BPI SAY ISPS COULD MAKE MILLIONS BY BECOMING DIGITAL MUSIC PROVIDERS
Lobbying groups on both sides of the three-strikes debate published research yesterday, as chatter on the Digital Economy Bill reached its final stages in the House Of Lords and preparations to take the slightly controversial proposed legislation to the House Of Commons began.

The copyright section of this Bill, of course, will introduce the three-strikes procedure for targeting prolific file-sharers, like the really evil ones, who probably also bully teddy bears and pull the legs of spiders. The new laws would allow a government agency - probably OfCom - to suspend those file-sharers' internet access, seize any cuddly toys in their possession and put an exclusion zone between them and all arthropods.

The first bit of research came from one of the groups who support three-strikes, record label trade body the BPI. Their researchers Ovum reckon that if the six biggest internet service providers were to launch internet packages that had a licensed digital music service bundled in this year, the extra revenue they could generate on an annual basis by 2013 would be £103 million, assuming there was a "medium adoption scenario", which is my favourite sort of scenario.

I'm not quite sure how they figured that out, but obviously the point is that the ISPs, who oppose three-strikes, and who complain about having to contribute to the cost of running any new anti-piracy systems, have something to directly gain from the legit digital music market expanding which, the BPI would argue, is only possible if the provisions in the DEB become law.

Commenting on the report, BPI top man Geoff Taylor told CMU: "It's increasingly clear that it isn't smart [for an ISP to just] be a 'dumb pipe'. This report shows that the revenue potential of digital music services alone makes sound economic sense for ISPs. UK music companies want to innovate and develop exciting new digital offerings. ISPs such as Virgin Media have recognised that legal digital music services offer a more exciting and profitable future than continued widespread piracy".

Of course, the idea that ISPs help content owners police piracy in return for the two parties collaborating on new services, bundled into ISP packages, and on which the net firms can earn, has been around for several years now, and was the basis for voluntary talks between the two industries before three-strikes legislation was on the agenda. Virgin Media have been most proactive in pursuing this option, though their aim to launch an allyoucaneat MP3 service as part of their ISP package never got off the ground because all the majors except Universal Music weren't too keen on the proposition.

The ISPs would probably argue that they are more than willing to form content partnerships with the music industry, but that the financial terms previously offered aren't acceptable, especially when bundled in with piracy policing demands. And it has to be said, any digital music service set up by an ISP would probably be awful.

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CONSUMER FOCUS SAYS LEGIT DIGITAL SERVICES HAVE LOW PROFILE
The other body publishing research this week is consumer rights group Consumer Focus, who generally oppose measures that could result in consumers having their net connections suspended.

Their study says that, while an increasing number of licensed digital music services are now available for those trying to move away from dodgy file-sharing, awareness of those services among the masses is pretty low. Even a much reported on service like Spotify has a relatively low profile among the masses, the consumer rights group says.

Consumer Focus says that more work must be done to promote legal services before any three-strikes style suspensions begin. Their boss Jill Johnstone told CMU: "The music industry is shooting itself in the foot by not promoting legal online music services. If file-sharing is causing the damage the music industry claims, why aren't they putting more effort in to promoting the legal alternatives? Before we go down the enforcement road it is only fair to ask the music industry to do more to make people aware of the legal options".

One of the issues, of course, is that since the original dot com boom most digital services have generally employed viral and word of mouth marketing to build user-bases rather than the sort of big budget ad campaigns which would reach mainstream consumers - therefore services which have a very high profile among early adopters are still a mystery to many.

The boss of one London-based legit music service, We7's Steve Purdham, agrees that this trend has had an impact on public awareness for licensed platforms, while adding that services like his prefer the sort of steady growth word of mouth delivers because it helps them keep better control of their user base, which can't grow too rapidly because of the costs of providing licensed music streams. He told CMU: "We7 has grown from zero to three million monthly UK users primarily by word of mouth. There is a significant reason [why we prefer that method] - the cost of providing the music can be significant. Ensuring growth keeps in pace with sales or funding is critical for a legal service".

Given the digital service providers often opt for 'below-the-line' marketing, does that mean the music industry should be funding a more high profile 'these are legit' campaign? Purdham, perhaps unsurprisingly, thinks so. He continued: "I think the biggest activity for the majors, government and music streaming services is to heavily promote the legal partners, such as We7, Last.fm and 7Digital, and drive that educational message home. We7 lets people have music for free with ads or a small monthly fee if they don't want ads. The best way to destroy piracy is to promote the legal services more aggressively".

Always keen to do its bit, CMU is currently putting together a list of all the licensed digital music services operating in the UK. It's very much a work in progress, but if you know about these things (or run a service) and can think of any legit services we are not currently listing, then drop us an email. You can see our work so far on this at www.legalmusicservices.co.uk.

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LIL WAYNE SENTENCED (NO, REALLY)
Well, I bet you never thought this day would come. After numerous delays, caused by emergency dental treatment and fire, Lil Wayne has finally been sentenced and sent to jail for those gun charges he pleaded guilty to last year.

As much previously reported, Wayne was arrested in 2007, following a search of his tour bus when a police officer discovered a .40 calibre handgun. He always denied owning the gun, until October last year, when he changed his plea following news that the prosecution believed it had DNA evidence that could link the rapper to the gun and that said evidence would be admissible in court during the trial.

He was originally due to be sentenced on 9 Feb, but at the last minute his legal team requested a postponement while he flew to Miami to see his dentist. He was scheduled to return to court again last Tuesday, but a fire in the basement meant the building had to be evacuated and no justice could be served.

Yesterday he finally made to court and was, as expected, sentenced to a year in prison (though he is only expected to serve eight months). He was taken to Rikers Island prison in New York and is, according to his lawyer Stacey Richman, expected to be held in protective custody away from the general prison population, though the authorities are apparently still deciding on that.

Richman told reporters as Wayne was taken away: "He knew what he had to do, and he's doing it".

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D'ANGELLO PLEADS NOT GUILTY
D'Angelo has pleaded not guilty to those previously reported charges of attempting to hire a prostitute. The R&B and 'neo-soul' type was arrested in New York at 2.30am on Sunday morning after allegedly approaching an undercover policewoman and offering her forty dollars for oral sex.

A statement issued by D'Angelo's manager Lindsay Guion yesterday said: "We know there is a lot of speculation in regard to the arrest of D'Angelo in New York City this past weekend. We would like his fans and the public at large to know that D'Angelo has pled not guilty and is contesting the allegations made against him. Also know that he is in good health and extremely excited about his forthcoming new album. D'Angelo would like to personally thank all of his fans for the outpouring of concern, and appreciates if all would allow the American justice system to resolve the matter before jumping to any conclusions".

So, in summary: definitely didn't do it, not ill, has new album coming out. Also, didn't do it, right?

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EMI REACH DEAL WITH TUNEWIKI OVER EXPANDED LYRIC SERVICES
A potential legal fight between EMI Music Publishing and lyrics service TuneWiki has been avoided after the two companies reached a settlement.

Digital Music News recently reported that the publishing major was unhappy that TuneWiki had extended its services so that they were operating outside the remit of their existing agreement. It was thought that part of the disagreement related to services TuneWiki provides to the Universal and Sony owned music video service Vevo.

But it seems the two parties have reached a settlement regarding TuneWiki's newer services without going legal. DMN quote EMI Publishing man Michael Abitbol as saying of the two company's new arrangement: "This deal is the perfect example of how the rightsholder and the end user can come together to solve a problem. It's in everybody's interest to expand the market for music and music-related products, and we're pleased to be able to help TuneWiki expand their offering in a way that works for them, songwriters and, most importantly, the consumer".

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UNIVERSAL CHIEF TO GET MUSIC WEEK LIFETIME GONG
Music Week have announced that the lifetime achievement gong at this year's Music Week Awards will go to Universal Music International chief Lucian Grainge, who, as previously reported, will become the overall top man at the music major at the end of the year. The trade mag call their lifetime achievement prize the Strat.

Music Week editor Paul Williams says this: "Lucian Grainge's contribution not just to the UK music industry but to the business globally has been extraordinary, so it should be a very special moment when he receives this award on 15 Apr. It will not only mark what he has achieved so far, but will help to usher in this incredible next chapter in his career. By announcing beforehand he is getting this, it means everyone who wants to will be able to share in this moment in person".

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RADIOHEAD NOT RECORDING ANYTHING
Radiohead have denied rumours that the band are working on a new album, rumours that were fuelled by recent suggestions by guitarist Ed O'Brien that they were, and then by an email circulated this week claiming to announce the album's title and tracklist.

The email, sent to a number of music journalists this week, and appearing to be from an email address registered to the band's WASTE website, announced that the new album would be called 'Tehrangles' and gave an eleven song tracklist, which included songs previously performed by Thom Yorke at solo shows. Well, it did if you understand binary code, apparently.

The email looked like this: www.tinymixtapes.com/radiohead-binary.html

In December, O'Brien said via the band's blog: "The vibe in the camp is fantastic at present, and we head off into the studio in January to continue on from the work we started last summer. I am so genuinely excited about what we're doing, but for obvious reasons I can't divulge anything more. Anyway, we all love surprises, don't we?"

Apparently that was just a little joke of his own. Gosh, this is fun, isn't it? (If you failed to answer "no" to that question, I hope it was because you were distracted by my use of the word "gosh".)

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FOO FIGHTERS START WORK ON NEW ALBUM
When he's not playing in every other band in the entire world, Dave Grohl is frontman of Foo Fighters, who, he has revealed, have started writing material for their seventh album.

Grohl told 6music: "Foo Fighters have just started writing and we're going to start recording in September, so life is full of music".

He added that a new Them Crooked Vultures album should also be ready "by the end of the summer".

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PENDULUM ANNOUNCE NEW SINGLE
Having received its first play on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show last night, Pendulum have announced that they will release 'Watercolour', the first single from their third album 'Immersion', on 3 May. The album itself will follow on 24 May.

As previously reported, Pendulum will also embark on a tour of the UK, including a show at London's Wembley Arena, in May, with support from Sub Focus.

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JONNY GREENWOOD RECORDS SOUNDTRACK FOR MURAKAMI ADAPTATION
Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood will provide the soundtrack to the film adaptation of Haruki Murakami's novel 'Nowegian Wood'. The score will be based on a composition written by Greenwood for the BBC Concert Orchestra, which was debuted at Maida Vale Studios last month.

Speaking about the piece, Greenwood said: "I wrote [it] mostly in hotels and dressing rooms while touring with Radiohead. This was more practical than glamorous - lots of time sitting indoors, lots of instruments about - and aside from picking up a few geographical working titles, I can't think that it had any effect where, on tour, it was written".

The film is expected to be released in the autumn. It is being directed by Oscar nominated French director Tran Anh Hung and stars Kenichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi and Kiko Mizuhara.

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THE SPECIALS PREPARE FOR NME BIG GIG
The Specials will headline the NME Big Gig 2010 at the Royal Albert Hall on 29 Mar, having been awarded the Outstanding Contribution prize at the NME Awards last month. The show will also act as one of this year's Teenage Cancer Trust shows, which are curated by The Who's Roger Daltrey.

NME Editor Krissi Murison told CMU: "There are few bands you can truly call revolutionary, but The Specials are certainly one of them. After 30 years of entertaining and inspiring in equal measure, it is an honour to have them both at the NME Awards and headlining the Big Gig".

Tickets are available now exclusively from www.nme.com/tickets.

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FEVER RAY ANNOUNCES LONDON SHOW
Fever Ray, aka her out of The Knife, has announced that she will play a show at Brixton Academy in London in September ahead of her appearance at Bestival. Tickets are available now.

Tour dates:

8 Sep: London, Brixton Academy
11 Sep: Bestival

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SONICS AND UNDERTONES CONFIRMED FOR LE BEAT BESPOKE
Legendary 60s garage rock band The Sonics will bring to a close Le Beat Bespoke Weekender, which will take place at 229 in London next month. Also on the bill are The Undertones and The Polecats, the latter of which includes Morrissey collaborator Boz Boorer amongst their number.

Full line-up details for the event are as follows:

1 Apr: James Hunter
2 Apr: The Undertones, Thee Vicars
3 Apr: Thee Exciters, David Peter & The Wild Sect (afternoon show)
3 Apr: The Polecats, Wau Y Los Arggghs!!! (evening show)
4 Apr: The Sonics

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FESTIVAL LINE-UP UPDATE

NASS, Royal Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, 9-11 Jul: Bowling For Soup, Hadouken! and Chase & Status have been announced as main stage headliners for this year's NASS. They will join previously confirmed acts Andy C with MC GQ, Nero & MC Jakes, Friction, Danny Bird, Kidda and many more. www.relentlessnass.com

ONE LOVE FESTIVAL, Hainault Forest Country Park, London, 6-8 Aug: Amongst the latest acts confirmed for the One Love Festival are Horace Martin, Earl 16, Dub Heart and Tippa Irie. Also confirmed are Aruba Red, Disrupt and Soom T, DJ Syte, Dub Mafia, Gappy Ranks, Hot Dub Bikini Party, Lloyd Brown, Madia and Fluxy and The Skints. www.onelovefestival.co.uk

OXEGEN, Punchestown Racecourse, Naas, Ireland, 8-11 Jul: Arcade Fire and Fatboy Slim are the latest acts announced to play this year's Oxegen. Headliners for this year's festival are Eminem, Muse and Kasabian. www.oxegen.ie

ROCK NESS, Loch Ness nr Inverness, Scotland, 11-13 Jun: Pendulum have been added as a Friday night headliner at this summer's Rock Ness. They join a line-up that includes the likes of The Strokes, Fatboy Slim, Leftfield, Doves and Vampire Weekend. www.rockness.co.uk

SELLINDGE MUSIC FESTIVAL, Hope Farm, Sellindge, Kent, 11-13 Jun: Reverend And The Makers and Lee Scratch Perry have been confirmed as headliners for Sellindge Music Festival, with support coming from Johnny Foreigner, Liam Frost, Laura Vane, The Foxes, Mean Poppa Lean and Floors & Walls. www.sellindgemusicfestival.co.uk

UNDERAGE FESTIVAL, Victoria Park, Hackney, London, 1 Aug: MIA and Tinie Tempah head up the latest acts confirmed for this year's Underage, along with Tinchy Stryder, Hadouken!, Caspa & Rod Azian, Chase & Status and Lightspeed Champion. www.underagefestivals.com

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ALBUM REVIEW: Glee - Glee: The Music: Volume 1 (Sony/Columbia)
'Glee' is a very special thing. If you haven't had the pleasure of watching it yet, I suggest that you do. Right now. Go on. I swear, 'Who is Josh Groban? KILL YOURSELF!' will be your new favourite insult.

So, this album has been out for a while (well, nearly a month), as has the show, which has been airing in the US of A since last autumn. But my CMU colleagues have been a bit dismissive about the whole thing so far, so I thought I'd make a belated leap into the Reviews slot to sing its praises.

'The Music: Volume 1' is a selection of fantastic covers as sung on the first series of the show. Every corner of pop music is touched, old and new, from Kanye (the cover of 'Gold Digger' sells this album alone) to Winehouse, and from Queen to Heart, along with some added gems from classic and contemporary Broadway productions such as 'Wicked' and 'Cabaret'.

Okay, so not everyone is going to love this - musical theatre is a tricky thing and has a somewhat... acquired taste, if you can call it that. But, 'High School Musical' this is not! 'Glee' does everything that Disney should be doing, if they could just shake off their right-wing sensibilities (ooh, hooray for them for finally creating an African-American princess!). A true and absolutely needed positive representation of diversity, it's chock-full of cheese, but in the best possible way. TW

Physical release: 15 Feb
Press contact: Sony Music IH [NP], Lucid PR [O]

Buy from iTunes
Buy from Amazon

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NEW MTV INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL CHIEF
MTV Networks International has announced that Philip Bourchier O'Ferrall has been promoted to the role of Senior Vice President Digital Media, which will see him overseeing all of the music channel's non-US multi-media and online whatnots. He has previously headed up the firm's digital teams in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia, and will continue to do so.

He will report to MTV International President Robert Bakish, who told CMU: "Our digital ambition is to be on all of the platforms that are relevant to our audience. I am confident that Philip will drive robust growth for MTV International's digital business as he has for MTV UK".

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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. Muse - The Resistance (Warner Bros)
2. HIM - Screamworks: Love In Theory And Practice (Warner Bros)
3. Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe 2 (Warner/Roadrunner)
4. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures (Sony Music)
5. Foo Fighters - Greatest Hits (Sony Music)
6. Queen - Absolute Greatest (EMI)
7. Nickelback - Dark Horse (Warner/Roadrunner)
8. Journey - Greatest Hits (Sony Music)
9. Daughtry - Leave This Town (Sony Music)
10. The Who - Greatest Hits/Greatest Hits Live (Universal Music)
11. Guns N Roses - Greatest Hits (Universal/Geffen)
12. Bon Jovi - The Circle (Universal/Mercury)
13. Pearl Jam - Backspacer (Universal)
14. Lostprophets - The Betrayed (Visible Noise)
15. Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of (Warner Bros)
16. Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue (EMI/Parlophone)
17. Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown (Warner Bros)
18. Shinedown - The Sound Of Madness (Atlantic)
19. Kiss - Sonic Boom (Warner/Roadrunner)
20. Fear Factory - Mechanize (Candlelight)*

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NOFX FRONTMAN PLEASED WITH HOW MUGGING WENT
NOFX frontman Fat Mike has revealed that he was recently mugged in Buenos Aires. However, he said that he was happy with the general outcome of the incident, in which his phone was stolen, giving the robber points for style and not hitting him.

Writing on the band's website, he said that his iPhone, "which has a fuck load of pictures that I don't really want made public", was snatched out of his hand by a man on a bike as he wrote a text message. He said: "I kind of laugh and think, pretty sneaky. What a fucking great way to get robbed. No violence, no trauma, no chance I'm gonna run after him. Pretty sweet really. I also had a few hundred bucks in the phone case, but I would rather lose that then get held up at gunpoint or bashed in the head with a pipe. So even though I lost, I really kind of won. South America ain't such a bad place after all".

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KE$HA COMPLAINS ABOUT THINGS OF HER OWN MAKING
Ke$ha, you know, her who's been around for about two and a half minutes and has done little of note save for releasing a single about what a crazy party girl she is, has said that she doesn't get enough respect in the music industry and is sick of being seen as some kind of crazy party girl.

She told The Sunday Times; "So many people say: 'So, what, are you a party girl?' And I say: 'I'm a walking good time'. Do I sometimes go out and drink? Hell, yes. But could I have a number one song if I wasn't also working hard? Maybe that needs a little more respect.Also, the phrase 'party girl' implies someone who is out at a club, maybe doing some guy in the back who you've just met. Then you get in your car and you flash your vagina at the paparazzi. And I'm none of the above".

She continued: "I have been working on realising this dream, my path, my mission, for years. I've really invested a lot of thought, time and effort into it. The last thing that makes me is a victim. I think it's a bummer when people don't represent that properly, when they portray me as purely one-dimensional".

She also said she's not ashamed of making pop music, which is lucky: "This is nothing to be embarrassed about. People like to have fun. And sure, there's my deepest, darkest hipster side that wants, for whatever pretentious reason, to hate pop music. But I'm just trying to give people a way to think, it's cool, you can not hate my record. You know, it's okay [to like it]".

Having heard her album, I can confirm that it is indeed okay to like it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, no matter how wrong it is.

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