Culture Minister raises concerns over Met Police's controversial Form 696
Culture Minister Matt Hancock has written to London mayor Sadiq Khan over continued fears that the Metropolitan Police's controversial Risk Assessment Form 696 is being used to racially profile music events in the capital. In particular, he raised concerns that its use is stifling the grime scene, pushing events out of London.

Form 696 asks for the names, stage names, addresses and phone numbers of all promoters and artists at an event where pre-recorded backing tracks are used. An earlier version of the document also asked about the genre of music being performed and likely ethnic make-up of the audience, though those questions were dropped in 2009 after a number of artists and music industry groups campaigned against what was seen as racial profiling.

Nevertheless, concerns have persisted about the form, and other similar documents now used by sixteen other British police forces, some of which - according to the BBC - still ask one or both of the more controversial questions dropped in London.

Writing to Khan about the Met Police's continued use of Form 696, Hancock says: "I am concerned that the form is not only potentially stifling young artists and reducing the diversity of London's world-renowned musical offering, but is also having a negative impact on the city's night-time economy by pushing organisers and promoters of urban music events outside London".

"Genres of urban music like grime have the same significance for today's young people as punk did in the 1970s, empowering them, creating a new generation of musical heroes and growing to become a worldwide phenomenon", he continues. "I would like to understand whether you think Form 696 is serving a justified purpose and working well, or whether there is a case for changing the current system".

A spokesperson for Scotland Yard said that the form "does not target any particular group" adding that "we have good working relationships with promoters and venues alike and are confident the majority understand the need for Form 696".

Meanwhile, in its own statement, City Hall said: "Our priority is to keep Londoners safe and support a vibrant night-time economy, and this means ensuring that all performances have the most appropriate security and safety plans in place. We have supported a number of events that bring together the Met, music venues, and promoters to try to improve the understanding of when and how Risk Assessment Form 696 should be used".

Others view the form differently however, rapper P Money telling the BBC that he sees it as a "race thing", saying: "It's been happening for so many years that now we kind of know, it's just our scene. [The police] target grime a lot, they just blame a lot of things on grime. We know they're just trying to shut down grime, because if it was anything else they wouldn't have this issue".

"If, for example, Ed Sheeran had a show and a fight broke out, he's not going to do a 696 on his next arena tour", he continued. "A fight still might have broken out though, but they don't look at it like that. They just think, 'Oh it's different for them'. Why is it different? There's fights everywhere, there's situations everywhere at all types of shows, all types of things, whether its punk, rock, hip hop, pop, whatever".

UK Music was one of the organisations which campaigned against the more controversial questions on the original Form 696 back in the late 2000s. Its chief exec Jo Dipple has now welcomed Hancock's letter to Khan, saying in a statement: "UK Music thanks the minister who has a track record of stepping in to support British musicians. It is important to make sure Form 696 is not being unfairly used against particular musical genres. Discrimination against any musician damages all of us. It reduces the diversity of our output and limits our ability to reach our economic potential".

"British music is successful because it is diverse", she continues. "It is right that government is stepping in on this issue and we will work with the minister, the Mayor's office and the Metropolitan Police to properly examine and address any misuse of this form. It must be emphasised that this is not a criticism of the Met Police who do amazing work in very difficult circumstances".

Dipple called for anyone who has first-hand experience of Form 696 being misused to contact UK Music.

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US Supreme Court refuses to hear record industry's pre-1972 safe harbour case
The US Supreme Court has declined to hear a final appeal in Capitol Records' legal battle with video-sharing site Vimeo, a case that centred on another dimension of the always fun pre-1972 technicality: do those pesky safe harbours apply to golden oldies?

As previously reported, US-wide federal copyright law only protects sound recordings released since 1972, with older tracks protected by state-level law. The safe harbours that have proven so controversial in recent years within the music community - which say that net firms aren't liable when their customers use their servers to infringe copyright - come from federal law. As a result, the record industry has argued that safe harbour protection shouldn't apply if users of a safe harbour dwelling company upload and share recordings that pre-date 1972, providing a handy technicality enabling the labels to sue such companies.

Although that viewpoint has always had plenty of critics - who point out that restricting the safe harbour to only post-1972 recordings would make the protection unworkable - when then EMI label Capitol sued safe harbour dwelling Vimeo for copyright infringement in 2009, the judge hearing the case said the video site was liable where pre-1972 recordings had been uploaded to its platform without licence.

On appeal, judges in the Second Circuit court last year ruled against that judgement, stating that exempting older recordings from the safe harbour principle would "defeat the very purpose Congress sought to achieve in passing [it]". The appeals court then refused to reconsider the case in August, resulting in the record industry taking the matter to the US Supreme Court last December.

The Supreme Court has now declined to hear the case, meaning the Second Circuit judgement stands. Though on the upside, the music community could now argue that if the federal safe harbour applies to pre-1972 recordings, perhaps the federal 'digital performing right' that says that American online radio services (unlike American AM/FM radio stations) must pay royalties to artists and labels should also apply to golden oldies. That way, said artists and labels wouldn't have to try and persuade courts at a state level that such royalties are due under each state's copyright laws.

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Global hires new commercial team for growing festival business
Having rapidly grown its festivals business to become a significant player in the UK festivals sector in just two years, Global has now hired a new team to make sure those events are as full of brands hawking their wares as possible. Just like you wanted.

The new team will be led by Debbie Ward, who joins as Commercial Director from Live Nation. Alongside her are Brand Directors Wayne Mensah and Amy Oldham.

"In just twelve months Global has become the second biggest player in the UK festivals market, which is why we needed to find the best commercial talent to support our investment in this sector", says Global CCO Mike Gordon.

"I'm delighted that Debbie has joined Global given her very impressive industry credentials, having created some of the most talked about festival partnerships", he continues. "With an enviable portfolio of festivals, access to Global's talent management and events expertise and of course an audience of 30 million people every week through our media brands, our festival offering is truly unique".

Ward adds: "The opportunity to join Global and lead the commercial side of their festivals business is incredibly exciting. We are perfectly placed to deliver some of the world's most exciting campaigns for brands and I'm looking forward to working with new clients to build some memorable experiences at our festivals".

As previously reported, Global - which already owns the Snowbombing events - further moved into the international festival market earlier this month by taking a majority stake in Croatia's Hideout festival.

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Spotify buys MightyTV to enhance offer to advertisers
Spotify has bought itself content recommendation start-up MightyTV, but not because it wants to be either mighty or TV. This is what people round these parts call an 'acquihire', and by 'these parts' I mean Shoreditch, obviously. Sorry. I mean that what Spotify wants is the MightyTV team, and especially its founder Brian Adams, not the start-up's TV and film recommendations app, which is closing.

The streaming services are all seeking to develop ever more sophisticated curation and personalisation tools and technologies, and Spotify will be hoping that Adams - who becomes Spotify's VP Of Technology as part of the deal - and his small team of MightyTV colleagues will help with that challenge.

Spotify's interest in Adams goes further than just helping the streaming platform get better at recommending tracks for you to listen to though. He previously ran Google's Doubleclick advertising platform after the web giant bought his earlier start-up Admeld, and Spotify seems to think that the MightyTV team will be able to help it provide better personalisation services as part of its advertising business.

Confirming the acquisition, Spotify's VP Of Product Jason Richman said: "The content recommendation system MightyTV has built is incredibly aligned with how we think about advertising technology and marketing personalisation. Brian and his team will help us continue to innovate on free monetisation and extend our leadership position in programmatic audio".

So those were words, weren't they? I think. Although Spotify's core business in terms of revenue is in the premium subscriptions space, it still has more users signed up to the free streaming option and it needs to sell more advertising to reduce the losses made by loss-making freemium. Meanwhile in some especially emerging markets free streaming may remain a key part of the Spotify business in the longer term.

"Spotify has built the leading marketplace for fans and creators", said Adams of his new employer. "It's an enormous opportunity for me and the team to help create native brand experiences that stay true to a product that millions love".

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Horace Trubridge to become General Secretary of Musicians' Union
Assistant General Secretary of the Musicians' Union Horace Trubridge will take over the top job there later this year having won the most votes from the organisation's members.

As previously reported, incumbent General Secretary John Smith will step down in July, and there were two contenders for the role, Trubridge and MU Executive Committee member Kathy Dyson. Voting took place from 6-27 Mar.

Commenting on his win, Trubridge said: "'I am absolutely delighted that the members have chosen me to take the union forward following John Smith's retirement in July. Having spent the last few months travelling around the country and talking to the members, I have a very clear vision of where the union should be heading - building on John's fantastic work of the last fifteen years - and I am eager to get started".

He added: "I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Executive Committee and all the members of our union for their tremendous support, I look forward to justifying that support and meeting the difficult challenges that lay ahead".

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Shaking Chains release ever-changing algorithmic music video
Manchester band Shaking Chains have created an interesting video for their debut single, 'Midnight Oil'. Using an algorithm to pull together clips of videos from around the internet, the video changes every time it is watched, never showing the same sequence of shots twice.

"'Midnight Oil' is an experiment in algorithmic filmmaking, whereby the hermetic structures of the pop video are corrupted", explains the band's Jack Hardiker, who created the video. "It generates a potentially infinite number of self-contained films from hijacked online video, to create a transitory snapshot of the world that alters with every play. The whole world plays director".

He continues: "The raw footage is selected from an evolving set of search terms. The coding repurposes the same suggestive algorithms that inform how we consume music now. Here they cannot be ignored or silenced, but act independently. What emerges is a cacophony of footage, an exponential roar of possibilities where poignancy and nonsense become bedfellows".

"Search terms offer the internet user a sense of stability and structure, building a parameter-fence to hold back the pandemonium", he concludes. "Yet here they are hidden, and make their own choices: there is no accurate quantification that can be made, the extent of combinations remains unknown. What eventually comes into focus is a sense of the infinite, and a new way of generating meaning from these vast, ungainly archives of human experience".

Watch the video and then watch a completely different one here.

You can catch the band live at The Islington in London tomorrow night.

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Sparks announce new album and tour
Sparks have announced that they will release new album, 'The Hippopotamus', on 8 Sep.

Yes, September is ages away, but the title track was released as a single last week, just as the band performed at the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival - a set you can watch online here. You can also watch the video for the single here.

The band will be touring in September too, with UK dates as follows:

20 Sep: Edinburgh, Queens Hall
22 Sep: Manchester, The Ritz
23 Sep: Nottingham, Rock City
24 Sep: Birmingham, Institute
26 Sep: Bristol, Academy
27 Sep: London, Shepherds Bush Empire

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John Legend announces UK tour
John Legend has announced that he will be touring the UK in September and October, following the release of his latest album, 'Darkness And Light', last year.

Tickets for the shows will go on sale this Friday. Here are the dates:

8 Sep: Glasgow, Hydro Arena
9 Sep: Newcastle Arena
10 Sep: Nottingham, Motorpoint Arena
12 Sep: London, O2 Arena
15 Sep: Leeds, First Direct Arena
16 Sep: Manchester Arena
17 Sep: Liverpool, Echo Arena
19 Sep: Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena
20 Sep: Birmingham, Barclaycard Arena

Here he is performing new single 'Surefire' live.

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LGM Records, Sony/ATV, The Guardian, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• A company that provides accountancy services for the creative industries, LimeGreen, has launched its own record company, LGM Records, which is promising to push boundaries when it comes to transparency and royalty reporting. The new label will be led by Goldheart Assembly's James Dale with support from former Epic A&R and one time EMFer Ian Dench. Kobalt's AWAL will provide distribution.

• Sony/ATV in the US has appointed Ian Holder as VP Creative, who joins the publisher from collecting society BMI. "Top shelf", he says. And don't worry, that wouldn't make any more sense if I gave you the full quote.

• Magnus Ribbeklint is the new VP, Marketing for Warner Music Nordics, taking over from Mark Fry who is now too busy being MD of Warner Music Finland to be VPing any marketing. Though Ribbeklint will do his new job as well as being GM of Warner Music Sweden. Why is GMing Warner Music Sweden so easy that you can do some VPing of marketing on the side, that's what I want to know.

• The Guardian has axed Paul Lester's popular New Band Of The Week (née Day) column - read the last one from yesterday here.

• Bristol Women In Music hosts a new music conference this Thursday at the city's Colston Hall which "aims to challenge and inspire individuals working across all aspects of the vibrant musical landscape of Bristol and beyond". It's called Sound Industry and you'll find full information here.

• Maximo Park have released new single, 'Get High (No I Don't)'. "The song is about resistance in the face of repetition and coercion", says frontman Paul Smith.

• Spoek Mathambo has released 'Black Rose', taken from his forthcoming new album 'Mzansi Beat Code'.

• Prophets Of Rage are going to play Brixton Academy on 13 Jun. Tickets on sale on Friday.

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Doctors tell Drake to postpone Amsterdam show for third time
Drake has been busy of late breaking records on the streaming platforms left, right and centre, and even in that bit just between left and centre.

All that record breaking is, frankly, exhausting. No one has ever had to shake Roy Castle's hand quite so hard before, or chat so long and so meaningfully to Cheryl Baker, let alone have his achievements listed back to him in quite so much detail by Norris McWhirter. Add to that trying to get your head around some random references to a 1980s British children's TV show that even your own UK fans are too young to understand, and it's no wonder Drake's feeling under the weather.

But if you are one of those Dutch Drake fans who has now been denied the chance to see the man himself perform his unique brand of mediocre hip pop live on stage on three separate occasions, you might not be feeling so sympathetic.

Some of those disappointed fans booed and jeered the representative for Drake's Dutch promoter as she took to the stage to announce that last night's show at Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome wasn't happening, despite it having already been postponed twice before. Though others cut their losses, realised they'll probably never get to capture Drake from a distance on their phones, and so recorded the postponement announcement instead.

The show is now due to take place tomorrow. Will it happen this time? Well, that depends. Perhaps Drake is now trying to break the 'most postponed shows' record. And while that might mean pissing off a load of Dutch fans, being dedicated to breaking the record requires some hardships, and dedication is what you need if you're going to be a record breaker.

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