PRS CUT STREAMING RATES
Songwriter collecting society PRS For Music yesterday announced it was rejigging its rate card for online streaming royalties, with the revenue share rate set to increase but the crucial per-stream rate set to fall by more than half. The collecting society says it hopes the new prices, and especially the large reduction in per-stream fees, will help stimulate growth in the digital music market.

The new rates come as part of the collecting society's revamp of its online licence, the so called Online Music Licence, which will replace the old Joint Online Licence ('joint' because it was the first licence to give licensees rights to both make mechanical copies of and broadcast performances of songs - rights previously managed by two separate although allied collecting societies, MCPS and PRS). The old JOL rates were not without controversy, though were endorsed by the UK's Copyright Tribunal in 2007.

The new rates will see PRS look to increase its over all revenue share from any digital music service from 8% to 10.5%, however in terms of per-stream fees, the rates will drop from 22p per stream to 8.5p per stream. Given most digital music services are not yet profitable, and therefore revenue share splits are not substantial, the per-stream fees are what matter to both the society and their licensees - for the former because it provides a guaranteed minimum income based on how much music is consumed (10.5% of nothing isn't worth much), for the latter because they have to find the money to pay the per-stream fees oblivious of their advertising or subscription income. The cut is substantial, though given some of the bigger online service providers have been pushing for fraction of a penny rates, 8.5p will still seem over priced.

The new rates were passed by the collecting society's board on 20 May, and will be in place for three years. Confirming the new rates, PRS For Music MD of Broadcast And Online, Andrew Shaw, told reporters: "We believe these new streaming rates will stimulate growth in the digital music market and will benefit our licensees and our members. The Copyright Tribunal established the principle of a per-stream minimum to protect creators; maintaining this principle will ensure that writers, composers and music publishers continue to be rewarded every time their music is enjoyed. As new entrants join the market and existing providers expand, music creators will reap the rewards by sharing in the success that their talent is generating. This is a good deal for music creators and for music lovers".

In reality, many start-up streaming services have negotiated special rates with PRS, though it's often when start-up arrangements come to an end and the collecting society start to point to their standard rate card that negotiations start to falter. The most high profile faltering negotiations, of course, have been between PRS and YouTube, with the video service pulling premium music videos off its UK website after failing to reach a deal with the collecting society.

Insiders say 8.5p per stream is still a lot more than Google and YouTube want to pay, so yesterday's announcement won't really make any difference in terms of that fallout. YouTube were non-committal yesterday, saying simply: "We're still in discussions with the PRS to agree license terms for YouTube".

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BROWN ESTATE FINALLY SETTLED
A settlement of the estate of the late great James Brown has finally been agreed, after two and a half years of squabbling between family members, alleged family members and the estate's original and subsequent trustees.

A South Carolina judge yesterday approved a deal whereby half of the singer's assets will go to a charitable trust, a quarter to his sort of widow and her son ('sort of' because the legality of Brown and Tomi Rae Hynie Brown's marriage was disputed), and the rest to Brown's six adult children. The trust will fund education for Brown's grandchildren and "needy children" in South Carolina and Georgia.

Brown's legal reps say there isn't actually all that much cash in the late singer's accounts as we speak, and indeed some of his possessions had to be sold off last year to pay off a number of debts. But the future income from his intellectual property is, of course, potentially very valuable, and it is that future income that is really at stake here. That income will also mean the Trust should be able to fund educational initiatives for many years to come.

Welcoming the settlement, one of Brown's daughters, Deanne Brown, told the Associated Press: "It has been a struggle, but God has blessed us and we are thankful. We look forward to working towards the goals of our father by providing education scholarships for impoverished students and his own grandchildren and making his home a museum for the world to come and see".

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NESSON PLANS TO FIGHT RIAA'S "UNCONSTITUTIONAL ABUSE OF LAW"
The Harvard law professor who is helping one Joel Tenenbaum fight one of the Recording Industry Association Of America's final individual file-sharing lawsuits has written an article about why he has taken the case on, accusing the record industry trade body of an "unconstitutional abuse of law".

As previously reported, although the RIAA has now announced that it will stop suing individual music fans who access or upload unlicensed music on the internet, it is planning on seeing existing litigation through to completion. The highest profile lawsuit is the one against Tenenbaum, because he is defending himself against the copyright infringement lawsuit, and has enlisted the support of Harvard legal man Charles Nesson and his students to fight his case.

Writing for Ars Technica, Nesson positions the litigation as a David v Goliath battle, and argues the whole RIAA litigation campaign against individual file-sharers is ethically wrong, saying: "I believe that the RIAA litigation campaign against Joel and the millions of his generation like him is an unconstitutional abuse of law. Imagine a law which, in the name of deterrence, provides for a $750 fine [the lower threshold for statutory damages] for each mile-per-hour that a driver exceeds the speed limit, with the fine escalating to $150,000 per mile over the limit if the driver knew she was speeding. Imagine that the fines are not publicised, and most drivers do not know they exist".

He continues: "Imagine that enforcement of the fines is put into the hands of a private, self-interested police force that has no political accountability, that can pursue any defendant it chooses at its own whim. Imagine that almost every single one of these fines goes uncontested, regardless of whether they have merit, because the individuals being fined have limited financial resources and little idea of whether they can prevail in a federal courtroom".

Explaining why he is supporting Tenenbaum, Nesson continues: "Joel, who was a teenager at the time of the alleged file-sharing, is like the 35,000 other individuals who have been sued and cannot afford an attorney to defend themselves. Justice demands, however, that one man not be pilloried without the process due him as a civil right, without good counsel, and without the most rigorous proof that he has committed the wrongs alleged".

You can read Nesson's whole argument, and nod you head energetically in agreement, or tut loudly and mutter "you just don't understand, what's the use in having intellectual property rights if you can't protect them?", by clicking here.

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MORRISSEY GIG CANCELLATION DUE TO ILL-HEALTH
Morrissey has had to cancel another gig because of ill-health, even though and possibly because he ignored doctor's warnings not to go ahead with a show in Manchester last Friday that coincided with his fiftieth birthday. He proceeded with the birthday bash despite having to cancel two shows earlier this month because of a mystery ailment. But he's still seemingly under the weather and cancelled a show in Salisbury on Monday night. The promoter of that show said: "We would like to apologise to fans for the disappointment and are working to reschedule this show, so advise ticket holders to hang on to their tickets".

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OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT DRUMMER STEPS BACK OVER BACK INJURY
Also not gigging because of ill-health is Alex McKenzie, drummer with One Little Indian signed Official Secrets Act, though his illness is due to bad luck rather than a mystery virus - he was hurt in a cycling accident two months ago, when he was struck by two cars. He was back in hospital last week for a check up in relation to injuries incurred in that accident, and an MRI scan revealed a broken vertebra. That discovery meant the band had to cancel their set at the Dot-To-Dot festival last weekend, though they have recruited Brakes drummer Alex White to help them fulfil all other upcoming tour dates while McKenzie's doctors consider whether he needs surgery. We wish him a speedy recovery.

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GLOBAL RADIO CHART SHOW GETS BIGGER
Global Radio will relaunch the flagship chart show aired on its FM pop stations, the show I continue to insist on calling "The Network Chart Show with Kid Jenson", because I am old. The all-new chart will be compiled based on radio airplay stats and download sales, though, crucially, the top ten will be based just on downloads from iTunes, and will be calculated live during the actual show.

In fact the initial top ten will be announced at the start of the show, with updates given during the programme as listeners are encouraged to go online and buy their favourite tracks via the Apple music store to boost a song's overall chart position. Or something like that. Most importantly this chart is going to be big. Yes, big. Bigger than any other chart you've ever come across before. We know this because the new programme will be called the 'Big Top 40 Show' instead of 'Hit40UK', which was, let's face it, always a rubbish name for a chart.

Confirming the revamped chart show, Global Radio programming man Richard Park told reporters: "Everybody here is extraordinarily excited about the potential of being involved in first real-time chart, where the listener can do what viewer does on 'American Idol' - they can help create a star. With 96% of sales in the UK's official chart now being from downloads alone, it's important we reflect the future of purchasing music, and there is no more significant partner [in that domain] than iTunes".

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STOOGES TO REUNITE WITH RAW POWER GUITARIST
Iggy Pop has announced that he plans to reunite with James Williamson, the guitarist who played on and co-wrote The Stooges' (then known as Iggy & The Stooges) third album, 'Raw Power'.

Williamson replaced original Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton (who rejoined in 1972 on bass) in 1971 and played with the band until 1974. The band reformed in 2003 with Asheton on back on guitar and later recorded their fourth album, 'The Weirdness' with that line up. The announcement that Pop is working with Williamson again comes five months after the death of Asheton from a heart attack.

Pop told The Australian: "There is always Iggy & The Stooges, the second growth of the band. I had a meeting in LA last week with James. It was the first time we had seen each other in 30 years. So we talked about doing something together. 'Raw Power' would be the repertoire".

As well as the only other remaining original member of the band besides Iggy, drummer and brother of Ron, Scott Asheton, it is expected that the latest incarnation of the Stooges will be completed by saxophonist Steve McKay and former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt, all of whom were involved in the previous reunion.

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WINEHOUSE GETS THE BOOT FROM QUINCY JONES TRIBUTE
A cover version of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' by Amy Winehouse has been dropped from a forthcoming Quincy Jones tribute album, which will feature covers of songs originally recorded by the legendary producer.

Winehouse's contribution to the album was another collaboration with Mark Ronson, and he's revealed that, although work on the track began a year ago, it's still not anywhere close to being finished and so has been scrapped. Ronson told The Mirror: "The track isn't finished and she's not around. If she's not here then, unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about it".

Padding out the story a bit, an anonymous source added: "Basically after Amy's horrendous gig in St Lucia, and then pulling out of the Island 50th birthday gig, everyone realised she wasn't going to get it together. Quincy Jones is one of the most respected men in the music industry, so it was a huge honour for Amy to be asked to record for him. To snub him is a big no-no. The frustrating thing is what there is of the track sounds really good, but it looks like no one will ever get to hear it".

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BEASTIE BOYS NAME NEW ALBUM
Beastie Boys have announced that their new album will be called 'Hot Sauce Committee'. The band emailed fans on Monday, saying: "Our new record that is coming out that we finished the other day is called 'Hot Sauce Committee'". And just in case we've not made it clear enough yet, the new album by Beastie Boys will be called 'Hot Sauce Committee'.

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YEAH YEAH YEAHS UNVEIL NEW VIDEO
Yeah Yeah Yeahs have unveiled a new video for their next single, 'Heads Will Roll', which is taken from their latest album 'It's Blitz!' and is set for release on 29 Jun. The video was directed by 'IT Crowd' star Richard Ayoade.

Watch the video here.

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BLACK METAL BOOK TO BECOME FILM
Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind's exhaustive history of the 90s black metal scene in Norway, and the church burning and violence that went with it, 'Lords Of Chaos', is to be turned into a film by Japanese director Sion Sono, it has been announced. One of the story's key characters - Varg Vikernes, best known for murdering the frontman of rival band Mayhem, Oystein 'Euronymous' Aarseth - is to be played by Jackson Rathbone, who recently starred in teen vampire movie 'Twilight'.

Producer Stuart Pollok told Dagbladet:"[Black metal] is a fascinating topic, a great visual world to depict, and a fun portrayal of Norway".

Some black metal fans will be none too pleased to hear that 'Lords Of Chaos' is to hit the big screen, because it's seen by many as a sensationalist account of that particular period of Norwegian musical history.

Vikernes himself, who was recently released on parole after serving 15 years in prison for the murder of Euronymous, said in 2004: "The vast majority of all the statements made in this book are either misinterpretations; taken out of context; misunderstandings; malicious lies made by enemies; a result of ignorance; extreme exaggerations; and/or third-hand information at best. The authors have managed to fill the heads of a generation of metal fans with lies. What could have been a righteous revolt has been made into some pathetic, embarrassing, brain-dead, impotent and traditional poser-culture".

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PLACEBO ANNOUNCE UK TOUR
Placebo will play five UK arena dates in December to promote their upcoming new album, 'Battle For The Sun', which is set for release on 8 Jun.

Tour Dates:

8 Dec: Birmingham, LG Arena
9 Dec: London, O2 Arena
11 Dec: Bridlington, Spa
12 Dec: Manchester, Central
14 Dec: Glasgow, SECC

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1990S CANCEL US TOUR
The 1990s have cancelled their upcoming US tour, although they have said that they hope to reschedule the dates later in the year. No specific reason for the cancellation has yet been given.

In a message on the band's official website, bassist Dino Bardot said: "Due to unforeseen circumstances we've had to postpone our upcoming US tour. We feel really dreadful about this. Our apologies to everyone who was looking forward to coming along and seeing us. Hopefully we'll be able to rearrange for later on in the year".

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SINGLE REVIEW: The Brute Chorus - All The Pilgrims (Self-released)
This is the fourth single released by London four-piece The Brute Chorus. Recorded live at the Roundhouse in Camden the track is infused with a raw quality and a closeness rarely heard on budget recordings. For the live recording they enlisted the help of Mercury-nominated producers Choque Hosein and Victor Van Vugt; the latter best known for his work with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Gogol Bordello. The influences of both are obvious. The bass is funky, even if the shredding guitar sounds a little amateur, and the drums kick along like an old school skiffle band. If the live single is any kind of representation of their live shows then The Brute Chorus are definitely a band to check out. GM
Release Date: 1 Jun
Press Contact: LaDigit [all]

Buy from iTunes
Buy from Amazon

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WEEZER TO LAUNCH OFFICIAL BAND BLANKET
Yeah, The Saturdays, you can stick your officially endorsed hair-removal cream, you haven't properly arrived until you have an official band blanket. And not just any blanket, a blanket you can wear. Now, that's a band brand extension to be commended.

Weezer have teamed up with a US blanket company who make a product called a 'snuggie', which is a blanket with sleeves apparently, and they will launch a Weezer branded version of the blanket you wear, which will be called a 'wuggie'.

Frontman Rivers Cuomo told Rolling Stone: "A wuggie is basically exactly like a snuggie, except it says Weezer on it. The people at snuggie are doing it with us and promoting it with us. It's a totally legit snuggie".

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EC COMMISSIONER WELCOMES MOVES IN EUROPEAN COLLECTING SOCIETY COMMUNITY - WELL, MAINLY FRENCH MOVES
The European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has welcomed progress in the collecting society sector regarding the provision of pan-European licences for digital music.

As much previously reported, European officials have been in conflict with the collecting society community for a while about the lack of pan-European licences. Officials say that a system whereby providers of digital music services must get a separate licence from each national collecting society is anti-competitive, because the collecting society in each territory effectively has a monopoly.

They want each society to provide pan-European licences that give cross-border digital service providers the rights to use both songs from their own catalogue, but also the catalogues of other societies; licences which would be enabled through reciprocal agreements between competing societies, and/or pan-European agreements between publishers and societies. Aside from making things much easier for anyone wanting to launch a pan-European digital music service, such licences would force societies around Europe to compete with each other, thus ending the monopoly concerns.

Many collecting societies, while not necessarily opposing the concept of pan-European licences, dislike having such systems forced on them by regulators, while others argue that by forcing collecting societies to compete in this way the bigger societies will benefit to the detriment of smaller ones, meaning songwriting communities in smaller European markets lose out. They also fear the royalty rates received by individual songwriters will be pushed down as societies are forced to cut their rates in order to compete.

Anyway, deals are being done to allow more pan-European licensing, and it's those deals Kroes has welcomed. In particular a move by French collecting society SACEM, who have said they are ready to entrust other collecting societies with their repertoire for pan-European licensing, while offering to represent other societies' repertoire on a non-exclusive basis. That's the kind of commitment Kroes wants every European society to make.

Commenting on those and other developments, Kroes said yesterday: "There is a clear willingness expressed by major players in the online distribution of music in Europe to tackle the many barriers which prevent consumers from fully benefiting from the opportunities that the internet provides. I therefore encourage the major players, in particular publishers and collecting societies, to move quickly to adapt their licensing solutions to the online environment. I will review progress at the next meeting of the roundtable that I will organise shortly with other major players in the online music market".

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WILL ROC NATION PARTNER WITH SONY?
Following that speculation last week as to whether Jay-Z's new music company, Roc Nation, his JV with live music conglom Live Nation, would look to handle the marketing and distribution of its recordings in-house, or whether they would enter into a deal with a major to handle all that, HitsDailyDouble has reported that Sony might be in the running to get that deal.

That rumour seems to be based on the fact Jay-Z's business partner Jay Brown has been seen meeting with the boss of Sony's Columbia/Epic division Rob Stringer. An alliance with Sony wouldn't be too big a surprise given the major's recent appointment of singer-songwriter Amanda Ghost to the President's job of the Epic label. Ghost is managed by the Roc Nation team.

Insiders say the deal would be good for Sony who have lacked a credible urban music hub for sometime.

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WILLIAM MORRIS CHIEF MAY STEP DOWN
This is interesting. According to the New York Post, Jim Wiatt, former CEO of the William Morris Agency, who became Chairman of the merged William Morris Endeavour agency, is getting ready to step down.

Rival talent agencies William Morris and Endeavour, the former of which is active in the music space, only merged last month, with Wiatt becoming Chairman of the combined company, while another WMA exec, David Wirtschafter, as well as two Endeavour chiefs, Ariel Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, were named joint CEOs.

It's thought Wiatt has decided to step down rather than fight a battle for supremacy in the merged company with Emanuel, who, insiders say, has taken the initiative in the new management set up. At the time of the merger the radically different corporate cultures of the two firms was noted by some, and it seems Emanuel is ensuring the new larger company adopts his management style, despite the William Morris Agency's much longer history in the business.

In fact, Endeavour's relative youth as a company - it was founded 14 years ago - is arguably why execs from their have had the upper hand in this merger, with some feeling management style at WMA was a little antiquated for the modern entertainment industry. That goes for Wiatt personally too, because, while he's widely liked across the company and industry, he is also seen by some as being very much of the older generation.

HitsDailyDouble point out the slight irony in Emanuel essentially pushing Wiatt out of his job - Wiatt once fired Emanuel when they both worked at talent agency ICM.

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MORE ALLEGATIONS OVER LAST.FM USER DATA
TechCrunch has again claimed that Last.fm is handing over user-data to the Recording Industry Association Of America in violation of its own privacy code, though the CBS-owned music service continues to deny it is doing any such thing.

Such data could be useful to the RIAA because they could see which Last.fm subscribers were listening to music ahead of its official online release - if they were, those users must have accessed the music from unofficial sources (well, either that or they're journalists or label staff or friends or family of the band). As previously reported, as the record industry slowly comes to terms with the fact that rampant online piracy is now just a fact of life, label bosses remain extra sensitive when new music appears on file-sharing networks before it has been officially serviced even to radio - even though pretty much any album anyone is interested in leaks in this way these days. Labels argue such leaks screw up their marketing plans, and impact on sales in the all-important first week of release.

After an earlier TechCrunch story alleging Last.fm was colluding with the RIAA, something bosses at the London-based music service quickly denied, now the IT website has suggested that the collusion is between parent company CBS and the US record label trade body. They allege CBS asked for Last.fm user data for internal use, but then handed said data over to the RIAA.

Last.fm continue to deny any of their user data has reached the record label trade body.

It has to be said that, given Last.fm's privacy commitments to users, any data handed over to the RIAA presumably couldn't be used in court if the trade body decided to pursue copyright infringement litigation against any users who they reckoned were illegally accessing pre-release content, so you wonder why they'd want it in the first place. They could, I suppose, amass other evidence once they had identified users who consistently listen to pre-release music, or claim they had simply accessed a user's listening data from their publicly available Last.fm profile - which would work assuming the user wasn't deleting obviously illegally accessed track data from their public profile.

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SKY SONGS RUMOURS
The Register has reported that BSkyB's previously reported subscription-based music service could launch this side of the summer, offering access to a Spotify-style streaming music service for a monthly subscription of between £4.99 and £11.99.

The subscription would provide unlimited streaming and some downloads - five tracks with the cheapest subscription package, twenty or two albums with the most expensive. The service, working title Sky Songs, is a JV with Universal Music, though presumably it would look to licence music from all four majors and the bigger indies.

While Sky has not had huge success in developing successful online products, some point out they did successfully manage to launch the pay-TV model in a market where TV had previously been free to access. They also have an existing subscriber base of online and TV customers for whom Sky Songs could be an add-on service bundled in to existing subscription fees.

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ZUNE SERVICES TO BE ADDED TO THE XBOX
Microsoft have announced plans to integrate its Zune video service with their Xbox games console, an integration that had been widely rumoured. Specifics of the integration were not forthcoming though it's thought the Zune videos will replace the current Xbox Live Video Marketplace.

The Zune Marketplace currently feeds Microsoft's iPod competing Zune player, which has only ever gone on sale in North America and which, despite only having a relatively small market share, does have some fans among US-based digital music consumers. It's not clear if Zune services will be available to Xbox users outside the North American market.

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MORE BAUER RADIO CUTS
Following recent news of cuts in its magazine division, Bauer Media have announced it will be making more cuts in its radio business too, with 20 jobs likely to go from the firm's Big City network of FM stations, in particular in Scotland and the North. A spokesman for Bauer admitted: "In light of the continuing economic climate, we are looking to reshape some of our local teams. We have therefore reluctantly had to enter consultation with a small number of staff at each affected station to discuss these proposals. There will be no further comment until this consultation period has concluded".

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TOTAL ROCK WORLD ALBUM CHART
It's this week's Total Rock World Album Chart, as counted down on Total Rock last weekend - www.totalrock.com. New entries and re-entries marked with a *.

1. Nickelback - Dark Horse (Warner/Roadrunner)
2. AC/DC - Black Ice (Sony Music)
3. Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know (Warner/Roadrunner)
4. Bruce Springsteen - Working On A Dream (Sony Music)
5. Pearl Jam - Ten (Sony Music)
6. Theory Of A Deadman - Scars & Souvenirs (Warner/Roadrunner)
7. Papa Roach - Metamorphosis (Universal/Interscope)
8. Metallica - Death Magnetic (Universal/Mercury)
9. Mastodon - Crack The Skye (Warner Bros)
10. Lamb Of God - Wrath (Warner/Roadrunner)
11. Daughtry - Daughtry (Sony Music)*
12. Lacuna Coil - Shallow Life (Century Media)
13. Hatebreed - For The Lions (Century Media)*
14. Kid Rock - Rock - N Roll Jesus (Warner/Atlantic)
15. Shinedown - The Sound Of Madness (Warner/Atlantic)
16. Disturbed - Indestructible (Warner/Reprise)
17. Rise Against - Appeal To Reason (Universal/Geffen)
18. Static-X - Cult Of Static (Warner Bros)
19. Nickelback - All The Right Reasons (Warner/Roadrunner)
20. Guns N Roses - Greatest Hits (Universal/Geffen)

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I KISSED A GIRL (WHO I WAS IN A LONG TERM RELATIONSHIP WITH)
So, while it might appear that in 'I Kissed A Girl' Katy Perry was advocating casual sex and kissing other ladies on a whim, let's just get it straight right now that she wasn't. That sort of thing is disgusting.

Perry told New York Daily News: "For me, it's not a pastime, going out and meeting people and trying to hook up with people. That actually makes me feel disgusting. From a really early age, I was really sensitive to that. Getting your flirt on is the best thing in the world, but when it comes to sharing bodily fluids with a person I don't know - no thank you".

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FAME IS MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR GAGA
Lady GaGa would die if someone took her fame away. Luckily, she has found a way to be famous without anyone knowing.

She told Fox News: "I was told for a very long time that I was not pretty enough, too strange, not edgy enough. But I've always been famous, it is just that nobody knew. ... There are times when it can be a lot to deal with, but always when I get up in the morning I try to find that very joyful place that reminds me that I would die if someone took it all away. If someone did that I wouldn't be a person any more".

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