LOTS OF PEOPLE TALK ABOUT FILE-SHARING - CUT EM OFF OR SUE EM?
America's Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator - or Copyright Czar as she is often dubbed - Victoria Espinel, did a spot at the Future Of Music Policy Summit in Washington earlier this week and, according to the Chicago Tribune, confirmed that work was already underway in US government circles to persuade internet service providers Stateside to play a more proactive role in policing piracy. She didn't talk about three-strikes, but it's what she meant.

As previously reported, Espinel published a 33 point plan for protecting intellectual property in the digital age back in June, at a press conference where US Vice President Joe Biden said "piracy is theft, clean and simple - it's smash and grab, it ain't no different than smashing a window at Tiffany's". Of all the things mentioned in her original document, she honed in on three at the Washington music conference this week: pressurising ISPs to act; new measures to block websites that infringe, especially those based outside the US; and a review of American copyright law.

All of which, really, mirrors efforts in Europe and elsewhere regards combating piracy - in particular in the UK where the two main copyright components of the Digital Economy Act were three-strikes and injunctions to block copyright infringing websites (though the latter was considerably watered down before the Act became law). Although being clear on her priorities, Espinel didn't give much indication as to how they things will be specifically achieved, nor as to whether the American ISPs were responding well to suggestions they should step up their anti-piracy efforts. I suspect they're not keen. ISPs elsewhere haven't been.

Talking of ISPs elsewhere, in similar news the boss of Warner Music Europe, the man they call Johnny Reid, and a certain Sharon "of the Corrs" Corr were also talking three-strikes this week, this time at The Music Show in Dublin. As you may recall, three-strikes is already underway in Ireland, but with only one internet service provider - albeit the biggest, Eircom - on board. This is because the three-strikes system was agreed between the record labels and Eircom direct as part of a settlement agreement to a civil copyright action, and was not instigated by a change in the law.

According to Hot Press, Reid told the conference that the Irish three-strikes system needed to be expanded to include other ISPs, probably through new laws. Corr, meanwhile, was even more frank, declaring "A Digital Economy Act needs to be brought in to Ireland. Legislation needs to be put through and implemented". Backing up the call for government action, Reid stressed just how badly the Irish record industry was doing, telling the conference: "The whole value chain is at risk [from piracy]. The Irish business is down 50% in the past five years and it will take another year or two [to bottom out]".

Of course, moves to force the ISPs to suspend or disconnect persistent file-sharers are based on a theory held by many, though not all, in the music biz that suing fans directly - as current copyright laws allow - is inefficient. Though a certain Gene Simmons reckons the US record industry's attempt to sue file-sharing out of existence failed not because it was a flawed approach, but because they just didn't sue enough people.

Speaking at yet another conference, this time MIPCOM in Cannes, the Kiss man said: "Make sure your brand is protected. Make sure there are no incursions. Be litigious. Sue everybody. Take their homes, their cars. Don't let anybody cross that line". On the record industry's current woes, he continued: "The music industry was asleep at the wheel and didn't have the balls to sue every fresh-faced, freckle-faced college kid who downloaded material. And so now we're left with hundreds of thousands of people without jobs. There's no industry".

So take note Reid, Corr and Espinel. What you really should be doing is suing every single person on the planet. Well, if nothing else, it would be kinda funny.

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TINIE TEMPAH AND JAY SEAN TO PERFORM AT MOBOS
MOBO Awards organisers have announced that Tinie Tempah and Jay Sean will perform live at this year's big bash, due to take place in Liverpool later this month. They join the previously announced JLS, N-Dubz, Professor Green, and Alesha Dixon.

As previously reported, Tinie Tempah is ahead in the nominations stakes this year, picking up four. He's followed by N-Dubz, with three nominations.

This year's MOBO Awards will be held at the Liverpool Echo Arena on 20 Oct, preceded by two days of workshops and masterclasses for aspiring music types at the city's Contemporary Urban Centre, details of which here: www.contemporaryurbancentre.org/industrytakeover

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BOYSETSFIRE REFORM
Four years after deciding to call it a day in 2006, post-hardcore types BoySetsFire have had a change of heart and decided to get back together. Though for what, other than a gig in Germany later this year, they currently seem unsure.

A statement posted on the band's website says: "We were a band for over a decade. We decided that we wanted to try different things with our lives. So we stopped playing music together. It wasn't Noel/Liam Gallagher ugly; we parted as friends and we generally see or talk to each other all the time".

It continues: "I think we underestimated how much we would miss it. The communion, the intensity, the genuine outpouring of emotion - it just doesn't exist for us without BoySetsFire. So we are going to start playing together again. All we know now is that BoySetsFire is playing in Berlin on 5 Dec".

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BARBERSHOP QUARTET SIGN TO SONY MUSIC
With no more fishermen, priests or plumbers left to sign (actually, ignore that last one), the time has come to create novelty vocal groups whose defining characteristic is not what they do for a living. Sony Music's recently reborn Arista UK label has signed barbershop quartet The Great British Barbershop Boys to one of those meaningless "£1 million record deal" things.

Okay, there's still a nod to good honest employment in there, but none of them actually cut hair, so I'm still right. One works for the police, one is a teacher, one is a sign writer and the other is an IT project manager. So now you know.

The group were spotted at the International Barbershop Convention in Philadelphia (of course) earlier this year and snapped up for an album release. It'll be out in time for Christmas, which is lucky because it exclusively features Christmas songs and is called 'Christmas Time'.

Arista's General Manager Richard Connell had this to say: "The barbershop quartet really is the origin of what we know today as the 'boyband'. It's a wonderful tradition, rich in rules and regulations but above all hugely encouraging of creativity and collaboration. Communities literally come together around their local quartet where lifelong bonds of friendship and loyalty are formed".

'Christmas Time' will be released on 6 Dec.

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BLOOD STAIN CHILD SIGN TO CORONER
Italian record label Coroner Records has announced that it has signed Japanese death metal band Blood Stain Child, and will release the band's fifth album next spring.

Meanwhile, the band themselves also announced that they have added Greek vocalist Sophia and former Youthquake drummer GAMI to their line-up, as they begin recording the album, which is being produced by Coroner owner and Disarmonia Mundi frontman Ettore Rigotti.

The band are on MySpace and everything, have a listen: www.myspace.com/bloodstainchildmusic

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MUMFORD & SONS TO "TEAR DOWN" THEIR SOUND
In a new interview with the NME, Mumford & Sons have said they want to start with a blank page in terms of writing and recording their second album.

Keyboard player Ben Lovett told the magazine: "I would like - to an extent - to tear down everything we built with [debut album] 'Sigh No More' and start again with the second album. There are things in our lives that carry more weight and substance than simply saying, 'Things are going really well, let's write some songs about that.' There's more to life than the success of this band".

Frontman Marcus Mumford added that coming back with the same sound again may work against them: "We've had a very long honeymoon period. I'm sure that people will start disliking us more publicly, because our music is becoming more public and not everyone is going to like it".

Ben Lovett put together a Powers Of Ten playlist for CMU Weekly earlier this year. Now would seem like a good time to link to it: www.theCMUwebsite.com/playlists/mumfordandsons.html

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OU EST LE SWIMMING POOL ALBUM STREAMING ON FACEBOOK
For reasons of which I'm not certain, the UK release of Ou Est Le Swimming Pool's album, 'The Golden Year', did not come out on Monday, as had been planned, and will instead now come out next week. However, the band have made the album available to stream in full on their Facebook page.

To listen, head over to www.facebook.com/0uEstLeSwimmingPool

As previously reported, the record release comes just weeks after the death of frontman Charles Haddon, who committed suicide at the Pukkelpop festival in Belgium in August. A tribute gig took place at Koko in London on Monday, with artists including Tony Hadley, The Kooks and Mr Hudson turning out to perform in memory of Haddon.

The event was hosted by CMU columnist Eddy Temple-Morris, who wrote this plea for young men to learn to talk about their feelings ahead of the show: eddysays.thecmuwebsite.com/post/Ou-est-le-conversation.aspx

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JAPAYORK TO RELEASE DEBUT SINGLE VIA POPJUSTICE HI-FI
After generating a bit of buzz earlier this year, pop singer Japayork has announce that he will release his debut single, 'Teenagers', via the Popjustice Hi-Fi label on 5 Dec.

On the theme of the song, Japayork says: "Even though you might not be your happiest when you're stuck at school or stuck at work or stuck wherever, as soon as you see your friends and drink a bunch and dance a bunch, everything seems fine for a while. It's about coming together to forget what we did today, or yesterday. And it works".

You can watch the video for 'Teenagers' here: youtu.be/G42Rx2e1JJ0

What's more, you can download B-side, 'Lydia', for free here: www.popjusticehi.fi/downloads/lydia.mp3

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ELIJAH WOOD NOT PLAYING IGGY POP
Iggy Pop has revealed that Elijah Wood was due to play him in a biopic depicting his life during the rise and fall of The Stooges. However, the whole film seems to have been canned after the singer refused to do any promotional work for it (though he continues to do those Swiftcover ads).

Pop told Triple J: "I think it's on the shelf. It's nothing against Elijah, and the script was OK, but they sort of wanted me to jump out of cakes and do promotional things and I didn't really want to get involved. [Plus], I didn't think it was time for someone else to tell our story because, inevitably, it's not just my story, it's everybody I worked with".

However, he added that fans will be able to see his story being told on the big screen, but via a documentary rather than a biopic. A doc is apparently in development, directed by Jim Jarmusch. But, as for another biopic project, Pop would rather wait until he's dead. And then Lindsay Lohan has permission to play him on screen.

Iggy: "You know, I'm not dead yet. When I'm dead then people can do that [make a biopic] to me. If somebody did want to make a biopic of me, I think they should get Lindsay Lohan, actually. She looks like me and she's the only one with enough attitude, too. They could tape her boobs up or something. She's been in jail at the right age and everything, so I thought she could do it".

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RATATAT ANNOUNCE UK TOUR
Ratatat have announced some headline shows to fit around their UK dates with Vampire Weekend later this year, finishing up with a show at London's Heaven on 7 Dec.

The band released their fourth album, 'LP4', earlier this year, and you can watch the video for their latest single, 'Drugs', here: youtu.be/KhrteSZXFzM

Full tour dates:

25 Nov: Blackpool, Empress Ballroom Arena (supporting Vampire Weekend)
26 Nov: Wolverhampton, Civic Hall (supporting Vampire Weekend)
Ratatat UK tour supporting Vampire Weekend
27 Nov: Manchester, Deaf Institute
28 Nov: Edinburgh, Corn Exchange (supporting Vampire Weekend)
29 Nov: Sheffield, Academy (supporting Vampire Weekend)
1 Dec: Brighton, Centre (supporting Vampire Weekend)
2 Dec: London, Alexandra Palace (supporting Vampire Weekend)
3 Dec: London, Alexandra Palace (supporting Vampire Weekend)
4 Dec: Brighton, Coalition
5 Dec: Bristol, Thekla
7 Dec: London, Heaven

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HAFDIS HULD ANNOUNCES UK TOUR DATES
Hafdis Huld will be back in the UK again later this month to further promote her latest album, 'Synchronised Swimmers', which was released through Red Grape Records earlier this year.

The album's title track will be released as a single on 1 Nov. You can listen to it on SoundCloud here: soundcloud.com/redgrape/hafdis-huld-synchronised-swimmers

Tour dates:

26 Oct: Portsmouth, The Cellars
28 Oct: Birmingham, The Glee Club
29 Oct: Sunderland, Independent Room 2
31 Oct: Twickenham, Harlequins Stadium
1 Nov: London, Source Below3 Nov: London, Borderline (supporting Richard Walters)
3 Nov: London, The Hideaway (late performance)
4 Nov: Brighton, Three And Ten
5 Nov: Manchester, Band On The Wall (supporting Richard Walters)
9 Nov: Bristol, Thekla
11 Nov: Bath, The Porter

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ANOTHER EMI PUBLISHING EXEC MOVED INTO A TOP RECORDINGS ROLE
Dan McCarroll danced a little jig yesterday. Right in the middle of 5th Avenue, New York. It was just a little jig. Not a big jig. That would have been overly flamboyant. But it was a nice jig, that I can confirm. And don't worry, he didn't get run over. He jigged in such a way that traffic could continue to pass on both sides. It was a very clever jig.

And why the jigging? Well, he was celebrating of course, because he's just been promoted to the job of President of EMI's Capitol & Virgin Label Group for the whole of North America. We know this because EMI top geezer Roger Faxon confirmed it to be so. The Fax was on the phone first thing yesterday to say "The man Dan is my creative guy in publishing no longer, he's now my top records dude". Or words to that effect. I wasn't really listening if I'm being honest, I was too buys watching web cam footage of the jig.

It's an interesting appointment, I suppose, because it sees Faxon - formerly boss of EMI Music Publishing and now top man of the whole of EMI, of course - slip another of his publishing executives into a senior role in the music major's recordings division. And two of the EMI label's existing US A&R chiefs, Steven Melrose and Leonard Brooks, will depart to make room. McCarroll's task, it seems, is to "reinvigorate" the EMI record labels' creative performance in the US. He better stop jigging and get on with it, then.

Faxon also told us: "Dan has an unswerving commitment to putting the artists and repertoire back into A&R. He has demonstrated a phenomenal ability to work in partnership with artistic talent in order to create positive outcomes for the people he represents. It is this passion and commitment that makes Dan stand out, and that will make him such a success in this new role".

For legal reasons, we must point out McCarroll did not really rush out of EMI's New York headquarters to dance a celebratory jig as soon as his promotion was confirmed yesterday. No, that would be too much fun.

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AOL UK RELAUNCH MUSIC SITE
AOL, which still operates in Britain apparently (who knew?), has just revamped its UK music site, and is relaunching its AOL Sessions programme, too. The web firm says its new music platform will have quality news and interviews, though photos and video seem to be at the heart of the new proposition.

With that in mind, UK-specific Sessions videos will be produced for the first time in three years, and that content, plus the AOL Sessions archives, will be available via the new music portal. So that's all lovely.

Go see: music.aol.co.uk

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RESONANCE APOLOGISE FOR TARDY TUNDRA DROPPING
London-based community radio service Resonance FM has apologised over the way it handled the 'resting' of a show hosted by Max Tundra, and for accusing the musician and producer of being a "prima donna" when he complained about it.

In a posting on his own website, Tundra explained this week how he was contacted in August by the station's Content Manager Richard Thomas who explained his weekly show - Rotogravure - would be taken off Resonance's weekend schedule from November, but with plans to relaunch it in the spring of 2011. Thomas also proposed making some changes to the show's format, in particular adding some 'journalistic' features into the mix.

Tundra then published the polite email he sent back in response, asking for confirmation of the exact date of his last show and for a meeting to discuss the programme's future, expressing some concern for Thomas' plans to make the show more journalistic - Tundra is, after all, a producer and music fan, not a journalist. Thomas failed to respond. Then last Saturday a friend of Tundra, who also works at the community station, called the producer to tell him he'd just received an email saying 'Rotogravure' had been axed with immediate effect.

Tundra remarks: "I took great offence at the fact that a radio station Content Manager would send an email informing [me] of plans to alter a long-running radio show, then fail to respond to a perfectly polite reply sent that same day, eschewing any further discussion in favour of dropping the show from the schedule without warning - a whole month before the original date suggested - and failing to let me know that this was happening, despite having five weeks in which to do so. For this reason, among others, I decided to call it a day, telling Resonance FM that I no longer wished [them] to broadcast my show".

On Monday, presumably after receiving Tundra's resignation, someone posted on the Resonance FM Twitter feed: "The old chestnut of too many prima donna's and not enough Maradonas seems to chime particularly nauseatingly today. A glut of ego gymnastics from Max Tundra, the author of 'Masturbated By A Guy For Small Change', doesn't help either". The last sentence alludes, of course, to Tundra's 2002 album 'Mastered By Guy At The Exchange'.

Tundra's blog on the whole issue understandably sparked a little bit of outrage among Resonance fans, resulting in a public climb down from the station. An open letter from the service's directors published yesterday reads: "Resonance104.4fm would like to apologise unreservedly to Max Tundra and to all our listeners and friends for the way in which the resting of Max's programme 'Rotogravure' was handled. The station accepts that this incident was managed inappropriately and that the comments about this matter on Twitter were both improper and offensive".

It continues: "The station would like to clearly restate that it highly values Max Tundra's unique work, alongside the work of all its programme makers who give their time and extraordinary talent so generously and make Resonance104.4fm what it is. Everyone at the station is mortified by this awful mistake. We have deleted the Twitter comments and are currently undergoing a review of our scheduling, show-rotation and programming policies so that these are transparent to all programme makers and staff, and to ensure that such a mistake does not happen again".

Of course, as much as we all love the Resonance FM ethos and most of its output, it is worth noting this tardy treatment of on-air talent isn't new. The hosts of one of Team CMU's favourite former Resonance shows - 'Mr Trick And Wrongtom (On Your Radio)' - also found out their show had been axed on the grapevine having received no official notification from station staff.

Stressing that he understands and respects Resonance's policy of resting shows from time to time, to free up airtime for others, Mr Trick wrote on his blog yesterday: "It feels like more and more programme makers have been left feeling upset by the way in which they have been dropped. Sadly it appears it took this episode rippling around the social web and generating a lot of negative press to bring that to light".

He adds: "I love Resonance. Like Max Tundra, I love that it is one beacon of independence in a desperately dull radio landscape. However the treatment of various programme makers has been a real black spot on the station's name and left a lot of people feeling disgruntled at the way in which they were treated. I can't speak for others but I loved my involvement with the station but now feel like that passion has been replaced by simple resentment. To me, that's a real shame. Let's hope this episode ensures that such negative events never happen again".

Resonance's directors stress that a lot of their off-air staff, like their on-air talent, work for free, but says it is reviewing the way it trains its volunteers.

Max Tundras blog: rotogravure.blogspot.com/2010/10/ego-gymnastics_04.html
Resonance's apology: resonancefm.com/archives/5045
Mr Trick's blog: mrtrick.posterous.com/my-response-to-resonances-apology-to-max-tund

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GOOGLE TV ANNOUNCE MUSIC PARTNERS
Google has announced that when it launches its new TV-over-IP platform, Google TV, which will bring internet-delivered services to TV sets in the US, it will come with music stuff powered by VEVO, Napster and Pandora. So that's fun. Telly and film content, meanwhile, will come from HBO, Turner, Netflix and Amazon.

Google TV will launch in the US later this month, though there are currently no plans to expand outside of America.

So, over here we'll have to make do with BT Vision, Virgin Media and the in-development YouView. And given some commentators reckon YouView - backed, as it is, by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five, as well as Arqiva, BT and TalkTalk - will be so powerful it will stop anyone else entering the British web-TV market, you may have to make do with those three forever.

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MTV TO STOP BEING FREE IN GERMANY
MTV has announced that its main German channel will only be available via subscription-based digital TV platforms from 2011. Currently the music channel is available free-to-air in Germany, unlike here in the UK where only the MTV-owned Viva channel is available on Freeview. Viva, which began life as an independent music station in Germany, will continue to be free there also.

MTV owners Viacom say the move in Germany is a bid to kickstart the "growth in the landscape of subscriber services". I'm not quite sure what that means, and given viewers won't subscribe to the MTV service directly, but via long established subscription-based TV services, I'm not quite sure how big a change to the "pay-TV landscape" the move will create. Will MTV alone really make anyone who has previously shunned pay-TV sign up? More likely MTV is struggling to cover the costs of running two channels through ad sales alone, so is desperately looking to increase the revenues it gets from the digital telly networks.

Interestingly, the move in Germany is the opposite to the music channel's recent strategy in Spain, where MTV recently went free to air in a bid to increase viewer figures fivefold and drive up ad sales.

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BIEBER TO PRESENT NEW SERIES OF PUNK'D
Hmm, if I'd just been caught up in some kind of annoying situation, would I rather have Ashton Kutcher or Justin Bieber tell me it had all been a joke? I guess you're more likely to get away with punching Ashton Kutcher, but Bieber's squeaky voice might remind you there are much worse things in the world more quickly.

Well, future prankees on MTV's 'Punk'd' won't have a choice, as it's Bieber or nothing, according to sources who have apparently spoken to entertainment blog Vulture. They say that JB is due to take over as frontman of the programme, though Kutcher will stay on as an executive producer, the show being made by his Katalyst Entertainment company.

Any celebs who do get pranked by Bieber might want to amuse themselves with this video for a while afterwards: youtu.be/0e50vqY7Szo

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ROBBIE WILLIAMS TO SIRE GAY OFFSPRING
Robbie Williams wants a child. A gay child. And he wants his wife Ayda Field to receive IVF treatment to speed the process up. These are the things I have learned.

He told Australian radio station 2Day FM: "I want to get it over and done with and get IVF ... I want a gay one, we've talked about it and that's what we want, whatever it is. I genuinely don't care. I always thought I want a boy ever since I was little but now I'm like, 'Oh yeah girls, they're daddy's girls, aren't they?' If it's a guy, I'm going teach it to play footy and all of that stuff and if it's a girl, I'm going to protect her to my death".

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