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 27 Jul

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NEW RESALE SITE FOUNDER DEFENDS SECONDARY TICKETING
The founder of a new secondary ticketing website has hit out at two of the most common criticisms of the ever growing ticket resale sector, that fans are ripped off by being sold tickets at grossly inflated prices, and that when buying tickets from resale sites there is the real risk a fraudster with no genuine tickets to sell will rip you off.

Speaking to EU Ticket News, former agent Jonathan White, who launched ticketola.com in May, claims that the secondary ticketing sector is a "buyer's market" and as a result most people buying tickets from this outlet are getting bargains.

White: "It's a bit of a myth that all tickets sold via the ticket exchanges have vastly inflated price tags. Over 12,000 tickets have been purchased at Ticketola over the last six weeks, and 96% of them were bought for their original price, or lower. And if there's any ticket touting happening at the ticket exchanges, the touts soon realise that ridiculously priced tickets simply don't sell. It's a buyers market out there".

As much previously reported, the live sector and artist management community initially responded negatively to the growth of ticket touting enabled by the internet, initially via eBay and later via bespoke sites like Ticketola and their more established competitors.

There was talk of parliament introducing new laws to control the touting of tickets for entertainment events, and technical measures to make it harder to resell. But while some promoters and managers remain animated on this issue, others have accepted secondary ticketing as an unavoidable element of the live industry in the digital age. Some others still profit from the sector by reselling tickets to their own events at a profit.

For those who want to hit back at secondary ticketing, ID checks can be employed to ensure only original buyers are using tickets to an event, though that can end up pissing off the customers said promoters would probably claim they are trying to protect. According to Ticket News, efforts by AEG to only allow original ticket buyers into a recent Alicia Keys show at the Royal Albert Hall in London led to queues and confusion, all the more frustrating for fans given the show hadn't sold out so, in reality, large numbers of secondary ticket buyers were unlikely to be turned away.

Some might hope that media reports about the increase in the number of fraudulent ticket sellers on the net might caution fans from buying tickets from anything but official sources, though White insists that - while there are dodgy websites taking money for tickets that don't exist - fans are not likely to be ripped off if they buy from a reseller on a well known resale site.

Again speaking to EU Ticket News: "Ticket fraud is almost non-existent on the leading ticket exchanges because buyers are protected against this kind of thing. At Ticketola, buyers are immediately refunded if the tickets they have purchased turn out to be fakes, and we verify the identity of all our sellers. The real cases of fraud have occurred when criminals masquerade as primary ticket agencies, and they advertise tickets that don't even exist. My advice to ticket buyers is to always use either a reputable ticket agency or ticket exchange".

Of course, when mobile ticketing properly comes of age, there may be a workable technical solution to combat secondary ticketing to an extent, though in the mean time those in the live and management sectors - and fan communities - who continue to dislike ticket resale services are probably going to have to continue to live with them. And if there are bargains to be had, like White says, even those fans who don't like ticketing touting in principle will probably be tempted to buy from resale sites.

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NICKI MINAJ COUSIN MURDERED
US rapper Nicki Minaj yesterday revealed via Twitter that her cousin, who she named simply as Nicholas, had been murdered in New York on Sunday. The exact circumstances around the relative's death are not known.

Minaj, currently on tour with Britney Spears in Canada, tweeted: "Lived in Brooklyn his whole life. My precious cousin. My baby. Killed last nite. My cousin Nicholas. Also goes by Juse... Murdered. Last nite. Near his home. Brooklyn, NY".

Both fans and fellow artists passed on their condolences to the grieving hip hopper.

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MJ PRANKSTER GETS CEASE AND DESIST
An online prankster who claims to have a recording of a prank phone call he made to Michael Jackson in 2007 says he has been sent a legal letter from the late king of pop's estate demanding he stop distributing the recording online.

Ralphige seems quite pleased with the cease and desist because, he claims, it proves the call is genuine. While still alive Jacko seemingly insisted that the prank phone conversation, in which Ralphige pretends to be Akon and mocks the pop star over the child molestation charges he had faced, was a fake, with his voice provided by an impersonator. But, Ralphige says, why would the Michael Jackson Estate take legal action if they didn't believe the call was the real deal?

He told TMZ: "The letter, if anything, it at least proves to the doubters that the prank call is real. I am afraid the estate is not aware Michael personally gave me permission to release the phone call. This is something that I am sure will be discussed in the near future".

Why Jackson would have officially sanctioned the distribution of a prank phone call he was publicly denying was genuine I'm not sure, but he was a crazy guy.

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US RADIO PRESENTER SUES OVER JERSEY SHORE DJ NAME
An American DJ who performs under the name DJ Paulie has sued MTV owners Viacom over their staged 'reality' show 'Jersey Shore', because one of the idiots featured on the programme was a DJ called Paul who was dubbed DJ Pauly. DJ Paulie reckons that being associated with DJ Pauly is having a negative impact on his reputation, and he's suing for trademark infringement.

Paul Lis, aka DJ Paulie, has been using his moniker on radio in Connecticut since 1971, his legal papers claim, and he has also performed and operated a record label under that name. He adds that, as DJ Paulie, he also wrote and produced a fundraising song on behalf of the US Postal Service to raise money for the families of 9/11 victims, presumably to show he's used the name and trademarks associated with it on an a national level.

His legal papers reportedly claim that 'Jersey Shore' shows a "debauched lifestyle suggestive of loose morals, violence, intoxication and liberal profanity", things he's very keen to not be associated with, it seems. In fact that lifestyle is the very opposite of the reputation he's "spent decades cultivating". He goes on to claim that since the other DJ Pauly appeared on the scene, ad sales on his website and online radio show have declined.

But what about the all important difference in spelling? Well, Lis might argue that's irrelevant, but in case a judge thinks otherwise, he also claims that MTV used the spelling 'DJ Paulie' in meta-data attached to content associated with the 'Jersey Shore' character on the broadcaster's website.

Viacom are yet to respond to the lawsuit.

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FIRST AMERICAN ROCK CRITIC DIES
American music critic Jane Scott has died, aged 92.

Scott was already in her mid-40s when she first covered The Beatles for her newspaper, the Plain-Dealer in Cleveland, which made her an unlikely candidate to become the publication's rock correspondent for the next 40 years. But, she once said, "once I found rock, I was never interested in anything else".

Scott initially worked in the advertising department of another Cleveland newspaper, but after a stint in the Navy during the Second World War went back to college to brush up on her typing and shorthand and started getting work as a freelance contributor on the Plain-Dealer. A staff role followed, which ultimately saw Scott in charge of two regular columns on the paper, somewhat ironically one aimed at pensioners, the other at local teens. It was in her latter role that she covered The Beatles and discovered rock n roll. She subsequently became the paper's full-time rock critic, and is often seen as the first journalist to have that role at a mainstream newspaper.

Although somewhat removed from the community of American music journalists which grew in the following decade (some of whom disliked her invariably positive write-ups), Scott was a popular critic with many of the artists she covered and interviewed over the years, with Jim Morrisson, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Wilson and Bruce Springsteen among her fans.

The obituary for Scott in her former newspaper - she retired from writing in 2002 - noted "Scott was on a first-name basis not only with music fans throughout northeast Ohio, but with most of the luminaries in the rock n roll universe".

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ADELE TO QUIETEN DOWN ON NEW ALBUM
Noisy, noisy Adele wants to be quieter on her next album, and is planning to opt for an "acoustic and piano-led" sound. Not that she's actually scheduled to go into the studio just yet, but it's good she's thinking about these things.

Speaking to Q, the singer said: "I've accumulated some things to write about again. I'd go into the studio tomorrow if I could. It won't be a big production. I want it to be quite acoustic and piano-led. I want to write it, record it, producer it all and master it on my own. I think it'll take a lot longer because I want to do it this way. When I move house in the summer, my sound engineer is going to come and help me install a studio and teach me how to use it".

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PHILIP SELWAY ANNOUNCES NEW EP
Radiohead drummer Philip Selway has announced the release of a new EP, his first new solo material since last year's 'Familial' album. 'Running Blind' will be released on 25 Jul via Bella Union.

Although the four songs on the EP were originally recorded during the same sessions as those which ended up on 'Familial', they developed further once Selway found some bandmates and began performing them live. As a result, he went back to the studio with said bandmates - Adem, Alex Thomas, Caroline Weeks and Kath Mann - once touring was done and re-recorded them.

You can hear the EP's title track below, and catch Selway and band live at Truck Festival on 24 Jul:

soundcloud.com/bella-union/philip-selway-running-blind

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THE GOOD NATURED EP STREAM AND FREE DOWNLOAD
Released this week, 'Skeleton', the new EP from CMU Approved pop outfit The Good Natured, is now streaming via SoundCloud. You can also download a track from it, the excellent 'Wolves', here:

soundcloud.com/the-good-natured/sets/the-good-natured-skeleton-ep/

In fact, while we're talking free downloads, the Grum remix of the EP's title track is available, too. It's a download bonanza!

soundcloud.com/the-good-natured/the-good-natured-skeleton-grum

And as well as that, you can see The Good Natured playing all live and that at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen in London on 20 Jul.

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LILY ALLEN WORKING ON BRIDGET JONES MUSICAL
If there was one thing the world didn't need, it was the Bridget Jones films. But, whatever, they're here now. We'll just have to live with it, and just get on with inexplicably watching them every Christmas. That's the problem with TV, it comes right into your house and forces you to watch it. Not like theatre. Good old theatre, you can just ignore. I mean, imagine if a Bridget Jones musical hit the West End with songs by Lily Allen. I just wouldn't go. Ha! That would tech 'em!

Oh, yeah, anyway, apparently Lily Allen is writing songs for a musical version of 'Bridget Jones' Diary' with producer and songwriter Greg Kurstin. Asked what she was doing music-wise these days, she told Elle: "I'm still writing. I'm just writing for other people. I've nearly finished a musical. I think it'll be out sometime next year".

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PULP ANNOUNCE LONDON SHOWS
Pulp have announced that they will play two headline shows at Brixton Academy later this year. The shows will follow various festival performances and will take place on 31 Aug and 1 Sep, therefore immediately following their Reading and Leeds slots.

Tickets for the gigs will go on sale on 8 Jul.

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ICE CUBE AND NAUGHTY BY NATURE ANNOUNCE LONDON SHOW
Ice Cube and Naughty By Nature will share the stage at the IndigO2 venue under London O2 dome on 12 Jul. That's next week, people. For some reason, tickets are still available.

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MORRISSEY ANNOUNCES LONDON SHOWS
Morrissey has announced that he will play two London shows in August, starting at Brixton Academy on 7 Aug and then moving on to the London Palladium on 8 Aug. So, there you go.

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POWER TO RESURRECT PHOENIX
Ah, remember the days when a music magazine's summer festival preview only needed eight pages - and that was one page per festival? One of those pages would probably have featured the Phoenix Festival, assuming the preview guide was published in the mid-90s. Well, the phoenix will likely rise again from the (air)field next year, because Vince Power is planning on resurrecting the event.

Power created the Phoenix Festival via his original company Mean Fiddler back in 1993. It ran for five years, but then disappeared from the calendar after disappointing ticket sales in 1998.

Power, back in expansive mode having recently floated his new live music company Music Festivals plc, revealed in the programme for his Prince-headlined Hop Farm Festival last weekend that he is planning on resurrecting the Phoenix Festival next summer, in much the same way he revived another of his former fests, Fleadh (albeit rebranded as Feis), in London this year.

In the Hop Farm programme Power says 2012 will be good for relaunching Phoenix given it is a fallow year for the Glastonbury Festival. Whether that means he sees it as a one off event to fill the gap no-Glasto leaves in the festival calendar isn't clear, though one-off music festivals aren't really a viable business. No word as yet on location, the 1990s Phoenix Festival was held at Long Marston Airfield near Stratford-upon-Avon.

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DEVONROX IS CANCELLED
Organisers of a new festival in Devon - the Devonrox Festival - have announced they are cancelling their event due to poor ticket sales.

Promoters said in a statement: "Sadly following an in depth review of ticket sales to date, the investors behind the festival have decided it is no longer financially viable to continue. Please accept our apologies to those who have already bought tickets, we will be advertising the refund details on here and the Devonrox Festival website later today, for all those who have purchased tickets to secure full refunds".

Among the bands due to play the new event were Funeral For A Friend, The Quireboys, My Passion and Saint Jude.

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FESTIVAL LINE-UP UPDATE

BEACONS FESTIVAL, Heslaker Farm, Skipton, Yorkshire Dales, 11-14 Aug: Tom Vek is a late confirmation as Sunday night headliner at this homely Yorkshire-based bash, with fellow new recruits to the bill named as Jamie xx and Danananananaykroyd. Featuring the best and freshest of emerging talent, the overall roster also includes Summer Camp, Mount Kimbie, Emmy The Great, Willy Mason, Jamie Woon, Mazes, Dutch Uncles and Factory Floor. www.greetingsfrombeacons.com

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HACK NEWS: TOPSPIN FORUMS, WINEHOUSE AND BIEBER FANS
Topspin is the latest company to suffer from one of those increasingly fashionable computer hacks, though it wasn't the D2F firm directly that hackers were targeting. Topspin used the vBulletin platform to host its forums, but saw those boards go down as the vBulletin servers were attacked. After trying some quick fixes, Team Topspin decided to move their forums to an alternative system. Content from the old forums will be transferred over, though community members will have to re-register.

The company's Brad Barrish wrote in a blog post on the Topspin website: "As some of you know, we ran into problems with our community forums over the last few weeks. Our community forum, which was hosted on vBulletin, initially got hacked so we patched the software, re-launched and down they went a few days later. We had plans in place to migrate the community to a new home, so instead of continuing to play the cat and mouse game, we made the decision to centralise the community on Zendesk, which is the incredible app we use to support our customers and fans".

The attack on the Topspin forums didn't affect any of the D2F firm's other digital services. Elsewhere in hacking news, word has it sheets of personal data about Amy Winehouse and Justin Bieber fans have been published onto the internet. It seems the data probably came from websites that have run promotions around both artists, rather than their official sites, though the exact origins of the fan information is not clear.

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DANNY WALLACE TO TAKE OVER XFM BREAKFAST SHOW
With Mary Anne Hobbs and Mix Master Mike ready to take up positions on the Xfm Saturday night schedule this weekend, the radio station has announced another new recruit. From 1 Aug, writer and broadcaster Danny Wallace will take over the Breakfast show from 6.30am to 10am. Wallace has previously appeared in Xfm's Saturday afternoon slot.

Announcing the news, Wallace said: "It's a thrill to join Xfm once more - I had such fun doing my Saturday afternoon shows there a while back. Doing a breakfast show has always been an ambition of mine. I've covered breakfast for X and elsewhere in the past and it's a fantastic time to do a show - but to be able to do my own thing is exciting. I've huge respect for everyone off- and on-air at X and to broadcast overlooking Leicester Square each day will be ace. And it'll be fun being a cheeky underdog. I want to make it an exclusive club that anyone's allowed to join".

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RINSE FM CRITICISED FOR SWEARY SONGS IN DAYTIME
Ah, you see, you go from being a pirate radio station to being a legit community broadcaster and not only do you have to start filling out forms for media regulator OfCom and paying money to rights owners for the music you play, you have to stop saying 'fuck' in prime time.

OfCom has upheld a complaint against Rinse FM after it received a complaint from a parent that said her twelve year old son had been exposed to five uses of the 'f' word in songs played between 2pm and 5pm one afternoon in March.

Rinse FM apologised for playing the sweary songs in daytime, and stressed that the incident occurred in the early days of the station's legit broadcasts, and that new systems at the organisation would stop it from happening again.

Nevertheless, OfCom said the community station had breached its rules and upheld the complaint. I'm not sure what that means. Possibly someone from OfCom goes round and tells bosses to "sort the fuck out" in a loud angry voice.

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DALTREY: RECORD INDUSTRY DECIMATED, TOURING TOO EXPENSIVE, TELLY EVIL
Roger Daltrey had some upbeat words for aspiring rock stars yesterday. Not only is the record industry screwed, but the live sector's not much help to new bands either, because touring has become so expensive. Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland ahead of a performance of The Who rock opera 'Tommy' in Glasgow later this week, Daltrey said: "I think the record industry has been decimated by free downloading and touring is becoming incredibly expensive, it is so hard to make a living on the road now".

But the real problem for rock n roll, The Who man continued, is TV, which is just taking away the mystery of it all. And it wasn't just 'X-Factor' getting dissed this time, he's not impressed with all the telly coverage of music festivals either. Says Daltrey: "I think you have to go out and experience [music]. I don't think music works particularly well on TV, especially rock music. Most of the festival [coverage] makes me want to puke. It's wall-to-wall stuff and they [the artists] get very little money from it. Most of the mystique is taken away". So, that's you lot told.

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