Tuesday 26 March 2019, 12:16 | By Chris Cooke

Machine Head reunite with 1990s members for Burn My Eyes anniversary tour

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Metallers Machine Head will reunite with two former members – drummer Chris Kontos and guitarist Logan Mader – for a tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their 1994 debut album ‘Burn My Eyes’.

Frontman Robb Flynn will also be joined by Machine Head’s other current member – Jared MacEachearn – on the tour, meaning three quarters of the band who appeared on ‘Burn My Eyes’ will be on stage. The other founder member of the outfit, Adam Duce, was fired in 2013, then suing his former band the following year. So it’s perhaps not particularly surprising he’s not along for the ride in this anniversary year.

Says Flynn of the tour: “Having started rehearsals with Chris and Logan several weeks ago, I’m literally giddy with excitement at the prospect of how much fun this is going to be. Both Logan and Chris are in phenomenal playing shape, the vibe between all four of us has been incredibly positive, and having run through deep cuts like ‘Death Church’ and ‘I’m Your God Now’ for the first time in over a decade, has reminded me of how fucking heavy our older songs are. This tour is going to be massive!”

A bunch of European dates, kicking off in Germany on 5 Oct, have already been announced, with US dates to be confirmed in the coming weeks. The UK and Ireland shows are as follows:

2 Nov: London, Brixton Academy
4 Nov: Manchester, Victoria Warehouse
5 Nov: Glasgow, Academy
7 Nov: Belfast, Telegraph Building
8 Nov: Dublin, Olympia Theatre

Gossip reform for Music For Men tenth anniversary tour

Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Gossip will reunite just three years on from their split to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their 2009 album ‘Music For Men’.

Although Beth Ditto only confirmed that the band had officially split in 2016, the shows will nevertheless be the outfit’s first since 2012, when they toured to promote their final LP ‘A Joyful Noise’.

Confirming the new tour, the band say in one of those statement type things you all love: “We can’t believe it’s been ten years since the release of ‘Music For Men’! We are beyond excited to reunite with our Gossip family and fans. We’ve truly missed playing these songs and connecting with our amazing and inspiring crowds. It’ll be a sweaty, outrageous time for sure. Can’t wait to see y’all in Europe in July!”

Here are some UK dates for fans of UK dates. And Gossip.

19 Jul: Glasgow, Galvanizers Yard
20 Jul: Manchester, Academy
21 Jul: London, Somerset House

Shut up old people, Woodstock’s not for you

And Finally Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Anyone thinking about complaining that the upcoming Woodstock 50th anniversary festival isn’t enough of a carbon copy of the original 1969 event should stop that right now. That’s what organiser Michael Lang reckons, anyway. Actually, he said you should “get over it”, but it amounts to the same thing.

Since the line-up for the anniversary event – which features acts including Jay-Z, The Killers, Miley Cyrus, Chance The Rapper, The Raconteurs, and more – was announced last week, people have come up with all sorts of gripes. You know, like people always do. One gripe is that the line-up is heavy on new acts and not those who played the original event.

While pointing out that there are some older artists on the bill – like Robert Plant and Santana – Lang, who was one of the organisers of the first Woodstock, tells TMZ that they could only accommodate “some of the heritage acts out that who are still performing and are still great”. Ultimately, though, they wanted the festival to be “a contemporary show for the audience that we’re expecting, which is young”.

“We cannot just have an oldies show”, he goes on. “This is not [Coachella spin-off] Desert Trip, this is really a contemporary Woodstock for today. The reason for it really is based around the social issues that we’re dealing with. That’s sustainability and activism and sort of trying to re-steer where the world seems to be heading”.

Lang has previously criticised other contemporary US festivals for “missing an opportunity to make a difference in the world”. He says he wants to revive the spirit of protest – then against the Vietnam War – that was part of the original Woodstock. “We were a generation that felt very empowered to bring change to the world”, he says.

Despite hoping that Woodstock 2019 might inspire a new generation to bring change to the world – and even though the issues facing young people today are likely to be a lot longer term than the Vietnam War – this revival of the Woodstock name is still only a one-off event.

“It’s not something we’re planning on doing every year”, say Lang. So, let’s just hope the world changing effect is quick.

Music industry instigates final push ahead of big vote on EU copyright reforms tomorrow

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Top Stories

With the final, final, final, final vote on the bloody European Copyright Directive due to take place in the European Parliament tomorrow, the music community is having one big last push to try to persuade MEPs to back the copyright reforms. That, of course, includes the safe harbour reforming article thirteen, which seeks to increase the liabilities of user-upload platforms like YouTube, and which the tech sector continues to lobby against hard.

One group of campaigners on the tech lobby side recently told MEPs that they’d be updating all of the law-makers’ Wikipedia entries with how they vote tomorrow. And a vote for the directive would be a vote against “the freedom of the world wide web”, those campaigners added, while also pointing out that all MEPs are up for re-election in May.

The music industry, of course, has accused Google and its supporters of spreading lots of misinformation about the directive and the potential impact of article thirteen. YouTube will just have to pay the music industry something closer to the market rate for the music it streams, reps argue, it will not be the end of the internet as we know it.

In an open letter last week, trade groups for artists, songwriters, managers and independent music companies also expressed concern about how Google has exploited its platform to get its arguments out to the masses, so to drown out those with opposing viewpoints.

The music bodies wrote: “No other media company in the broadcast business would be allowed to use its airwaves to get a competitive advantage over others in terms of advertising or to resort to political messaging in that way. Has YouTube abused its dominance? The answer is surely yes and this flags a much broader issue than copyright – who wields power in today’s online world and the extent to which it can be abused. This is a fundamental question for truth and democracy in Europe and the rest of the world”.

Like the open letter sent to YouTube boss Susan Wojcicki by GESAC and IMPALA last week, this actually takes the debate beyond the directive and onto the next big debating point in Brussels, ie the power and responsibilities of the big tech platforms.

But for now, getting the directive through remains the top priority. Debbie Harry is one of the bigger names to enter the debate on the music industry’s side at the very final stage, while a bunch of younger musicians are communicating their message to EU law-makers via a cover version of Snow Patrol’s ‘Just Say Yes’.

The vote is due tomorrow around lunchtime.

Dubai denies that R Kelly has shows booked in Dubai

Artist News Legal

Dubai’s government has denied that R Kelly has any concerts booked in at a venue in the emirate or that the musician is set to meet any members of the sheikhdom’s royal family.

Legal reps for Kelly last week asked the US courts for permission for their client to travel to Dubai to play five shows there. The musician was forced to rescind his American passport, of course, when he was bailed on sexual assault and abuse charges last month.

Lawyers said that Kelly was struggling to earn a living in the US at the moment, because of the controversy surrounding the flurry of abuse claims levelled against him, and so he was keen to make good on a commitment to play the shows in the United Arab Emirates.

Few details about said shows were given in last week’s legal filing, but attorneys said that they had been arranged prior to his arrest. It was the same legal papers that also said there were plans for Kelly to meet royalty while in Dubai.

However, according to the Associated Press, the Dubai government’s media office issued a statement over the weekend that said: “Authorities in Dubai have not received any request for a performance by singer R Kelly nor are there any venues that have been booked”. It then added that the controversial musician “has not been invited by the Dubai royal family for a performance”.

Asked about the statement by the AP, Kelly’s lawyer Steven Greenberg insisted his client had signed a contract with a promoter for the Dubai shows, and that all the information provided in last week’s court filing came from that contract.

The attorney said: “Mr Kelly had a signed contract with a legitimate promoter and any information that was included in the motion to travel was from that contract. We did not say he was invited by the royal family, but the contract did provide that he would make himself available to meet with them”.

It remains to be seen who the “legitimate promoter” is, what’s the current status of the five planned shows, and why the Dubai authorities are not aware of them.

Music library for YouTubers et al adds the EMI production music catalogue

Business News Deals Digital Labels & Publishers

SoundVault, a service that provides lots of lovely music to the makers of YouTube videos and other user-generated content gubbins, has announced a new deal with Sony/ATV’s EMI Production Music unit, making the music publishing major’s production music library available to video-makers via the sync licensing platform.

Confirming the deal for the Sony/ATV side, Alex Black said: “Enabling easy sync access to our incredible catalogue of production music for the new breed of video creatives has long been a target for EMI Production Music. We’ve been impressed with SoundVault’s vision for the management of sync rights in the UGC community and are looking forward to seeing how their technology enhances the licensing process for rights owners and video creators alike”.

Over at SoundVault, CEO Graham Gabie added: “SoundVault is proud to find a partner in Sony/ATV who shares our values. Protecting artists and writers’ rights online and opening up new revenue streams in licensing is our aim. We are now bringing solutions into the marketplace so that YouTubers and channels can license the music they’ve been searching for, and all rights holders are paid accurately”.

7digital appoints new CEO

Business News Digital Industry People

B2B digital music and radio services company 7digital has appointed a new CEO. John Aalbers takes over from Simon Cole, who has led the firm since it merged with his radio production business, UBC Media, back in 2014.

Cole says that his departure has been planned since last year, though in the end he stayed on longer to deal with challenges posed by a key client – German consumer electronics giant MediaMarktSaturn – changing is digital music plans late last year.

Confirming Aalbers’ appointment this morning, Cole said: “This transition was planned last year when we felt that 2018 would mark the successful growth into profitability after four years. In the end, the events surrounding MediaMarktSaturn’s sudden strategic changes in December had a profound effect on the company and I felt I could not leave until that position was resolved and satisfactory settlement had been achieved”.

“Now that has been done”, he went on, “I leave 7digital in good shape and in good hands. I have enjoyed this adventure and, in particular, leading an extraordinarily talented and dedicated group of people”.

Commenting on the change in executive leadership, the company’s Chair, Don Cruickshank, added: “The board wishes to give profound thanks to Simon for his insights and vision in seeing that many companies and brands would wish to support and nurture their business models with music delivered by streaming technologies, and that they would need access to a neutral, efficient and cost-effective platform”.

Also noting recent challenges, Cruickshank went on: “That is what 7digital now provides and, after some turbulent years, it is very well positioned to thrive in the streaming-based music market of the future. We wish him well in his future endeavours”.

He then added: “We now welcome John Aalbers to the role of CEO. His career is distinguished with success in a number of not-dissimilar challenges to those facing 7digital, all based on sector focussed software and platform services. The board looks forward to working with John to build the company both in scale and scope of business”.

Bandsintown acquires Hypebot

Business News Deals Digital Live Business Media

Tour listings and gig recommendation service Bandsintown has acquired music industry blog Hypebot and its MusicThinkTank spin-off. Both blogs will continue to be run by editor Bruce Houghton. He will also join Bandsintown as an advisor, with a view to getting more independent artists using the platform.

“Hypebot was created as a guide to understanding the new music industry – not just labels and tech companies; but more importantly, the artists and music that give it life”, says Houghton. “Working with a successful artist-centric team like Bandsintown will give Hypebot the resources to expand on our mutual mission of empowering artists”.

He adds: “I look forward to contributing to Bandsintown’s ongoing effort to help more artists and managers build a successful and sustainable career in music, with live music at its centre”.

Bandsintown’s Fabrice Sergent says of the deal: “We believe indie and emerging artists are a transformative and a vibrant component of the music industry. We share the same passion for independent and DIY artists. By welcoming Bruce and Hypebot into the Bandsintown family, we enhance the breadth of our support to the artists and further contribute to artists’ career growth and success”.

Houghton has been running Hypebot since 2004. He is also president of booking agency Skyline Artists Agency.

BASCA becomes the Ivors Academy

Business News Labels & Publishers

The British Academy Of Songwriters, Composers And Authors is no longer the British Academy Of Songwriters, Composers And Authors. Which is good news, because it’s quite hard work typing in the British Academy Of Songwriters, Composers And Authors all the time. Try it. British Academy Of Songwriters, Composers And Authors. See, hard work.

From this point onwards the professional organisation for, well, songwriters, composers and authors – but musical authors, mind – will be known as The Ivors Academy.

The rebrand acknowledges the fact that, although BASCA has been going since 1944, its big annual awards event, The Ivors, has a higher profile in the world at large. Hence, BASCA is now The Ivors Academy. Which, now I’ve started abbreviating BASCA as BASCA, I actually realise takes more time to type in. So it turns out I’m not a beneficiary of this rebrand after all. But to be fair, that possibly wasn’t the main priority.

BASCA bosses, by which I mean Ivors Academy bosses, say that “the name change is the start of an exciting drive to further build membership and champion the interests of music creators through [our] work in campaigning to protect and promote music creators, celebrating the incredible achievements of outstanding songwriters and composers, and cultivating the next generation of talent”.

Confirming the name change, which was previously alluded to at the organisation’s AGM, BASCA Chair, by which I mean Ivors Academy Chair, Crispin Hunt, says: “The future needs a powerful collective voice for music writers. The Ivors Academy of music creators is the future-facing, fit-for-purpose evolution of BASCA’s great legacy. Our mission is to innovate, inspire, inform, empower and celebrate musical creativity: connecting a global membership towards a flourishing musical future for every genre and every future genre”.

Scott Walker dies

Artist News

Scott Walker has died, aged 76, his record label 4AD announced this morning.

Born Noel Scott Engel in 1943, Walker first came to prominence in the 1960s as a member of pop trio The Walker Brothers. Although from the US, the band enjoyed particular success in the UK. When they split in 1968, Walker then released a quick succession of solo albums – ‘Scott 1’, ‘Scott 2’, ‘Scott 3’ and ‘Scott 4’ – considered by many to be the high point of his career.

The Walker Brothers reformed in the mid-70s for a trio of records, including the highly regarded ‘Nite Flights”, which deviated from their usual sound. The album was more a collection of solo tracks by each member than a cohesive Walker Brothers release. It was also their last, the band splitting again in 1978.

Walker was relatively inactive in the 80s, although he did release one solo album, ‘Climate Of The Hunter’. It was in 1995 that he made his proper return to music with the LP ‘Tilt’, a wildly avant-garde album, mixing rock and classical music, it showcased the dark, foreboding sound that typified the latter part of his career.

However, although he continued to work, it was more than a decade before he recorded another solo album, ‘The Drift’, in 2006 – his first for 4AD. In recent years, he composed various pieces for dance and film, releasing his final solo album, ‘Bish Bosch’, in 2012. He also released a collaborative album with Sunn o))) in 2014.

Walker’s music was reappraised numerous times during his lifetime, becoming hugely influential for many artists, including David Bowie, Radiohead and more. In 2017, the BBC Proms included a performance of Scott Walker songs by Jarvis Cocker – who had worked with Walker when he produced Pulp’s ‘We Love Life’ album – John Grant, Richard Hawley and Susanne Sundfør with the Heritage Orchestra.

In a statement, 4AD said: “For half a century, the genius of the man born Noel Scott Engel has enriched the lives of thousands, first as one third of The Walker Brothers, and later as a solo artist, producer and composer of uncompromising originality … We are honoured to have worked with Scott for the last fifteen years of his life”.

Idles respond to Sleaford Mods and Fat White Family

And Finally Artist News

Idles have responded to Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson’s accusation that they are “appropriating a working class voice”.

Speaking to The Guardian last month, Williamson said that he “felt a bit cheated” when he discovered that Idles were “not working class”. He added: “I also became jaded by this idea that we were a band that was campaigning for social justice, when we’re not, we’re just talking about what’s around us. Music can’t solve political problems. And I think their take on it is cliched, patronising, insulting and mediocre. And that’s why I have a problem with them”.

Fat White Family then chipped in, calling Idles “self-neutering middle class boobs telling us to be nice to immigrants” – although they also then laid into Sleaford Mods a bit for balance.

In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Idles guitarist Mark Bowen and frontman Joe Talbot have responded.

“If you’re angry about inequality, you have to preach equality as an alternative rather than go, ‘fuck you, you’re wrong'”, says Bowen. “Because you’re not going to get anywhere with that. The fact that we’re still talking about the same stuff punks were dealing with in the 1970s means that ‘fuck you’ thing didn’t work”.

“There’s no authenticity in just being a prick to everyone”, adds Talbot.

Setlist: Live Music Report, Apple, Stats

Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal Setlist

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last seven days, including Parliament’s live music report and its blunt warning about Viagogo, the ongoing Apple v Spotify spat, and the BPI’s latest stats on UK record industry revenue streams. Setlist is sponsored by 7digital.

Subscribe to Setlist
Listen to Setlist and sign up to receive new episodes for free automatically each week through any of these services…

Stories discussed this week:
• MPs tell public to steer clear of Viagogo in wide-ranging live music report
• Viagogo “disappointed” about culture select committee’s live music report
• Apple hits back at Spotify’s competition complaint, then lays into CRB appeal
• “Monopolists” always deny wrongdoing, Spotify says of Apple’s competition complaint response
• UK recorded music revenues up 3.1% in 2018, though, you know, “value gap”

Also mentioned:
• Find out more about this year’s CMU+TGE strands
• Buy your TGE delegate pass

CMU Digest 25.03.19: Live Music Report, Apple, BPI, Grande, Radio 3

CMU Digest

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

The UK Parliament’s culture select committee hit out at Viagogo in a wide-ranging report on the live sector. MPs also called on government to extend business rates relief to small venues and provide guidance to local authorities to ensure licensing procedures don’t bias against urban genres. But they were most blunt when talking about Viagogo, the ticket resale firm that twice declined to answer the committee’s questions. Pending the Competition & Markets Authority’s latest legal action against the rogue company, MPs urged the public to steer clear of the ticketing website. Viagogo said it was “disappointed” about the select committee’s conclusions. [READ MORE]

Spotify and Apple continued to spar in public. Apple dismissed Spotify’s claims that it violates competition law to give its own streaming service an unfair advantage. The tech giant said that Spotify just didn’t want to pay its fair share for utilising Apple’s technology and platforms. Just like it doesn’t want to pay songwriter’s their fair share, Apple added, noting that – unlike Spotify – it is not appealing the recent royalty rate increase put in place for streaming services by the US Copyright Royalty Board. Spotify hit back, arguing that “monopolists” always deny wrongdoing. [READ MORE]

The BPI confirmed that trade revenues for the UK record industry were up 3.1% in 2018, thanks to the streaming boom. Subscription income from premium streaming services now accounts for 54% of UK recorded music revenues (though these figures do not include money collected via collecting society PPL). Further slumps in CD and download sales slowed down overall market growth. Meanwhile the record industry trade group was keen to point out that YouTube continues to pay in relatively low sums given the size of its user-base. [READ MORE]

A US judge ruled that American internet service provider Grande Communications could not claim safe harbour protection in a copyright infringement lawsuit being pursued by the record industry. Endorsing an earlier opinion given by a magistrate judge, the district court in Texas cited a precedent set in the BMG v Cox case. To that end, it ruled that, because Grande had a deliberately shoddy system for dealing with repeat infringers among its customer base, it can be held liable for those infringers’ infringement. [READ MORE]

The music community hit out at proposed schedule changes at BBC Radio 3, which will see some specialist music shows cut or cut back to save money. The loudest criticism focused on the decision to cut the ‘Late Junction’ programme back to one edition a week. A letter signed by 500 people working in the arts said that the changes would damage a “flourishing cultural ecosystem” and negatively impact on the careers of genre-defying musicians “as opportunities for their work to be experienced by the mainstream will be drastically reduced, at home and abroad”. [READ MORE]

The big deals from the last seven days in the music business…
• Polydor signed the Lighthouse Family [INFO]
• Cooking Vinyl signed Will Young [INFO]

Scooter Braun and Troy Carter settle legal dispute over alleged unpaid loan

Business News Legal Management & Funding Top Stories

The legal battle between pop managers Scooter Braun and Troy Carter is over. Which is no fun at all. The two music business entrepreneurs seemingly agreed an out of court settlement earlier this month, the terms of which are not known.

Braun’s Ithaca Management Holdings company went legal in the LA courts last September, listing Carter, his wife and his Atom Factory company as defendants. They were all accused of fraud and breach of contract over failure to pay back an alleged loan.

Court papers filed a month later, as Ithaca sought to freeze the bank accounts of Carter’s companies, provided more background to the dispute.

They alleged that Braun’s company loaned Carter’s business $26 million in June 2016 and, as of last autumn, $14.5 million remained unpaid. Things seemingly came to ahead when Atom Factory settled an unrelated legal dispute, because Ithaca reckoned that the profits from that other settlement should have been used by Carter’s companies to pay off the loan.

At the time, Carter disputed a bunch of what Ithaca had claimed in its legal filings, saying that there was no loan, and that the dispute had in fact arisen from his selling Atom Factory to Braun’s business in 2016 and then agreeing to buy it back in 2018.

Carter then laid into Braun for attempting to tarnish his reputation after talks relating to the sale and buy-back of Atom Factory reached a roadblock.

Despite Carter’s contentious statements late last year, it seems a deal has now been done. According to court papers seen by both Billboard and The Blast, both sides agreed to an out of court settlement on 19 Mar. Neither side has as yet commented on that deal.

Clash bassist’s ex-wife and former manager barred from selling stake in their royalties company

Artist News Business News Legal

The ex-wife of Clash bassist Paul Simonon – who also managed the band’s affairs for over two decades – has been told she cannot sell her 50% stake in a company that receives royalties from the outfit’s music.

Tricia Ronane wanted to sell her share of Cut-Throat Productions to an investment fund, arguing that it was impossible to be in business with her ex-husband because he won’t respond to any of her queries.

The couple reached a divorce settlement in 2010, and she subsequently stood down from her management role. But under the terms of the divorce, they both had a 50% stake in the Cut-Throat business. Ronane now wanted to sell on her half.

Simonon had asked the court to block the sale, with his legal reps arguing that each party’s 50% equity holding was never intended as an asset to sell. Rather the entity was a useful vehicle through which royalties could be collected and shared between the two sides.

Lawyers then said that Simonon was concerned about who might acquire the other half of the company, and that a business partner might be forced upon him with very different opinions on how monies generated by Cut-Throat should be managed.

Ronane’s team countered that their client had basically been forced to sell because of her ex-husband’s conduct. They said she had endured “years of Mr Simonon refusing to speak to or otherwise communicate with her, [whether] as his former wife, the mother of his children or as a director of Cut-Throat”. His refusal to communicate, they argue, meant she was “forever stuck in this company, which, at least on her evidence, isn’t functioning very well”.

The judge, Mark Cawson – while conceding that Ronane was caught up in an “unfortunate dispute” – nevertheless ruled that she could not sell her half of Cut-Throat, simply because doing so “would be inconsistent and incompatible” with the terms of the divorce settlement. She was also ordered to pay £30,000 towards Simonon’s legal costs.

R Kelly’s legal team seek access to videos provided as evidence in sex abuse investigation

Artist News Legal

R Kelly’s legal team will today request access to the video tapes that have been submitted as evidence in the new criminal case against the musician, who is accused of aggravated sexual assault against four women – three of whom were underage at the time of the alleged incidents.

A number of videos alleged to show Kelly sexually abusing underaged girls have been handed in to American police since a new focus fell on the many abuse accusations made against the pop star after the screening of the ‘Surviving R Kelly’ documentary. Most of the tapes have been submitted by a lawyer called Michael Avenatti, who has stated that at least one of the recordings “leaves no question as to Mr Kelly’s guilt”.

The musician’s attorney, Steven Greenberg, has told TMZ that prosecutors should begin handing over so called ‘discovery materials’ to the defence team at a court hearing later today. It’s not known what materials will be among the first set of evidence shared, but he is most keen to get his hands on the videos.

According to TMZ, Greenberg says he will “immediately order a full forensic analysis of the tapes … if he and Kelly believe the tape does show the singer”. However, if they reckon it is not, in fact, Kelly in the recording, “Greenberg says he’ll speed things up to trial”.

Kelly continues to deny all the allegations that have been made against him. And when the most recent video was submitted to police, allegedly showing the musician abusing young girls, Greenberg again insisted his client was innocent, remarking that it was “now just open season” for making allegations against Kelly.

Universal shifts Verve Label Group under its global classical and jazz division

Business News Labels & Publishers

You know about the worldwide growth in the consumption of classical and jazz repertoire, right? You’d want to capitalise on that, yeah? Well, do you know what capitalising on the worldwide growth in the consumption of classical and jazz repertoire requires? Yep, you got it, a focusing of all global artist development and marketing strategy for those genres under one unified management structure. That’d do it.

That’s what I think anyway. Meanwhile, Universal Music yesterday announced that “to capitalise on the worldwide growth in the consumption of classical and jazz repertoire, the company will focus its global artist development and marketing strategy for those genres under a unified management structure”. Can you believe they stole my idea?

This grand plan basically means shifting the mega-major’s US-based Verve Label Group under its existing globally focused Universal Classics And Jazz division, which also includes Deutsche Grammophon and the Decca Label Group. The move expands the portfolio of Universal Classics And Jazz boss Dickon Stainer. Meanwhile current Verve Label Group CEO Danny Bennett will leave the business.

Says Stainer about his expanded remit: “Classical and jazz are amongst the musical wonders of the world. Streaming has opened a flood of discovery and has further enabled us to ensure our artists have a global reach. The developing international success of Max Richter, Gregory Porter, Lang Lang, Jacob Collier and Sheku Kanneh-Mason, among others, has demonstrated that we need to work with a seamlessly coordinated global approach [to achieve] the greatest results possible on behalf of our exceptional artists”.

So that’s fun isn’t it? It’s a good move though. Like I’ve always said, Stainer is an extraordinarily creative leader with an open-minded approach to identifying artists and then marketing them in ground-breaking ways. What a guy.

Anyway, here’s Universal big boss Lucian Grainge with some thoughts: “Dickon is an extraordinarily creative leader with an open-minded approach to identifying artists and then marketing them in ground-breaking ways”. Hey, Luci, get your own opinions!

CMU Insights: Latest TGE Conference updates

Business News CMU Insights Update Education & Events

Don’t forget, we announced a load more information about this year’s Great Escape Conference earlier this week, including the launch of a brand new professional development programme called Elevate and a bunch more speakers for the CMU+TGE conferences.

Elevate – delivered by TGE in partnership with CMU, and funded by the National Lottery via Arts Council England – will offer an enhanced, subsidised and curated delegate experience for 30 music professionals, helping them to fully utilise the conference to elevate their careers. A series of Elevate Seminars and an Elevate Guide will also be available to all TGE delegates.

More than 20 speakers were added to the CMU+TGE conferences, which this year put the spotlight on music education (Wednesday 8 May), digital dollars (Thursday 9 May) and music marketing (Friday 10 May). Each strand will also include the launch of brand new research from CMU Insights.

Speakers added this week included: Camella Agabalyan, MAMA Festivals; Chloe Johnson, Dot Blockchain Media; Diane Widdison, Musicians Union; Helen Smith, IMPALA; Jason Edwards, Dice; Jane Beese, The Roundhouse; Matt Bolton, IMPEL; Matt Phipps-Taylor, PPL; Paul Dilorito, PRS For Music; and Tomas Ericsson, AMRA.

Get your delegate passes here!

Lighthouse Family to release new album after eighteen year gap

Artist News Business News Deals Gigs & Festivals Releases

Remember the Lighthouse Family? Sure you do. They did all those songs that were offensively inoffensive back in the 90s. Well, they’re back.

After a gap of eighteen years, they’ve signed a new deal with Universal’s Polydor label and are releasing a new album. Titled ‘Blue Sky In Your Head’, it will be bundled with a best of compilation to mark their 25th anniversary as a band.

The duo actually first started trying to put together their fourth album back in 2010, reveals Paul Tucker. But “somehow we couldn’t knock it together in the studio”, he says.

“So we decided to go and do some shows”, he goes on, “to remind ourselves who we are and what we do. As one of the Duran Duran guys said to me: ‘What do you want to go in the studio for? That’s where all the arguments happen! Go and do some gigs’. So, that’s what we did, and it was great”.

So that all worked out. Even though what Mr Duran said doesn’t really apply to the Lighthouse Family anyway. “What happens when Tunde [Baiyewu] and I get in the studio is, we just drift off – we don’t ever row. There’s no shouting or throwing things. In fact we only ever had one argument – but it lasted 20 years!”

Sadly, he doesn’t elaborate on what this two decade argument was about, even though it’s possibly the most interesting thing going on here. But feel free to use this time to imagine what might have caused a 20 year dispute. And while you have a little think about that, you can put on new single ‘My Salvation’, which is out now.

“We’re trying to create something anthemic and uplifting but real”, says Tucker of the song. “That idea of ‘I know the sun’s gonna shine again’, it’s quintessential Lighthouse Family”.

As well as putting out their new album on 3 May, the duo will be heading out on tour in November. Here are the dates:

11 Nov: Birmingham Symphony Hall
13 Nov: Glasgow, Royal Concert Hall
14 Nov: Newcastle City Hall
15 Nov: Nottingham, Royal Concert Hall
17 Nov: Halifax, The Victoria Theatre
18 Nov: Manchester, Bridgewater Hall
20 Nov: Bexhill, De La Warr Pavilion
21 Nov: Bournemouth, Pavilion Theatre
22 Nov: London Palladium

Matthew Herbert releases track from Brexit album, announces week-long single

Artist News Gigs & Festivals Releases

Next week, if we’re really super lucky, we face the prospect of tumbling out of the European Union with no deal in place, given that – even though a small extension of the UK’s EU membership is now on offer – Westminster is in such disarray, who knows what will happen?

But at least we’ll have something to listen to as all that drama plays out, as next week also sees the release of Matthew Herbert’s two years in production Brexit-themed album, ‘The State Between Us’.

The project officially began at the moment the UK government stupidly and prematurely triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and began the whole farce we’ve been living through ever since. Since that day, Herbert has been making good use of his freedom of movement, travelling around the EU to collaborate with as many people as possible before we’re officially due to leave the union on 29 Mar.

The album will be released by Herbert’s Matthew Herbert Big Band, renamed the Matthew Herbert Great Britain And Gibraltar European Union Membership Referendum Big Band for this project. Ahead of the LP’s launch, new track ‘Where’s Home?’ has just been made available. Listen here:

This isn’t the only piece of new music Herbert is releasing before Brexit day, though. Today he’s putting out the longest single ever recorded, ‘A Week In The Life Of A Tree’. Running at 166 hours, the track – as the title suggests – records the last seven days in the life of a 180 year old tree in a Hamburg forest.

A portion of this recording is used on the opening track on ‘The State Between Us’, which is called ‘A Devotion On Emergent Occasions’. However, the full version serves more of a distracting purpose – being released this week will give you something else to focus on, rather than whatever Brexit nonsense fills the next seven days.

“I’d rather listen to a tree than Boris Johnson”, says Herbert. “Brexit is an expensive, and pointless exercise compared to the existential emergency of climate change. If the next generation is to survive in to the next century, we need to urgently change the economic system we’ve built and that means paying more attention to the other forms of life we share the planet with than the Daily Express”.

The recording is available for you to listen to at your leisure from today. Although if you like things to be perfectly timed, NTS Radio will be broadcasting it from early on Saturday morning, timing the sound of the tree being felled at exactly 11pm on 29 Mar – the point at which the UK is officially set to leave the European Union (even if 12 Apr is now looking more likely as the earliest possible date).

As well as all this, The Matthew Herbert Great Britain And Gibraltar European Union Membership Referendum Big Band will be performing live twice at the Royal Court Theatre in London 29 Mar.

Watch a trailer briefly explaining the process behind the creation of ‘The State Between Us’ here:

Also – and this isn’t really related to any of this – but I just read Herbert’s book, ‘The Music’, and it’s very good.

One Liners: Love Music Hate Racism, Mumford & Sons, Ibibio Sound Machine, more

Artist News Gigs & Festivals One Liners Releases

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• The Love Music Hate Racism’s Beautiful Resistance campaign has been underway this month, with a number of events and initiatives taking place, including a series of video interviews being posted on YouTube. The next of those, featuring Ed Sheeran and Dave, will go live later today.

• Mumford and also the Sons have released the video for new single ‘Beloved’.

• Ibibio Sound Machine have released the video for ‘Wanna Come Down’. Their new album, ‘Doko Mien’, is out today.

• Honeyblood have released new track ‘Glimmer’.

• Ellen Allien has announced that she will release her new album, ‘Alientronic’, on 17 May. From it, this is ‘Stimulation’.

• Erland Cooper has released new track ‘First Of The Tide’. His new album, ‘Sule Skerry’, is out on 17 May.

• Girl Unit has released new track, ‘Sucker Free’, featuring Ms Boogie. His debut album, ‘Song Free’, is out on 5 Apr.

• Muncie Girls have announced UK tour dates, including shows at Elsewhere in Margate and The Green Door Store in Brighton.

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

Silent vinyl is here for when you just want a bit of quiet

And Finally Business News Releases

BPI figures confirmed this week that vinyl is still bringing in more revenue for the UK record industry than all those YouTube streams. Hurrah for the ongoing (if still somewhat over-hyped) vinyl revival! You know what’s also in vogue at the moment? Meditation. And over in the US someone has hit upon an idea of combining both of those fads by releasing a twelve-inch record featuring nothing but silence.

Titled ‘Silent Meditation’, the new release – now up for pre-order on Kickstarter – will feature 20 solid minutes of nothing on each side. “No sound, no narration, no chimes at the end”, says creator Eric Antonow. “Drop the needle and enjoy the silence”.

The idea, he explains, came after he bought a meditation record he found in a second hand vinyl store. “As a fan of meditation, I bought it and took it home to play”, he says. “The first part was an explanation [of] why meditation was good for you, then came a few sternly guided meditations. It wasn’t at all what I wanted”.

What he wanted, he realised, was silence. “Each listening would be totally different, a surprise, and another chance to be aware”, he explains. “Having a physical record was not just cool, but probably surprisingly useful. I imagined flipping through albums, looking for something to play. It would stand out, like an invitation to a party. Hey! Let’s go sit”.

He insists that this is “a serious project”, but admits it’s also “intentionally humorous”, hoping that it will act as “a reminder that silence is valuable and it can be enjoyed”.

The record has been predictably compared to John Cage’s ‘4’33’, in which musicians sit in silence for four minutes and 33 seconds. But Antonow dismisses this comparison, on the grounds that his record is “not music, nor were any musicians involved in this recording”. However, the idea still isn’t wholly original.

Back in 1980, Stiff Records released ‘The Wit And Wisdom Of Ronald Reagan’, which featured 40 minutes of silence over two sides of vinyl. This idea was then borrowed by Alcopop! Records for 2015 single ‘The Wit And Wisdom Of Nigel Farage’. The seven-inch features the title track on side A, backed with an Enter Shikari remix.

Of course, ‘Silent Meditation’ makes no comment on politics, so it is different in that regard. I’m sure you could put it on and think about politics if you wanted, though. Or not. The possibilities are endless.

UK recorded music revenues up 3.1% in 2018, though, you know, “value gap”

Business News Labels & Publishers Top Stories

We already knew that the UK record industry saw its revenues rise in 2018, obviously. The Entertainment Retailers Association confirmed earlier this month that just over £1.3 billion went through the musical tills of record shops and digital services last year. But now record label trade body BPI has also confirmed that trade revenues were up 3.1% to £865.5 million.

This increase was chiefly thanks to the premium streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, and no fucking thanks at all to YouTube, of course. But that’s pretty much a given in the modern music business, right? However, if you want the figures, the subscription side of streaming was up 34.9% in 2018, with said subscriptions now 54% of UK recorded music income. Which in good old fashioned British pounds comes in at £467.6 million.

As for YouTube-type services like, well, YouTube? Says the BPI alongside its brand new stats pack, the record industry’s revenue revival could have been “greater still had video streaming platforms, predominantly YouTube, generated a great deal more than just £29.7 million in return for an estimated 30 billion-plus annual plays of music videos in the UK”. Yeah YouTube, vinyl brings in nearly double that. And as we all know – for all the vinyl revival hype – only my mate Jen and your uncle Phil actually buy vinyl.

Physical across the board was down, down, down, to £240.7 million, while downloads were again down loads (which is good news for the repeat use of that weak gag) to £81.5 million.

Sync was up though. Good old sync. A whole £25.5 million came in from sync. That’s a mega-bucks 2.9% of the market! Thank the Lord for all those music conference panels telling us that sync is the be all and end all of the modern music industry. Though music supervisors of the world, that figure doesn’t include telly sync. There’s your get out.

And let us never forget, across the board UK record industry revenues were up! To £865.5 million! A 3.1% year-on-year rise! A 21.8% increase since 2015! And all because of “the popularity of diverse British artists and innovative record label marketing” says the BPI. And all the nostalgic hype around that Queen movie. And the fucking ‘Greatest Showman’.

“The recorded music industry in the UK is showing consistent growth, driven by investment in new talent, innovative global marketing, and offering music fans outstanding choice, convenience and value”, says BPI boss Geoff Taylor.

“The outlook for the future remains positive”, he adds, although, this being a record industry stats pack launch, there has to be some gripes. You know, safe harbour, YouTube and the bloody “value gap”. Piracy returns to that list too. And the need for more music education funding is on there as well now. Which is an interesting and welcome development.

“Long-term growth”, the gripe list begins, “depends on robust government action to tackle the value gap, promote investment, ensure online platforms take responsible action to reduce infringement, and secure the future talent pipeline by giving state school pupils the opportunity to discover and develop their talent”.

R Kelly asks court to be allowed to perform in Dubai

Artist News Gigs & Festivals Legal

R Kelly has asked an American judge to allow him to travel to Dubai to perform some shows there. He was forced to rescind his passport, of course, when he was bailed on sexual assault and abuse charges last month.

The musician says that he has struggled to find work performing in the US since his recent arrest. Shows elsewhere in the world have also been cancelled. However, he now hopes to perform five concerts in Dubai next month, if the Cook County Circuit Court will grant him permission to leave the country.

Few details of the shows are given in a new legal filing, but his attorneys say that they were arranged prior to his arrest. It states that he also plans to meet members of the royal families in the United Arab Emirates.

“[Kelly] cannot work, and consequently cannot make a living if he is confined to Illinois, or even the United States”, says the court filing. “[He] needs to generate income”.

Kelly’s financial problems have been well documented. His attorney recently said that they were due to poor management, although the music star has also found it increasingly difficult to work in recent years, as accusations of abuse re-emerged and escalated.

The $100,000 required to secure his bail was paid by a woman who listed herself as “a friend” in court documents. When he was jailed again this month for failing to pay an outstanding child support bill of more than $160,000, this too was paid off by an anonymous benefactor.

While numerous women have come forward and accused Kelly of abuse in recent years, attention on these claims came to wider attention with the broadcast of documentary series ‘Surviving R Kelly’ earlier this year. In February, he was arrested and charged with ten counts of sexual assault against four women between 1998 and 2010. Three of the women were underage at the time of the alleged incidents.

Kelly denies all the accusations against him. If found guilty on the current charges he is facing, he could be sentenced to up to 70 years in prison. He is next due in court for a hearing on those charges tomorrow, at which point a ruling on allowing him to travel to the Middle East could be made.

Spirit Music founder formally launches new music business

Business News Industry People Labels & Publishers

Two former Spirit Music execs have launched a new company called Mojo Music And Media, which they say will offer “best of breed music publishing and custom full-service brand and legacy marketing”. And why not, say I.

The new business, in development since 2017, has been set up by Spirit Music founder Mark Fried and former Spirit SVP Peter Shane, along with Alan Wallis, formerly with Ernst & Young. The company formally launches with an acquisition already under its belt, of Nashville-based HoriPro Entertainment Group, which brings with it a catalogue of 15,000 songs, including works from Kiss, REO Speedwagon and George Strait. The deal means Mojo will now have a base in Nashville as well as New York and London.

Commenting on the formal launch of his new business, Fried said: “I’m THRILLED to be launching a new venture with driven, like-minded partners and surrounded by some of the best songs and songwriters on the planet”. He added that the new company would not only be “pitching songs and syncs like our lives depended on it”, but also “bringing our writers’ songs and stories to life across traditional and new media”.

Former HoriPro exec and now Mojo Music SVP Butch Baker added: “Mojo and HoriPro are a hand-in-glove fit! Anybody who knows us knows we’ve always been about our family of songs and songwriters. With Mojo, we now have the resources to super-serve them here in Nashville and take them beyond our borders into cross-genre co-writes, custom syncs and creative projects with TV, film and new media producers all over the world”.

The Social raises funds needed to stay open, while Music Venue Trust hits out at landlords of the now closed Cellar

Business News Live Business

London music venue The Social has passed its crowdfunding target, eight days after announcing that it had two weeks to raise £95,000 or it would be forced to close down.

As the venue reached its 20th anniversary, management their announced that the operator of a cocktail and wine bar chain had made an offer to the leaseholders of the building where The Social is situated to take over its space. With the venue already under pressure from rising rents, the crowdfunding campaign was launched in order to buy a controlling stake in the lease, thus securing its future.

Saying that the campaign had received a “genuinely staggering response”, the venue’s managers told nearly 1500 backers: “The £95,000 was to help take the bar off the market and secure a stake in the lease which would give us a share of the business. Your incredibly generous pledges have stopped any potential sale and given us breathing space”.

The funding goal has now been extended to £150,000, with a deadline now set for mid-April. If this new target is reached, say the venue’s owners, the extra funds will be used to “do some essential bar improvements and give us time to effectively plan how to finance the next 20 years of The Social”.

Outside the online campaign, there will also be a number of fundraising events at the venue, starting with a Fatboy Slim DJ set this Saturday.

Elsewhere in grassroots venue news, the Music Venue Trust has hit out at a statement made by the charity group that owns the building that housed, until last week, The Cellar in Oxford. Going all Theresa May in distancing itself from recent disappointing developments, the St Michael’s And All Saints’ Charities claimed to have bent over backwards to help the Hopkins family, who operated The Cellar venue for 40 years.

“At the forefront of the minds of the Charities is the music scene in Oxford”, it said in a statement to the Oxford Mail. “To this end we have made considerable changes to our plans for the building, at a cost to us and our beneficiaries, to enable the premises to continue to be used as a music venue. On top of that we have offered to pay for the works required to make the premises safe, notwithstanding these were works for which the tenant was responsible. The funds raised through crowdfunding could then have been used for other much needed improvements to the venue”.

Insisting that it had made “generous concessions”, the charity said that it could not then offer a deal on rent at a cost that the Hopkins family felt was affordable.

“Now that The Cellar has made the decision to close its doors, we are looking to find an alternative and quality tenant to carry on the much loved music scene in Oxford”, the landlords went on. “Keen interest has been expressed by other parties wishing to run a music venue and we hope that before long, music will once again return to the Cellar, in safety”.

The safety issues referenced in the charity’s statement relate to fire officers insisting that a better fire escape was required and that the venue’s capacity had to be cut until that was installed. The successful crowdfunding campaign referenced would have paid for the new fire escape.

The capacity cut was one of various challenges the Hopkins family faced in keeping The Cellar open. Although before that, the main problem was attempts by St Michael’s And All Saints’ Charities to stop the space being used as a music venue entirely. Something noted by the Music Venue Trust in its response to the charity’s statement.

“The final outcome of two years of campaigning by local people is, whatever intent the landlord stated they had, that the existing venue – run by a much admired family, powered by a passion and commitment to the local scene – has been lost”, says MVT. “The landlords state that they want to be ‘champions of live music in the city’, but put simply they have lost a tenant who was keenly committed to that cause and are now, apparently, seeking to replace them with another tenant to do the exact same thing”.

Doubting the charity’s apparent confidence that a new music venue operator could be found quite so easily, the organisation went on: “If the rent was not affordable by Tim and his family, who have given years of their lives and thousands of pounds of their own money to supporting Oxford’s music scene, it is not going to be affordable to any other operator who is prepared to take the venue on”.

Saying that it will nevertheless “support any one who is able to” keep the property going as a music venue, MVT noted that “two years ago the landlord was happy to close this venue to try to maximise its profit”, saying that “the pursuit of maximum profit” still appeared to be its goal.

“Until landlords such as this are made to appreciate that they are part of an entire community and that not every square inch of land can be maximised for profit without destroying the heart and soul of our cities, we are going to go on seeing venues across the land closed down”, it concluded. “In this particular case, the landlord is a charity. If even charities are so driven by a profit motive that they are unable to appreciate their duties and obligations to local communities, then we are in a very sad and sorry place”.

In its report on the live music industry earlier this week, the UK Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media And Sport Select Committee warned that an “unprecedented” number of grassroots venue closures present a “real threat that without access to spaces to hone their live craft, the next generation of musicians will struggle to maintain the UK’s position at the forefront of the industry”. Particularly if touring in Europe becomes more difficult for emerging artists if the UK leaves the EU.

The committee advised the government to review how recent business rates increases are affecting small venues, and to also consider offering new tax relief or extend existing programmes.

Approved: Physical Therapy

CMU Approved

Producer Daniel Fisher – possibly best known as Physical Therapy – has announced the release of a new compilation. Or a new solo album. It’s certainly one of the two. But which? It’s hard to tell, because while there are tracks by nine different artists on the release, all of them are Fisher under different names.

Titled ‘It Takes A Village: The Sounds Of Physical Therapy’, the collection of eleven tracks is out on 3 May. As well as three Physical Therapy tracks, there are contributions from his “psychedelic bongo driven techno” project Buckaroo!, his “jazz-inflected breakbeat science” alias Jungle Jerry, his “bass rumbling instrumental hip hop” outlet Green Buddha, and more.

Other artists who aren’t actually Fisher also appear. Michael Magnan joins as the other half of house duo Fatherhood, and AG features on Green Buddha track ‘Green Buddha’.The album/compilation/whatever will be released on Fisher’s own Allergy Season label.

Here’s a track from it, ‘My Medicine’, by his “electro fusion” guise DJ Overnite:

Mavis Staples announces new album We Get By

Artist News Gigs & Festivals Releases

Mavis Staples has announced that she will release her twelfth studio album, ‘We Get By’, in May. The record features eleven songs written and produced by Ben Harper.

“These songs are delivering such a strong message”, she says. “We truly need to make a change if we want this world to be better”.

That message is particularly prevalent on opening track and new single ‘Change’, which you can listen to here:

Staples will also be touring in support of the new album, explaining: “I just wanted the world to know that I made it to 80! I am letting my fans know that I’m over the hill but now I’m going over the mountain”.

Here are her UK and Ireland dates:

23 Jun: Dublin, Olympia Theatre
2 Jul: Bath, The Forum
4 Jul: London, The Roundhouse

Cate Le Bon announces rewarding new album

Artist News Releases

Cate Le Bon has announced details of her upcoming fifth studio album, ‘Reward’. Written over the course of a year living alone on a Cumbrian mountainside, she says the LP is the sound of “playing the piano to yourself and singing into the night”.

Although written in isolation, the recording of the album was not so solitary. She spent time in studios around the UK and US, with other performers including Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint, H Hawkline and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.

‘Reward’ is out on 24 May, and you can listen to first single, ‘Daylight Matters’, now. Le Bon will also play live at Village Underground in London on 10 Jun.

One Liners: 7digital, Post Malone, Morrissey, more

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

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• 7digital has appointed a new Chief Financial Officer in the form of Julia Hubbard. She replaces David Holmwood, who has been acting CFO since last June.

• Post Malone has released the video for 2018 single ‘Wow’.

• Morrissey has released his cover of Jobriath’s ‘Morning Starship’, featuring Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste.

• The Bug has announced that he will release an album under his real name, Kevin Richard Martin, titled ‘Sirens’. Listen to first single, ‘Kangaroo Care’, here.

• Lizzo has teamed up with Missy Elliott for new track ‘Tempo’. It will feature on Lizzo’s new album, ‘Cuz I Love You’, out on 19 Apr.

• Broken Social Scene have announced that they will release new EP ‘Let’s Try The After Vol 2’ on 12 Apr. You can listen to a track from it, ‘Can’t Find My Heart’, now.

• Rose Elinor Dougall has released new single ‘Take What You Can Get’. Her new album, ‘A New Illusion’, is out on 5 Apr. She’ll also play Thousand Islands in London on 26 Mar.

• Lafawndah has released new single, ‘Storm Chaser’. Her debut album, ‘Ancestor Boy’, is out this Friday.

• Sacred Paws have announced that they will release new album, ‘Run Around The Sun’, on 31 May. Here’s new single ‘The Conversation’.

• Arlo Parks has released new single ‘Romantic Garbage’, ahead of her debut EP, which is out on 15 Apr.

• Doomsquad have released the video for new single ‘Dorian’s Closet’.

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

Tuesday 26 March 2019, 12:16 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: Machine Head

Tuesday 26 March 2019, 12:12 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: Gossip

Tuesday 26 March 2019, 12:09 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: Woodstock Festival

Monday 25 March 2019, 12:40 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: Debbie Harry | European Copyright Directive

Monday 25 March 2019, 12:38 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: R Kelly

Monday 25 March 2019, 12:36 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: KPM Music | Sony Music Publishing | SoundVault

Monday 25 March 2019, 12:31 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: 7digital | John Aalbers | Simon Cole

Monday 25 March 2019, 12:29 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: Bandsintown | Hypebot | MusicThinkTank

Monday 25 March 2019, 12:24 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: British Academy of Songwriters Composers & Authors (BASCA) | The Ivors Academy

Monday 25 March 2019, 12:19 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: Scott Walker

Monday 25 March 2019, 12:14 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: Fat White Family | Idles | Sleaford Mods

Monday 25 March 2019, 09:53 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: Apple | British Phonographic Industry (BPI) | Spotify

Monday 25 March 2019, 08:00 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: BBC Radio 3 | British Phonographic Industry (BPI) | Grande Communications | Recordings Industry Association Of America (RIAA) | Spotify | Viagogo

Friday 22 March 2019, 13:10 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: Scooter Braun | Troy Carter

Friday 22 March 2019, 13:09 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: Paul Simonon | The Clash | Tricia Ronane

Friday 22 March 2019, 13:05 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: R Kelly

Friday 22 March 2019, 13:04 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: Universal Music | Verve Label Group

Friday 22 March 2019, 13:03 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: CMU Insights | The Great Escape

Friday 22 March 2019, 12:20 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: Lighthouse Family | Polydor | Universal Music

Friday 22 March 2019, 12:12 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: Matthew Herbert

Friday 22 March 2019, 12:05 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: Ellen Allien | Erland Cooper | Girl Unit | Honeyblood | Ibibio Sound Machine | Love Music Hate Racism | Muncie Girls

Friday 22 March 2019, 11:59 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: SIlent Meditation

Thursday 21 March 2019, 12:55 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: British Phonographic Industry (BPI)

Thursday 21 March 2019, 12:54 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: R Kelly

Thursday 21 March 2019, 12:52 | By Chris Cooke

READ MORE ABOUT: Mark Fried | Mojo Music And Media | Peter Shane | Spirit Music

Thursday 21 March 2019, 12:41 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: The Cellar | The Social

Thursday 21 March 2019, 12:39 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: Physical Therapy

Thursday 21 March 2019, 12:36 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: Ben Harper | Mavis Staples

Thursday 21 March 2019, 12:34 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: Cate Le Bon | H Hawkline | Josh Klinghoffer | Stella Mozgawa

Thursday 21 March 2019, 12:31 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: 7digital | Arlo Parks | Broken Social Scene | Doomsquad | Ed Droste | Julia Hubbard | Lawfawndah | Lizzo | Missy Elliott | Morrissey | Rose Elinor Dougall | Sacred Paws | The Bug