Friday 14 December 2018, 11:48 | By Andy Malt

Vigsy’s Club Tip: Jeff Mills at Printworks

Club Tip CMU Approved

Detroit superstar Jeff Mills plays his special blend of techno at The Printworks tomorrow. Others alongside him in the cavernous main room include Marcel Dettmann, Blawan, James Ruskin and Octave One.

In the next room we have techster Surgeon and US legend DJ Stingray. There’ll be a couple of live sets in there too, from Answer Code Request and Karan Gwyer.

This is an all-day techno-based fest at the South London venue which is not to be missed, kicking off at midday. The 11pm curfew is a bit of a shame, though I guess it gives you time to head on to something else after, if you’re still game for more.

Saturday 15 Dec, Printworks, 1 Surrey Quays Road, London, SE16 7PJ, 12pm-11pm, £37.50. More info here.

READ MORE ABOUT: Jeff Mills

Thursday 13 December 2018, 13:07 | By Chris Cooke

Blurred Lines song-theft ruling stands as Supreme Court deadline passes

Artist News Business News Labels & Publishers Legal Top Stories

The ‘Blurred Lines’ song-theft saga is finally at an end after the deadline passed for Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke to take the case to US Supreme Court. With that deadline passed a judge has finalised the damages that must now be paid to the Marvin Gaye estate, while confirming that it will also receive 50% of any future royalties generated by the song.

Williams and Thicke were accused, of course, of ripping off Gaye’s ‘Got To Give It Up’ on their already controversial 2013 hit ‘Blurred Lines’. It was actually them who sued the Gaye estate, seeking judicial confirmation that the alleged rip off didn’t constitute copyright infringement. It was a move that backfired big time when, in 2015, a jury decided that they had, in fact, infringed Marvin Gaye’s song copyright.

The judgement was controversial within much of the songwriting community because many felt it set a dangerous precedent that could result in a flood of copyright infringement lawsuits against songs that had been influenced by earlier works. This was based on support for the argument put forward by Williams and Thicke that ‘Blurred Lines’ shared a ‘vibe’ with ‘Got To Give It Up’ but wasn’t a straight rip-off.

The terrible twosome appealed the judgement, but in March this year the Ninth Circuit appeals court pretty much endorsed the jury’s original decision and rejected arguments put forward as to why that judgement had been flawed. However, there was one dissenting judge in the appeals court who shared the concerns expressed by many in the songwriting community. She concluded that the ruling “establishes a dangerous precedent that strikes a devastating blow to future musicians and composers everywhere”.

Williams and Thicke asked the Ninth Circuit to reconsider its ruling ‘en banc’, which would mean all of the judges of that court would hear both side’s arguments. But the appeals court declined to reconsider its earlier decision, meaning that the next route of appeal for the ‘Blurred Lines’ makers was to go to the American Supreme Court.

However, the deadline for requesting that the Supreme Court hear the case has now passed without any request being made. To that end the judge who oversaw the original court hearing confirmed on Monday the nearly $5 million in damages that must now be handed over. The damages will paid by Williams and Thicke themselves and the former’s publishing entity More Water From Nazareth.

At one point the Gaye family also requested an injunction to stop the future distribution of ‘Blurred Lines’, but judge John Kronstadt declined to grant such a thing, instead saying he would award the estate 50% of future royalties. That royalty arrangement was also reconfirmed this week.

READ MORE ABOUT: Blurred Lines | Marvin Gaye | Pharrell Williams | Robin Thicke

Thursday 13 December 2018, 13:05 | By Chris Cooke

Uncleared samples are copyright infringement however short, reckons EU’s Advocate General

Artist News Business News Legal

Ah, the good old “can a two second sample possibly constitute copyright infringement” debate, that never gets old does it? Now the Advocate General of the European Union’s Court Of Justice has pondered on this very topic as the incredibly long running legal battle between Kraftwerk and rapper Moses Pelham somehow still continues to go through the motions. He basically concludes that using a two second sample of a sound recording without permission does constitute copyright infringement.

Kraftwerk’s Ralf Hutter sued Pelham way back in the early 2000s over a 1990s track that the latter had made with the rapper Sabrina Setlur called ‘Nur Mir’. It used a tiny sample from Kraftwerk’s track ‘Metal On Metal’ on a loop.

The case bounced around the German courts for years. It was accepted that Pelham had indeed sampled ‘Metal On Metal’ without permission, but the question was then posed as to whether such a short uncleared sample could constitute copyright infringement under German law. In 2012, Germany’s Federal Court Of Justice found in favour of Kraftwerk, in part on the basis that Pelham could have easily recreated the sound he sampled, so clipping the snippet out of ‘Metal On Metal’ was just laziness.

Four years later the German Constitutional Court overturned that judgement, reckoning that the lower court hadn’t properly considered Pelham’s “artistic freedom”. The higher court reckoned that the negative impact on Kraftwerk caused by the uncleared sample probably wasn’t sufficient to outweigh the sampler’s artistic rights.

After the Constitutional Court basically bounced the matter back to the Federal Court Of Justice, a bunch of questions were subsequently sent to the EU court requesting clarification on what European law says about sampling. Which is why Advocate General Maciej Szpunar has been musing on the issue. His conclusion isn’t binding, but tends to be very influential when the EU Court Of Justice makes any rulings.

While there has been plenty of debate over the years about the copyright implications of sampling, actually there are really two debates, because the arguments may be different for recording rights versus song rights.

Basically, when you sample a two second clip of a track, you are sampling both the recording and the song contained within it. But it might be hard to argue that the two second snippet of the song can be protected by copyright in isolation. However, at the same time you could argue that the two second snippet of the recording is.

The ‘Metal On Metal’ case centres on the recording rights. In essence, in the 2012 court hearing, when one argument on the Kraftwerk side was that Pelham could have recreated the sounds he sampled, they were basically saying that there was no song copyright to infringe here, but that the separate recording copyright had been infringed by the uncleared sample.

Therefore, Szpunar’s remarks relate to the recording rights, though he does consider the distinction between the song and the track. In his response to the questions posed by the German courts, he starts by saying that “it goes without saying” that sampling a recording exploits the ‘reproduction’ control that comes with the copyright.

“Sampling (generally) involves the direct and permanent reproduction, by digital means and in digital form, of a portion or sample of a phonogram”, he goes on. “It therefore seems to be quite clear that that act amounts to an infringement of the right of the producers of the phonogram in question to authorise or prohibit such a reproduction made without their permission”.

He then considers the argument that a two second sample is just too short to enjoy copyright protection, noting that when it comes to the songs side, a few notes or words may not enjoy protection in isolation.

However, he says, this principle cannot be “applied to phonograms”. He writes: “A phonogram is not an intellectual creation consisting of a composition of elements such as words, sounds, colours etc. A phonogram is a fixation of sounds which is protected, not by virtue of the arrangement of those sounds, but rather on account of the fixation itself”.

“Consequently”, he continues, “although, in the case of [other creative works], it is possible to distinguish the elements which may not be protected, such as words, sounds, colours etc, from the subject-matter which may be protected in the form of the original arrangement of those elements, such a distinction is not, however, possible in the case of a phonogram”.

All of which means that even a tiny snippet of a sound recording enjoys copyright protection and therefore can’t be sampled without permission, although the chances are that “anyone may reproduce the same sound himself” without infringing any other copyrights.

Which kind of makes sense, although many of the big sample-based copyright cases have taken place in the American courts, and judges there haven’t always applied that rule consistently, ie that however tiny, an uncleared sample infringes the recording copyright. Aware of this, Szpunar stresses that US and European copyright rules are different.

American sampling cases, he says, were argued in “a radically different legal environment to that of continental Europe and EU law”. He then added that, mainly because continental European copyright systems (though not the UK system) treat sound recordings differently to things like the song copyright, “I take the view that the reasoning of the US courts cannot therefore be applied to EU law”.

Beyond the classic question about whether super short samples can be protected by copyright, Szpunar also considers a number of other matters too, including whether any copyright exceptions could apply in this case, and also the issue of “artistic freedom” that was raised by the German Constitutional Court.

On the latter point, Szpunar writes: “Artists must be particularly aware of the limits and restrictions that life imposes on creative freedom where they concern the rights and fundamental freedoms of others, in particular their right to property, including intellectual property. In such cases, the balancing of different rights and interests is a particularly complex exercise and there is rarely a ‘one size fits all’ solution”.

“That balancing exercise”, he adds, “must, in a democratic society, be undertaken first of all by the legislature, which embodies the general interest”.

But when it comes to rights under European law, he goes on, “the requirement of obtaining a licence for [sampling] does not restrict, in my opinion, the freedom of the arts to a degree that extends beyond normal market constraints, especially since those new works often generate significant revenue for their authors and producers”.

Concluding, Szpunar states that “taking an extract of a phonogram for the purpose of using it in another phonogram (sampling) infringes the exclusive right of the producer of the first phonogram”, and that “the exclusive right of phonogram producers … to authorise or prohibit reproduction, in part, of their phonogram in the event of its use for sampling purposes is not contrary to the freedom of the arts as enshrined in article thirteen of the Charter Of Fundamental Rights Of The European Union”.

We now await to see how the EU court itself responds to its German counterpart, and what impact these clarifications have on the ‘Metal On Metal’ case back in Germany.

READ MORE ABOUT: Kraftwerk | Moses Pelham

Thursday 13 December 2018, 13:04 | By Chris Cooke

Appeals court upholds copyright infringement ruling against MP3 resale site

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal

The unapproved resale of MP3s online constitutes copyright infringement, the Second Circuit appeals court in the US has confirmed. No one is the slightest bit interested in reselling MP3s online any more of course, but they were in 2012 when EMI sued a company called ReDigi, which had set up a second-hand MP3 marketplace.

ReDigi argued that fans selling on their old MP3s was no different than them selling on their old CDs. The latter is allowed because copyright law generally limits a copyright owner’s ‘distribution’ control to the first sale of a physical copy. In the US this is referred to as the ‘first sale doctrine’. The tech start-up also argued that its software could verify that the MP3 being sold was legit and ensure that the file was deleted off the seller’s PC after the sale.

The music industry argued that transferring an MP3 from one PC to another caused a reproduction to occur, whereas when a customer sells on a CD no copying is required. There is no ‘first sale’ limitation on the reproduction element of the copyright, so ReDigi was encouraging and facilitating copyright infringement with its MP3 marketplace.

The courts sided with EMI in its copyright infringement action back in 2013. Though that ruling didn’t deal with what damages the start-up should pay the record company. A few years of back and forth went on in that regard, with an agreement being reached between both parties in 2016. Throughout that process ReDigi also vowed to appeal the 2013 ruling, reckoning its first sale doctrine and other fair use arguments should stand.

However, appeals judges in the Second Circuit weren’t any more impressed with those arguments than the lower court. According to Law360, the appeals court stated this week: “None of [ReDigi’s] arguments negates the crucial fact that each transfer of a digital music file to ReDigi’s server and each new purchaser’s download of a digital music file to his device creates new phonorecords”.

ReDigi suspended its operations in the midst of all these legal wranglings, with the company behind it seeking chapter eleven bankruptcy protection at one point. The firm’s home page has been counting down to the appeals court ruling of late, and continues to do so despite said ruling now having been issued. It’s not clear what steps the company plans to take next.

READ MORE ABOUT: EMI | ReDigi

Thursday 13 December 2018, 13:01 | By Chris Cooke

Alison Wenham to depart WIN, as UK’s MPA announces new chief

Business News Industry People

Alison Wenham is standing down as CEO of the Worldwide Independent Network, the global grouping that brings together trade organisations representing the indie music community around the world.

Wenham founded WIN – initially as an informal network – back in 2006 while still heading up the UK’s Association Of Independent Music. She then became WIN’s full-time CEO after standing down as AIM boss in 2016.

Among other things, WIN was behind the Fair Digital Deals Declaration in 2014 which saw countless indies make commitments to their artists about how they would report and share digital income. It also launched the WINTEL report that measures record industry market share based on copyright ownership rather than distribution.

Having originally launched AIM in 1999, Wenham has been campaigning for indies for pretty much two decades. Confirming her departure from WIN, she said this morning: “It has been a pleasure and a privilege to devote two decades of my life and career to helping ensure the stability and continued growth of the independent music sector”.

She added: “Since launching AIM in 1999 I have stood shoulder to shoulder with amazing friends and colleagues as, together, we set out and then delivered a new era of respect for the role and importance of the sector. We changed attitudes towards the sector across the world, and ensured that independent music copyrights are now recognised and valued”.

The current Chair of WIN, Beggars Group chief Martin Mills, also paid tribute to the organisation’s departing chief, stating: “Alison has been a force of nature for all of us, and a central factor in indies being able to compete worldwide with companies many times their size. As she moves on, she leaves us strong and thriving, and looking forward to many fruitful seasons. For that we are eternally grateful to her”.

Elsewhere in music industry trade organisation news, the UK’s Music Publishers Association has confirmed that long-time PRS exec Paul Clements has been appointed as its new CEO. He takes over from Jane Dyball, who confirmed she was departing the trade body back in July.

Like Dyball, Clements will head up the MPA group of companies which, as well as the trade body itself, includes mechanical rights collecting society MCPS and sheet music licensing body PMLL.

Confirming the appointment, the MPA’s Chair – Jackie Alway of Universal Music Publishing – said: “We are delighted that Paul is joining us as CEO of our group. His ability to engage on issues with intellectual focus, as well as communicate with clarity and passion, makes us excited about his future advocacy on behalf of our community. In addition, he brings a keen business brain which will help expand the reach of our PMLL business”.

READ MORE ABOUT: Alison Wenham | World Independent Network (WIN)

Thursday 13 December 2018, 12:59 | By Chris Cooke

Neil Young’s Hyde Park show won’t be marketed under Barclaycard BST banner

Artist News Business News Gigs & Festivals Live Business

AEG has confirmed that Neil Young’s show in London’s Hyde Park next summer will not sit under the banner of British Summer Time. This follows the musician’s public griping about the planned concert, with Young complaining online that he hadn’t been told the show was being announced, that he wasn’t able to offer his signed-up fans a pre-sale opportunity, and that he had a major problem with Barclaycard sponsoring the gig.

These moans appeared on the Neil Young Archives website shortly after AEG announced that Young would be co-headlining a day of its Barclaycard-backed British Summer Time series alongside Bob Dylan. Young’s management firm subsequently admitted it had screwed up by not keeping its client fully informed about the show being made public.

Young took umbrage at the BST shows being sponsored by Barclaycard because of the wider Barclay group’s investments in the fossil fuels sector. He wrote: “I learned that the show had a sponsor, Barclays Bank, a fossil fuel funding entity. That doesn’t work for me … At the moment, we are trying to rectify the situation … we have been talking about requiring a different sponsor as one option”.

The NYA website then announced that it had been agreed that the show would go ahead without Barclaycard sponsorship, although at that time it was still being promoting on the British Summer Time website complete with the credit card company’s branding. But later yesterday the Neil Young/Bob Dylan concert was taken off the BST site.

Meanwhile AEG said in a statement: “Neil Young has made the decision to move away from the Barclaycard presents British Summer Time concert series. Neil Young and Bob Dylan will play a stand-alone concert in Hyde Park on the same date, 12 Jul. All tickets will remain valid. The Barclaycard presents British Summer Time concert series remains unaffected and will continue as normal with more headliners to be announced in early 2019”.

So, there you go. Simple. They just need to remember, on the morning of 12 Jul, to go round the Hyde Park compound AEG builds each summer and remove any Barclaycard branding. It does mean that the live music giant’s big brand partner can’t be associated with one of the key bookings for the annual series of central London gigs, but that’s probably better than having one of your headliners openly slagging off the sponsor at every opportunity.

Maybe AEG and Barclaycard should have realised from the off that an environmentalist like Neil Young would never ever agree to perform at an event sponsored by a fossil fuel investing bank. Except, of course, for that one time he played London’s Barclaycard British Summer Time festival in 2014.

READ MORE ABOUT: Bob Dylan | British Summer Time | Neil Young

Thursday 13 December 2018, 12:57 | By Andy Malt

Attitude Is Everything launches new initiative to make the voices of deaf and disabled musicians heard

Business News Live Business

Accessibility charity Attitude Is Everything has announced a new initiative, called Next Stage, aiming to empower deaf and disabled artists in the music industry.

The charity says that there is currently a lack of knowledge and information about the work and lives of deaf and disabled artists. It aims to bridge that gap with this survey, and is calling for input from all self-identified deaf and disabled musicians, as well as any music makers who have a health condition or impairment that impacts their daily lives.

From there, it is hoped that the findings of this survey can help to improve access to the live music industry for deaf and disabled artists, giving them more opportunity to develop their talents.

“Next Stage is an ambitious departure for Attitude Is Everything”, the charity’s CEO Suzanne Bull explains. “We have spent almost 20 years working for disabled audiences and now, with support from Arts Council England, we want to improve accessibility for disabled artists”.

“This process will not be easy”, she admits. “The challenges facing deaf and disabled people are often hidden, and rarely discussed publicly. There are a range of stigmas and sensibilities. So our first goal is to collect information through a comprehensive and wide-reaching survey. By paying attention to artists’ voices, I believe we can build a thriving network of talent that will enhance British music and benefit all in the wider music community”.

AIE patron and Mystery Jets frontman Blane Harrison adds: “Since we started out playing shows there has been a huge shift in the music industry’s attitude towards deaf and disabled audiences. It’s been so inspiring to see live-signing catching on at gigs and festivals, not to mention how popular viewing platforms have become. And when you’re up there it’s not hard to see why. The atmosphere is one of shared joy; reminding us that the live music experience is one we can all participate in”.

However, he goes on, “backstage, it’s often another story. Dressing rooms can be tucked away up steep flights of stairs in the eaves of the building; if there are lifts they are often made for hauling heavy equipment and not safe to ride in unattended. For artists requiring some alone time to mentally prepare for the pressures of a performance, the back of the van in the car park can sometimes be the closest thing to a safe space”.

“In much the same way that the conversation around mental health has opened up, hearing the experiences and voices of disabled artists will hugely diversify and enrich the music industry of tomorrow”, he concludes. “Now is the time for the Paralympians of the arts to be given the platform they deserve”.

You can fill out the survey here.

The initial findings of the research will be presented during the TGE Conference at next year’s Great Escape as part of the Partner Panels programme that sits alongside the three CMU+TGE conferences that take place in Brighton each May.

The AIE research launch is one of a number of additions to the TGE 2019 programme announced today, alongside the news that Lewis Capaldi will return to play a Spotlight Show at the Brighton Dome and confirmation that the Association Of Independent Music will again run AIM House at the Queens Hotel.

There is more information about the CMU+TGE conferences planned for 2019 here.

READ MORE ABOUT: Attitude Is Everything

Thursday 13 December 2018, 12:56 | By Andy Malt

Killer Mike to present new Netflix show

Artist News Media

Run The Jewels’ Killer Mike is to present a new series for Netflix, called ‘Trigger Warning’, set to be made available in the new year.

“‘Trigger Warning’ is about examining cultural taboos and giving viewers the space to examine the ‘what ifs’ and ‘why nots’ that limit how some people move and operate in the world”, the rapper explains. “In six episodes, we explore the human condition using non-traditional approaches”.

He adds: “Not everyone will agree with my methods – and some of what we’re putting out is fucking crazy – but this show is about embracing your freedom to challenge societal expectations and conformity. This show is if an anarchist determined the status quo”.

The show will go live on 18 Jan. Watch a trailer here:

READ MORE ABOUT: Killer Mike | Netflix

Thursday 13 December 2018, 12:53 | By Andy Malt

Ronnie Wood says Keith Richards quitting drinking has got The Rolling Stones “rocking like we’re 40 year olds”

And Finally Artist News

Keith Richards revealed earlier this year that he’d stopped taking drugs, mainly because the ones they have now are “very institutionalised and bland”. Now it turns out he’s also quit drinking, having realised it was time to start living a little healthier.

“It’s been about a year now”, he tells Rolling Stone about his more sober existence. “I pulled the plug on it. I got fed up with it. It was time to quit. Just like all the other stuff”.

He’s not completely stopped, he says, still enjoying “a glass of wine occasionally and a beer”. However, for the most part he doesn’t miss the booze, saying: “I don’t notice any difference really – except for I don’t drink. I wasn’t feeling [right]. I’ve done it. I didn’t want that anymore”.

Other Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, who quit drinking almost a decade ago, has noticed some big differences though. He says: “He’s a pleasure to work with. Much more mellow. He’s open to more ideas, whereas before I’d kind of grit my teeth and go, ‘He’s gonna give me some shit for saying this’. Now, he’ll say, ‘That’s cool, man'”.

Wood adds that it’s improved their live shows too, saying of their first shows with both guitarists sober earlier this year: “We’re weaving [guitar parts] a lot more conscientiously now. We’re much more aware of the gaps and the spaces between. We’re in our 70s, but we’re still rocking like we’re 40 year olds, you know?”

Richards admits he enjoyed the sober performing too, saying of the end of that tour “everyone looked at each other saying, ‘No, we’re just getting going!’ That’s when the idea came to play the States”.

The Rolling Stones are set to tour the US next year, starting in April.

READ MORE ABOUT: Keith Richards | Ronnie Wood | The Rolling Stones

Thursday 13 December 2018, 11:54 | By Andy Malt

Approved: Whipped Cream

CMU Approved

Whipped Cream has been on my mental list of artists to write about here for most of the year, but things have never quite lined up. So I’m happy to have her fill the final one of these columns for 2018.

The last twelve months has seen the Canadian producer release a steady stream of bass-heavy tracks featuring a range of influences, from hip hop to dubstep. The newly released ‘Luv’ switches things up yet again, masterfully mashing up breakbeats, hip hop, dark electro and more in under two minutes (although a longer mix also exists if you need more – which you will).

“I combined sounds and grooves from stuff I listened to when I first got into electronic music and put it all together into one piece of work”, she says. “You think you know my sound? Think again. This piece is to leave my listener with questions and wanting more”.

Watch the video for ‘Luv’ here:

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

READ MORE ABOUT: Whipped Cream

Wednesday 12 December 2018, 12:40 | By Chris Cooke

Tencent Music IPOs at bottom end of expected price bracket

Business News Digital Top Stories

Tencent Music has priced its shares at the bottom end of the expected $13-$15 price range as the music division of Chinese web giant Tencent arrives on the New York Stock Exchange today.

That means the company will raise about $1.1 billion from the initial public offering and will arrive on the NYSE with a market cap valuation of about $21.3 billion. Although still a significant stock exchange debut, the money raised and accompanying valuation is considerably lower than what had been predicted earlier this year.

Tencent confirmed in July that it would spin-off its music division as a standalone business via an IPO in the US. But the listing was subsequently delayed as most publicly-listed tech firms saw their share prices dip and the trade war between the US and China escalated.

There was talk of the IPO being pushed back into 2019, but Tencent announced the listing was going ahead after the stock market responded positively to talks between the US and China at the recent meeting of G20 countries in Buenos Aires.

A further hitch then occurred after it emerged an early investor in a company that subsequently merged with Tencent Music was suing over allegations he’d been tricked into selling his shares in 2013.

Tencent Music, of course, owns China’s market-leading streaming service QQ Music, and has a number of other digital, distribution and label operations too. The firm’s IPO has been frequently compared to the direct listing earlier this year of Spotify, with which Tencent has a formal alliance.

Spotify arrived on the New York Stock Exchange with a market cap valuation of about $30 billion, considerably more than Tencent. However, Spotify’s share price has since taken a hammering, so that its market cap today is just over $23.2 billion, so not that much more than its Chinese ally.

Although there are lots of parallels between Spotify and Tencent Music – other than them both now being listed on the New York Stock Exchange – there is one big difference that has been frequently noted in recent weeks. Whereas Spotify listed while still incurring significant monthly losses, Tencent Music is already profitable.

That’s despite the vast, vast majority of QQ Music’s users being on its free service, whereas Spotify has impressive premium subscriber figures.

Tencent has achieved profitability partly by having other revenue streams than just ads and subscription sales. And partly by having made lower financial commitments to the global music industry, which was much more flexible when it came to negotiating streaming deals in an emerging market that traditionally brought in very little income at all for the Western record companies and music publishers.

With both Spotify and Tencent now listed on the New York Stock Exchange and therefore obliged to publish quarterly financial reports, the music industry will have regular opportunities to check-in on how two major players in streaming are performing, and to see how growth in the Chinese market compares with the rest of the world.

READ MORE ABOUT: Tencent

Wednesday 12 December 2018, 12:39 | By Andy Malt

Neil Young claims Barclaycard has been dropped as sponsor of his London show

Artist News Brands & Merch Business News Gigs & Festivals Live Business

Neil Young has said that his London show with Bob Dylan next summer – part of AEG’s British Summer Time programme in Hyde Park – will now be “sponsored by nobody”. Although confirming he had been booked to play the show, he had reacted angrily to various things about it, not least that – like all the BST concerts – the event was to be sponsored by Barclaycard.

The musician’s Neil Young Archives website announced yesterday: “NYA is happy to announce that the Hyde Park show will proceed without Barclays as a sponsor. We are overjoyed, so happy to be playing the show!”

After the concert was originally announced last week, Young hit out, saying that he had not been told the show would be made public at this time. With tickets being put on sale without his knowledge, he said, a promise to fans that they would always get pre-sale access to his shows via his official website had been broken.

“I learned that the show had a sponsor, Barclays Bank, a fossil fuel funding entity”, he also said. “That doesn’t work for me … At the moment, we are trying to rectify the situation and will soon update you on the status of the Hyde Park show. We have been talking about requiring a different sponsor as one option”.

Young previously played a British Summer Time show in 2014, which did go ahead with Barclaycard sponsorship in place. This was seemingly not objected to by the musician at the time.

AEG has not yet confirmed that Barclaycard has indeed been dropped as the 2019 show’s sponsor. Currently the credit card brand’s logo remains firmly on the artwork for the gig and in the blurb about it on the BST website.

READ MORE ABOUT: AEG | British Summer Time | Neil Young

Wednesday 12 December 2018, 12:36 | By Andy Malt

Tegan & Sara announce high school memoir

Artist News

Tegan & Sara have announced plans to publish a memoir titled ‘High School’. The book covers, as the title suggests, their formative years in high school in the 1990s and the foundations of their musical career.

They say of the book: “How did you start your band? When did you know that you were gay? What were you like before Tegan and Sara? We have spent twenty years answering those complicated questions with simple answers. Writing ‘High School’ gives us the opportunity to tell the intricate stories that shaped our relationship as sisters, musicians and queer girls”.

Set to be published by Virago in the UK, it is scheduled to hit book shop shelves in autumn next year.

READ MORE ABOUT: Tegan & Sara

Wednesday 12 December 2018, 12:35 | By Andy Malt

Amanda Palmer announces new album, There Will Be No Intermission

Artist News Releases

Amanda Palmer has announced her third solo album, ‘There Will Be No Intermission’, which she says is her most personal to date.

“I’ve never been nervous about releasing a record before, but this one is different”, she says. “The rise of global fascism alongside the spreading fire of #MeToo has forged a louder megaphone for all women, and we’re all seeing that radical truth is infectious. I feel more urgency than ever to share the naked truth of my experiences”.

“The kind of stories that I’m sharing on this record – abortion, miscarriage, cancer, grief, the darker sides of parenthood – have been therapeutic and frightening to write”, she admits “But every time I play them for my friends and fans, the nodding heads of empathy have lit a fire under my ass to record and release them”.

“Most of these songs were exercises in survival”, she goes on. “This isn’t really the record that I was planning to make. But loss and death kept happening in real-time, and these songs became my therapeutic arsenal of tools for making sense of it all”.

The first single, ‘Drowning In The Sound’, is out now, written using comments from fans posted on her blog. Listen to the song here:

‘There Will Be No Intermission’ is set for release on 8 Mar.

READ MORE ABOUT: Amanda Palmer

Wednesday 12 December 2018, 12:30 | By Andy Malt

Cher announces first UK tour since 2004

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Cher has announced her first UK tour for a decade and a half next October, performing tracks from her own back catalogue, as well as some Abba songs, as heard on her ‘Dancing Queen’ album.

“I’m very excited to bring this show to the UK”, she says. “It was the first country to embrace Sonny & Cher, and its where we created and had our first success with ‘Believe’. It’s really my second home”.

Here are the dates:

20 Oct: London, O2 Arena
24 Oct: Manchester Arena
26 Oct: Birmingham, Resorts World Arena
28 Oct: Glasgow, Hydro
30 Oct: Leeds, First Direct Arena

READ MORE ABOUT: Cher

Wednesday 12 December 2018, 12:28 | By Andy Malt

Maverick Sabre announces new album and tour dates

Artist News Gigs & Festivals Releases

Maverick Sabre has announced that he will release his third album, ‘When I Wake Up’, next spring. Ahead of that, he’s put out new single ‘Her Grace’ and announced UK and Ireland tour dates for March and April.

Featuring Chronixx, Maverick Sabre says that the new single is “about the unspoken unheard struggles of women that go unnoticed in society”.

Watch the video here:

And here are the tour dates:

29 Mar: Cork, Cyprus Avenue
20 Mar: Dublin, Academy
1 Apr: Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
2 Apr: Norwich, Epic Studios
4 Apr: Leeds, The Wardrobe
5 Apr: Manchester, Club Academy
6 Apr: Liverpool Arts Club
8 Apr: Brighton, Concorde 2
10 Apr: Birmingham, The Institution
11 Apr: London, Electric Brixton
12 Apr: Exeter, Phoenix
13 Apr: Bristol, The Trinity Centre

READ MORE ABOUT: Maverick Sabre

Wednesday 12 December 2018, 12:23 | By Andy Malt

One Liners: Fyre Festival, MJ Cole, Suede, more

Artist News Business News Gigs & Festivals Live Business Media One Liners Releases

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Here’s the first trailer for upcoming Fyre Festival documentary ‘Fyre’, which will appear on Netflix on 18 Jan.

• MJ Cole has teamed up with Freya Ridings for new track ‘Waking Up’. A new EP with the same title is due out early next year.

• Aidan Moffatt and RM Hubbert have released another track from their festive album, ‘Ghost Stories For Christmas’. Here’s their sombre rendition of Mud’s ‘Lonely This Christmas’.

• She Drew The Gun have released the video for ‘Something For The Pain’, from their latest album, ‘Revolution Of The Mind’.

• Cass McCombs has released new single ‘Estrella’. It’s taken from his new album ‘Tip Of The Sphere’, out on 8 Feb.

• The reunited original line-up of the Meat Puppets will release a new album, ‘Dusty Notes’, on 8 Mar. From it, this is ‘Warranty’.

• Suede have announced tour dates in April next year. Tickets on sale this Friday.

• Frankie Cosmos have announced that they will play EartH in London on 1 Apr.

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

READ MORE ABOUT: Aidan Moffatt | Cass McCombs | Frankie Cosmos | Freya Ridings | Fyre Festival | MJ Cole | Netflix | RM Hubbert | She Drew The Gun | Suede

Wednesday 12 December 2018, 12:19 | By Andy Malt

Dean Martin’s daughter says Baby, It’s Cold Outside controversy is “outrageous”

And Finally Artist News

This is turning out to be quite a controversial Christmas when it comes to your favourite festive songs, isn’t it? Recently Shane MacGowan responded to complaints about a certain word in The Pogues’ ‘Fairytale Of New York’. Now the daughter of late singer Dean Martin has said that her father “would be going insane right now” if he were alive to see the controversy over ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’, a version of which he recorded in 1959.

Many have recently argued that the call and response song between a woman who says she needs to go home and a man demanding that she stay with him isn’t particularly appropriate Christmas listening in the wake of #MeToo. The controversy has become a talking point after various US radio stations banned the song – detractors highlighting one line in particular, where the female character sings “Hey, what’s in this drink?”

Appearing on ‘Fox & Friends’ on Fox News, Deana Martin responded to the controversy, saying: “[The female character in the song] is sweet, she’s playing along with him. It’s flirting, it’s sexy, it’s sweet, there’s nothing bad about that song, and it just breaks my heart”.

As for what Martin Senior would have thought about it all, she added: “I know my dad would be going insane right now. He would say, ‘What’s the matter with you? Get over it, it’s just a fun song’. Cos he was so sweet anyway, he would never say anything bad like that. He was a great guy, a fun guy, nice, and he wouldn’t want to do anything offensive, that wasn’t Dean Martin”.

Asked if she would accept the most controversial line in the song – about the drink – being censored, she adds: “I don’t wanna change the lyrics where she says, ‘Hey, what’s in this drink?’. I don’t think she’s talking about some pill being put in that drink. I think she’s saying, like, ‘What’s in this drink? Is it punch, is it vodka?’ It’s nice, it just breaks my heart that people are turning that around … People have to have a sense of humour about themselves. I understand the #MeToo movement and everything, I’m all for that, but we’ve gotta relax and have fun again”.

Although Dean Martin is particularly known for performing the song, ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ was originally written in 1944 by Frank Loesser. It then featured in 1949 movie ‘Neptune’s Daughter’, going on to win an Oscar. In the original score, the man is named as ‘Wolf’ and the woman as ‘Mouse’, which may also be taken as a black mark against it. However, others say that shifts in language over the last 75 years have changed how we view the song and the status of the woman in it.

“I’m so tired of this”, tweeted comedian Jen Kirkman earlier this month. She then argued that the song is not about the male character “coercing sex”, but rather it’s about a woman who “knows her reputation will ruined if she stays”. As for ‘Say, what’s in this drink?’, it’s “an old movie line from the 30s that means ‘I’m telling the truth'”.

“She wanted to get down and stay over [and] he is offering her an excuse she can use”, she goes on. “She’s explaining to him that excuse doesn’t work when you’re a woman who has to deal with what the neighbours think. The song has a lot to teach us about how society views women’s sexuality. But the lesson of this song is NOT that it’s about forcing a woman into sex”.

She concludes: “If you want to be outraged, be outraged about what the song is actually about – the double standard in regards to sex that women face and how nothing much has changed. And then enjoy the song. It’s a delight. The song ends with her joining him in the chorus of ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’. She’s staying over. She will deal with her Maiden Aunt tomorrow”.

So, anyway, there’s something you can argue about over Christmas lunch when you’re tired of debating your uncle’s views on Brexit.

READ MORE ABOUT: Dean Martin | Deana Martin

Wednesday 12 December 2018, 11:25 | By Andy Malt

Approved: Farai

CMU Approved

Vocalist Farai Bukowski-Bouquet and producer Tone have just released their debut album as Farai – ‘Rebirth’ – a late contender for one of the year’s most incendiary LPs.

The record veers between inviting warmth and unfiltered anger, Bukowski-Bouquet’s thoughts often seeming to just pour out of her in the moment. In the case of one of the album’s singles, ‘National Gangsters’, this isn’t so far from the truth.

Tone recalls needing to nail the track in two takes due to the “paper thin walls” of the flat where they recorded it, not wanting to annoy the neighbours too much as Bukowski-Bouquet’s lyrically attacks the pervasive and often hidden presence of heroin in London.

‘This Is England’, meanwhile, boasts an ominous tone set in motion by Tone’s stripped down synth drones and drum beats, which he says are designed to reflect how “run down council estates crumble in the shadows of multi-million – or could be billion – pound private developments”. Over this, Bukowski-Bouquet delivers an impassioned tirade direct to Theresa May.

The album is not just wall-to-wall anger though. It’s a multi-layered endeavour, with Tone switching sounds to whatever best matches his musical partner’s mood. The results are well worth checking out.

Listen to ‘National Gangster’s here:

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

READ MORE ABOUT: Farai

Tuesday 11 December 2018, 12:59 | By Chris Cooke

Tencent Music says it will “vigorously” contest fraud allegations by early investor

Business News Digital Legal Top Stories

Tencent Music has said that it intends to “vigorously” contest allegations of fraud made against its co-President by an early investor in the company that morphed into the leading Chinese streaming business. However, it admits that the dispute – which has come to a head just as the firm gets ready to list on the New York Stock Exchange – could have “a material adverse effect on our reputation, capital structure, business and financial condition”.

The music division of Chinese web giant Tencent issued a statement to the US Securities & Exchange Commission yesterday after several days of media reports about the dispute between investor Hanwei Guo and Tencent Music co-President Guomin Xie.

Guo was an early investor in Ocean Music – which also operated as the China Music Corporation – in the early years of this decade, as various companies and entrepreneurs attempted to capitalise on opportunities that were emerging at the time to create legitimate digital music services for the Chinese market.

CMC subsequently merged in 2016 with Tencent’s music division, which is now the biggest player in the Chinese streaming market, principally through its QQ Music service. That division, which also has other digital, distribution and label operations, is being spun off as a separate business via the imminent IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.

Prior to all that, Guo sold his stake in CMC back to Xie. In new legal filings in both China and the US, Guo argues that he only divested his stake in CMC because of information Xie provided that suggested the company was failing. Moreover, Guo alleges, he was put under considerable pressure by Xie at the time to sell out of the business.

The legal filings then say that new information Guo only received this year have shown that Xie deliberately misrepresented the position and future potential of CMC back in 2013 in order to force the share sale. Therefore, it argues, the deal via which Guo sold back his CMC equity was achieved through misrepresentation and duress on Xie’s part.

A legal rep for Guo said in a statement last week: “We believe a review of the circumstances and facts surrounding this matter clearly show that Mr Xie, who is now Tencent Music’s co-President, used unlawful intimidation tactics and threats to defraud a respected, honourable investor. It is unfortunate that Mr Xie and other respondents have not righted this wrong prior to Tencent Music’s 12 Dec initial public offering in the United States, where shareholders and regulators hold companies and their officers to high standards of conduct”.

Guo’s legal action in China, via an entity called the China International Economic & Trade Arbitration Commission, is seeking the return of some of his equity stake in what is now Tencent Music as well as compensation for his economic loss. The legal filing in the US courts is seeking information from the various banks involved in the Tencent Music IPO.

Responding to all that, Tencent Music said in its SEC statement yesterday “both we and Mr Xie intend to contest [Guo’s] claims vigorously”. However, companies listing on a US stock exchange are required to be candid and blunt about any risks to the business, and as a result Tencent added: “There can be no assurance that we will be able to prevail in the arbitration or that we will be able to settle the dispute on terms favourable to us”.

It then went on: “If the claims alleged by the claimant are successful, we are currently unable to estimate the possible loss or range of loss, if any, associated with the resolution of the arbitration. Any adverse outcome of the arbitration could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, capital structure (including potential dilution to our shareholders), business and financial condition”.

Dealing with the legal process in China will also require “significant resources” and could “divert management’s attention”, the statement went on, plus “we cannot guarantee that additional legal actions relating to the subject matters in the arbitration would not be threatened or brought against us or our directors and officers in the future”.

READ MORE ABOUT: Tencent

Tuesday 11 December 2018, 12:58 | By Chris Cooke

British artists and music execs sign open letter on the Brexit shambles

Business News Legal

As the Brexit debacle goes from a joke to a farce to a very black comedy, a plethora of UK artists, music business executives and music industry organisations have signed an open letter calling on the government to find a better way forward for the UK’s future relationship with the European Union.

The letter comes, of course, after Theresa May announced she was postponing a vote in Parliament on the Brexit deal she has negotiated with the EU. The Prime Minister decided to not put her deal before the House Of Commons after it became clear it would be defeated by a significant margin, with both remainers and leavers being equally disparaging of May’s proposals for how Brexit might be achieved.

It’s really not clear what will happen next, as the rest of the EU has strongly indicated that the deal on the table is as good as gets, given the UK government’s refusal to move on certain key points like freedom of movement.

Meanwhile, the campaign for a second referendum – perhaps offering a choice between the current Brexit deal, exiting the EU with no deal in place, or not exiting the EU at all – is gaining considerable momentum, aided by the European courts saying that the UK could cancel the two-year Brexit process at any time before those two years are up on 29 Mar.

The open letter, signed by artists like Annie Lennox, Chrissie Hynde, Jamie Cullum, Paloma Faith and David Arnold, and organisations like the MU, AIM, MMF, BASCA and MPG, concludes: “No-one voted for this situation, whether they voted leave or remain. It is critical to find a way out of this mess, and therefore we ask you to examine alternative options to maintain our current influence and freedom to trade”.

The letter also reviews the various ways in which Brexit could negatively impact on the UK music industry. Potential issues include duties being charged on the UK industry’s physical product as it moves around Europe, future changes to copyright rules in the UK or the EU that negatively impact on British music makers, and – most pressingly of all – any new costs or paperwork that might be introduced for UK acts touring the continent.

On potential issues for touring artists, the letter states: “Live music is at the heart of every artist’s business and contributed around £1 billion to the UK economy, and freedom of movement is core to an artist’s ability to tour and promote their art”.

Meanwhile, on IP issues, the letter references the near-completion new European Copyright Directive, which – it says – “is designed to help protect the value of our industry’s output on major technology platforms. The UK music industry could be at a significant disadvantage to our peers in the countries remaining in the EU without these protections”.

It goes on: “According to a survey conducted by UK Music on the music industry’s views on Brexit, only 2% thought it would have a positive impact on their chances of work. In the post-Brexit UK, there is a clear risk that reaching consumers and fans will be more expensive, and international markets will be harder to access. Live events will run the danger of being delayed or even cancelled, which would undermine the financial and cultural benefits that this vibrant sector brings to UK PLC”.

You can read the full letter here.

Deviate Digital CEO Sammy Andrews, who help organise the Music4EU letter, said this morning: “Rarely do so many factions within the music industry unite on any subject, but Music4EU’s signatory list so far is a clear indication of the level of concern over the current mess, and how widely it impacts every corner of this sector. Brexit is an unmitigated disaster for Britain’s world-leading music industry”.

Meanwhile one of that artist signatories, Sam Duckworth, aka Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, added: “It’s a connected age, where diminishing rights and barriers to trade should be a thing of the past. We need to make sure we don’t isolate ourselves from our wider cultural family. Be it sharing a stage, a marketplace or as part of a team, Brexit is causing mass uncertainty. Music is a big part of the economy and is the front line of the warm British welcome. It is essential that we are given clear guidelines, promises and safeguards for this to continue”.

READ MORE ABOUT: Annie Lennox | Chrissie Hynde | David Arnold | Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly | Jamie Cullum | Music4EU | Paloma Faith | Sammy Andrews

Tuesday 11 December 2018, 12:56 | By Chris Cooke

Fleetwood Mac settle with Lindsey Buckingham

Artist News Legal

Lindsey Buckingham has settled his legal dispute with former band Fleetwood Mac, telling CBS that he is happy with the deal that has been done.

It emerged in April that Buckingham was out of the band, just as a new Fleetwood Mac tour was announced. He then sued his former bandmates in October, in no small part over the monies he’d lost by not being allowed to participate in those new touring activities.

The lawsuit alleged that Buckingham had been fired after requesting time off from the band to undertake a solo tour. Though in an interview with Rolling Stone he subsequently said that tensions between him and former partner Stevie Nicks were the real issue, claiming that she had given the rest of the band a “me or him” ultimatum.

Either way, Buckingham said that the lawsuit had been settled during an interview on ‘CBS This Morning Saturday’ this weekend. He didn’t discuss any details of that settlement, except to say that all the members of the band had now signed off on it and that “I’m happy enough with it”.

READ MORE ABOUT: Fleetwood Mac | Lindsey Buckingham

Tuesday 11 December 2018, 12:54 | By Andy Malt

Neil Young angry at London show sponsorship

Artist News Business News Gigs & Festivals Live Business

Neil Young has responded angrily to the announcement that he and Bob Dylan will co-headline one of next summer’s Barclaycard British Summer Time shows in London’s Hyde Park. Not because he won’t, but because he wasn’t ready to announce it.

In a post on his Neil Young Archives website, Young writes to his fans: “You who were taken by surprise waking up to the Bob Dylan/Neil Young Hyde Park concert announcement posted on every outlet except NYA, might wonder why it was not on NYA. And you should. We’re sorry. Like you, I had no idea the announcement was coming that day”.

He continues: “I was still finessing the art for the poster and trying to make sure that all the details of the show were agreeable to me. Then, suddenly, someone jumped the gun. The tickets were put on sale and the announcement was made, all without my knowledge”.

All of the posters for the multi-weekend London concert series feature the same branding, so it’s not clear what poster Young was working on. Although the update does seem to confirm he had at least agreed to play the show, even if he wasn’t ready to announce it. Whether he will now is seemingly in the balance, due to a number of things.

First, Young says that he’s annoyed about the speed with which tickets have gone on sale. He promises fans signed up to the aforementioned Neil Young Archives platform first pre-sale access to all of his shows. However, with this one going on sale without his knowledge, that was not possible. It also seems that, prior to the big announcement, he was unaware that the Barclaycard British Summer Time festival is sponsored by, er, Barclaycard.

“I learned that the show had a sponsor, Barclays Bank, a fossil fuel funding entity”, he says, taking issue with investments made by the wider Barclays business. “That doesn’t work for me … At the moment, we are trying to rectify the situation and will soon update you on the status of the Hyde Park show. We have been talking about requiring a different sponsor as one option”.

Given that Barclaycard is headline sponsor for the whole season of AEG-promoted Hyde Park shows each summer, that request might be tricky to achieve.

Young’s manager Elliot Roberts at Lookout Management subsequently took some of the blame for the mix up. In another post on NYA, he writes: “To say we fell short of our obligations on the announcement and pre-sales for the Hyde Park show is an understatement and we disappointed a lot of people. We lost focus and the entire team at Lookout Management apologises for promises not kept to our subscribers”.

“We have tried to rectify this as best we can by making sure that tickets are available for Neil Young Archives subscribers”, he continues. “I personally really must apologise for this lapse because working as the custodian of Neil Young Archives is very serious to me. Neil’s life’s work has been mine as well. We will make every effort to ensure that this doesn’t happen again”.

Tickets for the show remain on sale, although it’s not clear if all issues – particularly that of sponsorship – are resolved. AEG has not returned a request for comment at the time of going to press.

READ MORE ABOUT: AEG | British Summer Time | Neil Young

Tuesday 11 December 2018, 12:52 | By Andy Malt

Netflix unveils first trailer for Gerard Way’s Umbrella Academy

Artist News Media

The first trailer for ‘The Umbrella Academy’, a new Netflix series based on comic books co-written by former My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way, has been released.

Announced earlier this year, the show follows a family of superheroes as they investigate the mysterious death of their adoptive father and the looming possibility of the apocalypse. It’s due to become available on Netflix on 15 Feb next year.

Writing on his website in July, Way told fans: “It’s really happening! Gabriel [Ba, co-writer] and I can’t wait to dive in and help make this a very memorable series with the team that is forming right now”.

He added later in an official statement: “I am THRILLED that ‘The Umbrella Academy’ has found a home at Netflix. I couldn’t think of a better place for the vision Gabriel Ba and myself had when creating the comic, and cannot wait for people to experience that world as a live action show”.

Netflix VP Of Originals, Cindy Holland, added: “These aren’t the usual superheroes and this series will embrace the singular tone of the graphic novels – dark yet humorous, supernatural yet grounded in reality. We’re excited to see this world and introduce these unforgettable heroes to Netflix members around the globe”.

The screen adaptation of the books has been a long time coming. It was announced in 2009 that Universal Pictures was turning them into a film, although that never emerged.

Watch the trailer for the Netflix series here:

READ MORE ABOUT: Gerard Way | Netflix

Tuesday 11 December 2018, 12:50 | By Andy Malt

Lambchop announce lucky new album

Artist News Gigs & Festivals Releases

Lampchop have announced their fourteenth album, ‘This (Is What I Wanted To Tell You)’. It’s actually their thirteenth album, if you’re the sort of person who likes counting things in sequence. But if you’re superstitious, like Lambchop, then saying it’s the fourteenth apparently stops the whole project from being quite so dangerous.

To mark the announcement of the record, which will be released on 22 Mar, the band have put out new single ‘The December-ish You’, of which main man Kurt Wagner says: “Picture yourself on a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies… This is not that”.

The band will also play a UK show at EartH in London on 21 Apr. Listen to ‘The December-ish You’ here:

READ MORE ABOUT: Lambchop

Tuesday 11 December 2018, 12:45 | By Andy Malt

One Liners: Noonie Bao, Apple, Auddly, more

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

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Music publisher Sony/ATV has extended its deal with Swedish songwriter Noonie Bao. Good job, she’s written songs like ‘Stay’ by Zedd & Alessia Cara, Camila Cabello’s ‘Never Be The Same’ and Rita Ora’s ‘Let You Love Me’. “Incredible”, says Sony/ATV UK MD Guy Moot. “Incredible”, says Sony/ATV Scandinavia MD Johnny Tennander. “Incredible”, says Bao’s manager Jakob Emtestam.

• Apple has confirmed it has bought London-based artist services company Platoon, which is co-lead by original AWAL founder Denzyl Feigelson, who had a long period working and consulting for Apple in the years after it launched iTunes. The tech giant has confirmed the purchase after it was first reported by MBW last week, allowing wild speculation about what the deal tells us regarding Apple’s current ambitions in music to continue.

• Collecting societies PPL and SAMI – which collect royalties for recording artists in the UK and Sweden respectively – have announced an alliance with Auddly, the start-up business that has developed a platform that makes it easier for artists and songwriters to ensure that accurate data is pumped into the system each time they create some new music.

• Radio station Kiss has announced that Tom Green and Daisy Maskell will take over its breakfast show in the new year. They replace Rickie Williams, Melvin Odoom and Charlie Hedges, who are buggering off to Radio 1 to present the late show there.

• Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is now the most streamed song released in the 20th century ever, if that’s the sort of thing you’re measuring. “We are so proud to represent Queen and are THRILLED to see the song still inspiring new fans around the world more than four decades after its release”, says Universal Music boss Lucian Grainge.

• Later this week, Katy Perry will be available to download and play as in mobile game ‘Final Fantasy Brave Exvius’. She’s done a song too, called ‘Immortal Flame’. Perry follows Ariana Grande, who appeared in the game last year.

• Professor Green has released the video for his Rag N Bone Man collaboration ‘Photographs’.

• Iris Gold has released the video for new single ‘Keep The Light On’.

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

READ MORE ABOUT: Apple | Auddly | Daisy Maskell | Iris Gold | Katy Perry | Kiss | Noonie Bao | Platoon | PPL | Professor Green | Queen | Rag N Bone Man | SAMI | Sony Music Publishing | Tom Green

Tuesday 11 December 2018, 12:36 | By Andy Malt

Formula for perfect Christmas number one found

And Finally Artist News Business News Labels & Publishers Releases

Tech driven record label Ostereo has analysed every Christmas number one from the last 50 years and come up with a formula for the perfect festive chart topper. So, if you get to work now, you could be quids in this time next year.

OK, are you ready? You’ll need to write a song that is three minutes and 57 seconds long, in the key of G major, 114 beats per minute, about something other than Christmas, and performed by a 27 year old. Yeah, turns out that the best placed artists to have Christmas songs are also the ones most likely to be recently tragically dead.

Meanwhile, if you can’t write songs but fancy a hit, don’t worry, Ostereo also notes that most Christmas number ones are covers.

Testing out this hypothesis, Ostereo says the Christmas number one that gets closest to this magical formula is ‘Always On My Mind’ by the Pet Shop Boys. It’s a cover and not about Christmas, so got off to a great start. It’s also in G major, although its BPM is 125 and Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe were 33 and 28 respectively when they recorded it.

You can’t have everything, I guess. And maybe this means that the biggest and most perfect Christmas hit is still ahead of us.

“I think we’re a long way from an algorithmically-generated Christmas number one”, says Ostereo founder Howard Murphy. “But certain characteristics do make a song more likely to resonate with audiences at Christmas”.

Looking at this year’s contenders for Christmas number one, none of them seems to tick more than one or two boxes.

The closest looks like being a group of 40 firefighters, going by the name of The Fire Tones, with a cover of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Feed The World)’. It doesn’t have it all, but it’s a cover and gets relatively close elsewhere, being 115BPM and three minutes and 39 seconds long. Plus the song, in various Band Aid forms, has been Christmas number one three times before. Place your bets now.

READ MORE ABOUT: Ostereo | Pet Shop Boys | The Fire Tones

Tuesday 11 December 2018, 11:56 | By Andy Malt

Approved: Kid Koala & Trixie Whitley

CMU Approved

Kid Koala is preparing to release the second in his series of ‘Music To Draw To’ ambient albums, ‘Io’. While the first – 2017’s ‘Satellite’ – saw him work with Emiliana Torrini on several tracks, this time around he collaborates with soul singer Trixie Whitley.

The partnership came about after the producer had already started work on the album, when Whitely sent him a text message telling him how much she enjoyed ‘Satellite’. Seizing the moment he asked if she’d like to be involved in the follow up.

“I knew she was more in that soul/R&B tradition, but she did write me and say, ‘I’ve been painting to the ‘Satellite’ record'”, he explains to Billboard. “So I guess she was open-minded. Ambient was something she could get with”.

“After the first two songs we recorded in our first session in Montreal, I realised it was going to be alright”, he goes on. “She was willing to try a lot of different stuff and different feels and really knocked it out of the park, I thought”.

‘Io’ is out on 25 Jan, with first single, ‘All For You’, available now. Its astral sound is matched by a Karina Bleau directed video, in which you can bathe in the possibility of the universe. Watch and listen here:

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

READ MORE ABOUT: Kid Koala | Trixie Whitley

Monday 10 December 2018, 14:03 | By Chris Cooke

Ticketmaster switches on price-capped resale on its primary site

Business News Live Business Top Stories

Ticketmaster UK has put live the previously promised price-capped resale function within its main ticketing platform, with the Live Nation company’s standalone secondary ticketing websites in Europe – Seatwave and Get Me In! – now officially no more.

“Fans simply hit ‘sell’ on the tickets they can no longer use, and they’ll be put in front of millions of others to buy and go to the show in their place”, the company exclaimed on Friday, while explaining how the new resale functionality works. “When tickets are resold, we’ll cancel them and send new, unique ones to the fan who has bought them. That ensures that all tickets on Ticketmaster are 100% verified and fans will have no concerns about getting in at the door”.

Ticketmaster Europe confirmed in August that it was bailing on more traditional ticket resale, where resellers can charge whatever price they like on any tickets they are reselling. The company said at the time that no new ticket listings would be taken by either Seatwave or Get Me In! and that both sites would subsequently go offline.

That announcement was widely welcomed by the music community, and especially those artists, managers, agents and promoters who have become increasingly vocal in recent years in their criticism of online touting. It also meant the live music giant no longer had to sit on the opposite side of the table from its colleagues in the music industry whenever ticket resale is discussed.

The new resale functionality within the main Ticketmaster site is similar to tools added by a number of other primary ticketing platforms in recent years. By making it easier for customers to sell on tickets they can no longer use, the primary sites remove a common excuse employed by the likes of StubHub and Viagogo (and previously Seatwave and Get Me In!), ie that they need to exist to help fans who have a change of plan get their money back, even if most of the tickets on those platforms are being sold by industrial-level touts.

A number of other new functions were added to the Ticketmaster UK platform on Friday. “Want to transfer tickets to friends?”, the company’s blog post went on, “with just one click fans now can. If fans have bought digital tickets they can download them straight onto their mobile and transfer them over”.

The ticketing firm concluded: “Everything we do is about making the fan experience better. These changes have been designed and built to make it easier for fans to get into the shows they love”.

Although no longer in the secondary ticketing game proper in Europe, Ticketmaster still provides services and platforms for touts in the US. Though that too has proven controversial of late, with the ticketing business fighting class action lawsuits that allege its primary business acts illegally to boost the resale business. Live Nation denies those allegations and recently tried to have the lawsuits dismissed on a terms and conditions technicality.

READ MORE ABOUT: Ticketmaster

Monday 10 December 2018, 14:02 | By Andy Malt

EU launches piracy watch list

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal

The European Commission has published its first Counterfeit And Piracy Watch List, highlighting cyberlockers, stream-ripping sites, P2P services, unlicensed download stores and illegal streaming sites as areas of particular concern.

Announced earlier this year, the list is effectively the EU version of the existing US Notorious Markets list, which is published annually. It highlights potentially illegal operations around the world that threaten the commercial interests of intellectual property businesses in Europe, including the music industry. The main aim is to raise awareness among law enforcement agencies and politicians across the globe of these services and to encourage them to take action to protect the IP of European companies.

“Intellectual property infringements are a scourge on the European economy, decreasing investment and government revenues, and killing jobs in our creative and innovative industries”, says the EU Commissioner For Trade, Cecilia Malmström.

“They also pose a significant risk to our citizens who often simply do not know whether what they are buying is safe or not. Furthermore, the link between counterfeiting and organised crime poses a major threat to our society. This Counterfeit And Piracy Watch List is part of our broader effort to ensure that European companies can operate on a level playing field when trading outside the EU’s borders, and that EU consumers are safe”.

Speaking for the music industry, the boss of record industry trade group IFPI, Frances Moore, says: “Music has value that must be protected, and we welcome this step by the EU on behalf of music creators. For our part, record companies are co-ordinating global enforcement action to tackle copyright infringement. However, the illegal sites named in the list employ a deliberately complex, multi-jurisdictional and often anonymous set-up of their operations, which allows the operators to hide their identity and location”.

On the new list, she adds: “The Commission’s Counterfeit And Piracy Watch List offers important and practical guidance for policymakers, law enforcement and international corporations, when identifying and dealing with websites that infringe intellectual property rights. The list helps to raise awareness of several sites exploiting music content and particularly highlights the continued existence of so-called ‘stream-ripping’ sites that make unauthorised permanent copies of streamed content, predominantly from YouTube”.

“Stream ripping”, she goes on, expanding on that theme, “is the fastest growing form of music copyright infringement globally and sites operating ripping services are a threat to the music ecosystem. They undermine legitimate music services – that license rights and pay artists and rights holders – and profit by diverting fans away from those legitimate services, while paying nothing to the creators or producers of that music”.

Find out more and peruse the new list at your leisure here.

READ MORE ABOUT: European Commission | European Union | International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry (IFPI)

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