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

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 7 Sep

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TRIBUTES POUR IN FOR AMY WINEHOUSE
The great and the good of the music world lined up yesterday to pay tribute to Amy Winehouse, who died at her London home on Saturday afternoon.

The singer's body was discovered in her bed by one of her security guards at about 4pm, but it is possible she died some hours earlier. The cause of death is as yet unknown, and probably won't be confirmed for some weeks until the results of toxicology tests, due to be carried out today, are available.

There was predictable speculation that her untimely passing was the result of a drugs overdose, though tabloid reports say police found no evidence of recent drug taking at her home, and it's just as likely her death was the result of chronic ill health brought about by years of drug taking and excessive drinking, though that too is speculation until the aforementioned test results are available.

Police spokesman Superintendent Raj Kohli, speaking outside Winehouse's Camden home on Saturday night, said: "It would be inappropriate to speculate on the cause of death. My sympathy extends not just to her immediate family but clearly to the thousands and millions of fans across the world".

Winehouse's label, Universal Music, subsequently issued its own statement confirming the singer's death, and adding: "We are deeply saddened at the sudden loss of such a gifted musician, artist, performer and friend. Our prayers go out to Amy's family, friends and fans at this difficult time".

Winehouse's mother Janis had spent Friday with her daughter, while her father Mitch was in New York promoting his own jazz album. As Mitch returned to London, the family issued a statement yesterday, saying: "Our family has been left bereft by the loss of Amy, a wonderful daughter, sister, niece. She leaves a gaping hole in our lives. We are coming together to remember her and we would appreciate some privacy and space at this terrible time".

As news spread of Winehouse's death on Saturday evening, collaborators, friends and celebrity fans of the singer took to Twitter to post their tributes, among them the following:

Mark Ronson: "She was my musical soulmate and like a sister to me. This is one of the saddest days of my life".

Russell Brand: "We have lost a beautiful and talented woman".

Producer Salaam Remi: "Very very sad day. Just lost a great friend and a sister. RIP my baby sis Cherry Winehouse. Love ya always".

Kelly Osbourne: "I can't even breath right now, I'm crying so hard. I just lost one of my best friends. I love you forever Amy and will never forget the real you!"

Lady Gaga: "Amy changed pop music forever, I remember knowing there was hope, and feeling not alone because of her. She lived jazz, she lived the blues".

Also paying tribute, via more traditional routes, was Tony Bennett, who earlier this year recorded a duet with Winehouse for his next album. He issued a statement saying: "Amy Winehouse was an artist of immense proportions and I am deeply saddened to learn of her tragic passing. She was an extraordinary musician with a rare intuition as a vocalist and I am truly devastated that her exceptional talent has come to such an early end. She was a lovely and intelligent person and when we recorded together she gave a soulful and extraordinary performance. I was honoured to have the opportunity to sing with her. It had been my sincere hope that she would be able to overcome the issues she was battling and I send my deepest sympathy to her father Mitchell, her entire family and all of those who loved her".

Meanwhile, Neil Portnow of the US Recording Academy, noting Winehouse's Grammy successes, said: "Five-time Grammy winner Amy Winehouse was a dynamic performer and musician who seamlessly blended rock, jazz, pop, and soul and created a sound all her own. Her rich, soulful and unique voice reflected her honest songwriting and earned her a devoted fan following, critical acclaim, and the genuine respect and admiration of her musical peers. She will forever be remembered for her immense talent, and her music will live on for generations to come. Our deepest sympathies go out to her family, friends, and fans during this difficult time".

Fans gathered outside Winehouse's home and at her favourite Camden hangout the Hawley Arms on Saturday night to mourn the singer. A funeral is likely to take place within days, as is customary in Jewish families, though plans can't be made until the timing of that post-mortem is confirmed.

Many reports have predictably focused on Winehouse's age, 27, meaning, of course, she joins the so called 27 Club, a list of other former troubled rock icons who died prematurely at the same age. Other 'club members' include Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain. Some friends of the singer have been quoted as saying Winehouse had herself noted her current eligibility for the group, and admitted she feared she might join them.

As is customary in the download age, news of Winehouse's passing had an immediate effect on the iTunes charts, with both 'Back To Black' and the special edition of the same album soon appearing in the download store's top 20 albums. With only hours between her death and the end of the chart week, those sales only resulted in low overall chart positions yesterday, but the Official Charts Company says it expects Winehouse songs and albums to appear higher up in its lists next Sunday.

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SONY MOVES TO HAVE THIS IS IT FOOTAGE REMOVED FROM MURRAY TRIAL
The Sony film company has asked the judge hearing the Conrad Murray manslaughter case to scrap plans to show outtakes from the 'This Is It' movie during the doctor's trial later this year.

As previously reported, originally it was Murray's defence team who requested to see footage recorded by AEG Live at rehearsals for Michael Jackson's fated 'This Is It' live show, believing it may show the late king of pop was in poor health in the weeks before his death. Sony Studios now control that content because they secured the rights to transform some of it into the 'This Is It' movie.

The company objected to the idea of lawyers getting access to the unused film, and even more so to proposals it be shown in court, arguing it would reduce the value of the footage, which might be used for future documentary releases. However, Sony was ordered to let reps for both the defence and prosecution see the footage onsite at its studios.

As it turned out, it was the prosecution who subsequently requested to show more of that footage when the case goes to trial in September, with the defence admitting last week that the backstage recordings don't really give any indication as to Jackson's state of health.

Sony has leapt on that admission and called for Judge Michael Pastor to axe plans to screen any of the footage during the trial, arguing that doing so would be a waste of the court's time. Pastor had originally planned to visit Sony's studios himself to view the footage, though he cancelled those plans this weekend, saying he had seen clips of the sixteen hours of film lawyers had deemed relevant, and felt he could make a decision one way or another based on those clips alone. That decision should follow early this week.

Murray, of course, is accused of causing Michael Jackson's untimely death two years ago by negligently administering the drug propofol. Murray's people are expected to claim Jackson self-administered the fatal dose of the drug.

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GROOVESHARK SUED BY PUBLISHERS
According to CNET, Grooveshark is facing a new lawsuit, this time from the music publishing sector. The US-based streaming music service is already facing litigation from Universal, though a previous lawsuit from EMI was settled, and that major is now licensing the platform.

As much previously reported, bosses at Grooveshark - where users can upload as well as stream content - insist they are simply an audio version of YouTube, and by removing unlicensed content from their servers when takedown notices are issued they are compliant with American copyright law.

Although EMI and some indies have licensed the service, others in the music industry remain convinced it is pushing safe harbour provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, designed mainly to protect internet service providers, to the limit, even if arguably the outcome of Viacom's famous lawsuit against YouTube, relating to the video site's early years in operation, back up Team Grooveshark's interpretation of the law.

Some of Grooveshark's critics argue the platform is not like the modern YouTube, because the modern YouTube has licenses in place with the vast majority of content owners, and operates an automated takedown system where pre-registered unlicensed content is automatically removed whenever it is uploaded by a user.

The only free audio streaming service to offer truly unlimited and on-demand listening to large numbers of tracks, Grooveshark is very popular with young music fans, especially Stateside, and some reckon it would be in the music industry's interest to find a way to make it work. However, competitors like Spotify have struggled to make free streaming funded by advertising alone work financially, and some worry that Grooveshark, if it was paying out licence fees to all content owners, would suffer the same problems.

And indeed Grooveshark founder Sam Tarantino recently admitted that there were problems with both the advertising and subscription business models for on-demand streaming, proposing instead a business built on artist partnerships and management, which seems like an even less secure place for a company with large monthly overheads to be heading.

The consortium of publishers and songwriters filed its lawsuit in a Tennessee court on Friday. Grooveshark is yet to respond.

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JUDGE SLASHES JAMMIE DAMAGES AGAIN
Will the American record industry still be grappling with the fallout from its disastrous and now defunct sue-the-fans approach to tackling the file-sharing problem forever? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, time for another update in the long running Jammie Thomas court case.

You remember Jammie, right? She shared 24 songs illegally using this archaic bit of technology called Kazaa, which the kids seemed to dig at some point in the dim and distant past. She was sued by the Recording Industry Association Of America and for reasons no one can remember she decided to fight the lawsuit in court.

At first hearing, Thomas was ordered to pay $222,000 to the record industry in damages, but then the judge overseeing the case decided that hearing hadn't been done right, and ordered a second trial. At that, the jury hearing the case, for reasons best known to themselves, order Jammie, a single mother of limited means, to pay $1.92 million in damages. A judge subsequently ruled the jury had got it wrong, and slashed the damages figure to $54,000.

The RIAA, to be fair, was willing to accept that figure but Jammie, perhaps sensing things were going in her favour, refused. So the RIAA appealed the judge's amendment of the original jury decision, sending the case back into court for a third time, where the jury awarded the record industry $1.5 million in damages.

Which brings us up to now. And the judge hearing the case has again ruled that the jury were insane to order Thomas to pay over a million in damages. Well, he didn't call them "insane", but he did say the damages sum was "outrageously high" and "appalling". So he's cut the figure the file-sharing mom must pay back down to $54,000.

So where does that leave us? Well, despite last time round saying they were willing to accept the lower sum in order to bring this embarrassing case to a close (in fact it was willing to go down as low as $25,000), this time the RIAA seems to be in a less compliant mood. A spokesman told Billboard on Friday the organisation disagreed with the judge's ruling and was considering its options.

And so, the case continues, on and on and on and on.

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JUDGE ALLOWS LACHAPELLE'S RIHANNA LAWSUIT TO PROCEED
Well, this could be interesting. Mainly for intellectual property lawyers, but hey, there's some raunchy photos involved too for the rest of you. David LaChapelle's lawsuit against Rihanna and her people over the video to her 'S&M' song has been green lighted by a US judge.

As previously reported, famous photographer LaChapelle says Rihanna's 'S&M' pop promo ripped off a photo shoot he did for Vogue back in 2002. It seems undeniable that the video, directed by Melina Matsoukas, was a homage to LaChapelle's photos, but the question is whether it infringed any of his rights.

A New York judge last week threw out LaChapelle's claims of trade-dress infringement, unfair competition and unjust enrichment, but said there was a strong enough case for copyright infringement for that part of his lawsuit to proceed to court.

The photographer's legal people are now due to meet with reps of Rihanna and her label next month, after which we'll presumably know whether this interesting squabble will actually go to court.

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AMY WINEHOUSE DIES
Troubled singing star Amy Winehouse died at her Camden home this weekend, aged 27.

Raised in North London, Winehouse was a born performer, influenced musically by her cabbie father Mitch's passion for jazz music and Rat Pack stars like Frank Sinatra. Her talents as a singer were spotted early on, though it was her grandmother that first proposed the then nine year old Amy attend drama school. She subsequently spent four years at the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School before attending the prestigious theatre school set up run by Sylvia Young.

Despite her obvious talents for music and performance, teachers often struggled to keep Winehouse quiet in more conventional classes, though Sylvia Young herself admitted that was mainly because the young Amy found academic work too easy, and soon lost interest as a result. She left the Sylvia Young institution as her GCSEs approached, legend has it after being expelled, though Young says it was Winehouse's mother that chose to put her daughter in a more traditional school, fearing she may otherwise fail her exams.

A stint at the BRIT School followed, though it was the music the teenage Winehouse was writing on her own accord that stood out. A boyfriend, soul singer Tyler James, shopped her demo tape around labels and management agencies, resulting in a 2002 deal with Simon Fuller's 19 Management company. She quickly signed a publishing deal with EMI, while label interest started to build from various quarters. In the end Universal's Island Records scored a deal.

Debut album 'Frank', produced mainly by Salaam Remi, was released in 2003 receiving much acclaim and a number of award nods, even though Winehouse herself said she wasn't entirely happy with the record, and didn't entirely agree with the choices of her label regarding which songs and mixes to include.

But it was album number two, 2006's 'Back To Black', produced by both Remi and Mark Ronson, that really launched Winehouse as a global signing star, winning acclaim, awards and huge record sales the world over, and breaking the singer in the US. While it was songs and the voice that ensured Winehouse's success, her distinct and strong-minded character and infectious personality - on stage and in interviews - played its part too.

As Winehouse's superstar status was confirmed, the spotlight increasingly fell on her private life, which proved controversial. Her excessive drinking and drug-taking began to fascinate the press, but concern friends and fans, who worried about the singer's health, and that her inner demons were taking over. Many felt this side of her life grew in significance once she became involved with Blake Fielder-Civil, and the couple became regular tabloid fixtures during their eventful two year marriage.

Many blamed Fielder-Civil for extending his wife's addictions into more dangerous territories, including crack cocaine and heroin, and for tarnishing her reputation by becoming involved in criminal and violent acts with which she became unfairly associated. Certainly Winehouse's professional career took a turn for the worse, and not just because of the frequent tabloid scandal, but also as her live performances became unpredictable and, sometimes, unwatchable. Meanwhile her label waited patiently for a follow up to 'Back To Black'.

Despite famously dissing rehab in her song of the same name, Winehouse did try on numerous occasions to kick her addictions, often utilising rehab facilities, and seemed to enjoy some success, especially after splitting from Fielder-Civil. But there were false starts when trying to resurrect her pop career, most recently when she was booed during a shambolic live show in Belgrade.

Yet, despite everything, Winehouse, more than most pop stars caught up in the hell of drink and drug addiction, retained a sizable dedicated fanbase who desperately wanted the singer to get back to her peak, and who were still waiting with some anticipation for the promised third album.

Winehouse had other projects, in particular setting up Island imprint Lioness Records to launch the musical career of her goddaughter Dionne Bromfield. Winehouse's last public appearance was onstage during Bromfield's appearance at the iTunes festival last week, where she encouraged the audience to go out and buy her protégé's new album.

Winehouse died on Saturday night at her Camden home. The cause of her death is as yet unknown. Coming during a weekend when the news agenda was dominated by a tragedy of inconceivable proportions elsewhere in Europe, Winehouse's sudden passing was nevertheless worldwide news as friends, fans and the wider music community came to terms with the passing, far too soon, of one of the 21st Century's greatest British vocalists.

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GAGA TO GUEST ON CHER TRACK
With Cher having revealed last week that she had recorded a song written by Lady Gaga for her new album, it now seems that the Lady herself will add some vocals to the track.

Cher originally said that although the song, called 'The Greatest Thing', had been written by Gaga and her producer RedOne, it wouldn't be a duet with the current pop queen. But that seems to have changed.

Indicating that Gaga would now join her in the studio, Cher has tweeted: "Can't wait till Gaga puts her voice on 'The Greatest Thing'. She will rock it so fucking hard!"

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OH LAND LONDON GIG
If you missed the rather wonderful Oh Land performing at Glastonbury last month, well here's some good news, the Danish songstress is returning to London. Albeit not until November. Though she will be supporting Katy Perry in October. Oh Land will play at Heaven in London on 10 Nov, following the 10 Oct release of her new album.

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THE DEER TRACKS DATES
CMU favourites The Deer Tracks have announced three summer live dates in the UK ahead of the 22 Aug release of their new album 'The Archer Trilogy Part Two'. Dates as follows:

27 Jul: London, Whirled Art Cinema
3 Aug: London, The Lexington
4 Aug: Brighton, The Green Door Store

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FESTIVAL LINE-UP UPDATE

BESTIVAL, Robin Hill Country Park, Isle Of Wight, 8-11 Sept: Mark Jones brings his Back To The Phuture fest to this year's Bestival bash, with Hercules & Love Affair, Blancmange and supergroup OneTwo joining Santigold representing the old and new electro schools on the phuturistic showcase line-up. www.bestival.net

BEACHED FESTIVAL AT SCARBOROUGH FAIR, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, 13 Aug: The Hoosiers, Amsterdam and 'X-Factor' finalists Belle Amie comprise the first bookings for this seaside one-dayer, with more acts to be announced very soon. www.scarboroughopenairtheatre.com

HEVY, Port Lympne Wildlife Park, Kent, 5-8 Aug: Max Raptor, If Heroes Should Fail, Mishkin, Collapse The Control, The Headstart, The Debut, Show It Off, The Afterparty, Don Broco, The Lost Boys, You And What Army and Never Means Maybe are the rather gargantuan portion of latest Hevy performers, joining The Dillinger Escape Plan, Architects, Bouncing Souls, We Are The Ocean, Zebrahead, Capdown and Your Demise at this Kentish rock riot. www.hevy.co.uk

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ONE MOVEMENT DISCONTINUED
Organisers of Australia's One Movement festival, which also included the Asia Pacific edition of the MUSExpo music business convention, have announced they are discontinuing the Perth-based event. It had already been announced the festival and conference would not take place in 2011, but organisers say it will not now return in 2012 either. Despite receiving over $1.5 million in government funding, the main festival side of One Movement made big losses.

David Van Ooran, of the government agency which funded the festival, Eventscorp, told reporters this weekend: "One Movement did deliver some good results in its first two years, with the conference, fringe and showcase elements attracting national and international bands, delegates and international music industry decision makers to Perth. But the festival component of One Movement held on The Esplanade didn't work for the organisers and that impacted on the viability of the whole event".

Organisers stressed that their decision to discontinue the event had nothing to do with the previously reported government investigation that is reviewing the investment Tourism Western Australia made into the venture via Eventscorp, and whether there were any conflicts of interest when it committed to support the project.

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ACCESS INDUSTRIES REJIGS WARNER BOARD
Following the recent completion of its takeover of Warner Music, Access Industries has rejigged the music major's board, putting more of its own people into positions of authority.

Stephen Cooper, who serves as a director of other Access companies, will become Chairman of the board, with Access Industries' owner Len Blavatnik as Vice Chair. Other Access Industries execs and associates Lincoln Benet, Donald Wagner, Jorg Mohaupt and Alex Blavatnik will also take seats at Warner Music's board table.

Although incumbent Warner execs Edgar Bronfman Jr and Lyor Cohen will step down as Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the board respectively, they will both still have places on the board, as well as keeping their executive roles, the former as overall CEO, the latter as CEO of Warner's US recorded music operations. Warner Chappell boss man Cameron Strang will also have a seat on the new board.

As previously reported, there have been rumours Bronfman Jr will step back from the CEO role in favour of Cohen, though there has been no sign of that as yet.

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TURNTABLE.FM SIGNS UP ASCAP AND BMI
Buzzy US-based music-sharing-streaming-thing Turntable.fm has announced it now has deals with the two main US publishing rights collecting societies, ASCAP and BMI. The recording rights were already sorted through a deal with SoundExchange, the agency that represents the US record companies in the few areas of digital that they have decided to licence collectively.

Confirming it had licensed the fledgling digital service, a spokesperson for ASCAP told CMU last week: "We are pleased to announce that Turntable.fm is licensed by ASCAP. It's great to see a tech start-up securing an ASCAP license from the outset, ensuring that songwriters, composers and publishers will be paid fairly if the site succeeds. Every song begins with the songwriter, and those songwriters must be able to make a living in the internet age. It will be interesting to follow the progress of Turntable.fm as it gains mainstream awareness and maybe, just maybe, goes shoulder-to-shoulder with the big music services like Pandora and Spotify".

Still in beta-stage, Turntable.fm has been restricted to US use only because of licensing rules. By licensing recording rights via SoundExchange, the service will only be able to offer a limited amount of on-demand functionality. Pandora licenses via SoundExchange, whereas Spotify had to do deals directly with the record companies.

While Turntable.fm has proved popular with beta users, and has generated some excitement in the artist and label community, it is still unclear what the service's revenue model will be long term.

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YOUTUBE TO STREAM US FESTIVALS
YouTube has announced it will stream live two big music festivals in the US this year, next month's Lollapalooza in Chicago, and Austin City Limits in September. On-stage footage will be available for free via the video site, as well as backstage interviews. The video website also streamed many performances at this year's Coachella festival in April.

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GUARDIAN PUBLISHES MEDIA 100
The Guardian has published its annual media power list, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the recent stresses in the traditional newspaper industry, in particular at News International and the wider Rupert Murdoch empire, means technology dominates at the top of the list even more. Only BBC boss Mark Thompson, at number four, represents traditional media firms in the top five. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is at one, Twitter's Jack Dorsey at two, Google's Larry Page at three and Apple's Steve Jobs at five.

Music-wise, Simon Cowell comes highest, though as always as much for his TV operations as his music interests. He's at nine. Elsewhere, Amazon's Jeff Bezos is at twelve, Spotify's Daniel Ek is at 40, Access Industries chief and Warner Music owner Len Blavatnik is at 49, Universal Music UK's boss David Joseph is at 53, BBC Radio chief Tim Davie is at 61, Global Radio's Ashley Tabor is at 70 and Radio 1's George Ergatoudis is at 73.

Read the full list at www.guardian.co.uk/media/mediaguardian-100-2011

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WILLIE NELSON CELEBRATED BY THE FARMERS
Willie Nelson has scored a special honour. He is about to be inducted into the Hall Of Fame. What's special about that, you ask? Well, it's the Agricultural Hall Of Fame. The country star is being recognised for his support of American's Farm Aid movement, which he helped found in 1985.

Says Willie: "I am extremely honoured and humbled to join the company of the 38 prominent inductees already in the Agricultural Hall Of Fame. I have long said that family farmers are the backbone of our country. I never thought Farm Aid would need to be around as long as it has been, but we know our country needs family farmers, and Farm Aid will be here as long as family farmers need us".

Nelson will join such luminaries as Thomas Jefferson and Isaac Newton in the Kansas-based Agricultural Hall Of Fame.

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