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NOTE: Make sure you 'enable images' to see this e-bulletin properly. WHAT IS THIS? You are receiving this e-bulletin because you are subscribed to the CMU Daily. Unsubscribe information is given at the bottom of this e-bulletin. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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PRESS OFFICER WANTED Leading independent music PR company looking for a Press Officer with experience in both online and traditional PR. Must be passionate, enthusiastic, intelligent, and a creative thinker. Knowledge of communications: PR, marketing, and blogging would be ideal, but not essential. If you are looking for a challenge within a dynamic company, please forward a copy of your CV to: [email protected] -- Advertise your jobs here: £100 for five editions - [email protected] |
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![]() 26 or younger and have never attended MIDEM? Grab your reduction now! Networking: Seek out key contacts and extend your professional network; make deals with your partners and identify new business opportunities. Educational content: access to the renowned MidemNet digital business conference at no extra cost; get concrete, practical knowledge and training from experts through workshops. Live concerts: hook up with partners and new contacts at the Opening and Closing Night Parties; discover new international artists with Talent showcases. MIDEM: the one stop destination for the world’s music community, 23-27 January 2010. Register now! Click here -- MIDEM 2010, Cannes: Intimate club venue available for hire in the Palais du Festival - to showcase your artists and bands. www.splashpromotions.co.uk - www.leylinepromotions.com -- SHOREDITCH OFFICE, 764 SQUARE FOOT (15-20 DESKS), £1000 PER MONTH -- Advertise your stuff here: £120 for five editions - [email protected] |
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![]() MYSPACE CLOSE TO BUYING IMEEM Financial matters relating to the deal negotiations are not known. The Warner Music-backed Imeem - originally developed by a team that included a number of people from the original Napster business - certainly has the better product. They have also made some interesting acquisitions in recent years, not least the purchase of the music-file fingerprinting company Snocap, the other business set up by original Napster founder Shawn Fanning. However, Imeem have been struggling financially, and earlier this year faced collapse as steep licensing bills from the major record companies started to mount up, while advertising and sell-through revenues weren't getting anywhere near covering the service's running costs. A combination of renegotiated record label deals and new investment kept Imeem in business, for the time being, but chances are the company is now facing another tricky time financially. Certainly the rumours have it MySpace is likely to get Imeem for a knocked down price. While MySpace's owners - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp - increasingly regret their $580 million purchase of the social networking platform in 2005, and have been busy ordering radical restructuring and downsizing of the operation, they do have access to large cash reserves should the right deal be on the table. If the MySpace and Imeem companies did join forces, it would be interesting to see whether there would be any attempt to actually merge the two websites. So far MySpace has kept its other recent digital music acquisition, iLike, separate. But, given that the main MySpace service is increasingly dominated by its music offering, and given the numerous technical problems with the entire MySpace system, there would be a definite argument for migrating the MySpace user base over to Imeem, and just shutting down the MySpace servers. And given that everyone in the social networking and streaming music space is struggling to make their finances add up, it would make sense to consolidate the three music services into one, if the technological challenges of doing so can be overcome. Either way, with MySpace, Imeem and iLike under one roof, it would give News Corp's internet business quite a hold over the US streaming music market in the US, especially as iLike is in part powering the new Google music search service. Though not even a combined MySpace, Imeem and iLike would assure dominance of the non-a-la-carte digital music space. Lala, also a partner in Google Music, would remain a sizeable competitor, and there's the ever-growing Grooveshark, which is now seen by many as the main innovator in the US market, a status once held by Imeem. And while YouTube doesn't push its status as the world's biggest video jukebox quite so much these days, it does still fulfil that function in most territories, and, of course, will power Vevo, the Universal and Sony backed music-video-on-demand service in development. And then, of course, there's Spotify's much anticipated arrival into the American market, due for early 2010. Basically, an Imeem acquisition might help News Corp in its bid to transform the slightly useless social networking platform it rather foolishly bought in 2005 into a serious player in digital music. But nothing is assured. MURRAY TO SUE OVER UNPAID FEES, AEG SAY NO CONTRACT However, according to TMZ no contract was ever signed by AEG or Michael Jackson, and the original agreement between the doctor and the promoter was that a contract must be signed before any deal became valid. The gossip site says AEG hope to use that fact to get out of paying the doctor anything. As much previously reported, Murray is under investigation for homicide amid allegations he caused the death of the late king of pop by negligently administering the drug propofol. -------------------------------------------------- POLICE SPEAK TO N-DUBZ IN RAPE INQUIRY back to top DARREN HAYMAN HOSPITALISED AFTER MUGGING According to The Nottingham Evening Post, Hayman was parking when one man pulled him out of his car and began punching and kicking him. Another man got into the drivers seat and attempted to push David Shepherd (the drummer in Hayman's backing band, The Secondary Modern) out of the passenger seat. When both musicians resisted, the attackers fled, but quickly returned with two or three others. As well as leaving Hayman with serious injuries, the men stole a sum of money from the car. In a message on Hayman's website, his wife Helen assured fans that he is recovering well, saying: "He was discharged from hospital lastnight and is now safely back in London. There should be no long lastingdamage, but he does have a linear fracture in his skull (this is the bestkind, apparently!), which will keep him fairly quiet for six weeks or so. Healso has a head wound, a bit of bruising, and a very nasty headache. However, they have prescribed a terrifying amount of painkillers to deal with this. He has made huge improvements since the incident". -------------------------------------------------- JACKSON JUNIOR SUFFERS FROM VITILIGO There has, of course, been much speculation about the parentage of all three of Jackson's children. While youngest son Blanket does have some of his father's features, many have remarked that Prince Michael and Paris look far too caucasian to have been fathered by Jackson, even if their mother was Debbie Rowe or another white egg donor. La Toya has also been talking about how Jacko's three children have been bearing up since their father's death back in June. She told the magazine: "Paris' bedroom is covered with posters of her father, Prince doesn't want to speak about it and Blanket is just very sad - he cries". A psychologist has been hired to help the children come to terms with their father's passing. BIG CHILL CHIEF GETS SPECIAL FESTIVAL AWARD Among the awards to be presented will one for Best Line Up which, unlike most of the other gongs, was chosen by a panel of judges rather than a public vote. Among the judges was CMU Editor Andy Malt, who did know who'd won, but had the information surgically removed from his brain by the team at VirtualFestival.com. We're just hoping that when he hears who's won at tomorrow's awards bash it doesn't bring on any dangerous flashbacks. Another award selected by pundits rather than punters is the Lifetime Achievement Award. With somewhat ironic timing - given the recent demise of the Big Chill company - this year that honour will go to Katrina Larkin, co-founder of the Big Chill enterprise. Of course the good news is that the Big Chill festival is set to live on thanks to a new deal with Festival Republic, and Larkin will remain at the helm, ensuring the quirky mix of music and other cultural nonsense that makes the festival so special will remain. Larkin is also set to guest on Cerys Matthews' radio show on BBC 6Music tomorrow afternoon ahead of the presentation of the award, and will talk about the development of the Big Chill brand ever since the initial parties at Islington's Union Chapel way back in 1994. -------------------------------------------------- TARTAN CLEF AWARDS LINE-UP ANNOUNCED JEDWARD BETTER THAN THE BEATLES Presumably Paddy Power are hoping their survey's headline will cash in on the Jedward phenomenon, causing lots of anger among music fans and generating the sort of media coverage and water cooler chatter that these made up PR surveys are meant to deliver. Oh, and remind people they can bet on the 'X-Factor' outcome on the betting website, obviously. Personally I'm more angry that A1 are nowhere to be seen on this best boy bands list. Anyway, here's what a spokesman for Paddy Power said: "We're genuinely gob-smacked with this result and would have presumed that the Fab Four would have easily topped this poll but once again Jedward have exceeded expectations and caused yet another upset". VELVET UNDERGROUND MEMBERS TO REUNITE BMG GOES ALL WIGGLY PIL RE-ISSUE OLD STUFF, TALK ABOUT NEW STUFF Anyway, maybe you'll be more impressed by the other PiL reissue coming out on the same day, 'Plastic Box', which is a 64 track, career-spanning, four disc set, packed with rarities and session tracks, which comes in a... well, you get the idea. For those of you not interested in all this old stuff, John Lydon has said that the band will record new material, so long as their upcoming tour nets them enough cash. Lydon told BBC 6music: "Yes, if I raise the money from this, I most definitely will [record new material]. But what you've got to understand with is that every single time we recorded we only had one take, no money". I'm not really sure if that means he wants to have a go at recording the band with a proper budget, or that he already knows that the tour won't earn him any money. But anyway, here's how he describes the PiL method of making records in the late 70s: "The Jam would pull out of [Townhouse Studios in London's] Goldhawk Road. They're writing their new hit wonderful album because they have lots of record company backing.We knew they'd left so we'd run in, quickly record it, and that's 'Metal Box' for you. That's basically the John Lydon approach to music - wham, bam, thank you mam". FIDDY SIGNS MULTIPLE MOVIE DEAL Speaking to Variety about 'The Gun', one of three scripts he has penned, 50 Cent said: "When you write a song, you need to say it in three minutes or it is overkill, but I like creating stories and going in depth with characters". -------------------------------------------------- BJÖRK WRITES MOOMIN SONG CHRIS T-T ANNOUNCES ALBUM AND TOUR In support of the album, Chris will also head out on a UK tour in March. Here are the dates: 6 Mar: Winchester, The Tower ------------------------------------------------- EVILE ANNOUNCE EUROPEAN TOUR The UK leg of the tour looks like this: 14 Jan: Cardiff, Barfly ALBUM REVIEW: Various Artists - Kitsune Maison Compilation 8 (Kitsune) Where to start with highlights when the quality is consistently high? Well, I guess The Drums with their new whistling classic 'Let's Go Surfing' is as good a place as any. It's pop enough to be included on 'Now That's What I Call Whistling... 17', and yet indie enough not to become annoying after five listens (I can't guarantee this song will never become annoying, but so far, so good). There's also a new track from Aussies Midnight Juggernauts, which I don't think quite matches up to their 'Dystopia' album but is still alright, while Diesel faves Heartsrevolution keep us dancing till dawn with, er, 'Dance Till Dawn', and Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos remixes Chew Lips to good effect. Delphic are another highlight with their poppy electro adding a smoother edge, while the encore of Crystal Fighters' 'I Love London' gets down and dirty with their Basque take on this type of thing. I could carry on and list every track on this album because frankly there is little let up and it keeps on giving until the end. I guarantee that you will have a number of new fave tunes if you give this a listen, and that can never be a bad thing. And if previous Kitsune compilations are anything to go by, you can either choose to discover these artists and songs now, or in about nine months time when everyone else does. IM Physical release: 16 Nov Buy from iTunes TERRA FIRMA WRITE DOWN EMI INVESTMENT Terra Firma, whose boss Guy Hands has been increasingly candid about what a big mistake it was to buy EMI with a big Citigroup loan back in 2007, has written off about 90% of its investment in the music firm. The value of Terra Firma's overall investment portfolio has already taken a number of hits because of EMIs woes, and the slow (or non-existent) return resulting from the equity group's radical restructuring of the music major's recorded music division. The fact Citigroup have been unable to share the risk of its loans as a result of the credit crunch hasn't helped, of course. Terra Firma is also withdrawing its execs from EMI's day-to-day operations. That might be because they feel their work has been done in revamping the EMI record labels. Or it might be because they now consider EMI to be a lost cause, and every hour of Terra Firma executive time spends there is just more wasted money. That said, insiders generally speak favourly of EMI Music big cheese Elio Leoni Sceti, and it's possible the music company will fair better if he's left to run it himself without Terra Firma interference. All of this has led to more gossiping about EMI's future. An increasing number of people expect Terra Firma to bail in the latter half of 2010, leading to renewed speculation of an EMI/Warner merger. -------------------------------------------------- WARNER BROS APPOINT NEW A&R CONSULTANT Confirming the new appointment, Warner Bros' Christian Tattersfield told CMU: "Ben is a first-class talentspotter, who has collaborated with an impressive range of artists. He is a strong addition to our A&R team at Warner Music, where artist development is paramount. We're very pleased to be working with him". -------------------------------------------------- KAISER CHIEFS DRUMMER LAUNCHES LABEL Hodgson told Teletext's Planet Sound: "We haven't signed anyone yet, but we're going to a load of gigs looking for potential bands. I hope we can find someone while I've got some time on my hands, now that the Kaisers are on a break". SHAZAM SUED OVER PATENTS -------------------------------------------------- THE PIRATE BAY TURNS OFF TRACKER Digital Music News explains that the people now running the Bay recognise that "BitTorrent clients like uTorrent, Vuze, and rtorrent are starting to migrate towards Distributed Hash Table (DHT) and Peer Exchange (PEX) protocols, a system that does not include a single point of failure". The aforementioned blog post also adds: "With decentralised fetching of metadata [torrents] we don't need to rely on a single server that stores and distributes torrent files. This is the future. And the present". And if anyone out there didn't follow any of that, then you're just not trying hard enough. ITV APPOINT NEW CHAIRMAN Finding a new CEO will be one of Norman's first tasks when he takes on his new job in January. The City responded well to his appointment, with ITV's share price up 4.7% first thing. -------------------------------------------------- EUROPE-WIDE SATELLITE RADIO OFFER IN DEVELOPMENT The service, from Ondas Media, would offer subscribers a number of channels and programmes, and would provide a new platform through which stations that currently only broadcast on the digital network and/or online in the UK could reach a Europe-wide audience. Jazz FM is already signed up to appear in the Ondas package. As with Sirius XM in the States, a big part of the sell of the satellite service would be that it would bring a big content offering into the cars of radio listeners. To that end deals to put the satellite radio system into Nissan and BMW cars are expected to be among the first announced by the Spanish media firm. -------------------------------------------------- ABSOLUTE RECORD LOSS, AS EXPECTED Adrian Robinson, Absolute Radio's CFO, told reporters: "This is exactly where we thought we would be at the end of 2008. The strategy has been to invest heavily in the national launch of Absolute Radio and in the product. We have made new talent signings like Frank Skinner, made a substantial investment in launching and marketing the new brand and continued innovation in the digital space, such as the recently announced dabbl and comparemyradio.com initiatives. This up front investment means short-term losses. However, we are building a successful digital company for the long-term". -------------------------------------------------- OFCOM PROPOSE RELAXING MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES It remains to be seen if the government adopts the proposals, though the Tories have already let it be known they will go that route should they win next year's General Election. -------------------------------------------------- SMASH HITS BACK WITH TAKE THAT SPECIAL Speaking about the new issue, McIlheney said: "Take That were the biggest thing in the Smash Hits world of the early '90s. It seems only right that we should salute them in the unique Smash Hits style". MD of music and film titles at Bauer Media, the magazine's publisher, Stuart Williams added: "There is no bigger act in the UK right now than Take That and we're delighted to be bringing everyone's favourite pop mag back for this very special issue". -------------------------------------------------- RAPPERS' MUMS TO HOST TV SHOW In a statement, Najm said: "Our vision is to be a premier talk show that delivers a creative and informative format that assists viewers in educating and solving challenging issues. There are situations in our communities, cities, states and even nationwide that people have made us aware of and they want to resolve the issues, but they just don't know where to get help or how to properly handle certain issues". No announcement of which channel will broadcast the show has yet been made, but hey, here's a picture of the three women sitting round a table to give you an idea of what the show might look like: img194.yfrog.com/i/4hpd.jpg/ THIS WEEK'S SUB.TV PLAYLIST A List LADY GAGA HAVING MICHAEL BOLTON'S BABY, OR SOMETHING -------------------------------------------------- DOLLY ROCKERS NOT DROPPED, JUST MOVING Anyway, this is what Lucy Kay from the group said via Twitter: "We haven't been dropped or split up. Our A&R is changing labels and we are going with him. ... This decision was made a few days ago". So there you go. |
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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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