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Click JUMP to skip direct to a section of this email or ONLINE to read and share stories on the CMU website (JUMP option may not work in all email readers). For regular updates from Team CMU follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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CMU Jobs is a proven way to recruit the best music business talent for roles across the industry at all levels, from graduate to senior management. To book an ad contact Sam on 020 7099 9060 or email ads@unlimitedmedia.co.uk | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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German publishers up the ante in digital pie debate (label/publisher dimension) Anyway, this is an interesting development, because while songwriters and publishers have been getting increasingly vocal about digital royalties this year - hitting out at digital platforms and the record industry, which both take a bigger cut of streaming income than the songs sector - few have gone as far as to say, on the record, that the label/publisher split should be 50/50. But now the Germans have. The German publishing sector having had a good moan about digital royalties at MIDEM earlier this year, an alliance of trade groups representing publishers, composers and lyricists in Germany is now demanding for a repositioning of the way streaming royalties are split between the owners of the respective song and recording copyrights, both of which streaming services exploit, of course. As previously reported, traditionally the record label takes the lion's share of CD sales income (songwriters and publishers seeing less than 10%), but when it comes to income from things like broadcast and public performance a 50/50 split is much more common (if anything thing, those revenues usually tip in the publishers' favour). There are myriad reasons for this - and premium subscribers can read this analysis of the digital pie debate here using the password in this week's CMU Digest - but what you need to know now is that something more akin to the CD model has been applied to both download and streams. Which Dr Rolf Budde, President of the German Music Publishers' Association, thinks is wrong, wrong, wrong. Comparing the respective royalties received by the record labels and the German publishing sector's collecting society GEMA from key streaming services, he told Billboard: "A comparison shows that the earnings of labels in the ad-supported segment of Spotify are up to as much as eight times as high as the payments made to GEMA, which 61,000 copyright-owners and 4700 music publishers are expected to be content with. This is absolutely disproportionate, and is unfair to the authors and publishers". For their part, off the record the labels insist that they continue to take most of the risks, and do most of the legwork, in getting recordings of songs onto digital platforms, and therefore should continue to see a much bigger share of resulting income. Though few in the record industry want to get into this debate in public, hoping that - as the digital pie grows - songwriters and publishers will start to see their income from recorded music increase again, and that'll shut them up, even if their percentage share remains relatively low. Though, with the recorded music market still pretty stagnant in terms of overall revenues, and with the German publishing sector now going big on this debate, that hoping strategy is unlikely to work out. |
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Zayn Malik signs solo deal with RCA Although the move takes him to a new label, he remains, of course, within the Sony family - One Direction still working with Sony divisions Syco in the UK and Columbia in the US until they split later this year. The singer announced the deal on Twitter, taking a Leona Lewis-style swipe at One Direction's output in the process, saying: "I guess I never explained why I left [One Direction]. It was for this moment to be given the opportunity to show you who I really am! #realmusic #RCA" He followed that up with a photo of him signing his new contract, and then another hashtag "REALME" to show that he really means business. Real business. Really. Despite the sniping, Simon Cowell tweeted his congratulations to Malik, and took a bit of the credit for the deal too. "We have been working on this for a while and I am pleased to say congratulations to Zayn Malik on signing with RCA", he wrote, adding: "I believe they are the perfect label for Zayn's solo career and I am sure whatever they release together will be special". So, with Cowell still on side, what did Malik's former bandmates have to say about the news on Twitter? Well, Harry tweeted a photo of Jack Nicholson, Niall tweeted about "a very brave little dude called Gavin", Liam continued a silence that has lasted since Monday, and Louis tweeted about a charity fundraising competition. And I don't think it takes a master codebreaker to work out what they all mean. |
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IFPI reaffirms its position on digital pie debate (label/artist dimension) Yes, the average recording artist is making less from recorded music today compared to the 1990s, but that's because the entire industry is making much less from recorded music. And, actually - all you moaners - the labels are paying more of their revenues over to artists today than back in the CD heyday. So stop saying labels are the problem. You know who's really to blame. For everything. YouTube, that's who. I'm paraphrasing a little, but that's the basic gist of Moore's piece. We already knew this was the IFPI's line, because the grade group rehearsed these arguments went unleashing its annual stats pack earlier this year, but in the new blog post Moore goes over the arguments once again. IFPI's independently verified research, Moore wrote, "found that while payments to artists have declined over the past five years, the decline was substantially smaller than the reduction in corresponding sales revenue. This means that artist remuneration has actually increased as a proportion of record companies' revenues in the last five years". She goes on: "The IFPI research covered payments to locally signed artists by record companies in eighteen markets worldwide. It found that industry revenues in those countries declined by 17% over from 2009 to 2014, while corresponding payments to artists declined by only 6%. That meant the proportion of record companies' revenues paid to local artists in those markets increased by 13% over five years". So boom, take that whining artist types. And ignore the fact various managers and indie labels had a good go at pulling apart this IFPI research when it was first shared earlier this year. Moore concludes: "The issue is not that artists are getting lower royalty payments from digital services - they are not - but that the overall recorded music market has shrunk, which means smaller revenues for all involved". But what about blaming YouTube? Well: "It is true that artists and record producers are not being paid fairly for the use of their music. This is because user upload platforms, such as SoundCloud and YouTube, are taking advantage of exemptions from copyright laws that simply should not apply to them". Yeah, fucking YouTube, ruining everything for everybody. Except for all the artists who use it as their primary marketing platform. And all the music consumers who use it as their main discovery channel. But for everyone else, everything's ruined. As we say, Moore's new blog covers mainly old ground, but it reaffirms the record industry - and especially major labels' - line on the big old digital pie debate (label/artist dimension). More on which here if you are a CMU premium reader, and this article actually says some nice things about YouTube as part of the 'converting freemium' discussion. You'll need the password published in the CMU Digest to access these articles. |
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Windish Agency allies with Paradigm network As a result of the new alliance, Paradigm, AM Only, Coda and Windish will now all operate under the Paradigm Music Division banner, with Tom Windish, of Windish Agency founding fame, joining that division's leadership team while continuing to lead his own company day to day. Says he: "Partnering with Paradigm, AM Only and Coda solidifies our long-standing relationship as collaborators, and our respective cultures and synergies will significantly enhance the entire team's ability to provide exceptional service and representation for all of our artists. The independent spirit embodied by our agencies is what makes this partnership special, and uniquely positions us to identify, create and maximise client opportunities on a global scale". Paradigm CEO Sam Gores adds: "The common thread in building Paradigm Music has been to invest in strong, visionary leaders who are universally respected by their peers and committed to building careers the right way. From the moment I met Tom Windish I was impressed with his business acumen, integrity, leadership, taste, and unique way of thinking. Over the years Paradigm has established a pattern of successful partnerships that together have formed a unified culture that I am proud of". |
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Richer Sounds launches new website for unsigned bands You don't need to know that really. I'm just telling you to add some colour to this story about hi-fi seller Richer Sounds launching an unsigned music website. This will be different to all the other unsigned music websites, in case you wondered, because it will be run by a company that has a shop across the road from the flat where I'll be based for the next four weeks. It's like Richer Sounds CEO Julian Richer said: "At Richer Sounds we're passionate about music, and our goal is to help great artists get the attention they deserve. Richer Unsigned is an exciting new curation-based platform that caters to the needs of a shifting landscape in the music industry, and will help nurture both new and existing talent we have in the UK". Wanna know more? Well, head on over to richerunsigned.com and you can find out all about the website's playlists and tracks of the week and tips for new artists and such like and all that gubbins. Or if you're more interested in why I'm heading to Edinburgh for the month, you should go to threeweeks.co.uk. |
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NME launches an app What's in it? Content, that's what. Content and functions. We should make a CMU Daily app. Fill it with this kind of shit. But I need to find a start-up to make it for me. If only I knew a start-up. If only CMU HQ sat alongside a entire building of buzzy buzzy start ups. The buzzy buzzy buzzy start-up which made the NME Daily app is called Tapjet. "Working with NME has been a fantastic experience", said Tapjet CEO Chris Harris. "Our app-streaming technology enables NME to change features in the app live - creating new experiences to match the news cycle". Ah, the news cycle. I had one of them once too. Now here's NME's buzzy, buzzy, buzzy, buzzy Editor-In-Chief Mike Williams saying things like "digital product set". Williams: "When we announced our major brand transformation, we promised an exciting new digital product set, so we're delighted to be able to share the new NME Daily App with the world. The new NME is all about giving our audience what they want, when they want it and how they want it, and NME Daily delivers on this with some cool new regulars and an amazing user experience. Mobile is key to NME, and with new music, great pictures and big opinions every day, NME Daily is a brilliant new string to our bow". |
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Dr Dre to release companion album to NWA biopic, says Ice Cube Appearing on US radio station Power 99's 'Rise & Grind Morning Show', Ice Cube said: "Dre is dropping an 'inspired by' album. He's dropping something on 1 Aug. It's mega. It's Dr Dre. It's what everybody's been waiting for, it's definitely a dope record, and he's dropping it all on the same day". Before you all set your alarms for Saturday morning, it is possible there have been some crossed wires here. What, a Dr Dre album not coming out when someone said it would? Perhaps, yes. According to Rolling Stone, sources have said that Dre will announce the album on his Beats 1 show on Saturday, though the actual release will come later. It's not clear if this record will include any material from Dre's long in production third studio album, originally called 'Detox', because there was word he'd ditched that long postponed record. Perhaps instead he could do a rap explaining how you stop Apple Music charging you £10 on 1 Oct. -------------------------------------------------- Avicii and Deadmau5 spend more time than they should caring about Noel Gallagher's opinion Gallagher recently dismissed EDM acts headlining festivals in an interview with the NME ahead of his performance at T In The Park, saying: "I don't know anything about Avicii, I don't wish to know anything about Avicii. It sounds like a fucking artist from the renaissance period. Is it like that David Guetta nonsense? Is that the night after me or the night before me? The night before me? Alright, I can save it after that, don't worry about that". He then introduced himself at the festival as "Deadmau5 without the stupid fucking hat". Responding via the Instantgram, like the kids do nowadays, Avicii said: "Sounds like you're playing the wrong festival if you're at the same time dissing its entire audiences music taste you silly sausage!" He added: "What is really 'sad' is hearing a old time musician like yourself confessing so bluntly and openly to not having an open mind to new music by dissing shit you haven't even heard. I really didn't think someone whose whole image is being witty would turn all stereotype 'bitter ol timer rocker' like that". If Avicii didn't realise Gallagher's "bitter ol time rocker" routine is pretty much central to his whole being witty thing, then I think the producer possibly knows as much about the former Oasis guitarist as the former Oasis guitarist knows about him. But still, he offered to give Gallagher a preview of his new album and invited "honest feedback". Deadmau5 initially responded with a short video describing himself as "Noel Gallagher without the stupid accent". Then, having thought about it, he decided that he agreed with Gallagher's comments about EDM, although assumed quite a lot in the process. He published a blog post on Tumblr yesterday, accusing some artists of "fucking up EDM" by turning up to shows and just playing a CD of their music. He wrote: "Would it fucking kill you to be able to add some sort of modularity, performance, showmanship BEYOND putting a fist in the air, telling people to make noise, and or playing the top line on an invisible keyboard in the air to show the crowd "HEY! EVERYONE! THIS LEAD GOES HERE! WATCH MY HAND. IT GOES DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOT". "I think this hits the core of what Noel Gallagher was hinting at", he concluded. "Not EDM in general". I think you underestimate Noel Gallagher's ability to generalise, sir. |
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Miguel and Foals videos, Chad Valley returns, Despacio in London, and more Other notable announcements and developments today... • Miguel has released a video for 'NWA', from his new album 'Wildheart'. • Foals have made one of those YouTube videos you can move around for new single 'Mountain At My Gates'. • Chad Valley has announced that he will release his second album, 'Entirely New Blue', through Cascine on 2 Oct. Here's the first single, 'True'. • Here is the new single from Batteries, aka Bis' Sci-Fi Steven, 'Human Requirements'. • James Murphy and 2manydjs' Despacio soundsystem will be wheeled into the Roundhouse for two nights of perfect audio quality on 10-11 Sep. No news, though, on whether they'll be permitted by Neil Young to play his records. "Perfect" yes, but is it "super perfect"? |
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Liam Gallagher performs new song in Irish pub Gallagher apparently knocked out a few tunes in JJ Finan's in the town on Sunday afternoon, something that went largely unnoticed by a large proportion of the pub, if the amount of talking going on in the background is anything to go by. Presumably they were wondering when the proper musicians would start playing again. |
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Send ALL press releases to musicnews@unlimitedmedia.co.uk - this is checked daily by the whole editorial team meaning your release will definitely get to the right person. For details of the training and consultancy services offered by CMU Insights click here - Andy and Chris are also available to provide music business comment, just email them direct. To promote your company or advertise jobs or services to the entire UK music industry via the CMU bulletin or website contact Sam on 020 7099 9060 or email ads@unlimitedmedia.co.uk |
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