Live music industry comments on Manchester Arena attack
As more information emerged yesterday about the bomb attack on the Manchester Arena on Monday night, representatives of the UK live industry expressed their shock and sadness over the incident. They also sought to reassure music fans about security at their concerts and festivals, and asked customers to comply with any existing and new security measures.

As previously reported, 22 people were killed by the home made bomb that was detonated in the foyer of the Arena at the conclusion of an Ariana Grande show taking place there on Monday evening. A further 59 people were injured and taken to hospital. Because of Grande's young fanbase, a significant number of children and teenagers were caught up in the incident, with twelve of the 59 injured under the age of sixteen. Children were also among those who died, some of whom have now been named.

The bomber has been identified by police as a 22 year old man who was born in Manchester and studied at the city's Salford University. Home Secretary Amber Rudd has said that he was known to security services before the attack, and had probably not acted alone in planning Monday's bombing. The UK's international terrorism threat level has now been raised to 'critical' as the investigation into Monday's attack continues.

The live music industry has long known that its venues and events could be targets for those considering terrorist attacks, and even more so since the attack on the Bataclan venue in Paris in November 2015. Security measures are therefore already in place, and even more so at bigger entertainment complexes, though venues and promoters will no doubt be reviewing policies, and consulting with local police forces, in the wake of Monday's attack.

Commenting yesterday, the Chair of the UK's Concert Promoters Association, Phil Bowdery, said: "We are deeply shocked and saddened by last night's senseless attack at the Ariana Grande concert. This is heartbreaking news and our thoughts and love are with everyone in Manchester at this time - in particular those that lost their lives or were affected by this devastating incident and their families and friends".

He continued: "All members of the Concert Promoters Association will continue to work with venues, police, stewarding companies and the relevant authorities and it is our understanding that outside of the Manchester Arena and the Ariana Grande tour, all other planned concerts and events will go ahead, as advertised, unless ticketholders are directly advised to the contrary. Fans should check with venues direct for specific updates".

Concluding, he said: "In light of this attack on our concert going community, we ask for the support and understanding of our patrons with regard to any security measures which are in place for the safety of the public, and urge everyone to be vigilant and report any suspicious behaviour. Our deepest sympathies and condolences are with all those affected by this horrific incident".

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Association Of Independent Festivals said: "Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with all those affected by the horrific incident following the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester last night. In the aftermath of this dreadful attack, audiences attending festivals this season may understandably have some concerns. We must emphasise the excellent security record of festivals in the UK. AIF members are experts in organising safe and secure events for between 800 and 60,000 people and a highly effective private security industry has developed around our events".

They went on: "In addition, organisers have a constant dialogue with law enforcement and other relevant agencies at a local, regional and national levels and there is increasingly more intelligence sharing between these agencies and organisers through initiatives such as Operation Gothic and the Project Argus training events. Security measures at festivals are reviewed constantly and the top priority of festival and concert promoters is always the safety and security of audiences. If additional measures need to be introduced at festivals, we are confident that they will be".

A handful of concerts around the UK were cancelled in the wake of Monday's attack, in part out of respect for the victims, though moving forward many promoters and artists have expressed a commitment to ensure that as many shows as possible go ahead unless police advise otherwise.

That includes this weekend's three city Dot To Dot Festival, which is due to take place in Manchester on Friday. Organisers said yesterday: "We are shocked and saddened by the terrible tragedy in Manchester. Our thoughts go out to all those affected. From ongoing discussions with venues and relevant authorities, and in solidarity with the resilience of the amazing people of Manchester and the power of live music, Dot To Dot Festival will be going ahead this Friday".

They continued: "Dot To Dot is a festival about bringing people together and enjoying a day out watching live music. We have taken stock and thought deeply about whether it's appropriate for us to go ahead in the light of what's happened - and we have decided we will hold the event. We can't forget what's happened, but we don't want to let fear and hate stop us. In relation to security at venues, Dot To Dot will continue to work closely with all venues and relevant authorities to ensure the safety of all our visitors".

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KickassTorrents founder granted bail
The founder of file-sharing platform KickassTorrents - Artem Vaulin - has been released on bail nearly a year after he was arrested in Poland.

As previously reported, the US authorities moved to shut down the popular file-sharing service last July. At the same time Ukrainian Vaulin was arrested in Poland and the Americans began extradition proceedings in a bid to force the Kickass man to face criminal copyright infringement charges in a US court.

Previous attempts by Vaulin to secure bail had been unsuccessful, even after he spent some time in hospital being treated for severe back pain. But, according to The Verge, which has interviewed Vaulin, bail was finally granted last Thursday, despite a court initially refusing bail once again earlier in the same week.

According to his lawyers, the former Kickass chief was ordered to post bail of $108,000 and to give up his passport. He will now have to stay in Poland until the ongoing extradition process has gone through all its motions.

Welcoming the latest development, the US lawyer representing Vaulin Stateside, Ira Rothken, said: "We are pleased that the Polish court allowed Artem Vaulin to be free on bail. This will allow Artem to care for his health, be with his family, and assist in his legal defence".

At stage one of the extradition process in March the Polish court considering the case gave the green light for Vaulin to be extradited to the US. Though a second court has to also consider the application and the country's Minister Of Justice must also sign-off on any extradition. Vaulin could also appeal to Poland's Supreme Court, so there are still plenty of stages to come in the extradition process.

Meanwhile, back in the US, Rothken is still trying to have the case against his client dismissed on the basis that KickassTorrents could only be accused of so called secondary or contributory infringement, which - he argues - is not a matter for criminal law. That argument is based on the fact KickassTorrents only facilitated the infringement of others, rather than being directly involved in the distribution of infringing content.

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Preliminary injunction extends ban on release of unofficial Prince recordings
A US court has told producer Ian Boxill that he is barred from releasing any of the tracks he collaborated on with Prince until his legal battle with the late musician's estate has been fully resolved.

As previously reported, last month producer Boxill announced that he was planning to put out a six track EP of previously unreleased Prince tracks, via a label services company called Rogue Music Alliance, to coincide with the first anniversary of the musician's death. The new tracks were seemingly the output of some collaborations the producer worked on with Prince between 2006 and 2008, which Boxill has since completed.

The Prince estate was not impressed with Boxill's plan and went legal in a bid to stop the release. A judge initially issued a temporary restraining order that stopped Boxill's release plans, which was subsequently extended until Monday of this week. Now a preliminary injunction has been issued that means Boxill is barred from making public any of his collaborations with Prince until the conclusion of the estate's legal action.

The estate argues that Boxill's attempts to release the tracks he made with Prince breaches an agreement he signed at the time the two men collaborated. Specifically, according to Courthouse News, a confidentiality agreement that states that recordings from Boxill's work with Prince "shall remain [Paisley Park Enterprises'] sole and exclusive property, shall not be used by [Boxill] in any way whatsoever, and shall be returned to Paisley immediately upon request".

Paisley Park Enterprises, of course, is Prince's company, which filed the lawsuit against Boxill alongside estate administrators Comercia Bank. The preliminary injunction bans both Boxill and his business partners Rogue Music Alliance from distributing Prince recordings, and from using the Prince trademark.

This week's court ruling states that "on balance, the [relevant] factors weigh in favour of granting plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction. However, the scope of a preliminary injunction should not be greater than necessary to protect the movant until the dispute can be resolved on the merits".

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Vivendi has no imminent plans to float Universal Music, but won't rule it out
When senior execs at Universal Music owner Vivendi suddenly started discussing a possible valuation for its big music asset at a shareholders meeting last month - a valuation of up to 20 billion euros being referenced - speculation predictably followed that that probably meant the French entertainment conglom was looking to sell the music major, or more likely a slice of it.

The Vivendi top guard have, in the past, resisted calls from some shareholders to sell or float some of the Universal Music Group. However, Vivendi CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine has now told the Wall Street Journal that, while there are no imminent plans to IPO the music firm, his company could as yet float a minority stake in Universal.

"This is not a sacred cow", de Puyfontaine stated, regarding whether or not his company would sell some or all of its music business. Of course, any such moves now could be seen as an effort to capitalise on the wider record industry's return to growth, and the potential to spin that to Vivendi's advantage within investment circles. "I remember the people a few years ago who explained to us that music was a dying business and would never recover", de Puyfontaine added. "I have a good memory, and facts are proving them wrong".

Of course, the record industry has a long way to go to return to the revenue levels it enjoyed during the CD boom of the 1990s, and recent revenue increases have been mainly fuelled by the mega-bucks flowing in to the music industry each month from the entirely loss-making streaming sector. But if you are willing to believe that Spotify et al can reach the kind of scale they need to become profitable, there is room for some optimism. And the majors have, to date, been the biggest beneficiaries of the streaming boom, Universal in particular.

Though, even if Vivendi thought it could convince the investment community that the future of recorded music is looking bright - maximising the value of the 15% stake in Universal it would likely look to offload - there may be other reasons why the media conglom would have second thoughts about that plan.

Vivendi - and especially Chairman and key shareholder Vincent Bolloré - is keen to encourage more synergies between the group's various businesses, including its TV and movie division Canal+, digital platform DailyMotion and the firm's growing interests in ticketing. And also with the Havas advertising business that Bolloré also controls, and which he is busy trying to basically merge with Vivendi. Floating a minority stake in Universal Music wouldn't necessarily stop any of that for happening, though it could be a distraction that gets in the way of Bolloré's grand vision.

Sources say that any IPO wasn't on the agenda when Bolloré last met with Universal Music overlord Lucian Grainge. Speculation will no doubt continue, even more so given de Puyfontaine's albeit non-committal statements.

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Bucks Music moves to support Floor Sixx talent development venture
The Bucks Music Group has signed a sponsorship deal with Floor Sixx, a new artist development and music education company led by Sian Anderson and Jason Black.

Floor Sixx says that it "celebrates the best underground music across a range of genres by releasing exclusive singles" via its channels on various digital music platforms, while revenues from those releases help fund the Floor Sixx Music Academy, which seeks to mentor aspiring artists and future music industry talent.

Under the new sponsorship deal, Bucks Music will handle the admin and licensing of works published by the music publishing side of the Floor Sixx operation, as well as providing funding via which the new company can sign songwriting talent, the first deal from which is with London MC Capo Lee.

Anderson says she is "super excited" about the deal with Bucks, adding: "This is a huge move for us, Bucks really see our vision and we're all really excited about having Capo Lee as our first project, he's a brilliant artist".

While Bucks A&R Harri Davies adds: "From the very beginning we have loved and shared Sian and Jason's unique vision for the Floor Sixx brand. We are very happy to be working together with them as creatives and the next wave of talent they are bringing through the Floor Sixx platform".

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Festival Republic to begin offering drug testing services
Live Nation's Festival Republic is to introduce drug testing services at a number of its festivals this year, boss man Melvin Benn has revealed. The programme allows festival-goers to find out exactly what drugs they have bought, and if and how they might be safe to consume.

Speaking to the Press Association, Benn explained: "We talked about it during the summer of last year and the reality is that I took a decision that unless and until the National Police Chiefs' Council supported the principle of it, it was difficult for us to move forward on it ... It's taken a long time and it won't be at every festival, but where we think there is a need to do it, we will be doing it".

Benn said that he expects testing to be available at "between six and ten festivals this year". The service will be provided by The Loop, which will test illegal substances handed over by festival-goers. They will then report back on what substances are in the drugs, before destroying whatever they were given to test.

The scheme was launched last year at the Secret Garden Party, where 200 people had their drugs tested. "It's really exciting that police are prioritising health and safety over criminal justice at festivals", said The Loop founder Fiona Measham of Festival Republic's plans to allow drug testing.

Measham says that she expects to see The Loop's testing to be available at around ten UK festivals this year. Of those operated by Festival Republic, Benn has said that he feels "pretty certain" that Leeds Festival will offer the service, but Download will not.

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Bahamian businesses also out of pocket following collapse of Fyre Festival
As the lawsuits continue to pile up against the disastrous Fyre Festival that never happened, The Tribune newspaper in the Bahamas has interviewed a number of local suppliers hired by the luxury event - due to take place in the island of Great Exuma - who have been left out of pocket by the whole debacle.

Angry ticketholders and US-based suppliers are amongst those who have gone legal against the company behind the Fyre Festival, and its co-founders Ja Rule and Billy McFarland.

In the wake of the multi-million dollars being claimed in each of those lawsuits, the figures owed to various businesses in the Bahamas who worked on the event may seem modest, though as The Tribune notes, unpaid bills of six figures "are extremely significant in an island economy of Exuma's size, particularly for Bahamian-owned small and medium-sized businesses, as this could prove the difference between their survival and closure".

Among those out of pocket are Maryann Rolle, owner of the Exuma Point Restaurant & Bar, who tells the paper she is owed $134,000 for catering services. She says: "They used me to the fullest. I was [providing] up to 1000 meals a day, 500 in the morning and 500 in the evening. They were very demanding. The event fell through but I never heard a word from them. They could have at least called and said something. They went away and never even looked back. We allowed crooks into this country. I only hope to God that this whole thing gets sorted out because people need their money".

The boss of a local construction firm, Brian Lloyd, is also owed over $100,000. "I had about 130 people working with me, doing all sorts of things like installing carpet, beds and tents, sometimes working from 8am until 4am the next morning", he said. "The first few days, when we started, we got paid for about three days. After that we worked two more weeks and didn't get paid. We were supposed to get paid that Friday, but everything got shut down and we were left cleaning up afterwards".

Given the impact on local businesses, the President of the Exuma Chamber Of Commerce, Pedro Rolle, has called for a government investigation into the collapse of the festival. "I think it needs investigating", he told The Tribune. "There are some untold stories with regard to this. We just know something wasn't right, and we believe influence was somehow brought to bear on the Ministry Of Tourism. Why were they going ahead given that there were so many unanswered questions? They did it for no reason at all. It doesn't make sense".

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CMU@TGE 2017: Tackling Addiction In The Music Community - Simon Mason
Look out for reports on all the key sessions at the CMU Insights conferences at The Great Escape over the next few weeks. Plus, from next Monday, we'll be publishing a series of CMU Trends reports providing more in depth versions of the insight presentations CMU Insights delivered during TGE this year - go premium to access CMU Trends. Today, we look at the first of a series of sessions on addiction in the music community, and our interview with musician and writer Simon Mason.

Mason is the author of 'Too High, Too Far, Too Soon', a book about his experiences within the 1990s Britpop scene. Already addicted to drugs by the time he entered that world, Mason soon became a drug dealer to several bands within it, finding himself on tour with them in order to procure supplies. Now clean, more recently he has toured with bands, including The Libertines on their reunion tour, to help keep them off the drugs.

Speaking during the CMU Insights Drugs Conference, Mason began by describing how he became involved in the Britpop scene in the first place. "I became immersed in that cultural phenomenon as someone who thought they were a musician, who wanted to be a musician, but was actually a drug addict", he said.

"My entry into the world of backstage, and that kind of stuff, was via Glastonbury and other festivals", he continued. "Prior to Britpop I'd managed to get a job for an organisation that I'd better not mention. It involved having an access all areas pass and joining the dots between what people were looking for backstage but were unable or effectively too scared to go looking for outside the confines of the backstage".

He routinely found himself being asked to find drugs, and as a drug user himself he knew where to get them. "I became the guy that knew the guy", he said. "And then I became the guy".

Of his view of that time, and whether he felt he was doing harm by providing the drugs, he explained: "I was a drug dealer and a drug addict, and I didn't choose to see any damage. I saw and heard incredible music being made, incredible performances. I saw a lot of people having a really good time. Part of that was staying awake for a long time, sitting around in fields, or at festivals, or at gigs. And at the time generally feeling like we were a tribe, a disparate tribe. Electronic music and indie music - it didn't matter anymore. It became this big melting pot, and part of what was melting in the pot was a lot of drugs".

"There was a darker underbelly to that though", he admits. "No one had previously taken drugs on the scale of what we were taking at that point. What happened in the late 80s and 90s was unprecedented and probably still is. It happened on an industrial scale. It became really easy to hide in that industry".

As he became ever more involved, he missed the warning signs. "I remember coming back off tour with a band that I'd been 'helping' for three weeks and I got home and I collapsed", he recalled. His GP advised him to rest. "I said: 'Why would I want to do that when I've got another tour to go on?' It didn't occur to me that how I was living my life was damaging. It just seemed like what everyone was doing".

Eventually Mason became addicted to heroin, which he discovered was frowned upon even by many in the music scene at the time. "I was at Knebworth for that legendary Oasis gig", he said. "I arrived there and I soon discovered that I had left my stash of heroin back in London. So, I needed to trawl through the backstage area trying to find someone that I knew that had a heroin habit. Instead, I was met with this sea of disgust from people".

"I had all these people with cocaine falling out of their nose at Knebworth talking absolute shit to each other, calling me a junkie", he went on. "And I'm thinking 'hang on', even in my own drug-addled state, I knew there was a discrepancy there, there was some sort of duality, hypocrisy. But of course I paid no attention to it".

Nonetheless, his position as a celebrity drug dealer quickly started to slip. "By 1997, I was homeless, I was living on the street. The phone had stopped ringing. All those wonderful people that I'd always known weren't really my mates but used to come and visit my house a lot because they wanted drugs - guess what? - they weren't there anymore".

It took time, and a number of attempts, to overcome his own addiction challenges, but Mason has now been clean for more than ten years, and in 2013 published the memoir about his experiences in the music industry.

"People say 'it must have been really cathartic [to write the book]'", he said. "The honest truth is that I don't think it was cathartic. I'd sat in enough self-help groups and been to rehab seven times. I'd been through that process. The truth was that, it's a good story. Someone had read some of the ramblings that went on to become this book and they said, 'You've got a voice and this needs to be heard because ultimately it's a story of hope'".

"Sadly the perception of addiction and musicians is quite warped", he continued. "There's a lot of disinformation flying about. The public perception of alcoholics and drug addicts is that you're always going to be one and you're never going to sort it out. I don't know how but I survived and there's a message of hope at the end [of my story]. I'd like to think it's not prescriptive. I don't tell people how to recover, I just talk about my experience".

After it had been published, Mason said he began to start receiving messages from people who told him the book had helped them. "The best one I got was: 'You don't know who I am, you'll never meet me, I just wanna let you know that if someone as fucked up as you can get clean then anyone can, thanks!'"

Soon, he began getting requests to work with musicians who were struggling with addiction, in something a turnaround from his former involvement in the music community. This, he believes, was partly the result of music industry veterans reading the book because they were worried that they might be mentioned in it.

"Everyone's fear was that this was some sort of shabby kiss and tell footballer's wives book", he said. "And it's nothing of the sort. So I think a lot of people read it out of curiosity. Some of those people are still in management and they're still managing artists that have problems. So I got asked to go and meet some musicians, fairly high profile ones, to see if I could help them".

Of his approach to this work, he explained: "For me personally, I've always found the most potent source of help is to be shown how to live differently, rather than just being told how to live differently. By living differently, I mean living with some sobriety, or not smoking crack all day, or drinking. That's kind of what happened".

"I've got varying degrees of success with the people I helped who were already at a point where they were ready to change some of their behaviour", he added. "Not so much success with the people that felt that I'd been imposed upon them by their management and who couldn't wait for me to just piss off and leave them alone".

Still, his experiences give him a better insight to offer that help when someone is ready for it, he said. "If there's a better example of poacher turned gamekeeper, I'd like to hear it. Because I understand. I understand the music industry from top to bottom. I understand addiction from top to bottom. I was a using addict for 20 years. At the end of this month I'll be eleven years clean and sober. I get it. And I like helping people".

The other result of his recovery is that Mason has returned to music, and begun to find some success with it. Initially he formed a band called The Should Be Deads with a number of other people he was in a twelve-step programme with, performing covers at charity shows.

"We rolled that for about seven years, and it was great, fantastic", he said. "But I realised that it wasn't quite scratching the itch for me creatively. I came off a job with a band I was on tour with, The Libertines, last year, and Peter [Doherty] very kindly said: 'Look, why don't you open the show for me on this solo tour, read some of your book, play some of your songs?'"

That resulted in Mason gaining a record deal and forming his new band The Hightown Pirates. "That sort of fairy tale stuff that I thought I wanted back in my days of being a drug addict never happened back then", he said. "And if it had happened [and the money had flowed in] I'd have been dead. I did a pretty good job of killing myself on the giro. So thank the universe that it didn't happen then".

"I was one of those people who believed that creativity only came from being under the influence of something", he went on. "But my experience is that, with the album we've just made, and the shows that we've just started doing, they just could not have happened when I was taking drugs. It's kind of like 'Si And The Family Unstoned'. We've made this album and from the early reviews - people have said it sounds full of joy. We've got a horn section, it's this massive sounding thing, and it's the sound of redemption. It's the sound of hope".

Check out all the reports and resources CMU has published around this year's CMU Insights @ The Great Escape conferences here. The Hightown Pirates' debut album 'Dry And High' is released on 16 Jun. Find out more about the band here.

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Warner/Chappell, Enter Shikari, Death Grips, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Kurt Deutsch is now SVP Theatrical & Catalogue Development for Warner's music publishing business, Warner/Chappell, based out of New York. He joins from the theatre-focused indie label he co-founded, Sh-K-Boom Records, where he remains President.

• Enter Shikari have released a new track, 'Supercharge', featuring Big Narstie.

• Death Grips have announced that they will be releasing a new album at some point in the future. When, they are not clear. However, here is a new 20 minute megamix.

• Sløtface have released the video for 'Magazine'. The track is the first single from their debut album, 'Try Not To Freak Out', which is due out on 15 Sep.

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Travis Scott breaks personal best for Goosebumps performances
If you go to see Travis Scott perform live at the moment, it seems likely that you'll get to see him perform your favourite track. So long as that favourite is 'Goosebumps'. Having set what he believed to be a record for the most performances of the same song in a single concert earlier this month, he's gone and done it again.

As previously reported, Scott recently performed 'Goosebumps' fourteen times in a row at a show in Detroit. That's two more than Kanye West and Jay-Z, who he was aiming to beat, and who played 'Niggas In Paris' from their 'Watch The Throne' album twelve times at a 2012 show in Paris.

At a show in Cleveland on Sunday, Scott played the song fifteen times in a row, beating his personal best. Although newly uploaded fan-shot footage shows that he was not performing the track in full, so I'm not sure it counts.

Whether or not it counts is a moot point though, because it turns out that West and Jay-Z didn't actually hold the record Scott was attempting to break in the first place - ie most performances of one song in one sitting. And neither does Scott himself now. The National, as you should all have remembered, performed their song 'Sorrow' over 100 times in one sitting back in 2013. It took them six hours. They also released it as a live album.

If Scott really wants to break this record, he'll pass it at some point in 2020 at the rate he's currently going - ie increasing the length of this 'Goosebumps' interlude by one more performance each week. Plus he'll need to start performing more than 20 seconds of the track at a time. Not really worth it, is it?

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