MUSIC BUSINESS MODELS - MAKING MONEY, FINDING INVESTMENT
How to make money out of music - both now and in the future, with a look at alternative investment and revenue streams, and a new approach to monetising artists and their music. Wed 23 Mar 2011

MUSIC RIGHTS - INSIDE & OUT
A beginner's guide to music copyright - everything you need to know about copyright law, licensing, monetising copyright, the fight against piracy and the future of the music rights industry. Wed 6 Apr 2011

For more information or to book visit www.theCMUwebsite.com/training

LIMEWIRE JUDGE LIMITS LABELS' DAMAGES CLAIM
The US judge overseeing the record industry's legal assault against one time P2P kings LimeWire has limited the damages the labels can claim from the now defunct digital firm to one payment per track infringed, rather than one payment per download.

As previously reported, Judge Kimba Wood ruled that LimeWire was guilty of copyright infringement last summer and the record companies are preparing to make a multi-billion dollar damages claim in court in May. However, that claim will be significantly less than the labels had originally hoped because of Wood's ruling on how damages claims can be calculated.

US copyright law sets out guidelines for so called statutory damages in infringement cases, with a maximum figure that can be claimed per infringement. But what does that mean? The record labels said that every time a track was illegally shared over the LimeWire network a different infringement took place. But Wood's ruling yesterday means the labels will only be able to claim once for each song that was made available via LimeWire's user base.

Given some tracks were shared millions of times over LimeWire over the years, the ruling will reduce the overall damages claim the labels can make considerably, though it will still probably be for significantly more than LimeWire and its founder Mark Gorton will ever realistically be able to pay.

As previously reported, the US music publishers reached an out of court settlement with LimeWire this week in relation to their separate damages claim.

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BLUE: EUROVISION IS NOT "CAREER SUICIDE"
Blue have denied that representing the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest this year is "career suicide". Which most interestingly, suggests they think they've had some sort of "career" since reforming two years ago.

The band's Simon Webbe told reporters yesterday: "We don't see this as career suicide, even if a lot of people will see it that way. It's a great way to show we are a live group and we are back after ten years".

Duncan James added: "We felt quite privileged to be asked. How many opportunities do you get to represent your country?"

Of the notorious Eurovision political voting which caused Terry Wogan's departure as the BBC's commentator on the event, James said: "People always say the UK aren't particularly liked in Europe and we don't get the points. But they're trying to change the block voting so it becomes less political".

Meanwhile Lee Ryan said it was a "cop out" to claim that differences between countries had anything to do with it: "It's nothing to do with being English. It's because we haven't put a good song in for a long time".

You can find out if Blue have bucked that trend when they perform the song on 'The Graham Norton Show' on BBC One tonight.

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ABBEY ROAD LOOKING FOR ANTHEM OF OUR TIMES
Abbey Road Studios are marking their eightieth anniversary with a competition to find an "anthem of our time". The winning anthem will be performed by a choir, so we're probably talking orchestral rather than rock anthems here. Composers are invited to submit an original piece of music for consideration, with the winner - as selected by judges Eric Whitacre, Harry Christophers, George Fenton and Rob Mathes - getting a recording by the London Symphony Orchestra in Abbey Road Studio 1.

Says Abbey Road Manager Jonathan Smith: "This competition will give composers an opportunity to have their work performed and recorded to the very highest standard. Sir Edward Elgar opened Abbey Road Studios eighty years ago with a great anthem, 'Land Of Hope And Glory', performed then by the London Symphony Orchestra. All composers will have the chance to record their anthems in the same studio with the same world-class orchestra. It's a thrilling prospect and a wonderful way to celebrate Abbey Road Studios' 80th anniversary".

Details of what kind of composition is eligible and details of how to enter are at www.abbeyroad.com/anthem. The closing date for entries in 15 Jul.

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GORILLAZ IPAD ALBUM SET FOR GENERAL RELEASE
Created using an iPad and originally only available as a free download for fans last Christmas, Gorillaz are to release fourth album 'The Fall' on vinyl on 16 Apr through EMI, to quite neatly coincide with Record Store Day. A CD and paid-for download release date will then follow on 18 Apr.

Whimsical Gorillaz character 2D says of the album, which was recorded during the band's lengthy 2010 US tour, that 'The Fall' "is mostly just me... something more gentle and just... well... it's just me and an iPad really mucking about... trying out some stuff. Just looking at America and then tapping on the screen... I'm not really concentrating too hard on it".

Watch the accompanying video for album-opener 'Phoner To Arizona' here:
youtu.be/SAeUwuUGSaM

Tracklisting:

Phoner To Arizona
Revolving Doors
HillBilly Man
Detroit
Shy-town
Little Pink Plastic Bags
The Joplin Spider
The Parish of Space Dust
The Snake In Dallas
Amarillo
The Speak It Mountains
Aspen Forest
Bobby In Phoenix (feat Bobby Womack)
California And The Slipping Of The Sun
Seattle Yodel

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JAMIE WOON ANNOUNCES DEBUT ALBUM
Hotly tipped singer and producer Jamie Woon has announced that he will release his debut album, 'Mirrorwriting', on 11 Apr via Universal/Polydor/Cadent Songs.

Says Jamie of the album: "It's personal, almost therapeutic. I'm quite a private person and I don't set out to talk about my business in public, but when songs are done you can't get around it. They are like a code, and all you need is a mirror to read it".

Following the album release, he will be touring in May and June, culminating with a show at Shepherds Bush Empire in London on 9 Jun.

The tracklist looks like this:

Night Air
Street
Lady Luck
Shoulda
Middle
Spirits
Echoes
Spiral
TMRW
Secondbreath
Gravity
Waterfront

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LET'S WRESTLE ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM
Articulate art-rock three-piece Let's Wrestle have slated 16 May as the release date for their latest LP 'Nursing Home'. Recent signings to the Full Time Hobby label, the North London boys recorded the album in Chicago with renowned producer Steve Albini.

With no new music as yet available to listen to, here's the tracklisting to set your imagination running riot:

In Dreams (Part 2)
If I Keep On Loving You
In The Suburbs
Bad Mamories
Dear John
For My Mother
You're So Lazy
There's A Rockstar In My Room
I Forgot
I Am Useful
I Will Not Give In
Getting Rest

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PET SHOP BOYS TO PREMIER THE MOST INCREDIBLE THING NEXT WEEK
The Pet Shop Boys will premiere their first ballet at Sadler's Wells in London next week. Scored by the pop duo, the show is an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's story 'The Most Incredible Thing', adapted by playwright and director Matthew Dunster with choreography from Javier De Frutos.

The show will open on 17 Mar with the first of four preview performances and will then run until 26 Mar. The Pet Shop Boys' score will also be released as an album on 14 Mar. It is very, very good.

For more information on the show and to book tickets, head to: www.sadlerswells.com/show/Pet-Shop-Boys-and-Javier-De-Frutos

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ROB ZOMBIE NOT DIRECTING MOTLEY CRUE FILM
Rob Zombie is not directing a film about Motley Crue based on the band's 2002 autobiography, 'The Dirt' as has been reported. Speaking to Undercover, the musician and film director said: 'I am not directing the movie. I don't know how that craziness started'.

"The craziness" started the way most craziness starts, Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee announced it was happening.

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SPIDER-MAN DIRECTOR STEPS DOWN
So, Julie Taymor has stepped down as director of fated Broadway musical 'Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark', the stage show with music by Bono and The Edge, which counts legendary tour promoter Michael Cohl as a lead producer.

As much previously reported, the ambitious stunt-filled 'Spider-Man' show has experienced numerous delays, and has been in preview since November. Although there has been no press night as yet, many critics have bought tickets to previews and published their mainly negative reviews.

The official launch was due to finally take place next week, but has now been pushed back to a more ambiguous "evening in the early summer" to allow more changes to the show. Gossipers reckon the new delays are because producers want to make a number of changes to the script following the poor reviews.

The official reason for Taymor's departure is that, having not expected to still be working on the show by now, she has other work commitments. Some expect those brought in to do the next stage of development on the show may make a number of changes to the script Taymor co-wrote.

The director is best known for conceiving the critically acclaimed 'Lion King' stage show, but some say that while 'Spider-Man' is as visually impressive as her previous hit, the story is disappointing. With 'Lion King', of course, the story came straight from the Disney movie.

As previously reported, despite all this, the previewing 'Spider-Man' show remains one of Broadway's biggest earners.

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MORRISSEY ANNOUNCES UK TOUR
Morrissey will be touring the UK in June, ahead of his headline slot at the Hop Farm Festival on 2 Jul. The dates will take him around various out of the way places like the highlands of Scotland and, er, Grimsby. Tickets go on sale on 18 Mar.

Tour dates:
15 Jun: Perth, Concert Hall
17 Jun: Inverness, Ironworks
18 Jun: Dunoon, Queens Hall
20 Jun: Dunfermline, Alhambra
21 Jun: Hawick, City Hall
24 Jun: Grimsby, Auditorium
25 Jun: York, Barbican
27 Jun: Bradford, St Georges
30 Jun: Cheltenham, Centaur

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ARTROCKER PRESENTS THE YOUNG KNIVES ON TOUR
As Young Knives prepare to release new album 'Ornaments From The Silver Arcade' on 4 Apr on Gadzöök, they are also set to grace the cover of music mag Artrocker for the third time in their illustrious career.

In celebration of all this, Artrocker are teaming up with the tweed-clad trio for a ten date UK tour, which is to run as follows:

16 May: Newcastle, Academy 2
17 May: York, Fibbers
18 May: Glasgow, King Tuts
19 May: Birmingham, Academy 2
21 May: Sheffield, Academy 2
24 May: Oxford, Academy 2
25 May: Bournemouth, Old Fire Station
26 May: Bristol, Academy 2
27 May: Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms
28 May: Hertfordshire, Forum

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FESTIVAL LINE-UP UPDATE

CAMP BESTIVAL, Lulworth Castle, Dorset, 29-31 Jul: Primal Scream are the final headliner announced for this year's medieval-themed fancy dress party, and they will be airing their most famous LP 'Screamadelica' in its entirety, plus a selection of other hits. Also confirmed are dreadlocked minstrel Newton Faulkner, Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Clint Westwood and Nero. www.campbestival.net

DOUR, Belgium, 14-17 July: Adding some indie muscle to this Belgian bash are surf-rock quartet The Drums, with Mogwai, Two Gallants and Rolo Tomassi also amongst those confirmed to join House Of Pain, Foals and Anthrax on the line-up. www.dourfestival.be/en

DOWNLOAD, Donington Park, 10-12 June: Skunk Anansie are a late and surprising addition to the Download bill, with Skin and co set to bring a 90s alt-rock flavour to the metal-dominated event. Linkin Park, Def Leppard and System Of A Down have previously been announced as headlining acts. www.downloadfestival.co.uk

ELECTRIC PICNIC, Stradbally Hall Estate, Co Laois, Ireland, 2-4 Sept: Arcade Fire, Pulp, Interpol, The Chemical Brothers and PJ Harvey head up recent announcements for this multi award-winning Irish festival, with Jimmy Cliff, Lykke Li, The Walkmen, The Charlatans and The Go! Team also featuring on the eclectic bill. www.electricpicnic.ie

FIELD DAY, Victoria Park, London, 06 Aug: The latest crop of names announced for London's 'trendy' Field Day include the superb Warpaint, Jamie xx, James Blake, Anna Calvi and Glasser. Legendary Detroit house producer Carl Craig is also booked to put on a special guest set, appearing alongside the likes of such already confirmed acts as Wild Beasts, The Horrors, The Coral and Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti. www.fielddayfestivals.com

LARMER TREE, Larmer Tree Gardens, Dorset, 13-17 Jul: The Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain, Seth Lakeman, Caitlin Rose, Krystle Warren, The Coal Porters and Kitty MacFarlane are some of the latest acts added to the mellow billing of this family-friendly festival, which was already set to play host to Seasick Steve, Imelda May and Jools Holland's Rhythm & Blues Orchestra. www.larmertreefestival.co.uk

SOLFEST, Tarnside Farm, Tarns, West Cumbria, 26-29 Aug: Punk pioneers The Stranglers, Cast, The Sawdoctors and The Damned are poised to headline the main stage at the pastoral four day fest. Kate Rusby, Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson and Lau are also amongst the host of folk, pop and rock acts newly announced to play. www.solfest.org.uk

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ALBUM REVIEW: Funeral For A Friend - Welcome Home Armageddon (Distiller Records)
Since their inception in 2001, Funeral For A Friend have gone through a few transitions. Building a name for themselves during the era of 'emo' music, a tag which they were unfairly lumped with (although one of their most popular tracks, 'Roses For The Dead' does feature a video with a young outsider contemplating suicide), they've gone from guttural screaming metal to soft-as-a-marshmallow conceptual rock.

On 'Welcome Home Armageddon', the Welsh quintet seem to blend the two styles together. The record begins solemnly with 'This Side Of Brightness', reminiscent of 'History' on the 'Hours' album, and segues into 'Old Hymns', a sledgehammer of a song that could easily be mistaken for a recent Architects release. Their usual standard of musicianship is still present; the guitars are chuggy and harmonious in equal measure, but there is something amiss. Singer Matt Davies, whose vocals on previous works have been, occasionally, nothing short of wonderful, seem to have regressed. He sounds as he did when Funeral were just beginning to breakthrough, unrefined and decidedly adolescent.

Still, Funeral's ability to create music to headbang and sway to has not entirely dissipated. Both 'Owls (Are Watching)' and 'Medicated' have pretty melodies to shut your eyes to, whilst retaining the punchy, viscera of previous early works.

While the album may not be up to the standards of 'Hours', it is clear that Funeral For A Friend have not completely lost their touch. JJB

Physical release: 14 Mar

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UNIVERSAL INTERNATIONAL MAKES PROMOTIONS
Universal Music International made a stack of promotions earlier this week. Kate Farmer has been promoted to the role of Senior VP Of International Marketing, overseeing the marketing of the major's Nashville and classical repertoire in territories outside the UK and US, while Andrew Daw becomes VP Of Strategic Marketing and Ross Foster becomes a VP Of Commercial Affairs.

Elsewhere, Paul Gathercole becomes the rather fun sounding VP Of Digital Tools, and Olivier Robert-Murphy has been promoted to Senior VP Of International Business Development, with responsibility for areas like marketing and brand partnerships. And that, I reckon, is more than enough promotions for one day.

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LONDON-BASED FLEXI DISC LABEL X-RAY LAUNCHES
A new indie label, founded by Kasms guitarist Scott R Walker, has launched this week with the interesting USP that it will only release singles on flexi-discs (and downloads, but we'll gloss over that for now). The first release from the label will be 'Contina' by London punks Trogons on 25 Apr.

Kate Price, the other half of the duo behind the label, told CMU: "We've persuaded a company to start making flexi-discs again for us, and the label is so called because in the post-war Soviet Union discarded x-rays were used as cheap and readily available raw material to create flexi-discs - as such they became commonly used as a DIY format for spreading underground punk and jazz, music which was banned in the Soviet Union after World War Two".

For more information head over to www.xrayrecordings.com.

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REDIGI RESPONDS TO CRITICS
The people behind ReDigi, the previously reported MP3 resale service, issued a press release this week answering various questions raised about the service since it first came to wider attention last month.

As previously reported, ReDigi lets punters resell MP3s in the same way you might resell a CD on eBay. Sellers are expected to delete their copy of the MP3 after resale. Some argue that copyright rules which specifically allow a consumer to resell a CD can be applied to MP3s and thus this kind of service is totally legal.

Others, however, suspect any successful MP3 resale platform would be a target for record company lawyers, who would likely argue that such services are really used by people to illegally profit from the sale of digital music files they have no intent of deleting from their own computers. Efforts by a company called Bopaboo to launch a service of this kind a few years back failed amid legal questions.

But ReDigi is certain its business is immune to any efforts by copyright owners to challenge the service. In the press release, the company says its platform uses various technical nick nacks to check that an MP3 set to be sold was acquired from legitimate sources, and that it is of suitable sound quality, as well as ensuring that any one customer only sells any one track once. I think that when you drop an MP3 onto the ReDigi sale widget it also deletes the original copy on your PC, though what's to stop you making a second copy beforehand I'm not sure.

ReDigi CTO Larry Rudolph adds: "The technological development of the ReDigi Music Agent passes copyright and first-sale doctrine tests that have stopped other companies from legally being able to do this previously. If you have bought it, you are allowed to sell it. Also, you are allowed to buy something that someone else legally can sell. ReDigi is the technology used for this transaction. It verifies the legal origin, a seller's right under the first sale doctrine and allows a user to resell a file that is verifiably his or hers to sell".

So there you go. ReDigi will launch later this summer.

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TIMBERLAKE BREAKS UP WITH BIEL
Justin Timberlake and actress Jessica Biel have ended their relationship but remain on good terms, apparently. A rep for one or the other of the former celebrity couple told People magazine: "Addressing the media speculation regarding Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake's relationship, we are confirming that they mutually have decided to part ways. The two remain friends and continue to hold the highest level of love and respect for each other". So now you know.

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ERIC CLAPTON GUITAR AUCTION RAISES OVER $2 MILLION
Eric Clapton's previously reported auction to sell off 70 of his guitars in aid of the Crossroads Center in Antigua, a rehab clinic he set up in the late 90s, went ahead this week and raised $2.15 million.
One guitar, a replica of a Fender Stratocaster the guitarist auctioned for $1 million seven years ago, fetched $83,000, more than double its estimated value of $30,000.

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"VAN HALEN WAS THE WEIRDEST FUCK I'D EVER SEEN", SAYS HAGAR
One time Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar has recalled the day he met up with Eddie Van Halen back in 2004 to discuss possibly rejoining the band for a reunion tour. He seemingly went to Van Halen's Malibu home and was shocked by what he found.

In a new biography, the rocker recalls: "It looked like vampires lived there. There were bottles and cans all over the place, the handle was broken off the refrigerator door, and there were spiderwebs everywhere. There was no food. He [Van Halen] was sleeping on the floor with a blanket and a pillow. I've never seen a dirtier place in my life. [Previously he had been] one of the sweetest guys I ever met but he had turned into the weirdest fuck I'd ever seen: crude, rude and unkempt".

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the reunion didn't happen, though, of course, Van Halen did subsequently get his life back on track and reformed his band with original frontman David Lee Roth.

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