at the Oscars. It struck me as potentially beating down on the mentally ill". As you may remember, Phoenix's behaviour has led to speculation that his new career is in fact a hoax, but the star has insisted that his decision to change direction is for real. -------------------------------------------------- JACKSON STOCKPILING SONGS FOR POSTHUMOUS RELEASE Author Ian Halperin says: "I was astonished by the number of songs which have been held back. I was told that he will not let them come out now but wants to leave them for his kids, a very personal legacy to them". |
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