Thursday 26 November 2009, 11:29 | By CMU Editorial

Massive Attack announce new album

Releases

Massive Attack have announced that they will release their fifth album on 8 Feb. It will be called ‘Heligoland’ and features a whole load of impressive guests, including Damon Albarn, TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe and Elbow’s Guy Garvey, all of whom contribute their memories of an unpleasant day out at Legoland. Possibly.

Here’s the full list of tracks and guests:

Pray For Rain (feat Tunde Adebimpe)
Babel (feat Martina Topley-Bird)
Splitting The Atom (feat Robert del Naja, Grant Marshall and Horace Andy)
Girl I Love You (feat Horace Andy)
Psyche (feat Martina Topley-Bird)
Flat Of The Blade (feat Guy Garvey)
Paradise Circus (feat Hope Sandoval)
Rush Minute (feat Robert del Naja)
Saturday Come Slow (feat Damon Albarn)
Atlas Air

Hockey tour

Gigs & Festivals

Now this will probably come as quite a shock to most of you, but I wasn’t very good at sports at school. Hard to believe now I realise, but there you have it. The only sport I had any time for, really, was hockey. I seemed to have more luck hitting a ball with a stick than I did with my foot. I preferred indoor hockey. It was never cold and on a shiny floor you only had to tap the ball and it would go flying for several miles. So, as you can see, this tour ticks all my boxes – it being a Hockey tour taking place indoors. Actually, I seem to remember quite enjoying basketball too. Does anyone fancy forming a mediocre sort-of-punk indie band called Basketball?

24 Feb: London, Koko
25 Feb: Manchester, Academy
26 Feb: Glasgow, Queen Margaret Union
27 Feb: Belfast, Spring & Airbrake
29 Feb: Dublin, Academy

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip announce tour

Gigs & Festivals

Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip will be heading out on tour in March next year, which will coincide with the release of their second album.

Tour dates:

15 Mar: Cambridge, The Junction
16 Mar: Norwich, Waterfront
17 Mar: Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
18 Mar: Leeds, Cockpit
19 Mar: Liverpool, Academy
21 Mar: Glasgow, King Tuts
22 Mar: Manchester, Club Academy
23 Mar: London, Koko
25 Mar: Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms
26 Mar: Birmingham, Academy 2
27 Mar: Bristol, Academy
28 Mar: Oxford, Academy 2
29 Mar: Brighton, Concorde 2

German live industry declining

Business News Live Business

Well, it’s all doom and gloom in the German music industry these days, isn’t it? Not only is the country’s record industry in terminal decline, now it’s been revealed that their live sector is shrinking too. So, happy happy days in Germany then.

According to research by the German Federal Association, revenues in the country’s live entertainment sector fell 7% in 2008, while revenues in the live music industry fell by 9%. The stats, a prelim version of which were released at the start of the summer, were formally published at a conference of German concert promoters yesterday. Across the live entertainment sector attendance was down 4%, while revenues were down 7%, despite ticket prices going up 3% on average.

Of course 2008 wasn’t a great year for any industry, what with the credit crunch and all that, so there’s an argument that these stats show the impact of the recession on live events rather than a general decline in the sector. 2009’s figures probably won’t be any more positive, but some in the sector remain optimistic about live music long term, with some predicting things will pick up next year.

Because do it their way

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

Paris-based indie label Because has bought music publisher Jeune Musique, a publishing firm set up by the late French pop star Claude François.

The company owns the publishing rights in many of Francois’ own hits, most notably ‘Comme d’Habitude’, a song adopted by Paul Anka to create ‘My Way’. That fact gives the firm co-ownership of the English-language version, made famous by Frank Sinatra of course, but covered by a plethora of people, not least Elvis Presley, Celine Dion, Luciano Pavarotti and Sid Vicious.

Because has acquired the publisher through a new holding company backed by slightly controversial French internet entrepreneur Xavier Niel, who is the majority shareholder in French net firm Iliad. The holding company have let it be known they plan to acquire other publishing catalogues.

Nokia do pan-European deal with BUMA/STEMRA

Digital

Nokia have entered into a pan-European deal with Dutch publishing collecting society BUMA/STEMRA which will enable the phone firm to make songs by the society’s members available in all European territories via their shit music service Comes With Music. A spokesman for BUMA/STEMRA said: “It’s important to our members we support all the shit music services out there, so this deal was a no brainer”. Well, they said something, but I don’t speak Dutch.

This week’s Student Radio Chart – w/c 23 Nov 2009

Artist News

The songs most rated by student radio stations around the UK. The Student Radio Chart is compiled by the Student Radio Association and aired on student stations across the country, hosted by a different affiliated station each week. More at www.studentradio.org.uk/chart

1. Chase and Status – End Credits
2. Calvin Harris – Flashback
3. Arctic Monkeys – Cornerstone
4. Deadmau5 – Ghosts N Stuff
5. Black Eyed Peas – Meet Me Halfway
6. Bombay Bicycle Club – Always Like This
7. Mumford and Sons – Winter Winds
8. Jamie T – The Man’s Machine
9. Ellie Goulding – Under The Sheets
10. Florence And The Machine – You Got The Love
11. Ou Est Le Swimming Pool – Dance The Way I feel
12. JLS – Everybody In Love
13. Foo Fighters – Wheels
14. Little Boots – Earthquake
15. Cheryl Crow – Fight For This Love
16. Kaskade vs Deadmau5 – Move For Me
17. Passion Pit – Little Secrets
18. Biffy Clyro – The Captain
19. Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks
20. The Cribs – We Share The Same Skies

Cerys Matthews gives birth

And Finally

Cerys Matthews has given birth to her third child two months prematurely. The baby boy is the singer’s first child with partner Steve Abbott.

A message on Matthews’ official website reads: “How happy I am to let you know that our baby boy was born on Monday 23rd – eight weeks earlier than expected. We are doing very well and excited now to share this happy news with you. What an amazing surprise, just after presenting Children In Need on Friday! Love always, Cerys and Steve”.

Q&A: Rogues

Artist Interviews

Consisting of three brothers and two drifters, Rogues were formed in the summer of 2008. Combining new wave atmospherics with upbeat dance grooves to create original ethereal pop music, the band cite their combined influences as Tears For Fears, David Bowie, The Cure and MGMT. With their debut gigs generating a storm of interest and an ever growing army of fans, Rogues have received radio play from the likes of Zane Lowe, Steve Lamacq, John Kennedy and Huw Stephens. Their debut EP, ‘Widows’, is out this week through Friends vs Records. We spoke to guitarist and vocalist Pearse McIntyre to find out more.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
We formed in the summer of 2008, around August. Myself and Sam [James, also guitar/vocals] had joined forces about six months earlier, writing songs and establishing our ideas for the band both musically and visually. We had known each other for years prior, however we were in different bands at the time and were just acquaintances. When these bands had dissolved for one reason or another we decided to unite and write songs together, so I suppose that was the real starting point for Rogues. My little brother Frog joined us on bass shortly afterwards, and my other little brother Tom on drums shortly after that. Patrick [Stansbie] agreed to play keys for us and we had our first rehearsal in August last year. Our first gig followed in September and we’ve been pretty busy since then.

Q2 What inspired your latest EP?
The EP is a selection of songs from over the last nine months. We tried to include a variety of material, ranging in tone and colour. I think an EP should be a cohesive piece of work, a little journey which involves the artwork and the music. That’s what we’ve tried to achieve with ‘Widows’.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Sam and myself share the song writing duties. Our methods change quite frequently, but it always ends up with the two of us crouched over the laptop. I tend to put myself into a songwriting frame of mind, from which I reel in all the observations I’ve gathered from normal life. Most of our songs are conceived in other places and then taken back to be moulded in the shed at the end of my garden. We have an Apple MacBook Pro on which we record all of our demos. Sometimes I programme a beat on the drum machine and just sit with it for a while, letting my fingers run away on the guitar or bass until something takes shape. Other songs begin with a lyric, because sometimes you write words you like so much that you’ll fit them into a song anyway you can. I usually start with a chorus and work around that.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Naturally, we all have different influences individually. I’m a massive fan of The Smiths, Klaxons and Jamie T, where as Sam loves The Clash, T-Rex and ‘Holy Bible’-era Manic Street Preachers. There are a few things we all love, like the song ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ by Tears For Fears, and David Bowie. Sam and I are fans of early-mid U2, The Cure and more recently MGMT. We also harbour big pop sensibilities, so sometimes people like Madonna and Prince are referenced.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
That’s a tough question, I’m not sure I’d say anything. Expect some pop music, I suppose. Have a little dance.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest EP, and for the future?
The EP is a sampler, I think. We’re going to begin work on the album pretty soon. The first song on the EP, ‘MerryGoRound’, is being released as a single in November, as well, accompanied by a very interesting video by our friend/director Simon Ryhinks. The plan is to release another single in March 2010 and then put out the LP. In the meantime we’re gonna keep gigging and filling out the live show. We’ve recently hit a groove and every show has been banging. Thinking about it, I can’t wait ’til the next one.

MORE>> www.myspace.com/rogues

Macca talks stage fright

And Finally

Paul McCartney has said that in the early stages of The Beatles’ career he got such bad stage fright that he considered quitting the band.

Speaking at a preview screening of his new live DVD, ‘Good Evening New York City’, last night, he said: “They used to have a thing called the NME Poll Winners Party, where the owner of the NME would get us, the Stones, all the top acts, to come and perform for nothing! This was a couple of years into The Beatles’ career. So, I remember being on the steps of Wembley Town Hall, literally getting ill with nerves, and thinking, ‘I’ve got to give this business up, this is no good’. It was quite nerve-wracking”.

He added that the band weren’t always well-received in those days, saying: “We went to Stroud one day, and hardly anyone showed up, which wasn’t wonderful. Then you used to have these Teddyboys, the louts, you know. They started throwing coins at us. So we ended up picking them up, [and got] a couple of shillings richer!”

Album Review: Joe Goddard – Harvest Festival (Greco-Roman)

Album Reviews

Hot Chip are a talented bunch and Joe Goddard is one of the busiest of the group as a regular performer on the DJ circuit and boss of the Greco-Roman record label, through which this, his debut solo album, is released.

A concept album of sorts, it progresses through twelve fruitily named tracks (by which I mean they’re named after fruit) which take the listener through what you imagine a night out with the boys might be like, from the party attitude of ‘Go Bananas’ to the reflective ‘Lemon & Lime (Home Time)’.

The album is more instrumental than your average Hot Chip long player and is an opportunity for Joe to stretch his repetitive beats, with the overall sound is more akin to the Chip’s live performances than their albums – much more upbeat and high tempo with only a couple of more reflective pieces.

Closer ‘Coconut Shy’ sounds like a Brian Eno piece, while ‘Sour Grapes’ brings in church organs to add a different sound, but overall it’s an electronic album and a worthy addition to the Hot Chip stable’s output. IM

Buy from iTunes
Buy from Amazon

Approved: Gay For Johnny Depp – Hey Fucked Up! (Punk Rock Can’t Exist in Countries with Good Social Services)

CMU Approved

Everything’s got too nice around here. People are talking about Christmas, how great everything is, togetherness, that sort of thing. What we really need is a song that has nothing nice to say about anyone and is accompanied by a violent video. So, here you go. ‘Hey Fucked Up!’ is taken from Gay For Johnny Depp’s new EP, ‘Ski Mask Orgy’, and features on their career-spanning compilation, ‘Manthology’. The video recreates a standard GFJD show, with the band turning up without instruments, donning balaclavas and massacring the audience with a variety of weapons. Speaking of which, they’re on tour at the moment, playing dates around the country and finishing up at The Borderline in London on 4 Dec. So that’s nice.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn14k1sApas

Speech Debelle quits Big Dada

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers Top Stories

Speech Debelle has announced that she is quitting her label, Ninja Tune subsidiary Big Dada, apparently because of the poor sales of her Mercury Prize-winning album ‘Speech Therapy’. The rapper claims that the label failed to properly distribute the album, and failed to meet consumer demand after the Mercury win.

Despite winning the high profile music prize, the album peaked at number 65 in the UK charts, and is estimated to have sold just 10,000 copies in total, compared to the 300,000 copies shifted of the previous year’s winner, Elbow’s ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’. The discrepancy, Debelle reckons, is partly because Big Dada didn’t have enough physical copies of the album on the High Street at the crucial moment.

Comparing Debelle with Elbow doesn’t really work, of course. ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ was a widely acclaimed album, while Debelle’s debut has had a mixed response despite the Mercury win. Elbow were also an established band making music that appeals to a large demographic. Their album also included a killer single that became the anthem of that summer. Basically, for Elbow, the Mercury was the icing on the cake, whereas for Debelle it was the sponge and jam as well. Still, the fact Elbow were signed to a major record company with large pockets and a big distribution network, and the fact Debelle was not, is not totally irrelevant.

Speaking to BBC 6music, Debelle said: “The Mercury Prize was on a Tuesday, and the Friday there were no more physical albums in the shops. So on the Mercury weekend, which would have been my biggest selling weekend, people couldn’t get it”.

She continued: “I wasn’t disappointed that it didn’t sell well, I was disappointed in the people I was working with. I wasn’t on a big label and the machine wasn’t there. So even though the album won the Mercury it was still only able to do what the label was capable of doing, which just means that I’m more prepared for next time”.

She added that she is already speaking to a number of labels about releasing her second album, saying of her experience so far: “One thing I’ve learnt is that having bargaining power is important. It’s important to walk into a record label and say ‘This is what I have, and these are the kind of terms I want'”.

Of course what Debelle has experienced is the main downside of working with a smaller indie label. They can’t afford to press up thousands of extra copies of an album on the off chance it wins the Mercury Prize, especially when the album is a real outsider to win in the run up to the presentation of the award. Actually, in the current climate there’s a chance not even the biggest major would have been able to take that risk, but it’s true they could have staged an impromptu advertising campaign the week of the win directing people to sellers of the digital release, and paid HMV to put what physical product was available by the door.

But it’s swings and roundabouts really, isn’t it? For every indie-signed band with tales of the frustration of knowing your brilliant album isn’t reaching record shops, or getting advertised or plugged to Radios 1 and 2, simply because your label doesn’t have any cash, there are bands with horror stories of being signed to a major who spend two hundred thousand pounds on studio time, production and pressing fifty thousand CDs, only to fire your A&R contact and then almost forget they’re releasing your record. That is to say, both majors and indies come with pros and cons.

The big pro of Big Dada for Speech Debelle prior to her Mercury win, presumably, was that none of the majors would probably have even considered signing her. Now she has a Mercury Prize in her hat, I suppose you can’t blame her for trying to find a record label with bigger pockets.

Doherty blames stopped heart for gig cancellation

Artist News

There can’t be many excuses for not turning up to gigs that Pete Doherty hasn’t used, but I reckon dying is a new one. The Babyshambles frontman missed a number of shows with the band in Ireland earlier this year, which at the time was put down to “exhaustion”. Now he has claimed that “some kind of poisoning” caused his heart to stop, meaning he was on a life support machine when he should have been on stage.

Speaking to the NME, Doherty said: “If I hadn’t been on a life support machine I’d have been in Ireland, but my heart stopped. It was a really strange turn of events. Obviously, [the doctors’] immediate thought was that it was to do with drugs, but it wasn’t – it was some kind of poisoning … I don’t remember [what happened]. At the time I thought I was a taxi driver offering to take everyone to Elephant And Castle. I was running into the walls, making steering wheel signs with my hands. And then I just stopped. My body just stopped”.

Leeds college radio take top prize at Student Radio Awards

Awards

So it was the Student Radio Awards in London last night, the annual bash to celebrate the good stuff in the world of UK college radio, staged by the Student Radio Association. In a Sony Awards style, gold, silver and bronze awards were presented in each category. The big winner of the night was probably Leeds-based LSRfm who were named Best Student Radio Station and won the prize for Best Student Radio Chart Show. LSR types also picked up bronze and/or silver awards for Best Male Presenter, Best Scripted Programme and Best Journalistic Programming.

For fans of lists, here is the full list of winners…

Best Newcomer
Gold – Martyn Littlewood – Fly FM
Silver – Julie Ann Lough – RaW
Bronze – Matthew Hemmaty – Shock Radio

Best Marketing and Branding
Gold – Smoke Radio
Silver – URN
Bronze – 1449AM URB

The Student Radio Chart Show Award
Gold – LSRfm.com
Silver – Click Teesside
Bronze – Jam Radio

Best Journalistic Programming
Gold – York Report – URY
Silver – campus crunch – LSRfm.com
Bronze – Newslink Weekly – LSRfm.com

Best Technical Achievement
Gold – Project Sunshine – URF
Silver – Onair Loop System – Xtreme Radio
Bronze – SurgeCart and Surge Podcast Generator – Surge Radio

Best Interview
Gold – Hilary Benn on Binyam Mohamed – Joshua Chambers, URY
Silver – Interview with the most hated woman in America – Tom Goble, RaW
Bronze – Zodiac Cartel with Radio ClubFoot – Radio ClubFoot, URN

Best Live Event or Outside Broadcast
Gold – Smoke’s Summer Send Off – Smoke Radio
Silver – Lounge On The Farm 2009 – CSR FM
Bronze – Varsity 2009 – URN

Best Scripted Programming
Gold – Slow Hands – RaW
Silver – Leeds Tealights – LSRfm.com
Bronze – The Super Hero’s Girlfriend – BiRST

Best Entertainment Programme
Gold – The Big Chewsie – RaW
Silver – The Stephen and David Sunday Lunchtime Show – Xpression FM
Bronze – The Technical Difficulties – URY

Best Specialist Music Programming
Gold – Radio ClubFoot – URN
Silver – The Evening Show – URN
Bronze – Jamie’s Show About Music – LCR

Best Female Presenter
Gold – Julie Ann Lough – RaW
Silver – Josie Standbrook – GU2
Bronze – Kate Lamble – Roundhouse Radio

Best Male Presenter
Gold – Fergus Dufton – URN
Silver – Sam Jarrett – Fly FM
Bronze – Max Dickins – LSRfm.com

Kevin Greening Award
The Big Chewsie – RaW

Best Student Radio Station
Gold – LSRfm.com
Silver – Fly FM
Bronze – URN

It’s like some horrible dream I can’t wake up from

Artist News

First Susan Boyle beat every Amazon pre-order record going. Now, perhaps predictably, she’s on track to have the highest ever first week sales for a debut album with ‘I Dreamed A Dream’.

The album shifted 130,000 during its first 24 hours in stores and is currently outselling the rest of the top five put together, according to The Official Charts Company.

The current record for highest first week sales for a debut album was set by that Leona Lewis two years ago, with a total of 375,872.

The Yummy Fur to reform

Artist News

Cult Scottish band The Yummy Fur have announced that they will perform their first proper shows for eleven years on a short tour to promote the release of a best of compilation on What’s Your Rupture? and the fifteenth anniversary of their former label Guided Missile, in January.

Formed in 1992 by vocalist and guitarist John McKeown (now frontman of The 1990s), The Yummy Fur featured a revolving line-up, which latterly included Franz Ferdinand’s Paul Thompson and Alex Kapranos (then known as Alex Huntley). They split in 1999, with McKeown and Kapranos producing one final single, ‘This Is Andrew Sinclair’, which McKeown described as “the history of The Yummy Fur in four minutes”.

The band – featuring McKeown on guitar and vocals, Thompson on drums and guitarist Brian McDougall – will play two UK shows in Glasgow and London on 7 and 9 Jan, before heading across the Atlantic to play their first ever US shows.

Spiritualized working on new album

Artist News

Spiritualized are working on a new album, the follow-up to 2008’s ‘Songs In A&E’, frontman Jason Pierce has revealed. He also told The Quietus that working on the recent re-issue of the ‘Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space’ album has influenced the sound of the new material.

Pierce explained: “Not to go ‘Oh, let’s do that’. I’m not a big believer in backward steps, or thinking ‘Well, that worked then, let’s do it again’.But, I am making a record. And I’d be lying if… it’s very weird to lay out something you did twelve years ago in all its complexity and then get inside it enough to be able to play it live, and not have that get into some of the newer stuff we’re doing.It’s early days. We’ve put down some great, great songs. I think what [listening to] ‘Ladies And Gentlemen…’ has done is raised the bar in a different way. Rather than just copying the sonics of that record and saying ‘How did we used to do it?’ or ‘We used to do it like this’, it’s raised the bar, and I think that’s good”.

As for when the new album will be released, Pierce was unsure, saying: “When it’s done. I can’t answer questions like that. When it’s done. But hopefully next year.It’s looking good, but you know when you’ve finished. We shall see”.

Dillinger man working with Cavalera

Artist News

Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg Puciato has revealed that he will appear on the next Soulfly album. He has been collaborating with frontman Max Cavalera on a track for the band’s forthcoming new long player ‘Omen’.

Puciato has likened the track to the sound of Cavalera’s former band Sepultura’s seminal ‘Chaos AD’ album and said that working on it was “a great experience with a living legend”.

Puciato’s own band have just completed work on their fourth studio album, ‘Option Paralysis’, which is due for release in March next year.

Strokes looking at studios

Artist News

Does anyone even care if The Strokes record a new album or not any more? It’s not like there’s any chance of it being good, is there? Oh well, just in case you are interested, the band might be going into the studio in January.

Bassist Nikolai Fraiture said via Twitter yesterday: “While the guys are in LA, I went to scout some studios in NYC with Ryan [Gentles, Stokes manager] today for what looks like Jan recording! Mood = fucking excited!”

Comanechi album launch

Gigs & Festivals

Comanechi release their excellent debut album, ‘Crime Of Love’, on 7 Dec via Merok, and to celebrate the duo have lined up a special launch party on 11 Dec at El Paso on Old Street in east London.

Comanechi will, of course, headline the show, and also playing live will be Scottish punks Divorce and Japanese rockers Bo Ningen. Keeping the party going until the small hours will be DJ sets from The Big Pink, A Grave With No Name, Feeding Time, Skill Wizard, This Is Music and Merok.

Tickets are available for a fiver here: www.wegottickets.com/event/64422

Delphic begin album tour next month

Gigs & Festivals

Delphic will release their debut album, ‘Acolyte’, on 11 Jan. And the week before that the first single from it, ‘Doubt’, will hit stores. So it’s about bloody time they got on with promoting it, eh?

Oh look, here are some tour dates:

4 Dec: Birmingham, Academy
5 Dec: Hatfield, The Forum
8 Dec: Manchester, Academy
11 Dec: London, Koko
12 Dec: Derby, The Royal
13 Dec: Glasgow, Optimo
18 Dec: Manchester, Central
19 Dec: Sheffield, The Plug
31 Dec: Manchester, Warehouse Project (DJ Set)
14 Jan: Norwich, Arts Centre
15 Jan: Oxford, Zodiac
16 Jan: Sheffield, Leadmill
17 Jan: Bristol, Thekla
19 Jan: Brighton, Audio
20 Jan: Wolverhampton, Little Civic
21 Jan: Liverpool, Kazimier
22 Jan: Glasgow, King Tuts
23 Jan: Leeds, Cockpit 2
26 Jan: London, The Tabernacle

Six Organs Of Admittance tour

Gigs & Festivals

Six Organs Of Admittance, aka smart bloke Ben Chasny, will play his first UK shows for two years next month, following the release of tenth album, ‘Luminous Night’, earlier this year, and the soundtrack to Joseph Matteson’s book, ‘Empty The Sun’, this month.

Performing with Chasny will be drummer Alex Neilson and (for the London show only) Magik Markers guitarist Elisa Ambrogio.

Tour dates:

30 Nov: Brighton, Freebutt
1 Dec: Penryn, Miss Peapods
2 Dec: Birmingham, Town Hall (Capsule’s 10th Birthday)
3 Dec: Manchester, Islington Mill
4 Dec: London, Bush Hall
11 Dec: Ten Years Of ATP

Warner revenues up, but loss overall

Business News Labels & Publishers

Mixed news from Warner Music, who have just released their latest set of financial stats. The US-based major music company saw higher than expected revenues for their fourth quarter, thanks in part to the sales of Paramore and Muse albums, and their involvement in the latest Jay-Z long player through a partnership with his Roc Nation venture. As a result turnover grew 0.8% to $861 million.

However, the major still made a loss, thanks in part to the cost of a recent bout of downsizing, especially in the major’s Rhino US division. The major lost $18 million for the quarter, compared to a $6 million profit in the same quarter a year earlier. That seems to have come as a surprise to City types, and the major’s share price on the New York Stock Exchange fell as a result.

Looking on the bright side, Warner chief Edgar Bronfman Jr stressed the good news, including the continued growth of digital revenues to compensate for slumping CD sales. He also noted that the major has “rising cash balances”, funds which some see as being set aside ready to mount an acquisition of rival EMI at some point in the next eighteen months.

Japanese collecting society win lawsuit against video-sharing website

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal

Japan’s songwriter society JASRAC has won a lawsuit against a Japanese video-sharing website which, it claimed, was allowing users to post videos containing their members’ content without having any licences from the music industry, and without operating a policy of taking down infringing videos when made aware of them.

According to Billboard, JASRAC, which began its litigation against Tokyo-based TV Break and its owners Just Online last year, said: “Among various video posting websites, many site operators are seeking legitimate business models by voluntarily removing infringing videos. These operators have been obtaining prior consent of right owners to legally distribute videos in order to prevent infringing activities from occurring. Just Online, however, has failed to take such measures, and is thus leaving illegal video files unattended and running the site in an irresponsible way. As a result, many illegal video files have been uploaded to the TV Break site”.

A Japanese court ordered Just Online to remove any infringing content off its website, and awarded JASRAC 120 million yen in damages.

Carl Cox to re-launch label

Business News Labels & Publishers

DJ Carl Cox has announced that he will re-launch his defunct record label, Intec Records, as Intec Digital in January, with its first release being Cox’s new artist album.

The original Intec launched in 1999, making its name as a ground-breaking techno label, releasing records by the likes of Marco Bailey, Preach, Sebastien Leger, Valentino Kanzyani, Trevor Rockcliffe and Bryan Zentz, before closing its doors in 2006. The label’s 50th and final release featured two Carl Cox productions – ‘Spoon’ and ‘K’Pasa’ – the former a tribute to the late Mark Spoon (of Jam And Spoon), who died in January of that year.

Speaking about its new incarnation, Cox told CMU: “It’s a whole new fresh start. The original Intec stood for something, very much of the time, but we’re bringing it back, we’re updating it, but with the same team of people, the same passion for new music and the same philosophy. I hadn’t signed anything on Intec for three years, but people were still sending me their records. I’m all about new music, so I’ve been playing these tracks in my sets, but I wasn’t putting them out, which was a shame. Lots of stuff was lost amongst all the other music and it was frustrating that I couldn’t get behind them. I’m so pleased to be backing this music again. By signing to Intec Digital you get me behind your music, and with my radio station and my recognition, it’s a good place to be”.

On the subject of his new album, he said: “I started on this album over two years ago, but I just didn’t have the time to work on in until recently. As soon as we finished at [Ibiza club] Space this year, I threw myself into the studio to finish it. It’s the most forward thinking album I’ve ever made. I’ve missed making music a lot and I’m looking forward to finally getting it out there”.

For more information, take a look at www.intecdigital.com

PRS reach deal with hotel industry over in-room music

Business News Labels & Publishers

PRS For Music has reached a settlement with the hotel industry over a dispute which asked the question: does playing music in hotel rooms constitute public performance? Of course if it does then hotel owners will have to pay PRS and their like a royalty for any music services provided in rooms via radio or TV sets or other such whatnots.

Anyway, in a deal between the British Hospitality Association and the songwriters’ collecting society it’s been decided music in hotel rooms does, indeed, count as public performance, and both sides have agreed on a licensing deal for hotel room-based music services past, present and future. So that’s nice.

PRS’s Commercial Director Debbie Mulloy is quoted by Music Week as follows: “The provision of TVs and radios in hotel bedrooms is a clear benefit to hotels and their guests, and it’s good news that our members will now receive royalties for the use of their work”.

The boss of the BHA added: “This has been a very long standing dispute, but I am pleased it has been settled at last”.

Asda join IP awareness body

Business News Legal Retail

Asda have joined The Industry Trust For IP Awareness, the body that aims to educate the public about copyright issues. The move presumably means the supermarket giant recognises it too has much to lose from people buying knocked off music, movies or branded goods, rather than buying legitimate products from, say, your friendly local supermarket.

Liz Bales, Director General of the Industry Trust, told reporters: “We are delighted that Asda has decided to support the Industry Trust. This is another example of the audio-visual industry being committed to consumer education. Latest figures show that over 1,000 jobs across the retail, rental and production sector have been lost to film theft. The TV and film industry spans many sectors, it is only by forging partnerships across all these sectors that we’ll be able to tackle this growing problem”.

Spotify reply to Gaga STIM cheque claim

Digital

So, yesterday we spent quite a few lines of binary code pulling to pieces the story that Lady Gaga had only received $167 in royalties from Spotify, a story interpreted by some as proof artists are being screwed by new digital music services, and that fans might as well just take music for free from unlicensed file-sharing platforms given how little money artists get from the legit set ups. You can read our ramblings here.

Well, Spotify have also responded to the report that Lady Gaga received a cheque from Swedish collecting society STIM for that modest amount. They told Music Ally: “Firstly, any payment to STIM would only represent a fraction of the payments rights holders receive and only for music played in one country (in this case Sweden) as we pay not only collecting societies, but also publishers and the record company to play their music. Secondly, the figure (unrepresentative as it is) is from a short period just after our launch last year, way before we’d established ourselves as a music service and built up a large user base. Specific payments are of course confidential, but this is certainly wide of the mark”.

So there you go.

Live Nation to launch live music downloads on iTunes

Digital

Live Nation are the latest to offer live music downloads. The US bit of the live music conglom has teamed up with iTunes to offer downloads of concert footage recorded at 80 of Live Nation’s venues. Artists to feature at launch include OK Go, Jesse McCartney, Saving Abel, A Fine Frenzy, Plain White T’s and Ziggy Marley.

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