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 15 Jun 2011

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 29 Jun

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

NOW EMUSIC AND HP ARE CONSIDERING DIGITAL LOCKERS, TOO
Both eMusic and Hewlett Packard are planning on jumping on the digital locker bandwagon, according to reports. Whether they'll follow Apple in securing record label support for their cloud-based music storage flim flams, or go the "it's just storage, we don't need licenses" route taken by Amazon and Google remains to be seen.

eMusic boss man Adam Klein told Billboard his company hopes to launch some sort of locker service in the final quarter of this year, adding that he thinks his bigger competitors "are doing exactly the right thing" by moving into the access-your-content-anywhere space.

eMusic, of course, already operates a subscription system, whereby users basically bulk-buy a set number of tracks each month (more or less, the system changed a bit last year), so presumably any locker service could be tacked on to that. It's not clear if eMusic's locker would just offer remote access and back-ups of music downloaded via the platform itself (the service's users are already able to re-download purchases), or if it would offer the facility to upload your entire MP3 collection, as Amazon, Google and Apple do.

Digital Music News last week noted that eMusic's subscriber levels have remained pretty static since 2007, despite the company expanding its catalogue considerably via deals with the major record companies in the US. Of course, the conditions of some of those major label deals led to some of the big indies exiting the service, which possibly means any new subscribers attracted by the newly enlarged eMusic catalogue were counterbalanced by some of the service's traditional muso customer base cancelling their subscriptions.

Either way, Klein is known to be planning a number of innovations in the coming months in a bid to instigate a new period of subscriber growth. A preview streaming service is expected to come online soon, though the digital locker is probably part of those plans also.

HP is planning a new digital content service - including music and movies - to go with its iPad competing TouchPad tablet computer. Although still at an early stage, it is thought that the IT firm is considering offering a digital locker to enable users to consume content across multiple devices. It's also thought they are considering a subscription-based streaming content service similar to Sony's Qriocity platform. That said, HP have had musical ambitions before, most of which came to little, so it remains to be seen how things turn out this time.

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SPIDER-MAN DIRECTOR MAKES CLAIM FOR ROYALTIES
I've no real desire to see the ill-fated Broadway musical 'Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark', but when they make a film about its production, reserve me a seat.

In the latest twist, the original director of the show, Julie Taymor, probably best known for directing the stage version of 'The Lion King', has made a claim through her union for allegedly unpaid royalties from the show, which is finally due to open properly this week after months of false-starts and delays, and a record breaking 180 preview performances.

Taymor, of course, was eased out of the show's production team in March after critics - who had paid to get tickets to the previews - generally panned the show. As previously reported, Bono, who co-wrote the show's music with The Edge, recently admitted he shared many of the reservations about the original production mentioned in those negative reviews. A new creative team has been reworking things ahead of this week's official launch.

But however disappointing the show may have been under Taymor's direction, she still co-wrote the original script, and is due royalty payments on each performance. And those, The Stage Directors And Choreographers Society said in a complaint last week, have not been paid, Taymor having only received her original $125,000 director's fee so far.

The show's producers, which include legendary rock promoter Michael Cohl, who together have sunk millions into this yet-to-open show, are yet to respond to Taymor's union's claim.

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DAVENPORT LYONS LAWYERS GUILTY OF PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT FOR ACS-STYLE LETTER SENDING
When they finally get round to making the movie about ACS:Law man Andrew Crossley's ill-fated attempt to make a quick buck while pretending to care about intellectual property rights, the early scenes will presumably show how the former lawyer didn't even come up with the idea of sending out letters to suspected file-sharers in a bid to intimidate them into paying a damages settlement over allegations which would unlikely stand up in court.

That honour belongs to music business law firm Davenport Lyons, or, rather, two of its employees, David Gore and Brian Miller (the latter has since left the company). They were the first to start sending out speculative letters to suspected file-sharers on behalf of generally smaller content owners, making serious sounding allegations and demanding £500 to make said allegations go away.

Consumer rights magazine Which? became aware of the Davenport Lyons letters and shopped them to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority, claiming the letters made baseless claims, that they were 'bullying' in nature, and that the processes employed by the legal men to assess the guilt of the alleged file-sharers were not sufficient to ensure a significant number of innocent people weren't targeted.

An SRA investigation followed, which found there was credence in Which? magazine's claims, and the matter was passed to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal last year.

The hearing on the matter took place last week and, according to ComputerActive, Timothy Dutton, speaking for the SRA, told the tribunal that Gore and Miller's scheme was designed primarily to make money by "browbeating people into submission", some of whom were likely to be innocent of the copyright infringement charges. Dutton added that the Davenport Lyons lawyers used only the "flimsiest" evidence when deciding whom to send letters to, adding that their scheme had been "a wholly inappropriate discharge of professional duties".

According to TorrentFreak, the Tribunal subsequently found Gore and Miller guilty of professional misconduct on six counts. Penalties, which could include fines or even disbarring, will be decided on next month.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Crossley, who took over where Gore and Miller left off after Davenport Lyons decided to shut down their dodgy letter sending division, will face the same Tribunal later this year. The one time bullish legal man, whose company crashed and burned once he took some of his copyright claims to court and his ignorance of basic intellectual property law was revealed, was declared bankrupt last week.

It is worth noting that, while a number of them make use of Davenport Lyons' legal services, most UK record companies, and record label trade body the BPI, have been critical of the letter sending schemes led by Gore, Miller and Crossley since the start, and few music companies made use of the dodgy letter sender's 'expertise'.

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TWO PRODUCERS SUE LIL WAYNE IN ONE WEEK OVER SAME ALBUM
Possibly aiming for some sort of record, Lil Wayne is now facing a fourth royalties claim over his album 'Tha Carter III', with two separate lawsuits relating to the record being filed just last week.

As previously reported, earlier last week producer David Kirkwood sued claiming he was owed royalties from his work on the album. Then, towards the end of the week, Dallas-based production duo Play-N-Skillz filed legal papers claiming they were due royalties for their work on the 'Tha Carter III' track 'Got Money', one of the biggest hits from the album. According to AllHipHop.com, in their lawsuit Play-N-Skillz say they reckon they are due $1 million from the rapper and his various companies and affiliates.

Previous litigants in relation to 'Tha Carter III' are producers Darius 'Deezle' Harrison and Bangladesh, who sued in March, and this time last year, respectively.

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JOAN JETT SUES OVER RUNAWAYS TRIBUTE ALBUM
Joan Jett last week joined with former bandmate Cherie Currie to launch litigation to try to stop US indie label Main Man Records from releasing an album paying tribute to their first band, The Runaways. The two musicians claim that the label has used their names to promote the album, called 'Take It Or Leave It: A Tribute To The Queens Of Noise', without permission.

But on Friday a spokesman for Main Man Records said that, while they are yet to see Jett and Currie's lawsuit, they plan to "vigorously defend" themselves against any allegations, adding that they made the homage to the late 70s punk band in good faith as part of a project to raise funds for cancer research.

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THREE MEN ARRESTED OVER SONY DDOS ATTACK
Spanish police have arrested three suspected members of the Anonymous group over allegations they were involved in the cyber-attacks on Sony's PlayStation Network.

As previously reported, Sony's online gaming network was offline for sometime after someone hacked into the service's user data files while the Anonymous group were busy staging one of their Distributed Denial Of Service attacks, presumably over Sony's involvement in various copyright lawsuits. Anonymous distanced themselves from the actual hack, which included the accessing of passwords and credit card information, but admitted it had instigated the DDoS attack. Similar attacks on various Sony owned websites around the world have since followed.

Spanish authorities said the three 'hacktivists' were suspected of being involved in online activity designed to bring down the web operations of Sony plus two Spanish banks and an Italian energy group. Anonymous usually target companies who are seen to be overly protective of intellectual property rights or who are infringing freedom of speech in some way. Predictably, websites linked to the Spanish authorities were named as new targets on Friday.

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MUSIC PEOPLE GET LETTERS OFF THE QUEEN
So, to celebrate it not being her birthday this weekend, the Queen trooped up some colour and then handed out a bucket full of letters to the great, the good, the tedious, the overpaid and at least one homophobic bus driver.

She also 'honoured' some music people, such as Roxy Music man Bryan Ferry, and jazz lady Claire Martin, and Scottish fiddler James Alexander. Behind the scenes BPI chief and former EMI UK boss Tony Wadsworth got an CBE, while former Sony PR man and legendary publicist Gary Farrow was given an OBE for both his services to the music industry and for his charity work.

On the peripheries of the music business, in radio land Emma Freud and the legend that is Bob Harris were both on the honours list, while Sam Taylor Wood, who we are counting as music because she directed a film about John Lennon, got an OBE.

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LIZA MINNELLI TO BE HONOURED AT SILVER CLEF AWARDS
Liza Minnelli is the latest name added to the winners list for this year's Silver Clef Awards, the annual music awards dinner staged in aid of the Nordoff Robbins charity. Already set to be honoured at the event are Tinie Tempah, Alfie Boe, Status Quo, Annie Lennox and, according to this here press release, Billy Clyro, who I think was that moody looking young Scot on a recent series of 'Britain's Got Talent'

Minnelli, presumably, is being honoured for 'Don't Drop Bombs', that hugely underrated 1989 pop classic, and you think I'm being sarcastic here, but you're wrong. In fact, I'm looking for 'Losing My Mind' on Spotify as we speak. Anyway, here's what Minnelli had to say about the honour: "What a great honour it is to receive this prestigious award. The work of Nordoff Robbins helps so many people, and I am truly delighted to be invited to the Silver Clef Awards this year".

Minnelli will be getting the Icon Award at the fundraising bash, which takes place in London on 1 Jul.

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U2 DELAY NEW ALBUM
U2 have delayed the release of their new album because the tracks they've recorded aren't good enough. I'm not sure why they've suddenly become so critical of themselves, considering the low quality of their last three albums, but apparently recording sessions with producers RedOne and Danger Mouse didn't turn out as they'd hoped. The album is now unlikely to come out before late 2012.

Bassist Adam Clayton told Rolling Stone: "We had to have a meeting and look at the schedule to see if we could pick up any extra time to work on [the album]. We just realised that we couldn't. To be honest, everyone was a bit gutted. But it was the only sensible decision [to delay the album until 2012]. We have to focus on what we do best, and the work we did with Danger Mouse came closest to that. We want to be in the clubs and make pop music as well as the thing U2 does, but in the end, the thing we did with RedOne doesn't feel like the right fit".

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RONIKA ANNOUNCES NEW EP
Hotly tipped new pop type Ronika releases her latest EP this week through Recordshop. Featuring two original tracks, 'Forget Yourself' and 'Wiyoo', plus three remixes, the release finds her mixing vintage Madonna with influences including Italo disco and LCD Soundsystem.

You can download 'Wiyoo' for free from SoundCloud here: soundcloud.com/ronika/wiyoo

Or you could watch the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKg2q_fFfWQ

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FIRE TO RE-ISSUE FIRST THREE PULP ALBUMS
What with Pulp's reunion now well under way, Fire Records has announced that it will re-release the band's first three albums, 1983's 'It', 1987's 'Freaks' and 1992's 'Separations', on 8 Aug. All three releases will come with new artwork and sleeve notes by Everett True. 'Separations' and 'Freaks' will also come with a number of bonus tracks, the latter so many that they'll spill over onto a whole extra disc.

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THE WAR ON DRUGS TOUR
Secretly Canadian signings The War On Drugs will release a brand new album in August, and have announced four dates for the following month. The new record, the follow-up to 2008's 'Wagonwheel Blues', is called 'Slave Ambient' and will be released on 15 Aug. The first single is called 'Baby Missles' and can be downloaded for free from www.scjag.com/mp3/sc/babymissiles.mp3

Tour dates as follows:

13 Sep: London, Lexington
14 Sep: Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
15 Sep: Sheffield, The Harley
16 Sep: Brighton, Green Door Store

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FESTIVAL LINE-UP UPDATE

JERSEY LIVE, Royal Jersey Showgrounds, Jersey, 3-4 Sep: Feeder, Dry The River, Alex Metric and Benjamin Francis Leftwich feature highly amongst the most recent additions to this year's Jersey Live roster, which prior to this latest announcement was already home to acts including Madness, Plan B, The Ting Tings, The Streets, Katy B, Ed Sheeran and Wretch 32. Also on the cards are DJs sets from Zane Lowe, Annie Mac and Mr Oizo. www.jerseylive.org.uk

MELTDOWN, Southbank Centre, London, 10-19 Jun: Newcomers to this already-up-and-running Ray Davies-curated event include Carl Barat, Maria & The Mirrors, Baxter Dury and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, who will collaborate with poet Mike Garry on a Tony Wilson Tribute, as presented by Paul Morley. Amongst the host of class acts previously confirmed to perform at this multi-faceted and already under way culture fest are Sandie Shaw, Ronnie Spector, Paloma Faith, Madness, and Anna Calvi. www.meltdown.southbankcentre.co.uk

TENNENT'S VITAL, Ward Park, Bangor, Northern Ireland, 23-24 Aug: Local heroes Two Door Cinema and Irish crooners The Script are the latest pair of acts booked for this lager-backed bash, joining the likes of existing line-up stars Eminem, Kaiser Chiefs, Jimmy Eat World and Odd Future. www.tennentsvital.com

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COULD AZOFF TAKE LIVE NATION INTO PRIVATE HANDS?
Live Nation co-chief Irving Azoff is reportedly talking to the live music firm's biggest shareholder, Liberty Media boss John Malone, about staging a buy out of the company, so to put it in private hands, according to the New York Post.

The paper admitted that such talks are at a very early stage, and are just one of a number of options being considered by Azoff, who is seemingly keen to take the currently publicly traded company out of the glare of American analysts and financial journalists.

Live Nation, of course, has struggled a little since its mega-merger with Ticketmaster as the upper-end of the American live sector suffered from a slump in ticket sales. While things are improving, it's thought Azoff believes it would be easier for him and co-chief Michael Rapino to revamp the company if it was in private hands.

Azoff and Malone would need to raise over £2 billion to finance a buy out, and it's thought that the former would rely on equity types Thomas H Lee Partners to bring in some of the cash, he having worked closely with them before. Live Nation Entertainment, of course, now includes the Live Nation venue and tour promotion businesses as well as Ticketmaster and Azoff's Front Line Management.

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"BGT IS RIGGED" BLOGGER BACKTRACKS
A new blog surfaced online last week credited to the same person who recently claimed to be a Sony Music insider who "knew" that the music firm's Syco division had rigged 'Britain's Got Talent' in favour of Ronan Parke who, the original blog said, had been working with Syco for years. Parke went on to come second on the ITV show.

This time the anonymous blogger apologised for making the earlier claims about Ronan Parke, which he said were untrue. Claiming to be a "loner with a mental disorder", the unknown blogger said he made up the allegations after becoming obsessed with the ITV talent show. He concluded: "I am deeply ashamed. I would like to offer my sincerest apologies for the distress and hurt I've caused".

Syco called in the police after the first blog surfaced, Simon Cowell himself saying the untrue allegations amounted to "malicious communication". According to The Guardian, Syco have also made police aware of the second backtracking blog.

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LILY ALLEN MARRIES, ANNOUNCES SHE IS PREGNANT
Lily Allen announced she was pregnant this weekend after marrying Sam Cooper. According to reports, the couple paid for streets within half of a mile of the church in Cranham near Stroud to be closed to ensure the smooth running of their wedding ceremony. Allen told family and friends she was pregnant shortly after.

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BRITNEY NOT ENGAGED
Britney Spears has denied reports she is to marry boyfriend and agent Jason Trawick. The Sun, among others, reported that Trawick had proposed to his girlfriend of two years by writing a romantic poem and filling their LA home with candles and roses. But a spokesman for Spears said at the end of the week, simply, "she is not engaged". Perhaps the poem sucked.

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JACK WHITE THROWS DIVORCE PARTY WITH HIS SOON TO BE EX WIFE
Soon not to be married are Jack White and Karen Elson, who last week held a combined wedding anniversary and divorce party.

A copy of the invitation for the party was posted online, and it invited friends to celebrate the couple's "sixth anniversary and their upcoming divorce with a positive swing bang hum dinger". It added: "The party will include dancing, photos, memories and drinks with alcohol in them. This is only for close personal friends and family so please no plus ones or dead beats".

Confirming their pending divorce in a subsequent statement, the couple said: "We remain dear and trusted friends and co-parents to our wonderful children, Scarlett and Henry Lee".

Is 'co-parents' a term people use now?

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