Wednesday 20 February 2019, 11:05 | By CMU Editorial

CMU:DIY: Industry Take Over All-Dayer returns

Business News CMU:DIY Update Education & Events

Don’t forget, Urban Development’s Industry Take Over All-Dayer is taking place this weekend, on Saturday 23 Feb, at Kings Place in London.

CMU:DIY and Urban Development regularly co-host the Industry Take Over Seminars throughout the year in London, of course. But the ITO All-Dayer takes everything to a whole new level, with panels, workshops, sessions and one-on-one advice surgeries.

CMU:DIY will be there too, presenting two sessions, including one in partnership with the Featured Artists Coalition.

Elsewhere, there will be practical workshops from UK Music, MMF, PPL, PRS and AIM, while providing one-to-one advice will be the likes of Adele White (Island Records), Davina Merchant (Downtown Music), Dan Owusu (BMG), Jack Duckworth (2-Tone Entertainment/Warner Bros), Joel Borquaye (Radio 1 & 1Xtra) and Riyad Felix (Since 93/Sony Music).

More info and tickets are available at industrytakeover.co.uk.

Now out of jail, 21 Savage speaks about his British accent and recent incarceration

Artist News

Rapper 21 Savage has spoken to the New York Times about his recent incarceration that resulted from America’s Immigration & Customs Enforcement agency declaring that the rapper was an “unlawfully present United Kingdom national” residing in the US illegally.

That 21 Savage – strongly linked to the Atlanta hip hop scene – was in fact British surprised many people. As his legal reps hit out at ICE and attempted to secure their client’s release from jail, it was confirmed that the rapper was indeed born in the UK. He had lived in the US since he was aged seven, initially legally. He explained that he had lost his legal status aged twelve through no fault of his own. In 2017, he applied for a visa to ensure that he was fully entitled to stay in the country, which is yet to be granted.

It was in part because of those ongoing efforts to secure a visa that the rapper’s team criticised ICE’s decision to take action at this time. Lawyers managed to get him released on bail last week, meaning he is out of jail while his case continues to go through the motions.

Asked in the NYT piece about what it was like moving to the US as a child, the rapper said: “Everything was like, bigger. I come from the poor side of London. My grandma’s house is real skinny. So when we first moved here, we was living in the hood still, but it was, like, way bigger. The toilet size, the bathroom size, it was just different. But I fell in love with it. It’s all I know”.

He then talks about having a British accent as a child, something he remembers because “on my first day of school [in the US] they was making fun of me, so I beat somebody up, and they was calling me ‘taekwondo kid’. My mama whupped me, she made me stay in the house. So I know I had an accent, but I been here 20 years – I don’t know what happened to it”.

Asked about his recent experiences and the impact of his incarceration, he went on: “It really wasn’t jail, it was the possibility of me not being able to live in this country no more that I’ve been living in my whole life. All that just going through your head, like, ‘Damn, I love my house, I ain’t gonna be able to go in my house no more? I ain’t gonna be able to go to my favourite restaurant that I been going to for 20 years straight?'”.

“That’s the most important thing”, he added. “If you tell me, ‘I’ll give you 20 million to go stay somewhere you ain’t never stayed’, I’d rather be broke. I’ll sit in jail to fight to live where I’ve been living my whole life”.

You can read the full interview here.

LoveMusicHateRacism announces new Beautiful Resistance campaign

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

LoveMusicHateRacism has announced a new campaign that will centre on a series of events taking place over two weeks next month. Under the banner Beautiful Resistance, the campaign will kick off on International Women’s Day on 8 Mar and also include a special event on the UN’s Anti-Racism Day on 16 Mar.

The campaign is being led by Paul Samuels of Atlantic Records, Ellie Giles of Step Music Management and long-time campaigner Zak Cochrane, and enjoys support from numerous artists and music companies.

The three campaign organisers say in a statement: “Since the advent of Rock Against Racism, our challenges have morphed. We now have to contend with not only far right intimidation and propaganda, but also with a growing trend for divisive and hateful language. None of this is OK with most of us, but we have to shout just as loudly with a positive alternative”.

“Gathering the strength of music and the music industry, we can help to change the lives – and outlooks – of so many people across the country and beyond”, they go on.

“Voices of inspiration are vital to kids growing up and the response to our industry reach out so far has been so incredibly well received. We’re very excited at the potential for true, transformative change through our ‘Beautiful Resistance’ campaign and we welcome anyone who shares our vision of a world free of prejudice to join us and get in touch via our website”.

That website is www.lovemusichateracism.com

Foals’ fill-in bassist is Everything Everything you’d expect

And Finally Artist News

Foals are back this year, we know that, with two new albums and a new tour. But those of you paying special attention last year may remember that bass player Walter Gervers left the band last January. So what’s happening there then?

Worry not, Jeremy Pritchard off of Everything Everything is stepping in. Said Foals in an Instagram post yesterday: “While our friends Everything Everything are on a break before making new music, they have kindly loaned us their bass player Jeremy Pritchard, who will be touring with us this year”.

You know, a couple of years back Pritchard gallantly stepped in when we suddenly had a last-minute artist-sized gap on a panel at The Great Escape. It turned out to be a really great panel. So, I’m pretty sure this tour is going to work out fine.

Approved: Darcy Baylis

CMU Approved

Darcy Baylis continues an impressive run of releases with ‘Same Page’, a new collaboration with Chinese rapper Bloodzboi. A departure from his 2017 debut album ‘Intimacy & Isolation’, his newer music has seen him delve more into an emo rap sound. Written during and after a period of travelling, the songs have a lyrical openness and all sound like they were written in very low light.

The collaboration with Bloodzboi came about after the pair met online last year. They fired ideas back and forth over the net, and then Baylis visited the rapper in Beijing so they could work together directly, resulting in ‘Same Page’. The first track from an upcoming new EP, simple guitar and keys run through the middle of it, underpinned by a heavy bassline that elevates Baylis and Bloodzboi’s vocals.

Baylis’s new EP, ‘S7E3’, is out on 26 Apr. Watch the video for ‘Same Page’, shot in Beijing during the trip where the track was written, here:

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

New Zealand declines to issue interim injunction against consumer confusing Viagogo

Business News Legal Live Business Top Stories

The high court in New Zealand has refused to grant the country’s Commerce Commission an interim injunction against Viagogo because of some tricky jurisdiction issues. Responding, the Commission said that its failure to secure a court order forcing the always controversial secondary ticketing website to changes its practices meant it was “even more important that consumers take steps to protect themselves” by always seeking official ticket sellers.

The New Zealand government agency followed its counterparts in the UK and Australia in launching legal action against Viagogo last year. Its court filing contained the usual list of complaints about how the company presents its ticket resale service to the public.

That included its use of the word “official”, the misleading information it published about ticket availability, and the fact Viagogo continues to insist all the tickets on its platform are valid, when in fact the terms of the ticket being resold may prohibit resale. The Commission argued that these things all breached New Zealand’s Fair Trading Act.

Those actual arguments are yet to be considered in court. The Commission’s bid to get an interim injunction demanding Viagogo make certain changes to its site was knocked back because of jurisdiction issues. Like all the best evil masterminds, Viagogo is based under a mountain in Switzerland. Well, in Switzerland anyway. And, the court said, the Commission had failed to formally serve notice against the resale business in its home country.

Explaining the judge’s ruling, the Commission stated: “The high court at Auckland held that it had no jurisdiction to determine the injunction application at this time, because Viagogo has not been formally served. Viagogo is based in Switzerland and has declined to accept service of the court proceedings in New Zealand. Service by diplomatic channels will take some months”. But, the government agency insisted, “there was no finding made on the substantive merits of the Commission’s case, which will be heard at a later hearing”.

Of course, by exploiting jurisdiction issues rather than responding to the Commission’s actual complaints, Viagogo was basically telling all of its customers in New Zealand that if they have any issues with its service, they must travel 11,650 miles and shout at a mountain. Nevertheless, the company said the ruling in Auckland was “a significant legal victory”.

It added in a statement: “For over a decade, millions of customers have been successfully using Viagogo, which is why we remain committed to providing a secure platform for people to sell as well as buy sport, music and entertainment tickets to events in New Zealand and all over the world”.

Though, presumably, if those millions of customers ever have a problem with the touting platform but can’t afford to fly over to Switzerland to complain in person, well, they can just fuck off.

Meanwhile, back at the Commerce Commission, officials are hoping that media attention around their legal action will, at least, educate more consumers about the difference between primary and secondary ticketing services, and the risk of buying off touts, and especially touts who sell via Viagogo.

Its Chairman Dr Mark Berry said: “The fact the court did not make orders limiting Viagogo’s website claims makes it even more important that consumers take steps to protect themselves. We urge ticket buyers to purchase from official ticket websites. Avoid clicking on the first internet search result you see for an event. Scroll down the page and find the official ticket outlet or if you aren’t sure visit the artist’s website to find out who the official ticket seller is”.

Although the court declined to issue an interim injunction, the Commission’s case against Viagogo continues. A date for a full hearing is still to be set.

Settlement agreed in Rhapsody mechanicals class action

Business News Digital Legal

Ah, mechanical royalty disputes. Remember them? They were fun weren’t there? Streaming got dull the day American songwriters stopped filing multi-million dollar lawsuits against the platforms. Anyway, a deal has been reached in a class action lawsuit that was filed against Rhapsody, the US streaming service that now operates as Napster.

As you may remember, most of the streaming services were sued in recent years over their failure to pay all the mechanical royalties that were due on the songs they were streaming.

In most other countries there are collecting societies that can help streaming services pay the royalties that are owed to songwriters, so that where a digital music firm doesn’t have a direct deal with a music publisher, it just pays the money to the relevant society instead. The society then takes responsibility for handing that onto writers and/or publishers.

This is an important service, because digital platforms don’t actually know what specific songs are contained in the recordings they are streaming, let alone who wrote them, published them, owns them and is due payment whenever they are played.

But in the US – while there are four collecting societies representing the performing rights in songs – there is no society for mechanical rights. Copyright law sets the rate that must be paid, but the service must work out what song has been streamed and who owns it, and then send that person or company paperwork and payment.

Most streaming services have outsourced this work to agencies, some of which did a better job than others in finding the rights owners and sending the paperwork. But in many cases the paperwork was not sent to at least some publishers and writers, which technically means the streaming services have infringed copyright.

All of which resulted in a load of copyright infringement litigation. Most of the services were sued, though the Spotify cases tended to get the most press. The lawsuit against Rhapsody, filed in 2016, included activist musician David Lowery as a claimant, who was also a lead player in one of the big lawsuits against Spotify.

In theory all these mechanical royalty lawsuits should be a thing of the past, because last year’s Music Modernization Act will set up a mechanical royalties collecting society Stateside for the first time. Which means, like in other countries, where services do not have a direct deal with a publisher, they will pay that new society, which will then be charged with the task of working out who the hell to pass the cash onto.

But any cases filed pre-MMA still need to be settled. Now the law firm that led on the Rhapsody case, Michelman & Robinson, says it has agreed a settlement with the digital firm. It was a class-action, which means other songwriters not paid royalties can also benefit. Though that also means that class members have an opportunity to object to or exclude themselves from the proposed settlement before it is formally approved.

According to Billboard, under the deal, any self-published songwriter with music that has been played on the Rhapsody (now Napster) service but who has not been paid their mechanical royalties will be able to claim $35 per song, providing the work is registered with the US Copyright Office. A dollar a song will be paid for unregistered works.

However, the total sum of compensation Rhapsody will pay is capped at $10 million (or possibly $20 million depending on future performance), so per-song payments could change depending on how many eligible songwriters take advantage of the deal.

The total pay-out is significantly less than that committed to by Spotify when it settled its class action. Technically, under US copyright law, damages in infringement cases are often set at a rate per infringement rather than being based on actual monies lost or gained as a result of the infringement, so the size and success of the streaming service is technically irrelevant. Though, of course, a service’s ability to pay has to be taken into consideration.

As well the cash element of the deal, Rhapsody has also agreed to set up an artist advisory board with an annual budget of at least $30,000 to try and keep artists and songwriters sweet moving forward.

European Commission deletes blog post that laid into copyright directive critics

Business News Legal

The European Commission’s rather forthright defence of the European Copyright Directive, posted to Medium last week, has been taken down. In its place is a statement that says “we acknowledge that [the] language and title [of the piece] were not appropriate and we apologise for the fact that it has been seen as offending”.

The post was made shortly after the Commission agreed a final draft of the European copyright reforms with reps from the European Parliament and the EU Council. It focused in particular on the most controversial elements of the directive – including the music industry supported article thirteen – and hit out at how the tech sector had gone about lobbying against those particular reforms in recent years and especially recent months.

The post was titled ‘The Copyright Directive: How the mob was told to save the dragon and slay the knight’. It mused: “We know from recent elections and referendums that simple memorable slogans – ?however untrue or unobtainable? – can go a long way to winning over hearts, minds and voters. Never let the truth get in the way of a catchy slogan”.

Accusing the tech lobby of misleading the public and employing dubious campaigning tactics, the post went on: “It appears as if the largest search and video platforms in the world are afraid of regulation – despite having overwhelming dominance on the internet. Furthermore, there is ample evidence that ‘big technology’ has even ‘created’ grassroots campaigns against the copyright directive in order to make it look and sound as if the EU is acting against the ‘will of the people'”.

The piece mainly summarised points previously raised by trade groups and lobbyists in the music community, but it was interesting to see the Commission itself hit out at those who campaigned against the more controversial elements of the directive. Especially as the full European Parliament and EU Council are yet to approve the final draft, meaning campaigning on all sides of the debate continues.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of those who continue to campaign against or object to things like the safe harbour reform in article thirteen took issue with the Commission’s piece and how it portrayed their campaigning efforts. And/or the suggestion they’d been naive and misled when forming their opinions on the more controversial elements of the directive.

Which may be why the Commission decided to remove the piece. Its full statement in place of the post now reads: “This article published by the Commission services was intended to reply to concerns, but also to misinterpretations that often surround the copyright directive proposal. We acknowledge that its language and title were not appropriate and we apologise for the fact that it has been seen as offending”.

Music Venue Trust recruiting ‘venue champions’ for data gathering exercise

Business News Live Business

The Music Venue Trust is seeking ‘venue champions’ around the country that can help the organisation with the task of collecting data and information about the UK’s network of grass roots music venues, all of which is crucial to help MTV’s wider work.

Says the Trust: “[We work] closely with the venues that make up our 490+ strong Music Venues Alliance … For MVT to represent these venues we need to collect up-to-date information about them. This can be challenging because most of these venues are run by tiny teams who already have too much to do, so [completing] surveys and give us lots of stats is not high up their list of priorities”.

Hence the idea that music fans who regularly attend shows at these venues might like to help with this data gathering task. “We are looking for a network of volunteers”, it goes on, “to communicate with the management, staff and audiences in their favourite venue during one week in April/May 2019 to help us complete the MVT Annual Survey. This survey is an incredibly important piece of work; it supports and underpins everything we do. We are looking to appoint one champion per venue”.

You will find more information about the scheme and an application form here.

More details announced about Bauer’s new classical music radio station

Business News Media

Bauer Media has announced more details about its new classical music radio station Scala Radio, which will go properly live on 4 Mar.

Simon Mayo, Goldie and Mark Kermode have already been confirmed as DJs on the new station. The latest list of presenters confirmed for the new venture include composer Alexis Ffrench, comedian Faye Treacy, Luci Holland, Hannah Cox and that there Anthea Turner.

Launch week will also include a series of programmes putting the spotlight on the London Symphony Orchestra. Says the station: “Listeners can also immerse themselves in one of Britain’s most prestigious orchestras as Jack Pepper curates four shows delving into the recording archive of London’s finest instrumentalists”.

It adds: “For the first show, Jack explores the history of the orchestra, and listeners can expect to hear music by Holst, Tiomkin, Elgar and Berlioz”.

Commenting on the latest updates, Bauer’s Steve Parkinson said: “Scala Radio is reflective of modern life and the place classical music has within it – we are excited for the station to launch [next month] and this varied line-up of presenters to bring it to life”.