Thursday 27 June 2013, 10:47 | By Aly Barchi

Seventeen disc John Martyn LP compilation planned

Releases

A new box-compilation collating classic material – and extras – by the late John Martyn will be released on 9 Sep.

Featuring twelve LPs dated between 1967 and 1987, ‘The Island Years’ will also contain five discs of “previously unreleased mixes, outtakes, unheard songs and two previously unreleased live solo concerts”. And a DVD, and a hardback book of essays, images and memorabilia. Details here.

This is Martyn playing ‘Solid Air’ back in 1978:

Willis Earl Beal releasing nothing as nobody

Releases

Willis Earl Beal has indicated he’ll release a new LP in the stead of last year’s ‘Acousmatic Sorcery’. Since he’s an all or nothing kind of man, Beal has titled it ‘Nobody Knows’, and called one of its tracks ‘Everything Unwinds’.

Earthed in a bank of “orchestral blues, ambient R&B, gentle lullabies and pure cacophony”, the LP is based on the idea that (adds Beal): “I am nothing. I want to be a shadow, not the man casting it. That’s who ‘Nobody’ is”.

Here’s the tracklisting citing a PA by Chan Marshall (aka Cat Power):

Wavering Lines
Coming Through (feat Chan Marshall)
Everything Unwinds
Burning Bridges
Disintegrating
Too Dry Too Cry
What’s The Deal?
Ain’t Got No Love
White Noise
Hole In The Roof
Blue Escape
Nobody Knows
The Flow

This is ‘Everything Unwinds’:

Blondes stream/release LP

Releases

NYC synth stylists Blondes released a new digital LP earlier this week titled ‘Swisher’, streaming it at the same time online, AV-style, with graphics by Greg Zifcak. Which is all really quite swish, I’d say.

The pair’s label RVNG have given 5 Aug as the disc’s physical buy-date, this coinciding with the various live/festival dates Blondes are playing this year.

This is ‘Swisher’:

Festival line-up update: City Sounds and Wastelands

Artist News Festival Line-Up Update Gigs & Festivals

First in a relatively ‘alternative’ FLUU dispatch today is the Paris-based City Sounds Festival, as will validate its ‘San Francisco Edition’ by hosting bona fide Frisco-ites like Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall (who’s playing as a ‘one man band’) and White Fence. So hospitable of it, and what a line-up.

Moving on to Belgian festival treat Wastelands which, contrary to its name, has a fairly rich terrain of artists playing over its one-day programme, not least US Girls and Slim Twig, kraut-pop act Trailblazer and digi-horror wizard Dracula Lewis. Spooky.

And now, the cold facts:

CITY SOUNDS FESTIVAL: SAN FRANCISCO EDITION, Le Centquatre, Paris, France, 19-20 July: Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, White Fence, Moon Duo, Warm Soda, Shannon & The Clams. citysounds.fr

WASTELANDS, Grindbakken, Ghent, Belgium, 10 Aug: US Girls feat Slim Twig & Floris Vanhoof, Trailblazer, Dracula Lewis, Ignatz & De Stervende Honden, Mark McGuire, Steve Gunn, Huerco S. subbacultcha.be

Dave Stewart to deliver keynote at Reeperbahn

Business News Education & Events

Dave Stewart will deliver this year’s keynote address at the Reeperbahn conference and showcase festival in Hamburg this September. With a speech entitled ‘Where Is The Money?’, Stewart will discuss using technology and innovation to build a stronger economy for the creative sector.

Also confirmed for the conference this year are American investor Shaun Abrahmson, CD Group founder and CEO Catherine Barba, artist manager Sat Bisla, Kobalt Label Services MD Paul Hitchman, Gamesbrief founder Nicholas Lovell, Vice President of Fojo Media Institute Anette Novak, Topspin UK Director Stephen O’Reilly and Kristina Rothe of Microsoft Germany.

Reeperbahn runs from 25-28 Sep. For more information, go here.

SFX plotting IPO

Business News Live Business

SFX, the latest company from entertainment industry veteran Robert Sillerman, is floating already.

The firm has filed papers with the US Securities And Exchange Commission confirming it will seek to raise up to $175 million via an initial public offering. It’s not known how many shares will be floated, and what stake in the overall company that will represent.

As previously reported, Sillerman’s new SFX company has focused very much on the newly lucrative (in the US) EDM market, buying up various promoters in the dance music space and EDM-focused digital music service Beatport.

Venues and promoters are failing disabled live music fans, report finds

Business News Live Business

Venues and promoters are not doing enough to ensure that disabled people can easily attend live music events, a new report by UK charity Muscular Dystrophy Campaign has found.

Often, says the report, disabled tickets for shows are only available via premium rate telephone numbers, rather than online, and sometimes an event has passed before venues agree to accept ‘proof of disability’ required when providing some tickets.

Those who do make it into venues often find that they are unable to sit with friends and family, due to limited number of extra seats in accessible areas, and toilet facilities are often lacking. The study also says that in some cases people in wheelchairs have been asked to leave before a performer finishes in order to “avoid disruption” for able-bodied customers.

Project Manager of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign’s Trailblazers initiative Bobby Ancil said: “For many, going to concerts, gigs and festivals is a fundamental part of being young. The live music scene in the UK is burgeoning, however if you are disabled, accessing live music can be far from straightforward. We have heard from many young disabled people who describe their experience of getting tickets to see their favourite band or artist perform live as ‘an absolute nightmare’ because of drawn-out, costly booking processes and company policies that separate disabled music lovers from their friends and family at a show as ‘inflexible'”.

He continued: “There is no doubt that many venues have made significant headway in improving their facilities for disabled customers. However, we want to see the creation of an online booking option for all disabled music fans at live venues and more inclusive venue designs to ensure that disabled people can sit with more than one friend or assistant without compromising the view of the stage or their ability to enjoy a performance”.

Read the report in full here.

Windows upgrade includes Xbox Music add-ons

Digital

After weeks of anticipation and speculation – right? – Microsoft announced its move into Pandora-style interactive radio yesterday. Did you notice?

To be fair, while Microsoft’s music announcements never enjoy any of the hype rival’s Apple manage to muster, yesterday’s announcement was really just an add-on to the IT giant’s existing streaming service Xbox Music, which launched last October, rather than a first bold move into the streamed music space, unlike Apple’s headline grabbing announcement of iTunes Radio earlier this month.

But with the focus of late a little more on ‘interactive radio’ than fully on-demand streaming services – partly because of iTunes Radio, partly because of the Pandora debate in the US – the new features being added to Xbox Music are timely.

As with its competitors in this space, Xbox Radio users pick a song or artist, and then get a personalised playlist based around that choice. Unlike many competitors, there doesn’t seem to be the option to directly inform the service about likes and dislikes (“never play this again”), though there is an unlimited track-skip option, and perhaps the service will learn from that. The interactive radio set-up is available to all, not just Xbox Music subscribers, with an ad-funded freemium option.

Though perhaps more interesting in the Xbox Music updates that come with the latest Windows upgrade is a feature that will go live later this year, whereby the platform will create a playlist based on any one web page, selecting the names of any artists mentioned. So you could take an edition of the CMU Daily, press a button, and have a playlist featuring any mentioned artists. Which is one of those things that will either be awesome, or actually fun the first time, but ultimately not that useful. Remains to be seen which once it goes live.

Amazon’s AutoRip launches in some European countries

Digital

Amazon’s AutoRip service is now available in Italy, France and Germany, and is due to launch here in the UK today.

As previously reported, the service, which launched in the US in January, automatically adds tracks in MP3 form from CD (and more recently vinyl) purchases made via Amazon into users’ Amazon Cloud Player accounts.

The AutoRip function is not available on all releases, only those where a deal has been done with the appropriate label, though according to Music Ally the service is currently attached to over 350,000 records.

Scooter Braun buys Romanian TV talent show format

Media

Scooter Braun has bought the North American rights for a Romanian TV talent contest, teaming up with Canadian production company Marble Media to bring it to US screens, reports Billboard.

Entitled ‘Mom Made Me A Star’, the show is seemingly like all those singing competitions you see, except that in this case the judges are the contestants’ own mothers. No, I can’t see how that could possibly work either, but apparently it does.

Ozzy Osbourne a fan of the royals, but not ex-PM Blair

And Finally Artist News

So for those of you keeping track of Ozzy Osbourne’s thoughts on the British establishment, take note – former PM Tony Blair is a “prick”, but Prince William is a “lovely bloke”. And this isn’t just based on the Black Sabbath leader reading the papers, oh no, this is based on his very own, very brief conversations with the political and regal men.

Obsourne, presumably while plugging new Black Sabbath album ’13’, told ShortList of the time he met Blair: “I was at a charity do a while back, and Tony Blair’s looking over at me. This was when the Middle East thing was going on – we’re sending boys over and they’re coming back in fucking boxes. He comes up, and I thought he was going to say, ‘Would you mind going out to play to the troops?’ but he said, ‘I was in a rock band once, but I could never quite get the chords to ‘Iron Man”. Are you fucking kidding me? Is that all you’ve got to say, you dickhead? He was a prick”.

But that doesn’t mean that Osbourne would always rather talk politics than his own oeuvre. On his brief encounter with king-to-be William, he continued: “When I did that fucking Jubilee thing for the Queen, Prince William came up. We’d played ‘Paranoid’, and he said, ‘Why didn’t you play ‘Black Sabbath?’ I’m like, ‘What?’ Lovely bloke. Can you imagine him headbanging at the Royal Jubilee?”

And Prince Harry also has Ozzy’s seal of approval, though that opinion is based on tabloid events. Referencing last year’s ‘naked in Vegas’ expose, Osbourne concluded: “Prince Harry in Vegas was fucking great. That’s what you should be doing if you’re royalty. You get anything you want, so why not? Government approved!”

BMG signs Stones to first new publishing deal in four decades

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

BMG has announced a new partnership with the Rolling Stones which will see the music rights firm represent Mick Jagger and Keith Richards’ songs catalogue.

It is the first time the Stones songwriter duo have appointed an external music publisher in over four decades, they having operated their own publishing set-up since their alliance with EMI Music Publishing, which began in 1971, ended in 1983.

Under the new deal, BMG will take direct responsibility for all the songs written by Jagger and Richards since 1983, while coordinating the two men’s respective shares in the pre-83 catalogue, which is controlled by ABKCO (1963-1971) and Sony/ATV/EMI (1971-1983). The rights firm will seek sync opportunities for the directly controlled songs, and assure the effective administration of digital revenues across the board.

Confirming the deal, which comes just ahead of the band’s headline-grabbing headline set at Glastonbury this weekend, BMG Chrysalis SVP Alexi Cory-Smith told CMU: “Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are among the greatest songwriters in rock n roll history. It’s a huge honour that they have chosen us to represent their interests. Beginning July 1, we will be working alongside all of our offices around the world to give them the very best BMG can offer”.

While BMG top man Hartwig Masuch added: “This deal is incredibly important for BMG. Keith and Mick have clearly created one of the most outstanding song collections in rock n roll history. They have not only created the soundtrack of all of our lives, they have been a dynamic and constant force for cultural change. They could sign to any company they wanted to. The fact that they have chosen to sign with BMG is a significant vote of confidence in our team and in our creative and administration services. We will justify their trust in us”.

Dan Le Sac Writes: Dan Le Sac on crowdfunding – The gains are obvious, but what do we lose?

Dan Le Sac Writes

As the music industry gradually creaks and winds itself around the internet, seeking out new ways to do business, crowdfunding is one source of financing for music-related projects that has seen dramatic growth. But, asks Dan Le Sac in his latest column for CMU, is this actually “The Future Of Music”, as Amanda Palmer put it, or is something lost when you come to your fans cap in hand?

In the last few days Scroobius Pip and myself have had a re-press of our first album crowdfunded using Beat Delete, a service that brings out-of-print vinyl back to life. For simple ideas like this, crowdfunding is a wonderful thing, but over the past few years, as sites like PledgeMusic and Kickstarter have grown, I’ve started to doubt whether this format is quite right for our little industry.

This isn’t exactly a revelation but the music business has changed dramatically over the fifteen or so years I’ve been in and around it. It also shouldn’t be a huge surprise when I say that the lion’s share of that change has been driven by the internet. Due to social networks, we now have direct access to musicians in a way unlike any other time in musical history. And with the development of high speed broadband and increasingly small file sizes, the myriad ways in which we can get music without actually paying for it is an issue that has only just started growing pubes.

Both of these phenomena have forced a change in the relationship between bands and record labels. Where once labels could be seen as venture capitalists taking risks to launch an artist’s career, now, in part due to illegal downloading, labels are less willing to take those risks. But with the increased exposure and access provided by social networks, not every artist needs them to.

At its best, crowdfunding has the ability to make things happen that may never come to light via traditional routes. It is a democratic process, people vote with their money to give a project a future, that vote makes them a stakeholder, that vote gives them ownership (mainly ’emotional’ ownership) so that hopefully they’ll give even more support in future. More importantly, it allows artists and creators to retain more control over their work, and the money they spend getting their work out there.

Of course, the ‘crowd’ has always ultimately funded the music industry; for better or worse all crowdfunding sites like PledgeMusic and Kickstarter do is make that relationship more explicit. The eagle-eyed of you will notice I slipped a little “for better or worse” into that last sentence and it’s those four words that this article is really about. Although crowdfunding can be hugely helpful to an artist, whether nurturing a fledgling career or continuing an established one, asking your audience to become a silent partner isn’t always a sound investment (I think I may have laboured these banking analogies enough now, just so you know).

Crowdfunding may be a way to free yourself from an industry dominated by corporate media, a path to extricate yourself from the pissing contest that is major label marketing, but there are a few bumps to negotiate along the way.

Firstly, ‘why’ an artist chooses to use crowdfunding is important to the ‘crowd’. If the artist thinks it just looks good and is great PR, then they’d better hope that their audience has an average IQ of 70, otherwise the ‘crowd’ will see through them in a second. Some bands see crowdfunding as a way to avoid risk, but risk is good! Nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that; if you’re not willing to put your own hard earned cash up for your own project then why should you expect your fanbase to?

Secondly, what artists are willing to sell in order to fund their project often shows how much respect they have for their ‘crowd’. Offering up signed drum skins or having your name in the sleeve notes in exchange for higher pledges is all well and good, but when a band offers up “Dinner with the lead singer” for £500, aren’t they really saying to their ‘crowd’: “You want to meet us? You gotta pay for it and we are going to rinse you for everything we can”. Now, I know I’m a small artist but if you want to meet me it’ll cost you two things. The bus fare to wherever I’m playing in your town and you saying “Hi Dan”. Within seconds we’ll be talking nonsense about synths or ‘Call Of Duty’ or even ‘Call The Midwife’ if you like. Yes, I watch ‘Call The Midwife’, move on.

Finally, as much as your ‘crowd’ might like you, what happens if you fail to reach the target? In the case of PledgeMusic, the money isn’t taken until you pass your goal, so no harm no foul there. Your audience don’t lose anything other than the album you’ve been promising them for the last three months. Except potentially they lose you, as from the music industry’s point of view, that failed crowdfunding campaign might be proof that you don’t have enough of a ‘crowd’ to sell gig tickets or be a pull on a festival line-up.

Failing to reach your target could end your career entirely. Sadly the music industry is still heavily based on perception. How much you get paid and the gigs you get offered are based on a promoter making an educated guess on how many people you’ll pull through the door, so if your album doesn’t happen due to a seeming lack of interest, then why would they assume anyone would turn up?

So, while it might seem like a good idea, or even an easy option, it’s worth assessing other options before embarking on the crowdfunding route. Could you and your bandmates fund a record yourselves? You’d be surprised how cheap it can be to get a record out and marketed with a little lateral thinking and a lot of hard work.

As a music lover, there is something mystical about great bands. Much to Scroob’s dismay, I put musicians and recording artists on ridiculous pedestals. They are mythical creatures that have the ability to move me with simple formulations of sounds and words. Yet if they where to introduce themselves by saying, “Fund our record or it won’t exist”, that mystique becomes something mundane.

We say “music lover” because the relationship between the creator and listener is a romantic one; a great record can bring about extremes of emotion but spending your first date talking about who’s going to pay the council tax quickly kills the romance.

To counter my own argument a little, there is something to be said for an artist who is honest. Great relationships are built on honesty, but when you think of a band you love, do you want to think about the nuts and bolts, or do you want to think about how their music changed your world?

For all the power crowdfunding gives an artist, for it’s ability to level the music industry’s playing field, for the power it gives to the audience to decide what makes the grade, I just can’t get past the idea that legends are not crowdfunded, sourced by committee and baptised by the masses. They are born of hard work and a single-minded faith in what they do.

Approved: Various Artists – Tasty Morsels Vol 1

CMU Approved

Improving on its last move, a lazy-boy mixtape titled ‘Life On Wheels: Music To Play Tony Hawk To’, released on Valentine’s Day (har har) – www.label Tasty Morsel’s new compilation, ‘Vol 1’, zones in on varying anti-pop odds n bobs by the thirteen weirdest artists on its weird-radar.

An idling hive alive with lighter-than-candy-floss-at-the-fair vibes (Fruit Salad’s ‘Sleep Forever’), fantasy titles like ‘Loose Yams’, ‘Aerolove’ and ‘Cute Boobs’ (by the band Cute Boobs) and new takes on tracks I’m not really embarrassed to say I hadn’t heard of in the first place (Sad Eyes’ “Karawik cover” ‘Waino Skank’), I’d imagine it’s the ideal OST to slip into any featureless interval, any ‘nothing’ time, day or night.

Give it a try:

Tenenbaum’s six figure file-sharing damages bill upheld

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Top Stories

In a legal battle that has been rumbling on for so long now that the file-sharing on Kazaa that initiated it all seems charmingly quaint somehow, an appeals court has upheld a previous ruling that the file-sharer in question should pay $675,000 in damages to the American record industry, represented by the Recording Industry Association Of America.

As much previously reported, Joel Tenenbaum was one of the few people targeted during the RIAA’s big sue-the-fans lawsuit party last decade to actually let his case get to court. He was accused of sharing 31 songs. He lost his court battle, and was ordered by a jury to pay $675,000 in damages. But the judge hearing the original case felt those damages were way too high given Tenenbaum’s actions, and tried to cut them down on constitutional grounds. But then an appeals court, criticising said judge’s interference, reinstated the jury set damages, leaving Tenenbaum with the $675,000 bill.

Although the US Supreme Court refused to consider the case, Tenenbaum’s legal team have continued to appeal through lower courts. But this week the First Circuit Court Of Appeals also backed the original damages sum, rejecting the argument that being ordered to pay $22,500 in damages for each of the 31 songs Tenenbaum was specifically accused of illegally sharing was excessive.

In its ruling the appeal court noted that the specific songs listed in the RIAA’s lawsuit were actually just part of the defendant’s file-sharing activities, that he had ignored warnings before being sued, and that the jury in the original case actually set damages at the lower end of the bracket allowed under law.

It also rejected Tenenbaum’s argument that the damage actually felt by the record industry was not more than the retail value of the albums he illegally downloaded, while adding that – anyway – there was a deterrent element to the statutory damages allowed under the US copyright system.

Says the court: “Tenenbaum carried on his activities for years in spite of numerous warnings, he made thousands of songs available illegally, and he denied responsibility during discovery. Much of this behaviour was exactly what Congress was trying to deter when it amended the Copyright Act”.

On the Tenenbaum team’s arguments that the record labels’ real loss was no more than $450, the court added: “This argument asks us to disregard the deterrent effect of statutory damages, the inherent difficulty in proving damages in a copyright suit, and Sony’s evidence of the harm that it suffered from conduct such as Tenenbaum’s”.

Concluding, the court ruling read: “Therefore, we do not hesitate to conclude that an award of $22,500 per song, an amount representing 15% of the maximum award for wilful violations and less than the maximum award for non-wilful violations, comports with due process”.

It’s not clear what Tenenbaum’s next move may be. He’s previously said there’s no way he could afford to pay $675,000 in damages anyway.

O2 Arena remains world’s most successful

Business News Live Business

The O2 Arena in London has retained its position as the most successful arena in the world, reporting that it brought in £63 million in revenue last year, its highest ever income. This came from over two million ticket sales.

The AEG-owned venue was helped to this glory by shows by The Rolling Stones and Robbie Williams. Only helped, mind. As its Finance Director Sarah Brooks pointed out: “The increase in revenue in the year is mainly due to the Olympic and Paralympic rental”.

The London venue has been far ahead of its nearest competitors for a number of years now, which means it’s likely to stay at the top of the arena tree this current year too. Though without that Olympics and Paralympics cash this summer, you can probably expect to see a few ‘The O2 revenues plummet’ headlines this time next year.

Unless AEG can find another event to plug the gap, of course. Maybe it could try to do a deal with a hugely famous popstar able to sell the venue out 50 nights running. On second thoughts, maybe we should just have another Olympics.

Nine Inch Nails line-up changes have been “disruptive”, says Reznor

Artist News Releases

Trent Reznor has been discussing the recent departures of bassist Eric Avery and guitarist Adrian Belew from the current incarnation of Nine Inch Nails. Speaking to Radio.com, he said that the splits, which both occurred in recent weeks, have been “disruptive”.

He added: “You can spend a lot of time hypothesising, imagining and projecting what it’s gonna be with this chemistry and this recipe of people in a room playing music, and in reality it rarely is that. It’s felt like a wrench in the works at times, but at the same time it’s made me rethink a lot of how we put this together, and I think where we’re ending up at is a place that’s much truer to what Nine Inch Nails should be… and better in the long run”.

As previously reported, Reznor made the surprise announcement last month that a new album from the band would precede upcoming tour dates. It turns out the record took Reznor somewhat by surprise too, he originally starting to work on new music to add to a greatest hits package still contractually owed to his former label, Universal/Interscope. However, “a couple songs led to a couple more songs” and he found himself “seizing the moment of inspiration”.

This possibly goes some way to explaining why the record, entitled ‘Hesitation Marks’, is being released by Sony/Columbia in the US but Universal/Polydor throughout the rest of the world.

Lily Allen may release LP in March

Artist News

Pop matriarch Lily Rose Cooper née Allen has said there’s a significant chance her new LP, the big sister to 2009’s ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You’, may be released in March 2014, so that’s nice and… well, hazy. Even if that’s a lie, and we have to wait until March 2014 to hear the thing, she is at least having a pleasant time making it.

She’s said this to the Sunday People: “I’m really enjoying writing it and hope it will be ready for March. It is very different to what I’ve done before”.

Jake Bugg growing up on next album. But only slightly

Artist News

Having shunned the creative advances of all the lazy songwriters of Nashville, Jake Bugg is working on a “more mature” sound for his second album, he has told the NME.

Of course, that an album is “going to be more mature” is the sort of thing everyone says by default when asked what the follow-up to their debut is going to sound like. And it doesn’t really tell you anything about what it’s going to sound like. I mean, if it was really mature, it might end up being classical or jazz or something. Though ensuring that no one thought this was a possibility, Bugg added: “I don’t want it to be too mature because I’m nineteen but I want it to sound like it’s progressing”.

He also said that he’ll be singing about different things on the next record, rather than just repeating all the lyrics from the first album over new music. Smart move, I say. “I can’t really sing about the same things I sung about on the first album because that would be very dishonest”, he explained. “There’s a lot of people that come from where I’m from that don’t get those opportunities so I think I should give them a bit of an insight of what I’ve experienced so far and what’s been going on”.

Ah, so presumably we can expect songs about spats with One Direction and Bugg’s contempt for the BRITs then. Marvellous.

MGMT dtl LP

Releases

MGMT have detailed their new LP, an inevitable postscript to the live dates they shared last week. The after-party to 2010’s ‘Congratulations’, ‘MGMT’ will, says its press release, feature ‘the Optimizer’, an AV tool that “provides listeners of the album with a simultaneous aural and optical listening experience featuring video and CGI work”. Cool.

That, and a tracklisting a la this one:

Alien Days
Cool Song No 2
Mystery Disease
Introspection
Your Life Is A Lie
A Good Sadness
Astro-Mancy
I Love You Too, Death
Plenty Of Girls In The Sea
An Orphan Of Fortune

Mariah Carey not ready to release “meaningful” LP

Artist News Releases

Hilariously (in light of its title), Mariah Carey has opted to hang on to her new LP, ‘The Art Of Letting Go’, for a bit longer. Haha hahahaha ha.

Anyway. This means it won’t be released on 23 Jul, as was originally meant to be the case. Breaking via Twitter yesterday, Mariah’s explanation ran like so: “While making this album, I got so immersed in the creative process that I just don’t feel I would be doing it justice to release it on 23 Jul”.

It ran on: “I’d rather not exclude meaningful songs. I want to give you this album as it’s meant to be heard. When I’m ready, you’ll be the first to know!”

Wu Lyf’s Ellery Roberts shares solo track

Artist News Releases

Having basically killed off his one-time band, Wu Lyf, by leaving it back in November, Ellery Roberts has shared a new track via his new solo alias, Kerou.

‘Kerou’s Lament’, as it’s titled, is “true blue Kerou – scripted/produced and sang lonesome in London spring time”, and samples (as Pitchfork cites) Lil B’s Clams Casino collaboration ‘I Am God’, and Daniel Pinchbeck’s ‘Planetary Initiation’, each taken “with love and no permission”. Good luck with that.

This is it:

Roberts’ ex-Wu Lyfe émigrés, meanwhile, have rebranded themselves as ‘yacht rock’ band Los Porcos.

Tupac-inspired musical coming to Broadway

Artist News

A new musical inspired by the work of Tupac Shakur and named after the rapper’s 1993 single ‘Holler If Ya Hear Me’, is currently in the early stages of production over there in New York.

The show, featuring Shakur’s music but apparently not based on his actual life, is being directed by Kenny Leon, who hopes to premiere it on Broadway this winter. And, yes, I know what you’re thinking, a gangsta rap musical really does sound like a great idea, doesn’t it?

Leon told Broadway.com: “Tupac was a prophet and I want everyone to see that. [‘Holler If Ya Hear Me’] is a present day musical using all of Tupac’s music, but Tupac is not a character in the musical”.

So, rather than basing the story on a power struggle between two opposing sides of the rap scene ultimately resulting in violence and death, the story will instead focus on two childhood friends who have a bit of a hard time and then strive to overcome that and achieve their dreams.

Boy George declares This Is What I Do, adds live dates

Gigs & Festivals Releases

Boy George is to show the world what he does via a new solo LP titled ‘This Is What I Do’, a rare thing in that it’s his first all-original (aka not covers-based) album in nearly 20 years.

It’s mastered by reggae artist Richie Stephens, who collaborated with Culture Club back in the day, features “many guest musicians” and, whilst it has no release date, will likely be available by the time BG plays the following shows:

3 Nov: Manchester, RNCM
5 Nov: Birmingham, Glee Club
6 Nov: Leeds, City Varieties Music Hall
7 Nov: Glasgow, King Tuts
9 Nov: Oxford, Academy 2
10 Nov: London, Koko
11 Nov: Brighton, Concorde 2

Mumford to keep Glasto date, bassist Dwane doing “OK”

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Having cancelled all their ‘Summer Stampede’ US live dates only last week, Mumford & Sons have reaffirmed that they’re still able to headline at this weekend’s Glastonbury festival – that’s with bassist Ted Dwane, who is “going to be OK” following his brain operation.

Talking to the BBC even as the band shared new, reset dates for the cancelled ‘Summer Stampede’ shows and an extra ‘wildcard’ in a brand new, nine-date ‘Full English’ trek of North America, keyboardist Ben Lovett said: “We’re going to get back out on that stage at Glastonbury as four brothers and do what we do. Each time we play we’re slightly out of our comfort zone but that’s an inspiration – every time it’s just a bit madder than we were expecting”.

He patriotically added: “Whenever we tour elsewhere then come back to Glastonbury, it always reminds us how brilliant it is to be British, and what a great British institution it is”.

Festival line-up update: Pitchfork Festival Paris, Indietracks, Electrobeach and more

Artist News Festival Line-Up Update Gigs & Festivals

So, as Glasto snatches back its closing headline act (aka Mumford & his Sons) from the jaws of certain cancellation, today’s FLUU spotlight slides straight on to signs of change over at dance night Bugged Out’s yearly Weekender fest.

Basically, having pitched at the Bognor-based Butlins for its 2013 event back in January, the dual-dayer will in 2014 move north to Pontins in Southport, laying on its myriad DJs and live acts on 7-9 Mar. Early bird tickets, by the way, are available via this link.

Switching over to the main body of today’s additions, read on to learn who’s hot (and who’s not) at the following…

ELECTROBEACH, Port Barcarès, France, 19-20 Jul: David Guetta. www.electrobeach.eu/en

INDIETRACKS, Midland Railway, Ripley, Derbyshire, 26-28 Jul: The Wake, Kid Canaveral, Another Sunny Day, Emma Kupa, Bloomer, Pete Green, Enderby’s Room, Owl and Mouse, The Art Club, The Choo Choo Trains. www.indietracks.co.uk

PITCHFORK FESTIVAL PARIS, Grande Halle De Le Villette, Paris, France, 31 Oct – 2 Nov: Disclosure, Yo La Tengo, Glass Candy, Baths, Iceage, Jagwar Ma, Only Real. www.pitchforkmusicfestival.fr

STENDHAL FESTIVAL, Roe Valley, Norhtern Ireland, 16-17 Aug: Duke Special, The Divine Comedy. www.stendhalfestival.com

VISIONS, various venues, London, 10 Aug: Koreless, East India Youth, PAWS, Kirin J Callinan, Primitive Parts, GAPS. www.visionsfestival.com

AEG rapped for promoting “one-off” Kanye show, then adding two more dates

Business News Live Business Marketing & PR

AEG Live has been told off by the UK Advertising Standards Authority for an email sent to Kanye West fans announcing a “one-off” show at London’s Hammersmith Apollo back in February, just two days before two further dates were confirmed. The ASA says that the original claim that the first show was a “one-off” was misleading.

The ad industry regulator accepted, to a point, AEG’s explanation: that West’s Apollo dates were not part of a conventional tour and, whereas the live industry sometimes does hold off advertising all tour dates at the outset to allow a bit of ‘extra dates by popular demand’ PR, in this case the original plan was just one show, and the extra performances were added because of the high demand for tickets.

But the ASA has told AEG that in the future it shouldn’t make bold “one-off” show claims where there’s a likelihood additional performances will or could be added. The body said: “Because two more concert dates were added which gave consumers further opportunities to buy tickets to attend a Kanye West concert, and those dates were announced only two days after the ad was sent out originally, we concluded the claim that Kanye West would perform a ‘one-off’ concert in the UK had not been substantiated and was misleading”.

Warner promotes Seton

Business News Industry People Labels & Publishers

There’s been a right flurry of senior appointments at Warner Music recently, hasn’t there? Good news for the firm’s business card printers I suppose. Unless they have unpaid interns making them with crayons round the back.

Anyway, the latest promotion at the mini-major is for Eliah Seton, previously a strategy and business development exec at the company, and most recently a VP in the office of the CEO, and in that role heavily involved in the firm’s acquisition and integration of the Parlophone Label Group. He becomes VP Strategy & Operations for Warner Recorded Music’s International unit, reporting into the recently appointed President of said division Stu Bergen.

Confirming the new appointment, Bergen told CMU: “Eliah has demonstrated impressive commercial acumen and strategic insight, which inform his deep understanding of all facets of our business around the world. His wide-ranging expertise, tireless work ethic and strong passion for music make him the perfect choice for this position”.

Elsewhere at Warner, but on the publishing side, Warner/Chappell’s SVP for Legal & Business Affairs International, Jane Dyball, has announced she is leaving the company after more than two decades there.

IFPI creates CTO role, Gooch returns to fill it

Business News Industry People Labels & Publishers

Global record industry trade body the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry has appointed a Chief Technology Officer for the first time, to oversee and advise on the trade body’s own technology infrastructure, and on relevant industry initiatives, such as work on meta-data standards.

And the new IFPI technology man is the old IFPI technology man, with Richard Gooch, previously Director Of Technology for the organisation, returning after six years to take on the newly created post. He will report in to IFPI overseer, Frances Moore.

And she said this: “I am very pleased to welcome Richard Gooch back to the recording industry. He has a great grasp of technology and the ability to explain it to a lay audience. His skills will help the industry as it works to develop its global sound recording database to the benefit of rights holders around the world”.

Gooch himself added: “I am delighted to be returning to IFPI at this fascinating time. The music industry has made great strides in the digital world in the last few years and I’m really looking forward to taking on this new role and working on some very exciting projects”.

BMG announces distribution partners for Sanctuary and Mute catalogues

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

BMG has confirmed the marketing and distribution partnerships it has in place for the Sanctuary and original Mute sound recording catalogues which it acquired from Universal Music earlier this year.

The music rights company says that the new alliances “form part of BMG’s plan to upgrade the exploitation of the historic Sanctuary and Mute catalogues, and reflect its philosophy of seeking the best exploitation set-up for different types of repertoire”.

We already knew – because it announced it – that [PIAS] would handle digital and physical sales and distribution, plus marketing, for the majority of the Sanctuary and Mute catalogue on a worldwide base excluding North America. And yesterday BMG confirmed that INgrooves had been appointed to do the same in the US and Canada.

Though, as expected, those deals exclude the recordings of two key artists, one from Sanctuary and one from Mute. Universal Music will continue to oversee the distribution and marketing of the Black Sabbath catalogue until next April, alongside the band’s recently-released-by-Universal new album ’13’. Meanwhile Sony Music will handle the Depeche Mode catalogue; likewise it is now releasing that group’s new material.

Confirming all this, BMG EVP International Repertoire Fred Casimir told CMU: “Partnership is core to the BMG philosophy, and so we are delighted to be working with these four great companies in order to optimise the exploitation of the Sanctuary and Mute catalogues”.

Meanwhile, on the North America deal, INgrooves boss Robb McDaniels told CMU: “Over the last ten years, we have built both an unparalleled distribution platform that empowers our label partners and a dedicated, passionate staff who are experts in creating value from the repertoire we market and distribute. We are pleased to have been selected by BMG after such a rigorous selection process and are confident that the INgrooves infrastructure and team will deliver maximum benefit for these two great catalogues”.

Thursday 27 June 2013, 10:47 | By Aly Barchi

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Wednesday 26 June 2013, 14:00 | By Chris Cooke

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Wednesday 26 June 2013, 10:48 | By Dan Le Sac

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READ MORE ABOUT: AEG | ASA | Kanye West

Wednesday 26 June 2013, 10:33 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: Eliah Seton | Jane Dyball | Warner Chappell | Warner Music

Wednesday 26 June 2013, 10:32 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry (IFPI) | Richard Gooch

Wednesday 26 June 2013, 10:31 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: BMG | INgrooves | Mute | Sanctuary | Universal Music