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CMU REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2011: THE ARTISTS AND THE MUSIC
01 AMY WINEHOUSE In the months following her death, the Winehouse family set up a charity, The Amy Winehouse Foundation. Although its focus is not entirely clear, a key portion of its activities will be to lobby government to provide better support for young people battling drink and drugs. Meanwhile, this month a posthumous album (a compilation of studio outtakes, rather than her unfinished third long player), 'Lioness: Hidden Treasures', went to number one in the UK charts. -------------------------------------------------- 02 CONRAD MURRAY Although Murray's legal team initially seemed confident they could secure a not guilty verdict, the prosecution's aggressive arguments and the debunking of some of the defence's key theories meant things looked bad for the doctor from the outset. He was found guilty in November and sentenced to the full four year jail stretch possible by Judge Michael Pastor, who seemed very angry that Murray had twice refused to speak in court but had given his side of the story to a TV documentary instead. -------------------------------------------------- 03 JOSS STONE Eventually charged with conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm, Junior Bradshaw and Kevin Liverpool appeared in court three times this year. In October, Liverpool entered a not guilty plea, while Bradshaw is yet to plead either way. -------------------------------------------------- 04 ADELE 2011 wasn't all great for Adele though, as she failed to capitalise on her growing success in the States due to an ongoing throat problem, which forced her to postpone most of her US dates this year. She underwent surgery in November and is expected to make a full recovery. And as she says she is not planning to record another album for two years, there's plenty of time to catch up. -------------------------------------------------- 05 THE GALLAGHERS But that wasn't the half of it. The biggest Gallagher news came in the form of a disagreement over the details surrounding their former band's split. In a press conference to announce his new projects in July, Noel claimed that Liam had cancelled a V Festival performance due to a hangover and attempted to place adverts for his Pretty Green clothing company in the final Oasis tour programme. Liam sued for defamation, then Noel apologised and Liam apparently dropped the case. Though in November Noel's countersuit emerged, which suggests this will all rumble on into 2012. -------------------------------------------------- 06 WESTLIFE AND THE STONE ROSES It may have seemed like Westlife would never stop, but The Stone Roses had always insisted that they'd remain apart forever. When The Sun reported that a meeting at Mani's mother's funeral in April had convinced Ian Brown and John Squire to perform together again, the bassist reacted angrily, though it turned out in October that this was exactly what had happened. They will play three shows at Manchester's Heaton Park next June, as well as numerous festivals, and are apparently working on new material. -------------------------------------------------- 07 REBECCA BLACK As a result there was much analysis of the song and the bizarre company behind it, and Black herself was subject to horrendous abuse from many internet users. Undeterred, she announced that with new management and a top production team she would forge ahead with a serious pop career. Sadly, subsequent singles 'My Moment' and 'Person Of Interest' have failed to capture the public imagination. Still, with over 180 million views for 'Friday' (making it YouTube's most watched video of 2011) who needs successful follow-ups? -------------------------------------------------- 08 JUSTIN BIEBER But commercially the Bieber continued to deliver the goods. In February he released a movie, last month he released a Christmas album, and in between he found time to promote his own perfume, which has brought him millions of dollars already, and was recently pushed on fathers of teenage girls with some weird adverts. Oh, and he sold a lock of his hair for $40,000. He also had some eggs thrown at him. Good times. -------------------------------------------------- 09 PJ HARVEY The album brought Harvey her second Mercury Prize win (this time under better circumstances, the last one having been handed to her on 11 Sep 2001), a lifetime achievement gong at the NME Awards, Best Album at the Q Awards, and saw her appear in many an end of year list, including our own Artists Of The Year rundown. Few, if any, albums managed to unite people in praise to such a high level this year. -------------------------------------------------- 10 DUBSTEP On the plus side, it meant there were new and interesting sounds in the charts, and the world of dance added new and innovative movements to its repertoire with it. On the negative side, we reached a point where dubstep was seen as an acceptable genre to soundtrack a Weetabix advert. -------------------------------------------------- CMU REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2011: THE MUSIC BUSINESS 01 EMI As expected, Terra Firma's ownership of EMI ended this year, quicker than we had expected when the Citigroup bank repossessed the music major in February. We knew a sale would follow, though serious talks with bidders didn't begin until early summer. EMI CEO Roger Faxon insisted the best option was to keep the EMI recording and music publishing business in common ownership, though few expected that to happen. And it didn't. After months of negotiations, in November EMI's rivals Universal and Sony beat the favourites Warner and BMG to buy the EMI labels and publishing catalogues respectively. Though both deals are subject to the approval of competition regulators, and indie label trade body IMPALA is already opposing them. So, while EMI is at the end of its eighty-year history, we can expect a few more dramas in 2012 first. -------------------------------------------------- 02 WARNER MUSIC Probably the latter. In May the company was sold outright to Russian billionaire Len Blavatnik's Access Industries. In August, Bronfman Jr stepped down as CEO, staying on as Chairman to work on a bid for the EMI labels. When that bidding was over (and lost) Bronfman gave up that role too. With Access now fully in charge, many expect big changes in 2012, as Warner deals with being the smallest music major competing with two much bigger rivals, ie the soon-to-be expanded Universal and Sony. -------------------------------------------------- 03 A UNIVERSAL/LIVE NATION ALLIANCE While Universal owner Vivendi moved into Live Nation's territory by buying British ticketing firm SeeTickets in early September, less than two weeks later Universal and Live Nation bosses were announcing a new joint venture business focused on brand partnerships and direct-to-fan platforms. The actual outcome of that joint venture is yet to be seen, though the indie sector won't like the two biggest players in their industry getting too cosy. And as the year ended, another Live Nation/Universal alliance was announced, with the two companies set to collaborate on Madonna's next three albums. -------------------------------------------------- 04 HMV And rightly so, as it turned out. 2011 was not a good year for His Master's Voice. General high street woes, and continued competition from Amazon, Apple and the supermarkets, meant HMV's key retail revenues slumped, making it hard to service the debts run up by the aforementioned expansion and diversification. The sale of Waterstones and HMV Canada raised some cash and placated bankers for now, but with retail revenues still in decline, and talk of having to sell live division the MAMA Group to survive, a move that would reverse those clever diversification efforts, many now wonder if 2012 will see the demise of HMV as well as EMI. -------------------------------------------------- 05 VAT LOOPHOLE The loophole meant that mail-order companies on the Channel Islands selling products under £18 back to the UK - including CDs - didn't have to charge VAT, giving them a 15-20% advantage on mainland retailers. All the big mail-order operators benefited, and although HMV joined the party, by that point it had lost far too much market share to Amazon, Play.com and websites operated by The Hut Group. The loophole - called Low Value Consignment Relief - will be axed for Channel Island companies in 2012. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the founders of Play.com sold the company on this year, just before the loophole closed, for a neat £25 million. -------------------------------------------------- 06 ON AIR, ON SALE Of course the impact on chart-based marketing plans would be less if every label embraced 'on air, on sale' for every release. And at the start of the year it looked like they might, with both Sony and Universal officially adopting that policy in January. But with EMI and Warner keeping their options open, and therefore getting a competitive advantage chart wise, Sony and Universal's commitment to 'on air, on sale' soon started to wane. The Music Managers Forum was not impressed. -------------------------------------------------- 07 COPYRIGHT EXTENSION However, the big copyright development this year went in the record industry's favour as the copyright term for sound recordings in Europe was expanded from 50 to 70 years, and just in time to ensure the Beatles catalogue, the earliest tracks in which date from 1962, don't lose copyright protection in 2013. Record companies convinced the UK government of the case for extension in 2009, but it was only in September of this year that agreement was reached at the all important European level. -------------------------------------------------- 08 FILE-SHARING Internationally, three-strikes is now operational in New Zealand and France, while other countries - Spain and the US in particular - have been considering another approach to combating file-sharing, a system that forces ISPs to block access to copyright infringing websites. The UK's DEA included such a system too, but with a 'wait and see' clause delaying its implementation. Though the Motion Picture Association found an albeit slower way to get such web blocks in place without the help of the DEA, forcing BT to block access to file-sharing website Newzbin through the courts, setting a precedent the BPI is now trying to use to force net firms to block The Pirate Bay. -------------------------------------------------- 09 TAKEDOWN FRUSTRATIONS Some rights owners claim certain websites operate deliberately shoddy takedown systems, so they get protection from the DMCA but are also able to host lots of unlicensed content, which generates traffic. This is possible, they argue, because the US courts have ruled user-upload sites need only operate very basic takedown procedures to get protection - a precedent reaffirmed most recently in the Universal v Veoh appeal ruling. Some now expect the US record industry to lobby for a change in the DMCA that sets out some specific requirements for such takedown processes. Universal Music plays a big role in this saga, not least by leading the legal battle against one website accused of hiding behind a shoddy takedown system, Grooveshark. Universal launched a new legal attack this year - now supported by Sony and Warner - accusing Grooveshark staff of also uploading unlicensed content, which, if true, would deprive the US streaming service of DMCA protection. Some on the other side of the fence, meanwhile, accuse the big rights owners of abusing takedown systems too. It was on those grounds that MegaUpload sued Universal earlier this month, claiming the major abused YouTube's takedown process to have a video promoting the file-transfer site taken offline just because it didn't like it. -------------------------------------------------- 10 THE DIGITAL ROYALTIES DISPUTE Most efforts to have that classification changed through the courts have failed, but then this year, on appeal, producer FBT Productions, who have a stake in the early Eminem recordings, won a lawsuit against Universal on this issue. The music major insisted that ruling relates only to FBT's specific contract, and does not set a precedent. But the estate of Rick James, then Rob Zombie, and then Chuck D, all begged to differ, and are now suing for a bigger cut of digital revenue. If they were to win, the impact on all records companies could be huge. That - and an argument over whether a 1978 clause in US copyright law, that allows the creator to regain control over their works after 35 years, applies to sound recordings (the labels insist not) - are likely to be big debates in the US record industry in 2012. -------------------------------------------------- CMU REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2011: THE MEDIA AND THE INTERNET 01 HACK-GATE But bigger than all of that was Hack-gate, a scandal that had been brewing for years, but which exploded when it was revealed in July that, as well as hacking the voicemails of celebrities and politicians, News Of The World journalists had accessed the answer phones of victims of crime too, most notably murdered teenager Milly Dowler. Worse still, a number of NOTW hacks were clearly involved, when the paper's publisher, Rupert Murdoch's News International, had always claimed there was just one. Facing global outrage, NI took the radical step of shutting the NOTW down, but still public anger rumbled on. Former NOTW editor and then NI CEO Rebekah Wade resigned (eventually), Murdochs Rupert and James faced embarrassing questions in parliament, and it all ended up with a big government-instigated inquiry, with the crimes and lies of NI, the tactics of all journalists, and the tricky issue of privacy rights all combined into one big muddle. A major media story, if not hugely music related. Though George Michael got the boot in, and Charlotte Church appeared at the inquiry. -------------------------------------------------- 02 HACK ATTACKS Such attacks weren't new, and had been prevalent in 2010, though an attack on Sony Corp's servers, which enabled hackers to run off with the personal details of customers of both its PlayStation Network and streaming content platform (then still called Qriocity), was possibly the highest profile attack. And very embarrassing for an already struggling Sony company, whose handling of the crisis was widely criticised. Though the authorities did start to fight back, with various hackers around the world accused of involvement in such attacks arrested, including some linked to the Sony attack, and more recently one accused of taking the website of Kiss man Gene Simmons offline in late 2010, after he said record labels should have sued all file-sharers. -------------------------------------------------- 03 MORRISSEY V NME No legal action was forthcoming though, until this year, when the former Smiths frontman finally sued for defamation. In October a judge ruled that the case could go ahead, despite NME publisher IPC Media's protestation that as Morrissey has released albums and toured successfully in subsequent years, his reputation clearly hadn't been damaged by the interview, something that is required for a defamation case to succeed. The case is now pending a court date next year, and though this type of dispute is often ultimately settled out of court, both sides seem so determined to prove their innocence that it looks likely it will actually reach trial. A statement apparently written by Morrissey and published in November made his anger abundantly clear. -------------------------------------------------- 04 THE RHYTHMIX DEBACLE The charity owns a trademark in the name for educational activities, but not for music, the space in which 'X-Factor' then applied for a registered mark. But the charity's bosses, fearing Team X's trademark would hinder their fundraising efforts, hoped that, once made aware of the clash, the show's producers would change the girl group's name. But no, they told the charity that if they wanted to block the group's use of the name they'd have to go to court. A very expensive pursuit. An online campaign in support of the charity began, though it was an open letter from the organisation's CEO to Simon Cowell that finally brought 'X-Factor' in line, and Rhythmix became Little Mix. Though it took another open letter to actually get TV bosses to withdraw their trademark application, and a social media push to persuade Cowell and co to pay the charity's legal costs. -------------------------------------------------- 05 A NEW BOSS AT RADIO 1 But there was a little change at Radio 1 as Andy Parfitt, boss there for thirteen years, finally left the BBC after three decades with the Corporation. His former number two, Ben Cooper, took over, so radical changes seem unlikely, although he has already reshuffled the station's specialists show DJs and pledged to work with more indie producers on programmes. While we're talking about Radio 1, we probably ought to remember that one of the station's most iconic presenters of old, the one time face of 'Top Of The Pop's, and, some would argue, the first ever DJ - Mr Jimmy Saville - died in October. -------------------------------------------------- 06 STREAMING GETS BIGGER Success brings backlash of course, and both artists and smaller labels started to hit out at the royalties these services pay out. Whether that matters really depends on whether you think being on Spotify et al has a negative impact on iTunes sales. In the US Century Media, and in Britain STHoldings, both reckoned it did. The big record companies, though, were generally supportive of the streaming services, though they are possibly getting much better royalties. And nevertheless, some big artists, Coldplay among them, did keep their new albums off the streaming platforms. This debate will rumble on in 2012. -------------------------------------------------- 07 FACEBOOK PARTNERSHIPS Said content partners could now make available widgets that would publish every song a user ever listened to, or every article they ever read. Quite why anyone would want that still isn't clear, though lots of content partners have made such apps available, and apparently lots of people are signing up to their services as a result. Possibly the most high profile partner was Spotify, who were brought on stage at the party to demo their app. The Spotify/Facebook love affair meant existing Spotify accounts synced to Facebook would automatically share data, and new Spotify users would have to sign up via their Facebook accounts. Some existing subscribers responded badly to this news, forcing Spotify to make it easier for said users to opt out of the Facebook love-in. -------------------------------------------------- 08 APPS Apps also became a routine addition to many artists' promotional campaigns. Though while many (though not all) artist apps simply collate music, videos and text that already exists online, the bar was pushed high by Björk, who had special apps built for each of the songs on her 'Biophilia' album. The apps allowed users to manipulate the songs through various games and activities, as well as providing visual scores of the recorded versions and more. Whether the app should be seen as a new type of album, a slick promotional tool, or a waste of time, is still being debated, but the trend for artists being creative with their apps will continue. -------------------------------------------------- 09 DIGITAL LOCKERS But in March, Amazon decided to launch one too, making music-based lockers suddenly big news. Did the company get licences from the record labels and publishers to make this happen? No. As far as Amazon was concerned, no licence was required to simply store your music somewhere. Those pesky rightsholders, however, argue that there is if you want to then stream tracks back through a player attached to that storage. At the same time Google was also preparing to launch a digital locker service, and it did get in touch with rightsholders first. However, when Google became frustrated with the slow progress of negotiations, it launched unlicensed too. Only Apple, which arguably has the most compelling offer of the three with its iCloud service, actually gained licences, and as a result is the first of the big players to launch a locker in the UK. -------------------------------------------------- 10 STEVE JOBS His health problems had been high profile in recent years, of course, and were enough to cause Apple's share price to dip at one time. But he had always returned to work after his various leaves of absence, so when he finally announced in August that he was unable to continue leading the company and stepped down, many feared the worst. Jobs, of course, was not a music industry person, but such was his and Apple's effect on the music world with the iPod, iTunes and more that it would seem strange not to mark his passing in our review of the year. His is a legacy that will live on for many years to come, in music and many other fields. |
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