Musician Robert Fripp, best known as founder and longest serving member of King Crimson, has taken to Facebook to discuss an ongoing dispute with the David Bowie estate and collecting society PPL about how his contributions to Bowie's 'Heroes' and 'Scary Monsters' albums have been classified. Which may seem like mere semantics, but such classifications impact on how PPL royalties get shared out.
PPL licenses the use of recorded music on behalf of the record industry in scenarios like radio...
Posted on: 26/09/2019 Categories: News from CMU Online
The campaigners are responding to growing concerns over the employment of facial...
Posted on: 26/09/2019 Categories: News from CMU Online
UK venue management company VMS Live has announced Bert Van Horck as its new CEO. He replaces the company's founder Steve Forster, who died earlier this year.
Forster's widow Kate, who is also joining the company as a non-executive director, says: "I am focusing on the opportunity to preserve and continue to grow the legacy of my late husband. This is the appropriate time to extend a huge thank you all the staff, suppliers, clients and other stakeholders who all contributed to keeping...
Posted on: 26/09/2019 Categories: News from CMU Online
Led Zeppelin, as you may remember, were sued by the estate of songwriter Randy Wolfe, aka Randy California. Its lawsuit...
Posted on: 26/09/2019 Categories: News from CMU Online
The major record companies have sued American internet service provider RCN over its copyright infringing customers.
The net firm, says the labels, failed to properly implement its own takedown and repeat infringer policies and therefore should not be allowed to rely on safe harbour protection to avoid liability for its users' infringement. And if that sounds very familiar, that's because this is pretty much a carbon copy of three existing lawsuits filed by the labels against three other...
Posted on: 29/08/2019 Categories: News from CMU Online
Talking of the majors suing ISPs over their infringing customers – which you were, admit it, you were – let's check back in on the record industry's legal battle with Cox Communications. Because the back and forth between the labels and the ISP continues.
In the latest court filing in the case, Cox is demanding that the Recording Industry Association Of America hand over internal reports relating to the Copyright Alert System that the big music and movie companies set up with...
Posted on: 29/08/2019 Categories: News from CMU Online
Tencent Music is under investigation by China's competition regulator over those exclusivity deals it has with the majors, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The exclusivity deals have been an unusual feature of the Chinese digital market for years. Record companies often do a deal with a single digital firm which then not only gets access to that label's music for its own service (or services in Tencent's case) but also becomes the exclusive distributor of that catalogue in the Chinese...
Posted on: 29/08/2019 Categories: News from CMU Online
In the ongoing legal battle over the 2008 Universal archive fire, the major label has now attempted to pick off one more of the artists named on the class action lawsuit that seeks damages in relation to the blaze, that being Soundgarden.
Despite the lawsuit's claim that Universal has never informed any artists of the status of their masters after the fire, the company says it told Soundgarden about said statuses four whole years ago. To that end, in a legal filing yesterday Universal...
Posted on: 29/08/2019 Categories: News from CMU Online
BBC Radio 2 is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the band The Beatles releasing their 'Abbey Road' album with a pop-up DAB station. Radio 2 Beatles will run for four days next month broadcasting live and direct from, yeah, you guessed it, Abbey Road Studios.
How will they ever fill four days with nothing but stuff relating to the band The Beatles though? Well, by finding some famous fans of the band The Beatles to present a show.
And it turns out there's plenty of them. Gary...
Posted on: 29/08/2019 Categories: News from CMU Online
Universal Music yesterday announced it was acquiring independent distribution company INgrooves in a deal which will significantly boost the mega-major's label services business. It's the latest move by a major to increase its role in the distribution and marketing of music that is actually being released by other entities, either independent labels or artist-owned companies.
There has been a link between Universal and INgrooves for quite some time, with the major already having a small...
Posted on: 14/02/2019 Categories: News from CMU Online
Still awaiting a court ruling on accusations that he has been living in the USA illegally, 21 Savage has been granted bail and will be released from custody later today.
The rapper was arrested by Immigration & Customs Enforcement earlier this month, the US government body saying that he was an "unlawfully present United Kingdom national" residing in the country illegally.
He later confirmed that he was indeed born in the UK, but said that he had lived in the US since he was...
Posted on: 14/02/2019 Categories: News from CMU Online
More details have been revealed today about this year's TGE Conference, including the CMU+TGE programme that this year will put the focus on music education, digital dollars and music marketing. The TGE Conference, of course, sits at the heart of The Great Escape showcase festival, taking place in Brighton each May.
Among today's announcements are the first 40 speakers, information about the TGE In Conversation series and confirmation of three new pieces of research from CMU Insights that...
Posted on: 14/02/2019 Categories: News from CMU Online
As conversations resume to try and agree a final, final draft of the European Copyright Directive, another flurry of groups representing the creative industries issued a statement yesterday urging the European Commission, European Parliament and EU Council to plough on and get the copyright reforming directive to the finish line.
Among the signatories were groups representing artists, songwriters and song right collecting societies across Europe.
Until last week the music industry...
Posted on: 14/02/2019 Categories: News from CMU Online
The loan company that recently filed legal papers confirming its intent to force the Bestival Group into administration yesterday said that it had now made an offer to buy the festival firm, a move that it says will assure Camp Bestival 2019 can go ahead.
The Bestival company itself confirmed last weekend that it had had "some financial challenges" of late. This followed media reports that money lender the Richmond Group – which seemingly loaned the festival £1.6 million early...
Posted on: 27/09/2018 Categories: News from CMU Online
The estate of 1950s pop star Ricky Nelson has sued Sony Music over a common royalties gripe. Namely, the way global music companies often make deductions to income as it moves its way around their various regional subsidiaries, before calculating what the artist is due under the terms of their record contract in their home country.
Such deductions have traditionally been common in the record industry. Partly because, when it comes to physical product, releasing a record in each new territory...
Posted on: 27/09/2018 Categories: News from CMU Online
Camden's Koko venue will be closed until next month, it has been announced, so that "a structural issue" can be dealt with. Several shows affected by the closure have been moved to other venues, while others have been cancelled.
Operations Director of the venue's owner Mint Group, Larry Seymour, says in a statement: "Our consultant surveyors recently made us aware of a structural issue with this 117 year old building. The protection and well-being of our customers and staff is of paramount...
Posted on: 27/09/2018 Categories: News from CMU Online
The owner of a record label that dropped Canadian punk band Zex over sexual assault claims against guitarist Jo Capitalcide has withdrawn his allegations. In return the musician has dropped a defamation lawsuit against the label boss.
In a new statement on the record company's Facebook page, Magic Bullet founder Brent Eyestone says: "In September 2017, I published a statement on the website of Magic Bullet Records, and on Facebook, in which I made certain allegations about Jo Capitalcide,...
Posted on: 27/09/2018 Categories: News from CMU Online
Live Nation's Ticketmaster in the US continues to push back against criticism over its involvement in the secondary ticketing market Stateside following last week's exposé by the Toronto Star and CBC. In a new post on the company's corporate blog, the ticketing giant's President Jared Smith insists that at least some reporting and commentary around last week's revelations are based on a misunderstanding of what the firm's TradeDesk product does.
The Toronto Star/CBC report centred...
Posted on: 27/09/2018 Categories: News from CMU Online
Chance The Rapper has been sued over a sample on his 2012 debut mixtape '10 Day'. A jazz musician who is now working as a lawyer says the track 'Windows' samples – without permission – a 1980 recording that he composed.
Many hip hop artists launch their careers by putting out free mixtapes, which are sometimes actually mixes, and other times more like original albums by another name. Back in the day aspiring MCs and producers would actually distribute physical copies of their...
Posted on: 14/09/2017 Categories: News from CMU Online
Polish death metal band Decapitated are being held in custody in the US on charges of kidnapping and rape. All four members of the band are accused of assaulting a woman on their tour bus after a show in Spokane, Washington.
According to court documents released on Monday, reports The Spokesman-Review, two women say that they met the band following their performance on 31 Aug and were invited back to the outfit's tour bus for drinks.
Posted on: 14/09/2017 Categories: News from CMU Online
Two of China's biggest internet companies have agreed a music-based deal that will expand the catalogues of recordings available to both firms.
Legitimate streaming is finally gaining real momentum in the Chinese market, of course. An interesting quirk of the digital music sector in China is that companies like Tencent both operate the services and distribute or control the content, meaning other streaming set-ups need licences from their rivals to access catalogue.
Posted on: 14/09/2017 Categories: News from CMU Online
Paris-based music data start-up Soundcharts – which aggregates social, chart, playlist and radio data for labels, publishers, managers and live industry clients – has completed a $3.1 million funding round. The new financing has been led by Alven Capital, with Kima Ventures and Global Founders Capital also putting some cash on the table.
Says the firm's founder, former Universal Music exec David Weiszfeld: "Soundcharts processes, analyses and archives a mass of information...
Posted on: 14/09/2017 Categories: News from CMU Online
Flunked streaming music firm Guvera is being investigated by the Australian Securities And Investments Commission over allegations it misled inexperienced investors who have been left wondering what happened to the $180 million that was pumped into the company.
As previously reported, Australia-based Guvera finally crashed out of business last month. The company had never really recovered from its failed attempt at an Initial Public Offering a year ago, when the Australian Securities Exchange...
Posted on: 28/06/2017 Categories: News from CMU Online
Hey, so you remember that week when Ed Sheeran pretty much took up the entire UK top 20 singles chart, and everyone said the charts were broken and the Official Charts Company should do something about it? Well, the Official Charts Company has done something about it. It's made everything slightly more complicated. Hooray!
The last big change in the singles chart was back in 2014 when streaming data was first added to it. There it was deemed that 100 plays of any track was equivalent to...
Posted on: 28/06/2017 Categories: News from CMU Online
Pandora CEO Tim Westergren is stepping down from the role, according to sources who have spoken to Recode. Meanwhile, AdNews has reported that the streaming service's operations in Australia and New Zealand are closing down, meaning it will become a US-only business once again.
A co-founder of the streaming business, Westergren was also CEO at Pandora in the early days of the company. He returned to the position last year, to the displeasure of some investors. Major shareholder Corvex...
Posted on: 28/06/2017 Categories: News from CMU Online
The Kobalt gang have bought up the neighbouring rights and music publishing units of rights management firm Fintage House and yes, I know what you thinking, that deal "matches Kobalt's ongoing commitment to more efficiency and transparency in the industry with Fintage House's renowned business ethic in enriching basic collection models with high-end service, innovation and operational excellence". And you're right. That's exactly what this deal does. Well done. Have a penny chew to celebrate.
Posted on: 27/09/2016 Categories: News from CMU Online
London mayor Sadiq Khan has pledged to introduce the 'agent of change' principle in the capital to help protect cultural venues from the licensing woes that can be caused by property developers plonking new residential properties alongside their buildings.
As previously discussed, the introduction of this rule would mean that when new flats are built near a venue, the responsibility to protect against noise bleeding into the new properties would fall to the developer, rather than the venue....
Posted on: 27/09/2016 Categories: News from CMU Online
As Pandora attempts to convince more people to pay for its personalised radio service and soon-to-launch on-demand streaming platform, the company has hired former Apple marketing exec Nick Bartle.
Announcing the news, Pandora CEO Tim Westergren said yesterday: "From the moment I met Nick, his ability to make a substantial and immediate impact on Pandora was clear. Nick brings a deep understanding of consumer marketing and strategic communications from years of experience with the world's...
Posted on: 27/09/2016 Categories: News from CMU Online
The operator of MusicToday, the US merch-focused direct-to-fan company, has filed for chapter eleven bankruptcy protection, because that's what all the cool kids are doing these days.
"This is a very positive development for our company and our customers", reckons the boss of MusicToday's parent company Delivery Agent, Mike Fitzsimmons, who sees the bankruptcy process as an opportunity to restructure the company to enable it to move forward.
Posted on: 27/09/2016 Categories: News from CMU Online
The Youth Music charity will open an art exhibition in London this week under the title 'Art In The Corner' showing original works by musicians, including Florence Welch, Brian Wilson, Elvis Costello, The Specials' Jerry Dammers and more.
All the artworks being exhibited were created for the show, which was inspired by the 50th anniversary of 'Images Of A Woman', the only known painting produced collectively by The Beatles. All the exhibited works were made using the same materials available...
Posted on: 27/09/2016 Categories: News from CMU Online
So this is fun. Sony Music is suing three former executives of defunct streaming service Rdio for being damn sneaky. Well, the lawsuit alleges misrepresentations, false statements and concealment of the digital firm's impending bankruptcy. But it's really all about management at the failing streaming company being all kinds of sneaky. Allegedly, obviously.
The major label is suing former Rdio chief Anthony Bay and the dead company's general counsel Elliott Peters and top licensing dude...
Posted on: 07/04/2016 Categories: News from CMU Online
As the US music industry told the country's Copyright Office in no uncertain terms last week that the safe harbours in America's Digital Millennium Copyright Act aren't fit for purpose, the company behind the WordPress blogging platform was also calling for reform of this aspect of the American copyright regime. Though for very different reasons.
As much previously reported, the so called safe harbours in copyright law have become a top gripe in the music industry in recent times. The...
Posted on: 07/04/2016 Categories: News from CMU Online
As a long-running song theft lawsuit against Justin Bieber and Usher works its way to trial, the latest twist in the tale is that the defendants may not be able to bring any expert witnesses into court. As previously reported, Devin Copeland and Maerio Overton claimed in 2013 that Bieber track 'Somebody To Love' features various lyrical and stylistic similarities to a song they wrote with the same title, which Copeland released under the name De Rico in 2008. Copeland also claimed that he had...
Posted on: 07/04/2016 Categories: News from CMU Online
The Mechanical Copyright Protection Society – or MCPS to its closest friends – is inviting third parties to pitch to administer certain aspects of the collecting society's business, including all back-office operations. Which is interesting, because the result of this process could be a significant revamp of the organisation's long standing alliance with fellow song rights organisation PRS, or the Performing Right Society to its best pals.
Posted on: 07/04/2016 Categories: News from CMU Online
Having gone from rumoured IPO to confirmed IPO to scheduled IPO in super-speedy time, streaming service Deezer suddenly put the brakes on last night, and withdrew its initial public offering from the Euronext Paris stock exchange.
Deezer was due to float on Friday, looking to raise over €300 million with a €1 billion valuation. The money would have financed new marketing and expansion initiatives in an increasingly competitive marketplace, where the French firm competes head-on...
Posted on: 28/10/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
While Aurous could prove to be the shortest chapter in the weighty tome documenting the record industry's fight against online piracy, it will still be a pretty eventful section of the story.
As previously reported, the Recording Industry Association Of America forced the maker of Aurous – a streaming app that pulls in and plays music content from various sources online, though mainly unlicensed sources to date – to stop distributing his player almost as soon as the alpha version...
Posted on: 28/10/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
One time hip hop mogul Suge Knight and comedian Katt Williams have both pleaded not guilty to those robbery charges. The two men, as previously reported, are accused of stealing a photographer's camera last year.
Knight and Williams appeared in an LA court yesterday in order to enter their pleas, which they were having to do for a second time after a judge recently decided that they should stand trial over the incident.
Posted on: 28/10/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
Bkstg, the vowel-lite direct-to-fan online-channel-aggregation fan-relationship-management audience-analytic platform – or D2FOCAFRMAA platform, as we in the know call these things – has appointed former Three Six Zero business affairs man James Sealey to the job of VP Business Development.
Posted on: 28/10/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
Appoint former BBC exec as your new boss. Appoint another former BBC exec as your content chief. Grab yourself a bucket load of BBC content. Well, it's not quite that easy, but Vevo has certainly become quite 'beebified' in recent months. It should watch out, Johnny Whittingdale might try to shut it down.
Anyway, Vevo has done itself a deal with the BBC's commercial division Worldwide, which will give the Sony/Universal-owned video platform over 200 performances from Radio 1's 'Live Lounge'...
Posted on: 28/10/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
We know that web-blocking has become a favoured anti-piracy tactic for the music and movie industries in countries where web-block injunctions are available under law, and especially in Europe. And we now know that 504 such injunctions have been issued across the continent, or at least that's according to a chart presented by the Motion Picture Association at a conference focused on online law enforcement in Southampton last week.
Posted on: 21/09/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
Universal's Island Records has signed Scottish outfit Model Aeroplanes, which is double news because they are the first band to be signed after self-releasing tracks via the Universal-owned digital distribution platform Spinnup, which Island now uses as one of its talent-scouting tools.
Posted on: 21/09/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
Artist manager Amy Thomson has "reluctantly" responded to the news last week that she is parting company with Axwell & Ingrosso, ending a long-term business partnership with the duo that began, of course, with the EDM phenomenon that was Swedish House Mafia. In a lengthy note to Billboard, Thomson said she felt the need to respond because of all the online speculation that has followed last week's announcement.
Posted on: 21/09/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
As Xfm relaunches as Radio X this morning, Xfm founder Sammy Jacob announces his latest music venture, which officially kicks off tomorrow. He has teamed up with Camden Market to launch Camden Xperience – of CDNX – a new music service that combines radio, online music news and live events.
Posted on: 21/09/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
The boss of SoundCloud has been chit chatting to Billboard as speculation continues about the future of his company. On one side it has deals in place with Warner and the indies to try to monetise its large community of music fans, but at the same time faces ongoing criticism from at least one major record company and a potentially crippling legal action from UK collecting society PRS For Music.
Posted on: 21/09/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
The British Academy Of Songwriters, Composers And Authors yesterday gave its backing to PRS's litigation against SoundCloud, insisting that the digital firm's current business model "financially damages our members". The organisation's CEO Vick Bain said: "As an organisation that works to protect our members' rights we fully support PRS For Music's decision to commence legal proceedings against SoundCloud. We acknowledge that streaming is a fantastic means of listening to and enjoying music but...
Posted on: 01/09/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
Ian Rogers is departing Apple just two months after the new streaming service he helped develop launched, seemingly to join a non-music-based company in Europe. Rogers enjoyed a high profile in the music industry while running direct-to-fan service TopSpin, and was then head-hunted by Beats to develop and launch its big streaming service. When Beats was bought by Apple, Rogers also joined the tech giant, though he had a much lower profile role in the subsequent evolution and launch of Apple Music....
Posted on: 01/09/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
Twitter's mini-video-message app Vine is having an upgrade and it is getting all kinds of musical. Well, I say that. They're adding a 'featured tracks' section where users can pick soundtracks for their videos. And they're adding a thing called Snap To Beat, which will help users trim the track so it loops nicely. And they will help other users identify what music appears in Vine videos. Which, I think sounds like Vine is getting all kinds of musical. I don't know why there was all that doubt...
Posted on: 01/09/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
More gossiping this week about the planned relaunch of Xfm, with Popbitch reckoning an official announcement is due within the next ten days. Though, while initially saying that – as previously mooted – the revamped station would become Capital Rocks, better intelligence this morning suggests owner Global has actually opted for Radio X. That, presumably, is a result of Global's plan to make X properly national, but via mainly online and digital rather than FM channels.
Posted on: 01/09/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
T-Mobile in Austria has knocked back a request from the local music industry to block its customers from accessing The Pirate Bay, though this isn't so much the phone firm rebelling against the concept of web-blocking in principle, but rather insisting that blockades be ordered by the courts rather than rights owners. As previously reported, Austria recently joined the web-block party with a court there ordering internet service provider A1 Telekom to block access to The Pirate Bay and some other...
Posted on: 01/09/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
Ahead of its big announcement tomorrow, Spotify today confirmed an alliance with Starbucks in the US – set to extend to the UK and Canada – which will result in a "first-of-its-kind music ecosystem". That may or may not incorporate some well fit video goodness, depending on what tomorrow's big Spotify announcement turns out to be. Imagine if it's all about tea. Anyway, back to today's news, and what will this "first-of-its-kind music ecosystem" involve? Mainly Starbucks-branded playlists...
Posted on: 21/05/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
It's been noted before that it's a little ironic that The Pirate Bay, one of the music sector's greatest foes in its battle against piracy, and Spotify, one of the industry's greatest allies in turning former pirates into consumers, both hark from Sweden. And while the Swedish authorities have at times led the legal battle against it's more infamous digital progeny, the Swedish Institute has admitted that both The Pirate Bay and Spotify have helped put Sweden on the map worldwide.
Posted on: 21/05/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
HMV is set to return to the world of online CD selling according to the Telegraph, which is pretty much the PR office for the all-new HMV, so I'm assuming this is definitely happening. While retail restructuring expert Hilco helped to keep HMV operational on the high street after the entertainment retailer crashed into administration in 2013, the new HMV company has never had a UK mail-order side to its business.
Posted on: 21/05/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
The US wing of Communion Records, launched in New York in 2011, has announced an alliance with Universal Music's Capitol Music Group, which will see the major work with some of the indie's artists Stateside. The first partnership under the new deal will see Virgin Records US providing development and marketing support to Communion-signed geezers Catfish And The Bottlemen, who already work with a Universal label in the UK – Island Records – who in turn have a long-term relationship...
Posted on: 21/05/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
The latest efforts by the American record industry to force terrestrial radio stations to pay royalties to labels solidified around a new piece of legislation in Congress yesterday, The Fair Play, Fair Pay Act, with four members of the House Of Representatives backing the bill: Democrats Jerrold Nadler, John Conyers Jr and Ted Deutch and Republican Marsha Blackburn.
As much previously reported, federal copyright law in the US is unusual in that it does not provide a general public performance...
Posted on: 15/04/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
PRS For Music is having another big think about the way live music is licensed in the UK in the form of an eight week consultation on the terms of its Popular Music Concerts Tariff (aka Tariff LP).
Promoters of gigs and festivals are obliged to pay royalties to songwriters and music publishers for the songs that are performed at their events, of course, even when artists sing exclusively their own material, and these royalties are paid via the Performing Right Society. The PRS last launched...
Posted on: 15/04/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
Cross sector trade body UK Music has announced the appointment of a new Director Of Communications in the form of James Murtagh-Hopkins, who has previously held in-house and agency PR roles in the music space, as well as stints working in artist management and music film.
Posted on: 15/04/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
Spotify's previously reported new funding round is valuing the streaming service at a neat $8.4 billion, according to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal.
Following reports that the Spotify company could be seeking to raise another half billion from investors in a move that is likely to put off the widely expected IPO by at least another year, the Journal says that the new monies being paid into the streaming firm's coffers are likely to be closer to $400 million. But that's still...
Posted on: 15/04/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
Fresh on the back of the big Tidal relaunch, CMU Business Editor Chris Cooke considers what an exclusives-driven streaming sector might look like in the latest CMU Trends Report.
With the all-new Tidal promising content exclusives a plenty, and Apple expected to likewise distinguish its new Beats/iTunes streaming service with exclusive albums and tracks when it launches later this year, Cooke notes the problems with artists doing exclusivity deals with a streaming platform. "Exclusives...
Posted on: 15/04/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
What do you mean CMU got all distracted by the Oscars on Sunday night and forgot to report on the Pollstar Concert Industry Awards in yesterday's CMU Daily? That's so not what happened I don't know where to start. I was just waiting for the quote to come in from Rebecca Kane Burton, GM of International Venue Of The Year The O2. Because if I learned just one thing at journalism school, it's not to run the story until you've got your quote in from Rebecca Kane Burton, GM of International Venue Of...
Posted on: 24/02/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
So, winner of the least surprising award winner award is IFPI Global Recording Artist Of 2014 Taylor Swift, which is, in itself, totally unsurprising news, a fact that will surprise no one, in fact this paragraph could loop for infinity if you'd like. Though I heard last week of a criminally under-reported worldwide pixel shortage that is in danger of blacking out the entire internet, making all talk of infinite Taylor Swift-based news reports highly irresponsible. In deed just talking about such...
Posted on: 24/02/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
The founder and boss of 24-7 Entertainment, a long-standing back-end provider of digital music services, has announced he is leaving the firm to "pursue some new opportunities in the digital media business".
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Posted on: 24/02/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
Festival app-makers Greencopper have launched a new platform called Golive, which aims to enable promoters to manage and publish apps for their events in a more affordable way.
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Posted on: 24/02/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
The number of physical stores selling music reached an all-time high in 2014, which is a nice counter-intuitive stat if ever I heard one. And it's one of the figures in the Entertainment Retailers Association's new yearbook, published alongside the aforementioned manifesto earlier today.
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Posted on: 24/02/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
Universal Music's President Of Global Digital Business, Rob Wells, one of the highest profile digital music execs on the record company side, and a man generally seen as a friend of digital innovations within the major label system, is leaving the company.
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Posted on: 24/02/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
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Posted on: 24/02/2015 Categories: News from CMU Online
The UK government yesterday confirmed another two years of funding for the City Of London Police's Intellectual Property Crime Unit, or PIPCU, which has been spearheading a number of anti-piracy initiatives since its launch last year.
Posted on: 27/10/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
A court in New York has denied the estate of Duke Ellington the right to reinstate a lawsuit against the EMI music publishing business which centred on a royalty dispute.
Posted on: 27/10/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
Label services companies Believe Digital and Kartel Music Services are working together to oversee the release of this year's Poppy Appeal single in aid of the Royal British Legion, which is a recording by Joss Stone and Jeff Beck of a 1970s song by folk man Eric Bogle, 'No Man's Land (Green Fields Of France)'.
Posted on: 27/10/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
Vice's music platform Noisey has announced the appointment of two new members to its editorial team in the form of Joe Zadeh, formerly at Clash magazine, who becomes Associate Editor, and Emma Garland, who has previously written for The Guardian and The 405, who joins as Staff Writer. They will work with Executive Editor Sam Wolfson and Assistant Editor Ryan Bassil.
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Posted on: 27/10/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
Google has responded to the previously reported letter from News Corp to European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia, in which the Murdoch-controlled newspaper and book publisher criticised the web giant, accusing it of anti-competitive practices, and of failing to play its part in combating online piracy.
Posted on: 29/09/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
The Young Guns Network, that scheme linking the bright music execs of the future, is to buddy up with BBC Introducing for its next meeting, which takes place on 27 Sep at BBC Broadcasting House.
Posted on: 29/09/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
Oh, well Monster Energy Drink just can't catch a break, can it? Having been ordered to pay the Beastie Boys $1.7 million for copyright infringement earlier this year, the brand is now facing legal action from the band's label and publisher, both now Universal subsidiaries. Capitol Records and Universal-Polygram International Publishing launched their own legal action this week, seeking $1.2 million in damages.
Posted on: 29/09/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
Good news for fans of bad news. The American record industry's half-year report shows that the revenues for the first six months of 2014 were 4.9% down on the same period in 2013. That stat comes from a Recording Industry Association Of America document summarised in Billboard.
Posted on: 29/09/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
Shazam posted losses of £5.8 million for the second half of 2013, compared to losses of just under £2 million for the previous twelve months.
Analysing the figures, Music Ally notes that from July 2012 to June 2013 the music identification tech provider reported revenues of £31 million, with the £2 million losses. But for the second half of 2013, while six month revenues were in line with the previous year at £16.9 million, losses were significantly up pro...
Posted on: 29/09/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
If all that talk last week about the complexities of American copyright law when applied to pre-1972 sound recordings got you all excited (and I can't imagine why it wouldn't) well, what a way to start the week. Yes, developments in another ongoing lawsuit centring on very similar issues. You lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky people.
Posted on: 29/09/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
Pan-European music licensing, that's never confusing is it? Sony/ATV, PRS and GEMA are set to build on the success of CELAS and PAECOL by launching SOLAR to administer digital licensing for Sony/ATV and EMI. Like I said, not at all confusing.
Posted on: 29/09/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
EDM management hub and Roc Nation ally Three Six Zero has announced some new appointments, according to Music Week.
Universal Music business and legal affairs man Arif Mahmud joins the London-based company as UK General Manager, while existing staff members Matt Vines and Phil Sales have been promoted, and now both enjoy the job title VP UK Artist Management.
Meanwhile the group's COO, James Sealey, will be relocating to the firm's LA office to run worldwide operations.
Confirming...
Posted on: 29/09/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
Following the indie label community's recent Fair Digital Deals Declaration, which saw hundreds of independent record companies commit to be fair and transparent with their artists when it comes to the often complex and secretive world of digital music deals, the International Music Managers Forum – which brings together artist manager trade groups around the world – has issued its own call for more clarity in the digital domain.
Posted on: 07/08/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
British artists remain super popular around the world, responsible for one in eight of all albums sold worldwide in 2013, according to new figures from the BPI. That's 13% of the global market.
One Direction, unsurprisingly, led the charge again, shifting four million copies of their 'Midnight Memories' album in the final six weeks of 2013, following its November release, making them the world's overall best-selling artist. Their second album, 'Take Me Home', was also the fifth biggest-selling...
Posted on: 07/08/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
Veteran promoter Vince Power has issued a slightly confusing statement in response to that High Court ruling last week that said he may not stage any live events in the UK until a legal dispute with PRS For Music is settled.
As previously reported, editions of the Hop Farm music event from 2009-2012 seemingly went ahead without a licence from PRS, which covers the copyright fees that are due for the performance of songs in the public domain.
The company through which Power ran...
Posted on: 07/08/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
Alt-Fest's organisers issued a lengthy statement on Friday evening, confirming that the event has been cancelled two weeks before it was due to take place.
As previously reported, following signs that all was not well in the Alt-Fest camp when organisers admitted that they were dealing with "some extremely challenging and stressful issues", it was two of the artists on the line-up, Marilyn Manson and Gary Numan, who actually broke the news of the cancellation.
The event, which...
Posted on: 07/08/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
So, perhaps you should have all listened to the boss of the rescued HMV, Hilco's Paul McGowan, when he told the Telegraph last month that the high street entertainment retailer was doing just fine thank you very much, rather than you all shaking your heads and muttering, "Yeah, right, you're doomed really aren't you?"
Of course, now in private ownership, HMV's financials aren't so public, but McGowan claimed like-for-like sales were up 9.2% for the second quarter of the year, and while...
Posted on: 07/08/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
So, the assets of MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom were being discussed in court again this week, on two separate levels.
First up, as previously reported, both the US authorities and the American music and movie industries have called for assets seized from Dotcom when his MegaUpload enterprise was shutdown by the feds in 2012 to remain frozen.
Dotcom is, of course, accused of enabling rampant copyright infringement by running MegaUpload, and is facing both criminal and civil action...
Posted on: 07/08/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
CMU provides free news and information for music people daily, online and via the industry's most read daily email bulletin.
More indie artists reveal their streaming income
Global...
Posted on: 02/03/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
Posted on: 24/01/2014 Categories: News from CMU Online
IPC Media yesterday announced a revamp of its music weekly NME, with the first redesigned edition of the magazine – complete with a David Bowie on its cover – due to hit the newsstands tomorrow.
Posted on: 08/10/2013 Categories: News from CMU Online
Annie Lennox is the latest veteran pop star to join the debate over the highly sexualised videos and performances being peddled by certain (often American) female singers in recent years, expressing similar fears to those written by Sinead O'Connor last week, in her original open letter to Miley Cyrus, that these performers are being unknowingly exploited by a misogynistic music industry chasing the sexed-up pop girl dollar without considering the impact it is having on their often young fanbases,...
Posted on: 08/10/2013 Categories: News from CMU Online
UK radio major Global is about to further trim its brand portfolio by phasing out it's smallest current channel, Choice FM, and rebranding the service as Capital XTRA, making it an urban spin-off to its flagship operation Capital FM.
Posted on: 08/10/2013 Categories: News from CMU Online
The Jackson family's lawsuit against live music giant AEG Live always seemed optimistic. They wanted the promoter to be held liable for the actions of Dr Conrad Murray, whose negligent treatment of Michael Jackson – in the eyes of the criminal courts at least – caused the pop star's death. But it was clear from the start that it was Jackson who brought Murray on board for the 'This Is It' project, even if AEG committed to pay his bills.
Posted on: 08/10/2013 Categories: News from CMU Online
As rebrands go, the news that the Patents County Court has been renamed the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court isn't going to grab too many headlines, but it's hoped the name change will better communicate the specialist low-level court's remit, which now covers all forms of IP, including copyright, and not just patents.
Posted on: 08/10/2013 Categories: News from CMU Online
As expected, Sony Corp has rejected proposals from one of its shareholders to sell off a slice of its US-headquartered entertainment business, to generate cash to help fund the revival of the Japanese conglom's flagging consumer electronics operations, and to force the firm's music, movie and TV companies to be more transparent to shareholders.
The Sony top guard have long denied recurrent rumours that a sale of its entertainment assets is on the agenda, though when Daniel Loeb, whose...
Posted on: 03/09/2013 Categories: News from CMU Online
As expected, often controversial streaming service Grooveshark yesterday announced that it had settled its legal battle with EMI Music Publishing and signed a licensing agreement with the company. Exact details of the deal are confidential.
As previously reported, Grooveshark once had a licensing deal in place with both the recordings and publishing sides of EMI – back when both were still part of the same company – following the settlement of an earlier piece of litigation...
Posted on: 03/09/2013 Categories: News from CMU Online
Warner Music yesterday announced a revamp of its top team following the mini-major's recent acquisition of the Parlophone Label Group, aka most of the European EMI assets Universal Music was forced to sell by the regulator when it bought the wider EMI record company last year.
The main development is that the Parlophone label – the main strand of the PLG in the UK – will be united with the Warner Bros UK label, and will be led by long-term EMI and Parlophone man Miles Leonard....
Posted on: 03/09/2013 Categories: News from CMU Online
The French version of three-strikes has been revised so to remove the ultimate sanction of net disconnection, though a new fines system will be introduced that could penalise file-sharers earlier in the 'graduated response' process.
As much previously reported, France was one of the first countries to introduce a three-strikes style system for combating online piracy, with a special government agency called Hadopi set up to administer the procedure.
Under the system, rights owners...
Posted on: 03/09/2013 Categories: News from CMU Online
Spotify doubled its revenues in 2012, but losses also rose as the streaming music platform seeks to expand in an increasingly competitive market.
According to the Financial Times, the latest financial filing from the digital firm in Luxembourg shows that revenues in 2012 went up from 190.4 million euros to 434.7 million euros, with the number of 'active users' rising to 20 million worldwide, over a quarter of which are paying premium service users. However, overall losses widened to 58.7...
Posted on: 03/09/2013 Categories: News from CMU Online
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