Tuesday 28 August 2018, 13:15 | By Andy Malt

Dr Luke’s lawyers accuse Kesha and her management of drawing up “malicious plot” against him

Business News Legal

Dr Luke

Dr Luke’s legal team has used the unsealing of various documents in the producer’s defamation case against Kesha to launch a new attack on her claims that he raped her.

The producer’s lawyers say that the documents show that claim was always false, concocted by Kesha and her representatives to try to get her out of her deals with Luke’s companies. Her lawyers dispute this interpretation.

Among the documents, a series of emails show – say Luke’s lawyers – that Kesha’s managers Jack Rovner and Ken Levitan, along with music industry veteran Irving Azoff, “maliciously plotted to destroy Dr Luke’s business and reputation to pressure him to give in”. In one 2013 email, Levitan writes to Rovner, “Let’s battle this guy in the press. Take down his business”.

This, say Luke’s lawyers, proves that the rape claims are false and were invented specifically to harm the producer’s reputation. Those claims have been the subject of various lawsuits in various states, though all but Luke’s defamation action have now been withdrawn or dismissed.

Another of the unsealed documents is a deposition from Katy Perry, in which she denies she was raped by Luke. Allegations involving Perry have appeared before in this long-running case. Earlier this year the producer’s legal team fought to have a text message sent by Kesha to Lady Gaga claiming Luke had assaulted Perry included in his defamation case.

In the newly unsealed deposition, Perry – who worked with Luke on a number of her albums – repeatedly states that he never raped her. Or that they have had any sort of relationship beyond their professional connection.

“The false narrative Kesha created about being raped became widely accepted, damaging Dr Luke’s reputation irreparably”, say his lawyers in a new statement. “Compounding this malicious act, in 2016, Kesha told Lady Gaga that Dr Luke raped Katy Perry, which is outrageous and untrue. Katy Perry testified under oath in this case that Dr Luke never raped her”.

“Regardless, Kesha refused to apologise”, they go on. “Instead, she issued a press release which again irresponsibly suggested that Katy Perry was actually raped by Dr Luke. It seems that Kesha wanted to perpetuate the falsehood that Dr Luke raped Katy Perry”.

Elsewhere, the lawyers give Luke’s account of the night on which Kesha claims she was drugged and raped. This account states that both attended a party at Paris Hilton’s house. After Kesha became drunk and vomited in a cupboard, she was taken out of the party and to Luke’s nearby hotel room, where she fell asleep. The statement says that he slept on the sofa and had no sexual or physical contact with her.

Among the arguments used to rebut Kesha’s version of what happened, the statement points to a song she and her mother wrote after that night called ‘Paris Hilton’s Closet’. The lyrics include the chorus: “I threw up in Paris Hilton’s closet / I got drunk and totally lost it / When I woke up, the first thing that I thought of was, ‘Oh my Kesha, those hot Jimmy Choos. Hey Paris, did I lose it on that pair too?'”

“That the Seberts made light of that night speaks volumes about what actually happened”, say the lawyers.

“There is nothing worse than abuse and sexual assault”, the statement concludes. “Dr Luke supports any woman or man who seeks to address sexual abuse in the legal system. That is not what happened here. It is also horrendous to falsely accuse someone of a heinous act. That is what has happened here. Kesha’s voluntarily dismissed rape claim has caused great harm to Dr Luke, his family, and his businesses”.

In response, Kesha’s lawyers said in their own statement: “Contrary to Dr Luke’s legal team’s assertion that today’s evidentiary record reveals something Kesha doesn’t want the public to see, Kesha has consistently requested that the evidence in the case be unsealed, while Dr Luke has fought vigorously to keep the evidence from seeing the light of day. Kesha looks forward to defeating Dr Luke’s meritless $40+ million damage claims at summary judgment or trial”.

Indie festivals again criticise Live Nation’s dominance in their sector

Business News Live Business

AIF

The Association Of Independent Festivals has again raised concerns about the dominance of Live Nation in the UK festivals market. The trade group has done some number crunching and reckons that, of all the UK’s larger music festivals (over a 5000 capacity), Live Nation-controlled events account for 25.3% of available tickets.

AIF previously raised concerns about Live Nation’s dominance in the UK festivals marketwhen the Competition & Markets Authority was investigating the live giant’s acquisition of the Isle Of Wight festival last year. That deal was subsequently approved.

In its latest stats pack, AIF reckons that festivals owned or part-owned by Live Nation – often through subsidiaries like Festival Republic, MAMA, DF and Cuffe & Taylor – together account for 25.3% of the total capacity of larger music festivals. Its closest competitor is broadcaster Global, which is still a sizeable player in the festivals market from its various dabblings in the music industry. Though through its Broadwick Live subsidiary it only controls 7.6% of capacity.

Live Nation’s biggest competitor across the board, AEG, has 5.0% of capacity, according to AIF, while its 37 members together account for 20.2% of capacity. The other 42% of capacity is controlled by other independent events.

Although Live Nation controlling just over a quarter of the larger festival market – by this metric – may not sound that significant, critics point out that the live firm is also a major venue operator and tour promoter, it owns the UK’s biggest ticketing platform, and has interests in artist management and brand partnerships. It also remains acquisitive in the UK.

In terms of competition concerns, most of the issues raised by indie promoters relate not to competition for ticket-buyers, but competition for booking talent. When hitting out at the IOW Festival deal last year, AIF said it had “concerns around so-called ‘exclusivity deals’, whereby artists can effectively be restrained as to where they can and cannot perform and the pool of talent available to non-Live Nation events is greatly reduced”.

Revealing the new stats yesterday, updated to include recent Live Nation acquisitions, AIF boss Paul Reed said the figures “paint a stark picture of the sector. Allowing a single company to dominate festivals, and the live music sector in general, through vertical integration reduces the amount of choice and value for money for music fans. It can block new entrants to market, result in strangleholds on talent through exclusivity deals and stifle competition throughout the entire live music business”.

AIF has also launched a new kitemark for its members to use to demonstrate their independent status. Launching that, while urging politicians and regulators to consider its new stats, Reed continued: “We have also today launched a stamp of independence to celebrate our member events and so that customers can clearly identify when they are buying a ticket to an independent festival. AIF has been sounding the alarm for some time now but the effect on the independent festival sector continues. Simply put, this damaging market dominance needs to be given the scrutiny it deserves”.

Tencent Music to float on US stock market in October, new report claims

Business News Digital

Tencent

Chinese web giant Tencent will officially float its music division on the US stock market in October, according to tech blog IPO Zaozhidao.

The company previously confirmed its intentions regarding Tencent Music in a statement issued on the Hong Kong stock exchange in July. Citing an unnamed source, China-based IPO Zaozhidao says an official filing will now be made on 7 Sep, with trading set to begin on 18 Oct, with a valuation of between $29 billion and $31 billion. The shares are reportedly set to be underwritten by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

The main Tencent business is listed in Hong Kong. It’s thought that the web firm had originally considered spinning off its music business via an IPO on the same stock exchange, but by earlier this year had decided to list in the States instead.

That was possibly partly influenced by Spotify’s decision to list on the New York Stock Exchange and partly by recent regulatory changes in Hong Kong. Spotify and Tencent have an alliance, of course, with the two companies each having equity in the other following a share swap deal late last year.

Tencent’s music division operates the market-leading streaming services in China, including QQ Music, as well as owning and distributing music catalogues in the region.

Vinnie Paul died of natural causes, coroner rules

Artist News

Vinnie Paul

Former Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul died of natural causes, a coroner’s report states.

According to Las Vegas broadcaster KTNV, the primary cause of death was dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart becomes enlarged and cannot pump blood effectively. Another contributing factor was severe coronary artery disease.

Paul died, aged 54, in June this year. An initial statement gave no indication as to the cause of death.

Real name Vincent Paul Abbott, the drummer formed Pantera with his guitarist brother Dimebag Darrell Abbott in 1981. After the band split in 2003, the brothers formed new band Damageplan and released an album the following year. However, in 2004, Darrell was shot and killed on stage at a show in Ohio.

More recently, Vinnie Paul had been performing with Hellyeah, a band also featuring Mudvayne vocalist Chad Gray and Nothingface guitarist Tom Maxwell.

One Liners: BTS & Nicki Minaj, Nick Jonas, Lamb Of God, more

Artist News Gigs & Festivals One Liners Releases

BTS

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• BTS have released a new version of their song ‘Idol’, featuring Nicki Minaj. The video for the original version of the track, which was released on Friday, broke YouTube’s record for the biggest music video debut, with more than 45 million plays in its first 24 hours.

• Nick Jonas has released new single ‘Right Now’, featuring Robin Schultz.

• Lamb Of God – in their Burn The Priest covers band guise – have released a video for their version of Ministry’s ‘Jesus Built My Hotrod’.

• Tove Styrke features on new NOTD single ‘Been There Done That’. She will also be touring the UK in November and December.

• Noga Erez has released new single, ‘Cash Out’, featuring Sammus. “The intention [of the song] is to list out things that can make you a successful woman, in the most twisted, chauvinistic way”, Erez explains.

• Mmph is set to release his second EP, ‘Serenade’, on 7 Sep. It is fantastic. Here’s new single, ‘Woodlawn’.

• Fifi Rong and producer Lo are set to release an EP together titled ‘The Crown’, on 28 Sep. Here’s the title track.

• I Am Karate have released new single ‘News’. “This song is about someone chasing a dream and the spotlight, but if you take a closer look it’s also a love story”, they say.

• Hidden Orchestra have announced three new live dates. They will play London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on 30 Nov, followed by The Haunt in Brighton on 2 Dec and the Trinity Centre in Bristol on 3 Dec.

• Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily – updated every Friday.

Robbie Williams says Take That would totally have entered X Factor

And Finally Artist News Media

Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams is a judge on ‘X Factor’ now, so the obvious question is, would he have entered the waning TV talent competition had it existed when he was looking for his big break in music? The obvious answer it “hell no”, but Williams is now in the employ of the show, and has appeared on it several times in the past as a guest, so he was more positive about it all.

“Take That didn’t have the option of being seen by ten million people each weekend”, he tells Digital Spy. “If we had have had that option, then we would have obviously grabbed it with five sets of hands. As it happens, these lucky people will have just that and they should grab the opportunity with both hands and make everything they can from it”.

So, just think, in another reality, Take That could have been the next One Direction. Or one of the other ones who dropped like a stone the moment the series was over.

Williams isn’t thinking about the longterm success of any of the contestants right now though, he’s totally focussed on his own shortterm achievement. Asked how likely he thought he was to mentor the winning act, he said: “Am I confident I can win? Give me any category and I’m confident I can win”.

So, at least he’s throwing himself into it. The show, after all, spent years trying to get Williams on the panel of judges and had to make do with Gary Barlow for a while. Barlow once said he couldn’t imagine Williams taking the job “having done the show and knowing how much time goes into it”.

Approved: Puffyshoes

CMU Approved

Puffyshoes

Puffyshoes split in 2013, following one last self-released album. The announcement was made with a brevity that matched their songs: “Hello, we will be breaking up in December okay”, they wrote in a tweet.

Actually, the split came sooner than that, the duo throwing in the towel a couple of months earlier, which suggested this might not be one of their occasional brief break ups.

But less than two years later they were back together. However, it’s only now that things seem to be really grinding into proper action again. New song ‘Let’s Fall In Love’ has just appeared on their Bandcamp page.

In typical Puffyshoes style, the 60s garage rock influenced song just scrapes past a minute and a half in length. Nonetheless, they manage to fit an amazing amount of drama and intrigue into the equally economical lyrics.

Listen to ‘Let’s Fall In Love’ here:

<a href="http://puffyshoes.bandcamp.com/album/lets-fall-in-love">Let's Fall In Love by Puffyshoes</a>

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

CMU Digest 28.08.18: Eventbrite, Shazam, Grande, Spotify, CBS Radio

CMU Digest

Eventbrite

The key stories from the last week in the music business…

Eventbrite confirmed its plans to IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. The self-service ticketing platform had initially filed confidential documents with the US Securities & Exchange Commission last month. The expanding and acquisitive but loss-making ticketing start-up is seeking to raise $200 million from the listing. [READ MORE]

Sources said that the European Commission will approve Apple’s Shazam acquisition. EU competition regulators announced they were looking into the deal in February, opening up a more detailed investigation in April. There are competition law concerns because the Shazam app currently links users through to Apple’s competitors in the streaming space. But sources told Reuters the transaction is likely to get the all-clear in Europe next month. [READ MORE]

Both sides requested summary judgement in the legal battle between the record industry and US internet service provider Grande. The labels want a summary judgement that says the ISP does not have safe harbour projection from liability for its users’ copyright infringement, citing the BMG v Cox case and Grande’s own evidence. The net firm wants the whole lawsuit dismissed, rubbishing the labels’ anti-piracy agents Rightscorp and accusing the record industry of trying to make ISPs their “de facto copyright enforcement agents”. [READ MORE]

It emerged that Spotify is no longer taking new premium subscriptions via its iOS app. When users sign-up through the iOS platform, Spotify must pay a chunk of monthly subscriptions to Apple, its main rival in the streaming market. Although Spotify isn’t obliged to take subscriptions via its app, Apple rules say it can’t overtly point users to other payment platforms. It’s not clear when Spotify stopped taking new premium subscriptions through iOS. The change was spotted as Netflix started piloting something similar. [READ MORE]

A US court ruled that remastering a track doesn’t necessarily create a new copyright. This was relevant in a golden oldies royalties dispute between ABS Entertainment and CBS Radio, relating to the pre-1972 quirk of American copyright law. Remastering may result in a new copyright – in the new version of the track – but not necessarily, said an appeals court. As a result the ABS Entertainment v CBS Radio dispute continues. [READ MORE]

The big deals from the last seven days in the music business…
• Downtown Music Publishing announced a number of new deals [INFO]
• Universal’s Capitol Music Group launch a music tech programmed with Gener8tor [INFO]
• Universal partnered with esports giant ESL [INFO]
• Bauer acquired Jazz FM [INFO]
• Heavenly signed Chai [INFO]

Eventbrite confirms IPO plans

Business News Live Business Top Stories

Eventbrite

Eventbrite has confirmed its Initial Public Offering, with plans to raise $200 million by listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Details of the IPO plans were published yesterday, the self-service ticketing platform having initially filed confidential documents with the US Securities & Exchange Commission last month.

Among the stats included in yesterday’s statement is the fact the ticketing firm made a $15.6 million loss in the first half of the year, while losses in 2017 were $38.5 million. Earnings last year were $4.2 million. However, despite the losses, revenues are rising each year, with a 51% year-on-year rise between 2016 and 2017, and a 61% growth rate in the first half of this year. Elsewhere in the stats party, the firm says that last year 700,000 event organisers used its platform to sell tickets to about three million events in over 170 countries.

Eventbrite is one of the few ticketing start-ups to have made real traction in a market dominated by a small number of existing players, which use customer data, cash advances and other financial kickbacks to secure business from major event promoters, even when newcomers offer better tech.

Those tactics, coupled with Live Nation being both the biggest promoter and the biggest ticketing company in key markets, make it hard for start-ups to enter the ticketing business. Eventbrite gained momentum by initially pitching its services to more grassroots event organisers, and then grew its market share by acquiring other start-ups employing a similar approach, like Ticketfly and Ticketscript.

In its IPO filing, the company lists Live Nation’s various ticketing businesses – and especially those aimed at more grass-roots promoters like Ticketweb and Universe – as key competitors, alongside a range of other tech companies. It also references it partnerships with the likes of Facebook and Spotify, which are big pluses at the moment, but also create risk, because of the potential negative impact of those alliances ending.

Anyone wanting to learn more about how Eventbrite sells tickets could test out the platform by booking themselves a place on some upcoming CMU Insights training courses. In fact, that’s pretty much the only way I can think of for anyone wanting to know more about how Eventbrite works.

Dancehall lyric borrowed by Miley Cyrus a “mere transliteration”, says latest legal filing in We Can’t Stop copyright case

Artist News Business News Legal

Miley Cyrus

Lawyers for Miley Cyrus have formally filed their motion seeking to dismiss the copyright infringement case being pursued against the pop star by Jamaican dancehall artist Flourgon. You know, the one where she’s accused of ripping off a lyric for her 2013 single ‘We Can’t Stop’.

Flourgon, real name Michael May, sued Cyrus back in March claiming that ‘We Can’t Stop’ infringed his 1998 track ‘We Run Things’. The dispute centres on a single lyric, with May arguing that Cyrus and her songwriting pals lifted his line “we run things, things no run we” and tweaked it to go: “we run things, things don’t run we”.

The lawsuit noted the popularity of ‘We Run Things’ within reggae and dancehall circles. It then referenced an interview with songwriting duo Rock City – co-writers on the Cyrus song – in which they talked about how reggae culture had influenced ‘We Can’t Stop’. May’s legal filing then argued that Cyrus’s team had taken reggae influences – including his lyric – as part of a plan to re-invent the pop star’s image.

Lawyers for Cyrus, her songwriting partners and Sony Music had already let it be known that they believed May had no case, but now they’ve formally filed paperwork requesting that the entire lawsuit be dismissed via summary judgement.

Team Cyrus had already presented three arguments as to why May’s copyright claim was invalid: that a single lyric isn’t protected by copyright, that Cyrus’s use of it was ‘fair use’, and that May’s lyric in ‘We Run Things’ isn’t in itself original.

They embellished on the latter point in this week’s legal filing. May has admitted that his lyric “we run things, things no run we” is based on a pre-existing phrase in Jamaican Patois that goes “wi run tings, tings nuh run wi”. However, he says he “uniquely and creatively mixed” that phrase with the English language, creating a separate derivative work in which he is the copyright owner.

Countering this argument, Team Cyrus write: “To qualify as a copyrightable derivative, his new material must be independently protectable; here, it is most certainly not: his change from ‘wi run tings, tings nuh run wi’ to ‘we run things, things no run we’ is not, as he claims, a ‘unique’ and ‘creative mix’, but is rather a mere transliteration that cannot satisfy that minimum threshold”.

They go on: “Even if it did, copyright protection for a derivative extends only to the new elements plaintiff added. Plaintiff also admits that defendants altered his ‘new’ elements, as ‘Stop’ uses the phrase ‘we run things, things don’t run we’. In essence, plaintiff’s entire claim rests on the far-fetched notion that defendants’ use of a variation of a short phrase originated from the Jamaican Patois infringes his copyright in a different and negligible variation of that same phrase. That is not the law”.

When Cyrus et al first presented their initial arguments against May’s case, the judge hearing the dispute said he thought some of their points would need more scrutiny than is possible under summary judgement. It now remains to be seen if the more detailed arguments presented by the pop star and her team this week convinces him otherwise.

Court sides with Commodores over Commodore in Commodores trademark case

Artist News Business News Legal

The Commodores

A judge has ruled in favour of the Commodores in their legal fight with a Commodore over his use of the word Commodores. The Commodore may be a Commodore in spirit, but he’s an ex-Commodore in commerce, and ex-Commodores, even if they still consider themselves to be Commodores, should never say they are Commodores, because only the Commodores get to say that they are Commodores. Isn’t trademark law fun?

As you may remember, Commodores Entertainment Corp – the business behind the current incarnation of the Commodores – sued a former member of the group in April, accusing him of infringing the outfit’s trademark and violating previous court orders to boot.

The incarnation of the Commodores represented by CEC includes a founder member of the group, William King. Their beef is with another founder member, Thomas McClary. CEC said he was infringing its marks by performing under various confusing names, including the likes of ‘The Commodores Experience featuring Thomas McClary’.

The squabble over McClary’s use of the Commodores brand had gone legal before, which is why CEC also accused him of violating an earlier court ruling.

In its April legal filing, CEC said McClary continued to use the Commodores name on his social channels and in promotions for upcoming music festival appearances. The company then stated that: “Mr McClary calling his band ‘The Commodores Experience’, ‘Commodores’ Experience’ or ‘Commodore’s Experience’ is likely to cause additional consumer confusion, is not historically accurate and is not using CEC’s marks in fair use”.

Both sides subsequently made a number of complaints about the other, most of which the Florida judge hearing the case, Roy B Dalton, has now knocked back. However, according to Law 360, on the central issue Dalton has sided with CEC, ruling that McClary has indeed used the company’s marks and in doing so has likely confused concert-goers.

To that end the judge issued a summary judgement in CEC’s favour on the trademark infringement point while also “keeping open the possibility of damages under Florida’s Deceptive And Unfair Trade Practices Act”. But he also confirmed that other elements of the two parties’ dispute were being dismissed, declaring that: “When the music stops, only CEC’s claims for damages under [trademark law] and FDUTPA remain viable”.

Look at that, “when the music stops”! All hail those judicial jokers. Despite being exhausted from all the laughter, CEC’s legal reps confirmed that they were now planning for the next court hearing to discuss all those lovely (possible) damages.

Bring Me The Horizon announce new album

Artist News Gigs & Festivals Releases

Bring Me The Horizon

Bring Me The Horizon have announced that they will release a new album, titled ‘Amo’, in January. They’ve also released the first track from it, ‘Mantra’.

“‘Amo’ is a love album that explores every aspect of that most powerful emotion”, says frontman Oli Sykes. “It deals with the good, the bad and the ugly, and as a result we’ve created an album that’s more experimental, more varied, weird, and wonderful than anything we’ve done before”.

The album is set for release on 11 Jan. Listen to ‘Mantra’ here:

The band will also being touring in November, including two nights at Alexandra Palace in London. Look:

23 Nov: Birmingham Arena
24 Nov: Leeds, First Direct Arena
25 Nov: Glasgow, Hydro
27 Nov: Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena
29 Nov: London, Alexandra Palace
30 Nov: London, Alexandra Palace

The Chills release new single, Scarred

Artist News Releases

Martin Phillipps / The Chills

The Chills have released new single ‘Scarred’. The track is taken from upcoming album, ‘Snow Bound’, which is set for release on 14 Sep.

“‘Scarred’ is about realising that you have become too accommodating to all the people who just wish to souvenir a little part of yourself”, says frontman Martin Phillipps.

“It also has a contemporary twist”, he goes on, “by mentioning border walls, which represent the walls we build around ourselves and our decisions on who we let through them into our personal space and lives. It’s also a comment about the demands of online networking versus the maintenance of privacy”.

It covers quite a lot of ground then. Listen to the song here:

The Prodigy announce UK tour

Artist News Gigs & Festivals Releases

The Prodigy

The Prodigy have announced a UK arena tour that will kick off on the very day that they release their new album, ‘No Tourists’. That’s planning. No slack in their system.

‘No Tourists’ is set for release on 2 Nov, and the band recently released first single ‘Need Some1’. Tickets for the tour go on sale on 31 Aug.

Here are the tour dates:

2 Nov: Glasgow, SEC Hall 4
3 Nov: Nottingham, Motorpoint Arena
5 Nov: Brighton Centre
6 Nov: Plymouth, Pavilions
8 Nov: Liverpool, Echo Arena
9 Nov: Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena
10 Nov: Birmingham Arena
13 Nov: Leeds, First Direct Arena
14 Nov: London, Alexandra Palace
15 Nov: London, Alexandra Palace

Watch the video for ‘Need Some1’ here:

One Liners: John Lennon, Zedd, Courtney Barnett, more

Artist News Awards Gigs & Festivals One Liners Releases

John Lennon

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ album is getting itself a re-issue. The six disc version will feature all sorts of extra stuff, including the original demo of the song ‘Imagine’. You can listen to that right now if you go here though.

• Zedd has released the video for his single, ‘Happy Now’, featuring Elley Duhé.

• Courtney Barnett has released the video for ‘Charity’, taken from her latest album ‘Tell Me How You Really Feel’.

• Soccer Mommy will release a new seven-inch on 5 Oct. It’ll feature a reworked version of her song ‘Henry’ on the A-side, and this cover of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘I’m On Fire’ on the B-side. “I wanted to make a version of ‘I’m On Fire’ that connected with the sadness of the song”, she says. “I think that doing a more stripped down version allowed me to make something that feels emotionally raw”.

• Ahead of upcoming UK shows starting next week, Oh Sees have released a video for ‘Anthemic Aggressor’.

• The shortlist for the Scottish Album of The Year Award is out and features the long-listed albums from Babe, Best Girl Athlete, Franz Ferdinand, Golden Teacher, Karine Polwart with Pippa Murphy, Kobi Onyame, Mogwai, Out Lines, Siobhan Wilson and Young Fathers. The overall winner will be announced on 6 Sep.

• It was the second ever Heavy Music Awards yesterday. Look, winners!

• Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily – updated every Friday.

Beef Of The Week #418: Nicki Minaj v Travis Scott (and his baby)

And Finally Artist News Beef Of The Week

Nicki Minaj

At one point this week, while discussing which of the day’s music news stories we should cover, it was suggested that this was a non-story. Well, welcome to its fourth CMU Daily appearance. If this is a non-story, how come I just read 6000 articles about it? Nicki Minaj’s anger at not having a number one album is officially a non-non-story. Aka a story.

Nicki Minaj did not get the number one album in the US last week. That’s the story. She released an album and then, when the chart was published, sitting there at number one was some other album. Almost like her album wasn’t the most popular of that week.

The thing is though, Minaj was expecting to see her name at the top of that chart. As far as she was concerned, it was a foregone conclusion. She probably wasn’t even going to look, but then she thought that it would be nice to see her name right up there at the top of a list. Everyone likes to be at the top of a list, don’t they? I bet, even if you were on a list of people who deserve to have worms stuffed up their nose until they come out of their mouth, you wouldn’t mind if you were at number one.

Anyway, as I think I mentioned, Minaj wasn’t at number one on that list. The best selling albums in America list. Not the worms list. I don’t know about the worms list. But on the best selling albums in America list she was at number two. And that’s clearly as bad as not being on the list at all. She might as well not have bothered even making an album. And you know whose fault it is? Travis Scott. And Spotify. And most of all, an actual baby.

It’s Scott’s fault because he was the artist who is in Minaj’s rightful number one spot this week. Generally you would think that this was because his album was more popular, but it turns out it’s because he completely cheated. He wasn’t more popular, he just managed to get more of his fans to part with their money than Minaj did.

According to Minaj, Scott cheated because he was just giving copies of his album away willy-nilly to anyone willing to buy any old rubbish he put up for sale on his website. Tickets to his next tour mainly, she reckons. Which is where that bloody baby comes in. Because Scott’s girlfriend Kylie Jenner – the seventh most-followed person on all of Instagram – posted about Scott’s tour on the social network, saying that she and their baby Stormi were “ready” for it.

This, believes Minaj, caused more than 50,000 Stormi fans to go and buy tickets for the tour from Scott’s website. The free albums this gave them pushed Scott up into the number one position. What’s more, says Minaj, purchasers of those tickets had “no requirement of redeeming the album”, so they were double fake sales. “Billboard says they’ll change the rules cuz of this”, she wrote, although any future rule changing will all be too late to give her the number one that was rightfully hers.

“I put my blood, sweat and tears in writing a dope album only for Travis Scott to have Kylie Jenner post a tour pass telling people to come see her and Stormi”, she wrote.

It is true that bundling may have had some effect on Scott’s chart position. This week at least, sales on his store were giving fans access to a pre-sale for his tour tickets. It was not explicitly stated that any items came with a download of the album – even physical copies of the album themselves. However, according to The Fader, each item sold did give the buyer access to an album download, which they may or may not choose to redeem.

Billboard rules state that only redeemed downloads sold in such a way will count towards the chart, and there’s no evidence that things have been any different in this case, despite what Minaj says. But she is right that Scott was pushing a regularly expanding line-up of merch for sale in the first week of his new album release, and then again in the following week ahead of the launch of the tour pre-sale last night. Now that the pre-sale is live, all of that merch is gone, and only the album is for sale.

Scott may well have played the system to his advantage, but bundling items together on an artists’ direct-to-fan store isn’t unusual. In fact it’s fairly standard practice these days. If you look at, for example, Minaj’s online store, you’ll see that every item comes with a free download of her latest album. I’m sure that’s not relevant though.

Anyway, if you look at the actual numbers, Scott and Minaj both shifted around 78,000 actual copies of their albums. Where Minaj slipped behind was on streaming numbers. She racked up 107,000 equivalent sales on the streaming services in the US, but Scott managed 127,000. Don’t worry though, she’s got a theory about that too.

“Spotify put Drake’s face on every playlist but told me they’d have to teach me a lesson for playing my music ten minutes early on [her show on Apple Music’s Beats 1]”, she tweeted. “Even though they’ve been giving away my music for free for years and I am one of the top Spotify artists of all time”.

Later claiming that Spotify had held back putting her album live by twelve hours, she went on: “My music went up on Apple so I played it. I assumed it was on Spotify and Tidal at the same time. Spotify said that Apple tweeted fans advising ‘Queen’ was up and therefore they had to teach me a lesson”.

Spotify denied this, a spokesperson telling Variety: “Spotify supported Nicki Minaj with a Times Square billboard, a host of the largest playlists, New Music Friday and the new music release shelf. Her song ‘Bed’ actually saw an increase based on the promotions put behind the campaign. The company continues to be big fans of Nicki”.

So basically, that’s doubt thrown on all of Minaj’s theories. But that doesn’t matter, because she was only joking about all this anyway.

“People are calling me thinking I’m huffing and puffing”, she tweeted a couple of hours after her initial rant on Twitter. “OMG y’all, this is sarcasm/dry humour. Yikes. I’m having the most iconNIC time. Come let me kiss you … When people call me and hear me crackin up laughing they seem so puzzled. Loosen up”.

So that’s all fine then. Although this was just the first of several times this week that Minaj insisted that she wasn’t actually angry after a prolonged period of appearing to be very, very angry. The next occasion came on the next edition of her previously mentioned Beats 1 radio show.

Returning to the theme of Scott cheating his way to number one, she said: “What we’re not gonna do is have that Auto-Tune man selling fucking sweaters telling you he sold half a million albums, because he fucking didn’t. You stupid fuck. You got your fucking homeboy talking for you and you got your girlfriend selling tour passes. Stop it. Knock it the fuck off”.

“When [Scott] comes along and sells a tour pass that has nothing to do with his fucking music and says he’s sold more than Kanye West and Nas – no you fucking didn’t, keep it the fuck real”, she continued. “I know I’m that bitch, I know I’m number one”.

She then added: “Having said that, none of this is some serious anger shit. No, we are in a time right now where black music is prospering. I’m so excited to see where rap has come from and where we are. But right is right and wrong is wrong”.

So, see? She’s not angry about it. Not even a bit. Sure, she keeps talking about it angrily, but that doesn’t mean she’s angry. Because she’s not. You shouldn’t be taking any of this seriously, you know that, right? Well, I hope we shouldn’t be taking any of this seriously, because another thing she said during this particular rant was: “I know that you guys are saying me and baby Stormi have beef. Yes we do”.

A feud with another rapper is one thing. Even a feud with that rapper’s girlfriend. But a feud with a baby? I don’t know if you’ve ever met a baby, but their ability to engage in any kind of nuanced argument is often extremely lacking. Although, thinking about it, they may stand half a chance against Minaj.

Anyway, Christ, this isn’t even over yet. Because the other thing that happened this week was that Minaj cancelled her co-headline tour with Future. That’s right, cancelled. C-A-N-C-E-L-L-E-D. It was announced by promoter Live Nation that the tour was being pulled in order to “re-evaluate elements of production”.

In a video for fans on Twitter, Minaj explained: “This is all happening because I pushed my album back two months, and I just finished writing and recording literally hours before the album came out. So now I just simply don’t have the time to rehearse and be on the road in time to give you guys the level of a show I need to give. [We] are working tirelessly to give you the best show of my life. I really apologise, but it’ll be worth it”.

Shortly prior to this, rumours had been circulating that the tour was about to be cancelled due to poor ticket sales. The New York Post quoted an unnamed source as saying that ticket sales were extremely low. Billboard, however, disputed this, siding instead with Minaj and her version of events.

Even with low ticket sales, said the US industry trade mag, the cost of pulling the dates would be too significant. There will be shows in May next year instead, but Future will not be part of the tour, meaning a significant portion of ticketholders will likely now demand refunds. Moving to May also puts her into festival season. Plus, conflicts with sporting events may mean the venues are no longer available. No one would choose to go through all that cost and hassle simply because ticket sales had been slow.

While many were jumping up and down and pointing to the tour cancellation as proof that Minaj in 2018 is a flop – her album, remember, only went to number two in the US album chart, like anyone could do – Billboard actually came to her defence with a pretty convincing argument. About the tour, anyway. That’s nice, huh?

So, the next thing to then happen in this saga was that Minaj posted a screengrab of a Billboard tweet to Instagram. Was it thanking Billboard for its countering of the “poor tickets sales caused tour cancellation” gossiping? No, it was not. It was about a different article in the trade mag entirely. “Nicki Minaj details NickiHndrxx Tour cancellation: ‘I don’t have time to rehearse'”, read the headline.

“You are now in the running for #CockSuckaOfTheDay award on #QueenRadio this Thursday”, she wrote in the caption. Then she added a message to her fans: “Barbz get me the name of this writer then hit them and tell them this is one black woman they will not bully into a corner by FRAUDULENT SHAMING TACTICS”.

The reason for her anger was the use of the word “cancellation”, which misrepresents what’s happened, she reckoned. Billboard was not the only publication to use this word. Many had. If not most. Partly because with Future – the Hndrxx in NickiHndrxx – out of the tour, it would seem that the shows next May will be something different to what was originally put on sale. Not so, said Minaj.

“To clarify – because I realise common sense is far from common – I haven’t CANCELLED anything”, she wrote. “I reversed the order of the US and European legs of my tour. This is for obvious reasons to anyone with a brain”.

She went on: “My album was originally going to drop in June which would’ve given me three months of tour rehearsal. However, I was still writing and recording up to last week. We are all grown right? We can all do math right? Or will they just pretend to not have basic sense so that they can board the Nicki hate train and get some clicks? I can’t rehearse four weeks for a tour I originally planned on rehearsing three months for. I give my fans QUALITY”.

As for her demands that fans work out who had used the “cancellation” word at Billboard, had Minaj clicked on the link in the tweet she grabbed, she would have found the name of said Billboard writer right up at the top of the article. She might also have found that other Billboard piece arguing that it was, indeed, more likely that she’d pulled the dates in order to ensure the quality of the show than because of terrible ticket sales.

Maybe she did become aware of all that later, because when she returned to Beats 1 again last night she had a different Cock Sucka Of The Day entirely. Apparently some new information had come to light.

“The cocksucker of the day is Irving Azoff”, she told listeners. “And I’m gonna tell you why. Allegedly, he tried to put out a smear campaign against my tour, and contacted people in the media to spread negative things about my tour … May God be with you, Irving. It’s disgusting what these people have been systematically trying to do”.

Music industry veteran Azoff, of course, is a former boss of Live Nation and Ticketmaster – something Minaj noted on the show – and, perhaps more importantly, is also Travis Scott’s co-manager. If you’re a fan of joining dots, you can put those ones together pretty easily to create a decent conspiracy theory. Dots are fun, huh?

And this all also plays into one of Minaj’s two personas.

On record she is a dominant force who destroys all others. But on Twitter she regularly portrays herself as the underdog of the music business, constantly fighting against an industry that is out to get her. Some of the things she says in this regard probably do have some truth to them. After all, she arguably has had to work much harder as a female rapper to achieve a level of success on a par with her male counterparts.

Reaching number two in the US album chart may contradict her underdog status in a normal week – clearly she’s doing very well thank you very much – but within her own narrative, you can see why losing out to Scott – who has nothing like her lyrical or performing talent – stings.

Still, her claims of being bullied are often then surrounded by bullying language, and unnecessary and inappropriate calls on her fans to attack her music industry foes – as shown in the post about Billboard’s article: “Get me the name of this writer then hit them”.

In recent months there has been much discussion about the barrage of abuse that music writer and Minaj fan Wanna Thompson faced after she expressed an opinion regarding the direction she’d like the rapper’s music to take. “You know how dope it would be if Nicki put out mature content?” she tweeted. “No silly shit. Just reflecting on past relationships, being a boss, hardships, etc. She’s touching 40 soon, a new direction is needed”.

It’s a valid opinion, and one that must have crossed the minds of many. Minaj is probably the greatest rapper of her generation in terms of skill, but I still feel her best work is ahead of her. And to date, her scattergun approach to constructing albums, shifting wildly in genre and tone, has opened her up to being dismissed.

‘Queen’ is probably the closest she’s got to nailing the album format to date, but she could still do so much more. She’s actually delivered more great work than many artists ever manage – just listen to this 2012 mix of her best verses – but it gets jumbled up with her less satisfying material.

That’s not the point though. Like anyone deemed to have slighted Minaj, Thompson was attacked viciously by the Barbz. More shockingly, Minaj herself piled in too.

Thompson posted a screengrab of a Twitter DM she said she’d received from the rapper, tearing into her, calling her “ugly” and “jealous”. None of which felt like a reasonable response to Thompson’s remarks. But, as this New Yorker article posits, as Minaj falls deeper into her underdog storyline, she is acting more like a member of the Barbz, rather than their figurehead. “I hear the criticism loud and clear”, she rapped on her debut album. That’s seeming less like the case these days.

While Minaj would probably argue that she’s simply defending herself against ‘haters’ with all the social media and radio show ranting and remarks, the amount of coverage of how she and her fans act online has arguably drawn attention away from the music. It’s also likely that it’s put a percentage of more casual listeners off listening to her latest releases.

In addition to that, there have been other controversies surrounding the new album. Her decision to work with controversial rapper 6ix9ine for one. “This is what happens when you release a great body of work after they spent millions to ruin you”, she tweeted in response to criticism of this. “They writing about 69 cuz ‘Queen’ is flawless”. Then there are the lyrics on the album that have been deemed to be homophobic, which seems like a particular misstep for someone with a large LGBT fanbase.

While the cancellation of a tour is always going to draw speculation that a performer’s star in on the wane, the coverage of Minaj this week could still have been so much more positive. Among the ranting on Twitter and Beats 1, she has repeatedly pointed out that ‘Queen’ went to number one in 86 countries. The global success of the album is much greater than that of Scott’s ‘Astroworld’, and she only just missed out on the US number one too.

There is no way that ‘Queen’ should be described as a flop, but I have repeatedly seen that word ascribed to it this week. And for what it’s worth, I do believe that she most likely pulled her US tour over concerns about the quality of the show. Ticket sales may also have been a concern as well, but she’s probably right that there just wasn’t time to rehearse such a major production to the necessary level.

Another thread of discussion this week, and in recent months, has been whether attention is moving away from Minaj to other female rappers – particularly Cardi B. Minaj’s anger (or not) at Cardi B’s success has been a hot topic, thanks to the continuing tendency in the media to put forth that there can only be one successful woman in any genre at any one time.

It probably is true that Cardi B would not be where she is without Minaj laying down a path before her, but that’s another thing that should be talked about in more positive terms. Minaj’s achievements should be more celebrated, and probably will be at some point. But while she spends all her time complaining about being stiffed on her chart position – in an age where the chart already seems less relevant, especially to the sorts of people consuming her music – she makes it much easier for others to present her in a less positive light.

Going back to where we started, my colleagues probably were right about this being a non-story. “Artist goes to number two in a chart no one really cares about anymore”, is not much of a headline. “Artist postpones tour” is certainly more of a story, but one that could have come and gone. As it is, I’ve somehow now managed to add 3000 words to the tens of thousands already written about all this over the last few days.

Vigsy’s Club Tip: Notting Hill Carnival

Club Tip CMU Approved

Notting Hill Carnival

Crikey, is it that time of year again? Time for the West London street party that is the one and only Notting Hill Carnival, taking place this Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday.

As ever, there are multiple strands to London’s biggest carnival. There’s the traditional procession of floats, which proceed down a marked route playing calypso, soca and reggae from the Caribbean. And alongside the music, you will find lots of hugely detailed costumes. The taste of the Caribbean is all round too, with plenty of traditional items – so jerk chicken and curried goat is on the menu, or saltfish and ackee with the obligatory rice and peas.

But Carnival also forays and delves into jungle, ragga, hip hop, house and broken beat – giving it a real London and UK slant – via the numerous soundsystems erected around Notting Hill. They’re certainly worth hunting down, though planning ahead as to which sound systems you’re going to check is definitely worthwhile. Remember it does get hugely crowded at times and occasionally you may have to go where the crowds take you!

This year my picks of the 33 officially listed soundsystems are as follows…

• King Tubby’s for some authentic reggae.

• Aba-shanti-I, who has over 30 years worth of soundsystem experience.

• Saxon Sound, where reggae star Tippa Irie cut his teeth.

• Seduction City, a female crew taking you to more soulful grooves.

• Rampage, playing more club orientated grooves from jungle to hip hop.

To get the most from Carnival, do have a look online. Remember, it can get very crowded, even more so on the Monday – so keep an eye on friends and maybe have a plan for regrouping, phone networks can slow down and buckle under the strain. The cash machines run out of cash too – be prepared for that.

There are also loads of post Carnival parties this weekend that are massively worth checking out. The CMU Club Tip is keeping it in a drum n bass style on Sunday – our choice of four venues across the capital are as follows…

• Metalheadz Carnival After Party at Egg, with Goldie and a slew of awesome DJs.

• The Carnival Session at The Steelyard, with LTJ Bukem, Mala, Awesome Tapes From Africa and more.

• Jungle Mania at Suffolk Street, with DJ Randall, DJ Brockie, Ragga Twins, Uncle Dugs and more.

• Shogun Audio Carnival Special at Phonox, with Technimatic, Pola & Bryson and more.

All in all, it’s another great line-up for this truly outstanding London event. Let’s just cross fingers that the sun shines in West London this weekend. And if you’re one of those Londoners who has never quite made it to this big bash, then do it. Trust me, you’ll love it. Viva la Carnival!

European Commission set to approve Apple’s Shazam purchase

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Shazam

The European Commission is expected to approve Apple’s acquisition of music recognition platform Shazam without demanding any remedies.

The EC’s competition regulators announced back in February that they were looking into Apple’s Shazam purchase. The $400 million Shazam deal wasn’t actually big enough for the EU to automatically investigate the transaction, but it did require approval from regulators in Austria under merger rules there.

The Austrian regulator decided to bounce the investigation up to the EC, a move that was subsequently backed by France, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden. In April, EC officials confirmed that they were launching a full investigation into the deal.

A key concern seemed to be the amount of traffic currently directed to Spotify through Shazam. Consumers who use the app to identify music can then click through to the relevant track on various music platforms, including many of Apple Music’s competitors like Spotify. If Apple were to close off click-throughs to other streaming services, or shut down Shazam entirely, that would have a negative effect on Apple Music’s rivals.

As the full investigation was launched, the EC commissioner in charge of competition policy, Margrethe Vestager, said: “The way people listen to music has changed significantly in recent years, with more and more Europeans using music streaming services. Our investigation aims to ensure that music fans will continue to enjoy attractive music streaming offers and won’t face less choice as a result of this proposed merger”.

The deadline for that fuller investigation is 4 Sep and it’s thought the EU executive is scheduled to make a final decision on whether to approve the deal on 18 Sep. But, according to Reuters, two people familiar with the matter have already said that the deal will be approved without conditions.

EC regulators can block takeovers out right on competition law grounds, but for an acquisition of this kind it’s more likely that officials would place restrictions on the deal. However, according to Reuters’ sources, the EC will give the Shazam purchase the go ahead without making any such demands.

It’s still not entirely clear what Apple plans to do with the Shazam technology and brand once the deal has properly gone through.

Universal partners with esports giant ESL

Business News Deals Labels & Publishers

ESL

Universal Music has announced a new partnership with esports company ESL. The major will provide recordings and performers for ESL’s live video gaming tournaments and the two companies will also launch a new joint venture record label. It’s an interesting alliance given the recent boom in live video gaming-based shenanigans.

“I’m delighted that UMG and ESL, two market leaders in global entertainment, have joined forces”, says Universal Music Group Central Europe CEO Frank Briegmann. “Together, our dedicated new label, with its laser-sharp focus on the artists and music of esports, will provide the soundtrack to the gaming experience for this massive global audience for years to come”.

ESL’s SVP Global Sales & Business Development, Bernhard Mogk adds: “Music is a universal language and, like gaming, one of the key pillars of pop culture. Over the last couple years, live music acts have become an integral part of our global tournaments. We are looking forward to giving new artists and talent a new platform to perform on and to provide even more entertainment to our fans, both on-site and for everyone watching our live streams around the world. This joint venture with Universal Music is a win-win for everyone”.

The new partnership will be run out of UMG’s Berlin offices.

Andy Ma named CEO of Warner Music China

Business News Industry People Labels & Publishers

Andy Ma

Warner Music has appointed Andy Ma as the new CEO of its China division. He will also take on the role of EVP Commercial And Business Development, Greater China for the wider Warner business.

President of Warner Music Asia, Simon Robson, says: “Andy’s an incredible executive who has been instrumental in helping build the now thriving digital music market in China. It’s impossible to underestimate the importance of China to the future of our company and the wider music business. Andy is well placed to drive our business there forward, making us the leading label in the country and ensuring our artists benefit from this market’s exponential growth”.

Ma adds: “I’m hugely excited to be taking up this position at a key stage in the development of the music market in China. We’re working with a range of partners to help take our artists’ music to hundreds of millions of new fans. I think China’s got the potential to be a top five market within a few years and we’re set to be its leading label – watch this space!”

Prior to his promotion, Ma was Warner Music’s Chief Commercial Officer for Greater China and SVP, Commercial And Business Development, Greater China and South East Asia.

Spotify and Netflix both make moves to reduce payments to Apple

Business News Digital

Spotify

Spotify is no longer allowing new subscribers to sign up through its Apple iOS app, which means it won’t end up with new subscribers where subscription monies have to be shared with the tech giant, aka its main competitor in the streaming music space.

The move was spotted by MusicAlly and TechCrunch while reporting on a pilot by Netflix to also remove the option to pay subscription fees via its iOS app in some countries. They both point to a page on Spotify’s website, updated earlier this month, that says: “It was possible to pay for Spotify Premium using Apple’s in-app payment system (iAP). However, this has been discontinued for new subscribers”.

Apple’s policies regarding in-app payments on its iOS system have proven controversial over the years. The tech giant takes a cut of any transactions made through its app platform, including on regular subscriptions. Apple’s standard cut is 30%, although it did reduce that down to 15% on regular subscription payments after a time.

For streaming music companies whose best-case scenario profit margin is 30%, having to hand over that sum (or even 15%) on any subscriptions taken through Apple’s platform is unviable. Therefore most streaming music platforms pass on Apple’s cut to the customer. But that then makes a Spotify subscription seem more expensive than an Apple Music subscription when viewed within the iOS ecosystem.

Of course the Spotifys and Neflixes of the world can sell subscriptions through their own platforms without paying any cut to Apple and those subscribers can then access said services via their iOS devices. But Apple bans services from pointing this out to customers within their iOS apps, which is the policy that has proven most controversial (and why Apple’s in-app purchase cut has proven more controversial that Google’s equivalent on Android).

App makers that have tried to circumvent this rule – usually by providing customers with an in-app link to their website for payment – have generally seen their apps blocked by the tech giant. Spotify isn’t doing this. Instead it has just made it impossible to sign up via its iOS app, presumably hoping that any potential subscribers will know to visit its website and hand over payment details there. It’s not entirely clear how Netflix is playing things and whether it is planning to flout any Apple rules.

Various content-on-demand platforms have expressed concerns about how three of their big competitors – Apple, Amazon and Google – all also control devices, operating systems, stores and/or other channels that they rely on to sell their services. Indeed the big three have also been involved in spats with each other on this issue.

There has been much debate on whether the policies of the big three in this domain, and especially Apple, actually violate competition law. And when various European streaming music services, including Spotify, set up a new trade body in Brussels last year, it seemed that lobbying on this issue was a priority.

All of which means, even if recent moves by Spotify and Netflix do reduce the two companies’ monthly payments to Apple without negatively impacting on their new subscriber sign-up rates, we can probably expect plenty more griping still to come on this issue.

Lana Del Rey says she will visit Palestine as well as playing Israeli festival

Artist News Gigs & Festivals Live Business

Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey has said that she will visit Palestine when she travels to Israel to perform at the Meteor Festival next month.

“My views on democracy and oppression are aligned with most liberal views”, she wrote in a statement posted to Instagram. “We will still be playing our show in Israel. That being said, I understand the concern towards showing support to the Palestinians too. So I just wanted to let you know when I’m in Israel I will be visiting Palestine too and I look forward to meeting both Palestinian and Israeli children and playing music for everyone. I want peace for both Israel and Palestine”.

Del Rey previously addressed criticism of her decision to play the Israeli festival earlier this week, saying that it was “not a political statement or a commitment to the politics” of the country.

Responding to her latest statement, the Palestinian Campaign For The Academic And Cultural Boycott Of Israel said they wouldn’t welcome Del Rey on any trip to Palestine, saying: “We would welcome you to Palestine should you cancel your Meteor performance. But we cannot accept your token gesture as you step across our boycott picket line”.

La Roux hits out at being used to soundtrack bulletproof schoolwear segment on Fox News

Artist News Media

La Roux

La Roux, aka Elly Jackson, has expressed dismay at her song ‘Bulletproof’ being used by Fox News in a segment on bulletproof schoolwear.

The news channel’s ‘Mornings With Maria’ programme broadcast a back-to-school piece on Monday this week. It featured a range of bulletproof backpacks and clothing for children that are being sold as the epidemic of school shootings in the US continues.

Using the La Roux track, the show played only the line “This time, baby, I’ll be bulletproof” as the benefits of the items were discussed.

“Using ‘Bulletproof’, a song I wrote about relationships, for a piece like this is abhorrent”, Jackson said in a statement to Billboard. “I have never, and would never, approve my music to be used in this way”.

One Liners: Downtown, Universal, Method Man, more

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

Downtown Music Publishing

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Downtown Music Publishing has announced not one, not two, not three… oh wait, it is three… three new deals. They are all telly and movie related. The company has acquired a catalogue of reality TV tunes from Bunim/Murray Productions (that’s deal one), they’ve bought some music rights from CourtTV (that’s two), and they will now administrate the music rights of film production house Indian Paintbrush (there’s number three). The deals include music from ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’, CourtTV’s ‘Forensic Files’ and Wes Anderson movies ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ and ‘Isle Of Dogs’, aka your perfect Friday night in.

• Universal’s Capitol Music Group and start-up backer Gener8tor have launched a new thing to support new ideas in music tech, called gBETA Musictech. Eight companies will be provided with mentoring and support as part of a seven week programme. “We’re THRILLED to begin working with the start-ups helping us cross the chasm into these new ecosystems and are ready to support them with both our networks”, says Gener8tor co-founder Joe Kirgues.

• Live music firm DHP Family has hired Richie Deeney to be Head Of Brand Partnerships for its venues, concerts and festivals. He joins from marketing company Upfront Media, having previously worked at various labels. “Coming from a record label background and [being] a music fan first and foremost, understanding how the cultural brand marriage works is key in producing events which are exciting and fresh”, he says.

• Method Man has released the video for new track ‘Grand Prix’. His new album, ‘The Meth Lab II: The Lithium’, is set for release later this year.

• Liz has released new single’, ‘Pandemonium’. It’s “full of juxtapositions”, she says. “There are a ton of early 2000s references in the lyrics, but there’s something about the production that doesn’t remind me of anything I’ve referenced in the past. It’s bubblegum and light-hearted, yet it feels deeply anthemic and celebratory of that sense of innocence and youth we are all somewhat secretly nostalgic for”.

• Art Brut have released the video for new single ‘Wham! Bam! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!’

• Pale Waves have released the video for new single ‘Eighteen’.

• Boytronic have announced that they will release a new album, titled ‘The Robot Treatment’, next year. The line-up features original vocalist Holger Wobker and former Scarlet Soho frontman James Knights. More info here.

• Amnesia Scanner have released new track ‘AS Too Wrong’.

• Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily – updated every Friday.

Madonna defends VMAs Aretha Franklin tribute: “I did not intend to do a tribute to her”

And Finally Artist News Awards

Madonna

Madonna has responded to criticism of her tribute to Aretha Franklin at Monday’s MTV VMAs. It wasn’t a tribute at all, she says, just a story that referenced the late singer.

“I was asked to present Video Of The Year by MTV”, she writes on Instagram. “And then they asked me to share any anecdotes I had in my career connected to Aretha Franklin. I shared a part of my journey and thanked Aretha for inspiring me along the way”.

“I did not intend to do a tribute to her”, she continues. “That would be impossible in two minutes with all the noise and tinsel of an award show. I could never do her justice in this context or environment. Unfortunately most people have short attention spans, and are so quick to judge. I love Aretha!”

In her speech at the awards show, Madonna told a story about singing an Aretha Franklin song at an audition early on in her own career. Her ability to do this got her the job, but she then sacked it off and did something else instead. She then concluded by saying that none of this would have been possible without Franklin.

With many people assuming Madonna’s bit was intended as a Franklin tribute, said people felt the story somewhat self-centred. But it wasn’t a Franklin tribute, so Madonna was allowed to put herself in the centre, the singer seems to be now saying.

Although even if Madonna did not consider her on-stage ramblings a tribute to Franklin, it seems that the award’s organisers may have. Shortly before the ceremony, executive producer Bruce Gillmer told ET Online that a tribute to Franklin was being worked out, saying: “[We’re] trying to figure out how to put something together that feels right and fitting. We’re scrambling, but we’re focused on it, without question”.

Approved: Fiona Brice

CMU Approved

Fiona Brice

Composer, arranger and violinist Fiona Brice has performed and recorded with artists including Kanye West, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Gorillaz, Liam Gallagher, John Grant and Anna Calvi. Most recently, she has toured with Phoebe Bridgers.

She also records and performs as an artist in her own right, releasing an album, ‘Postcards From’, through Bella Union in 2016. Now she’s set to release a new composition for a string quartet through Bigo & Twigetti next month.

Across three movements – the first of which is available to listen to now – ‘String Quartet No 1’ has a contemplative, often mournful feel. At first surrounded by a bustling energy, as the piece progresses it gives way to a more focussed openness.

The recording is set for release on 19 Sep. Listen to the first movement here.

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

Remastering doesn’t always create a new copyright, appeals court says in pre-1972 royalties case

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CBS Radio

Remastering a recording doesn’t automatically create a new copyright, America’s Ninth Circuit court of appeal has ruled. Which means that – if it turns out there’s been a general performing right for sound recordings hidden in Californian law all these years – then golden oldie radio stations based there should have been paying royalties to recording artists and record companies. And claiming that they only played more modern remasterings of those golden oldies won’t help said radio stations.

The Ninth Circuit ruling relates to the ABS Entertainment v CBS Radio case, which was kind of a mid-season spin off from all the legal shenanigans Stateside around pre-1972 sound recordings. Some of those legal shenanigans continue to work their way through the courts, even as Congress attempts to solve the issue via the Music Modernization Act.

A speedy recap. For complicated reasons – chiefly that American copyright law is weird – sound recordings are only protected by US-wide federal copyright law if they were released after 1972. Sound recordings released before 1972 are protected by state-level copyright laws, or state laws that perform some of the functions of copyright law.

Elsewhere in American copyright law being weird, there is no general performing right for sound recordings under the federal copyright system. Which means AM/FM radio stations don’t have to pay any royalties to recording artists and record companies when they spin some tunes. However, there is a digital performing right, which means that satellite and online radio services do pay royalties, usually via collecting society SoundExchange.

Many digital services that have to pay those royalties – including satellite radio firm Sirius and personalised radio set-up Pandora – have argued that because the digital performing right comes from federal law, the royalty obligation only applies to recordings released since 1972. Which means they can play as many golden oldies as they like without paying any money whatsoever to artists and labels.

Many artists and labels, however, did not concur. Which posed the question, what do state-level copyright laws say about performing rights on sound recordings? The answer is generally very little, although Sirius and Pandora pointed out that AM/FM radio stations have never paid royalties to artists and labels on pre-1972 tracks, which suggests there is no general performing right. And there certainly isn’t a specific digital performing right.

Various lawsuits followed, the highest profile led by Flo & Eddie, who enjoyed success in the 1960s as part of The Turtles. Different courts in different states reached different conclusions. In California a judge decided there probably was a general performing right for sound recordings there, and therefore Pandora and Sirius should have been paying royalties to artists and labels. Various legal settlements followed, although the state’s Supreme Court has now been asked to rule on the matter once and for all.

But here’s the thing. If it turns out there has been a general performing right for sound recordings under Californian law all this time, why haven’t AM/FM radio stations been paying royalties to artists and labels whenever they play pre-1972 recordings? Because they should have been. It was on that basis that music firm ABS Entertainment, which owns old recordings by Al Green among others, sued American broadcaster CBS Radio.

The lawyers at CBS came up with a clever ruse when defending themselves in that lawsuit. The broadcaster said that when its stations play records that were originally released in the 1950s and 1960s, it always plays remastered versions of those tracks. A new copyright was created with the remastering process, CBS then argued. And given the remastering happened after 1972, those recordings are protected by federal law.

The remaster-to-reboot-the-copyright trick has long been employed by the music industry. Whenever famous recordings are about to come out of copyright, you remaster the tracks, take the originals away from retail, and replace them with the remastered works that now enjoy a whole new copyright term. People can still use the original now public domain recordings without licence, but it’s hard to get hold of them.

Quite how much remastering is required before you can say a new copyright has been created is debatable. And that debate was at the heart of the ABS v CBS case.

The music company argued that in most cases the sound engineers doing the remastering just tweaked the balance and loudness, which were mere mechanical changes that were insufficient to create a new copyright. But at first instance, the judge bought CBS’s remastering ruse and threw out ABS’s case without getting into the tricky nitty gritty about whether or not AM/FM radio stations should pay royalties on pre-1972 sound recordings.

Now the Ninth Circuit appeal court has rejected the lower court’s ruling on the remaster-to-reboot-the-copyright point. The appeal judges aren’t saying that a remaster can’t create a new separate work protected by a new separate copyright. They are just saying the act of remastering in itself doesn’t necessarily mean a new copyright has been created.

According to Reuters, one of the judges, Richard Linn, stated that: “A digitally remastered sound recording made as a copy of the original analogue sound recording will rarely exhibit the necessary originality to qualify for independent copyright protection”.

Actually the judge in the lower court didn’t say that every remaster would automatically constitute a new copyright. But the appeals court ruling seems to set the bar higher for just how much tweaking is required in the remastering process for a new copyright to come into play. Either way, the case has now been sent back to the lower court for reconsideration. Meanwhile legal reps for ABS said the new judgement “completely vindicates our clients”.

Although the appeals court ruling favours ABS’s arguments, the dispute with CBS still ultimately depends on what the Californian Supreme Court decides regarding the general performing right for sound recordings in the state.

Meanwhile, in Congress, the Music Modernization Act seeks to end the pre-1972 debate once and for all by saying that the digital performing right introduced by federal copyright law applies to all recordings still in copyright, oblivious of release date.

Though, even if and when that goes through, ABS could still argue that if there is a general performing right on sound recordings in California and therefore it should be getting royalties from CBS whenever its stations play 1950s and 1960s tracks, in addition to any royalties it would definitely be due from Sirius and Pandora on the back of the MMA.

Attempts to force AM/FM radio stations in America to pay royalties across the board to artists and labels – as their counterparts do in most other countries – are not part of the MMA. Mainly because of concerns that including an AM/FM radio royalty in those proposals would have caused the whole MMA to fall down, given the continued power of the broadcast lobby in Washington.

Labels want ISPs to be “de facto copyright enforcement agents”, says ISP

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal

Grande Communications

As we prepare for take two of the high profile BMG v Cox Communications safe harbour case in America, another US net firm has accused the record industry of trying to make internet service providers their “de facto copyright enforcement agents”. That claim has been made by Grande Communications which is seeking summary judgement in its favour in a copyright infringement dispute with the major labels.

The music industry has long wished that internet service providers would do more to monitor and limit piracy on their networks. ISPs are generally protected by the pesky copyright safe harbour, which means they can’t be sued when their customers use their networks to distribute content without licence. Providing, that is, they provide some tools via which copyright owners can have infringing content removed.

There have been various efforts to get the ISPs to introduce anti-piracy measures, sometimes by getting new anti-piracy laws passed, other times by seeking voluntary agreements with the net firms. The latter existed in the US for a time involving the more copyright friendly ISPs, which are usually those that also operate cable TV networks and therefore have a vested interest in movies and sporting events not being pirated.

Neither Cox nor Grande were part of that programme. BMG sued Cox arguing that it operated a deliberately shoddy policy for dealing with repeat copyright infringers among its customer base. Therefore, BMG said, Cox did not fulfil the requirements under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act to qualify for safe harbour protection.

BMG won that case at first instance, though it was subsequently overturned on appeal because of a technicality. Hence a second court hearing is now pending in that case. Meanwhile, the wider US record industry sued Grande (and later Cox), basically presenting the same arguments as in the BMG litigation.

Earlier this month the record companies asked the court hearing its case against Grande to confirm through summary judgement that the ISP could not rely on safe harbour protection due to its rubbish systems for dealing with copyright complaints and repeat infringers.

In its filing, the Recording Industry Association Of America wrote: “Grande’s chief defence to plaintiffs’ case – [ie DMCA safe harbour] – fails as a matter of law. The undisputed record evidence is devastating to Grande and confirms that Grande cannot meet its burden of establishing its entitlement to the safe harbour”.

Now Grande has filed its own legal papers seeking summary judgement in its favour and it wants the whole case thrown out. It’s not the first time the ISP has tried to have the case dismissed, so many of the arguments in its latest submission are pretty familiar. They also echo many of the arguments previously presented by Cox in the BMG case.

A big part of Grande’s filing takes issue with Rightscorp, the anti-piracy agency that is employed by many music rights owners in the US. It says that if anyone has a shoddy or rubbish system for monitoring copyright infringement it’s Rightscorp, which means that ISPs cannot rely on the copyright complaints it submits.

As a result, it says, the labels haven’t presented any evidence that its customers are actually liable for direct infringement. There would have to be some direct infringement in order to hold the ISP liable for so called secondary or contributory infringement. Though, on the off chance the labels do demonstrate that some direct infringing was occurring, the ISP then runs through various arguments as to why there still isn’t a case for contributory infringement.

Grande declares: “This case is an attempt by the US recording industry to make internet service providers, or ISPs, its de facto copyright enforcement agents. Having given up on actually pursuing direct infringers due to bad publicity, and having decided not to target the software and websites that make online file-sharing possible, the recording industry has shifted its focus to fashioning new forms of copyright liability that would require ISPs to act as the copyright police”.

“Plaintiffs’ legal theories represent an absurd expansion of copyright liability”, it adds. “In essence, plaintiffs want to require ISPs to terminate the accounts of subscribers based on nothing more than unsubstantiated and unverifiable allegations of copyright infringement”.

Referring to the aforementioned Rightscorp, it goes on: “To further this effort, the recording industry enlists a third party to bombard ISPs like Grande with hundreds of thousands of such allegations per year – more than any ISP could ever reasonably investigate and attempt to verify, even if it had the practical ability to do so”.

Laying into the anti-piracy firm further, it says: “These notices are sent by a company that shockingly does nothing to verify the registration or ownership of any of the songs for which it sends out millions of notices of infringement and collects monetary settlements. This puts ISPs in an impossible position: either terminate subscribers based on unverified allegations of infringement, or face litigation for the secondary infringement of thousands of copyrighted works. Fortunately, the copyright law simply does not and cannot allow for secondary liability in these circumstances”.

Sticking it to the labels themselves a little more, the legal filing then says: “Plaintiffs’ case against Grande is also riddled with fatal evidentiary flaws – there are almost too many to list”. It then lists them. Before shouting: “These failures entitle Grande to summary judgment”.

It remains to be seen how the judge responds to both sides’ bid for summary judgements in their favour. The music industry feels that American case law is slowly starting to increase the obligations of safe harbour dwelling net firms, which is a welcome development given the review of safe harbour in Washington has been dragging. The labels will be hoping for success in the Cox and Grande cases to maintain that momentum.

J-pop group Chai sign to Heavenly

Artist News Business News Deals Gigs & Festivals Releases

Chai

Heavenly Recordings has signed J-pop group Chai. The band will release their first album for the label, ‘Pink’, in October.

Coinciding with the Heavenly deal, the band have released new single ‘NEO’, of which they say: “Everyone, if we could be exactly who we are, that would be great right? Worrying is normal you know? Complexes are individuality. Complexes are art. Kawaii is a never-ending journey!”

‘Pink’ is set for release on 12 Oct and Chai will support Superorganism on their upcoming tour of the UK and Ireland the same month. Listen to ‘NEO’ here:

Superorganism dates:

15 Oct: Bristol, SWX
16 Oct: Liverpool, Arts Club
17 Oct: Belfast, Limelight 1
18 Oct: Dublin, Academy
20 Oct: Glasgow, SWEG3
21 Oct: Sheffield, The Leadmilll
22 Oct: Leeds, Stylus
24 Oct: London, Shepherds Bush Empire
25 Oct: Manchester, Ritz
26 Oct: Cambridge, The Junction
27 Oct: Portsmouth, Pyramids Centre
28 Oct: Brighton, Concorde 2
30 Oct: Oxford, Academy 1

Nicki Minaj and Future cancel co-headline tour

Artist News Digital Gigs & Festivals Labels & Publishers Live Business Releases

Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj and Future have cancelled their upcoming co-headline tour, which was due to begin next month, in order to “re-evaluate elements of production”.

The tour will now begin with the scheduled European dates next February, reaching the US next May – although American dates are yet to be confirmed. Due to scheduling conflicts, Future will not take part in the rescheduled North American shows.

The announcement came shortly after reports in the American press that low ticket sales could force the run to be pulled. The New York Post published an article claiming that ticket sales were extremely low, quoting a Live Nation source as saying that some venues had sold less than 10% of their capacity.

It also came after Minaj, as promised, used this week’s edition of her Beats 1 radio show on Apple Music to rant about Travis Scott cheating her out of the number one spot her new album should have taken in the US album charts.

Scott’s latest LP, ‘Astroworld’, remained at number one for a second week on the Billboard album chart this week, meaning Minaj’s ‘Queen’ debuted at number two. Although both sold roughly the same number of physical copies and downloads, Scott beat Minaj on streams.

Minaj, of course, previously claimed in a series of tweets that Scott unfairly boosted his sales by giving away copies of his album with merch and concert tickets via the online store on his website. She then claimed that his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, posting on Instagram about the tour gave him an unfair advantage – actually blaming their baby Stormi.

“I put my blood, sweat and tears in writing a dope album only for Travis Scott to have Kylie Jenner post a tour pass telling people to come see her and Stormi”, she wrote.

Scott is not technically giving away albums with merch and concert tickets – instead he’s been promising pre-sale access to tickets for his upcoming tour to people who buy albums and merch on his website. It’s actually Minaj who has been bundling CDs with t-shirts. Regardless, she apparently remains very angry about her chart position, while also maintaining that she’s not actually angry, despite going on and on and on and on about it.

“What we’re not gonna do is have that Auto-Tune man selling fucking sweaters telling you he sold half a million albums, because he fucking didn’t”, she said on her Beats 1 show. “You stupid fuck. You got your fucking homeboy talking for you and you got your girlfriend selling tour passes. Stop it. Knock it the fuck off”.

She went on: “When [Scott] comes along and sells a tour pass that has nothing to do with his fucking music and says he’s sold more than Kanye West and Nas – no you fucking didn’t, keep it the fuck real. I know I’m that bitch, I know I’m number one”.

However, she added: “Having said that, none of this is some serious anger shit. No, we are in a time right now where black music is prospering. I’m so excited to see where rap has come from and where we are. But right is right and wrong is wrong”.

Minaj also previously claimed that her bid for the number one spot was hindered by Spotify. The streaming firm, she said, had penalised her for premiering new tracks on Apple Music via her Beats 1 show. Spotify delayed ‘Queen’ going live by twelve hours, she claimed. Spotify has denied this. Still, as noted, Minaj did lose out on the number one position because of her streaming figures. Something that burns because, she claims, it was her who got streaming data added to the charts in the first place.

“You know how many bullets I took for you motherfuckers to get streaming to count on Billboard?” she said.

She then also lambasted artists for not reading the contracts they sign and not having “a clue what is happening” to their business behind the scenes. Which might not be relevant, though the advice that all artists should be on top of all the deals they sign is good.

Tuesday 28 August 2018, 13:15 | By Andy Malt

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Friday 24 August 2018, 12:11 | By Chris Cooke

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Friday 24 August 2018, 11:57 | By Andy Malt

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Friday 24 August 2018, 11:51 | By Andy Malt

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Thursday 23 August 2018, 10:20 | By Chris Cooke

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Thursday 23 August 2018, 10:16 | By Andy Malt

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Thursday 23 August 2018, 10:14 | By Andy Malt

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Thursday 23 August 2018, 10:09 | By Chris Cooke

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Thursday 23 August 2018, 09:50 | By Andy Malt

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Thursday 23 August 2018, 09:46 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: Aretha Franklin | Madonna | MTV | MTV VMAs

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Wednesday 22 August 2018, 11:47 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: ABS Entertainment | CBS

Wednesday 22 August 2018, 11:45 | By Chris Cooke

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Wednesday 22 August 2018, 11:42 | By Andy Malt

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Wednesday 22 August 2018, 11:38 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: Future | Nicki Minaj | Travis Scott