Sony Music's Red Essential to merge with Sony Music's The Orchard
Just the other day I was writing out a list of the distribution and label services businesses operated by the major record companies for a slide to be used in a seminar on the UK record industry.

The formatting of my bullet points meant that I wrote "Sony, Universal, Warner" on one line and then listed each major's respective label services unit on the next. The implication being that the label services units were listed in the same order as the major music firms which owned them, so to communicate which one was owned by Sony, which one by Universal and which one by Warner.

But - I immediately thought - Sony Music has two distribution and label services businesses. Fuck, that's going to confuse my system. Because if I write The Orchard, Red Essential, Caroline, ADA - well, what does that mean? People might think I mean Sony owns The Orchard, Universal owns Red Essential, Warner owns Caroline, and ADA is just some mysterious code randomly inserted at the end of the line. What a calamity, I thought!

I spent many hours musing over possible solutions. If I put Sony last in the first list, and then The Orchard and Red Essential at the end of the second list, would it be obvious that I meant Sony owned them both? Maybe I could change my formatting entirely and put the name of the major which controls each services business in brackets after its name, but frankly that would look shit. I mean, really shit. And no one wants that.

After much consideration I decided there was only one suitable solution. The Orchard and Red Essential in the UK would have to merge. And so, this morning Sony Music confirmed that its two distribution and label services businesses in the UK - The Orchard and Red Essential - would be merging. Phew, everything is now fine.

The new company won't be called An Essentially Red Orchard, despite that being a super name for a company, and will instead be known moving forward as simply The Orchard. So, no time at all wasted designing the Red Essential logo when Sony's Red business acquired Cooking Vinyl's Essential business last year. The UK side of The Orchard will now be run by Red Essential co-MDs Ian Dutt and Mike Chadwick.

Says Sony Music UK boss man Jason Iley: "Separately, Red Essential and The Orchard have shown they are two great, innovative artist-focused companies. By partnering, and with the backing of Sony Music globally, the merged business will continue to provide support and benefits to independent artists and labels alike that is unparalleled in the UK".

Meanwhile The Orchard's COO Colleen Theis reckons: "The Orchard has always worked on a global scale. Combining forces in the UK with Red Essential to create a single company with an incredible roster of independent artists and labels allows all of our clients to benefit from market strength and a strong competitive advantage, both at home and abroad. The collaboration will create unique opportunities to market and drive revenue for our clients".

And as for Dutt and Chadwick, they declare in perfect unison: "There is no other company that comes close to what we offer. Our team's expertise and first-class business relationships, combined with the global sales and marketing network and cutting-edge technology, gives our clients everything they need to maximise their success".

Lovely stuff. Do you know what's also annoying on my slides? Music companies with slashes in their names. They are so confusing when put in a list. Yes Warner/Chappell and Sony/ATV, I am thinking of you. I mean, it's not Universal Music/Publishing Group is it? Though I do find them putting 'group' on the end of their name quite annoying. Sort all that out will you?

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US tech and media giants back Department Of Justice on 100% licensing
So consent decrees, 100% licensing, DoJ rulings - you remember all that right?

The US Department Of Justice last year declared that - by its reading of the so called consent decrees that regulate American performing rights organisations BMI and ASCAP - the two PROs are obliged to offer so called 100% licences. Which would mean a licensee with a BMI licence could make use of a song even if BMI only controlled 15% of said song. Under the current 'fractional licensing' system the licensee would also need licences from whichever societies or publishers controlled the other 85%.

BMI, ASCAP and the US songwriting community hit out at that DoJ declaration, which would require a major change in how collective licensing works and performing right royalties flow Stateside. BMI took the matter to the court that oversees its consent decree where judge Louis L Stanton immediately sided with the songwriters.

The DoJ is now appealing that decision. And this week it emerged that a consortium of music users - including broadcasters and tech giants - is formally backing the government department's appeal, saying that allowing BMI and ASCAP to operate a fractional licensing system would have "devastating real-world consequences" on some licensees. Even though that's the system BMI and ASCAP have always operated to date, without too much devastation.

The companies and organisations which signed the recent amicus brief backing the DoJ's appeal say that fractional licensing could result in higher royalty payments for licensees and a greater risk of music users being liable for copyright infringement. Though given BMI and ASCAP are actually arguing for the status quo, you might wonder why the sudden panic.

But licensees might say that as more songwriters pull out of BMI and ASCAP and license their performing rights via other societies such as SESAC and GMR - and any other licensing organisations that may or may not emerge in the future - the licensing of song rights becomes more tricky and more bureaucratic, especially for smaller licensees. And especially where there is no one stop publicly accessible database that tells you which songs you can use if you have licences from just some of the American PROs.

And, according to the amicus brief, "users that cannot control the music they perform, such as restaurants, bars, radio and television stations and cable/internet-delivered program services (which transmit syndicated programming and other programs/movies often decades old), [are] particularly vulnerable to inflated fee demands by hold-out co-owners of split works" under a fractional licensing system.

BMI continues to fight the DoJ on this point. When the government department filed paperwork in relation to its appeal last month, the society's CEO Mike O'Neill said: "While we are not surprised the DOJ chose to pursue its appeal, we still hope for the opportunity to sit down with the new administration and educate it about the chaos that would result in the marketplace if the DOJ's interpretation of BMI's consent decree were implemented".

He went on: "The DOJ's 100% licensing position, an entirely new interpretation never raised by the department before, unfairly advantages music users at the expense of the American songwriter and upends a longstanding industry practice that has worked effectively for decades. We believe Judge Stanton's decision is correct and look forward to vigorously defending our position in the Court Of Appeals for the Second Circuit".

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Belgian promoters sue Sabam over royalty rate hike
The Belgian live industry is suing the country's performing rights organisation Sabam over new royalty rates introduced at the start of the year. According to HLN, promoters behind festivals like Rock Werchter, Pukkelpop and Night Of The Proms, and tour promoter GraciaLive, are involved in the litigation.

Because collective licensing commonly raises competition law concerns - because each society often has a near monopoly over performing rights in its home territory - licensees can usually take disputes over royalty rates to the courts, the exact laws and processes varying from country to country.

Sabam says that the recent changes to the rates it charges those staging live performances of its members' songs bring Belgium more in line with royalties charged elsewhere in Europe. Though many promoters are not convinced by that argument, while some add that the traditional system of charging promoters a cut of their ticket sales income is becoming increasingly out dated because it doesn't acknowledge the increased productions costs associated with modern live music shows.

Jan Vereecke of Night Of The Proms promoter PSE told HLN: "Sabam has unilaterally decided to increase its tariffs by 30%. It says this is based on what is charged by societies in neighbouring countries, but the rate increase is a simple abuse of monopoly".

He went on: "Actually, the whole system is outdated. Sabam takes a percentage of our ticket sales. But the shows of today are different than ten years ago, as staging, large screens, fireworks and such like become more common. These production elements increase the costs of the show, and therefore the cost of the ticket, and Sabam gets to skim more off the top. That is wrong".

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Arcade Fire reportedly sign to Columbia
Arcade Fire have signed to Sony's Columbia Records, according to Variety.

The major will seemingly be releasing the next two albums from the band. Specifics of the deal are not yet clear - the band have previously had a long relationship with US indie Merge Records.

The deal news came as the band announced they would release a surprise new single on vinyl at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona where they are playing this weekend.

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Sony/ATV allies with Lyric Financial on royalty advances
Sony/ATV has announced an alliance with Lyric Financial which will see the former offer the latter's 'virtual ATM platform' to its songwriters via its own SCORE royalty portal. The deal means that Sony/ATV repped writers will be able to request an advance on royalties they expect their songs to generate in the near future, helping with cash flow challenges.

Says Lyric Financial boss Eli Ball: "For the last two years, we have been working to automate what has historically been an extremely cumbersome manual advance process in the music industry. The vATM is a simple, easy to use application that provides songwriters with a clear view of their available earnings and allows them to request advances in less than a minute. These basic tools will be invaluable to any music industry creative or company in budgeting and managing the ups and downs of their cash flow".

He adds: "The deal we have announced today with Sony/ATV, the world's largest music publisher, is a huge validation of the platform we have worked so hard to create. I applaud Sony/ATV for having the vision to make the vATM part of their SCORE platform".

For its side, Sony/ATV's SVP Of Worldwide Administration, Dale Esworthy, added: "We are always looking for ways to provide the highest level of service to our songwriters. Giving our writers the ability to see their current earnings and access them 24/7 when needed is an important innovation that we are THRILLED to provide. We are excited to be the first music publisher to offer the virtual ATM".

Lyric Financial is also behind the new cash advance service being offered to DIY artists in the US by TuneCore.

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Pandora brand partners offer on-demand listening to freebie users
Pandora, which now offers a fully on-demand streaming service for paying subscribers in addition to its traditional free-to-access personalised radio set up, is starting to work with brands to allow those on the freebie level to try out some on-demand funtimes.

According to Adweek, flavoured water brand Propel says it is the first to work with Pandora on offering free streamers some on-demand tunes. The brand has put its name to three fitness-themed stations on Pandora's personalised radio platform, which feature playlists curated by 'fitness influencers', which are apparently an actual thing.

When freebie users listen to those Propel-endorsed stations they will see a 'power up' button which allows them to save individual tracks to listen to on-demand at a later date. Such functionality is only usually available to Pandora's premium subscribers.

Presumably the American streaming firm hopes that tie-ups like the one it has with Propel will open up new opportunities to work with brands on the ad-funded side of its business, while sneakily giving free users a quick sampler of what they could do if they upgraded to premium Pandora.

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Napster allies with Rakuten Music in Japan
Already powering the fully on-demand element of the iHeartRadio streaming service in the US, Napster has announced an alliance with Japanese web giant Rakuten which will see it power elements of its new partner's music service in Japan, Rakuten Music.

Noting that the shift to digital and streaming has taken much longer to get properly underway in Japan, Rakuten's Naho Kono told Billboard of his firm's music platform: "Since the launch of Rakuten Music last year, we have aimed to be a one-stop music platform that combines both the convenience of streaming with physical media purchases, which currently remains the mainstream way music is consumed in Japan".

Confirming its involvement moving forward, Napster CTO Brian Ringer added: "While streaming music is on the rise globally, there are still millions of music fans around the world who have yet to find the right music service to subscribe to. Through this partnership with Rakuten, we'll be able to extend the Napster experience to music lovers in Japan. More importantly, we're excited to continue our ongoing support of independent artists by introducing their music to a whole new audience in Asia".

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Alanis Morissette writing Jagged Little Pill musical
Alanis Morissette has written a musical around her 1995 album 'Jagged Little Pill'. What could possibly go wrong with that?

The show will premiere in May next year and will be directed by Diane Paulus, with Oscar-winning writer Diablo Cody helping on the script.

Says Morissette: "The team that has come together for this 'Jagged Little Pill' musical is my musical theatre dream come true. The chemistry between all of us is crackling and I feel honoured to be diving into these songs again surrounded by all of this searing talent. Diablo and Diane are already taking these deeply personal songs that are part of my soul's marrow to a whole other level of hope, freedom and complexity".

Hurrah for hope, freedom and complexity. Especially complexity. I love complexity.

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PPL count the 'Sgt Pepper' plays for LP's fiftieth
So, what are the most played tracks off The Beatles' 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' album? That's a question I know you've asked many times over the years.

You can try denying it, but you're forgetting I don't drink. I remember everything. Including that time in Belfast, or was it Gloucester, or maybe Inverness, actually, no, it was Dubai. And you got drunk and started shouting at the top of you voice "which fucking song off fucking 'Sgt Pepper' has been most fucking played on the fucking radio?" You don't remember because that's how drunk you were. But I do, because I was sober. And totally and utterly shocked by your fucking language.

Anyway, it's fifty years since 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' was released and collecting society PPL has worked out which tracks off the record have been played the most on UK radio and TV stations (albeit since 2000, but hey, it was you who insisted "only since fucking 2000, mind" on that hot night in the desert).

And here it is, the most played 'Sgt Pepper' tracks...

1. A Day in the Life
2. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
3. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
4. With A Little Help From My Friends
5. When I'm Sixty Four
6. She's Leaving Home
7. Getting Better
8. Lovely Rita
9. Good Morning Good Morning
10. Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!
11. Fixing A Hole
12. Within You Or Without You
13. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

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Chart shows won't play Liar Liar when it charts
So, is Theresa May the modern day Margaret Thatcher? That's a question people ask, isn't it? No, she's not. Though she is causing stress for the chart show makers of Great Britain. Just like Thatcher did. Albeit Thatcher did it after her death.

As you may remember, when MargaretThatcher died in 2013, some cheeky lefties celebrated the passing of the often controversial ex-British prime minister by encouraging people to download 'Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead' off of 'The Wizard Of Oz'. Enough people were persuaded to join in with that for the record to get to number two in the charts. Which meant chart show producers were left wondering whether they should play the record so close to Thatcher's passing.

It's not the possible bad taste of playing the May-linked track that is causing problems for radio bosses now, but the political nature of the record. We are talking about 'Liar Liar', the Captain Ska song re-released last week ahead of this month's General Election complete with segments from Theresa May's speeches and interviews.

The track could be number one on Friday, but the BBC won't be playing it on its chart show. Though that's because they are constrained by OfCom rules, says the Beeb. "We do not ban songs or artists, however our editorial guidelines require us to remain impartial and the UK is currently in an election period" a spokesman has said, "so we will not be playing the song".

Ah well, a song about Theresa May that doesn't show up on the BBC despite public demand - kind of apt really.

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