Tuesday 16 December 2014, 10:56 | By Andy Malt

Greg Kurstin extends publishing deal with Sony/ATV

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

Sony/ATV has extended its worldwide publishing deal with Greg Kurstin. The songwriter/producer has already had a relationship with the company for over a decade, so why bother changing now?

Talking up the deal, Sony/ATV CEO Marty Bandier said that Kurstin is one of the company’s “most important songwriters” while the man himself said he was “very happy” to continue working with the “great team”.

His manager, Rachel Kurstin, added: “It has been a pleasure working with our team at Sony/ATV. As Greg’s manager, I feel like we have really accomplished a lot together during Greg’s time with the company. I know Sony/ATV is leading the fight for the digital rights of songwriters and that is something we are proud to be a part of”.

Up for Producer Of The Year at next year’s Oscars and co-nominated for Best Original Song with Sia at the Golden Globes, Kurstin has songs on the forthcoming Charli XCX, Kelly Clarkson and Gwen Stefani albums. He’s also working on a fourth album with singer Inara George as The Bird And The Bee.

SFX to relaunch Beatport as streaming service

Business News Digital

Beatport is relaunching, people. According to the Wall Street Journal, an all new Beatport.com is in development which will see the site move into streaming music, launch a new EDM fan community element, and generally plug and promote and do gizmo stuff around all the festivals and events operated by its owner SFX.

SFX bought Beatport in early 2013, because it was buying anything vaguely linked to dance music in early 2013, though it was a sensible purchase given the download site’s profile in the EDM community. Towards the end of last year the inevitable downsizing began as spin-off Beatport features, like the social network elements, were closed down, and the download company’s team was consolidated with SFX’s other techie acquisitions.

But following that streamlining, the plan for 2015 is now to grow the service, most notably by adding ad-supported and on-demand streaming, as well as community elements, and content and live streams related to SFX’s weighty portfolio of dance music festivals and events around the world. Though the download store will also remain, for the time being at least.

It’s not clear exactly how the streaming element of Beatport will work, or what labels are on board. Though unlike most other streaming music set-ups, Beatport streams could launch without the majors on board, given how much of the music downloaded from the existing Beatport store comes from EDM independents.

So that’s all exciting isn’t it? Beepy beep beep as the EDM kids say. No, really, they do. I met one once and that was all he said all night.

Audiam raises another million in finance from the industry

Business News Digital

Audiam, the digital rights company set up by Tunecore co-founders Jeff Price and Peter Wells, has raised another million dollars in investment from a group of individual strategic investors, including some key music business players.

According to Billboard, the company’s backers now include the likes of Tom Windish of the Windish Agency; Cliff-Burnstein, co-founder of Q Prime Management; Mark Geiger, and Berkely Reinhold of William Morris Endeavor; Victory Records owner Tony Brummel; Distrokid founder Philip Kaplan; Bill Silva of Bill Silva Entertainment; manager Tom Atencio and artists Jason Mraz and Jimmy Buffett.

As previously reported, Audiam was set up to help publishers and songwriters better manage the royalties they are due from digital services, initially focusing on YouTube but since moving into the wider streaming music space. Its client base now includes songwriters direct as well as labels and publishers.

Commenting on the business in which he is investing, Atencio said: “Price has identified a segment very early where there is opportunity because of all the streams that are not being fully paid out. You will notice that all the investors are from the music industry. Private equity and venture capital don’t understand this business; its better to go with strategic investors”.

Clara Amfo to front Radio 1’s Official Chart Show

Business News Media

BBC Radio 1Xtra’s Clara Amfo is to replace Jameela Jamil as presenter of Radio 1’s ‘Official Chart Show’.

Amfo, who has hosted 1Xtra’s Weekend Breakfast show since joining the BBC last year, says in a statement: “It’s an absolute honour to be taking the reins on a show as iconic as the ‘Official Chart’. It is a dream come true and I can’t wait to announce the UK’s number one for the first time”.

Jamil, meanwhile, says she is taking time off from Radio 1 to “travel and work abroad”, a dream she’s had her “whole life”, adding that she has “always put it off due to the wonderful opportunities I have been afforded here, but a recent cancer scare jolted me to just do it, now, while I still can”. She isn’t leaving per se, mind, and will retain a “flexible” position at the station, just in case.

She adds: “Radio 1 are my family and have been incredibly supportive, and I am absolutely staying at the station but in a role that is flexible enough that I can leave the country for longer periods of time, than if I have a set weekly slot. I’ve literally never had more fun at work in my life than I do with Radio 1, and I hate to leave the chart, but I’m also excited for my next adventure”.

In praise of Amfo, Radio 1 and 1Xtra controller Ben Cooper says: “Clara is a fantastic presenter with huge potential and I know that fans of the Official Chart will love her energy and passion for music. I’m proud that 1Xtra continues to develop young talent for the BBC and the wider industry”.

OfCom investigating Radio 4 over Bob Marley weed report

Business News Media

BBC Radio 4 is facing close examination from media regulator OfCom over a so-called “puff piece”, aired on the station’s ‘Today’ programme last month, reporting on the creation of Marley Natural, the previously reported Bob Marley-branded ‘global cannabis line’.

An OfCom spokesman has confirmed that the pre-recorded segment, presented by Simon Jack, is being investigated over claims it may have “condoned, encouraged or glamorised the use of illegal substances” at a time young people might have been listening.

Whilst Jack did add the disclaimer that it’s illegal to buy cannabis in the UK, it looks probable that the BBC will admit the programme’s producer should have worked harder to story the drug’s social impact.

Diiv bassist criticised over “toxic” 4chan posts

Artist News

The bassist in American band Diiv, one Devin Ruben Perez, is facing widespread disdain (not least from the rest of Diiv) over a series of “toxic” comments he made via online community 4chan.

A Tumblr blog titled ‘Sexism In Music’ yesterday reprinted several of the posts credited to a ‘Devin-Chan’ that featured racist, homophobic and misogynist language. For instance, he called Perfect Pussy’s Meredith Graves a “bitch”, before adding: “She’s really fucking mean. I never did anything to her and she’s always looking for ways to attack me and my friends, like a rabid FEMALE DOG”.

Perez also repeatedly drops various racial and gay slurs, even making an anti-Semitic joke, and calling bass producer Zomby a “nigger”. He later ‘clarified’: “I honestly don’t regret saying any of the stuff that I did. No fucks given at all. It was all the truth really. I do regret calling Zomby a nigger (I’m part black anyway) and going off with that Burnstein goyim joke but I guess I was in 100% 4chan lingo mode”.

Diiv lead singer Zachary Cole Smith was quick to state that he does not condone any of Perez’s remarks, tweeting: “I will never EVER tolerate sexism, racism, homophobia, bullying, or bigotry of any kind. I’m doing everything to get to the bottom of this”, and adding of the word “bitch”: “Yes, I understand it is 4chan ‘lingo’. But everybody who types that word knows what it really means and how much violence is attached to it”.

Since the controversy showed no sign of dying down, a rep for the band also released a statement (part apology, part tirade against 4chan) via Pitchfork that read: “Cole and Devin are discussing what happened and his future in the band. Devin acknowledges what he did is very wrong. 4chan is a poisonous place. It’s the bowels of the internet. A place where Devin lost sight of what’s remotely appropriate and what isn’t”.

The statement went on: “But regardless of the context, what Devin said is inexcusable. It will not be tolerated in the band or anywhere. But ultimately Cole and Devin are very close friends so this is a very hard thing for him to swallow, seeing such unexpected behaviour like this from such a close friend. It is not being tolerated and is being dealt with right now”.

CMU’s One Liners: ASCAP, Iggy Azalea, Modest Mouse and some BRITs stuff. Oh, and way more than all that.

Artist News Awards Business News Gigs & Festivals Industry People Labels & Publishers One Liners Releases

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• ASCAP CEO John LoFrumento (pictured) last week announced his retirement after seventeen years in the role and 33 at the American collecting society. “I am able to retire with tremendous confidence in ASCAP’s future”, he said in a statement. He will officially step down on 1 Jan.

• Iggy Azalea has recorded a song with Britney Spears, which will be released in the new year. That’s what Iggy Azalea says, anyway. “We have a song that’s going to be her first single coming out next year”, she told US radio station Kiss 108.

• P to the itbull, or Pitbull, has gaffer-taped a slightly shaky ‘rap’ onto the start of Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’-derived track ‘Blank Space’, which apparently classifies as a remix these days. Sigh. Listen here.

• Diplo has confirmed that he will, via his and DJ peers Jillionaire and Walshy Fire’s Major Lazer co op, release two LPs in 2015, the first in February and the next in September. The arrival of the new year will also signal the release of more collaborative tracks from his and Skrillex’s Jack U project.

• Modest Mouse have used people’s tendency to blab about everything on social media to announce their sixth album. Titled ‘Strangers To Ourselves’, the record will be out in March. The first single, ‘Lampshades On Fire’, is out today. The information was sent to fans last week with a seven-inch test pressing of the single, assuming correctly that they would tweet about it. Look.

• US R&B star Jhené Aiko has released a new video for her track ‘Wading’, taken from her third album, ‘Souled Out’. You can watch it here.

• Panda Bear has released a very nice looking animated video for ‘Boys Latin’, taken from the Animal Collective man’s new solo album ‘Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper’, which is due out in January. Here it is.

• Fat White Family have released the video for their new single, ‘I Am Mark E Smith’, which is good because the single’s just come out. Like yesterday. Anyway, the video it watchable by clicking this link.

• Canadian throat singer Tanya Tagaq, winner of this year’s Polaris Music Prize, will on 26 Jan release her LP ‘Animism’ over here in Britain, and there that is. And this? This is lead track ‘Caribou’.

• Noise-pop five-piece September Girls, from Ireland, have this week released a moody video for their slick new single ‘Black Oil’, itself a track on the band’s latest LP ‘Veneer’. Let the clip sink in by viewing it now.

• The ‘Tiny Tim’ of pop town, singing side-fringe Tom Odell, is going to take a trip into the nation’s woodlands next year, thanks in no small part to the Forestry Commission’s ‘Forest Live’ banner. Odell will go down to the Bedgebury Pinetum near Tunbridge Wells first (19 Jun), winding up finally at Cannock Chase Forest in Staffordshire on 12 Jul. Listings here.

• Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith will perform at next year’s BRIT Awards, it has been announced. You could probably have guessed that, but it’s nice to know for sure, isn’t it? The ceremony takes place on 25 Feb.

More people in Norwich than expected are willing to watch The Maccabees play live if it’s free

And Finally Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Around 100 people were apparently turned away from a Maccabees-headlined gig at Norwich Arts Centre on Sunday. The show was put on by the NME to celebrate the venue being named Britain’s Best Small Venue by the magazine’s readers. It therefore seems pretty appropriate that not everyone who wanted to go could fit in, but not everyone seems to see it like that.

Although the gig was free, fans were asked to apply for tickets in advance of the show at the 290-capacity club. But when they arrived, many found that they were unable to get in, despite having tickets in their hands.

According to the Eastern Daily Press, a rep for the NME explained that their ticketing system had allowed for an expected 40% of ticketholders to not show up. The ticketing system, it seems, did not account for almost 400 people in Norwich actually being quite keen to see The Maccabees.

In a statement published by the BBC, the NME said: “[It] was a free show and when calculating ticket allocations we have to factor in that some confirmed guests will not attend. Unusually … and due to truly exceptional demand, it seems more than usual did indeed come along. We are deeply sorry for those of you who travelled to the show and did not make it in, and we really want to look into how we can make it up to you”.

Norwich Arts Centre tweeted: “We want to say a big thank you to everyone who came down for The Maccabees and we are genuinely sorry that not everybody was able to get in”.

CMU Artists Of The Year 2014: Matt Farley

Artists Of The Year CMU Approved

Every weekday in the run up to the Christmas break, we’ll be revealing another of our ten favourite artists of the year. See the full list of artists announced so far here. Next up is Matt Farley…

You may or may not have come across the name Matt Farley, or Motern Media, at some point this year. A lot has been written about how he manages to earn the US minimum wage from his music, despite being almost unknown. The trick, it turns out, is to record and release around 16,000 songs on iTunes and Spotify – something he has managed to do in just six years.

The songs have been released under more than 60 different artist names, including Papa Razzi And The Photogs, The Singing Film Critic, The Extreme Left Wing Liberals, The Hungry Food Band, The Guy Who Sings Songs About Cities & Towns, and numerous ‘bands’ who sing about the sports teams of specific American cities.

Songs cover everything from asking girls to the school prom, to apologising for crashing your friend’s car, to positive critiques of hundreds of celebrities, plus animals, dead animals, eating cookies for breakfast, conspiracy theories, getting a job promotion, quitting smoking, reviews of the work of other musicians, forgetting an anniversary, being blocked on Twitter, cow tipping, drugs, being afraid of mice and, well, obviously I could go on for quite some time more. Basically there are songs about pretty much anything someone might randomly search for online.

It all began in 2008, when Farley realised that songs by his band Moes Haven that contained the names of celebrities or words like ‘monkey’ sold better than others. This sparked an idea in his head to write a song for every possible random keyword or phrase that someone might search for on a digital music service.

When Farley’s work is talked about, the words ‘spam’ and ‘clickbait’ are often used. And perhaps so far I’ve given the impression that those words are justified. So I think I’d better tell you a bit more about this guy, because to write him off with such negative terms is unfair.

Like many people, I often have ideas for creative things I could do. Very rarely do any of those ideas go any further than appearing in my head and getting filed away for later. But imagine what it would be like if you followed up on all of them. Well, wonder no more what that would be like, because you need look no further than Matt Farley.

He’s made several films (you can watch two of them, ‘Local Heroes’ and ‘Freaky Farley’, on YouTube), fronts two regular podcasts, produces a newsletter about long walks (inspired by his hobby of going on long – like, 40 miles long – walks), occasionally dabbles in stand up comedy, spends a portion of his time talking to fans (due to his tendency to sing his phone number in his songs), and much more I’m sure. He also has a ‘proper’ job three days a week, is married and has a child. And, of course, he writes and records anything up to 100 songs a day.

Although his novelty song factory is a one-man operation, he also seems to have an impressive ability to find other people who can come somewhere close to keeping up with him. And that is how Moes Haven first came to be able to analyse which keywords in their song titles sold the best.

In 2005, Farley and his Moes Haven partner Tom Scalzo decided to work on music every day of 2006, releasing an album of their best work at the end of each month, and finally putting out a compilation of the best tracks from each of those twelve albums in 2007.

Why would anyone do this? Who knows? But they did it. Kind of. Working on music every day didn’t quite work out, but they did manage to release an album at the end of each month. And while the quality of each varies wildly – the scope of the challenge clearly getting on top of them during a number of months – the final ‘best of the best’ compilation, ‘Victory Is Ours! (For Now)’, is a good long player that I would recommend giving a listen.

So, by now a prolific songwriter – Moes Haven have a total of 25 released albums available, and many more unreleased – and with him being a man prone to indulging in projects that most people would consider unnecessarily overreaching themselves, it’s not that much of a leap to see how he ended up embarking on a quest to write a song for every possible search term. Maybe not ‘why’, but certainly ‘how’.

Actually, as for why, I can see that you might still think at this point that Farley’s main motivation is to game digital music services for profit. Releasing over 16,000 songs in six years, doesn’t help the case against him being a spammer on the face of it. And then there his albums from The Best Birthday Song Band Ever, each featuring the same song recorded over and over again with a different name or age each time. That does seem a little spammy. “I can get 100 of those recorded in a day”, Farley told BCDWire. “It’s not fun at all”.

And you could point to something like ‘All About That Bass’ by another of Farley’s aliases, The Passionate & Objective Jokerfan, which is a song about his favourite fish. Though good luck finding that one, because if you search for the song title on Spotify it’s buried under the many, many (many) cheap knock off covers of the Meghan Trainor song. So, spammy his work might be, but he’s more creative and less successful than his fellow spam tune competitors.

But if you were really going to call Matt Farley out as a spammer, you’d probably point to the number of songs he’s written involving bodily functions – “poop” apparently being the first thing many uninspired listeners will search for once they find themselves in a moment of boredom. So many such searches occur, in fact, that they require two different pseudonyms from Farley, The Odd Man Who Sings About Poop, Puke, And Pee and Motern Media’s most successful act, The Toilet Bowl Cleaners.

It’s the latter of the two I’m going to now use as an example of Farley’s genius. I mean, you have to admit that it’s not particularly easy to write as many toilet-related songs as he has, which is acknowledged in the title of the 2013 album ‘You Thought We Ran Out Of Poop Song Ideas. You Were Wrong’. That album features one of the real peaks in Farley’s creativity, ‘Poop Into A Wormhole’, a truly inspired piece of music that could only be written by someone several thousand songs into a novelty song writing project.

But all good things must come to an end, and this year The Toilet Bowl Cleaners released ‘Never Gonna Flush Again’ – fifteen songs about poo and one about how the band were leaving the novelty song industry to work on more serious music. A promise the TBCs followed up on later in 2014 with their tenth album, ‘Mature Love Songs’.

It might be a simple joke, but it’s one that has taken six years and many hours of work to complete. And a joke that will mostly only be discovered if someone chooses to look up The Toilet Bowl Cleaners’ entire back catalogue. So not very often at all. Even less likely is that people would notice that the first nine of that band’s albums were released by Motern Media, while the love songs album came out on Singing Animal Lover Music.

The Singing Animal Lover is yet another Farley alias. Not one of the more prolific ones, having only previously released two albums in 2011 (sample song title: ‘My Horse Is A Great Horse!’). Though this year he released Singing Animal Lover Music’s first album, ‘It’s Time For People To Know The Truth’. Across the record’s 33 tracks, The Singing Animal Lover explains that he has left Motern Media after falling out with Farley, accusing him of being a megalomaniacal “spammer” and “con-man” who is “trying to ruin the music industry”.

The final nail in the coffin came, he sings, when The Singing Animal Lover proposed to Farley that he write an album called ‘Animal Poop Songs’, which he felt would be an opportunity to move in a more artistically credible direction. Instead of giving him the green light, the story goes, Farley took the idea and gave it to another of Motern Media’s artists.

Feeling mistreated, The Singing Animal Lover left the company, went to live in a cave and self-released an album explaining the truth about his former label. ‘Animal Poop Songs’ by The Odd Man Who Sings About Poop, Puke, And Pee came out on Motern Media shortly afterwards.

Just to clear up any confusion at this stage – all of these songs are still written and recorded by Matt Farley and Matt Farley alone. He is The Singing Animal Lover. He is The Toilet Bowl Cleaners. He is The Odd Man Who Sings About Poop, Puke, And Pee. He is Motern Media. And he is Singing Animal Lover Music.

None of this seems like the work of someone just out to make money from spamming Spotify. It seems like the work of someone who really enjoys what they do. In fact, everything I’ve described in this article shares in that enjoyment. What person would put themselves through this if they didn’t enjoy it? Sure, Matt Farley makes a living from doing this, but only just about minimum wage. And if you factor in the financial and time costs of such a prolific project, it’s not really that great a return at all.

No, the only conclusion that anyone could come to after learning about Matt Farley is that he is in the midst of a great art project with no apparent end. And it’s a project very much of this moment in musical history. Embarking on a project to write a song about every possible subject is something that is only viable in a world where Spotify exists.

Although a good half of Farley’s income comes from iTunes, it’s being on Spotify that has won him increased attention this year. And while making $12,000 a year (or so) from the streaming of over 16,000 songs might not actually seem that great, when those songs have just been left for people to stumble across by accident, rather than being actively promoted, it does start to seem like quite a success story. Even though, presumably a good portion of those songs have never been heard by anyone other than Matt Farley. So far.

And the more you discover in that catalogue of songs, the more you find to love. I’ve been intrigued by Motern Media since a friend introduced me to The Smoking Hot Babe Lovers (every song: “[insert name] is a smoking hot babe”). More recently I’ve discovered some Farley songs that deal with the nature of artistry, such as his distaste for what he sees as the myth of the tortured artist and thoughts on the career of fellow outsider musician Wesley Willis.

But, hey, I’ve gone on too long (somewhat aptly, given my topic). If you want to hear Matt Farley talking about himself, you could listen to this ten minute TLDR podcast. Or you can listen to the seventeen episodes of Farley’s own Motern Media Infomercial Podcast, which will only take you a day (if you force yourself not to sleep). I would advise doing both, because hearing Matt Farley talk about himself is as joyful an experience as listening to his music.

Speaking of which, if you want a quick crash course, you can listen to the twelve ‘essential’ Motern Media songs in this Spotify playlist. Or you could go for this collection of 515 of the best. Or, perhaps more appropriately, you could just filter your random thoughts into Spotify’s search box and see what comes up.

BPI unblocks FilesTube

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal Top Stories

So this is novel. A one-time piracy website has been officially un-web-blocked in the UK after relaunching itself as a licensed video aggregator.

FilesTube was one of the websites that UK internet service providers were ordered to block their users from accessing after court action by record industry trade body the BPI back in October last year.

But earlier this month the website, which previously aggregated links to content stored in cyber-lockers, which was therefore mostly unlicensed, relaunched as an aggregator of only legit video-on-demand content.

According to Torrentfreak, FilesTube’s Poland-based operators anticipated having to go the English High Court themselves to get their domains unblocked in the UK, but it turned out the BPI was monitoring the situation and voluntarily requested the block be removed.

That the BPI responded so quickly to the change in business model at FilesTube is pretty impressive, though such action helps back up the trade group’s claim that one of its motivations for blocking piracy websites is to persuade the operators of said sites to go legit.

The BPI’s General Counsel Kiaron Whitehead told TorrentFreak: “We are pleased that the block has encouraged FilesTube to change its business model so that it no longer appears to infringe music rights. Accordingly, we have agreed to un-block the site, which the ISPs will implement over the next few weeks. We hope that other sites which are subject to blocking orders will follow suit and help to support the development of legal digital entertainment”.

Meanwhile Maciej Zawisza from FilesTube welcomed the development, saying: “We used to be a media search engine for content on cyber-locker sites. Now we operate as a free VOD aggregator with licensed content only. We are grateful to BPI for agreeing to lift the blocks and we look forward to the growth of the new FilesTube”.

Of course, while it’s good to try to persuade the operators of piracy sites to re-invent their services as legit concerns, it remains to be seen if FilesTube can retain its audience now that it is only aggregating content from licensed sources.

Selena Gomez signs to Interscope

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

Selena Gomez has signed with Universal’s US-based Interscope Records, and if you don’t believe me, you really ought to go and check out her Instagram account and then think of a really good excuse for ever doubting me.

Gomez was previously signed to Disney’s Hollywood Records, but fulfilled her contract to the label with the greatest hits record that was released last month. She wrote on Instagram over the weekend: “Guess who’s officially an Interscope artist #thisiswhatdreamsaremadeof” alongside a photo of what looks a bit like a record contract.

Universal handles distribution for Hollywood Records in many markets, so has had some involvement already in Gomez’s music career.

Imagem no longer for sale

Business News Labels & Publishers

The owners of independent music publisher Imagem have announced that they are no longer considering a sale of part or all of the business.

As previously reported, New York bank Jeffries LLC was reportedly sounding out bidders back in the spring who were interested in acquiring the music publishing group, which includes classical publisher Boosey & Hawkes, theatrical rights set up the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organisation, and the Imagem-branded publisher which specialises in pop and rock songs. Though it was thought then that the current owners were in no rush to sell, and would only do a deal if the right price was offered – $650 million was a mooted valuation.

Last week Imagem’s owners confirmed that, having reviewed their options, a sale was now off the agenda, and instead management at the company would focus on further developing the business, including seeking new acquisitions.

A statement read: “During the review [of the business], Imagem and its shareholders saw great interest from many parties, either trade parties or new parties, to acquire the whole Imagem Group or specific parts. However, because of the successful and stable businesses of Boosey & Hawkes and Rodgers & Hammerstein, both market leaders in their specific genres, which are growing in popularity every year, not least because of an aging demographic in Western economies, and the growing business of Imagem Music, the strategy now will be to grow these activities further, including through new acquisitions”.

Commenting on this news, Group CEO of Imagem, André de Raaff, told reporters: “We are looking forward to this exciting new chapter in the Imagem story and expanding our position as the world’s number one independent music publisher”.

Warner Music Group sees 74% boost in streaming income

Business News Labels & Publishers

Warner Music Group’s income from streaming grew by $215 million in the year up to 30 Sep, it was revealed last week. This is up from $86 million the previous year. Most of the increase – $200 million – came through the company’s recorded music division.

Overall, the smaller of the music majors saw revenues increase to just over $3 billion, 40% of which came through digital services. However, operating losses also increased, in part due to ongoing costs related to the acquisition of the Parlophone Label Group. Though Billboard notes that if PLG’s figures are taken out, then WMG would have seen a 5.6% decline in revenues year-on-year.

Speaking on an earnings call last week, CEO Stephen Cooper referenced the difference in revenues provided by ad-funded and subscription streaming (the latter being far more lucrative), saying that the reason the company still provides its content to the former is “because it provides the means for consumers to discover the advantages of the premium offerings”.

And doing that is of interest to the company at large because, while Warner saw an overall increase in digital revenues, income from the sale of downloads fell by 14% – just $1 million separating streaming and downloads in the final quarter of the firm’s 2013/14 financial year. Physical revenues meanwhile dropped a further 9%.

As usual, a chirpy outlook came with the financial statement, Cooper saying: “We are proud of everything we accomplished this year. We had great success with artists at all stages of their careers, breaking amazing new talent as well as taking our established roster to new heights. At the same time we expanded our digital footprint, announced several groundbreaking partnerships and pushed into emerging markets, ensuring we are well positioned to capitalise on future growth opportunities as the industry evolves and streaming services achieve scale”.

The Collective moves out of artist management, Linkin Park to self-manage

Business News Management & Funding

American entertainment firm The Collective, which has the likes of Kelly Rowland, Slash and Staind as clients, is closing down its artist management wing, and moving its emphasis entirely over to its digital-content-making, YouTube-channel-operating, multi-channel network business Collective Digital Studio.

The move to kill the artist management side of the company follows the firm’s decision to shutter its film and TV talent management agency last year, and the news that one of The Collective’s highest profile music clients, Linkin Park, had opted to manage themselves.

On the refocus of his business, The Collective chief Michael Green told Variety: “We’ve built a real investment, a real MCN, and it’s succeeding – and my heart is no longer in the management world”.

While for their part, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda said: “We’ve decided to bring our management duties in-house, to directly hire talent to support the innovative ideas the band plans to pursue in the coming years”.

Mixcloud announces stats and new advisors as it passes five years

Business News Digital Industry People

Audio-sharing platform Mixcloud – you know, the one with the music rights sorted via PRS and PPL licences – is celebrating its fifth birthday, and has announced that over six million mixes and shows have now been uploaded to its platform by 650,000 mixers and content creators. The company has also confirmed the addition of Fred McIntyre and Richard Cohen to its board of advisors.

If you want some more Mixcloud stats, well, you’re in luck. Of the six million pieces of content uploaded to Mixcloud, 200,000 went live in the last month alone, and with uploads averaging 45 minutes (Mixcloud is for mixes and radio-style programmes rather than single tracks), according to the firm’s maths that’s four hours of content being added every minute.

Co-founder Nico Perez told reporters this morning: “To put this into perspective, 100 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. So we could not be happier with our performance, considering we have never had any form of external commercial backing. Over five years, we have steadily and organically grown to over twelve million monthly users, despite many of our high profile competitors receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in funding”.

New advisor McIntyre has previously worked at the likes of Last.fm, CBS and AOL, while Cohen is founder and CEO of music media company LoveLive. On his new advisors, Perez continues: “Fred has an enormous amount of experience leading the Last.fm product, and is pertinently based in the Bay Area. Richard brings an incredible wealth of knowledge around working with brand partners and the live music space. We’re excited about the collective IQ that they bring to the table and how they can help us build a product that brings the best ingredients of radio to streaming”.

Marilyn Manson speaks on Lana Del Rey ‘rape’ video

Artist News

Marilyn Manson has given his side of the story following the previously reported appearance of a controversial video featuring Lana Del Rey in a staged rape scene. The video, which was directed by Eli Roth, also incorporated footage of Manson, leading many to believe he was party to shooting it, something Manson’s camp was quick to deny, adding: “It must be a fan video splicing up old Manson video footage with someone else’s Lana Del Rey footage”.

Manson himself has since said, via NME: “It wasn’t a Marilyn Manson video. The editor of the company that put it out was somebody who’s edited my videos, that video was something that was done with a camera that Eli, who’s my friend, and I both wanted to test out, so I let him test it out. What they filmed was put in context seemingly as if it were a Marilyn Manson video, and that was in no way the intention”.

Of Del Rey’s involvement in the scene, Manson added: “Eli and I wanted to do a music video with her but she was being such a problem. Although I still respect her, I’m friends with her. I just left, I was tired, I was not willing to make that part of the video. Eli and I originally had intentions of making a video with her, but that is not the intention that is represented in that film clip because that is not what I filmed, not for my video”.

Manson continued: “But the people put it together with my other clips. And it really strongly stands out of place, it doesn’t really make sense. I would not make a video of that nature, nor would Eli. I don’t think either of us were ever intending for that to be seen, it was more of a camera test. I’m a person that would beat somebody’s ass if they raped somebody that I know”.

Lana Del Rey is still to comment on the ‘camera test’.

REM are never ever ever getting back together

Artist News

REM will never get back together, OK? Stop asking. What do you mean you weren’t asking? Yes you were. Maybe you just forgot. Michael Stipe was on the TV telling everyone how his ex-band are not going reunite just last week.

To be fair, if you’re going to go on a morning TV show to promote a new DVD boxset of your former band’s music, you are opening yourself up to inane reunion questions. So it’s his own fault.

Asked about the possibility of a reunion when he appeared on CBS’s ‘This Morning’ last week, Stipe said: “No. That will never happen. There’s no point. I love those guys very much and I respect them hugely as musicians and as songwriters and everything but I just don’t want to do that thing that people do. I despise nostalgia. I’m not good at looking back”.

“I’m not good at looking back”, said the man promoting a retrospective boxset. ‘REMTV’ is out now, kids.

Watch the full interview here:

Guitar music not dead, claims man with guitar

Artist News

If you thought we were going to make it to the end of the year without someone announcing that guitar music is not dead for the 7352nd time, you were sadly mistaken. Because Catfish And The Bottlemen frontman Van McCann has gone and done it.

Speaking to the NME, McCann said: “Guitar music’s not dead. We’re a guitar band and I fucking love it. Royal Blood are killing it, The 1975 are killing it. When we write songs, I just think, ‘Are 60,000 people going to want to sing this back to me? Is someone in a nine-to-five job going to feel euphoric listening to it?’ If not, I’m getting rid of it”.

If you’re sitting their shaking your head right now, it’s presumably because you’re reading this at a computer. McCann added: “The people that get us are not the people that sit at their computers, they’re the people working shit jobs or on the dole, like I was”.

Beach Boys 1964 rarities released to reboot copyright, what about The Beatles?

Business News Labels & Publishers Legal Releases

Universal Music is running out of time if it wants to reboot the copyright in any unreleased Beatles recordings from 1964.

This time last year the major, in cahoots with Beatles company Apple Corps, suddenly released ‘The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963’ onto iTunes. It transpired that the release was less about giving fans a pre-Christmas rarities treat, and more about extending the copyright in those recordings.

As much previously reported, the copyright term for released sound recordings in Europe was extended from 50 to 70 years last year, meaning the lucrative Beatles catalogue – getting perilously close to going ‘public domain’ in Europe – was given an extra 20 years of copyright protection.

Though the copyright in unreleased works was not affected by the change in European law, and is still 50 years after the recording is made. Therefore the copyright in any unreleased sound recordings made in 1964 will expire on 1 Jan next year, unless said recordings are released between now and then. If they are released (or even just aired in public), then the copyright is actually rebooted, so they will get 70 years copyright protection from this year onwards.

Therefore the aim of ‘The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963’ was to reboot the copyright in a bunch of sound recordings whose copyright protection was about to expire. It was widely expected that a 1964 edition would follow, rebooting the copyright in any unreleased recordings that the Fab Four made that year, though it’s yet to surface, and the official line is that no such album is incoming. Despite that, a surprise arrival over the Christmas period would not, really, be much of a surprise.

Meanwhile, Sony Music is set to put out a bunch of Bob Dylan rarities from 1964 to likewise reboot the European copyright in those recordings, the company and he having done the same in 2013 (actually before The Beatles got in on the act). Also jumping on the copyright reboot bandwagon are The Beach Boys, who recently released a number of previously unheard tracks, including outtakes, live recordings and some BBC sessions – all rarities dating from 1964, naturally.

Whether any more re-boot-legs can be expected between now and the year’s end, well, we’ll keep our ears to the ground.

Ed Sheeran too wet to record a Bond theme, says Ed Sheeran

And Finally Artist News

Given that Ed Sheeran is seemingly the biggest British popstar of the moment, I guess we ought to start being unnecessarily rude about him. Like really rude. I mean, if we want to be first to embrace the ‘backlash to the backlash’ in a year’s time, we need to help kick off the initial backlash now, right?

Though it’s not as easy as you might think. That Ed Sheeran, what a… erm, yeah, what a… I know, what a numpty. That’s as good as I’ve got. And I’ve been insulting popstars in the media since the 90s. I mean, you might not be a big fan of his music, but he has that irritating habit of always coming across as a down-to-earth really likeable kind of guy. Anyway, good news, I think, because here to start the Ed Sheeran dissing party is, well, Mr Ed Sheeran.

Asked by Digital Spy whether he’d like to record the theme song for the in-development James Bond film ‘Spectre’, Sheeran mused: “I am a James Bond fan, but I think the James Bond theme tune should be ballsy and I feel like if I was going to do it, it would sound a bit wet. I’d love to do a James Bond song but can you imagine it? I just wasn’t born with the James Bond voice. You never know, I’m not ruling it out. Maybe in ten years time when my balls drop it would improve”.

Saying he was more comfortable writing songs for ‘The Hobbit’ (which he did), he went on: “‘The Hobbit’ song was perfect for me to do because it’s quite folksy and rootsy and guitar-driven and a hairy short man should be singing a song about that. Whereas James Bond… I think Sam [Smith] is perfect for that, proper suited up, strong voice. I’m backing Sam but I think anyone from Sam to Paloma Faith, anyone who does the retro thing really, really fucking well should do it”.

Look at that – Ed Sheeran – such a nice popstar he has to start his own backlash. What a bastard. Oh look, I’m joining in now. Let the backlash begin!

CMU Artists Of The Year 2014: PC Music

Artists Of The Year CMU Approved

Every weekday in the run up to the Christmas break, we’ll be revealing another of our ten favourite artists of the year. See the full list of artists announced so far here. Next up is PC Music…

Doing a quick scan back over 2014, I can’t think of any one sonic ‘thing’ as innovative, or on the flipside, as mind-slicingly schismatic and impossible to pin down as PC Music, aka Personal Computer Music. And no, in spite of this being an Artist Of The Year feature, PC Music isn’t any one artist, but a London-based label collective of many, captained by young London producer and pop fanboy Alex ‘AG’ Cook.

And it’s not an ordinary label, either, more like a mirror maze of criss-cross collaborations by a sitcom-like cast of avatars and aliases (most listed in this handy ‘who’s who’ feature on Pitchfork), all in some way looping back to Cook, the JME or Johnny Jewell-like boss of his own A&R kingdom.

Cook’s own “shiny and detailed” dance-pop makings are traceable back to his time studying at the arts-specialising Goldsmiths college, University Of London, and the genesis of PC Music “prototype” Gamsonite.

Of all the acts on Gamsonite, only a few got carried over to its level-up PC Music, Dux Content, GFOTY and most significantly CMU approved singer/stylist Hannah Diamond. Although never much more than a name on Gamsonite’s roster, Diamond was the one who kicked the PC’s profile into high gear with her first solo single ‘Pink & Blue’, a spinny fantasy ride of babyish vocals and sticky-sweet beats as addictive and sickening as candy itself.

It’s safe to say that not all the world liked it, at least not at first. But with its universal story of ‘a love unrequited’, told in the most basic ABC rhymes at top pitch over a ‘Shanks & Bigfoot go to Disneyland’-style beat, ‘Pink And Blue’ is at once ‘just a dumb pop song’ and also a highly smart bit of manufacturing. And so, so good… infuriatingly good.

Dux Content, the other common factor to the PC Music and Gamsonite directories, is one of AG Cook’s collaborations with PC Music’s other main lynchpin, experimental classicist and trained composer Danny L Harle, whose poppiest tracks ‘Broken Flowers’ and ‘In My Dreams’ are perhaps the most – dare I say it – ‘chart ready’ of any in the PC library, both delicately layered sugar-towers belying an intimidating intricacy.

It’s hard to spotlight PC Music’s higher ranks without clicking over to the outfit’s most A-list satellite affiliate, the CMU approved Sophie, who via singles like the Numbers-released ‘Hard’ and l-l-‘Lemonade’ has changed the face of electronica, irreversibly. There is no going back from the likes of ‘Bipp’, itself a mini Hadron Collider of extremes; sweet and creepy, static and manic, conventional and abstract, pop and its polar opposite.

In reality a man named Sam (that’s him on Cook’s right, DJing at SXSW), Sophie is the first of Cook et al’s circle to sign a big deal with another label, having released his single ‘Hey QT’ (also a 50/50 split with Cook) on XL Recordings earlier this year.

This was the first (and to date only) release from the world’s first virtual-popstar-inspired ‘virtual reality’ popstar QT (given a face and voice by American artist Hayden Dunham). QT herself is a deeply meta twist on the idea of the post-internet celebrity; having risen as if from an alien pod, with no history and only the personality her ‘press team’ creates for her. In this, her big live premiere at a Boiler Room x Ray Ban event in LA, she sings – or lip-synchs – sweetly, looks immaculate, and even has her own energy drink (“Looks fizzy. Tastes bouncy. Feels QT”) to sell to the pop-thirsty kids.

As typified in QT – a mesh of flesh and bone, lipgloss, fibre-optic wires and html code – Sophie, AG Cook and co deal strictly in the ‘hyperreal’, both in the OTT-kitsch imagery clipped on to every PC Music release, and in the pithy elixir of the tracks themselves, which is (and I’m generalising massively here) a mix of regular genres like UK garage, Guetta-style club trance, chart pop and R&B, only elevated to the hyperreal extremes, inspired in that regard by J-pop artists like the deathly-sweet friend-of-Sophie Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, who herself cites – and then, twists – Japan’s ‘gyaru’ (girly) and ‘kawaii’ (cute) trends.

In fact “extreme” is a word Cook fires off a lot in an early interview with Tank Magazine, which since it’s the only case of him speaking in any depth on the PC Music ‘aesthetic’, is now like a kind of style bible in terms of getting to the gooey centre of his creative brain. “I always find any kind of ‘extreme’ pop music interesting”, he says. “One of my favourite albums is ‘Cupid And Psyche 85’ by Scritti Politti, which was a conscious decision to take pop music and make it as shiny and detailed as possible – it’s a really beautiful balance of great hooks, rhythms and sounds”.

Strange, then, that a most the jibes aimed at Cook et al relate to the idea that they’re snidely ripping on that exact kind of mass-appeal chart pop, making it dance on its hind legs for their own high-minded entertainment. And whilst it’s fair to say that Sophie, and acts like PC Music’s gobby GFOTY (Girlfriend Of The Year) is, by cheerleader-chanting lyrics like “Go to the party, time to get drunk / Arrive in a Clio, driven by a hunk”, are in a way wringing something dark from the clichéd things teens do/don’t do on a ‘Friday Night’, AG Cook, for one, appears to have a real, non-ironic and almost dorkish love for even the most commercial GM mega-hits.

In the Tank piece he cites Taylor Swift hitmaker Max Martin and R&B team Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, and even the Rebecca Black ‘Friday’-enabling Ark Music Factory, as prime – or at least partial – inspirations, also adding: “I really like [R&B star] Cassie – some of her tracks epitomise the minimal, synthetic, almost robotic potential of commercial music, something which can sound crap when it’s done badly, but can also become a sort of perfect, untouchable product when done in the right way”.

And that (as I’m sure was the point of him saying it) says a lot for his own operating system, and for the OS of the PC Music network as a whole; it’s about sucking you in to this totally other “untouchable” space and leaving you to consider it, or simply soak it in, in all its infinite weirdness, some of that strange and some of it strangely familiar.

It’s sort of impossible to pick any one emblematic PC single from the pile, so this is PC Music’s mix of its ‘Top 40’ tracks, followed by a mix of ‘Mixes’, followed by one of the most bizarre Boiler Room live-streams of all time, c/o Sophie (or a man in a wig fake-DJ-ing Sophie’s set while the real Sophie hides in plain sight as a ‘security guard’):

US movie industry investigating if web-blocks can be secured under existing law

Business News Digital Legal Top Stories

It’s no secret that the Motion Picture Association Of America would like some web-blocking to occur on its patch. It’s boss bigged up British web-blocking at a conference in London in June, and then the Hollywood trade group wrote a report citing research that suggested UK web-blocks was delivering great results. And now Torrentfreak claims that the organisation has had its legal beagles busy busy this year trying to work out ways to secure web-blocks Stateside without requiring new laws to be past in Congress.

Web-blocking, of course, is where the courts order internet service providers to stop their customers accessing websites deemed to be rampant copyright infringers, and it has become a very common anti-piracy tactic in some European jurisdictions. Such a system was at the heart of two pieces of anti-piracy legislation proposed in Washington on 2011 – SOPA and PIPA – both of which were abandoned after widespread opposition from the tech community and online in January 2012.

Interestingly, in the UK when measures for combating online piracy were considered as part of the 2010 Digital Economy Act, both web-blocking and so called graduated response, ISPs being forced to send warning letters to suspected file-sharers, were considered. In the end the latter was adopted, with the former kicked into the long grass. Though ironically, while graduated response (aka three-strikes) is yet to go live, the UK movie industry found that web-blocking injunctions could be obtained under existing copyright law, and both it and the record industry have been happily securing web-blocks ever since.

And it seems that the MPAA Stateside – having originally investigated how it might resurrect the web-block elements of SOPA/PIPA in Congress without causing so much controversy – has now opted for seeing if it can find a way to secure web-blocks in the American courts under existing laws, without requiring new legislation to be written and passed.

Torrentfreak analyses four approaches that have been considered, including using America’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“difficult”), the Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure (“promising but largely untested”), the International Trade Commission (“maybe feasible”) and The Communications Act (down to semantics). Read the Torrentfreak article for more info on each approach.

Legal advice from various sources has been shared with the film studios which now need to decide if any of the possible legal routes are worth pursuing. That web-blocks haven’t “broken the internet” in Europe will also be stressed, while any research showing the effectiveness of the blockades elsewhere is likely to be pushed forward, presumably ignoring just how easy it is to circumvent most blocks until Google can be persuaded or forced to stop linking to proxies and ‘how to get around the block’ web posts.

401K to represent Shaun Ryder’s Black Grape catalogue

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

Shaun Ryder has signed a new worldwide publishing deal with Brooklyn-based 401K Music, covering songs he wrote as part of Black Grape.

Says 401K founder Veronica Gretton: “Shaun is one of my favourite people in the music business and I’m delighted to be back working with him. I first worked with Shaun nearly 20 years ago while at Radioactive Records. Next year is the 20th anniversary of [Black Grape’s] number one debut album, ‘It’s Great When You’re Straight… Yeah!’, and I think its distinct mix of rap, house, rock and pop has yet to be duplicated by anyone. I can’t wait for us to start working the songs and bringing them to new audiences”.

She adds: “I’m pleased that he’s happy and healthy and got his life back on track and we’re here to clean up some business dealing that took advantage of him back in the day. First order of business on the publishing and recording side is to do a worldwide sweep of the monies due to him, to tidy up copyright registrations worldwide, and get his share of monies rolling in to him immediately. We’re going to team up with the label, Universal, to pitch all the music supervisors and ad companies. We want them all to know that Shaun Ryder and Black Grape are very much open for business”.

As well as pushing Black Grape’s music for sync in 2015, Ryder will be touring with The Happy Monday’s to mark the 25th anniversary of their ‘Pills, Thrills And Bellyaches’ album, and working on a number of TV projects, including the second series of ‘Shaun Ryder On UFOs’ for The History Channel.

Ged Doherty named new BPI Chairman

Business News Industry People Labels & Publishers

The BPI has announced former Sony Music UK CEO Ged Doherty as the replacement for Tony Wadsworth as its Chairman.

There was a time when BPI chairs were generally jobbing label execs, but Wadsworth set a new precedent when he left EMI while remaining in his role at the label trade group. Seemingly it worked and a precedent has now been set that chairs should be semi-retired ex-execs with nothing else better to do. I’m joking, of course. You guys are super great.

And anyway, Doherty’s had loads on, actually. After leaving Sony Music in 2011, he founded film company Raindog Films with Colin Firth, became chairman of ‘interactive music games company’ (no idea) FOAM, and is a partner and shareholder at artist management firm Major Influence.

That latter role – ie having some insight into artist management – is a definite plus for someone inputting into the record company community, given the changing label/artist/management relationship that’s going on all over the place. And if the BPI ever needs an interactive music game, it’ll be sorted.

Announcing his new position at the BPI, Doherty said: “I started out in music when I was sixteen years old playing in bands in Manchester, a lot has happened since then and I hope some of what I’ve learnt along the way may be of some use in this role. I am honoured and humbled to be following on from Tony, who has been an incredible figurehead for the BPI. I am very much looking forward to working with Geoff [Taylor] and his team, Mike [Batt] and the BPI Council, and, of course, all the BPI members”.

And I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking that quote was nice and all, but it was a bit too short. Well, lucky for you, here’s Tony Wadsworth, with his final quote for the BPI, which he’s made the most of, so you should too: “It’s a pleasure to congratulate Ged Doherty on taking over the BPI chair in the new year. I know Ged has all the attributes to do this job well, and I hope he enjoys his time as Chairman as much as I have”.

He continues: “I feel immensely privileged to have had the opportunity of chairing the organisation for the past seven years, and hope that my passionate belief in music, the industry and the value of record labels has helped to make a contribution to the future of our music business”.

And continues: “Thanks to everyone I have worked with over the years at the BPI – colleagues, Council members and to the many people in the industry who serve on the various committees and working parties. Special thanks go to my Deputy Chairman, Mike Batt and CEO Geoff Taylor – we have developed a close-knit and productive relationship and I have learnt a lot from both of them”.

And continues: “I am not retiring, just recalibrating… and will continue to be involved in a variety of areas of our industry for as long as they will have me!”

Had enough? Of course not. Here’s BPI CEO Geoff Taylor, who says: “Tony is a very hard act to follow and he leaves with our profound thanks and best wishes, but I am delighted that in Ged we have one of the few heavyweight executives who could take on this important role”.

And says: “Like Tony, Ged has an outstanding track record working with labels and artists. His breadth of experience and knowledge will help us build on the strong legacy Tony leaves behind as our sector continues to transition successfully to new formats”.

And says: “I know that everyone at the BPI and on the Council will want to join me in welcoming Ged and to wish him well as our new Chairman – we are all looking forward to working with him”.

Oh, and here’s Deputy Chairman Mike Batt: “I have worked alongside Tony as his Deputy Chairman for seven years, and in that time have come to respect enormously his particular blend of bonhomie and seriousness of purpose. We’ve been a good team, I think, with Geoff driving it all along. I’m delighted that Ged has joined as our new Chairman. I have the highest regard for him both personally and professionally, and I look forward to working together with him”.

Well, that’s all nice. But what is the consensus of the BPI Council? Well, here’s BPI Council member Korda Marshall: “Tony has been a wonderful Chairman for the BPI, and I am sure my fellow Council members will want to join me in thanking him for his dedication and for the guidance and support he has given us at a time of great transformation in our industry. We are delighted to welcome Ged to the helm as we continue our journey into an exciting new streaming-led era, with all the possibilities this offers”.

I’ll tell you what I’d really like to know though. I’d really like to know what Calvin Harris’s manager Mark Gillespie thinks of all this. Mark? “We worked incredibly closely with Ged when he ran Sony Music. His love of music and understanding of artists always sat at the core of our relationship together, something that will be a huge benefit to the BPI in his new role”.

Thanks Mark. But Calvin Harris is hardly Sony’s biggest artist, is he? We should really have got someone who works with One Direction to comment. And oh look, there’s 1D’s manager, Richard Griffiths. OK, Rich, you can say something, but make it quick: “Ged is the perfect person to take over from Tony as his knowledge of how the business works and his relationships all across the spectrum of music will be invaluable to the BPI”.

Great, thanks guys. Although you were all talking so long, I think we might have missed Christmas.

Soho’s 12 Bar Club to close current site in 2015

Business News Live Business

The 12 Bar Club, a rock shows-hosting rock bar (and club) in Soho, London, is closing down in mid-January on the order of its landlords. It’s not all bad though, as 12 Bar Club HQ have confirmed plans to move to another site in the new year.

A statement on the venue’s Facebook reads: “We are very sad to announce that The 12 Bar Club has been given notice to vacate Denmark Street by the middle of January. The 12 Bar Club will live on, and we will announce details of our new location shortly”.

This follows the previously reported closure of another Soho-based nightspot, cabaret and indie club Madame Jojo’s, after a “serious incident of disorder”.

Sinead O’Connor now managed by Simon Napier-Bell

Artist News Management & Funding

Sinead O’Connor has hired herself a new manager in one-time Wham! warden Simon Napier-Bell of Snap-B Music, and has a deal already in place to release a memoir.

As previously reported, O’Connor became managerless last month after parting ways with her old one for mostly personal reasons (aka they were having an affair), placing a ‘manager wanted’ ad of sorts on her blog.

Napier-Bell says that, on reading the post, he and his Snap-B partner Bjorn de Water took a plane straight to Dublin to talk with Sinead (not for a holiday or anything), telling Billboard: “We saw that piece which Sinead put on her website, and I said that’s really just the right person for us. The whole thing took four days. Everybody clicked and we’re very happy about it”.

He adds that he will give O’Connor free rein to say and do whatever she likes (which personally, I bet she’d do anyway), saying: “I don’t do muzzling. Muzzling’s the death of an artist, for Christ’s sake. What other artist was ever muzzled and ever produced anything any good? She’s a mature mother of four children. She herself has worked constantly on making herself a more controlled and disciplined artist. She absolutely must not change her involvement with social objectives and politics, and her songs should always reflect that – otherwise you don’t have Sinead O’Connor”.

Fair. Napier-Bell adds that O’Connor also wants to write songs for other artists, and will mainly be concentrating on writing her book in the near future, having apparently got a publishing advance from Penguin in the US. And then he says that she reminds him a bit of George Michael. Anyway read the whole interview here.

Q&A: Marisol Segal, OpenAura

Business Interviews Digital

This interview from the recent M For Montreal conference appeared in the December 2014 edition of the CMU Trends Report. Buy our reports from the CMU Shop or get every edition by signing up for CMU Premium.

Beyond the licensing squabbles, and the question as to whether or not YouTube really can turn its massive freemium audience into music subscribers, the other thing the video site’s new music set-up will do is make the streaming experience more visual. Something its sister service Google Play has been slowly evolving for sometime. And even if YouTube Music Key flunks, that’s a trend that is likely to be seen across the market.

“Look at social media, where best practice says always include an image, not just text and a link”, says OpenAura’s VP Industry Relations & Marketing Marisol Segal, whose previous roles have involved both sides of the digital music industry, having worked at both distributor IODA and digital service provider Rdio. “Look at the trends in advertising and social media and how important the visual content is. That is your indicator of how we can enhance the playback experience in the streaming music domain”.

The streaming music market is yet to fully embrace the visual side of the music experience, Segal reckons. “Listening online hasn’t evolved much. You get pack shots, and a static artist page, usually with one photo and a biog. I mean, who reads a biog on the artist page of their streaming service? But all the DSPs think they need it, mainly because its one of the few things they have easy access to”.

But it’s in everyone’s interest for streaming services to become more visual, Segal says. “Mainstream consumers are clearly engaged by visuals, we know that. And the DSPs need your attention on screen too, and need to find ways of encouraging that. And artists as well, artists need to be able to market themselves better via streaming platforms”.

She goes on: “Artists can promote themselves on social media, but increasingly they’ll be lucky to reach more than 10% of their audience without paying. They have their website at the top of the tree, but only a slice of fanbase will get that far. In the middle you have millions and millions of fans connecting to artists via streaming platforms, but the artists have no way of interacting with those fans, or pushing information to them, and trying to turn passive fans into active fans. It’s crazy that these services are giving fans a little bit of what they want, and then forcing them to go off elsewhere the find everything else”.

Of course, various DSPs have dabbled with offering artists the ability to tweak their profiles, or add buttons linking through to their merch stores. But, says Segal, “the challenge for the DSPs is that they need scalability. So they might be able to offer a little functionality direct, and for the most important artists and labels they can do something bespoke, but really they need one content source that can offer scale”.

Which is the thing that OpenAura – the new business from IODA founder Kevin Arnold which launched earlier this year – is hoping to provide. “Streaming services need better artist information and visual content, and artists need to be able to control that, and that is why OpenAura was launched. Essentially we are building a giant artist meta-data and visual content toolkit, which we think complements existing meta-data and recommendation engines, but which enables DSPs with this need to offer more of the artist experience”.

“We look at ourselves as first-to-market providing DSPs – who will be our clients – with artist identity resources. We are sourcing content from numerous places, Getty, Associated Press, professional photographers, labels, and artists direct. Anyone can contribute content, but artists control what goes out. 50% of revenue is shared back with the content owners, so we are creating a new revenue stream for the people creating this visual output”.

One of the challenges for DSPs in getting this kind of content direct is that visuals are created and controlled by multiple stakeholders – labels, artists, management, promoters, media – many of which a digital service doesn’t have direct contact with. OpenAura hopes to crack this problem. “We have artist tools”, Segal goes on, “allowing artists and their teams to manage content, contribute their own images, update their information, make sure their own photographers are in the system”.

But how does an artist get this control? “We have nearly a million artists in our database. These have been curated not just by scraping the entire internet, but by focusing on official artist profiles. We say each of these artists has an ‘aura’, and whoever is in control of an artist’s official Twitter or Facebook account can claim control of that aura. It’s a great way to authenticate”.

But even once the dots have been joined, do artists have enough visuals to satisfy the appetite of a picture-hungry consumer base? “I hear this a fair bit from digital marketing teams, they don’t have enough images to work with for social media. But on the flipside, the artist on Twitter and Instagram is often constantly creating and posting images. The music industry is being more visual than ever, we just need the hub to bring it altogether”.

From vinyl to CD to the tiny pack shots in the original iTunes, it seems like the music industry’s official imagery has been getting smaller and smaller over the decades, yet via other digital channels artists are – as Segal says – becoming more visual than ever before. So it seems certain that visual elements will be enhanced in the streaming domain in the near future, and it will be interesting to see the role OpenAura plays in that process.

This report from the recent M For Montreal conference appeared in the December 2014 edition of the CMU Trends Report. Buy our reports from the CMU Shop or get every edition by signing up for CMU Premium.

BBC Music Awards presented

Artist News Awards Media

At my local tube station there’s a poster board that hasn’t been replenished with a new piece of promotional print for quite some time, and a very old, slightly torn Transport For London poster from the past is peaking through (so old, in fact, I don’t think TFL actually existed when it was made).

On it we are told that a double decker bus could lean over more than you could without ever tipping over. Which is actually quite a long way. You try leaning to your left right now and see how far you go before you topple over and hit your head hard on the cold tiled floor. See, that’s reassuring isn’t it?

Because I’ve often wondered whenever a double decker whizzes down one of the London’s less congested highways, perhaps over a particularly high flyover with some unnecessarily excessive camber, do these things ever fall over? And if so, would we all survive such an incident? Me, all my fellow passengers, my driver, and my laptop, which has got my articles on it for the next day’s CMU Daily which I’m not 100% sure synced with my Dropbox before I departed the office and ran for this bus.

But now I’m reassured. Because you leaned over really far just now before toppling onto the floor and getting that head injury. And even the most shaky of buses I’ve been on has never leaned that far. So, I’m thinking me, my fellow passengers, my driver and my laptop are all fine. Phew.

So, well done TFL for some fine communication there, reassuring me about my chances of bus death. Well, except, as I say, I think that poster pre-dates TFL. But well done TFL for failing to put up a new poster in that poster board so that I saw the old educational sheet instead.

Though while we’re talking about communications Mr Tube Man, here’s a thing. A few weeks ago the Central Line was down. I suspected this because as I walked towards my nearest Central Line station in rush hour far too many people were walking in the other direction. So I checked your nifty app to see if I should make alternative plans and deviate to another station. But see, your app said the problems were down the line and all was fine for my personal journey.

Except when getting to said station it turned out the whole line was, in fact, not currently running. Like, not working at all. So I walked up to one of those station attendant blokes charged with that task of turning tetchy commuters away and mused “but why does your app – and, actually, this big digital sign you’re standing right next to – tell me this bit of the line is working; because if your app had it right, people like me would never have made it this far, and you wouldn’t have to bother turning us away”.

“But my job is to provide information to people at this station, and I’m telling you the whole line is down and the app is wrong”, he replied. Very politely, I should add.

“But you don’t understand”, said I, trying my best to match his polite manner. “If you could call the people who control this app, and that there sign, and get them to publish the right information about the current status of the Central Line, it would help you, because there would be fewer people to deal with right here”.

“But that’s not my job” he repeated. “I’m here to inform passengers at the station”.

And I’m sure he’s right, though that seems like a very poor job description to me. As I told the TFL complaints team later that day.

“We’re sorry you were delayed”, they said.

“Don’t worry about the delay”, I replied. “These things happen, but why can’t you have station staff – who will always have the most accurate information – input said insight into your app?”

“We’ll pass on your feedback”, they said. I bet they didn’t.

Anyway, it was the first ever BBC Music Awards last night, an event EVEN MORE POINTLESS THAN THIS ARTICLE. The same old artists sang the same old songs as the same old deejays delivered the same old platitudes, while Pharrell Williams and Ed Sheeran won yet more awards, only this time at your expense. Oh, and defending the BBC from the licence-fee-chopping Tories got a little bit harder. So well done everybody.

Coming soon to the BBC: Six more specialist music programmes are axed to fund an exciting new show, the Cellnet Music Prize, artists from an eclectic mix of genres compete to be named the best album of the year.

Melvin Benn confirmed for lifetime prize at European Festival Awards

Awards Business News Live Business

Live music veteran Melvin Benn, MD of Reading/Leeds/Latitude/Berlin Festival/Electric Picnic promoter Festival Republic no less, has a Lifetime Achievement Award coming his way at January’s European Festival Awards. Good for him.

Considering the prize, Benn – only the second Briton (behind his one-time Glastonbury colleague Michael Eavis) to receive it – says: “I’m very flattered and honoured to receive this prestigious award and join an incredible line-up of previous winners. I work with the best in the business and couldn’t do what I do without a really strong team around me; my thanks go to all those individuals past and present who’ve helped to make our events what they are. I’m hugely passionate about our industry and every day continues to excite me as we push the boundaries of the festival experience and create lifelong memories for music fans and audiences”.

Meanwhile Festival Awards director Steve Jenner gets in early with his big-ups, saying: “Melvin Benn’s signature has, for a long time, been engraved deeper than any other’s into the shape and character of the UK’s major festival market. This takes the form of a unique and unequalled blend of operational pre-eminence and heartfelt passion for his events and audiences, one which continues to set new standards in production, safety and sustainability that extend tangibly well beyond his own events. It’s a great testament to Melvin that his commitment and contributions are now being recognised at a Continental level, and it is an honour for us to be the ones presenting this award”.

CMU’s One Liners: Little Mix, The Dø, Young Fathers and oodles more

Artist News Awards Gigs & Festivals One Liners Releases

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Electronica’s own Dan Deacon is to release a new LP, the apparently “simpler” ‘Glass Riffer’, on 23 Feb 2015. Go and look at the video for its lead single ‘Feel The Lightning’, which features Deacon pretending to be a girl, here, and click here to get tickets to his only forthcoming British show, at London’s Islington Assembly Hall on 16 Feb.

• Cinematic pop artiste Kissey has released a new single, and its title is ‘Melting Pot’. Stream the video for the track, which features on the score to Sundance-winning film ‘Dear White People’, at this link.

• Little Mix’s Jade and Leigh-Anne have remade Beyonce’s ‘one long selfie’ of a ‘7/11’ video in a distinctively lo-fi style. From the looks of it, alcohol was involved. Contrast the Yonce original with the Little (re)Mix one by clicking the appropriate links.

• Marina And The Diamonds has siphoned off a sad, slow jam from her new LP ‘Froot’, this following CMU approved first single ‘Froot’. And isn’t this ironic, the sad song’s name is ‘Happy’. Ha ha / boo hoo. Stream it via Popjustice.

• French-and-Finnish pop team The Dø (pictured) have signalled the slow approach of a newly-confirmed show they’re playing at London’s Koko (19 Mar 2015), by releasing a track in the shape of ‘Sparks’. All of which backs the release of the pair’s latest LP ‘Shake Shook Shaken’ on 26 Jan.

• Makers-of-discomforting-R&B-that-sounds-a-lot-like-The-xx 18+ are so hot right now, what with the recent-ish release of their first LP ‘Trust’ and all that, and so will be heading off to London to play a show at Corsica Studios on 28 Jan 2015. Thereafter they shall see the sights ‘on the continent’. In the meantime download the pair’s track ‘Rebirth’ for free, just because, here.

• This year’s Mercury Prize winners Young Fathers have disclosed the dates of a nineteen stop UK tour they’re taking in 2015. The first show is on 13 Mar at Skelmersdale Library, and the last is on 7 Jun at Liverpool’s Kazimier. Find which shoes go where in between here.

• Big-in-Norway (and in this CMU approved article) singer Emilie Nicholas has forewarned fans of a show she’s headlining at London’s St Pancras Old Church on 28 Jan, so everyone take notice because you won’t want to miss it. Tickets are on sale right now.

• Shia Le Bouf’s girlfriend Mia Goth’s fave band, aka American synth-pop types Sylvan Esso, have, like everyone else in the world, confirmed only one UK show in… guess which city. Yes, it’s London. On 26 Feb, at the Scala. To the ticket shop!

• Lana Del Rey, Sia, Lorde and some not-as-important other ‘leading artists’ have been nominated for the ‘Best Original Song’ awards at the 2015 Golden Globes. Also, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ ‘Gone Girl’ compositions are up for the ‘Best Original Score’ globe against… find who via this link.

Tuesday 16 December 2014, 10:56 | By Andy Malt

Sony/ATV has extended its worldwide publishing deal with Greg Kurstin. The songwriter/producer has already had a relationship with the company for over a decade, so why bother changing now?

READ MORE ABOUT: Greg Kurstin | Sony Music Publishing

Tuesday 16 December 2014, 10:55 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: Beatport | SFX Entertainment

Tuesday 16 December 2014, 10:53 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: Audiam

Tuesday 16 December 2014, 10:52 | By Aly Barchi

BBC Radio 1Xtra’s Clara Amfo is to replace Jameela Jamil as presenter of Radio 1’s ‘Official Chart Show’.

READ MORE ABOUT: BBC Radio 1 | Clara Amfo | Jameela Jamil

Tuesday 16 December 2014, 10:51 | By Aly Barchi

BBC Radio 4 is facing close examination from media regulator OfCom over a so-called “puff piece”, aired on the station’s ‘Today’ programme last month, reporting on the creation of Marley Natural, the previously reported Bob Marley-branded ‘global cannabis line’.

READ MORE ABOUT: BBC Radio 4 | OfCom

Tuesday 16 December 2014, 10:50 | By Aly Barchi

The bassist in American band Diiv, one Devin Ruben Perez, is facing widespread disdain (not least from the rest of Diiv) over a series of “toxic” comments he made via online community 4chan.

READ MORE ABOUT: Devin Ruben Perez | DIIV | Zachary Cole Smith

Tuesday 16 December 2014, 10:49 | By Andy Malt

Other notable announcements and developments today…

READ MORE ABOUT: ASCAP | BRIT Awards | Britney Spears | Fat White Family | Iggy Azalea | Jhene Aiko | John LoFrumento | Major Lazer | Modest Mouse | Panda Bear | Pitbull | September Girls | Tanya Tagaq | Taylor Swift | Tom Odell

Tuesday 16 December 2014, 10:48 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: NME | Norwich Arts Centre | The Maccabees

Monday 15 December 2014, 12:04 | By Andy Malt

Every weekday in the run up to the Christmas break, we’ll be revealing another of our ten favourite artists of the year. See the full list of artists announced so far here. Next up is Matt Farley…

READ MORE ABOUT: CMU Artists Of The Year 2014 | Matt Farley | Motern Media

Monday 15 December 2014, 12:03 | By Chris Cooke

So this is novel. A one-time piracy website has been officially un-web-blocked in the UK after relaunching itself as a licensed video aggregator.

READ MORE ABOUT: British Phonographic Industry (BPI) | FilesTube

Monday 15 December 2014, 12:02 | By Chris Cooke

Selena Gomez has signed with Universal’s US-based Interscope Records, and if you don’t believe me, you really ought to go and check out her Instagram account and then think of a really good excuse for ever doubting me.

READ MORE ABOUT: Interscope | Selena Gomez

Monday 15 December 2014, 12:01 | By Chris Cooke

The owners of independent music publisher Imagem have announced that they are no longer considering a sale of part or all of the business.

READ MORE ABOUT: Imagem

Monday 15 December 2014, 12:00 | By Andy Malt

Warner Music Group’s income from streaming grew by $215 million in the year up to 30 Sep, it was revealed last week. This is up from $86 million the previous year. Most of the increase – $200 million – came through the company’s recorded music division.

READ MORE ABOUT: Warner Music

Monday 15 December 2014, 11:59 | By Aly Barchi

READ MORE ABOUT: Linkin Park | The Collective

Monday 15 December 2014, 11:57 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: Fred McIntyre | Mixcloud | Richard Cohen

Monday 15 December 2014, 11:56 | By Aly Barchi

READ MORE ABOUT: Eli Roth | Lana Del Rey | Marilyn Manson

Monday 15 December 2014, 11:55 | By Andy Malt

REM will never get back together, OK? Stop asking. What do you mean you weren’t asking? Yes you were. Maybe you just forgot. Michael Stipe was on the TV telling everyone how his ex-band are not going reunite just last week.

READ MORE ABOUT: REM

Monday 15 December 2014, 11:54 | By Andy Malt

If you thought we were going to make it to the end of the year without someone announcing that guitar music is not dead for the 7352nd time, you were sadly mistaken. Because Catfish And The Bottlemen frontman Van McCann has gone and done it.

READ MORE ABOUT: Catfish And The Bottlemen | Van McCann

Monday 15 December 2014, 11:53 | By Chris Cooke

Universal Music is running out of time if it wants to reboot the copyright in any unreleased Beatles recordings from 1964.

READ MORE ABOUT: The Beatles | Universal Music

Monday 15 December 2014, 11:52 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: Ed Sheeran

Friday 12 December 2014, 11:38 | By Aly Barchi

Every weekday in the run up to the Christmas break, we’ll be revealing another of our ten favourite artists of the year. See the full list of artists announced so far here. Next up is PC Music…

READ MORE ABOUT: AG Cook | CMU Artists Of The Year 2014 | Danny L Harle | Dux Content | GFOTY | Hannah Diamond | PC Music | QT | Sophie

Friday 12 December 2014, 11:37 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)

Friday 12 December 2014, 11:36 | By Andy Malt

Shaun Ryder has signed a new worldwide publishing deal with Brooklyn-based 401K Music, covering songs he wrote as part of Black Grape.

READ MORE ABOUT: 401K Music | Black Grape | Shaun Ryder

Friday 12 December 2014, 11:35 | By Andy Malt

The BPI has announced former Sony Music UK CEO Ged Doherty as the replacement for Tony Wadsworth as its Chairman.

READ MORE ABOUT: British Phonographic Industry (BPI) | Ged Doherty

Friday 12 December 2014, 11:34 | By Aly Barchi

The 12 Bar Club, a rock shows-hosting rock bar (and club) in Soho, London, is closing down in mid-January on the order of its landlords. It’s not all bad though, as 12 Bar Club HQ have confirmed plans to move to another site in the new year.

READ MORE ABOUT: 12 Bar Club

Friday 12 December 2014, 11:33 | By Aly Barchi

Sinead O’Connor has hired herself a new manager in one-time Wham! warden Simon Napier-Bell of Snap-B Music, and has a deal already in place to release a memoir.

READ MORE ABOUT: Simon Napier-Bell | Sinead O'Connor

Friday 12 December 2014, 11:32 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: Marisol Segal | OpenAura

Friday 12 December 2014, 11:31 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: BBC Music Awards

Friday 12 December 2014, 11:29 | By Aly Barchi

Live music veteran Melvin Benn, MD of Reading/Leeds/Latitude/Berlin Festival/Electric Picnic promoter Festival Republic no less, has a Lifetime Achievement Award coming his way at January’s European Festival Awards. Good for him.

READ MORE ABOUT: European Festival Awards | Festival Republic | Melvin Benn

Friday 12 December 2014, 11:27 | By Aly Barchi

Other notable announcements and developments today…