Friday 9 December 2016, 11:01 | By

Spotify knows what you listened to at your office Christmas party last night

Artist News Business News Digital

Spotify

Last week PPL revealed the most-played Christmas songs on TV and radio last year. Well how about the most-played songs at office Christmas parties happening right now? Or more likely, last night.

According to Spotify, the second Thursday of December, as in yesterday, is the busiest day of the year for office Christmas party playlists in the UK. So the streaming service pulled all 220,000 of those playlists together and worked out what the top ten most popular songs on them all are.

Is Mariah Carey number one again? No, she is not. Let’s do the countdown:

1. Wham! – Last Christmas
2. Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You
3. Andy Williams – It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
4. Shakin’ Stevens – Merry Christmas Everyone
5. The Pogues – Fairytale Of New York (feat Kirsty MacColl)
6. The Ronettes – Sleigh Ride
7. Wizzard – I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
8. Boney M – Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord
9. Eartha Kitt – Santa Baby
10. Elvis Presley – Blue Christmas

You can listen to the top 50 tracks as a playlist here.

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Friday 9 December 2016, 11:00 | By

Radar Music Videos announces rebrand to encompass wider visual remit

Business News Digital

Radar Music Videos

Radar Music Videos has announced that it is rebranding as Radar Music Creatives, as it opens up its platform to become a wider commissioning service for other visual elements surrounding music, such as album artwork, stage visuals, websites and more, on top of its traditional focus, ie music videos.

“Music marketers need more and more visual content, so we’re expanding to meet that need”, Radar MD Caroline Bottomley says. “We’ve taken the same ‘Radar’ approach to scouting illustrators, graphic designers, photographers and website designers – finding the best up and coming talent and signing them exclusively to Radar”.

Find out more here.

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Friday 9 December 2016, 10:59 | By

Paste magazine goes back into print with vinyl covermount

Business News Media

Paste Quarterly

Following the news that American pop culture mag Complex is winding down its print edition, another pop culture title Paste is going back into print, having been online-only since 2010.

Also US-based Paste announced earlier this week that it will launch a new quarterly print edition next year, to be called Paste Quarterly. And whereas the old Paste magazine used to come with a covermount CD attached to the front, the new mag will be delivered complete with a vinyl record, obviously.

Readers are encouraged to help make the return to print happen by pledging via Indiegogo, for a single issue or one year subscription, or for various other premium packages that offer other bits n pieces beyond the new magazine.

Announcing the new venture earlier this week, co-founder Josh Jackson wrote: “We’ve embraced the realities of our new digital world and are thankful for all the new ways it allows us to present stories to our readers. But we still love the tangible”.

He went on: “We love the smell and feel of a magazine fresh off the printer. We love the luxury of sitting down with something special to read, completely unplugged from the devices that so often have us at their beck and call. We love a clever illustrated spread, stunning photos bleeding off the edge and long-form stories that pull you in page after page. That’s why we’re launching Paste Quarterly”.

On the vinyl revival embracing covermount he adds: “We’re bringing back the Paste Sampler, but this time it’s a 150 gram coloured vinyl album with exclusive tracks recorded at the Paste Studio in New York”.

The first edition will include tracks from Lake Street Dive, Shakey Graves, Lucius, Josh Ritter, Joseph, Anderson East, Lee Fields & The Expressions, Bonnie Bishop, Violent Femmes and Courtney Barnett.

More info about the magazine and the Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign is here.

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Friday 9 December 2016, 10:53 | By

Greg Lake 1947-2016

Artist News Obituaries

Greg Lake

Greg Lake, best known as a member of King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, has died, it was announced via his website yesterday. He was 69.

In a statement, his manager Stewart Young said: “Yesterday, 7 Dec, I lost my best friend to a long and stubborn battle with cancer. Greg Lake will stay in my heart forever, as he has always been. His family would be grateful for privacy during this time of their grief”.

Lake’s death follows that of his ELP bandmate Keith Emerson, who passed away in March this year.

Born in Dorset in 1947, Lake first rose to prominence as the original frontman of King Crimson, appearing on the band’s first two albums, 1969’s ‘In The Court Of The Crimson King’ and 1970’s ‘In The Wake Of Poseidon’. The same year as the second album came out, Lake left to form a new band with Emerson, whom the former had met when the latter’s band The Nice supported King Crimson a year earlier.

Drafting in Atomic Rooster drummer Carl Palmer, they formed Emerson, Lake & Palmer, building a sound that took in rock, classical and electronic influences – leading to them becoming one of the defining acts in prog rock. Their career was kickstarted by a well-received performance at the Isle Of Wight Festival in 1970. They signed to Atlantic Records and released seven albums before splitting in 1979.

Lake and Emerson continued to work together in various capacities, reuniting with Palmer a number of times – most recently for their 40th anniversary. Lake also enjoyed a solo career, which will possibly be best remembered for his 1975 Christmas song ‘I Believe In Father Christmas’, which remains a staple of the festive season.

Greg Lake is survived by his wife Regina and their daughter Natasha.

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Friday 9 December 2016, 10:50 | By

Diana Gordon releases video for Woman

Artist News Releases

Diana Gordon

Diana Gordon has released her first music video, for ‘Woman’, her second single under her own name.

Formerly known as Wynter Gordon, she is currently best known as a songwriter for other artists, working with the likes of Mary J Blige, Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce (‘Becky with the good hair’ was her invention). She reignited her career as an artist in her own right with ‘The Legend Of’ earlier this year.

Speaking about the new video, Gordon says: “We shot this video on a cold day in November. Five pregnant women on the cusp of giving birth and hungry, everyone having to pee at the same time. It was also one of the calmest days I’ve ever experienced. We all wanted to capture the incredible beauty of this ancient magic called ‘creation of life'”.

“I also wanted to give them classic beautiful images to show their children when they were older” she adds. “This song, that is rock n roll reincarnated, that celebrates your mother, my mother, your sister, and my sister, is just my way to stand up for the woman next to me and all those unseen. We need each other and the world really needs us right now”.

Watch the video here:

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Friday 9 December 2016, 10:48 | By

Sondre Lerche releases video for I’m Always Watching You, plus alternate version

Artist News Releases

Sondre Lerche

Sondre Lerche has released the video for his recent single ‘I’m Always Watching You’, as well as an alternative version of the single called ‘I’m Always Watching Too’.

Speaking about the two tracks, Lerche says: “The night before I was going to record ‘I’m Always Watching You’, I awoke from dream about the song. In the dream the song was slower, anchored by a sluggish dub groove, and a narrative that was turning on me: I was being watched. I had been found out”.

“It proved impossible to bridge the dream with the more natural, realistic version that became the original take on the song”, he adds. “But I couldn’t let go of the dream, and the hazy recording I made on my phone in the middle of that night became my guide for a different take on the same dream. A response, of sorts: ‘I’m Always Watching You Too'”.

So, for the full effect, here’s ‘I’m Always Watching You’:

And here’s ‘I’m Always Watching Too’:

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Friday 9 December 2016, 10:46 | By

CMU’s One Liners: Twickets, Riz MC, Tegan & Sara, more

Artist News Business News Deals Digital Gigs & Festivals One Liners Releases

Twickets

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Kilimanjaro Live and DEAG have partnered with Twickets to provide face value ticket resale on their MyTickets.co.uk website. Kilimanjaro Live CEO Stuart Galbraith says: “This demonstrates our firm commitment to ensuring price transparency of tickets and ultimately as fair a deal as possible for fans”.

• Riz MC did a freestyle rap about ‘Star Wars’ and discovered that nothing rhymes with Calrissian. Though, what if Hal, Riz and Dan had all got together?

• Tegan & Sara are puppets in their new video for ‘Dying To Know’.

• The Jesus & Mary Chain will release new album, ‘Damage And Joy’, on 24 Mar. Here’s a song.

• Brasstronaut have released the video for new single ‘Hawk’. Their new album, ‘Brasstronaut’, is out on 24 Feb.

• Ama Lou has released new single ‘Not Always’.

• Bob Dylan has announced that he will tour the UK next year, finishing up at Wembley Arena on 9 May. Or he might decide not to bother and send Patti Smith instead.

• Pins have announced that they will be touring the UK next year, including a show at London’s Moth Club on 19 Apr. They’ve also just contributed a song to this Amazon Christmas playlist.

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Friday 9 December 2016, 10:43 | By

CMU Beef Of The Week #335: Vinyl v Downloads

And Finally Artist News Beef Of The Week Digital Labels & Publishers Retail

Wayne's World 2

Cassandra: Let me show you what I got at a garage sale. Isn’t that great? Heard of it?

Wayne: Exsqueeze me? Have I ever seen this before? Everybody has ‘Frampton Comes Alive’. If you lived in the suburbs, you were issued it. It came in the mail with samples of Tide.

Cassandra: Look at this old one. Gerry And The Pacemakers.

Wayne: That is old. I bet those guys actually have pacemakers by now.

Cassandra: Can you believe they don’t make vinyl anymore? It’s weird, isn’t it?

Wayne: That is weird.

Cassandra: Bobby said my album won’t be vinyl.

Wayne: Bobby says… Are you and Bobby having an affair?

An exchange there from the classic 1993 movie ‘Wayne’s World 2’. Oh yes. And you know what, I remember thinking at the time, “yes Cassandra, it is weird that they don’t make vinyl anymore”. And sad. Real sad. Though having just invested in a CD player in 1993, I was also part of the problem. I too was shunning the classic recorded music format for shiny discs. But maybe I was just moving with the times. Vinyl was dead and yet life goes on.

Except vinyl wasn’t dead, was it? It wasn’t even true that vinyl production had ceased completely by the early 1990s, it had just become an ever more niche product presumed to be on its way out. But it’ll be dead soon we all thought. Dead, dead, dead. How wrong were we? DATs and downloads are the future they said. But oh no, it’s all about the vinyl revival.

Some reckon that Brexit was an attack by the older generation on the younger generation. So perhaps the vinyl revival is a kind of retaliation by The Kids. They can’t stop their parents from inflicted ever more insular politics on the world, but they can bloody well stop vinyl from slipping into the history books.

Granddad forced a Trump presidency on you, but hey Granddad, look at this twelve-inch record I just bought. Ha, you thought you’d killed this format off, didn’t you? Of course the long-term economic chaos caused by 2016’s political events probably means The Kids will never be able to afford a piece of vinyl ever gain. But it’s a victory of sorts.

Anyway, all this nonsense has been prompted by news from the UK’s Entertainment Retailers Association this week that vinyl sales recently outperformed download sales. During one week. It was only a small difference, but vinyl took £2.4 million in those seven days, while downloads brought in £2.1 million.

“This is yet further evidence of the ability of music fans to surprise us all”, says ERA chief Kim Bayley. “It’s not so long ago that the digital download was meant to be the future. Few would have predicted that an album format, first invented in 1948 and based on stamping a groove into a piece of plastic, would now be outselling it in 2016”.

Yeah, that’s right, the vinyl record has completely taken over the music market from your new fangled downloads. That’s “downloads” by the way, not “digital downloads”. The death of that latter phrase will be the best thing to come out of the eventual complete demise of the download market. Though, of course, spoilsports like, well, us mainly, insist on qualifying ERA’s announcement.

First things first, let’s note that the retail trade group’s fun stat tells us a lot more about the tanking download market than the vinyl revival. Download sales have been in steep decline for a while now of course as the streaming market booms, something Bayley’s quote forgets to mention. So it’s streams that have bashed download sales sufficiently into the ground that vinyl income seems impressive by comparison.

Also, of course, it’s December. This is always a good month for physical product, because – and scientists will be back me up on this – you can’t wrap an MP3 file. Not even an AAC file. One of the reasons CD sales have stayed more buoyant than you might expect is it’s much more fun to gift something physical, and the same applies for vinyl. “Here you go son, I bought you something you can’t play, but look how physical it is. And what about that Brexit hey! Good times”.

And then, finally, it’s worth noting price point. Arguably from an industry perspective, the key thing about the vinyl revival isn’t so much how many vinyl records are being sold, but how much you can get away with selling them for. The biggest selling vinyl release of the week this stat stems from was Kate Bush’s ‘Before The Dawn’ live album, which retails at £52. That certainly helped vinyl outperform downloads in terms of revenue despite the fact the number of units shifted vinyl-to-digital was 120,000 v 295,000.

But hey, vinyl revival, woo! Take that Mr Download, with your stupid convenience-over-authentic-listening-experience mentality. We’ve seen the future, and it’s black and round.

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Friday 9 December 2016, 09:40 | By

CMU Podcast: YouTube, SFX, Irving Azoff

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal Live Business Setlist

YouTube

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last week, including YouTube and the IFPI’s disagreement over whether $1 billion is ‘a lot’ or ‘not nearly enough’, SFX Entertainment’s big post-bankruptcy rebrand as LiveStyle, and Irving Azoff’s Global Music Rights accusing the US radio industry of being anti-competitive. The CMU Podcast is sponsored by 7digital.

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Stories discussed this week:

• “A billion dollars ain’t enough, mate”, IFPI tells YouTube
• SFX rebrands as LiveStyle
• Irving Azoff’s GMR declares: “It’s the radio industry being anti-competitive!”

In brief:

• US Congress passes ticket tout bot ban
• Amazon is the exclusive ticket agent for intimate Robbie Williams show
• Guvera postpones AGM because it can’t pay its auditors
• Duran Duran “outraged and saddened” after losing copyright reversion right case

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Thursday 8 December 2016, 09:35 | By

US Congress passes ticket tout bot ban

Business News Legal Live Business Top Stories

Ticket touts

Most ticket touting regulations considered or implemented in the US have so far happened at a state level, but yesterday Congress approved a bot ban at a US-wide federal level.

According to the Associated Press, the House Of Representatives yesterday approved proposals to define the use of special software by touts to hoover up large quantities of tickets from primary ticketing sites as an “unfair and deceptive practice” under the Federal Trade Commission Act. That would empower the FTC to pursue cases against people using such technology. The Senate has already passed the proposals, meaning the legislation will now go to President Barack Obama for approval.

As previously reported, a similar bot ban is currently being considered in the UK parliament as part of the Digital Economy Bill. Government ministers were initially down on the proposal, mainly because they said they thought that such software might already be illegal under the Computer Misuse Act. But following a fiery select committee in Parliament last month where reps from Ticketmaster and StubHub were grilled, a specific ticket bot ban now has considerable support amongst MPs and the government has indicated it could well back the move too. Officially speaking, the likes of StubHub have also endorsed such a ban.

In the US, some states have already sought to regulate or limit ticket touting, or scalping as they still insist on calling it. New York State has been most prolific on this front of late, and just last month it ramped up its efforts against the bloody bots, with a new law soon to come into effect that will criminalise the use of such software, so that people employing the bots could face jail time as well as fines. North of the border, the Canadian province of Ontario is also expected to outlaw ticket bots next year.

Though, of course, the bot ban is just one step towards limiting the rampant resale of tickets at massive mark ups on the secondary sites. First, someone needs to enforce the ban to make it effective. Mike Andrew of the UK’s National Trading Standards’ e-Crime Unit recently told the BBC that budget cuts make it hard for trading standards officials at a local level to invest time into enforcing rules on things like ticket touting.

Then, of course, bots are not the only way industrial-level touts access tickets. Some have teams of people manually logging onto primary sites buying up tickets as they go on sale, while others get tickets through sources within the music industry, who supply chunks of tickets to touts in return for a cut of the profit, or for upfront cash, or to reduce the risk of having unsold tickets for a show. Or often all three.

Still, most people in the anti-tout lobby see securing a bot ban as a good first step as part of a wider bid to try and regulate and restrict the resale of tickets for profit.

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Thursday 8 December 2016, 09:34 | By

Prince siblings can’t agree on permanent administrator for his estate

Artist News Business News Legal

Prince

The Minnesota-based wealth management company that was made the temporary special administrator of the Prince estate following the musician’s death earlier this year has confirmed that it’s only interested in performing that task on an interim basis.

The Bremer Trust told the court overseeing the estate that it only ever intended to take on the special administrator role until 2 Jan next year. Though it seems that the star’s siblings can’t agree on an alternative.

His sister Tyka Nelson has proposed New York-based Fiduciary Trust Company International as a new special administrator and eventual executor of the estate, with Michigan-based Comerica Bank as a second choice. It’s not known what alternatives Prince’s other siblings are proposing.

To that end, a legal rep of the Bremer Trust told the judge this week that, while her client was expecting to step down next month, there was no need to rush a decision on a replacement, so to ensure all presumed heirs can present their preferences.

Elsewhere in Prince news, court documents have shown that Jay-Z’s Roc Nation did try to win the gig to manage the musician’s musical assets in the weeks after his death. The legal papers making that claim are linked to the previously reported litigation in which Prince’s label and publishing business accuses Jay-Z’s streaming service Tidal of making big chunks of the musician’s catalogue available without the proper licence.

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Thursday 8 December 2016, 09:33 | By

Web-blocking back in the Swedish courts

Business News Digital Legal

Web Block

The music and movie industries are having another go at getting web-blocking underway in Sweden, hoping that a new specialist court might find in their favour this time.

As much previously reported, web-blocking, where internet service providers are forced to block their customers from accessing websites that rampantly infringe copyright – or facilitate copyright infringement – is a popular anti-piracy tactic of the entertainment industry. It has limited effect, because proxies quickly pop up via which people can still access blocked sites, though rights owners reckon it still performs a useful function, at least educating consumers as to which sites infringe copyright.

Whether web-blocks are an option depends on local copyright law. In some countries specific new laws have been passed to allow web-blocking, while in others – including the UK – the courts have decided blockades are possible under existing rules. Whenever web-blocking is being considered for the first time it proves controversial – with most ISPs objecting – though once underway in a country it usually quickly becomes the norm, and some net firms in those countries now back the anti-piracy tactic.

However, when the major record companies and reps for the film industry tried to get a web-block injunction against The Pirate Bay in Sweden last year, the District Court Of Stockholm sided with internet firm Bredbandsbolaget, which argued it had no obligation to block the infamous file-sharing site.

Now the music and movie outfits are having another go, taking the matter to the Patent And Market Court Of Appeal, a new IP-focused entity that sits within the Svea Court Of Appeal. Bredbandsbolaget continues to argue against the web-blocks, while the music and movie industries are again countering that the net firm should be obliged to put in place measures to reduce the amount of copyright infringement conducted over its network.

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Thursday 8 December 2016, 09:31 | By

SFX rebrands as LiveStyle

Business News Live Business

Randy Phillips

SFX Entertainment has emerged from bankruptcy like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon. By which I mean it’s changed its name. Because, as I’m sure you all remember, caterpillars are always called Karen whereas all butterflies are called Betty. And the creepy crawly SFX is now the beautiful LiveStyle Inc. Which might actually be one of the worst company names ever concocted. But, hey, at least it sheds the association to founder Robert FX Sillerman.

Now led by former AEG Live boss Randy Phillips, the dance music focused company actually officially came out of bankruptcy last week. SFX, of course, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, following former CEO Sillerman’s disastrous attempt to take his publicly listed entertainment company back into private ownership.

Discussing the rebrand, Phillips told Billboard: “Every time I said the name ‘SFX’ to someone, I got this negative reaction – people would make the sign of the cross”.

The problem, he said, was that under Sillerman’s direction, the company had launched and grown too quickly, hoping to capitalise on the EDM boom and secure an IPO.

“The problem was that it was put together too quickly”, he said. “It was based on doing an IPO. [Sillerman] sold a story about sponsorship. But sponsorship has to be the icing on the cake – not the cake itself”.

As well as ‘SFX’, LiveStyle is also shrugging off its other three key letters. Don’t call it an EDM company anymore whatever you do. It’s “a music company that specializes in electronic music” now. Because it’s going to be all about AMCTSIEM in 2017.

Phillips added that there are no more plans to sell off any of the company’s assets in a bid to build a cash pile – a strategy that had its ups and downs during bankruptcy. Rather, the new boss’s aim for his new company is to “clean this up, make it function, and grow it”.

So, tough talk from the new SFX, sorry, the new LiveStyle chief. Although he starts on a slightly unsteady footing. As the company came out of bankruptcy last week, it was announced that one of its festivals, Tomorrowland Brasil, was being cancelled in 2017. This follows the cancellation of its US sister festival earlier this year.

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Thursday 8 December 2016, 09:26 | By

Eventbrite and Bandsintown announce partnership

Business News Digital Live Business

Eventbrite

Ticketing platform Eventbrite and gig recommendations set-up Bandsintown have announced a new partnership, which will allow gig goers to buy tickets listed on the former without leaving the concert discovery app.

“Concerts and live music experiences have always been an incredibly important part of Eventbrite, and this new partnership with Bandsintown provides our organisers with a super-targeted, direct connection to the most passionate of music fans”, says Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz. “We’re proud to continue innovating with a best-in-class music partner to create exciting new products that ultimately get more concert-goers to the shows they love”.

Bandsintown’s Fabrice Sergent adds: “Over 50% of our concert-goers frequently go to see artists they had never heard of before they discovered them on Bandsintown. This makes Bandsintown a fertile discovery ground for Eventbrite’s event creators”.

Following the integration of Eventbrite ticket-buying into the Bandsintown app, the next stage of the partnership will be to allow users to access their ticket via Bandsintown, so that they only need to use one app.

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Thursday 8 December 2016, 09:25 | By

“A billion dollars ain’t enough, mate”, IFPI tells YouTube

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers

YouTube

YouTube was trumpeting the billion dollars it’s handed over to the music industry this year earlier this week. “Yeah, and the rest?” is the music industry’s perhaps predictable response.

“Google has issued more unexplained numbers on what it claims YouTube pays the music industry”, says the IFPI in a statement. “The announcement gives little reason to celebrate, however. With 800 million music users worldwide, YouTube is generating revenues of just over US$1 per user for the entire year. This pales in comparison to the revenue generated by other services, ranging from Apple to Deezer to Spotify. For example, in 2015 Spotify alone paid record labels some $2 billion, equivalent to an estimated $18 per user”.

As previously reported, YouTube’s Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl wrote in a blog post on Tuesday: “In the last twelve months, YouTube has paid out over $1 billion to the music industry from advertising alone, demonstrating that multiple experiences and models are succeeding alongside each other. And this is just the beginning. As more advertising dollars shift from TV, radio and print to online services, the music industry will generate even more revenue from ads”.

Kyncl’s talking up of free streams was basically a shot at the music industry, which prefers paid-for streaming, and is busying trying to get copyright law rewritten in a way that would weaken YouTube’s negotiating hand, enabling labels and publishers to push for a deal more in line with the one Spotify signed. It was also notable that the YouTube boss was going to great lengths to big up free streaming rather than paid subscriptions, despite YouTube having a paid-for option of its own in the US.

Continuing its statement, the IFPI said: “YouTube, the world’s largest on-demand music service, is not paying artists and producers anything like a fair rate for music. This highlights more than ever the need for legislative action to address the ‘value gap’ that is denying music rights holders a fair return for their work”.

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Thursday 8 December 2016, 09:24 | By

Complex magazine to close print edition

Business News Media

Complex

American pop culture magazine Complex is to cease publishing its print edition, according to various sources at the media firm cited by Billboard. The magazine, which first launched in 2002, is particularly known for covering urban music and culture.

The flagship Complex print mag has long been a small part of the wider media business that spun out of the title, which operates numerous other websites it launched or acquired, in addition to the Complex-branded online operation that also includes a UK site. Earlier this year that company became a subsidiary of a new joint venture between media firm Hearst and internet service provider Verizon.

It’s thought that closing down the print title will result in some job losses in the Complex sales, marketing and art departments, and a small number of editorial roles will go too. Though in a non-committal statement, the media firm implied that while there may be job losses amongst the team linked to its former print operation, there will be hires in its expanding video-content business, which is seemingly now the priority.

The firm told Billboard: “As Complex embarks on a rapid expansion of premium video creation across the company’s networks and with a growing list of distribution partners, the company is reallocating certain positions to address its content needs. We’re deeply committed to the ongoing evolution of our brand and our long-term plan to be a leader in digital video entertainment. While we’re reducing staff in some areas, we plan to increase to meet our needs in others”.

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Thursday 8 December 2016, 09:20 | By

Viola Beach did not suffer but reason for fatal crash remains a mystery

Artist News Legal

Viola Beach

An inquest into the deaths of the members of Viola Beach and their manager Craig Tarry in February this year has heard that “none of the young men will have suffered” after the car they were travelling in drove into a canal in Sweden. However, the exact reason for their accident remains unclear.

Post-mortem examinations showed that no alcohol or drugs were in driver Tarry’s bloodstream, while the four band members had only consumed small amounts of alcohol, reports the BBC. Before falling 25 metres into the canal, the car drove past waiting traffic and a number of barriers and warnings that the bridge in front of them was being raised to let a boat through. The car was driven in a “controlled manner” before striking the raising bridge and falling into the water below.

All causes of death were recorded as head injuries, apart from bassist Tomas Lowe whose death was recorded as drowning. However, Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg said “none of the young men will have suffered” as they died.

No errors were found with the car, barriers or procedure for raising the bridge. According to The Guardian, Rheinberg recorded a verdict of death by road traffic accident. Calling the incident an “awful tragedy”, he acknowledged that the exact circumstances of the crash may forever remain a mystery, adding: “It’s not for me to speculate what happened; it may never be known what happened”.

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Thursday 8 December 2016, 09:19 | By

CMU’s One Liners: Sony/ATV, Universal, Deezer, more

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

Sony/ATV

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Sony/ATV has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Norwegian DJ and music maker Alan Walker. Who knew? We did.

• Jeff Temske is now SVP Streaming Strategy & Research over there at Universal’s Capitol Music Group in the US. He’s “THRILLED” about the promotion.

• Nickie Owen is now Director Of International Marketing at Universal Music UK. She’s “absolutely delighted” with the new job.

• Continuing the trend of streaming services hiring ex-radio types, Deezer has appointed Chris Baughen – previously at Radio X – to be its VP Of Content And Formats.

• Nicki Minaj has released new single ‘Ain’t Gone Do It’ via her mobile game ‘Nicki Minaj: The Empire’. So that’s a thing.

• St Vincent has provided the soundtrack to Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut, short film ‘Come Swim’, which will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

• Tamikrest have announced that they will release new album ‘Kidal’ on 17 Mar. Here’s a teaser video.

• Anohni has shared the video for ‘Obama’, using the release to urge the outgoing US president to pardon Chelsea Manning in his last weeks in office.

• Six Organs Of Admittance will release a new album, ‘Burning The Threshold’, two days after playing a show at St Pancras Old Church in London. From the album, here’s ‘Taken By Ascent’.

• Thundercat will tour the UK and Ireland next March, finishing up at Heaven in London on 28 Mar.

• Rag N Bone Man has been declared the winner of the BRITs Critics Choice Award. And if you have a problem with that, you’re going to have to find a critic and criticise them. I met a critic once. I can’t remember his name though.

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Thursday 8 December 2016, 09:09 | By

No Grammy feud between Rihanna and Beyonce, move along

And Finally Artist News Awards

Rihanna

So it turns out that there is no feud between Rihanna and Beyonce over their Grammy nominations because OH MY GOD SHUT UP.

The nominations for the 2017 Grammys came out this week. You probably noticed. Beyonce is up for nine awards, while Rihanna is up for a measly eight.

That’s eight nominations, when it clearly should have been ten. Why isn’t Rihanna up for Song Of The Year and Album Of The Year? Huh? Huh? Conspiracy, right? The shady Grammy people didn’t want Rihanna to have more nominations than Beyonce, so they fixed it. Obviously.

This was a theory put forward by a Rihanna fan account on Instagram following the nominations announcement. A post that Rihanna herself subsequently liked. Which everyone took to be proof that she believes the conspiracy theory to be true, because if there’s one thing that we can all be certain of in the modern age, it’s people’s intentions when they press a reaction button on social media.

It’s alright though, turns out there might be one or two situations where that is not the case. A hoohaa having erupted, Rihanna returned to clarify her ‘like’, writing: “I never actually read your caption, [just] thought the pic was funny and moved right along! I’m petty as fuck, yes. But this is just unnecessary! I wish y’all would drop this topic and see things from the bigger picture! We don’t need to be pitting black women against each other! We deserve to be celebrated, and the Grammy Academy agrees!”

Oh wait, so being a female popstar isn’t a competition, and they aren’t all spending their days wishing each other dead? Well, this is quite the revelation.

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Thursday 8 December 2016, 09:01 | By

Approved: Young Juvenile Youth

CMU Approved

Young Juvenile Youth

Young Juvenile Youth last appeared in this column a year and a half ago. Now seems like a good time to check in with them again, particularly as new single ‘Youth’ sees them collaborating with another CMU approved producer, Erik Luebs, aka Magical Mistakes.

Since last year, their output has not been prolific, but it remains high in quality. ‘Youth’ – a double A-side with ‘A Way Out’ – joins another two track single release from 2016, featuring ‘Hive’ and ‘In Blue’. Vocalist Yuki drifts between Japanese and English lyrics, as producer Jemapur and Leubs build a tightly wound electronic track underneath her.

Watch the video for ‘Youth’ here:

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

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Wednesday 7 December 2016, 10:43 | By

Irving Azoff’s GMR declares: “It’s the radio industry being anti-competitive!”

Business News Labels & Publishers Legal Media Top Stories

Irving Azoff

We knew that as soon as America’s Radio Music License Committee sued Irving Azoff’s Global Music Rights – accusing it of anti-competitive behaviour – that an interesting legal battle was ahead. And we were right. Azoff’s mini performing rights organisation has now filed a lawsuit of its own, insisting that it’s the RMLC that is anti-competitive.

As previously reported, Azoff set up GMR in 2014 and it now represents the performing rights in about 26,000 songs on behalf of about 70 clients, most of them big name hit writing artists. It means that any American organisation wishing to perform or broadcast those songs must secure a licence from GMR, in addition to any licence it may already have from the two main song right collecting societies in the US – BMI and ASCAP – and the other commercial PRO, SESAC.

Collective licensing – ie where the entire music community decides to license as one in certain scenarios – always raises competition law concerns, especially when, as is the case in most countries, that collective licensing is done through one single collecting society. In some countries specific regulations apply to collective licensing in a bid to allay those competition law concerns, which sometimes include a statutory body or court of law to ultimately set royalty rates.

BMI and ASCAP are regulated by the infamous ‘consent decrees’ that are administered by the US Department Of Justice. SESAC sits outside the consent decrees, but past litigation – such as that pursued by the RMLC – has meant that SESAC has voluntarily agreed to third party mediation on royalty disputes. But GMR’s obligations have so far been untested.

Last month the RMLC sued GMR, accusing it of creating and exploiting a monopoly. The radio industry group basically wants GMR to agree to third party mediation, like SESAC.

As it filed its litigation, the RMLC said: “GMR, a public-performance-right licensing agency, is distinguished from ASCAP and BMI, in particular, in that it is a privately-held, for-profit firm that has created a bottleneck to, and artificial monopoly over, the works in its repertory. Unlike SESAC, ASCAP and BMI, which are all now subject to some form of rate regulation that acts to prevent monopoly pricing, GMR has thus far managed to avoid similar limits on its monopoly pricing”.

Now, while GMR does represent about 26,000 songs, it’s easy to take issue with the RMLC defining its licensing operation as a “monopoly”. Where there is one solitary collecting society in a country, which also represents the rights of other societies abroad through reciprocal agreements, that is pretty much a monopoly, because if you’re a music radio station and you can’t agree a deal with that PRO, you can’t play any music.

However, when an organisation represents 26,000 songs – compared to the 22 million repped by ASCAP and BMI – a licensee can realistically operate just fine without using those works if they don’t think the asking price of a licence is justified. They’ll just lose access to a load of popular hit songs.

This is a point that GMR basically makes in a lawsuit it filed against RMLC this week. According to The Hollywood Reporter, GMR states: “GMR has not accumulated and has no intention to amass the market power that other PROs have wielded. By keeping its catalogue small and high-quality across the board, GMR is able to provide personalised customer service to its songwriters and keep the cost of those services low”.

While GMR is not a monopoly, the song rights outfit argues, the RMLC is, because it negotiates for the entire US radio industry, making it difficult for music rights owners, like GMR, to do bespoke deals with individual radio stations or broadcast groups. Writes GMR lawyer Daniel Petrocelli: “RMLC’s member stations are competitors. Yet these ‘competitors’ created and actively participate in a ‘committee’ whose very purpose is to negotiate with PROs as a group and destroy competition among them in the acquisition of performance licence rates”.

Where collective licensing applies, it is common for groups of licensees to appoint one organisation – or a trade body – to negotiate industry-wide rates with a collecting society, and then present that group’s arguments should the matter end up in court. Though when songwriters and rights owners have, in essence, opted out the traditional collective licensing process, there is an argument that individual licensees should also be able to negotiate deals outside their representative organisations too.

GMR says that it has been negotiating with the RMLC since its launch, but any deal has been blocked because the rights body won’t agree to industry-wide rates or third party mediation. Attempts have meanwhile been made to negotiate direct with individual radio companies, but those have failed as well, with, apparently, two exceptions.

Although the RMLC filed first, GMR’s litigation isn’t actually a response to that lawsuit, but instead a separate action dealing with its grievances with the radio sector.

Should either case get to court it will be an interesting test of the obligations of US songwriters when it comes to licensing radio in non-conventional ways. The collective approach simplifies things for licensees as well as rights owners, despite the competition law concerns, so the radio industry doesn’t want to force things in such a way that songwriters and music publishers abandon collective licensing entirely.

Though, if they did, the RMLC would no doubt start lobbying for a compulsory licence for radio, given such a compulsory licence already exists for online and satellite radio on the recordings side.

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Wednesday 7 December 2016, 10:41 | By

Ghost Ship warehouse manager speaks after fire kills 36

Business News Live Business

Ghost Ship, Oakland

The manager of the warehouse in Oakland, California where 36 people died when a fire broke out during a gig there last weekend has spoken for the first time about the incident. In an emotional interview on ‘Today’, Derick Almena said that he was “sorry” but did not accept responsibility for the incident.

Noticeably uncomfortable and shaken, Almena said that he had set up the Ghost Ship warehouse in a bid to create a place where artists could afford to live and work, and that the parties at the building had been started to help fund that.

Asked if he should be held accountable for last week’s tragic events, Almena said: “What am I going to say to that? Should I be held accountable? I can barely stand here right now. I laid my body down there every night. We laid our bodies down there. We laid our children down there. We made music, we created art. We opened our home”.

There are reports that the building had already been investigated over safety concerns, and that modifications and electrical repairs had been carried out there without permits. Although Almena said that the building “was to city standards, supposedly”.

As previously reported, fire broke out at the venue on Friday night during a show headlined by electronic act Golden Donna. A fire department spokesperson has said they believe that 36 will be the total death toll, though a search of the building was not complete at that stage.

Watch Almena’s interview here:

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Wednesday 7 December 2016, 10:40 | By

Amendment to policing bill aims to force consideration of “cultural benefits” into the event licensing process

Business News Legal Live Business

Live music audience

Lord Tim Clement-Jones will today propose an amendment to the UK’s Policing And Crime Bill which would ensure that “cultural benefits to the community” are considered by local authorities when considering whether or not to grant a live music licence.

Current gig licensing rules put the focus on the potential negative impact of an event, including crime and disorder, public safety and public nuisance. None of that would change, but licensing officials would be obliged to consider the positive cultural impact of staging an event as well.

Clement-Jones will propose the amendment following a year-long investigation in the House Of Lords into the effectiveness of the Licensing Act 2003, legislation the Liberal peer has already reformed with his Live Music Act back in 2012. As part of the new review, Live Nation COO Paul Latham, who is also chair of the UK Live Music Group, was joined by Alex Mann of the Musicians’ Union and Mark Davyd of the Music Venue Trust to give evidence in Parliament yesterday.

All three men are backing Clement-Jones’s proposed amendment. Latham said: “As leading venue operators across the UK we strive to bring a ‘best in class’ operation to all our venues and that includes mutual learnings throughout our venue portfolio. At all times we try to work progressively with the respective local authorities to share our learnings. Unfortunately not all local authorities are like-minded and their interpretations of the Licensing Act are not always helpful, or consistent, which is frustrating and creates obstacles for venue operators at all levels”.

Davyd added: “Licensing is just one of many areas of the legal framework around grassroots music venues that is contributing to their rapid decline. In the case of licensing, Music Venue Trust is not asking that a special case be made for grassroots venues. Rather, we believe a further push to support the intent of the Licensing Act 2003 – and the subsequent Live Music Act 2012 – is required so these culturally and socially important spaces achieve parity in the manner in which the licensing framework handles and supports them. We want to see grassroots music venues acknowledged and respected alongside theatres and arts centres as spaces that are vital to the health, wealth and happiness of the UK”.

And Mann said: “Since the introduction of the Licensing Act in 2003 the MU has maintained that live music should not be licensed and remains committed to ensuring that if licensing conditions are to be placed upon venues, then they are for the good, not the detriment of the venue. Our members rely heavily on venues being able to remain open in order to provide places to perform and develop their craft, not to mention the crucial role that live music plays within our communities and cultural heritage. The Licensing Act’s existing objectives specifically made regulation of live music a public order issue, so we feel that a better balance is needed here, which acknowledges and reflects the cultural impact of live music”.

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Wednesday 7 December 2016, 10:38 | By

Apple Music passes 20 million subscribers

Business News Digital

Apple Music

Apple Music now has over 20 million subscribers, it has been confirmed. This is up from seventeen million in September.

The figure remains someway behind Spotify’s 40 million paying subscribers – with that company also enjoying rapid growth of late – but reaching the 20 million milestone in eighteen months is nevertheless pretty impressive. Still, it could be argued that, with prompts to sign up to Apple’s streaming service built into every Apple device, this growth could, and possibly should, have been faster.

However, if growth has been slower than hoped, that’s down to a still relatively slow rate of adoption of streaming music in general, says Apple’s Eddy Cue. “Of course we want more and we want it to go faster – we’re hungry”, he tells Billboard. “[But] we can’t forget that, as an industry, we still have very few music subscribers. There are billions of people listening to music and we haven’t even [collectively] hit 100 million [paying] subscribers. There’s a lot of growth opportunity”.

One thing Apple has been criticised for in the last year is its reliance of album exclusives to try to motivate users to sign up. Though, despite Universal Music being down on the practice, Cue says that this strategy will continue for the time being.

“I don’t think exclusives or promotions are anything new”, he tells the BBC. “They were done in the record business, they were done on iTunes, now they’re being done on streaming. The exclusives are relatively short term – it’s not something that stays on any one platform. But being able to do unique things with artists is a good thing and I think that’ll continue”.

With news that vinyl revenues surpassed those of downloads for the first time last week – confirming that the iTunes-led download business continues to tank – Apple also released some other stats about its streaming operation, including that 60% of subscribers had not bought anything from the iTunes download store in the last twelve months. Although rather than this being evidence of streams cannibalising downloads, Cue said that many of those customers were part of a “whole new audience”, who were not previously iTunes users.

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Wednesday 7 December 2016, 10:36 | By

YouTube paid over $1 billion to the music industry this year

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers

YouTube

Yesterday was the deadline for interested parties to submit opinions to the UK’s Intellectual Property Office with regard to the draft European Copyright Directive which was published earlier this year. For many in the music industry, the key section of that directive is the one that deals with the bloody safe harbours, ie the bit of law that enables services like YouTube to operate an opt-out rather than opt-in streaming service. The music industry wants safe harbour rules revised so that YouTube et al are no longer covered by them.

In convenient timing, YouTube chose yesterday afternoon to announce that it had paid over a billion dollars to the bloody music industry in the last twelve months. This is in addition to the $3 billion YouTube has long claimed to have paid over to music companies since 2007. Because, see, YouTube is supporting the music community, and ad-funded free streaming is something everyone should embrace. Translation: Shut up with your moaning, music industry.

YouTube’s Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl wrote yesterday afternoon: “Last year was a bright one for music – after several tough years of declining revenues, the industry started growing again, spurred in a large part by the growth of music streaming subscriptions. This year, the industry has even more reasons to be optimistic. Even as music subscriptions have been growing faster than any other subscription type, advertising is another powerful driver of revenue”.

He went on: “In fact, in the last twelve months, YouTube has paid out over $1 billion to the music industry from advertising alone, demonstrating that multiple experiences and models are succeeding alongside each other. And this is just the beginning. As more advertising dollars shift from TV, radio and print to online services, the music industry will generate even more revenue from ads”.

He concluded: “In the future, the music business has an opportunity to look a lot like television, where subscriptions and advertising contribute roughly equal amounts of revenue, bolstered by digital and physical sales. To achieve this, there is a lot of work that must be done by YouTube and the industry as a whole, but we are excited to see the momentum. At a time when there’s never been more competition for attention, fans can’t get enough good music. It is clear that this creative industry has two strong engines of growth – subscriptions and advertising – and we are honoured to be a part of it”.

Yay momentum! YouTube, of course, remains enemy number one in parts of the music industry, despite everyone recognising it’s a valuable marketing channel, especially for new artists. And many labels and publishers are down on all free streaming services.

The key issue with YouTube is that while it shares ad income with music rights owners, it won’t commit to pay minimum guarantees based on users and usage, unlike the audio streaming services. Therefore what the music industry earns from YouTube is based on ad sales not consumption, income going up as more ads are sold, not more videos streamed.

YouTube gets away with that more preferential deal because the aforementioned safe harbours strengthens its negotiating hand. Hence the music industry wants the safe harbours reformed, to weaken YouTube’s hand at the negotiating table, to get the minimum guarantees.

Though Kyncl is right that – while paid-for streaming is driving most of the growth at the moment – free streams will be a necessary part of the digital music business in the long term, meaning rights owners need to find a way of making ad-funded work, which inevitably means accepting lower per-play income from some mass-market services.

Kyncl, of course, reckons that YouTube can be part of the solution here, just providing the music industry doesn’t fuck everything up by pulling its safe harbour protection. Though labels and publishers probably won’t be convinced by that.

Buy hey, interesting that Kyncl isn’t suggesting subscription-based YouTube Red is the solution, isn’t it? All hail the free streams.

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Wednesday 7 December 2016, 10:35 | By

Showaddywaddy still the “hardest working artist” in the UK

Artist News Business News Live Business

Showaddywaddy

Live entertainment guide ents24 has once again compiled a list of the 20 hardest working artists of the year. The list is, and I quote, “based on data from the UK’s biggest live guide [to] determine which original music acts performed at the most different UK venues this year”.

And who are the hardest workers when it comes to good old fashioned British gigging? Well, mainly old-timers again. Presumably the young-uns are too busy snapchatting and Pokemon Go-ing to actually get on stage and sing their songs. Or maybe they’re mainly playing abroad.

Anyway, here’s the list, with last year’s positions in brackets.

1. Showaddywaddy (1)
2. John Otway (13)
3. The Searchers (4)
4. Bay City Rollers Starring Les McKeown (3)
5. Fairport Convention (NE)
6. Bad Manners (15)
7. Attila The Stockbroker (NE)
8. Big Country (NE)
9. Blossoms (18)
10. Spring King (NE)
11. Chas & Dave (7)
12. Craig Charles (NE)
13. Show Of Hands (NE)
14. Gareth Gates (NE)
15 Allusondrugs (8)
16. Jools Holland & His Rhythm And Blues Orchestra (NE)
17. The Sherlocks (NE)
18. Lewis Hamilton Band (NE)
19. Reg Meuross (NE)
20. Jason Donovan (NE)

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Wednesday 7 December 2016, 10:30 | By

David Bowie statue to be erected in Aylesbury, following successful crowdfunding campaign

Artist News

David Bowie

A crowdfunding campaign to raise money for a statue of David Bowie in Aylesbury has raised more than its target of £100,000. This means that plans for the statue will now go ahead.

In a statement, organiser David Stopps said: “We are very grateful to everybody. It’s been a Biblical 40 days. The bottom line now is that the statue will happen”.

The statue of Bowie will be erected in Aylesbury Market Square, referenced in the opening line of his track ‘Five Years’. Bowie also debuted songs from his ‘Hunky Dory’ and ‘Ziggy Stardust’ albums in the town.

View the Kickstarter campaign here.

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Wednesday 7 December 2016, 10:29 | By

Beyonce leads in 2017 Grammy nominations

Artist News Awards

Beyonce

The nominations for the 2017 Grammy Awards are out, and Beyonce has more nominations than you or any body. Nine she’s got. That’s loads. Drake, Rihanna and Kanye West only have eight each. Which is rubbish.

Adele is out there representing us Brits reasonably well. She’s up for Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. Underworld are in the Best Dance/Electronic Album category, while David Bowie, PJ Harvey and Radiohead are fighting it out for Best Alternative Music Album, and Coldplay are up against Jamie XX for Best Music Video. There might be other Brits shortlisted too, but I’m not about to start Googling every nominee on the off chance.

Instead, here’s Recording Academy boss Neil Portnow with a quote: “Just as we see emerging musicians experimenting, we’re also seeing established artists resisting what’s expected of them and, instead, embracing the creative freedom they’ve been afforded through their success, blurring the lines between music’s mainstream and artistic edge”.

Nice one Neil. Thanks. The ceremony will take place on 12 Feb. In the unlikely event you want to look through all of the nominees yourself, you’ll find them here.

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Wednesday 7 December 2016, 10:27 | By

CMU’s One Liners: Max Wolfgang, Dua Lipa, 6lack, more

Artist News Business News Deals Gigs & Festivals Labels & Publishers One Liners Releases

Dua Lipa

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Songwriter Max Wolfgang has signed a new worldwide publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing. Recently, Wolfgang has worked with the likes of John Legend, Rudimental, Martin Garrix, Tom Chaplin and Major Lazer.

• Dua Lipa has released the video for new single ‘Be The One’.

• 6lack has released the video for ‘Ex Calling’ from his debut album ‘Free 6lack’.

• Why? have announced that they will release their new album, ‘Moh Lhean’, on 3 Mar. Here’s a taster.

• Kristin Kontrol has released a new song ‘Baby Are You In?’ Recorded during sessions for her debut album ‘X-Communicate’, she says: “I really regret not including it on the album”.

• The reformed Guns N Roses line-up will play shows in the UK and Ireland next summer. The tour will start at Slane Castle in Dublin on 27 May, with a show at the London Stadium on 16 Jun. But you probably already knew that.

• The Stone Roses have added two shows at the First Direct Arena in Leeds to their summer 2017 tour. They’ll play the venue on 20-21 Jun.

• Thievery Corporation have announced that they will play the Roundhouse in London on 5 Mar. Their new album, ‘The Temple Of I & I’, will be released on 10 Feb.

• The Lemon Twigs will be back in the UK in March and April next year for more shows, including a performance at Koko in London on 29 Mar.

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Wednesday 7 December 2016, 10:21 | By

Kylie Minogue to open pop-up Christmas shop in London

And Finally Artist News Retail

Kylie Minogue

Kylie Minogue has announced that she’s moving into retail, opening a shop in London. Although she’s already anticipating poor sales, so will be closing it down after just two days.

Right, yeah, it’s actually one of those pop-up shop things that the kids love so much. It’ll be opened to coincide with her upcoming festive Royal Albert Hall shows on 9-10 Dec. Fans will be able to queue up at the shop to buy merch, “stylish homewares” and Christmas decorations. There will also be costumes from previous Kylie shows on display.

“I’ve wanted to do a pop-up store for some time and when the Royal Albert Hall said they would like to host it for me I thought it would be a really fun addition to ‘A Kylie Christmas'”, says Minogue. “We’ve loved putting the range together and I hope the fans enjoy it”.

Lucy Noble, Director Of Events at the Royal Albert Hall adds: “We’re THRILLED that Kylie is creating her first ever pop-up shop to celebrate her performances here, giving fans the chance to get hold of exclusive Kylie merchandise. We have an unrivalled history of events, and have hosted Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and The Beatles, but this is the first time we’ve ever hosted a pop-up shop!”

I can’t believe Winston Churchill never had a pop-up shop. What a missed opportunity. Ah well, if you want to have a look at this shop, you’ll find it at Door 6 of the Royal Albert Hall on 9-10 Dec. No ticket for the shows is required to spend money in there.

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