Friday 16 December 2016, 12:00 | By Chris Cooke

!K7 launches new division focused on neo-classical

Business News Labels & Publishers

Independent music firm !K7 has launched a new division called 7K! which will put the focus on the contemporary classical music movement, or ‘neo-classical’ if you prefer, which it’s always possible that you might. The new division will include a label, a sync and label services business, and an artist management unit.

Announcing the new venture, !K7 said that “having worked with German trio Brandt Brauer Frick over the last six years, !K7 has been an innovative force in the contemporary classical movement since before the genre had a name. In order to build on that experience and to offer the best possible service to artists and signings in this vein we have launched 7K!”

The new venture’s first release will be an album from Italian composer and multi-instrumentalist Luca D’Alberto, who is also managed by 7K! Horst Weidenmüller, !K7’s CEO, says that on hearing D’Alberto’s music his team quickly “said to each other ‘we have to work with Luca – he’s genius'”, but that “no one felt confident to A&R his album”.

“So I ended up listening to days worth of music and became the executive producer for this album”, he continues. “A job I’d never done before within my company. This new experience opened me up to so many amazing sounds that I decided to dedicate an entire department to this beautiful music”.

As for deciding to brand that entire department as !K7 written backwards, he adds: “The reason why we chose to mirror the !K7 brand with 7K! is because this music speaks to the !K7 audience, but it is not ‘!K7’ in the strictest sense. But 7K! most certainly will mirror the world of !K7 in new classical music as well as in ambient and experimental projects. We want to show our audience that it is the same !K7 dedication and spirit behind the projects, but that it is also something different”.

READ MORE ABOUT: !K7 | 7K!

Friday 16 December 2016, 11:57 | By Chris Cooke

New appointments at Syco as Sonny Takhar departs

Business News Industry People Labels & Publishers

As Sony Music UK made a bunch of new senior appointments at its Columbia and RCA divisions recently, Simon Cowell obviously looked on with jealousy. “Why can’t I make a bunch of new senior appointments”, he murmured, with a glimmer of despair in his eyes. But then that despair slowly turned to something more confident. More determined. More arrogant. “Hang on”, he declared, loudly. “I’m fucking Simon Cowell, I can appoint whoever the fuck I like!”

And so it came to pass that yesterday Simon Cowell announced a bunch of new senior appointments at his Sony Music joint venture Syco. There’s this other crazy story going around that this executive rejig is entirely the result of Cowell’s long-time ally and collaborator Sonny Takhar deciding to leave Syco to go and set up his own new LA-based entertainment venture, but I mean, that’s an entirely suspicious version of events.

So, to the announcements. Tyler Brown has been named as the new MD of Syco Music, he having originally joined the business as A&R Assistant in 2008. His new gig as MD follows his most recent promotion to Head Of A&R in 2015. Those with a keen eye for detail will notice that promotion means Syco now needs a new Head Of A&R, and it’s Anya Jones who will fill that role. While Cowell’s final bit of news this week is that Guy Langley has been promoted to the job of Senior A&R Manager.

Running with the ‘this is all because Sonny is leaving’ conspiracy theory, Cowell said yesterday: “When I first decided to build Syco, it was my wish to create a place where young, talented executives could learn and grow their talent. Sonny has been there every step of the way with me – and in this business loyalty is rare – but I’m lucky that Sonny and I have had an incredible two decades of friendship and success together. He’s one of the most talented, loyal and hardworking music executives I have ever met and I wish him every success for the future in his new venture. And we will continue to work together!”

Meanwhile Takhar – also sticking to the story that he’s somehow leaving Syco – paid tribute to his boss of the last two decades, who he worked with at S Records before helping to create the Syco music and TV business in 2004. “Over the last 20 years, Simon has been an incredible mentor and friend to me”, said he. “I owe him so much. I am extremely proud of the company that we have built and the unprecedented success that we have achieved together. More importantly, I have made lifelong friends at Syco and across the Sony family. I leave the business in the safest possible hands with a team that has a huge appetite for winning. This isn’t goodbye”.

Yeah, whatever, what about the newly appointed guys? That’s who I’m here to talk about today. “Tyler has shown his ability to deliver global hits and I’m delighted he will be leading Syco Music along with such a talented team”, said Cowell, smiling big time now that he’d got to make a bunch of senior appointments. “His dedication, talent and passion along with that of the rest of this ambitious team is exciting for the company. I’m incredibly happy to have so many talented people now at the top of Syco, all of whom started their careers with us, including Tyler, Anya and Guy. This team’s talent, passion and ability to launch worldwide artists is unmatched – and I’m really excited about the company’s future together”.

READ MORE ABOUT: Anya Jones | Guy Langley | Simon Cowell | Sonny Takhar | Syco | Tyler Brown

Friday 16 December 2016, 11:53 | By Chris Cooke

As radio industry prepares for fight with Global Music Rights, announces new deal with ASCAP

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers Legal

While Irving Azoff’s mini-performing rights organisation Global Music Rights prepares for what is a definite contender to be next year’s stand out battle in the pop courts – ie his fight with the US Radio Music Licence Committee – bigger PRO ASCAP has only gone and announced a new five year deal with the same radio industry body.

The American song rights collecting society confirmed the new deal with the RMLC, which represents US broadcasters, yesterday. It explained that “the agreement covers the five-year period 2017 to 2021 [and] provides for increases in the rates paid by radio stations to perform music by ASCAP members via terrestrial, over-the-air broadcasts as well as certain digital transmissions”.

The new deal also, the PRO said, “for the first time expressly affirms the percentage share of radio performances represented by ASCAP – at a level that reflects that ASCAP licenses more performances on broadcast radio than any other performing rights organisation”.

ASCAP boss Elizabeth Matthews said that reaching a voluntary agreement with the radio industry was good for her membership, which is probably true, but no fun for us. Where’s my messy legal battle? “Reaching a voluntary agreement with the terrestrial radio industry enables ASCAP to stabilise and grow revenues for our members, while continuing to aggressively advocate for regulatory reform to modernise the music licensing system”, she said.

She added that “we are confident that our new agreement will provide enhanced financial benefits to ASCAP songwriters, composers and music publishers at a time of tremendous disruption in the music industry”.

For his side, RMLC Chairman Ed Christian added: “This agreement demonstrates how the creative and music user communities can work together in good faith to produce an outcome that is positive for both sides. The increase in ASCAP fees is consistent with ASCAP’s established spin share on radio. We are pleased to close this deal ensuring that there will be no interruption in ASCAP music being performed on American radio at a time when the music licensing landscape has become increasingly complex”.

Did anyone choose to infer any “fuck you Irving Azoffs” in any of those statements? No, me neither. Well done ASCAP. Now, let’s bring on the big GMR v RMLC court battle. I might even buy a new hat.

READ MORE ABOUT: ASCAP | Global Music Rights (GMR) | Radio Music License Committee (RMLC)

Friday 16 December 2016, 11:49 | By Chris Cooke

Afrikaans label launches new digital platform in South Africa

Business News Digital

South African record company Coleske Artists and TV channel kykNET, both of which focus on Afrikaans repertoire, have launched a new digital platform called Groot Tunes. The new service sees much of the Coleske label’s own content digitised for the first time, but it will also offer music from other record companies, with the South African divisions of Universal and Warner both signed up to provide tracks.

Groot Tunes (“groot” means “big” in Afrikaans, if you wondered) has gone live in South Africa as a download store with streaming due to be added in the new year. The plan is to then launch both elements of the service in the UK, US and Australia, likely expanding the catalogue of music available as it goes.

The new digital venture follows the recent 20th anniversary of Coleske Artists, the label set up by musicians Arnold and Ewald Coleske. The downloads and streams are powered by digital music provider Allexis Music, which describes itself as “a global white label music platform for artists, content owners and brands, which uses the latest cloud technology to deliver a diverse selection of services on both web and mobile devices”.

Confirming the new venture, Coleske Artists Label Manager Paulo Azevedo said: “South Africa has capitalised on physical sales longer than most, but Coleske knew the shift to digital had to happen, and soon. After a long search, Allexis Music presented the only way that made sense: a transparent, scalable system that would allow us not only to enter the digital world safely with our hard earned content, but also to expand internationally. We know that when our media partners pull the trigger, it’s going to explode”.

Meanwhile Allexis Music boss Enzo Vailati added: “We are very proud to have been able to launch this innovative platform in South Africa. It was exciting to build such a consumer-focused site with Coleske Artists, and to work with labels such as Universal and Warner on the project. We look forward to bringing the platform to the UK early next year”.

READ MORE ABOUT: Coleske Artists | Groot Tunes | kykNET

Friday 16 December 2016, 11:46 | By Chris Cooke

Rolling Stones waive song royalties on charity cover in aid of Jo Cox Foundation

Artist News Business News Releases

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards will waive their royalties from the charity cover version of Rolling Stones track ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’.

As previously reported, a group of politicians and musicians have come together to record the charity single in memory of Jo Cox, the MP who was murdered in her constituency earlier this year. Monies raised by sales of the record will be donated to a charity set up in Cox’s name. And that will include the cut of the income usually due to the songwriters, as well as the portion that would usually be taken by the government through VAT.

SNP MP Pete Wishart, former Runrig member and keyboardist with ‘parliamentary rock band’ MP4, confirmed that Jagger and Richards were waiving their publishing royalties during a House Of Commons session. According to the BBC, he said: “I’m sure the leader of the house would also like to join me in thanking Sir Mick Jagger and Keith Richards for waiving their royalties, ensuring that even more money goes to the Jo Cox Foundation”.

Kaiser Chiefs’ Ricky Wilson, KT Tunstall, David Gray and Cockney Rebel’s Steve Harley were among the artists to join the Royal Opera House Thurrock Community Chorus, MP4 and 20 other MPs from across various parties, to record the charity record in Cox’s memory.

The record is released today and is therefore a contender for the Christmas number one slot next week. To that end, bookmaker William Hill has announced it will also donate any money staked on the single topping the festive chart to the Jo Cox Foundation.

READ MORE ABOUT: Cockney Rebel | David Gray | Jo Cox | Kaiser Chiefs | KT Tunstall | MP4 | Pete Wishart | Ricky Wilson | Steve Harley | The Rolling Stones

Friday 16 December 2016, 11:44 | By Chris Cooke

John Legend criticises Kanye’s Donald Trump meeting, but RZA says it was OK

Artist News

RZA has defended Kanye West over his recent catch up with President-Elect Donald Trump.

Despite the Wu-Tang leader himself endorsing Hillary Clinton in the run up to the recent American presidential election, he told TMZ: “Trump is the President, so we’re going to have to talk to him, deal with him. If Kanye went in to speak for our community then bong bong”. Yeah, exactly, bong bong.

As previously reported, although Trump insisted that his catch up with West was just two old friends “discussing life”, the rapper later said: “I wanted to meet with Trump today to discuss multicultural issues. These issues included bullying, supporting teachers, modernising curriculums, and violence in Chicago. I feel it is important to have a direct line of communication with our future President if we truly want change”.

RZA’s comments followed John Legend criticising West for allowing Trump to use him as a distraction tactic, with West’s meeting with Trump pushing concerns about the President-Elect’s cabinet appointments, and the conflicts of interest between his new job and his business interests, down the news agenda.

Speaking to a French TV programme, Legend said, according to NME: “I don’t think it’s impossible to talk to [Trump] about issues, but I won’t be used as a publicity stunt. And I think Kanye was a publicity stunt”.

On West previously saying that he would have voted for Trump, had he bothered to vote in the Presidential election, Legend added: “I’m pretty disappointed with Kanye that he says he would have voted for Trump. I think Trump has been corrosive, his message has been corrosive to the country, and I think the things he’s promised to do have been very concerning for a lot of people. And for Kanye to support that message is very disappointing. Whatever was in his mind, I disagree with him”.

READ MORE ABOUT: Donald Trump | John Legend | Kanye West | RZA

Friday 16 December 2016, 11:41 | By Chris Cooke

Spotify unveils exclusive Coldplay live session

Artist News Business News Digital

So, is this Spotify making steps towards becoming a record label in its own right, or a further sign of the streaming platform becoming a new-style radio platform, getting bands to play exclusive live sessions just like radio stations always have? If you can discuss that in no more than 1750 words and have your essays on my desk by 5pm, that would be great.

Coldplay and Spotify have just released ‘Coldplay Live From Spotify London’ exclusively on Spotify. It’s five tracks from Coldplay which, we’re guessing, were recorded live at Spotify London. Actually, we’re not guessing, that’s exactly what it is.

The “five-track collection of unique, stripped-back live recordings, performed in front of a small audience at Spotify’s London headquarters in November 2016” features unique, stripped-back live recordings of ‘Everglow’, ‘Viva La Vida’, ‘Adventure Of A Lifetime’, ‘Yellow’ and ‘Christmas Lights’. All stripped-back and live.

The exclusive session proves that Coldplay love Spotify and every single Spotify subscriber, despite then making said subscribers wait an extra week for their new album this time last year. And Spotify users love Coldplay back because, says the streaming platform: “Coldplay is the most-streamed band of all time on Spotify, and reached a total of five billion streams earlier this week”.

The release of the Spotify session follows Coldplay winning the much sought after Entirely Pointless Award at the BBC Entirely Pointless Awards earlier this week.

READ MORE ABOUT: Coldplay | Spotify

Friday 16 December 2016, 11:39 | By Chris Cooke

CMU’s One Liners: Warner Music, BPI, Eventbrite, more

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

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Warner Music has announced that the MD of its Australasia division, Tony Harlow, will relocate to New York next March to become President of artist and label services arm WEA Corp, replacing Matt Signore, who starts his new gig as COO of Warner Music Nashville next month.

• Record industry trade group BPI has promoted its Head Of Digital, Giuseppe De Cristofano, to the new role of Director Of Digital. Meanwhile Darren Kruse, currently with media firm Global, is joining the trade body as Digital Communications & Content Manager.

• Hey, don’t be thinking that’s all the BPI news today, oh no. Tim Cooper is departing his role of Head Of Content Protection, a job he only began earlier this year. He’s going off to protect more sporty content for the Premier League.

• Ticketing platform Eventbrite has itself a new London-based Head Of Music Partnerships, and it’s Paul Everett, who formerly worked at Beggars and management firm SuperVision, and most recently as a director of Wonderland Management, a role he will continue to perform.

• Lady Gaga has released the video for ‘Million Reasons’. You almost certainly know this.

• Bastille have released the video for ‘Blame’ from their ‘Wild World’ album.

• DJ Shadow has released the video for ‘Bergschrund’, featuring Nils Frahm, from his ‘The Mountain Will Fall’ album.

• Metronomy’s ‘Hang Me Out To Dry’, featuring Robyn, has a video now.

• Frida Sundemo has released the video for her latest single, ‘We Are Dreamers’.

• Nils Bech has written a Christmas song, ‘O Helga Natt’. Here he is performing it.

• Billy Bragg and Joe Henry have announced some UK tour dates for January, performing songs from their ‘Shine A Light – Songs From The Great American Railroad’ album. They’ll kick off at Union Chapel in London on 16 Jan.

READ MORE ABOUT: Bastille | Billy Bragg | British Phonographic Industry (BPI) | Darren Kruse | DJ Shadow | Eventbrite | Frida Sundemo | Giuseppe De Cristofano | John Henry | Lady Gaga | Matt Signore | Metronomy | Nils Bech | Paul Everett | Tim Cooper | Tony Harlow | Warner Music | WEA

Friday 16 December 2016, 11:33 | By Andy Malt

CMU Beef Of The Week #336: The Year In Beefs

And Finally Artist News Awards Beef Of The Week Business News Digital Live Business

Well, 2016’s been quite a ride, hasn’t it? We’ve had ups and… wait, did we have ups? There were probably some ups. I guess a lot of the bad things that have happened have led to some enjoyable Beef Of The Week columns. That’s what they always say, isn’t it? The more to the right politics move, the better the beefs get. I’ve definitely heard people say that.

With all but a few formalities to go before 2016 is all wrapped up and we can get on with 2017, it’s time to take our traditional look back through the last twelve months by way of its disagreements, fallings out, misunderstandings and needless shouting. Here it is, the year in pop beefs…

January: A misunderstanding about phones
Think back to the beginning of 2016. Oh the possibilities. Oh the delights and greatness that may still lay before us. At the time of our first Beef Of The Week of the year, David Bowie hadn’t even died. All that had happened was Adele and Ed Sheeran had briefly fallen out over a misunderstanding about a flip phone. He had bought one for his year off from the internet, and not as some sort of dig at her ‘Hello’ video. Such innocent times.

February: One Direction quickly go in different directions
The BRITs came around, as they so often do, and One Direction were all set to win various awards. Given that they had just split up, er, I mean, gone on hiatus, it would have been a good demonstration of the group’s continued friendship to all show up together to collect their prizes as one (even if it was just one prize in the end). Well, at least two of them made the effort. Though not the two who immediately sprang to your mind. Niall was on holiday and Harry just couldn’t be bothered.

March: Whose job is it to carry the head on the plane?
Things took an unusual turn in March. A dispute over pirated software led Kanye West to tweet of Deadmau5: “# whose job is it to carry the head on the plane # hash tag # do you check the mickey mouse head or carry on # does it get hot?” Meanwhile, PJ Harvey was accused of being the Piers Morgan of music by a Washington politician who took exception to her ode to the city, ‘The Community Of Hope’.

April: The seeds of complacency
Ah, April? Remember April? Back in the days when the smug metropolitan elite was still smug? To be fair, anyone supporting the Remain campaign in the EU Referendum had every reason to think that they were assured a win, given how bad a job the Leavers made of organising pop concert Bpoplive. More of which later. Over in the US, people turned up to a petrol station for a secret Limp Bizkit show that, unsurprisingly, was a hoax. Perhaps this should also have been a warning for the outcome of America’s big election of 2016.

May: Trump finds few friends in music
Speaking of America’s big vote, by May Donald Trump’s campaign was really gathering steam, though few were yet expecting his win. Since that happened in November, the music community has been writing lots of letters asking him for sympathy in their battle against the tech industry. Just hope he doesn’t remember how pretty much every musician was falling over themselves to shout about how much they hated him back in the summer.

June: Piss up v Brewery
That whole Bpoplive thing was still going on. Despite having lost its entire first line-up because of its obvious links to the Leave campaign, Bpoplive continued to claim it was just an event designed to convince young people to register to vote.

Though with that in mind there were two snags with the rescheduled version of the concert. One was that it had been pushed back to a date after the deadline to register to vote. Secondly, the new line-up consisted of two members of 5ive, East 17, Alesha Dixon, Sister Sledge and Rose Royce’s Gwen Dickey. Hardly a youth-friendly line up. Not to worry though, they all pulled out within 24 hours of the new line-up being announced, to be replaced by the band legally known as Formerly Of Bucks Fizz and an Elvis impersonator.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the event in the 15,000 capacity Genting Arena was finally cancelled. All in all, Bpoplive had shown high ambition but no real plan. A little bit like the Brexit advocates the concert’s organisers eventually conceded that they were allied to.

July: Raise your hand if you believe in science
While in the UK, the horror of what we’d just done to ourselves still had half the nation sat like deer in headlights, over in the US there was still a thing you may remember called ‘hope’. Trump may have just been named the Republican candidate in the upcoming presidential election, but what did that mean? It wasn’t like he was going to win. Performing at a Republican National Convention fringe event, Third Eye Blind baited their right wing audience with quips like “raise your hand if you believe in science”. Yeah, that doesn’t seem quite as funny now, does it?

August: Photoshopping [REDACTED] to suggest [REDACTED] is irresponsible in the extreme
The August silly season really couldn’t come quickly enough this year. And I think you’ll agree that Taylor Swift getting into a fight with Northamptonshire Police is some pretty good light relief. This beef involved the police force Photoshopping a photo of Taylor Swift and actor Tom Hiddleston to help promote an anti-terrorism campaign. The tweaked photo was later removed, with police emails obtained under a Freedom Of Information request revealing “a complaint from [REDACTED]” stated that “Photoshopping [REDACTED] to suggest [REDACTED] is irresponsible in the extreme”. It certainly is.

September: It’s all still about Brexit
Brexit still remained a topic of regular conversation in September. Not least because Louise Mensch managed to make every conversation Brexit-themed regardless of what the other person was actually talking about. So when she saw a tweet about the closure of Fabric from journalist Clive Martin, she immediately assumed he was commenting on the Referendum result and began accusing him of being ageist and of not voting. Oh, also, the unnecessary closure of Fabric happened this year. Let’s hope its reopening in January is an omen for the rest of 2017.

October: Bob Dylan and the Nobel Prize
In October, it was announced that Bob Dylan had won this year’s Nobel Prize For Literature. It was a slightly controversial decision, which may have been intentional. What I’m sure organisers didn’t expect was for him to fail to respond in a timely manner. It was nearly two weeks before he got in touch to say he would like the prize. Not that he bothered to go and collect it. And we still don’t know if he will give the lecture that is required in order to receive his prize money. Oh Bob. Meanwhile, musicians were still not making friends with Donald Trump. But it wasn’t like he was going to win.

November: StubHub’s sponsorship of the Q Awards turns out to be controversial
Secondary ticketing has been a hot topic in music this year. After more than a decade of attempts to get the government to do something about it, it is looking like more regulation could be incoming in the UK in 2017. It’s not really clear if Bauer Media took this into consideration when taking sponsorship money from StubHub for this year’s Q Awards. Several artists did give it some time in their acceptance speeches though.

December: Vinyl revival!
It’s all about the vinyl revival now, isn’t it? That’s where everyone’s making their money in music. At last count, music industry revenue was coming almost 100% from sales of vinyl. At least in the imaginations of the media at large.

December’s big story was that sales revenues for vinyl outstripped those from downloads in the first week of the month. Discussion of this generally ignored the fact that that stat said much more about the state of the download market than it did vinyl sales, and that vinyl’s good week revenues-wise was in no small part down to the release of a new Kate Bush live album that cost £52 on twelve-inch.

Speaking of which, if you haven’t bought my Christmas present yet…

READ MORE ABOUT: Adele | Bauer Media | Bob Dylan | Bpoplive | BRIT Awards | Deadmau5 | Donald Trump | Ed Sheeran | Harry Styles | Kanye West | Kate Bush | Limp Bizkit | Nobel Prize | One Direction | PJ Harvey | Q Awards | StubHub | Taylor Swift | Third Eye Blind

Friday 16 December 2016, 10:38 | By Andy Malt

Approved 2016: Frank Ocean

Artists Of The Year CMU Approved

Every day this week in the CMU Approved slot, we’ve been looking at one of our five favourite artists of 2016. Today, Frank Ocean.

The story of Frank Ocean in 2016 has been a fascinating one, with many twists and turns along the way, and various elements that are yet to fully reveal themselves.

He began the year as a once hotly-tipped artist who had probably left it too long to follow-up his 2012 debut album. He’d been working on it for so long, how could it possibly live up to expectations? It almost seemed like a misstep that there was little hope of overcoming. Supposed release dates for album two had come and gone in the years since ‘Channel Orange’, and they continued to slip as 2016 went on.

Even when Ocean put out a mysterious video, which could be nothing else but a sign that the album was now finally imminent, reports that this was the case spooked him and he delayed full release yet again, keen to make sure that the element of surprise remained intact as much as possible.

Then finally it came. Not called ‘Boys Don’t Cry’, as had been originally announced, instead we had ‘Endless’, a visual album available only to stream on Apple Music – where it exclusively remains to this day. But wait, a rep for Apple let slip as that piece of work went live, there’s more.

And more there was. Just 24 hours later, Ocean released another album: ‘Blond’. Or ‘Blonde’, no one seems quite sure. An album in the traditional sense that it was a collection of audio tracks, it also began as an Apple exclusive, though eventually made its way out into the wider world.

There are many reasons to pay close attention to this, not least the ingenious scheme behind the release of both albums. Prior to their release, Ocean had replaced his entire team, worried about how his affairs were being managed. And then he negotiated his way out of his record deal with Universal’s Def Jam.

He would deliver one more album to the major, then he would be free. Though it’s still not entirely clear if the label fully understood that that one more album, ie ‘Endless’, would be immediately superseded by the self-released ‘Blond(e)’.

Universal played down the drama, though the development coincided with an internal declaration from the major’s top guard that exclusivity deals between labels and streaming services were now officially “a bad thing”. Which may have or may not have been related to the fact Apple money had enabled Ocean to stage such a quick and high profile release of ‘Blond(e)’.

Universal did get itself a new Frank Ocean album to release though, and arguably it’s the better of the two (though it’s a tough call). The final twist in this story may as yet come if and when ‘Endless’ gets a full release unlocked from its ‘visual’ status and Apple exclusivity arrangement. Ocean could get away with releasing two albums at once, but then also benefit from having separate campaigns for each of them a year apart. There is no reason why ‘Endless’ shouldn’t be the album of 2017.

Because beyond the business dealings and misdirection that got these two albums out into the world, the most important thing to note is their quality. The production and songwriting on both are incredible. Which means, not only did he overcome fears he couldn’t meet expectations with a second album in 2016, Ocean met expectations with both a second and a third long player, whatever the official status of ‘Endless’ may be.

The attention to detail is what makes both records worth returning to over and over. One of the stand out tracks on ‘Blond(e)’ – ‘White Ferrari’ – went through 50 iterations before Ocean got it right. “It didn’t give me peace yet”, he told the New York Times of one version rejected along the way. Elsewhere, on ‘Ivy’, he manipulated his voice to sound younger, in order to encapsulate the time he was writing about.

This year has also been about Frank Ocean retrospectively taking back some power over who he is. Already not one to put his whole life out on social media, the New York Times interview is the only time he has spoken to the press since his two album releases. Part of the mystery he cultivates is about taking control of his fame.

“Sometimes I’m fascinated with how famous my work could be while I’m not so famous”, he said in that interview. “[I’m] super-envious of the fact that Daft Punk can wear robot helmets and be one of the most famous bands in the world, while also understanding that will never be my situation. It’s too late. It’s hard to articulate how I think about myself as a public figure. I’ve gotten used to being Frank Ocean”.

Watch the video for ‘Blond(e)’ opening track ‘Nikes’ here:

Stay up to date with all of the artists featured in the CMU Approved column in 2016 by subscribing to our Spotify playlist.

READ MORE ABOUT: Approved 2016 | Frank Ocean

Friday 16 December 2016, 10:05 | By Andy Malt

CMU Podcast: SoundCloud, Sony Music, Gig licensing

Business News Digital Industry People Labels & Publishers Legal Live Business Setlist

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last week, including what the future may hold for SoundCloud now that talks for Spotify to buy it are off, the latests revamps and possible revamps at Sony Music, and the government’s opposition to adding the consideration of “cultural benefits” to live music licensing rules. The CMU Podcast is sponsored by 7digital.

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Stories discussed this week:

• Spotify drops plans to buy SoundCloud
• Revamp of Sony’s entertainment business could more closely align Sony Music with Sony/ATV
• New boss at RCA UK as Sony Music completes senior management restructure
• Government opposes adding “cultural benefit” to gig licensing criteria

In brief:

• Music industry writes open letter to Donald Trump – piracy and safe harbours are the focus
• Bestival is moving
• Robbie Williams partners with Ticketmaster and Shazam on interactive ticket
• Neil Young’s Pono planning move into high quality streaming
• Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith opens new music department in Bedfordshire school

READ MORE ABOUT: Bestival | Chad Smith | Donald Trump | National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) | Neil Young | Pono | RCA | Red Hot Chili Peppers | Robbie Williams | Shazam | Sony Music | SoundCloud | Spotify | Syco | Ticketmaster | Tim Clement Jones

Thursday 15 December 2016, 11:37 | By Chris Cooke

Australian court orders ISPs to block The Pirate Bay

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal Top Stories

Australia has joined the web-block party, and just in time for Christmas! Don your festive jumper, dish out your secret Santa gifts and do whatever other nonsense things people do at this time of year. Just don’t try accessing The Pirate Bay from an Aussie internet connection.

As much previously reported, web-blocking – where a court orders internet service providers to block access to copyright infringing websites – is a preferred anti-piracy tactic of the music and movie industries in countries where such injunctions are available. In Australia a change in copyright law last year made web-blocking an option for rights owners.

The first cases being pursued under that new law were led by TV company Foxtel and movie firm Village Roadshow and targeted The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, TorrentHound, IsoHunt and SolarMovie. Although the new law specifically allows web-blocking, this first case was a test of exactly how the new anti-piracy procedure will work in Australia. And in a judgement earlier today, both the rights owners and the ISPs got some of what they wanted.

The court duly granted web-blocking injunctions against the five targeted sites, giving net firms Telstra, Optus, TPG and M2 fifteen days to stop their customers from accessing those particular piracy platforms. However, the ISPs enjoyed some success in limiting the reach of those injunctions and in getting their costs covered.

It’s no secret that the main problem with web-blocking as an anti-piracy tactic is that as soon as you block the domain of a piracy site proxies pop up that make it easy for users to circumvent the blockade. The rights owners wanted a system whereby they could demand ISPs block the proxies without going back to court, as happens in some other countries. But the judge hearing the case wasn’t convinced that that was a good idea.

According to iTnews, the lawyer speaking for Foxtel and Village Roadshow, Richard Lancaster, told the court earlier this year that the proxy issue “is a known problem in the real world. It will be a problem that arises in the implementation of your honour’s orders. And we’re concerned – given this is the first [Australian web-block] case – that a procedure be adopted that will not create a real administrative burden for the future in having to do something unnecessary and elaborate such as the [internet firms] suggest”.

The net providers argued that filing new papers with the court wouldn’t actually be all that more of an “administrative burden” than filing papers with the ISPs direct whenever proxies appear. Judge John Nicholas agreed that the blocking of proxies should be subject to judicial oversight. He wrote in his judgement today: “Whether the terms of any injunction should be varied to refer to additional domain names, IP addresses or URLs is a matter for the court to determine in light of evidence”.

On the costs front, in the main Nicholas ruled that the rights owners should cover the admin, legal and tech costs associated with the web-blocks. Though the biggest of those costs are for ‘setting up’ web-blocking mechanisms, meaning in theory any subsequent applications for web-block injunctions should be more cost effective for the rights owners.

It’s thought that today’s ruling will set in place a framework that will apply to future web-block applications. The music industry has already launched its own web-block application targeting the now defunct KickassTorrents – a case that was put on hold pending the outcome of this one – and which could now continue targeting mirrors of the KAT site that sprung up after the main platform was taken down by the US authorities in July.

READ MORE ABOUT: The Pirate Bay | web-blocking

Thursday 15 December 2016, 11:34 | By Chris Cooke

Former moneylenders sue American Idol owner over alleged dodgy dealing

Business News Legal Media

Following Simon Fuller’s legal wrangling earlier this year with the company that owns the ‘Idol’ franchise he created, now the firm’s former moneylenders have gone legal in a potentially explosive case.

As previously reported, Core Media was originally a venture led by entertainment industry veteran Robert FX Sillerman which bought stakes in the Elvis Presley and Muhammed Ali brands and acquired various media assets, principally Fuller’s 19 company and the ‘Idol’ talent show franchise it had successfully developed.

Sillerman ultimately departed the company and went on to set up his doomed dance music enterprise SFX, while Fuller also gave up his executive role at the business but continued to consult on the TV shows he had created, which included ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ as well as the various ‘Idol’ franchises.

Private equity company Apollo Global Management acquired the business in 2011, subsequently selling the stakes in the Presley and Ali brands to focus on Core’s media operations, and later forging an alliance between it and another media firm it owned, Endemol, and 21st Century Fox’s Shine Group, to create a reality TV powerhouse.

During that time the ‘Idol’ franchise started to wane, and its flagship show ‘American Idol’ aired for the final time earlier this year. Once the final ‘American Idol’ final had occurred, Core Media applied for chapter eleven bankruptcy protection. That led to the run in with Fuller, who hit out at Core Media’s plans to restructure its debts and sought to propose his own plan for taking the firm out of bankruptcy. For its part, Core successfully requested that the court cancel its ongoing consultancy agreements with Fuller.

In September, the bankruptcy court in New York then approved Core’s reorganisation plan, which saw the firm’s moneylenders receive significantly less than they were owed, in some cases pennies on the dollar. Now the ‘litigation trust’ set up for Core creditors by the bankruptcy court has filed a lawsuit accusing Apollo of dodgy dealing in relation to the Core/Endemol/Shine arrangement.

According to Courthouse News, the lawsuit claims that the terms of two loans worth $360 million that helped finance Apollo’s acquisition of Core in 2011 said that all owed monies must be repaid if control of the company changed, while if any merger took place, the merged entity must take on any outstanding liabilities to the money lenders.

The lawsuit states: “The lenders imposed these restrictions on Apollo to ensure that Apollo had ‘skin in the game’, and would not be able to effectively take value away from Core, or enjoy an exit event, in ways that would disrupt the lenders’ ability to be repaid by Core under the lending agreements”.

The lawsuit then basically alleges that the Endemol/Shine deal pretty much gave the newly created Endemol Shine Group control of Core and its assets – so, it was a change of control – but the firm’s creditors were not paid back what they were owed. The lenders claim that the Core/Endemol/Shine deal was specifically structured in order “to strip Core of its remaining cash, transfer Core’s corporate opportunities to its competitors, and ultimately leave Core to default on its obligations to its lenders”. Which it then did.

The lawsuit is seeking damages and punitive damages for intentional interference with contracts and inducing breach of the loan contracts. For its part, Apollo says that “the lawsuit is without merit and we intend to defend ourselves vigorously”. Good times. They should make a reality show out of all this, it would be much more fun than watching some warbling wannabes pretending they could become America’s next pop idol.

READ MORE ABOUT: 19 Entertainment | 21st Century Fox | American Idol | Apollo Global Management | CORE Media | Endemol | Shine Group | Simon Fuller

Thursday 15 December 2016, 11:31 | By Chris Cooke

Australian collecting societies announce plans for combined public performance licence

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

The Australian music industry’s two collecting societies – the record industry’s PPCA and the music publishing sector’s APRA/AMCOS – have announced plans to launch a single public performance licensing system in the country under the name OneMusic Australia.

The new initiative mirrors that launched by the New Zealand side of APRA with that country’s record industry rights society, PPNZ, back in 2013, which also goes by the name OneMusic. Quite how similar the two OneMusic ventures will be in operational terms will depend on the outcome of the “intense industry consultation” that the two Australian societies say they will now conduct with regards how the Australian single public performance licence for music should work.

Many corporate customers of music don’t really understand the difference between the two sets of music rights – ie the copyright in songs and the separate copyright in recordings – and so don’t understand why they need two licences to play recordings of songs in public. Even those who do understand the difference often argue that a key point of collective licensing – where groups of rights owners license as one – is to simplify the process for licensees, so why add the complexity of licensing song and recording rights separately?

The UK music societies – PPL on the recordings side and PRS on the songs side – have also followed the lead of their New Zealand counterparts and will next year launch a combined public performance licence covering the playing of recordings in public, having already dabbled with a small number of combined licences in the past. Restructuring has begun behind the scenes for the joint venture that will now administer that combined licence.

These developments don’t mean that the song and recording societies are actually merging – money will flow from the joint venture to the individual societies and from there to the rights owners. But the aim is that for licensees – especially smaller licensees – the process is simpler, and no one need know that there are two sets of music rights, and in effect two music rights industries, one for songs and one for recordings.

Confirming the OneMusic Australia plan, the bosses of PPCA and APRA/AMCOS – Dan Rosen and Brett Cottle respectively – said in a joint statement yesterday: “[We] are pleased to announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding to develop a single public performance licensing scheme under the brand OneMusic Australia, to be launched in the second half of 2018”.

They went on: “The two industry rights management organisations have responded directly to the administration needs of hundreds of thousands of Australian businesses using music in preparing for a single-licence scheme and e-commerce facility, covering both the recording and musical work rights”.

“Our investment in sophisticated ecommerce solutions means that public performance music customers will enjoy a much simpler process for obtaining, managing, reporting on and paying for the licences they need for their businesses”, they added. “This follows the successful introduction of OneMusic NZ three years ago, which was warmly welcomed by licensees. The next eighteen months will be a period of intense industry consultation on how best to merge two existing licensing structures equitably and efficiently into one single-licence offering per sector”.

READ MORE ABOUT: APRA/AMCOS | OneMusic Australia | PPCA

Thursday 15 December 2016, 11:24 | By Andy Malt

Decca launches publishing division

Business News Industry People Labels & Publishers

Universal’s Decca label has announced the launch of a new classical-focused music publishing division, led by Natasha Baldwin, previously of Imagem.

“Natasha Baldwin is an exceptionally skilled and experienced publishing executive with a renowned track record”, says CEO of Universal’s Global Classics division Dickon Stainer. “Her appointment will enable us to offer new publishing and synchronisation services to our classical artists and neo-classical composers, alongside the recording activities of our legendary classical labels and the world-famous Universal Music Publishing Classical catalogue.”

Baldwin herself adds: “Using the platform of global brand campaigns, movies and media exploitation I’ve spent many years proving the versatility and accessibility of classical and neo-classical music. We’ve reached a moment where the democratisation of music discovery via streaming is giving developing genres a voice like never before. Through Decca Publishing my goal will be to amplify this offering and further broaden the impact of neo-classical music worldwide”.

READ MORE ABOUT: Decca | Natasha Baldwin | Universal Music

Thursday 15 December 2016, 11:20 | By Andy Malt

Bestival is moving

Business News Gigs & Festivals Live Business

Rob da Bank has announced this morning that his main Bestival festival is to move off the Isle Of Wight to a new site on the Lulworth Estate in Dorset in 2017, using the same location as its sister event Camp Bestival.

Bestival has been held annually on the Isle Of Wight since 2004, but is moving in a bid to cut costs and remain commercially viable. However, a new event is promised for the little old island off England’s South coast where the entire Bestival enterprise began.

“We can confirm we have submitted a licence application for a new site at the Lulworth Estate in Dorset and we’re super excited about our shiny new Bestival adventure”, said da Bank via Facebook. “We have an incredible line-up, headliners confirmed and ridiculous new stages and installations coming your way in 2017”.

He added: “We remain fully committed to supporting the Isle If Wight through music, charities and projects and will be giving islanders an exclusive ticket offer for the new site. Plus we’re working towards a new event for the island. Watch this space”.

Speaking to Music Week, he explained: “It’s bittersweet for us after thirteen years on the Isle Of Wight, our spiritual home. It’s not a decision that’s been taken lightly. We started Bestival as fun, hobby thing that has turned into a business, and commercial aspects have taken over, so with fierce competition we felt we needed to move to keep ahead of the game and to keep our spot as one of the leading independent festivals in the UK if not the world. It’s a big move for us”.

The theme for the 2017 event, da Bank added, will be a reflection on Bestival’s time on the Isle Of Wight, bringing back a number of features and stages from its past.

READ MORE ABOUT: Bestival

Thursday 15 December 2016, 11:18 | By Andy Malt

DHP Family announces plans for The Garage

Business News Live Business

DHP Family has announced its plans for The Garage, having bought the North London venue earlier this year.

In keeping with the strategy it employees at its Oslo venue in Hackney, as well as the existing live music spaces, the all new Garage will also house an all-day café and bar area, serving coffee, craft beer and cocktails.

“The Garage has been on my radar for about ten years now when I first looked to buy it”, says DHP Family MD George Akins. “Its location, layout and history are perfect for what we are looking for in a venue and we look forward to reinventing the space for a new generation”.

The refurnished venue is expected to open in February.

READ MORE ABOUT: DHP Family | The Garage

Thursday 15 December 2016, 11:15 | By Andy Malt

Lady Gaga agrees to Piers Morgan interview, after he questions PTSD diagnosis and rape

Artist News Media

Lady Gaga has agreed to do an interview with prize bellend Piers Morgan after he questioned the authenticity of her recent open letter discussing the post-traumatic stress disorder she suffers as a result of being raped as a teenager.

After speaking about her PTSD in an interview with US TV show ‘Today’, Gaga wrote about the subject further on the website of her Born This Way Foundation, a charity which aims to improve the mental wellbeing of young people.

“I have wrestled for some time about when, how and if I should reveal my diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”, she wrote. “After five years of searching for the answers to my chronic pain and the change I have felt in my brain, I am finally well enough to tell you. There is a lot of shame attached to mental illness, but it’s important that you know that there is hope and a chance for recovery”.

Morgan responded to the piece by tweeting that it was “vain-glorious nonsense” and that it “angers” him when “celebrities start claiming PTSD about everything to promote themselves”, because he knows a lot of people in the military who have also had to deal with the disorder.

He also claimed that Gaga, and also Madonna in her recent Billboard Woman Of The Year acceptance speech, may have fabricated claims that they were raped on the basis they did not report the attacks to police, adding: “I wouldn’t automatically believe anything either Madonna or Lady Gaga claimed about their lives”.

Responding, Gaga told Morgan: “I’ve work with our Vice President Joe Biden on helping educate people about why women don’t report [sexual assault], would love to share it with you some time. Would also love to talk with you about PTSD, that it’s not just a ‘military’ disorder. There is a mental health youth epidemic”.

Morgan responded: “OK, you’re on. Let’s do an interview about this and you can tell me why I’m wrong to be sceptical”.

Feeling pretty smug, he then made a gag about a “meat suit”, to which Gaga replied: “If you continue to shame me in the process of kindly agreeing to interview with you, I’ll happily do the interview with someone else”.

Hopefully it won’t come to that, as Morgan has already agreed that it’s “an important debate”. Which it definitely is, given his apparent starting point that rape isn’t traumatic because women just make it up.

Information on PTSD and how to seek help is available via Mind’s website here.

READ MORE ABOUT: Lady Gaga | Madonna | Piers Morgan

Thursday 15 December 2016, 11:13 | By Andy Malt

Andrew Lloyd Webber “discovered” Rihanna but did nothing

Artist News Industry People

Andrew Lloyd Webber has made the bold claim that he “discovered Rihanna”. By which he seems to mean that he heard her sing once and then did nothing.

In an interview on ‘Good Morning Britain’, Webber said that he and Nigel Wright, with whom he made those ‘let’s find someone who is good at singing’ TV shows, saw Rihanna singing in a hotel in Barbados. Although they both thought that she sounded “very, very good”, they chose not to approach her about working with them, in case they were under the same sort of holiday spell that leads you to buy disgusting local alcohol while abroad.

“I said to Nigel, ‘If we bring her back, you know it’s like when you see a picture when you’re away and you take it home and you think, why did I buy that?'” Webber claims. “I thought, you know, we’ll get her back, it’ll be fine, but then what do we do with her?”

Looking back, he says that he was “not proud” of the decision. Yeah, Webber, the alcohol Barbados is known for is rum. And rum is great. Let that be a lesson to you.

READ MORE ABOUT: Andrew Lloyd Webber | Nigel Wright | Rihanna

Thursday 15 December 2016, 11:11 | By Andy Malt

CMU’s One Liners: Warner Music, BMG, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, more

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

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Warner Music has announced a restructure of senior management in its technology and data departments, and just in time for Christmas! Ralph Munsen is now Chief Information Officer and Vinnie Freda is Chief Data Officer. “I’m very happy”, says Freda. “I’m THRILLED”, screeches Munsen.

• BMG has made Dominique Kulling Managing Director of its operations in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. “She understands”, says BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch.

• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah will release new album ‘The Tourist’ on 24 Feb. Here’s first single ‘Fireproof’.

• Yung Lean has, just like that, out of nowhere, released a new mixtape, ‘Frost God’. Here’s ‘Hennessy & Sailor Moon’ featuring Bladee.

• Senseless Things have announced that they will perform a one-off show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 25 Mar, their first time on stage together since 1995. Tickets here.

• Phantogram will play the Shepherds Bush Empire on 4 Apr. Tickets go on sale on Friday.

• All Pigs Must Die and Gust will be playing in the UK in April next year. The two bands will play a show in London at an as yet undisclosed venue on 7 Apr, before heading up to Leeds for the Ritual Festival on 8 Apr.

READ MORE ABOUT: All Pigs Must Die | BMG | Clap Your Hands Say Yeah | Dominique Kulling | Gust | Phantogram | Ralph Munsen | Senseless Things | Vinnie Freda | Warner Music | Yung Lean

Thursday 15 December 2016, 11:08 | By Andy Malt

Listening to AC/DC makes you bad at board games (and surgery)

And Finally Artist News

If you’re the competitive type of guy who can’t bear the thought of losing the family board game showdown on Christmas Day, it might be an idea to remove AC/DC’s ‘Mistress For Christmas’ from your festive playlists. A study has found that listening to rock music makes men worse at board games, with the Australian band particularly singled out for reducing cognitive skills.

The study, published in the Medical Journal Of Australia this week, was carried out by researchers from Imperial College London and the Royal College Of Music. They asked 352 attendees of this year’s Imperial Festival to play a game of Operation. Each was given headphones, which played either ‘Andante’ from ‘Sonata For Two Pianos’ by Mozart, ‘Thunderstruck’ by AC/DC, or the sound of a real operating theatre.

The study found that while women were apparently unaffected by any type of music or sound played to them, men who listened to AC/DC were slower and made more mistakes. And while this might all seem a little frivolous, it’s actually part of a wider and more serious investigation.

“Although this study is clearly tongue-in-cheek, and was all performed in our spare time, it is part of our wider research into the effect of music on performance”, explained lead researcher Dr Daisy Fancourt. “Particularly in a medical setting such as an operating theatre”.

Yeah, if you’re going in for an actual operation, and if the surgeon’s a man, maybe make sure he’s not planning to play any AC/DC during the procedure, just to be on the safe side. Fancourt says that music is played in operating theatres around 72% of the time, though there is a lack of agreement among experts on the benefits (or lack thereof) of this.

She continued: “One of our areas of research is how we can boost performance in many different settings – from rowing in the Olympics, to a musical performance or delivering an important speech. This study suggests that for men who are operating or playing a board game, rock music may be a bad idea”.

Asked for his view on all of this, former AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd said: “Now I know why I always lose at Scrabble”.

READ MORE ABOUT: AC/DC

Thursday 15 December 2016, 09:26 | By Andy Malt

Approved 2016: Riz MC

Artists Of The Year CMU Approved

Every day this week in the CMU Approved slot, we’ll be looking at one of our five favourite artists of 2016. Today, Riz MC.

Riz Ahmed is best known to the world at large now as an actor. This year, you may have seen him the new ‘Jason Bourne’ film, and you’ll be able to catch him in the new ‘Star Wars’ movie this weekend. But his ascent in Hollywood doesn’t seem to have affected his output as a rapper.

It’s been quite a year, 2016. A lot has happened in the world, and it’s still not clear what much of it really means. It’s at times like this that the existence of Riz MC becomes all the more reassuring, as a result of his talents for both making good music and writing lyrics that make sense of, or at least ask questions about, the world around us.

His latest solo release, ‘Englistan’, was recorded before June’s EU referendum vote in the UK. But afterwards it all took on a new meaning, as reflected in the video for the title track. Just two weeks after the big vote, he explained: “We made this video in the context of a 500% rise in racist hate crime after the recent Brexit referendum in the UK. It’s for Eid and celebrates multiculturalism as a response to the recent surge in racism”.

Later, Ahmed wrote an essay for a new book called ‘The Good Immigrant’ discussing the ‘random’ searches he has to go through at Heathrow Airport for each of his now frequent trips to the US. “As I’ve travelled more, I’ve also done more film work, increasing the chances of being recognised by the young Asian staff at Heathrow”, he wrote. “I have had my films quoted back at me by someone rifling through my underpants, and been asked for selfies by someone swabbing me for explosives”.

He also recalled the first time this happened to him, as he travelled home after making his first film, Michael Winterbottom’s ‘The Road To Guantánamo’. That experience was spun into the track for which he is still best known, ‘Post 9/11 Blues’.

With similar wit and lyrical skill, his more recent airport experiences were turned into ‘T5’, the opening track on ‘Cashmere’, the debut album by Swet Shop Boys – the duo he formed with Das Racist’s Heems. “Trump want my exit, but if he press a red button/To watch Netflix, bruv, I’m on/I run the city like my name Sadiq/Not the Syrian city of Dabiq”, he raps.

“I’m so happy to talk about all these things”, he told The Guardian recently. “I think it’s really important that we do. I don’t think it’s enough to be visible anymore. I think we have to be vocal about what we believe in. We’re living in scary times”.

Watch the video for ‘T5’ here:

Stay up to date with all of the artists featured in the CMU Approved column in 2016 by subscribing to our Spotify playlist.

READ MORE ABOUT: Approved 2016 | Heems | Riz MC | Swet Shop Boys

Wednesday 14 December 2016, 11:55 | By Chris Cooke

New boss at RCA UK as Sony Music completes senior management restructure

Business News Industry People Labels & Publishers Top Stories

Sony Music UK has allied one of its acquisitions from earlier this year, the Ministry Of Sound Recordings label, with its RCA frontline label operation, promoting the former’s MD David Dollimore to the new role of President of RCA/MoS Recordings. The major says that the “partnering of the two labels is an exciting strategic development”, and who are we to question the strategic excitement caused by a restructure?

The two constituent units will continue to have their own MDs reporting into Dollimore, with his colleague at the Ministry label Dipesh Parmar becoming MD there, while RCA UK General Manager Neil Hughes is also promoted into an MD role.

The rejig also sees the departure of previous RCA UK boss Colin Barlow. His exiting comes just over a month after former Columbia UK chiefs Alison Donald and Mark Terry also left the major, which constitutes quite an overhaul at the top of Sony’s UK record company on the watch of overall CEO Jason Iley. His former Universal Music colleague Ferdy Unger-Hamilton is now heading up Columbia UK.

Confirming the latest restructure, Iley said: “The coming together of these two exceptional labels is incredibly exciting for Sony Music UK – two powerhouse labels with a phenomenal strike rate led by three of the best execs in the business”.

But it was Dollimore who got to be THRILLED about the whole thing. “It’s an honour to be joining the Sony family and leading the incredible teams at RCA and Ministry Of Sound Recordings into the next era for the labels”, he said. “It is a privilege to be working for an industry leader like Jason at this pivotal time. It is really exciting to be a major part of his vision for the new landscape of Sony. I’m THRILLED Dipesh will be taking over the role of MD of Ministry Of Sound Recordings. Over the last decade we have grown a business that we are both very proud of. I am also looking forward to working closely with Neil, who has an outstanding pedigree across the industry”.

Dollimore having used up the THRILLED quota, Iley went with DELIGHTED as he expanded on his new appointments. “I’m DELIGHTED David is taking up this new role as President of RCA UK and Ministry Of Sound Recordings. He is one of the most dynamic and innovative A&R executives in the business whose track record speaks for itself. Dave is the future. Dipesh is also an incredible executive who has helped Ministry become the driving force it is today and I’m excited to see him take the label forward here at Sony Music. It’s also a thoroughly well deserved promotion for Neil whose relationships with the RCA artists are second to none. He has been invaluable at RCA in recent years”.

READ MORE ABOUT: David Dollimore | Dipesh Parmar | Ministry Of Sound | Neil Hughes | RCA | Sony Music

Wednesday 14 December 2016, 11:52 | By Chris Cooke

Music industry writes open letter to Donald Trump – piracy and safe harbours are the focus

Business News Labels & Publishers Legal

The National Music Publishers Association having got its wish list in to President-Elect Donald Trump super quick, the wider American music industry has now followed suit.

On this open letter, the NMPA is joined by pretty much every other trade body and organisation representing the US music industry, from the Church Music Publishers’ Association to the Rhythm & Blues Foundation and The Living Legends Foundation, and some you’ll have already heard of before today.

Noting Trump’s scheduled meeting with the major tech firms, the letter bigs up the contribution of music to the US economy and acknowledges the role of some technology firms in helping evolve and expand all that for the digital age. But – oh yes, there’s a but – don’t forget the ‘value grab’. Whatever you do Donny, do not forget the value grab. Which, by the way, is American for the ‘value gap’.

“Many in the technology and corporate community should be commended for doing their part to help value creators and their content”, the music groups write. “Some have developed systems to promote a healthy market for music and deter theft. However, much more needs to be done. Search engines, user-upload content platforms, hosting companies, and domain name registrars and registries should follow others’ example to effectively stop theft and assure fair payment”.

So, do more to combat piracy tech-heads. Meanwhile, stop it with the value grab will you? “There is a massive ‘value grab'”, the letter continues. “As some of these corporations weaken intellectual property rights for America’s creators by exploiting legal loopholes never intended for them – perversely abusing US law to underpay music creators, thus harming one of America’s economic and job engines”.

It concludes: “Surely the world’s most sophisticated technology corporations can do better – by helping to prevent illegal access and paying fair market value for music with prices set by or based on the free market”.

Surely so. The legal loopholes being exploited, of course, are the safe harbours in the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which the music industry would like reformed so that the likes of YouTube no longer get the protection that allows them to operate an opt-out rather than opt-in streaming service.

The letter concludes: “We hope you will lead the effort to assure American creativity is encouraged, invested in, protected and fairly compensated in a manner that carries out the exclusive rights guaranteed in the constitution to those who, with the genius of their mind, form the cultural identity of our great nation”.

Too right. Let’s make American great again!

READ MORE ABOUT: Donald Trump | National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA)

Wednesday 14 December 2016, 11:49 | By Chris Cooke

Robbie Williams partners with Ticketmaster and Shazam on interactive ticket

Artist News Business News Deals Digital Live Business

Having spectacularly and unapologetically shunned Ticketmaster and everything it stands for – by getting right into bed with Amazon’s new ticketing service, which has exclusive rights to tickets for his intimate show at St John At Hackney Church tonight – Robbie Williams has now bed-hopped right back into the arms of Live Nation’s ticketing powerhouse. And all it took was a little interactivity. Simple.

This may not have been the exact sequence of events, but Williams is definitely partnering with Ticketmaster on “the world’s first interactive ticket”. Which is a bold claim. I mean, just holding a ticket in your hand is quite interactive. But basically, Ticketmaster has taken the Collector Ticket product it has developed – a credit-card sized ticket on a lanyard that fans can, well, collect – and has thrown in a bit of Shazam integration so that fans can also unlock some digital content by scanning the same credit-card sized ticket with their phone.

“Ticketmaster is partnering with Shazam, one of the world’s most popular apps, to develop a truly immersive and interactive Collector Ticket”, says the ticketing firm. And yes, this is basically just a glorified QR code promotion, and yes they did use the “immersive” word in that quote there, but I’ve been banging on about artists selling exclusive digital content to fans at concerts for years now, so hey, well done on doing just that.

“Robbie Williams is one of the UK’s most successful and innovative performing artists”, says Ticketmaster’s VP Artist Services Sam Isles. “His 2017 ‘Heavy Entertainment Show’ tour promises to be his most inventive yet, and the interactive Collector Ticket is a perfect addition to that. It represents a great way for fans to get closer to the artist and enjoy owning a concert ticket like never before”.

Snapchat has helped make QR codes a thing again, of course. And look, elsewhere in Shazam news, it’s just announced a tie-up with Snapchat. “This partnership will make it possible for users to Shazam from within Snapchat by pressing and holding on the Snapchat camera screen when music is playing nearby”, says the official announcement. Confirming “to Shazam” is now a verb. Thanks for that.

READ MORE ABOUT: Robbie Williams | Shazam | Snapchat | Ticketmaster

Wednesday 14 December 2016, 11:47 | By Andy Malt

Neil Young’s Pono planning move into high quality streaming

Business News Digital

Neil Young has said that his Pono download platform is planning to relaunch as a high quality audio streaming service. Once again, getting in on the action in a super timely manner.

As I’m sure you’ll all remember, Young first announced his Pono digital music player back in 2013, launching it a year later and raising $6 million on Kickstarter. Specially designed not to comfortably fit into any pocket, the player offers the ability to play music at a quality beyond the range of human perception.

In order to pretend you could hear the difference between this and any other digital music player, you had to buy high quality digital albums from Pono’s own download store for two or three times the price of the same title on iTunes. All of this was powered by Omnifone, which went out of business earlier this year, suggesting that this wasn’t quite the cash cow Young had hoped. Omnifone’s downfall also took the Pono store offline.

But every disaster is an opportunity, so the Pono company is using this one as a chance to have a rethink. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Young now says that the company is “pushing towards getting a presence in phones”. This will require quite a lot of pushing – very few phones are currently equipped with the technology to play audio above CD quality, on account of that whole ‘human perception’ thing.

Young also says that Pono is working with a company in Singapore on technology to “maintain our quality level when we go to streaming”.

High quality streaming services already exist, of course. Tidal probably has the best known offering, while there’s also Deezer Elite, which is currently only available for Sonos customers. Largely these have shown that there’s not much of a market for more expensive, high quality streaming services. And they will presumably eventually be put out of business as all streaming services naturally improve sound quality. But I’m sure everyone at Pono has considered all that and come up with a great plan.

READ MORE ABOUT: Neil Young | Pono

Wednesday 14 December 2016, 11:45 | By Andy Malt

Lupe Fiasco cancels delayed album releases over anti-Semitism claims

Artist News

Lupe Fiasco has announced that he’s “officially not releasing any more music” in response to accusations of anti-Semitism. The rapper released a new track earlier this week in which he references “dirty Jewish execs”.

The new track in question, ‘NERD’, was released on SoundCloud on Monday, in which he raps: “Artists gettin robbed for their publishing/By dirty Jewish execs who think that it’s alms from the covenant”.

After numerous accusations of anti-Semitism, Lupe Fiasco denied the claims on Twitter saying that he was “getting beat up for telling the truth”. Among a string of tweets defending himself, he said: “I just find it odd that these executives stealing from artists is not the outrage and hasn’t been mentioned yet”.

Asked why the execs’ religion was in any way relevant, he replied: “Because in my case they were Jewish”.

He also claimed that SoundCloud had taken down the track due to it being “hate speech”, announcing at this point “I’m done”. However, the track is still online and available to listen to:

Nevertheless, he then announced: “I get the hint, God. Yo Lupe fans, it’s been fun and I hope you’ve had fun. I’m officially not releasing any more music. Album’s cancelled”.

Lupe Fiasco said last year that he would release three new albums in 2016, none of which have yet materialised. In October he said that there was now a “strong chance” nothing would come out this year after all, due to “clearance and mixing issues”. A new album, ‘Drogas’, was planned for release early next year.

READ MORE ABOUT: Lupe Fiasco

Wednesday 14 December 2016, 11:38 | By Andy Malt

Ed Sheeran preparing to “break the internet” with new album

Artist News

Ed Sheeran signed off from public life a year ago. Since the summer he’s been making his slow return though, with a surprise appearance at Latitude, writing a song for Robbie Williams, buying a pig effigy of himself, and getting stabbed in the face by royalty. Now, it seems, he’s ready to make the final step back into being a working musician. By which I mean, he’s posted a big blue square on Instagram.

His last post on the social network was a note informing fans that he was “taking a break from my phone, emails and all social media for a while”.

“I’ve had such an amazing ride over the last five years, but I find myself seeing the world through a screen and not my eyes, so I’m taking this opportunity of me not having to be anywhere or do anything to travel the world and to see everything I missed”, he said last December. “The third album is on its way and is the best thing I’ve made so far. See you all next autumn and thank you for being amazing”.

Well, autumn has pretty much become winter, and he’s still not singing. The best we’ve got so far is this year’s ‘X-Factor’ winners single, ‘When Christmas Comes Around’, which he penned along with ‘Thinking Out Loud’ co-writer Amy Wadge.

For her part, Wadge has been chatting about her collaborator’s new material, telling BBC Newsbeat that Sheeran will “break the internet” when he returns (which, can we all agree, remains a daft thing to say – if anyone’s going to break the internet, it’s clearly going to be Vladimir Putin).

Wadge added that Sheeran’s album is “done” and will be out “really soon”. Well done Amy for puncturing the mystery and tension Ed is clearly trying to build with his new social media post. Personally I hoped that was just him announcing he’d joined Tidal’s list of celebrity shareholders.

READ MORE ABOUT: Ed Sheeran

Wednesday 14 December 2016, 11:36 | By Andy Malt

A Tribe Called Quest will continue under new name, suggests Q-Tip

Artist News

Q-Tip has suggested that fans should not get too down about A Tribe Called Quest’s previously announced plans to retire. The band last month released their first album for eighteen years, ‘We Got It From Here… Thank You For Your Service’, announcing that it would be their final record.

The decision to stop was influenced, of course, by the death of the group’s Phife Dawg during recording sessions earlier this year. Though this is seemingly also the inspiration for them to continue in some other form too.

Speaking to Annie Mac on Radio 1, Q-Tip said: “[The album is] closure. We’re satisfied. It’s just hard to imagine continuing without my guy. It’s divine, or whatever. We’re accepting of it, and we accept it with humility and understanding. There’s also a degree of selfishness, because you want that person who’s not here with you to be here with you to experience the fruits of the labour. But I know that he’s up there experiencing it in a heavenly way”.

He continued: “Stay tuned for any other incarnation. We don’t intend on stopping because that was Phife’s MO – ‘this time we gotta do it and keep going’ – and now he’s left us with the equation of how do we do it, but we are going to need it, and we’re going to continue”.

Listen to the full interview here:

READ MORE ABOUT: A Tribe Called Quest | Phife Dawg | Q-Tip

Wednesday 14 December 2016, 11:27 | By Andy Malt

Sleaford Mods announce new album, English Tapas

Artist News Releases

Sleaford Mods have announced that they will release their new album – their first for Rough Trade – on 3 Mar, titled ‘English Tapas’.

The duo’s Jason Williamson explains the title, saying: “Andrew [Fearn] walked into some random pub and saw ‘English Tapas’ scrawled on the menu board. Underneath this beautiful coupling of words were its components, half a scotch egg, cup of chips, pickle and a mini pork pie. It says everything about this fucking place. It’s comedy, it’s make do, it’s ignorant and above all, it’s shit”.

As well as the new album, a documentary about Sleaford Mods directed by Christine Franz is due out early next year too.

READ MORE ABOUT: Sleaford Mods

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