Tuesday 28 June 2011, 11:20 | By

Sonisphere plans two minute silence for Slipknot bassist

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Paul Gray

A two minute silence in memory of Slipknot bassist Paul Gray will be observed at Sonisphere next week, it has been announced. At the festival, the band will play their first UK show since the musician’s death last year.

A statement reads: “Sonisphere will host Slipknot’s first UK performance since the tragic passing of bass player Paul Gray, at Knebworth on 10 Jul, where they close the Apollo Arena stage. The band would like to invite all the maggots in attendance to join them in paying their respects. At 2pm on the Sunday, a two minute silence, led from the Saturn Arena stage, will fall over the whole arena and all the stages at Knebworth, so fans can pay tribute to Slipknot’s number 2”.

A book of remembrance will also be available for fans to sign, which will be presented to the band at the end of the festival.

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Tuesday 28 June 2011, 11:18 | By

LulzSec disbanding due to boredom

Digital

LulzSec

An online group which targeted, among others, various Sony businesses with some of those trendy Distributed Denial Of Service attacks, has said it has shut itself down not because the authorities are closing in on its members, but because they’ve got bored of the whole DDoS thing.

After an online announcement that they were disbanding, a member of the informal group of cyber-attackers LulzSec told the Associated Press: “We’re not quitting because we’re afraid of law enforcement. The press are getting bored of us, and we’re getting bored of us”. It has to be said computer hackers are in the main pretty boring. Apart from Matthew Broderick in ‘War Games’, obviously.

As previously reported, Essex geek Ryan Cleary, who was arrested last week for targeting various websites with DDoS attacks, including record label trade bodies the BPI and IFPI, was linked to the LulzSec community, though they denied he was part of their group.

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Tuesday 28 June 2011, 11:14 | By

Morrissey on playing to wet U2 fans

And Finally

Morrissey

I’m not sure Morrissey particularly enjoyed his Glastonbury set on Friday, mainly because he got the impression he was mainly playing to wet, impatient U2 fans. Not that he’s blaming said U2 fans.

He told Pitchfork: “The rain was bitingly cold and the audience were soaked and covered in wet mud, and it was dark and dismal and every time I opened my mouth I swallowed rain. Under such conditions you can’t really expect much from an audience. I think they were there for U2 anyway – understandably. U2 have an enormous Star Wars set with drumsticks that light up northern Africa, and a sound system that would drown out an earthquake. I can’t compete with that. Not with my Post Office savings account. All I have to offer the world are songs”.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 16:00 | By

Eddy Says: Hello, my name is Personal Details

Eddy Says

Right now, young people across the UK are thinking about facing the big bad world, as their education draws to an end and they wonder what they’re going to do with what they’ve got. It’s a jungle out there, so I thought this might be of use to some of you.

This week, I helped out a couple of kids from a secondary school near me who were taking part in this cool initiative where they are taught about CVs and interviews, and then despatched off to do mock interviews with real people in their place of work. These two wannabe music producers came in to Global Radio, where I mock interviewed them for a prospective job as a producer at Global’s music publishing company, where you would work with the likes of Ellie Goulding.

The first one, let’s call him Sam (that’s not his real name), arrived on the dot. Punctuality is so important for these things, as they’re usually stacked like dominoes and if one is late then they’re all late.

Sam was so nervous, his hands were shaking and his voice quivering. He just couldn’t relax, until the moment, some 20 minutes later, when I said “interview over, let’s see how you did”. At this point he visibly changed, sat back in his chair, exhaled deeply, and smiled for the first time. I chatted to him a bit and learned more about his true character in the next two minutes than I did in the entire interview.

Sam’s CV looked good, name in bold at the top, in big letters. I instantly remembered it, that’s good, but he made the cardinal error. A whopper of a spelling mistake. In these days when CVs are created in computer programs that actually tell you a word looks wrong, a spelling mistake is unforgivable. How could I trust you to register a song with PRS so that it gets its royalties when you can’t even get your own CV right?

If I’m being honest, I initially struggled to remember the name of candidate two because, unlike Sam, the words in bold at the top of his CV were ‘Personal Details’ and that’s what stuck in my head. I do remember it now, but if I had reams of CVs and was looking for a reason to weed some out, this might have been for the chop simply because I couldn’t see his name! But let’s call candidate number two Jon.

Now, Jon sat back in his chair, splayed his legs out like he’d been there a hundred times, and smiled from the off. I liked that. Because he was relaxed, he enjoyed it, and so did I. Sam was so uncomfortable that the interview had been slightly awkward. I know it’s easier said than done, to suggest you enjoy an interview, but try to focus on the fact you’re at a company that does something which is fascinating and inspiring to you, ask questions, enjoy it, get involved, smile-like-you-mean-it!

Jon’s CV didn’t look as good but had more info and a brilliant paragraph at the end. I’ll get to that in a second, but first my tip is this: don’t put your GCSE or A Level grades on your CV, just put what subjects you got, so people can see, at a glance, that you’re well rounded academically. Grades are pointless because, as has been widely reported, marking is so generous and the exams so easy these days that everybody gets A grades, so they mean nothing any more.

But Jon’s last paragraph was brilliant. Headed ‘Goals And Ambitions’, it basically said he wanted to go on a particular music production course, because it’s the best one, but that first he wanted to take a year off and travel the world, to give him something to write about and enrich his life experience. This showed me he was self aware, intelligent and thoughtful. He would have got the job for that one line.

That reminded me of a useful little story: Back when I had a proper job, when I was ‘Head Of’ something, hiring and firing for a Big Production Company, I had to find a director. I narrowed the candidates down to two. The first one was qualified right up the wazoo. Every orifice had an acronym coming out of it. He’d been to college, masters, post grad, courses left right and centre, he could not have been any more qualified if he’d been Stephen Spielberg’s teacher. The other candidate had lived. He’d travelled, he’d been around the world, met people, had a totally different ‘education’ – the University Of Life. He was so much more interesting, affable, entertaining. I gave the second guy the job.

The first candidate was surprised and called me to ask what he’d done wrong in the interview. I told him this: “You didn’t do anything wrong. You’re a nice guy, you got everything going for you, except the fact that you’ve been in some form of institution your whole life. Forget about more courses or qualifications, what you need is a round-the-world ticket, just go, meet people, see things, experience life first hand, then and only then can you be in a position to properly document it, film it, or write about”.

I’ve no idea whether he took my advice to heart but I sincerely hope that within a few weeks of it he was on a beach in Thailand, a beer in one hand a spliff in the other and giggling with a German girl, a Swedish girl and a random guy from New Zealand.

Of course, there are individuals and jobs for whom the qualifications are paramount, but if you want to impress somebody like me in an interview, you won’t do it with a certificate or a few letters after your name, you’ll do it with your demeanour, your smile, your enthusiasm and awareness of both yourself and the world around you.

Whatever you choose to do, I wish you the best of luck. Now fuck off around the world and talk to me in a year or two!

X eddy

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:52 | By

Five Day Forecast – w/c 27 June 2011

CMU Planner

Andy Malt

I hope the weather stays as nice as it is in London today for a while, it would be good to become used to it enough to know not to wear thick trousers ahead of a two mile walk. I arrived at CMU HQ this morning a little on the hot side. Glastonbury looked quite hot, too. At least yesterday it did, before that it looked like a bit of an ordeal. But at least it started wet and got sunny. If it has to be wet, that probably is the better way round. But now it’s time for everyone to get back to normality. Here are some things happening this week which you may or may not consider normality…

01: Doug Morris joins Sony Music. Former Universal boss Doug Morris will take up his new role as CEO of Sony Music this Friday. The 72 year old (who was supposed to be taking a back seat in the industry) was first put forward as a contender to take the top Sony post as far back as last year, after one of the original favourites for the job, Barry Weiss, announced he was moving from Sony to Universal. It now remains to be seen if he can match his success at Universal and make Sony Music the biggest major music company, something Billboard examined last week.

02: Manchester International Festival. The Manchester International Festival opens this Wednesday, kicking off an impressive programme of events. On the musical side, the organisers have bagged the premieres of Björk’s ‘Biophilia’ show and Damon Albarn’s second opera, ‘Dr Dee’. As well as that, Snoop Dogg will be performing his ‘Doggystyle’ album in full, and there will be appearances from the likes of Dave Haslam, Sinead O’Connor, Amadou & Mariam, Wu Lyf, and more.

03: CMU music business models seminar. If Doug Morris wants to take Sony Music to the top of the major label tree, then he’s in luck, as our one-day seminar on current and emerging music business models and how they work takes place this Wednesday. It’s perfectly timed for the start of his new job, really. If you like the idea of being successful in the music business too and fancy joining Doug, the session takes place in Shoreditch and costs just £95 + VAT.

04: New releases. Arcade Fire release a re-packaged version of their latest album, ‘The Suburbs’, today, now with their Spike Jonze-directed short film, ‘Scenes From the Suburbs’, tacked on. Also re-issued this week is Alicia Keys‘ ‘Songs In A Minor’, and Deerhoof‘s excellent ‘Milk Man’. Newer stuff comes from Yacht, Foster The People and SBTRKT, with reggae singer Little Roy’s double A-side release of Nirvana covers and Nightwave‘s new EP out, too.

05: Gigs. There are a few big things happening this week. The Flaming Lips will headline Alexandra Palace with support from Deerhoof and Dinosaur Jr, all of whom will be playing classic albums in full as part of ATP’s Don’t Look Back series. Plus Foo Fighters will play two shows at Milton Keynes Bowl on Saturday and Sunday. Also on Saturday, there will be a special Canada Day show at The Barbican in London, with performances from artists including Chilly Gonzales and The Hidden Cameras, as well as a screening of Gonzales’ film, ‘Ivory Tower’.

And that is that. Can we all go outside now?

Andy Malt
Editor, CMU

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:48 | By

Approved: Gang Gang Dance & Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry

CMU Approved

Gang Gang Dance

What do you get when you cross venerable dub-reggae man Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry with genre-dabbling NYC trendies Gang Gang Dance? A really good remix of GGD’s recent single ‘Mindkilla’, obviously.

Blowing up the dancehall inflections of the original, the Jamaica-based music man interweaves his own verses with Gang Gang Dance lead singer Lizzi Bougatsos’ eccentric vocal. “I did have a great fun in the studio recreating the riddim”, said the reggae legend of his remix. “The engineers and people around also enjoyed the vibes and the great voice of Lizzi”.

Acting as spokesperson for the group, Brian DeGraw said Gang Gang Dance were honoured and “blessed” to have their track toyed with by the great LSP: “I think about him a lot in day to day life but never really imagined our paths would cross in any other way. And I really have to give it up for anyone who gets handed a song about fear and turns it into a club banger about eating cops. Perfect”. Perfect, indeed.

Download the remix here.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:46 | By

German labels criticise GEMA over YouTube

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Top Stories

GEMA

Reps from both Universal Music and Sony Music in Germany have criticised, in interviews with US trade mag Billboard, their country’s publishing rights collecting society GEMA over their continued legal squabble with YouTube.

As much previously reported, GEMA has, in the main, taken the hardest line of all the collecting societies when it comes to licensing new digital services, leaving some popular European music platforms, including Spotify, unable to launch in the German market. Digital start-ups say GEMA is asking for far too high royalties for music streams, while the collecting society says it is simply looking for viable business models before licensing its songs.

The record companies, in the main, have good relationships with YouTube (although there was a wobble with the YouTube/Warner deal at one point), and indeed Universal and Sony are basically in business with the web firm via their VEVO venture. On the publishing side, where the performing rights YouTube need are generally licensed collectively, there have been some issues – including a falling out with PRS For Music in the UK – though, in the main, deals have been done

GEMA, however, has a long running dispute with YouTube and its owners Google, and has been publicly critical of the web giant in the past, which it sees as wanting to profit from music-based services without properly compensating rights owners. That ongoing feud has turned legal on various occasions, and earlier this year the Society put in a claim against YouTube’s US division via the Californian courts, albeit in relation to twelve specific songs it represents.

Quite why Billboard has focused on this issue now isn’t clear – the US legal claim was made in April – though it’s possible there are concerns that the escalated litigation is hindered ongoing licensing negotiations between YouTube and the German publishing sector. Certainly Billboard didn’t have to dig hard to find supporters for the YouTube side of this squabble within the music business.

Edgar Berger, CEO of Sony Music Entertainment in Munich told Billboard: “I suspect that some members of GEMA’s supervisory board have not yet arrived in the digital era. We want to see streaming services like VEVO and Spotify in the German market. [These platforms] must not be blocked by GEMA any longer. Artists and music companies are losing sales in the millions”.

Meanwhile, Frank Briegmann, President of Universal Music Germany said: “Germany is a developing country in the digital music market. GEMA apparently has not yet understood the new developments in the international music market”.

Tough words. Of course, presumably, the Sony and Universal publishing companies are influential within the GEMA camp, so perhaps Berger and Briegmann should be doing some lobbying within their own wider companies on this issue. Perhaps they are.

Either way, GEMA’s Alexander Wolf insists that the escalation of their legal action relating to those aforementioned twelve songs does not hinder his society’s ability to negotiate with YouTube on a wider licence, but adds that the web firm has done nothing to address some fundamental concerns – including access to full video play stats and financial rewards based on the impact of music content on YouTube’s wider business performance and not just ad revenues sold alongside specific pop promos.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:43 | By

Drake hits out at Universal for blocking links

Business News Labels & Publishers Top Stories

Drake

While some artists get all hot and bothered when tracks from their new albums appear online before official release, rapper Drake is pissed his label is going around the internet ordering leaked tracks be taken down. Though this is mainly because it’s him leaking the tracks via his own blog.

The rap man hit out at Universal Music, owners of Lil Wayne’s Young Money imprint, to which he is signed, after they ordered the removal of two new Drake tracks from the artist’s own blog and various other websites. Both tracks presumably come from the rapper’s new album, ‘Take Care’, which isn’t due for release until October.

Drake tweeted late last week: “Universal needs to stop taking my fucking songs down. I am doing this for the people not for your label”. Universal didn’t respond by tweeting “Drake should read his record contract re leaking tracks online”, though I bet at least one exec there thought it.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:41 | By

PM pays tribute to local Tory chairman after Glasto death

Business News Live Business Top Stories

David Cameron

And we all thought Bono’s tax arrangements would be the political angle for covering this year’s Glastonbury Festival. There remains some mystery this morning regarding the death of Christopher Shale, Chairman of the Conservative Association in the constituency of Prime Minister David Cameron, who died at the Glastonbury fest this weekend.

Shale, at the festival with his family, disappeared on Saturday afternoon, his body being found a toilet in the VIP area of the event on Sunday morning. Glastonbury boss Michael Eavis initially told reporters he’d been informed the death was the result of a “suicide situation”, though friends of the Shale family said later the Tory activist had died from a massive heart attack.

Either theories may be linked to a story that appeared in the Mail On Sunday yesterday, which focused on a leaked memo written by Shale in which he admits it is hard to recruit new members to the Conservative Party because Tory politicians are often seen as been “voracious, crass, and always on the take”.

Shale had been alerted to the Mail’s plan to publish the memo by Tory Central Office just hours before his death, though the Conservatives say they had told him not to worry about the newspaper report, and that Shale himself seemed quite relaxed about the situation.

Eavis said the death was “very very sad”, though he couldn’t say much more about it. Meanwhile Cameron paid tribute to his former associate, saying in a statement: “A big rock in my life has suddenly been rolled away. Christopher was one of the most truly generous people I’ve ever met – he was always giving to others, his time, his help, his enthusiasm and above all his love of life. It was in that spirit that he made a massive contribution to the Conservative Party both locally and nationally”.

He continued: “Our love and prayers are with Nikki [Shale’s wife] and the family. They have lost an amazing dad, West Oxfordshire has lost a big and wonderful man and, like so many others, Sam and I have lost a close and valued friend”.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:37 | By

Bieber, Swift, Iglesias and Flo among the artists supporting all-star auction

Media Top Stories

Play For Life

Forty artists, producers and directors are supporting an online auction in aid of LA-based cancer research organisation City Of Hope, which reaches its climax on eBay this Thursday. From Justin Bieber to Linkin Park, Florence Welch to Oliver Stone, Taylor Swift to Yoko Ono, all genres are covered in this all-star auction, which is being run by a new American music website set up to champion and support not-for-profits, PlayForLife.fm. The auction, which offers numerous opportunities to meet participating artists, plus signed guitars and behind-the-scenes experiences, has been backed by an on-air and online advertising campaign across all of Clear Channel Radio’s stations around the US for the last three months.

Participating artists include: 3 Doors Down, Barry Manilow, Brad Paisley, Bret Michaels, Buckcherry, Carrie Underwood, Clem Burke, Colbie Caillat, Enrique Iglesias, Florence & The Machine, Gary Allan, Guster, Jaron Lowenstein, Jason Castro, Jay Sean, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bieber, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Linkin Park, Matthew Morrison, Nikki Sixx, New Kids On The Block, Papa Roach, Raphael Saadiq, Rascal Flatts, Reba McEntire, Rihanna, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Train, Vince Gill and Yoko Ono, as well as organisations like Cirque du Soleil, Reel FX and 54 Sound Studios, and veteran movie maker Oliver Stone.

Confirming his support for the programme, the mentioned-somewhere-in-that-long-list ‘Glee’ star Matthew Morrison told reporters: “The power that music holds to impact people emotionally, spiritually and physically never ceases to amaze me. That’s why I’m so thrilled to partner with Clear Channel and City Of Hope on Play For Life to support music therapy for cancer patients and their families”.

Although an American venture, PlayForLife.fm is actually operated by London-based Bigtime Arts & Media, working in partnership with CMU’s sister company UnLimited Creative. UnLimited has worked with Bigtime on numerous music-based promotions over the years, many supporting new talent and good causes, though this is the biggest yet. The auction in aid of City Of Hope is the first in a series of fund and awareness raising initiatives that will be staged on the PlayForLife.fm platform, which also provides a free music recommendation service and, moving forward, will encourage and equip young readers to achieve their own musical ambitions.

Bigtime CEO Ian Spero told CMU: “Play For Life continues a theme that has run through a number of our projects from the last decade, constructing mutually beneficial partnerships between traditional media, artists and music companies, brands and good causes, to encourage creative innovation, and to support health and educational organisations. This will be the first of many such initiatives under the Play For Life banner, in both the US and beyond”.

Given the tie up we’re slightly biased, of course, but we think it’s all brilliant. US-based readers can check out and bid in the current auction at PlayForLife.fm/auctions.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:33 | By

Google facing anti-trust investigations

Legal

Google

Google is facing multiple anti-trust investigations in the US, it has been revealed, with both state and Federal level agencies looking into allegations it uses its dominance in the web search and search advertising markets to hinder its direct competitors, by favouring its own services in search results. Or something like that.

Following reports in the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal about different anti-trust investigations against Google last week, it has emerged that Attorney Generals in California, Ohio and New York are all looking into this issue, as are the US Federal Trade Commission, though none of those offices have actually commented on their investigations, and nor has Google.

The American investigations will likely follow a similar line of inquiry to one begun by the European Commission late last year, which has also responded to allegations from Google’s competitors of unfair play.

Of course, both Google and Apple – as the new techie giants of the internet age – have faced a stack of anti-trust accusations in recent years, which may be down to sour grapes on their competitors’ part, or due to sinister decision making at the top of the IT firms. Or possibly both. Either way, it’s all good news for anti-trust lawyers.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:32 | By

Early rapper wins Black Eyed Peas track dispute

Legal

Black Eyed Peas

A US DJ and one time rapper Orrin Lynn Tolliver Jr has won $1.2 million in a legal dispute over the Black Eyed Peas’ track ‘My Humps’, which sampled his 1983 song ‘I Need A Freak’. Though it’s not the Peas who will be paying Tolliver the cash, rather the dispute was with a former collaborator of the rapper.

Tolliver recorded ‘I Need A Freak’ under the moniker Sexual Harassment with one James McCants at the latter’s studios in the early eighties. McCants registered the track with US collecting society BMI, crediting Tolliver as the songwriter. According to an agreement made at the time, Tolliver would get 75% of royalties generated by the track.

I’m not sure, however, how well that agreement dealt with the issue of who actually owned the copyrights in the track, or who would have the right of veto of its future use. Either way, the two men first fell out over the song in 2000 when it appeared on a compilation album without Tolliver’s permission. At the time McCants denied having licensed the track to the label behind the compo.

Needless to say, that dispute only got bigger when ‘I Need A Freak’ showed up as a sample in the twice platinum selling Black Eyed Peas single, again without Tolliver’s permission. When faced with legal action from his former collaborator, McCants offered a number of different excuses: that he hadn’t licensed ‘I Need A Freak’ to the Black Eyed Peas’ label, that the song wasn’t actually in the track, that he had co-authored the original, and that he owned it via assignment.

McCants’ shifting defence clearly didn’t go down well with the judge, who ruled in Tolliver’s favour in a summary judgement. The case then went to a jury to determine damages, with McCants ordered to pay $1.2 million – which breaks down as about three quarters unpaid royalties and one quarter damages – to his former creative partner.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:30 | By

Missy Elliott reveals thyroid condition

Artist News

Missy Elliot

Missy Elliott has revealed that she suffers from a thyroid problem called Graves disease, which resulted in her hair falling out and her nervous system shutting down, which sounds pretty damn serious. Though the good news is that the condition is rarely life-threatening, and that she is keeping it under control by sticking to a special exercise regime.

Talking about the condition, which was diagnosed in 2008, the rapper told reporters: “My nervous system shut down, you know. Your skin is dry, your hair falls out, you wake up, your eyes feel like they’ve got rocks in them”.

Elliott’s publicist, Anne Kristoff, later told Reuters that since being diagnosed with the disease, which isn’t currently curable, her client “pretty much exercises every day, so she’s committed to her health”.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:27 | By

Bono is “glad” about “wrong” protest

Artist News

Bono

Glastonbury bosses have insisted there was no “instruction to use heavy-handedness” after security staff at the festival tussled with the Art Uncut protestors as they tried to inflate a big fat balloon that read ‘U Pay Your Tax 2’ at the start of U2’s set at the festival on Friday.

It was no secret that the Art Uncut group was planning to protest U2’s much reported tax arrangements at the festival, in particular the band’s decision a few years back to move some of their financial affairs from Ireland to the Netherlands where tax liabilities would be less. Many were critical over the weekend of what they saw as a heavy-handed approach by Glasto staff to kill a peaceful political protest at what is meant to be a politically aware event that champions freedom of expression.

For his part, Bono told reporters he was “glad” the protestors had had a chance to have their say, even though they didn’t, adding that their campaign was “wrong”, which it isn’t. Well, it’s a well-intended but overly simplistic view of a complex situation, a bit like Bono’s whole approach to political matters, and the fight against poverty.

Bono told the Daily Mail: “‘I’m all for protests. I’ve been protesting all of my life. I’m glad they got the chance to have their say. But, as it happens, what they’re protesting about is wrong”.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:25 | By

Chris Brown leads at BET Awards

Awards

BET Awards

I think it’s fair to say Chris Brown has been fully rehabilitated into planet pop, which is good news for any kid out there who aspires to be both an R&B star and a wife beater. The pop man was the biggest winner at the BET Awards in the US this weekend, taking home four gongs, including the Viewer’s Choice Awards (even though, somewhat embarrassingly, there was some confusion as to whether that prize had gone to Brown or his former punch bag Rihanna).

The full list of winners at the annual awards bash from the Black Entertainment Television network is as follows:

Male R&B Artist: Chris Brown
Female R&B Artist: Rihanna
Male Hip-Hop Artist: Kanye West
Female Hip-Hop Artist: Nicki Minaj
Group: Diddy-Dirty Money

International Act (UK): Tinie Tempah
International Act (Africa): 2Face Idibia (Nigeria) & D’Banj (Nigeria)

Gospel: Mary Mary
Centric: Marsha Ambrosius
New Artist: Wiz Khalifa
Young Stars: Willow & Jaden Smith
Viewers’ Choice: Chris Brown

Collaboration: Chris Brown featuring Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes – Look At Me Now

Video Of The Year: Chris Brown featuring Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes – Look At Me Now
Video Director The Year: Chris Robinson

Actor: Idris Elba
Actress: Taraji P. Henson

Movie: For Colored Girls

Sportsman: Michael Vick
Sportswoman: Serena Williams

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:21 | By

Jools Holland to get 2011 MIT award

Awards

Jools Holland

Jools Holland will be presented with this year’s Music Industry Trust Award, which will be handed over at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on 7 Nov. So that’s nice. The annual award, now in its 20th year, has in the past gone to the likes of Tom Jones, John Barry, George Martin and Ahmet Ertegun, and is presented at a charity lunch in aid of the BRIT Trust and the Nordoff Robbins charity.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:19 | By

Common signs to Warner

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

Common

Rapper Common has signed to Warner Bros Records in the US after a decade working with Universal Music labels. Confirming his new deal at a Warner Bros event on Friday, Common said: “I’m very grateful to be a part of this family, to be a part of this team. We have very inspirational, exciting music to team up with you. We’re just open to what this change can bring”.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:15 | By

Colbert releases single via Jack White’s label

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

Jack White

US comedian Stephen Colbert has teamed up with Jack White’s record label Third Man Records for the release of his first single ‘Charlene II (I’m Over You)’, which White helped create.

The song was premiered on ‘The Colbert Report’ TV show last Thursday, at the end of a week in which the US comedy show featured quite a few musicians, including White.

Colbert then performed the song live in New York on Friday with The Black Belles, another band signed to Third Man Records. The track is available on vinyl and digitally right about now.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:11 | By

Brian Wilson biopic in the works

Artist News

Brian Wilson

A biopic about the life of Beach Boy Brian Wilson is in the works. Independent production company River Road Entertainment has announced it has secured the rights to make a film, which will “take an unconventional look at Wilson’s unique musical process as well as his struggles with mental illness, and how he managed to persevere as an artist with the love and support of his wife Melinda”.

Oren Moverman, who directed the movie ‘The Messenger’, will write the screenplay, though that’s pretty much all we know about the project so far.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:10 | By

Warner Bros plugger launches own agency

Business News Marketing & PR

Former Warner Bros UK regional radio plugger Sue Reinhardt has announced she is launching her own promotions agency. Having begun her career in radio promotions with Sony Music’s alternative department, she later joined agency Hart Media before moving to Warner in 2008. She launched her own company earlier this month.

Reinhardt told CMU: “I have worked in regional radio promotions for over ten years, and there have been a lot of changes in the radio industry during that time, but I still maintain that regional radio plays an extremely important role in breaking both artists and songs. I’m looking forward to working with a broad range of artists, from mainstream pop to the more specialist alternative, rock and metal genres.  I still get excited about discovering bands in their early stages so, as well as working with established acts, I am also on the lookout for some great new artists to get my teeth in to!”

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:04 | By

Merlin signs up to Qriocity

Digital

Merlin

Indie label digital rights agency Merlin has signed up to Sony’s Music Unlimited service, the entertainment giant’s subscription-based cross-device Spotify competitor that operates under the ridiculous Qriocity brand.

Says Merlin chief Charles Caldas: “We are very excited to see the evolution of innovative cloud-based digital music services like Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity in the digital market bringing music to millions of people around the world on a wide range of connected devices. With the addition of our members’ artists’ repertoire to the catalogue, and the global reach of Sony, we believe that this service is well placed to attract a large amount of consumers, generating legitimate revenue for rights holders and taking digital music consumption to the next level of mass market appeal”.

Meanwhile Jeff Hughes of Omnifone, who operate the Sony service, told CMU: “Having Merlin within the Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity global catalogue provides the independent repertoire that dominates the charts in several markets, making Merlin a valuable component of any global music service”.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:03 | By

Ubisoft to release Black Eyed Peas game

Digital

Black Eyed Peas

Ubisoft is launching a Black Eyed Peas video game. I think it’s an adventure game where you have to steal as many samples as possible without any of the original creators noticing. No, not really, with ‘The Black Eyed Peas Experience’ you’ll have to dance like the only slightly tedious hip hop group do. The game, announced in Paris last week, will initially launch for Xbox 360 and the Wii later this year.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 11:01 | By

UBM sells Music Week

Media

Music Week

UBM has sold music industry trade mag Music Week to Intent Media, a publishing company that already owns trade titles for the gaming, toys and mobile sectors.

UBM has been downsizing its magazine operations for a while, focusing more on its event and database businesses, while Intent Media has been acquisitive in this domain in recent years. Under the new deal, Intent will acquire four of UBM’s titles, so Television Broadcast Europe, Pro Sound News and Installation Europe as well as Music Week. The £2.4 million deal with see Intent also acquiring all the online and event-based spin-offs of these four titles. Up to 36 staff will move as a result of the sale, some to Intent’s Hertford HQ, though some will be based in the firm’s soon-to-open London offices in Islington.

Music Week recently went through a revamp under new Content Director Michael Gubbins, who has put more of the title’s online content behind a pay-wall while focusing on analytical rather than straight news editorial in the weekly print mag.

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Monday 27 June 2011, 10:59 | By

No Cheryl collab for Example, thank you very much

And Finally

Example

British rap man Example isn’t looking for any pop types to collaborate with, thank you very much. And by that, I think he means he doesn’t want to work with Cheryl Cole.

Not that that was really an option anyway, but he told Bang Showbiz (who possibly raised the issue to start with): “I’m not really big on duets. I work with cool people. Cheryl Cole, well… I make cool dance music. I don’t make cheesy pop stuff. There are some people who I wouldn’t work with, not because I’ve got anything against them but because they’re not right”.

If you believe the tabs, Cole is currently taking time off from both her pop and telly careers following her eviction from ‘X-Factor USA’ to concentrate on getting back together with her cheating bastard of an ex-husband Ashley Cole. Well, I suppose in the era of the super injunction, at least she won’t find out the next time he cheats on her. Good times.

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Friday 24 June 2011, 17:14 | By

CMU Weekly – Friday 24 Jun 2011

CMU Weekly Editor's Letter

Andy Malt by a lake

It would be the week that I choose to go on holiday that the big story we’ve been waiting for since January finally broke, wouldn’t it? It’s been six months since US bank Citigroup repossessed EMI from equity firm Terra Firma, and ever since we’ve been expecting the major record label to be put up for sale.

As Citigroup made the announcement that it was undertaking a “strategic review” in relation to EMI’s future – which, the bank says, may result in a re-financing, a flotation, or sale to a third party – I was walking the hills and valleys of the Lake District. Well, some of them. Big news stories are like buses, you wait months for them to arrive, and then when they do you’re in a valley with no mobile reception. Or something like that.

Anyway, thankfully, while there may be little to no 3G signal in Cumbria, there is wi-fi – well, there was where I was staying – so once back there and online I could get up to speed with the story. Not that there was a lot to get up to speed with. We’ve been talking about the pending sale of EMI ever since Citigroup took control – come to think of it, we were talking about it before then even – so the fact that sale process is now underway doesn’t really change much, and everyone tipped as a potential bidder so far we already knew about, mainly because most of them bid on Warner Music earlier this year.

The flotation thing is interesting – that is new – though I don’t know how serious that proposal really is. Perhaps Team Citi have seen the silly money being pumped into digital IPOs at the moment and hope they can fool the City into thinking EMI is some sort of trendy digital set up worth spending big bucks on. If they did go that route, assuming they floated it on the London Stock Exchange, it would mean EMI would be back exactly where they were before the whole Terra Firma misadventure began.

But an outright sale seems more likely. But to one buyer or two? That is to say, might Citigroup get more money by splitting up the publishing and recording bits of EMI and selling them off separately? EMI chief Roger Faxon will fight that proposal – he likes to bang on about the future being a more integrated EMI, with the publishing and recording divisions working together – though, while Citi have indicated they support Faxon’s plans, they lost so much by financing Terra Firma’s 2007 takeover, they’ll likely go with whatever solution results in the most cash.

A favourite to bid is Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries, the new owners of Warner Music, resulting in a combined EMI/Warner, a merger that, some argue, has been a very longtime coming. The combined company would be headed up by Warner Music boss Edgar Bronfman Jr who has long wanted the two companies to join. So much so, some reckon Bronfman instigated the Warner Music takeover earlier this year – which resulted in his mate Blavatnik having complete ownership – so that the company was in a stronger position financially to bid for EMI.

But what would a combined EMI/Warner mean for Faxon’s plan? It would possibly be doomed. Both EMI and Warner have been dabbling with interesting strategies to deal with the challenges of the digital age, but they are quite different strategies. I don’t see how Faxon and Bronfman’s business plans could be merged, meaning the former would probably fall by the way-side, even if Faxon was offering the combined EMI/Warner publishing empire to lead.

Not that Blavatnik and Warner are the only possible bidders. The other two majors – Sony and Universal – may also bid, though any of those deals would need regulator approval. Selling to one of the other consortiums of equity groups and billionaires might be simpler. Though whatever happens, and with the recent change of ulimate ownership at Warner and ongoing restructuring at Universal and Sony, times remain interesting and exciting at the top of the record industry.

There’s more discussion of the EMI story on this week’s CMU podcast. On that Chris and I (me on the phone from Cumbria) also chat about all the various to-ings and fro-ings in the crazy world of three-strikes, developments in the far more exciting world of legitimate digital music services, that Amy Winehouse being drunk in Eastern Europe (and she wasn’t even on a stag do), and Lady Gaga pissing off the French by throwing petals around.

I’ll be back again with another one of these this time next week, though I’ll be back in the comfort of the CMU office rather than on holiday, which is nice.

Andy Malt
Editor, CMU

THE BULLETIN: Click here to read this week’s CMU Weekly bulletin

THE PODCAST: Click here to download this week’s podcast or stream below

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Friday 24 June 2011, 17:12 | By

Playlist: Peter Murphy

CMU Playlists

Peter Murphy

Peter Murphy launched his career as frontman and lynchpin of art-rock pioneers Bauhaus, who made their seminal if divisive debut with ‘In The Flat Field’ in 1980. The group continued to push post-punk envelopes, ushering in sombre, monochromatic soundscapes over a further three acclaimed albums, before disbanding in 1983.

Having dabbled briefly in the performing arts, Murphy went on to form cult outfit Dali’s Car with percussionist Paul Vincent Lawford and ex-Japan bassist Mick Karn. Made up of components recorded separately on tape by the three members, the band’s first and only album ‘The Waking Hour’ was released in 1984. There were plans to reform last year, though Karn’s ill-health and subsquent sad passing scuppered that.

Murphy experimented with more of a pop-infused sound on his first and second solo albums ‘Should The World Fail To Fall Apart’ and ‘Love Hysteria’, which came out in 1986 and 1988 respectively. Despite receiving only a muted response from British listeners, Peter’s early solo work garnered a dedicated following in the US, where his popularity was cemented by 1990’s return to alt-rock ‘Deep’. Having converted to Islam and relocated to Turkey with his family, much of Murphy’s later music, particularly 1992 LP ‘Holy Smoke’, took on a discernible Middle Eastern influence.

With his solo efforts, and those with Bauhaus, cited as a fundamental inspiration by Nine Inch Nails, Murphy recorded a cover of Daniel Miller’s ‘Warm Leatherette’ with Trent Reznor in 2008. He went on to become a regular guest fixture of NIN’s live set, performing most notably at the final show of the group’s ‘Wave Goodbye’ tour in 2009.

Having embarked on assorted side projects, including a cameo as ‘The Cold One’ in last year’s ‘Twilight Saga: Eclipse’ vampire flick, Murphy is back with new long player ‘Ninth’, finally reconciling his own sophisticated melodic approach with the darkest and most atmospheric elements of the Bauhaus legacy in his first solo album for seven years. With ‘Ninth’ slated for release on 4 Jul via Nettwerk Records, we asked the ‘Godfather of Goth’ to compile a Powers Of Ten playlist for us.

PETER MURPHY’S TEN
Click here to listen to Peter’s playlist in Spotify, and then read on to find out more about their selections.

01 Magazine – Song From Under The Floorboards
The first support slot that I ever played on was opening for Magazine on their ‘Correct Use Of Soap’ UK tour in 1980. This evokes that trip, with a band that seemed too slick to be punk but not one to miss out on at the same time. Great song.

02 Underworld – Dark And Long
I like to listen to this every now and again. It’s a makes you dance without having to get up and dance kind of thing.

03 Sarah Fimm – Tamara Song
I watched this song from the writing process all the way through to the Fimm/ Baron production. A song written for a little girl no older than a year.

04 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Nothing Without You (Tery Bina)
The late Qawwali singer, and Sufi Master, I sang to this many times in my London house’s breakfast room. May he rest in the lap of compassion.

05 Sol Seppy – Injoy
Simplicity itself, this feels like a one take performance, and on an upright old piano on the porch with the rain falling.

06 Roxy Music – Chance Meeting
This is early Roxy Music, and more so Brian Ferry’s inspired self.

07 Sigur Rós Svefn-G-Englar
My Production Manager and friend Greg Dean introduced me to Sigur Rós in 2000 and I respect their music. Do look out for their live in Iceland film where you see the ensemble visiting local Icelandic towns and villages, setting up their instruments wherever they land to play to their fellow Islanders.

08 Storm Large – Where Is My Mind?
Storm Large is a storm brewing.

09 Anthony Newley – Goldfinger
This was written for me – and so shall it be.

10 David Bowie – Memory Of A Free Festival
“…and Peter tried to climb aboard, but the captain shook his head and away they soared climbing through the ivory vibrant cloud … The sun machine is coming down and we’re gonna have a party – uh huh huh”.

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Friday 24 June 2011, 17:09 | By

CMU Beef Of The Week #68: Louis Walsh v Boyzone

And Finally Beef Of The Week

Louis Walsh

Louis Walsh was in the news this week. Mainly, it turned out, due to accusations of indecent assault made by a 24 year old man. Accusations which, the ‘X’ judge told The Sun are “wholly false and with no foundation”. But that’s not what we’re going to talk about today. Frankly, it doesn’t really seem like suitable subject matter for the Beef Of The Week column, and I’m disappointed that you thought it was.

This week’s beef is drawn from the other piece of Louis Walsh news this week: the greatest Irish music battle since U2 met up with The Undertones round the back of Dunnes Stores and fought it out for the rights to hang out at the bus stop in front of the shop. Yep, this week Louis Walsh called Boyzone “yesterday’s men”.

Walsh, of course, managed the group in their heyday. You remember that, right? When music critics and music fans alike fell back in awe at the pop outfit’s original take on the boyband model with ground breaking classics like, erm, ‘Love Me For A Reason’ and that Yusuf Islam song they covered. Oh, how we marvelled at how their career wasn’t entirely based on the vacuum left when Take That split up. But all good things must come to an end. And all the other stuff has to finish eventually, too. In 2000 Boyzone split.

All five members went on to have very successful solo careers, of course. Ronan Keating continued to push boundaries with his crazy musical experiments, trying to find the mythical point at the middle of the road where music ceases to exist but still gets used in Richard Curtis films. Stephen Gately sang a song on the London Eye. The one with the beard worked in a pub on Coronation Street. The other two found ways to occupy themselves.

But despite all that glory, the band nevertheless decided to reform in 2007, a development so exciting, one of them died. Walsh was initially involved in the reformation, until he suddenly realised that Boyzone had become a very poor imitation of Boyzone Juniors, aka Westlife.

Given that Walsh also manages Westlife, that wasn’t so hard to spot. But it was then that Louis looked up. And saw JLS. And One Direction. And The Wanted. And realised that Boyzone had sunk to the bottom of a particularly shitty bucket. Plus, presumably, with record and ticket sales down, his 10% wasn’t worth much any more. And so Boyz One found themselves without a Louis.

Asked about why he stepped back from managing the reformed man band this week, Walsh told Heat: “They’re like Blue – yesterday’s men. There’s too much competition for them. You have to have something amazing as there’s so much talent out there – JLS, One Direction, Westlife, The Wanted”.

He added, charitably: “Boyzone can carry on, but it wasn’t working. It was great while it lasted, but it’s time for me to move on”.

Walsh now devotes his time to regularly resigning as a judge on ‘X-Factor’, finding new shit to peddle (new girl group Wonderland, anyone?) and not indecently assaulting young men in toilets. Oh damn, I said I wouldn’t mention that again, didn’t I?

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Friday 24 June 2011, 13:02 | By

The music business week in five – 24 Jun 2011

Business News Week In Five

Chris Cooke

So, I’m guessing 29% of you are in Somerset, or are on your way there. Don’t worry, it’s muddy, but it will only rain while U2 are playing. Or at least that’s what I hear. Bloody Bono. Many of the rest of you may be planning a weekend of mud-free Glastontelly, which sounds like a grand plan, after all, there’s an awful lot of BBC dudes down there on Worthy Farm, and if Andy Parfitt’s insistence that it’s worth the spend is to stack up, we really ought to all tune in.

If you’re one of the non-Glastonbury attending music journos going to the We’re Not Worthy drinks do in London being organised by Sean at DiS and Paul at RoTD this afternoon, have a goodun – alas, Friday is CMU Weekly day so it’s unlikely I’ll make it down, which presumably means I’m not even not worthy.

I will be heading into Central London later today, though, for a grand debate on all things copyright, taking place as part of British Black Music Month at the University Of Westminster at 309 Regent Street at 6.30pm. A great panel has been lined up to discuss why we should care about copyright (or not), and where the rights of users should fit into the equation. It’s free to come along, though you need to get yourself on the list, email editor@britishblackmusic.com

But first, it’s your week in five…

01: EMI was put up for sale. Or, if we are being pedantic, its owners Citigroup instigated a strategic review of options for the music company, which might include a sale, recapitalisation or even an IPO. But what that really means is that EMI is now on the market. Universal Music, new Warner Music owner Len Blavatnik, and his main rival in the bid for Warner, the Gores brothers, are all reportedly interested in acquiring the British music major. CMU reports | Billboard report

02: The three-strikes judicial review failed, though an EDM requested a rethink. Judges knocked back BT and TalkTalk’s court-based attempts to force a rethink on the copyright section of the Digital Economy Act earlier this year, and this week refused to consider an appeal of that ruling. In parliament Julian Huppert MP did submit an Early Day Motion noting a recent United Nations report that was critical of three-strike style systems like that the DEA will introduce, and suggested a rethink. However, the government is unlikely to comply with that demand. Meanwhile, the Irish government instigated a review of its copyright laws, possibly to help record companies in Ireland persuade internet service providers to follow the lead of market leader Eircom and introduce a three-strikes system for combating piracy. CMU reports | Telegraph report

03: We7, WiMP and Shazam announced expansion plans. We7 confirmed it had new investment and was now hoping to expand out of the UK and become the Pandora of Europe. Scandinavian music service WiMP said it had done a deal which would enable it to launch in Ireland later this year. And Shazam said it had raised a bucket more cash to help it develop a telly-based version of its service. So, a busy week for digital announcements. Elsewhere speculation about Facebook’s new music dashboard continued. CMU reports: We7 | WiMP | Shazam

04: Universal merged the back offices of its Motown and Def Jam divisions in the US, resulting in some job losses, part of a rampant restructuring that is quietly going on at the music major. With Sony Music also doing quite a rejig as the two record company rivals swap senior executives, there is a lot of insecurity jobs wise around the US record industry just now. And if Warner Music does successfully acquire EMI later this year, resulting in another big record company merger, that insecurity will expand across all the majors. Times are a changing, even if the top executives are the same, just with different job titles at different companies. CMU report | Hollywood Reporter report

05: A hacker was arrested for allegedly targeting the BPI and IFPI websites. Essex boy Ryan Cleary is accused of being part of the group that instigated a Distributed Denial Of Service attack against the two record industry trade bodies’ websites, taking said sites down. He’s also accused of bringing down the website of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which was possibly unwise. CMU report | Daily Mail report

And that is your lot until we go all CMU Weekly on your ass with more e-bulletins and a super duper podcast later today – sign up at theCMUwebsite.com/weekly.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

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Friday 24 June 2011, 12:59 | By

Approved: Ludovico Einaudi – Taranta! at the Barbican

Club Tip CMU Approved

Ludovico Einaudi

If you haven’t heard any of Einaudi’s work before, then this weekend could be the time to put that right, because this show looks particularly interesting.

The classically inspired composer will team up with his La Notte della Taranta Orchestra to make music that has its roots in wild dances performed to ward off the effects of a tarantula bite. Apparently this will entail singers, a mandolin, tambourines, percussion, an accordion, strings, horns, organ and guitar, together creating a sonic smorgasboard of delight that can, apparently, overcome the bite. Well, at least that rhymes.

Joining him in creating this aural melee will be Turkish multi-instrumentalist Mercan Dede, DJ Savina Yannatou and award winning Malian kora player Ballake Sissoko. As well as his ‘Taranta’ escapade, Einaudi will be performing a few of his own pieces, including the theme from his recent ‘Nightbook’ album. All in all, a real treat for the ears. Oh, and FYI, Einaudi also releases a compilation of his works entitled ‘Islands’ on Decca on Monday.

Saturday 25 + Sunday 26 Jun, Barbican Hall, London. EC2Y, 7.30pm, £25-£35, press info from the Barbican or Serious Productions, more info here.

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Friday 24 June 2011, 12:53 | By

Are US ISPs close to a voluntary three-strikes system?

Business News Labels & Publishers Legal Top Stories

Three-Strikes

According to CNET, the US record industry is getting close to a deal with some key American internet service providers – including big players like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon – that would see the net firms introduce some sort of three-strikes system to combat illegal file-sharing.

The Recording Industry Association Of America, of course, pursued a self-harming sue-the-fans strategy to combat online piracy for years, sending legal letters to thousands of suspected file-sharers, recouping less than their costs in damages, and having no noticeable impact on file-sharing levels.

Just over two years ago the trade body announced it was ending its sue-the-fans programme and would instead follow the lead of its counterparts in Europe to try and persuade the ISPs to take a more proactive role in policing file-sharing, by sending warning letters to suspected file-sharers with the threat of ‘technical sanctions’ against those who continue to access unlicensed content online.

Of course in most other countries where three-strikes has been pursued it has taken a change in the law to force reluctant ISPs to take part. But according to CNET, after a long period of negotiation, it is looking likely that the American net firms will voluntarily start sending out warning letters to any file-sharing customers, as identified by the RIAA.

It is unlikely users who persist in file-sharing will lose their internet connection under this voluntary system, though signed-up net firms would operate some sanctions against those who ignore the warnings, maybe including the ‘bandwidth throttling’ being considered as a sanction under the British three-strikes system, or maybe the application of filters that block user access to websites and services often used for sharing files illegally. It seems likely participating ISPs would be able to choose their own sanctions once it gets to that stage.

CNET’s sources admit though no actual deals have been signed as yet, but say that talks are now moving along much more swiftly than before, partly because the White House has been talking tough on copyright issues of late, leading some ISP execs worrying that if they don’t put a voluntary system in place Congress may legislate on the issue.

As yet neither the content owners nor the net firms have responded to this report.

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