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![]() INTRODUCING LEYLINE PUBLICITY Leyline Promotions - better known as one of the capital’s leading independent promoters (The Remix, Kill All Hippies, Insomniacs Ball, Twisted Licks, Breaking Ground) - have created a new publicity department headed up by Nick Bateson and Adrian Leigh. The pair have worked on major campaigns including a-ha, Glade Festival, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Standon Calling Festival and Hervé amongst others. In addition to their wealth of experience in the live arena, Leyline Publicity now specialise in bespoke PR services including online and offline music and lifestyle press, radio plugging, brand development, digital marketing and blogging. For further information please contact: [email protected] or [email protected] t: 020 7575 3285 -- ADVERTISE WITH CMU - classifieds £120 per week, job ads £100 per week, banner ads £150 per week, leader box £200 per week - call 020 7099 9050 or email [email protected] for information or to book. back to top |
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CHRIS BROWN PLEADS NOT GUILTY It is claimed that while driving home in a rented Lamborghini, Brown tried to force Rihanna out of the car by pushing her head against the passenger door window and punching her repeatedly in the face, before beating her unconscious in the street and fleeing the scene. Though presumably he managed all that without actually assaulting her or threatening her, given the R&B star's plea. Or perhaps he's denying that version of events. Brown is due to return to court again in three week's time. If found guilty, he faces up to five years in prison. -------------------------------------------------- TRENT REZNOR TALKS A LOT OF SENSE Speaking to Wired ahead of the release of a new Nine Inch Nails iPhone app, Reznor said: "Anyone who's an executive at a record label does not understand what the internet is, how it works, how people use it, how fans and consumers interact - no idea. I'm surprised they know how to use email. They have built a business around selling plastic discs, and nobody wants plastic discs any more. They're in such a state of denial it's impossible for them to understand what's happening. As an artist, you are now the marketer". Recalling his two decades within the major label system, and how he felt when he was freed from his record contract, he continues: "One of the biggest wake-up calls of my career was when I saw a record contract. I said, 'Wait - you sell it for $18.98 and I make 80 cents? And I have to pay you back the money you lent me to make it and then you own it? Who the fuck made that rule? Oh! The record labels made it because artists are dumb and they'll sign anything' - like I did. When we found out we'd been released it was like, 'Thank God!'. But 20 minutes later it was, 'Uh-oh, now what are we going to do?' It was incredibly liberating, and it was terrifying". Recalling how he's dealt with that liberating yet terrifying experience - mainly by centring his activity on a prolific website, and offering a mixture of free and paid-for content offers - Reznor says that artists, or labels, wanting to succeed in this internet age need to think like fans. He continues: "I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't think music should be free. But the climate is such that it's impossible for me to change that, because the record labels have established a sense of mistrust. So everything we've tried to do has been from the point of view of, 'What would I want if I were a fan? How would I want to be treated?' Now let's work back from that. Let's find a way for that to make sense and monetise it". And by engaging fans through the technology they are already using - BitTorrent file sharing for example - he has done just that. "[BitTorrent is] the domain of pirates", he says. "But it's also a great technology that is free. [And] our [biggest] battle is against download costs". The next step for Reznor is the aforementioned iPhone app, which will condense down as much of the Nine Inch Nails website as possible, and add new features, allowing fans to interact with each other and share photos, using location functions to find each other on Google Earth, add pictures of gigs to specific locations, and post messages to each other. The idea is seemingly grander version of an idea that started when Reznor was passing the time waiting for a gig by checking Twitter. He found that fans in the queue outside were doing the same, and sharing photos. Then, on the band's European tour, Reznor's long time collaborator Rob Sheridan began taking pictures on stage and posting them online. "People felt included", says Reznor. "People kind of felt like they were getting postcards from us". The app is currently awaiting final approval from Apple before being made available via iTunes. -------------------------------------------------- NEW OASIS SONG POSTED ONLINE You might still be able to listen to the song here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=20cSWSnmNW4 COLDPLAY DENY PILFERING SATRIANI SONG In papers filed at a US federal court, the band said that Satriani's song "lacks originality" anyway, which is why there may be some coincidental similarities between their two tracks, and that because of that the guitarist should not receive any compensation. This presumably means that Coldplay think their song lacks originality too, but to be fair to them, they have said that about their music before, and even point to songs they have borrowed from on a fairly regular basis. Satriani's lawyer Howard E King said that Coldplay's response was typical for this type of case, adding that the matter could have been settled out of court had the band not been so resolute that the guitarist doesn't have a claim. King will now push for a jury trial, with a bid to winning all profits from Coldplay's song plus damages. ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS ANNOUNCED Accepting the Entertainer Of The Year award, Underwood, who also performed two songs at the show, said: "Thank you, God. I never thought I'd be nominated, I never thought I would win. I don't know what to say. I've got nothing". Kenny Chesney, who had won the flagship award for the last four years in a row, criticised the ceremony's organisers for changing the way the title was chosen, allowing fans to pick their favourite entertainer, rather than just asking members of the Academy Of Country Music. Anyway, here are the winners in full: -------------------------------------------------- SONY AWARD NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED Despite a tricky year for BBC radio in terms of scandal, the Corporation does seem to dominate the shortlists as usual, though the single station with the most nominations is actually Absolute Radio - the former Virgin Radio - which appears on no less than seven shortlists, including the one for Best Entertainment Show where Christian O'Connell's peak time breakfast slot is shortlisted. Also worthy of a mention this year is London-based prison radio station Electric Radio Brixton and Ulster-based community radio station Strule FM who are shortlisted in the Community Award category, and especially the former who compete in other categories too, getting no less than four nominations overall. Well done them. For those that like their award nomination coverage to consist of very long lists, there's a full list of Sony nominations at the end of today's CMU Daily (To go straight there, click here). The Sony Awards take place on 11 May at London's Grosvenor House Hotel, hosted by Chris Evans. STEREOLAB GO ON HIATUS In a message posted on their official website, www.stereolab.co.uk, the band's manager Martin Pike rambles thus: "As we recently made #51 with 'Emperor Tomato Ketchup' in the Amazon 100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums Of All Time we feel that our work is done for the moment. We have had to cancel the last two shows that we were scheduled to play, apologies to all that had bought tickets, and there are no plans to record new tracks... We are all going to have a bit of a rest now after nearly 19 years and work on a few other projects". That said, an album of songs recorded during sessions for last year's 'Chemical Chords' will still be released, as will another volume of their compilation series 'Switched On'. The band also plan to remaster their back catalogue for re-release. -------------------------------------------------- DOES IT OFFEND YOU, NO! Speaking to the NME, he said: "It just came to a natural end really. I think there was only so much I could sort of do in that outfit and I kind of wanted to do a bit more musically and creatively, and I think that the only way I could do that was in my own group". He added: "Plugs is my band and Does It Offend You, Yeah? was never really my sort of band aesthetically. I didn't really have much choice, I just sort of had to go along with a lot of the stuff that was happening, whereas in it's like we write the music, we produce it, we do the artwork, we've directed our own video - it just like feels like a creative outlet for me more than Does It Offend You, Yeah?". The rest of the band are yet to make any statement on the subject, but are currently putting the finishing touches on their second album (according to Twitter, they finished mixing it last week). However, their MySpace page does tell us that their upcoming gig at Bush Hall in London in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust on 13 Apr has been postponed. DYLAN STREAMS NEW SINGLE VIA NEWSWEEK.COM As a companion to the album, Dylan has set up a "lyrical portrait" website, which allow fans to add their own thoughts to the album's lyrics, which are then displayed on a public gallery. -------------------------------------------------- TORI AMOS CONFIRMS NEW ALBUM Ahead of all that, Tori will be playing a one-off solo acoustic show at the Savoy Theatre in London on 27 Apr where she will be performing tracks from the new album, as well as songs from her back catalogue. The album has a tracklist. This is it: Give -------------------------------------------------- NO NEW AVALANCHES ALBUM, SORRY A source at XL, the duo's UK label, told Teletext's Planet Sound: "Unfortunately, we have no new album on the schedule at all, and it certainly won't be as soon as July. It'll be ready when it's ready". EX STEREOPHONICS DRUMMER PUBLISHES MEMOIRS SPINAL TAP ANNOUNCE WORLD TOUR Explaining the decision to play just one show, lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel said: "If we're going to do a world tour on only one night, at least it's this world". Bassist Derek Smalls added: "One night is not enough, and it's way too much". Support will come from folk band, The Folksmen, who appeared in their own film, 'A Might Wind', and, like Spinal Tap, look suspiciously similar to actors Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean. Tickets go on sale on Thursday at 9am. DEPECHE MODE SAY NO TO GLASTO Fletcher said: "We do a lot of festivals in Europe, but not so many in the UK. Glasto would be fun but the line-up didn't quite work for us. Getting the right bill is important". Which is a good point. If you were Depeche Mode and you had to play before one of those acts, which would you choose? -------------------------------------------------- MADNESS TO PLAY CAMDEN CRAWL Head Of Music at 6music, Jeff Smith said: "6music are delighted to bring Madness back to their spiritual home to give a performance that truly connects them to their home crowd and to the wider 6 Music audience". For further details, including how you could win the chance to play with the band, go to www.bbc.co.uk/6music -------------------------------------------------- TIGNESFEST, France, 16-19 Apr: 2 Bit Thugs, Black Peter Group, Danimal Kingdom, FrankMusik, Jackbeats, 5amourai, Losers, Midimidis and even opera singer Leslie Davis have been announced as the final acts to complete this year's line-up. www.tignesfest.com EXIT FESTIVAL, Petrovaradin Fortress, Novi Sad, Serbia, 9-12 Jul: Carl Cox & Green Velvet, Sasha & John Digweed and Richie Hawtin with Dubfire have all been confirmed to play this year's Exit Dance Arena. www.exitfest.org MELT FESTIVAL, Ferropolis, Germany, 17-19 Jul: Oasis, Bloc Party, Aphex Twin and Hecker have been announced to play the German festival this summer. www.meltfestival.com TRUCK FESTIVAL, Hill Farm, Oxfordshire, 25-26 Jul: Ash and Supergrass have been confirmed to headline the Truck Stage at this year's festival. Red Light Company, Detroit Social Club and Yacht have also been added to the line-up. www.thisistruck.com KENDAL CALLING, Lowther Estate, Cumbria, 31 Jul-2 Aug: The Zutons, Chase And Status, The Rumble Strips and Beardyman are the latest to be confirmed for the Cumbria event, joining Noah And The Whale, Sunshine Underground and Crazy P. www.kendalcalling.com ALBUM REVIEW: Brakes - Touchdown (FatCat) Buy from iTunes ESSER, TINCHY AND RIFLES TO PLAY FREE ADIDAS SHOWS Here are the dates: More info at www.nme.com/adidas PRS OVERSEAS REVENUES AT ALL TIME HIGH The Society said there were various reasons for the boom. It's partly because there are an ever increasing number of TV, radio and online music services to licence music to, and partly because PRS has got better at collecting royalties its members are entitled to in different territories, mainly by forging better relationships with local collecting societies around the world, and having more efficient ways of reporting what gets played where when. High profile world tours by British artists like The Police and Iron Maiden also help, because promoters have to pay a cut of revenue to the publishers and songwriters who own the songs performed. Confirming everything I've just told you, here's PRS For Music's Barney Hooper speaking to the BBC: "I think there's a combination of things - I think British music's being used more. I think we're also getting better at liaising with our equivalent societies around the world for collecting. We've done a lot of work to improve those links to ensure that, when British music is used over there, the money comes back to us and vice-versa when American music and French music [or whatever] are used in this country". Record sales help too, of course, because PRS For Music see royalties when CDs or downloads featuring songs by British songwriters are sold abroad. Four of the world's top ten best selling albums of 2008 came from British artists - Coldplay, Duffy, Leona Lewis and Amy Winehouse - all of which would have helped boost PRS's mechanical royalties, contributing to the overall record income. All of which is great news. Though let's try and keep it quiet people - we're about to report on just how badly YouTube is doing, and I'm sure Billy Bragg wouldn't want Google taking the higher ground and telling everyone how the cash rich PRS is screwing it's 'charitable' efforts to keep YouTube afloat. -------------------------------------------------- THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT FOR MUSIC, SAYS SPOTIFY MAN For now Ek reckons that the potential is there for the music business to boom anew, not by selling CDs or MP3s, but by providing access to music in engaging ways - so that most people, or at least enough people, choose to pay. He might be talking about Radiohead/Trent Reznor style pay-what-you-want, have-this-for-free-but-buy-this ventures, or he might be talking about advertising/subscription funded streaming music services with green logos. Speaking to The Guardian, Ek said: "I think the music industry as a whole could be in a better position than it has ever been. There has been a massive shift from ownership to access but people will pay for music if packaged correctly and it offers them something special. Music is already available for free. 95% of all music downloads are currently illegal, it is pointless to resist that. Every time that you shut down a service like Napster another one will spring up. Instead, you have to make paying more attractive by offering fans more like exclusive content, interviews, live concerts". Of course while everyone loves Spotify, the more business-savvy wonder how much they are paying the record labels and publishers in order to offer such user-friendly on-demand streams, whether they are benefiting from special start-up rates that, like with YouTube, will be negotiated up in the future, and whether anyone will really pay ten pounds a month to get rid of ads, and if not whether ad revenues will ultimately pay for it all once start-up cash runs out. Ek is confident but not overconfident about his fledgling service, telling the paper: "We just hope that people will use it and that it will create significant revenue for the music industry. That way we can help support a fragile ecosystem so that artists can go on making music". I hope so too. -------------------------------------------------- NEW LAWS PROPOSED TO REGULATE US SECONDARY TICKETING MARKET Among his proposals are a two-day waiting period, which would mean tickets could not be resold for gigs until two days after they officially go on sale via official primary ticket sellers, and also a registration system that wouldn't just force the secondary ticketing websites to be registered, but every single seller too. Sellers would be given a registration number that they would have to publish with every sale, basically taking eBay's seller rating system and making it internet-wide and a legal requirement. Schumer's proposals are expected to be introduced into the US Congress when it returns from its Easter break later this month. -------------------------------------------------- NEW DIGITAL VP AT UNIVERSAL INTERNATIONAL Do you think he could get Tiscali to make the internet at my sister's house actually work, so I can submit my CMU Daily stories on time when I stay there, and not delay the Daily by three hours? No, not even the Vice President of the world's biggest music company could manage that, Tiscali being officially the most useless company on Planet Earth. "We'll call you straight back". Yeah, right. Just get on with going bankrupt and let us get on with our lives will you Mr Tiscali? Anyway, I seem to have digressed ever so slightly there. Keeling will report to Universal Music International's SVP Digital Rob Wells in his new job, who told CMU: "Our international digital business has been the industry standard over the past three years, which is largely thanks to the team which works here. This appointment reflects the excellent business contributions Francis has made, including a key role in developing our partnerships with Nokia, BSkyB and Orange. His promotion is well-deserved". YOUTUBE IS A BIG FAT LOSS, PROBABLY As an indicator of Google's YouTube challenge, we have comments made late last week by Credit Suise analyst Spence Wang in a note to investors, in which he predicted that the web firm's video service will make a loss of about $470 million this year, because the cost of delivering the content, not to mention the royalties it has already committed to pay to the record companies and publishers and the like, are no where near covered by ad revenues. Wang reckons only 3% of possible ad spots on YouTube are sold, and that rates are horribly low, making the whole video venture a real loss leader, despite its huge success in terms of traffic. It all suggests, as I think we've suggested previously, that Google's business model works when it comes to providing relatively low-cost ad-funded web services like search, email and document sharing, but when you apply it to a more expensive video-on-demand platform, especially if you start to factor in content costs, the pennies per click model doesn't add up the same. Especially if video viewers turn out to be less likely to click than search engine and web mail users, which generally they do. Of course the fact that Google, despite being a billion dollar concern, is losing millions on YouTube could be used as an argument as to why PRS For Music and GEMA should be willing to be more flexible, and a bit more bargain basement, than they seem to be. Though that assumes that there is no other business model out there that can make a YouTube-style service work. If there is - and I think there might be - then a faltering YouTube doesn't necessarily have to play into the hands of the video site's illegal competitors, and Google can just quietly write YouTube off as a mis-adventure. Though until such a business model is found and proven - and there are already contenders out there, MUZU maybe, and perhaps the seemingly optimistic Ek and his Spotify - these will remain shaky times as artists, songwriters, collecting societies and (some) labels stand there ground and demand a bigger share of what might be non-existent cash. -------------------------------------------------- YAHOO LAUNCH NEW ARTIST PAGE SERVICE - IT'S ALL ABOUT THE LINKS Yahoo's music channel will have at its heart hundreds of artist pages which will in turn aggregate relevant content and websites on the net for each featured singer or band, including links through to iTunes, last.fm, Pandora and Amazon. The web firm will earn some sort of referral fee from some of the services it links to - meaning Yahoo! can earn from its music fan traffic without having to invest itself in expensive multi-media delivery technology and music licences. Confirming the new service, Yahoo Music General Manager Michael Spiegelman told reporters: "We really want to focus on providing the service that's most valuable to users, and then partner with third parties to provide the entire set of music services". BAUER TO BUY GLOBAL'S MIDLAND STATIONS? According to the Sunday Times there were five parties interested in buying the stations, but at the moment only talks with Bauer are ongoing. A deal could be done within the month. Global is also expected to sell its stake in the Digital One national DAB network, something GCap had been planning on doing anyway prior to Global's takeover, such is the pessimism regarding DAB in the commercial radio sector just now. TOTAL ROCK WORLD ALBUM CHART 1. Nickelback - Dark Horse (Warner/Roadrunner) GERI'S EX PREFERS POSH Okay, that quote is a tiny bit out of context. He went on to say: "I had been looking for a beautiful woman to settle down with and start a family, and I thought in Geri I had finally found that person". As to why it actually ended, he refused to say, telling the tabloid: "I respect Geri too much to divulge that. All I can say was a very bad situation happened between us". -------------------------------------------------- TURBONEGRO BASSIST SELLS HAIR ON EBAY Put in your bid, here. Warning: It may already be out of your price range. Unless you really, really want some second hand hair. -------------------------------------------------- The Music Programme Award The Specialist Music Programme Award The Music Radio Personality of the Year The Music Special Award The Entertainment Award The Drama Award The Sports Award The Speech Award The News Special Award The News Journalist of the Year The Speech Broadcaster of the Year The Breakfast Show Award The Listener Participation Award The Comedy Award The Feature Award The Interview Award The Live Event Coverage Award The Community Award The Promo Award The Competition Award The Station Imaging Award Station Of the Year: Under 300,000 Station of the Year (300,000 - 1 million) Station of the Year (1 million plus) Digital Station of the Year UK Station of the Year |
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SUBSCRIPTIONS>> CMU Daily is a free daily e-bulletin for people working in the music industry and music media, delivered direct to your PC each morning. If you want to stop receiving this e-bulletin click the 'unsubscribe' button below and follow the instructions. If any of your colleagues want to receive the CMU Daily tell them to email their name, company, job title and email to [email protected]. If you would like to recieve the CMU Daily as a text email, send a blank email from the email address you are registered at to [email protected]. MEDIA PEOPLE>> If you are looking for an independent quote on anything to do with the music business, or you need someone to come on your TV or radio show and talk music business, then we can help. There's nothing we don't know about. Email requests to [email protected] or call 020 7099 9050. CMU is published by and (c) UnLimited Media - www.unlimitedmedia.co.uk Send news stories to [email protected]. If we don't respond directly, we do apologise, only we get sent hundreds of emails a day and don't have time to respond to every one of them. However we do check every email sent to the musicnews email address, and do pull out stories that we feel are relevant to our readers. Send CDs for review to CMU, UnLimited Media, 221-222 Shoreditch High Street, London, E1 6PJ. |
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