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Monday 26 October 2015, 11:56 | By Andy Malt
Mitch Winehouse to begin work on new Amy film “fairly shortly”
Artist News
Mitch Winehouse has said that plans are now in place to begin work on his own documentary about his daughter Amy.
As previously reported, Mitch Winehouse was not happy with ‘Amy’, the Universal Music-backed Amy Winehouse documentary directed by Asif Kapadia that was released earlier this year. He had a particular problem with how he himself was portrayed, and also that the singer’s ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil was allowed to appear. Initially he vowed to take legal action, though never followed through with that threat.
Speaking about the new film, he told Bang Showbiz: “We hope to start work fairly shortly on it. But it’s going to be more than just a film. All of the people who weren’t in the [‘Amy’] film are hopping mad. They want their voices to be heard. We don’t want to be like Asif, we’ll let people say what they want, but we don’t want it to be negative”.
He denied that his film would be a “revenge attack” on Kapadia, saying: “We are looking to do something positive. There are so many great things in Amy’s life that were missed in that film. It was a great opportunity that Asif Kapadia had and he didn’t grab it. Let’s hear something new about Amy”.
In related news, ‘Amy’ is due to be released on DVD and Blu-ray on 2 Nov, with the soundtrack album out this Friday.
READ MORE ABOUT: Amy Winehouse | Mitch Winehouse
Monday 26 October 2015, 11:53 | By Andy Malt
David Bowie to release new album in January
Artist News Releases
Eschewing all that secrecy nonsense, David Bowie has just come out and announced his next album. Titled ‘Blackstar’, it will be his 25th studio LP and will be released on 8 Jan next year, the musician’s 69th birthday.
Various pieces of information about the content of the album were ‘revealed’ by The Times on Saturday, the newspaper reporting that the record was “completely bonkers” and that the title track and lead single is ten minutes long, featuring “Gregorian chants, a soul section, various electronic beats and bleeps, and Bowie’s distinctive vocal”.
A statement on Bowie’s website yesterday confirmed that both the album and first single are called ‘Blackstar’. However, it was noted that there had been “inaccurate reporting on the sound and content of the album”. But we won’t have to wait too long to find out who’s telling the truth, as ‘Blackstar’ the single will be released on 20 Nov.
The album release will come two years, almost to the day, after Bowie made the surprise announcement of his last album, ‘The Next Day’.
READ MORE ABOUT: David Bowie
Monday 26 October 2015, 11:51 | By Andy Malt
Video footage of Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams’ Blurred Lines depositions appears online
And Finally Artist News Labels & Publishers Legal
Video footage of the at least partly amusing depositions given by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams in the early part of the big ‘Blurred Lines’ plagiarism case have been published by The Hollywood Reporter.
As previously reported, Thicke and Willams, along with their business partners and rapper TI, were sued by the family of Marvin Gaye, who claimed – successfully – that ‘Blurred Lines’ ripped off Gaye’s song ‘Got To Give It Up’. And, pending appeal, that scored them $7.3 million in damages.
Various classic quotes from the depositions were made public last year, such as Thicke admitting that he was “high on vicodin and alcohol when I showed up at the studio” and therefore hadn’t been in any state to contribute much to ‘Blurred Lines’, while Williams said of Gaye: “He’s an Aries. I respect him”.
The videos obtained by THR show Williams getting shirty about whether or not he can read music – he was “not comfortable” with naming notes at that particular moment – and Thicke admitting that he does not consider himself an honest person. Which is a paradoxically honest answer. Or is it?
Watch footage from Williams’ deposition here and Thicke’s deposition here.
READ MORE ABOUT: Marvin Gaye | Pharrell Williams | Robin Thicke
Friday 23 October 2015, 11:27 | By Paul Vig
Vigsy’s Club Tip: Squarepusher at The Troxy
Club Tip CMU Approved
This looks good. Very good. Yes, the Soundcrash team have come up with the goods once again. This Saturday they have Squarepusher playing two sets at The Troxy, surrounded by a drum n bass history lesson provided by the Metalheadz crew, and there’s a live set from 808 State.
For his first set, Squarepusher will appear with his Shobaleader One band. They’ll perform the world premiere of a new set of reinterpretations of some of his solo tracks from 1995 to 1999. Then at midnight he’ll return solo to perform his fourteenth and most recent album, ‘Damogen Furies’, in full.
Across the night there will also be sets from Metalheadz DJs Ant TC1, Source Direct and Jubei, who between them will explore Headz-related tunes from the label’s early years to the present day. And again, I say, you get 808 State live. My giddy aunt. What a line-up.
Saturday 24 Oct, The Troxy, 490 Commercial Road, London, E1 0HX, 8pm – 2am, £22.50. More info here.
READ MORE ABOUT: 808 State | Metalheadz | Squarepusher
Friday 23 October 2015, 11:25 | By Chris Cooke
Pandora confirms settlement with majors over pre-1972 recordings
Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal Top Stories
Pandora has confirmed that it has reached a settlement with the major labels over its use of pre-1972 sound recordings. The streaming platform follows the lead of US satellite radio service Sirius which, back in June, agreed to pay $210 million to the three majors – Universal, Sony and Warner – and ABKCO Music, which is best known for controlling the early Rolling Stones catalogue.
This relates to ambiguities in US copyright law over whether or not satellite and digital services are obliged to pay royalties to record labels when they play tracks that pre-date 1972. Federal copyright law says royalties are due from such services, but those rules only cover catalogue back to 1972, with earlier recordings protected by state laws.
The older state-level copyright laws say nothing specific about services like Sirius and Pandora so – given that AM/FM radio stations have never paid any royalties to labels – some satellite and digital services decided they had no obligations either. But key court cases last year suggested otherwise.
As expected, Pandora will pay the majors $90 million for past and future usage of pre-1972 repertoire, in a deal that runs to the end of 2016. The settlement – as with the Sirius deal – poses the question as to what the labels intend to do with the money. Pandora and Sirius usually license recordings through the SoundExchange collective licensing system, where income is automatically split 50/50 between labels and artists, with session musicians also getting a cut of the latter share.
Technically speaking, if monies circumvent the SoundExchange system, the statutory obligation to automatically give artists half the cash no longer applies. But Billboard’s sources at the majors indicate that they are intending to pass half the settlement money onto artists, possibly using SoundExchange to administer that process.
Certainly a statement from SoundExchange chief Michael Huppe implied that artists as well as labels would benefit from the settlement. He told reporters yesterday: “We are pleased that Pandora has agreed to pay these legacy artists, giving them the compensation and respect they have earned. It is a great day when performers are paid for their work as all artists should be paid fairly, every time their music is used, across all platforms. This is a good start, which we hope encourages all services – including Pandora – to pay for all pre-72 recordings across all of their programming”.
Meanwhile Recording Industry Association Of America CEO Cary Sherman said: “Major settlements with SiriusXM and now Pandora means that an iconic generation of artists and the labels that supported them will be paid for the use of their creative works”.
Confirmation of the settlement came as Pandora issued its latest financial report, which showed decent revenue gains, and losses more or less in line with expectations, though the firm’s share price still slipped 20% in after hours trading, with investors seemingly concerned about a slowdown in audience growth, possibly as a result of increased competition in the streaming music market.
Pandora is also facing continued battles in its bid to reduce its royalty commitments to the music industry. A review of the rates it pays the labels via SoundExchange is still going through the motions, while earlier this week the digital firm filed an appeal to the rate court that in May increased its royalty obligations to one of the performing rights organisations on the songs side, BMI.
The appeal argues that the rate court judge was wrong to take into account the royalties agreed in the ultimately unfulfilled direct deals that were negotiated between Pandora and the major music publishers at a time when the former thought the latter were going to pull their digital rights from the PROs (an eventuality that the courts subsequently blocked). Pandora also says that the judge in the BMI case should have considered a ruling on the rates it pays the other main US PRO, ASCAP.
For its part, BMI said in response to the appeal: “We think [the judge] got it right in his decision, and we look forward to presenting our arguments once again in our reply brief. We are confident the Court Of Appeals will affirm the decision”.
READ MORE ABOUT: Pandora | Sony Music | Universal Music | Warner Music
Friday 23 October 2015, 11:21 | By Chris Cooke
CBS hits back in pre-1972 case against AM/FM radio
Business News Legal Media
More pre-1972 good times now, and US radio firm CBS has come up with some arguments against a legal claim that it should also be paying royalties to labels whenever it plays golden oldie recordings on its AM and FM channels.
Under federal law Stateside, conventional radio stations do not have to pay the labels any royalties, on the basis that airplay is free promotion. This puts the US out of sync with most other countries, where radio stations pay royalties to both record companies and music publishers. It was always assumed that the same rule applied to earlier sound recordings even though they were protected by state-level rather than federal copyright law.
The landmark ruling in the pre-1972 lawsuits against Sirius, which said that – even though state laws make no specific reference to satellite or online radio – it still had to pay royalties to the labels on that older catalogue, suggested that all broadcasters have, in theory, always had that obligation too. Even though no AM/FM stations have ever paid.
A company called ABS Entertainment, which owns old recordings by Al Green, amongst others, decided to test this precedent by suing radio giants CBS Radio, iHeartMedia and Cumulus for royalties last month. And earlier this week the first of the defendants filed a motion attempting to have that lawsuit thrown out.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the filing disputes that a general ‘performing right’ exists as part of the sound recording copyright at state level in California – where the landmark ruling in the Sirius case occurred – while arguing that the fact the labels have never gone after royalties on pre-1972 tracks before, instead lobbying Congress for a general performing right to be added at a federal level, proves that the record industry accepted this interpretation of the law. Though a New York judge considering another Sirius case said previous failure on the record industry’s part to enforce this right didn’t mean the right could not exist in state law.
Just in case none of that works, CBS then introduces a novel argument: that it only plays re-released, re-mastered versions of pre-1972 sound recordings. A new copyright was created in the remastering and that occurred well after 1972, it argues. “In fact, every song CBS has played in the last four years has been a post-1972 digital sound recording that has been re-issued or re-mastered”, says the filing.
Whether that wiggle will work in court remains to be seen.
READ MORE ABOUT: ABS Entertainment | CBS | SiriusXM
Friday 23 October 2015, 11:16 | By Chris Cooke
Both sides request rethink in latest dancing baby judgement
Business News Digital Legal
Both sides in the so called ‘dancing baby case’ have issued motions seeking a rethink of a recent ruling in the long-running legal battle.
This is the famous case where a woman called Stephanie Lenz posted a video of her child dancing to a Prince track onto YouTube, which Universal Music Publishing then had taken down on copyright grounds using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s takedown provisions. Lenz argued that the video was ‘fair use’ under US law, and then – with support from the Electronic Frontier Foundation – sued Universal for abuse of the DMCA.
This all happened in 2007, but the legal action is ongoing. As previously reported, last month the Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals ruled that rights owners must indeed consider fair use rules before issuing a takedown notice, but it then said that that consideration need not be too rigorous, and providing the label genuinely doesn’t think fair use applies, well, that’s alright then.
Which was sort of good news for Universal. Though the same court rejected the major’s argument that – whatever the rights and wrongs here – Lenz had to prove “actual monetary loss” in order to pursue damages for the incorrectly taken down video.
Both sides have now requested a rethink on these points. The Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in its filing that, under the Ninth Circuit ruling, “senders of false infringement notices could be excused so long as they subjectively believed that the material they targeted was infringing, no matter how unreasonable that belief”. This, the group argues, “rewards sloppiness and creates a perverse incentive for copyright owners to not learn about the law before sending a takedown”.
Meanwhile, in its filing Universal says that before going legal Lenz had “successfully used the ‘put-back’ procedure that Congress provided to address a takedown that a user believes is mistaken, and had done so without incurring any cost or injury”. Therefore, there isn’t a case to answer on the damages front, the major says.
It remains to be seen how the court now responds.
READ MORE ABOUT: Prince | Stephanie Lenz | Universal Music | Universal Music Publishing
Friday 23 October 2015, 11:14 | By Chris Cooke
SFX board considering multiple bids for the company’s assets
Business News Live Business
EDM festival promoter and Beatport owner SFX has confirmed that it received a number of bids for some or all of the company, and it is now considering those offers.
As previously reported, after SFX founder Robert FX Sillerman’s first attempt to take the publicly listed EDM powerhouse back into private ownership failed in August, the company’s independent directors invited bids for the firm or any of its key assets. As speculation about SFX’s finances grew, some started to talk about that process as a “fire sale”.
The extended deadline for offers expired last week. We already knew that Sillerman had made a new offer to buy all the shares he doesn’t currently control, but yesterday the special committee set up to consider the offers confirmed it had received other bids too.
It added in a statement: “The committee is not disclosing the terms contained in these preliminary indications of interest at this time [though] Mr Sillerman’s preliminary bid was publicly filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in an amendment to his Schedule 13D. The committee is evaluating the indications of interests and is in discussions with those parties concerning the next steps in the process. The committee expects to finalise the bidding process as expediently as possible”.
As previously reported, Sillerman is now offering his company’s other stockholders $3.25 a share, $2 down on his previous offer earlier this year, but still more than three times the current share price. It remains to be seen if his independent directors now approve that bid.
Meanwhile, in other SFX news, attempts to compensate ticket-buyers for problems that occurred at its US-based TomorrowWorld festival hit a snag this week, when an error was reportedly made in the refunds process. As previously reported, the TomorrowWorld event was a washout this year, with heavy rainfall resulting in traffic chaos, and a stripped back final day only open to those already on site at the event.
SFX pledged to refund those affected by the changes to the third day of the festival, with anyone who bought a three day ticket due to get a partial refund. Though, according to YourEDM, the live firm accidentally gave some of those due a third of their money back a full refund. Emails then went out explaining that those punters will now be charged for the two thirds of the ticket price they weren’t meant to get back.
Sillerman has insisted that insurance means the headaches at TommorrowWorld won’t damage his company financially, though he admitted that the problems were bad for the event’s reputation. And while the refund error also should sort itself out, it’s another slip up for a festival and company subject to more scrutiny than most at the moment.
READ MORE ABOUT: Robert Sillerman | SFX Entertainment
Friday 23 October 2015, 11:12 | By Chris Cooke
Vice planning a dozen TV channels in Europe
Business News Media
Vice is planning to launch a dozen TV channels across Europe, according to its boss man Shane Smith.
The Guardian quotes Smith as confirming that he is in talks with various broadcast firms in Europe about collaborating on the launch of a number of channels in the next twelve to eighteen months, adding: “There is a bit of a bidding war going on. In the UK there are potentially a number of partners. There are lots of deals on the table. It’s pretty fast and furious”.
Smith was chatting about his company’s European expansion plans ahead of a talk on that topic due to take place in London this evening. Negotiations with conventional broadcasters have been slow going, he added, partly because they are nervous about being part of a wider media mix.
He continued: “The problem is we want to include mobile, online and OTT [over the top]. But the old-school TV guard pays lip service to doing everything but they don’t like simultaneous windows [with other partners or on other platforms]. We are trying to navigate those waters”.
Once the deals are done – which might involve a Vice strand on an existing channel rather than a completely standalone entity – the programmes are already ready to go apparently, with Smith saying his company had “kind of secretly” been developing a large number of shows to populate its new channels.
READ MORE ABOUT: Vice
Friday 23 October 2015, 11:11 | By Andy Malt
Janet Jackson apologises for over zealous takedowns of live videos
Artist News Digital Legal
Janet Jackson has apologised that takedown notices submitted by her team against video clips of her live performances on Instagram have resulted in some fans’ accounts being deleted.
In a post on Twitter, she said: “I love and appreciate my fans. I want you to know that I enjoy watching the short video clips of how you are ‘Burning It Up’ at the ‘Unbreakable’ shows. Please keep posting them”.
The problem, she said, was with longer clips or full songs being made available online, continuing: “My team is passionate about protecting the intellectual property we are creating for the tour and possible future projects. It was never their intention, acting on my behalf, to have social media accounts removed. [But] permitting the use of long clips does present a contractual problem for these projects. I hope you understand. I trust the fans will use their short recordings for their own memories and to share on their social media networks of choice”.
Exactly how short is short enough she’s not clear on, though she added that she has “asked my team to change their approach and allow you to engage socially with these videos”.
In a statement issued to Billboard, Instagram said that some of the accounts deleted had been taken down in error: “When we receive a valid report of intellectual property infringement, we’re legally required to remove the reported content and to disable the accounts of repeat infringers. However, in this instance, we have identified a bug that resulted in the removal of accounts that shouldn’t have been removed. We have fixed the bug and are in the process of restoring the impacted accounts”.
So that all turned out alright then. Keep posting those pointless, poor quality, short clips that are of no interest to anyone, please.
READ MORE ABOUT: Janet Jackson
Friday 23 October 2015, 11:10 | By Andy Malt
Andrew Weatherall forced out of Shoreditch studio
Artist News
Producer Andrew Weatherall has been forced to leave his Scrutton Street Studios in Shoreditch as the gentrification of East London rages on.
He tells Ransom Note: “Grayson Perry in his Reith Lectures of 2013 described artists and musicians as the shock troops of gentrification. The first wave that sanitises the battlefield and prepares the ground for the officer classes. I’ve had a studio in Shoreditch for 20 years but I’ve just been given my marching orders due to what I’ve been told is ‘redevelopment’. My services are no longer required”.
“To be honest with you, other people seem to be getting annoyed on my behalf”, he continues. “Deep down I knew about seven or eight years ago that my time was most probably up: it was the Saturday afternoon I saw the stretch limo disgorge its hen party payload onto the Old Street pavement. But down in my bunker, denial was beginning to set in, and I felt increasingly like a jungle-dwelling Japanese soldier who refuses to believe the war is over”.
Although unwilling to say exactly where he’s now moved on to, he explained that it was “another battlefield wasteland – run down factories, giant broken extractor fans now the homes for oil slick pigeons”.
Have a look at the old studios, as they were, here. And if you find yourself getting angry that this space is now being all gentrified up by some tedious property twonk, apparently you’re meant to voice your protest by throwing a brick at someone eating Cornflakes.
READ MORE ABOUT: Andrew Weatherall
Friday 23 October 2015, 11:08 | By Andy Malt
Lana Del Rey discusses panic attacks
Artist News
Lana Del Rey has spoken about her struggle with panic attacks in an interview with Billboard.
Speaking to the magazine, she said: “It’s hard for me sometimes to think about going on when I know we’re going to die. Something happened in the last three years, with my panic [attacks]. It got worse. But I’ve always been prone to it. I remember being, I think, four years old and I’d just seen a show on TV where the person was killed. I turned to my parents and said, ‘Are we all going to die?’ They said, ‘Yes’ and I was totally distraught! I broke down in tears and said, ‘We have to move!'”
“I saw a therapist [about it] three times”, she went on. “But I’m really most comfortable sitting in that chair in the studio, writing or singing. I don’t [think they’ll last forever], but sometimes you just want to be able to enjoy the view”.
READ MORE ABOUT: Lana Del Rey
Friday 23 October 2015, 11:05 | By Andy Malt
Adele is releasing an album and has made one song from it available to the public
Artist News Releases
Adele is back. Has anyone mentioned this? Well, let me be the first to break the news to you then. Adele is releasing a brand new album called ’25’ on 20 Nov.
When will you be able to hear the first single though? Oh God when? Calm yourself, it is available right now. It is called ‘Hello’ and the video is up on that YouTube thing. I’ll warn you though, there’s lots of talking in the background on the video, which is super fucking annoying.
Honestly, if I were you I’d just get on iTunes or Spotify or something and listen to it that way. Or switch on the radio and wait for it to be played there. But if you really want to see Adele’s face moving and stuff, here is the barely listenable video:
And here’s a list of all the names of the songs on ’25’. Spend the rest of the day imagining what they might sound like:
1. Hello
2. Send My Love (To Your New Lover)
3. I Miss You
4. When We Were Young
5. Remedy
6. Water Under The Bridge
7. River Lea
8. Love In The Dark
9. Million Years Ago
10. All I Ask
11. Sweetest Devotion
READ MORE ABOUT: Adele
Friday 23 October 2015, 11:01 | By Andy Malt
CMU’s One Liners: Sentric Music, Fall Out Boy, Lady Gaga, more
Artist News Business News Education & Events Gigs & Festivals One Liners Releases
Other notable announcements and developments today…
• Sentric Music has compiled some of its best blog posts aimed at emerging artists into one handy list. Go forth and read here.
• Fall Out Boy have released their version of ‘I Wanna Be Like You (The Monkey Song)’, taken from a new Disney covers album. It’s terrible. Like, really awful. But I’ve just put myself through listening to it, so you might as well share my pain. Listen here.
• Lady Gaga is recording a second jazz album with Tony Bennett. Because that’s what the fans want. This one will be all Cole Porter songs, Bennett told Vulture.
• Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon thinks his band’s 1985 Bond theme ‘A View To A Kill’ is better than Sam Smith’s recent effort. Although he doesn’t seem to have heard the whole of Smith’s ‘Writing’s On The Wall’, so that’s probably not a fair critique. Even if he is correct. “I caught a little bit of it, it’s not my favourite – I prefer ours”, he told Gigwise.
• One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson called BBC Northern Ireland presenter Stephen Nolan a “little shit” for not listening to the band’s new single ‘Perfect’ before interviewing him. Fair enough. Don’t get similarly caught out, watch the video now. It sounds a bit like ‘Style’ by Taylor Swift.
• The artist most likely to win the Mercury Prize, Róisín Murphy, has released a new track from her Mercury-nominated album ‘Hairless Toys’. Here’s the video for ‘Unputdownable’ right here.
• Dead cert Mercury winner Eska will be touring the UK next month, including a show at London’s Islington Assembly Hall on 27 Nov. Here’s recent-ish single ‘Shades Of Blue’.
READ MORE ABOUT: Duran Duran | Eska | Fall Out Boy | Lady Gaga | Louis Tomlinson | One Direction | Róisín Murphy | Sam Smith | Sentric Music | Tony Bennett
Friday 23 October 2015, 10:50 | By Andy Malt
CMU Beef Of The Week #279: Alex James v Independent Music
And Finally Artist News Beef Of The Week
Alex James. You know, Alex James off of The Blur. He hasn’t appeared in the Beef Of The Week column for bloody ages. And given that his last appearance way back in 2012 was such a triumph, I thought it was about time for a reprise so that I can spoil that record of fine beefdom.
This week, while giving an interview in his capacity as Ambassador for Lidl’s new craft beer range, Alex James told the Daily Express that the spirit of independence has entirely disappeared from music and now exists only in the manufacture of artisan foods. And he would know, because he once put tomato ketchup in some cheese.
“That culture of independent music that I grew up with has disappeared really”, he said. “All those bands that I used to see when I went to school, such as Gaye Bykers On Acid, it’s really hard to exist like that now. The small ones are definitely disappearing, but if you can make pickled onion in your garage, rather than be a garage band, you’re in business, and there’s a market for interesting artisan foods. The spirit of independence has been transferred to food”.
So, sorry to any independent artists reading this, but I’m saddened to inform you that you don’t exist. Not in the way Gaye Bykers On Acid did. A band who signed to Virgin Records two years after forming, had a load of money thrown at them, and then set up their own label when they were dropped another two years after that. Honestly, I’m sure half of you haven’t even attempted to get a massive advance from a record label that you can then piss up a wall.
Actually Mr James, if anything, I think the spirit of independence is more alive in music today than it ever was. There are hundreds, no thousands of bands releasing and playing music entirely off their own backs, capitalising on opportunities they would never have had before but which now exist because of the internet.
Sure, for some acts the ultimate aim is to get a big record company on board to help them achieve world stardom. But for many being independent is a badge of pride. Artists like Chris T-T and Laura Kidd (aka She Makes War) work entirely within their own means and regularly advocate for other artists who wish to do the same.
Another independent artist I’ve followed for many years, MJ Hibbett, wrote a timely blog on this subject just this week. His gripe was that BBC Four’s ‘The History Of Indie’ went from chronicling the history of independent music to detailing the rise of major label-funded Britpop.
“I’d enjoyed the first two episodes as they were about LOONIES and MAVERICKS creating their own bands and labels and distribution, whereas this one seemed to decide that in the 90s that all stopped and everything was handed over to the major labels”, he wrote. “The bands featured were ALL the corporate big names of Britpop, with hardly anything mentioned about the massive boom in actual independent acts around the time who had discovered this thing called ‘the internet’ as a way to reach new people”.
He continued: “Strangest of all was the fact that Stuart Murdoch from Belle & Sebastian had been a regular talking head on ALL of the episodes, but his band was not mentioned AT ALL! AT ALL! Belle & Sebastian were THE band of indie in the 90s, they were one of the first bands to have their fanbase create itself online, through fan pages and tape swapping on email lists”.
Ironically, I think you could possibly argue that James’s band basically killed off old ‘indie’, but in doing so allowed a rebirth and a massive growth in its wake. Blur made ‘indie’ just a name for bands with guitars who sounded like Blur, and as a result freed independent music from the shackles of the term. People now make music in all genres entirely independent of the traditional music industry. There are whole scenes you don’t know about, made up just of people entertaining other people for the fun of being entertaining.
Classical music! There are people self-releasing classical music now. Saving up money from their day jobs to hire the music industry’s most expensive category of session musician. While opposingly, cheaper and more powerful software has allowed people to make ever more sophisticated electronic music in their bedrooms. The new House Of Black Lanterns album, featured in the Approved column last week, is a comment on exactly this.
If it’s independent spirit you want, Hibbett saves up all of his holiday every year so that he can go to the Edinburgh Festival to perform a new two man rock opera he’s written with his mate Steve. For no reason other than it might be fun.
Equally, another independent artist whose work and spirit I admire endlessly is Matt Farley. As you may know, under various names he has written and released tens of thousands of songs in an effort to take advantage of economies of scale where big budgets for promotion are unavailable. But also, every few years he makes a new low budget movie, because making low budget movies is fun, and someone might want to watch it when he’s finished.
You might think that Farley’s self-imposed task of attempting to pre-empt every possible random search on Spotify or iTunes is ridiculous (and I realise you almost certainly do). But I’d still urge you to listen to his podcast, where he often has insightful things to say about the plight of the truly independent artist and the disingenuousness of those with major financial backing. Cue regular rants about Tom Petty.
This week’s episode is particularly worth a listen, as he ponders the problem that being a totally independent artist also forces you to become a salesperson. He ponders whether it would be smart, or even bearable, to cold call people to ask them to stream his newly completed film, ‘Slingshot Cops’, when it comes out. Then, noting the increase in the number of podcasts asking for donations and running adverts to keep them going, he examines how wanting to create music (or podcasts) for yourself and the people who might be interested almost inevitably forces you into selling out, if you want to carry on long term.
But that uncomfortable feeling of having to sell your own art doesn’t stop you from being an independent artist. Nor from having a spirit of independence. Just because there are more people independently making food now, doesn’t mean all that has gone from music. There are people independently creating all kinds of things, from videogames to beer. It’s everywhere, and it’s brilliant.
What is more likely is that these days Alex James engages more with the food industry than he does the music community. And that while he’s giving interviews about beers for a major supermarket chain, he’s no closer to independent music than he was at the height of Blur’s fame.
READ MORE ABOUT: Alex James | Blur | Matt Farley | MJ Hibbett | Motern Media
Friday 23 October 2015, 09:34 | By Andy Malt
CMU Podcast: YouTube Red, Victory Records, Venues Day, Mercury Prize
Artist News Awards Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal Live Business Setlist
CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review the week in music and the music business, including the unveiling of YouTube’s subscription service, Victory Records’ mechanical rights dispute with Spotify, the debates around Venues Day and the Mercury shortlist. The CMU Podcast is sponsored by 7digital.
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Stories discussed this week
• YouTube unveils platform-wide subscription service, and it’s Music Key RIP
• Spotify pulls Victory Records catalogue in mechanical royalties dispute
• Small venues should seek more arts funding, says culture minister
• Everything on the Mercury shortlist is awful and music is ruined forever
CMU Approved
• Chairlift
• Susanne Sundfør
• DJ Flugvél Og Geimskip
• Savages
What we didn’t have time to talk about
• Max Hole steps down at Universal Music Group International’s CEO
• Apple Music has 6.5 million paying subscribers
• Jay-Z forgot he owns Tidal
• Jay-Z wins Big Pimpin sample case
• Adele apologises for taking so bloody long making her new album
• Warner/Chappell begins Happy Birthday fightback
• Urban Outfitters take the cassette revival beyond Cassette Store Day
• Liam Payne is fine now, cancelled 1D show rescheduled for this Friday
Please subscribe, rate, review and share the show once you’ve listened!
READ MORE ABOUT: Another Victory | Ed Vaizey | Mercury Prize | Music Venue Trust | Spotify | Venues Day | Victory Records | YouTube | YouTube Red
Thursday 22 October 2015, 11:21 | By Chris Cooke
YouTube unveils platform-wide subscription service, and it’s Music Key RIP
Business News Digital Top Stories
So, YouTube has unveiled its subscription service and, as expected, it incorporates and replaces the video site’s planned subscription music set-up. Sort of.
YouTube Red, as it shall be known, will launch in the US on 28 Oct. For $9.99 a month – or $12.99 a month if you subscribe via iOS, because of the bloody Apple Tax – you will lose the ads, and get offline viewing, background listening for music videos, and upfront access to a series of original content featuring premiere league YouTube stars. Oh, and Google Play Music audio thrown in for good times.
The new subscription service builds on YouTube’s past attempts at charging for content – with stand-alone subscription channels and a tip-jar approach – and in particular with Music Key, the year-in-development premium music service that will now never go properly live. Because, the firm’s Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl told The Verge: “The most common and most frequent point of confusion [with Music Key] was why this set of features didn’t work across YouTube”.
Getting the all-encompassing YouTube Red off the ground required convincing the YouTube stars, and the big media and entertainment firms which operate channels on the platform, to opt in to a new deal where they share in subscription revenues as well as ad money. And while many of the smaller YouTube operators have seemingly been forced into that new deal, some of the bigger players – like the record companies when Music Key was being negotiated – will have made certain demands.
It’s thought that some asked for a bigger cut of subscription revenue than they get from the ads, though the Google subsidiary is thought to have stood its ground in the main. Quite what the Red venture means for the record labels and music publishers’ deals is as yet unclear, but Kyncl says 98% of YouTube content providers are on board, with Disney the big hold out.
By offering subscribers upfront access to new original content, YouTube’s big move into subscriptions also sees the firm tread into the territory of newer start-up competitors like Vessel. It will be interesting to see how the fans of the YouTubers involved in this premium content react to having to pay to get immediate access to their latest offerings, and whether their core channels – still available for free with ads – take a hit as a result.
Obviously the video platform hopes that these premium programmes will persuade those avid YouTube viewers to pay, though it remains to be seen if the young consumers who make up a sizable portion of that audience – and who have grown up expecting the content they crave to be served up on-demand for free – decide that $9.99 a month is a good deal.
For the music community, YouTube’s shift from Music Key to Red means their content is no longer the focus, and the subscription income will have to be shared more widely. Though, YouTube would counter, going this route should mean there will be lots more subscription revenue to go round.
Also, arguably, it means YouTube’s big play in music isn’t so closely competing with Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music, possibly targeting a different demographic, people who were never likely to sign up for a $10 a month stand-alone music service. Meaning YouTube, like Amazon with Prime Music, is going for the mid-market that the music-specific platforms are not currently targeting.
Though the Spotifys and Deezers of the world are likely to point out that all that free music sloshing around the YouTube network is still a problem as they try to sign up more paying users and, perhaps most importantly, makes the prospect of them turning off their own try-before-you-buy freemium levels an unrealistic proposal.
YouTube isn’t entirely bailing on a standalone music product, with a new app called YouTube Music also incoming, available to both freemium and premium users, and aimed at people who just want to navigate the music content on the video platform. So, there you go music people. According to YouTube, you’re important enough for your own app, but not for your own subscription service.
READ MORE ABOUT: YouTube | YouTube Red
Thursday 22 October 2015, 11:17 | By Chris Cooke
Jay-Z wins Big Pimpin sample case
Business News Legal
For such a long running legal battle over a fifteen year old song, the big ‘Big Pimpin’ sample case ended somewhat abruptly yesterday, with the judge ruling in the defendants’ favour without requiring the jury to deliberate.
As previously reported, Jay-Z and producer Timbaland were accused of infringing the rights of late Egyptian film composer Baligh Hamdi by sampling a piece of his music in their 2000 single ‘Big Pimpin’. But Timbaland’s people had licensed the sample from an EMI subsidiary, which had a relationship with an Egyptian company, which had a relationship with Hamdi.
Nevertheless, the composer’s family argued that neither EMI nor its Egyptian partner were empowered to license the sample, and even if they were, doing so for a track of this nature infringed Hamdi’s moral rights under Egyptian law. Countering, the defence argued that Hamdi had, in fact, assigned his copyright to EMI’s affiliate, and that Egyptian moral rights are not relevant in an American copyright dispute.
Jay-Z and Timbaland’s people actually tried to have the case thrown out on the basis Egyptian moral rights were irrelevant to this dispute all the way back in 2011. But at that point the judge said there was a sufficient case under US law to allow the matter to proceed to court.
However, yesterday the same judge, Christina Snyder, ruled that, based on the testimony of Egyptian law experts, she was now confident the Hamdi family did not have enough standing to pursue this action, and it was therefore unnecessary to hand the matter to the jury. Case closed then.
“We and our clients obviously are very pleased with this decision. The court correctly ruled that the plaintiff had no right to bring this case and cannot pursue any claim of infringement in connection with ‘Big Pimpin’ whatsoever”, Christine Lepera, a legal rep for the defendants, told reporters.
Though the lawyer working for the Hamdi family has already vowed to appeal. So maybe not quite case closed.
READ MORE ABOUT: Jay-Z | Timbaland
Thursday 22 October 2015, 11:16 | By Andy Malt
High Court orders closure of Tulisa’s company
Business News Legal
Tulisa Contostavlos is no longer the female boss of The Female Boss Ltd, after the High Court ordered the company to be closed down. HMRC asked the High Court to force the closure after Contostavlos failed to submit accounts for her company for four years – the last filing coming in November 2011.
A source told The Mirror that the former N-Dubz vocalist had stopped filing accounts after legal bills began to mount up – starting with her battle to get a sextape taken down in 2012 – and amidst various financial and other stresses, including when she was dropped from ‘The X-Factor’ as a judge.
The source claims: “Tulisa wants to put everything that’s happened behind her. She wants to launch her new career with a new company. She’s talking about exciting projects and has set up a new company to put all her business through. The Female Boss might have been closed but she’s not going anywhere”.
Which may be the case, though it’s probably worth pointing out that if you decide you don’t like the company you’re running, just ignoring it isn’t the best way to proceed. It’s also probably harder to ignore it if you have the name of that company tattooed on your arm and you used it as the title for your debut solo album.
Anyway, according to Companies House records, Contostavlos set up a new company called TFB Entertainment in June. She also owns another called Ask Your Man, which is doing just fine and has all of its accounts up to date, thank you very much.
READ MORE ABOUT: Tulisa Contostavlos
Thursday 22 October 2015, 11:14 | By Andy Malt
PC Music partners with Sony Music
Business News Deals Labels & Publishers
The PC Music label has gone into partnership with Sony/Columbia. Which you can choose to see as a bold next step for the indie, or final confirmation that it’s all over. Really, I’m going to leave it up to you.
Both PC Music and Columbia chose to see it as the former, as you might expect. In a statement on Facebook, PC Music said: “A new, perfect breed of major label. A new, highly advanced pop weapon. We’re very excited to announce our partnership with Columbia Records, a truly ancient industry legend”.
The first release under the alliance is from long time PC Music associate Danny L Harle, who will unleash a new EP, titled ‘Broken Flowers’, on 20 Nov. And there is more to come after that, with the label promising “a multi-tier attack exposing the radical DNA of chart music, and the heart and soul behind every lab creation”.
Harle will headline a launch show for his EP at XOYO in London on 18 Nov, with support from AG Cook, easyFun, Felicita, Spinee and more.
READ MORE ABOUT: Danny L Harle | PC Music | Sony Music
Thursday 22 October 2015, 11:13 | By Andy Malt
Which? research finds secondary ticketing listings in breach of Consumer Rights Act
Business News Legal Live Business
As the government kickstarts a new review of the secondary ticketing market in the UK, new research carried out by Which? Magazine has found listings on five of the leading secondary ticket websites – GetMeIn, Seatwave, StubHub, Viagogo and WorldTicketShop – which it says are in breach of the new Consumer Rights Act.
As previously reported, the Act, which passed into law earlier this year, placed new rules on the resale of tickets, including making it compulsory to display the face value of the tickets being sold, and information on the seating area and any restrictions that apply.
Looking at tickets on sale for U2 and One Direction shows, as well as Rugby World Cup and Six Nations games, Which? found listings on all five sites missing pieces of now legally required information. Seatwave, Viagogo and WorldTicketShop all had missing or incorrect face value price details on some listings, while all five had missing seating information. And one ticket for this year’s Rugby World Cup final on Viagogo failed to state that the terms and conditions of the original sale meant that it could be cancelled if resold, despite carrying a resale price of £12,000.
Which? Executive Director Richard Lloyd said in a statement: “It’s unacceptable that these ticket resale sites are getting away with not providing fans with key ticket information, leaving them unsure whether their ticket is a good deal, where they’ll be seated or if they’ll even get in”.
When contacted by Which?, all five of the sites said that they would always amend or de-list tickets if made aware of incorrect information. Meanwhile a spokesperson for Stubhub noted that sellers may not have all the information, such as seat numbers, available when they list the tickets for sale.
But while the Which? report notes that the Consumer Rights Act is not clear about whose responsibility it is to ensure that required information is correctly provided, Lloyd goes on: “Reselling sites cannot continue to push the blame onto individual ticket sellers. Instead they must take responsibility for information displayed on their websites and ensure consumers have enough details to make an informed choice”.
CMU premium subscribers can read more about the Consumer Rights Act and what it means for secondary ticketing in this trends report from April this year.
READ MORE ABOUT: Which?
Thursday 22 October 2015, 11:10 | By Andy Malt
Aurous calls for support
Business News Digital
Controversial new streaming app Aurous, which pulls in music content from unlicensed sources, resulting in legal action from the US record industry, has asked fans to join a social media campaign to show their support ahead of a court ruling on whether or not to extend an injunction against the service later this month.
Positioning the legal battle as very much a David v Goliath type of fight, Aurous founder Andrew Sampson said in a statement: “On 14 Oct, before the chisel could even be laid to the stone, the Recording Industry Association Of America sued us, claiming we were nothing more than a pirate service [and] a judge ordered us to halt our operations; just like that, all our hard work put on hold”.
He continued: “We could not disagree more with the RIAA, you see there is a reason we chose the .me suffix for our website, Aurous isn’t about money or profits, we don’t need to impress shareholders, Aurous is a player that is being built for you, the artist, the creator, the average listener, we want Aurous to be your go-to player-of-players, something that lets you bring all your services together. Not only that, but we had a big goal in mind after launching, create a community of music lovers all around the world. A community that can support each other and do beautiful things”.
The statement doesn’t go on to specify what Aurous is doing for “the artist, the creator”, but concludes: “On 28 Oct, a judge will decide if Aurous can continue operating, we need all of your support. So tell the RIAA that creativity cannot be censored, that innovation cannot be silenced and most importantly, tell them you #StandWithAurous”.
I’m not sure the courts or the RIAA are likely to be swayed by a show of support through a hashtag, but the social media activity will surely help to further build hype for the service, should it come back online.
As previously reported, Aurous stopped distributing its app after the RIAA secured a temporary restraining order last week, pending the upcoming court hearing. And yesterday the Aurous team implied on Twitter that they will shut down the service if they lose in court next week. Bullish as they might have been, Sampson and his partner in the software are seemingly not so keen on getting themselves involved in a long drawn out legal fight, a la Grooveshark.
READ MORE ABOUT: Aurous | Recording Industry Association Of America
Thursday 22 October 2015, 11:08 | By Andy Malt
Spotify partners with Virgin America
Business News Deals Digital
Airline Virgin America has partnered with Spotify to provide a collection of playlists – ‘mood lists’ they’re calling them – themed on the cities where the firm operates, so that passengers can immerse themselves in the music of their destination. Or something like that.
The playlists will be accessible in-flight thanks to Virgin America’s new ViaSat in-flight wi-fi. So basically this is just a fancy way of saying that you can connect to wi-fi on a plane and then use the internet. If you’re not already a Spotify subscriber though, Virgin America will give you a 30 day free trial. Just like that.
Spotify’s VP Global Marketing And Partnerships Erin Clift said these words: “At Spotify, we’re dedicated to finding ways to bring music into every part of consumers’ lives, wherever they are, whatever they’re doing, whatever their mood. Partnering with Virgin America to provide guests with Spotify ‘mood lists’ is an excellent way to enhance their experience and bring Spotify to flyers both in-flight and beyond”.
Also announced alongside this is a partnership between the airline and the New York Times to offer curated content from the newspaper in-flight. It all follows a partnership with Netflix earlier this year.
And, hey, don’t sit there crying because you don’t have a domestic US flight booked. You can listen to all of those playlists – sorry, mood lists – right now.
READ MORE ABOUT: Spotify | Virgin America
Thursday 22 October 2015, 11:07 | By Chris Cooke
KMPG report bigs up BBC’s role in the British music industry’s economic impact
Business News Media
The British Broadcasting Corporation, with all it’s playing of tunes and championing of pop stars, “made a significant positive contribution to the £3.8 billion that the UK music industry generated in the UK economy in 2013”. That’s not me speaking, that’s the beancounters at accountancy firm KPMG. And whoever heard of an unreliable accountant? No one, that’s who. So it must be true.
KPMG has been looking at the impact the BBC has in response to the UK government’s recent green paper on the future of the Corporation, aka “Let’s Fuck Up The Beeb: Draft One”. One of the areas that the BBC Trust-commissioned research considered was music, with the conclusion reached that “the scale of the BBC’s music-related activity suggests that its economic impact in this area could be significant”. Woah, hang on, “could be” significant. Who added the “could”? Bloody accountants, fudging everything.
But hey, we do know that BBC radio “consistently plays more unique tracks per station than commercial radio” and that “case studies of artists like London Grammar, Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith show that the BBC’s early support for these artists helped to drive their success and were a factor in their contribution to the music industry economy”. Phew. No coulds there.
“BBC radio was the first to provide airtime for the majority of London Grammar’s tracks”, the research notes. “Of seventeen songs played on UK radio, fifteen were played first on the BBC. In their record label’s view, the BBC was likely to have played a role in the estimated £4.3 million that album sales of London Grammar’s ‘If You Wait’ generated to the UK economy”.
Likely? Oh well, there’s more: “The BBC was the first to play Sam Smith singles, on Radio 1, in 2012 and 2013, and Ed Sheeran had his first ever UK radio play on Radio 1Xtra. Radio 1 playlisted two Clean Bandit singles and supported three before any commercial radio station had played Clean Bandit’s music. And the BBC’s support for emerging artists like Andreya Triana and Shaun Escoffery has boosted their careers and their contribution to the music industry”.
So there you have it. We all know the BBC plays a hugely important role in nurturing, supporting and championing British music, and especially new talent and niche genres. We also know that the music community has been very vocal about that important role as the government’s review has gotten under way. But now we have it all there in black and white, thanks to the eminent masters of the BBC Trust and their esteemed assessors-of-truth at the KPMGs. What a glorious day.
Though the BBC has just announced another edition of the utterly pointless, totally unnecessary, entirely futile, wholly gratuitous, thoroughly irrelevant, altogether needless, recklessly redundant and wholeheartedly superfluous, money-squandering, time-wasting, energy-zapping, air-time-eating executive-ego-fest that is the BBC Music Awards. So come to think of it, perhaps the Tories are right. Let’s shut the whole fucking shit parade down.
READ MORE ABOUT: BBC | BBC Music Awards | BBC Trust | KPMG
Thursday 22 October 2015, 11:05 | By Chris Cooke
MusicTank puts the spotlight on making available
Business News Education & Events
MusicTank will put the spotlight on the good old making available right in its next panel event in London, called ‘Creators’ Rights In The Digital Landscape’.
As with a number of recent events held by MusicTank, the debate begins with a paper, this one written by Fiona McGugan called ‘Making Available, Communication To The Public And User Interactivity’. She will then be joined by Alexander Ross of Wiggin LLP, Horace Trubridge of the UK’s Musicians’ Union, Benoît Machuel of the International Federation of Musicians, and others, to debate the issues.
The so called making available right is one of the controls enjoyed by copyright owners, and applies when content is distributed digitally in a way that users “may access it from a place and at a time individually chosen by them”. There has been much debate about when the making available right does and does not apply, which is an important distinction because of the impact it has on performer rights, both the right of performers to restrict the exploitation of their recordings, and to share in the income.
The issues are set out in McGugan’s paper, and also in the ‘Dissecting The Digital Dollar’ report we recently published with the UK Music Managers Forum.
Anticipating the debate, MusicTank Chair Keith Harris told reporters: “It is important for the whole industry to get right the payment levels for creators in the new environment. Their work is after all at the heart of the whole construct. A voluntary, sensible agreement about payments and payment structures would make so much more sense than the need for legislative intervention, which might end up being the alternative, as the business model starts to teeter”.
The MusicTank event on the issue takes place on 10 Nov at the University Of Westminster, info and tickets here.
READ MORE ABOUT: Fiona McGugan | MusicTank
Thursday 22 October 2015, 11:02 | By Andy Malt
Adele apologises for taking so bloody long making her new album
Artist News
Adele has spoken about her new album, confirming that it will be called ’25’. Well, she tweeted a picture of a letter. Which is as good as speaking, really. She also apologised for taking so long making it – she’s already two year’s older than the period the album is documenting.
“My last record was a break-up record and if I had to label this one I would call it a make-up record”, she wrote. “I’m making up with myself. Making up for lost time. Making up for everything I ever did and never did. But I haven’t got time to hold onto the crumbs of my past like I used to. What’s done is done. Turning 25 was a turning point for me, slap bang in the middle of my 20s. Teetering on the edge of being an old adolescent and a fully-fledged adult, I made the decision to go into becoming who I’m going to be forever without a removal van full of my old junk”.
“’25’ is about getting to know who I’ve become without realising”, she concluded. “And I’m sorry it took so long, but you know, life happened”.
As previously reported, a snippet of new music from the album appeared in an advert screened during Sunday’s edition of ‘The X-Factor’. Still no confirmation of the release date though. We’ll stick with 20 Nov for the moment.
READ MORE ABOUT: Adele
Thursday 22 October 2015, 10:59 | By Andy Malt
Liam Payne is fine now, cancelled 1D show rescheduled for this Friday
And Finally Artist News Gigs & Festivals
No, Liam Payne is not dead. Stop saying that, would you? He was back in stage last night, and One Direction have already rescheduled the show he forced them to cancel due to ill health on Tuesday for this Friday.
Payne tweeted yesterday afternoon: “I’m so sorry to everybody I disappointed last night. I’m feeling better now. I really hope everyone can make the rescheduled date on Friday”.
A source told The Sun that the cancellation on Tuesday came after Payne had “a complete meltdown” backstage before the show was due to start. Though that’s just a rumour. If he’s actually got the cold I’ve had this week then I can vouch for him needing the night off.
READ MORE ABOUT: Liam Payne | One Direction
Thursday 22 October 2015, 09:44 | By Andy Malt
Approved: Savages – The Answer
CMU Approved
Savages have announced that they will release their second album, ‘Adore Life’, on 22 Jan next year. And that’s good news, isn’t it? I just listened to their first album again and enjoyed it thoroughly. Yesterday they also released the video for the first single from the new record, ‘The Answer’. But what is the answer?
In a statement, the band explained: “It’s about change and the power to change. It’s about metamorphosis and evolution. It’s about sticking to your guns and toughing it out. It’s about now, not tomorrow. It’s about recognising your potential. It’s about self-doubt and inaction. It’s about you. It’s about me. It’s about you and me and the others. It’s about the choices we make. It’s about finding the poetry and avoiding the cliché”.
Yeah, but what actually is the answer? “It’s about being the solution, not the problem. It’s about showing weakness to be strong. It’s about digging through your dirt to look for diamonds. It’s about claiming your right to think unacceptable thoughts. It’s about boredom and the things we do to drive it away”.
OK, fine. But I’m starting to think you don’t even have the answer. “It’s about being on your own so you can be with people. It’s about knowing what it means to be human and what it might mean one day. It’s about the parts and the sum of the parts. It’s about the music and the message: together, one and the same. It’s about bass, guitars, drums, and vocals. It’s about opening-out and never, ever dying”.
“But most of all it’s about love, every kind of love”, they concluded, finally getting to the fucking point. “Love is the answer”.
I don’t know, ask a simple bloody question… Anyway, here’s the video for ‘The Answer’, which doesn’t beat around the bush anything like as much:
READ MORE ABOUT: Savages
Wednesday 21 October 2015, 10:47 | By Chris Cooke
Spotify pulls Victory Records catalogue in mechanical royalties dispute
Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal Top Stories
Recordings from US independent Victory Records have been pulled from Spotify in America over a dispute between the streaming service and the indie’s sister music publishing business Another Victory. The dispute is basically over unpaid mechanical royalties, though is really about the complexities in the way streaming services are licensed, and specifically the extra complexities US copyright law forces on the whole process.
Streaming services exploit both song and recording copyrights, we know that, but they also exploit both the ‘mechanical right’ and the ‘performing right’ elements of both those rights. See, it’s already complex and I’m only one sentence in. This is mainly an issue on the songs side, because in music publishing the mechanical rights and the performing rights are traditionally dealt with separately, and in some countries they are controlled by different entities.
But in the main, music publishers have tried to provide streaming services with licenses that cover both mechanical and performing rights. So in the UK, performing rights society PRS and mechanical rights society MCPS offer one joint licence. And where the big five publishers have licensed the mechanical rights they control directly, they have done so in partnership with the collecting societies that control the accompanying performing rights.
And then there is America, where performing rights are usually handled by collecting societies like BMI and ASCAP, but the mechanicals are handled by, well, who exactly? Mechanicals are covered by a compulsory license in the US, so streaming services don’t need to get specific permission from the publisher, but they do need to pay them royalties. Though, with no central database of song copyright ownership, that’s not quite as simple as it sounds. Both rights owners and digital services often use middle-men agencies to facilitate payments, but most people agree that the system is far from efficient.
Former Tunecore chief Jeff Price built a whole new business to try to help rights owners identify and chase the mechanical royalties they are due from streaming services, reckoning that there is an ever increasing pile of cash being lost to the inefficient system. And it’s that company, Audiam, which is working for Another Victory, and which reckons mechanicals have not been paid on about 53 million Spotify streams.
The dispute between Victory and Spotify over the unpaid mechanicals has been brewing for a while, but seemingly came to a head when the streaming service proposed a direct deal with the indie’s publishing business to cover mechanical payments in its songs catalogue. Victory said it was unable to sign this deal, not least because of its existing arrangement with Audiam.
According to the indie, it was then Spotify which decided to pull its tracks from the streaming service in the US, even though the dispute is over the company’s songs repertoire. While there is some crossover between Victory’s recordings and songs catalogues, there are recordings where song rights are controlled by other parties which are not subject to this particular mechanicals row. This, says Victory, proves that Spotify’s “internal systems are inadequate”.
On this week’s developments, Victory – which, as a label, has a history of being more vocal than most when ever it has a disagreement with another party – said: “We could not sign [the contract] for a variety of reasons, most importantly, that it would put us in direct violation of our agreement with Audiam. Spotify knows we are in business with Audiam and were essentially asking us to breach/ignore that agreement. The issue of non-payment for songwriters and composers is a widespread problem and not exclusive to Victory Records’ artists. We understand your frustration with not being able to listen to the music you enjoy”.
The label concluded that “the bottom line is that artists and songwriters are not being paid and fans of Victory’s artists cannot listen to the music. Thank you for your support and we remain hopeful that Spotify will do the right thing”.
There has been speculation in the last 24 hours as to whether Spotify’s decision to pull Victory’s content is because of concerns over the legal ramifications of still streaming this music while the dispute rumbles on, or whether the streaming firm is playing hardball in trying to force the indie into doing the deal.
Spotify’s US spokesman Jonathan Prince told the Wall Street Journal that neither Another Victory nor Audiam had sent over sufficient data to substantiate their claims of unpaid royalties, and that “given that we don’t have that information, we felt we had no choice but to temporarily take down their content until we can come to a resolution”.
A lot of the problems here come back to the lack of a decent database of copyright ownership – ie the thing the music publishing sector’s Global Repertoire Database project was trying to build before it collapsed last year. Such a database would make it easier for streaming services to identify who is owed what whenever a song is streamed, and to then make payments. It would also allow digital services to more accurately pull song catalogues where disputes occur, rather than having to pull the recordings catalogue that happens to be in common ownership instead.
Many in music publishing recognise this weakness, so are more diplomatic when discussing the unpaid mechanicals in the US streaming space, instead talking about all sides needing to collaborate to fix the problems. But since launching Audiam, Price has been less diplomatic, insisting that the streaming services are obliged under US copyright law to pay mechanical royalties, and it’s their responsibility to do whatever it takes to make that happen. And in outspoken Victory Records boss Tony Brummel, he likely has an ally on that point.
For more on the complexities of digital licensing, don’t forget to download the report we produced for the UK Music Managers Forum, ‘Dissecting The Digital Dollar’, it’s totally free and available here.
Elsewhere in Spotify news, TechCrunch reckons that a couple of recent hires at the firm might mean Japanese and Indonesian launches are on the horizon. Though the company remains non-committal on specific plans to launch in those two key Asian markets, except to confirm that it aspires to operate in most Asian countries.
READ MORE ABOUT: Another Victory | Audiam | Spotify | Victory Records
Wednesday 21 October 2015, 10:45 | By Andy Malt
Max Hole steps down at Universal Music Group International’s CEO
Business News Industry People Labels & Publishers
Max Hole has announced this morning that he is stepping down from his role as Chairman and CEO of Universal Music’s international division with immediate effect.
Hole has been unwell since January, when he contracted the rare medical condition encephalitis, which has resulted in some memory loss. Although he is reportedly making progress towards recovery, it is not currently possible for him to return to work.
As previously reported, Hole was promoted to the role leading Universal Music’s non-US activities in 2013, having previously been COO of the international business. The company’s regional chiefs will now report directly to overall UMG CEO Lucian Grainge.
In a statement, Hole said: “I have loved working at Universal, the best record company in the world. Lucian is an extraordinary person, both an exceptional creative and business executive for whom I have great affection. We have known each other for a very, very long time and I’m so glad we remain friends”.
He went on: “I love so many of my colleagues around the world that there are too many to name, but I’d like to mention my close friends Boyd Muir, Richard Constant, David Joseph, Frank Briegmann, Pascal Nègre, George Ash, Jesus Lopez and Andrew Kronfeld. Finally, there are our incredible artists, some I have been close to and some I have watched and loved from a distance. I wish our artists and Universal a hugely successful future”.
Grainge added: “Max Hole is one of the most talented and accomplished executives to have ever worked in the music business, with an undying passion for music. He has been one of our industry’s most effective champions, opening new markets and creating opportunities for artists and fans everywhere. Max’s contributions to Universal will be forever a part of the fabric of this company and our industry, and he leaves with our deepest gratitude and respect”.
Hole first joined Universal Music in 1998 as Senior Vice President, Marketing and A&R, though his career in the major label system began in 1982, when he joined Warner Music UK as A&R Manager. Prior to that, he had worked independently as a record producer and artist manager.
READ MORE ABOUT: Max Hole | Universal Music
