Sirius to take stake in Pandora, but not buy it outright
Come on, won't somebody buy Pandora? You'll haemorrhage through all your cash, but with all those millions and millions of users across America, think of the promotional opportunities! You'll get to talk about the music genome! You'll get to be sued by Paypal!

With chatter about the future of US streaming firm Pandora having recently moved from 'will they sell?' to 'who will buy?', yesterday Reuters reported that American satellite radio firm SiriusXM - a mooted buyer of Pandora at various points over the years - might now instead acquire a slice of the company. The newswire said that there had been recent talks about Sirius taking complete ownership of Pandora, but that those fell through over price point. However the broadcaster was planning on taking a minority stake via something called a 'private investment in public equity', or PIPE.

Now Sirius has confirmed that deal, worth $480 million, which will see the broadcaster control 16-19% of the Pandora business. The two companies say: "Through this agreement, SiriusXM is making a strategic investment in the leading US provider of ad-supported digital radio. With a loyal quarterly audience of nearly 100 million listeners in the US, Pandora is by far the leading player in the burgeoning digital audio advertising market. The capital provided through the SiriusXM investment will allow Pandora to make targeted investments and capitalise on opportunities to build on its position in the streaming radio business".

All eyes will now be on possible synergies between the two companies. Sirius has more experience in the subscriptions business, where Pandora is now shifting itself, but the streaming firm gives the satellite broadcaster an increased interest in online audio.

All that new cash coming Pandora's way will be also boosted by the sale of its ticketing business Ticketfly to Eventbrite for $200 million. More on that just announced deal in Monday's CMU Daily.

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UK music industry responds to election result
So, a hung parliament pretty much equally split between left leaners and right leaners as we head into the Brexit negotiations and a fundamental rewrite of the British constitution. What fun hey? Strong and stable, strong and stable.

Much is being made about the importance of younger voters in yesterday's UK General Election, and movements like the Grime 4 Corbyn campaign all played a role in getting that demographic out to vote. Will they stay engaged in the complex political shenanigans ahead, and what can the grime and wider music community do to encourage them to do so?

These will all be topics for debate at the 'The Political Artist In The Social Media Age' conversation that CMU is presenting as part of M.I.A.'s Meltdown festival at the Royal Festival Hall tomorrow. The full line ups for all three discussions are now online – we look at the power of sound at 1pm, music and politics and 2.30pm, and the impact of AI and big data on music consumption and music making at 4pm. Admission is free, info here.

But for now, back to the bloody election, and the UK music industry has already responded to the big result, with the bosses of record industry trade body BPI, the Music Managers Forum and cross-sector organisation UK Music having all commented.

The recently appointed CEO of UK Music, Michael Dugher, said: "UK Music congratulates all those elected at the General Election. Clearly the dust is settling and the situation will continue to unfold in the coming days, so we await developments".

"But over the coming weeks there will be many discussions about the future direction the country will take. It is paramount that the interests of the music industry are fully considered in those conversations and we look forward to engaging positively and working closely with the new parliament and the next government".

He concluded: "The political parties each made welcome commitments to build on the successes of creative industries, and music in particular, throughout the election campaign. We will be holding their feet to the fire to ensure that they deliver on those pledges. Brexit is clearly the biggest issue facing the country – and our industry – and we will ensure that the interests of our members across the music industry are protected".

Meanwhile BPI chief Geoff Taylor said: "The General Election result creates a political landscape that is considerably more complex. Assuming that the Conservatives form an administration, they will be under considerable parliamentary pressure to adopt a more nuanced position in the Brexit negotiations, which many in business will welcome. However, greater uncertainty over an extended period, with the possibility of a further election before the full parliamentary term, is unlikely to be helpful".

He continued: "In terms of priorities for music, our two main goals for the incoming government are simple – to make the UK the most attractive place in the world to invest in music, and to support our industry internationally as it looks to keep growing British music exports. Whatever the exact shape of the new administration, as a priority it should immediately support the EU Commission proposals to require user-generated content platforms to pay fairly for the music they use to build their businesses".

"To ensure future growth of the UK creative economy" Taylor added, staying focused on the web giants, "it should require online intermediaries to take more responsibility to prevent users accessing harmful or illegal content. Moreover, any new administration needs to encourage more investment into the UK - and by extending to the recorded music sector the creative tax credits that film, TV and games have benefitted from for some time we will make the UK the best place to make music".

And finally: "British music punches above its weight on the world stage, but, as streaming increasingly promotes a global market, our artists and labels face stronger competition than ever from overseas. The government must make creative businesses a priority and ensure a Brexit deal that benefits creative businesses like music - making sure that UK artists can tour freely in EU markets and that UK businesses can access the best talent. The UK should also take the opportunity to boost exports by promoting strong IP protection".

And finally, Annabella Coldrick, CEO of MMF, said: "Whatever follows on from the hung parliament and potential minority government, one thing we can take comfort from is that the Conservatives and Labour were very specific in their manifesto commitments to ensure that content creators are appropriately rewarded for the content they make available online".

She went on: " That's the MMF's priority too, and along with other creator representative bodies we will be re-doubling our lobbying efforts with the UK government to tackle the lack of transparency in the digital marketplace. At the same time as addressing the value gap, the industry must change the NDA culture that denies artists, songwriters, composers and musicians not just clarity, but fair digital remuneration".

Finally, Coldrick turned to live music, and noted that: "Following the successful FanFair campaign, both parties have publicly committed to ensure the revised law on ticket touting is now properly enforced and we look forward to working with the new government and the Competition And Markets Authority to make sure this happens. With the help of politicians it is imperative that we fix these fundamentals for both the live and recorded business, restoring the connection from audience to artist, to properly reward the creative talent on whose shoulders our entire business sits".

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Streaming continues to boom for indies, but not YouTube mind
Indie-label repping global digital rights agency Merlin yesterday published the results of its annual member survey and data analysis at the annual meeting of the American Association Of Independent Music in New York.

Headline stats included that revenue distributions to Merlin's member record labels and distributors around the world were up 52% year-on-year for the twelve month period to March this year, sitting at $353 million. Again demonstrating the streaming boom of recent years, that means the revenues distributed by Merlin has increased eightfold in four years.

Within the survey, 64% of indie labels questioned said that audio streaming now accounts for the majority of their digital income. Meanwhile 67% of Merlin members said that digital now accounted for more than half their overall revenues, with 39% saying that digital services now generated more than three quarters of their business.

Though despite the streaming boom, Merlin noted that income from video streaming sites - chiefly YouTube of course - saw only "only negligible" growth. The agency said: "According to an analysis of several billions of streams comparing the twelve months to March 2017 with the year before, revenue growth from audio streaming is outpacing that of video streaming at a rate of more than three-to-one".

Commenting on all this, Merlin chief Charles Caldas said: "Over the past twelve months, we have witnessed a great leap forward. Audio streaming is now dominating Merlin members' digital business, and we are continuing to see the vast majority of our independent labels thrive under what are very different market dynamics".

He added: "As a global-facing agency, it is especially pleasing to see such consistent international growth, and the continuing over-performance of Merlin-licensed repertoire on paid subscription tiers. Clearly, the labels we represent and the artists they support hold a unique value to music fans the world over. The only relative step backwards is the industry-wide underperformance of video-streaming. If we can address this market anomaly, then the uplift across the business would be enormous".

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Taylor Swift now streaming freely, Spotify to champion songwriters
So, Taylor 'fuck off Spotify with your free fucking streams, I fucking hate you' Swift is now streaming her tunes on Spotify. Glorious!

And yes, that includes Spotify free. Swifty isn't such a luddite that she objected to all things streaming from the off, her past position was that premium streaming was good, but people shouldn't be able to access her musical goodness without handing over some dosh.

But seemingly she's now decided she's got enough of that dosh stuff, as Spotify announced yesterday "we can confirm that Taylor Swift's entire back catalogue is now available on Spotify for her millions of fans to enjoy". Good times.

And I think that's the last of Spotify's high profile 'featured artist feuds' now at an end. Better do something about all those moaning songwriters then. What with song rights generating much smaller royalties than recording rights, and "think of all the t-shirts you'll sell" never going down well with people who write songs for other artists.

"Songwriters are the guiding force behind the music industry", Spotify said yesterday. Writers and producers you don't necessarily see on stage "are the voices behind some of our favourite hits" it went on, "and to celebrate the songwriting community and their accomplishments, Spotify is launching Secret Genius, a global initiative that will highlight the contribution songwriters and producers make to the music industry and artists' careers".

Hurrah! That'll do it. No songwriter will ever moan again. Official. Look out for Secret Genius workshops, awards, podcasts, curated playlists and an ambassador programme.

And now here's Spotify's Troy Carter with some words: "Songwriters and producers are the backbone of the industry and we want to help celebrate these incredibly talented people. The goal of Secret Genius is to give credit where credit is due by shining a light on these amazing creators".

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CMU@TGE 2017: Where's My Fucking Money? How The Cash Flows - The Life Of A Song
Look out for more reports throughout June on key sessions that took place at the CMU Insights conferences at The Great Escape last month. Today, we look at a presentation by Mycelia's Head Of Research Carlotta Di Ninni. She spoke at the Royalties Conference to introduce a new project Mycelia is undertaking to give better insight into how money flows through the digital music system: The Life Of A Song.

The project tells the story of Mycelia founder Imogen Heap's biggest hit, 'Hide & Seek'. "It shows the journey of the song from back in 2004, when it was registered with PRS, to now", said Di Ninni. The project will create a visual representation of how the song has been used, evolved, synced, reworked and commercialised since then, with details of all the remixes and collaborations, all the contracts Heap has signed in relation to the song, sync deals, and information on when key digital music services made the track available.

"The grand aim of the project is to create an interactive web application that will allow users – whether you're an artist, or a journalist, or maybe a student – to follow three separate journeys around the song. The first journey is a biography of the song, the people involved, all the agencies, literally the history of the work. The second breaks down how the song has been used, the deals that were done. And the third, probably the most interesting element, is going to be a breakdown of the income".

She continued: "At the moment, with my research group of MA students from Westminster University, we are digging into a lot of reports – PRS reports, PPL reports, all of Imogen's earnings for 'Hide & Seek'. [The aim is that someone using the app] could say, 'I want to know how much Imogen earned from Spotify UK in 2008'. You put this in, and you will get back a number, and an explanation and some graphs about it. This is a very interesting and powerful tool".

"Our first partners for this project are PRS and PPL", she went on. "They've offered us some amazing personnel, who have helped us to delve into the data. They're helping us to understand and make this kind of categorisation simple".

Doing this research has already thrown up some interesting insights that Heap and her team weren't previously aware of. Looking at various pieces of user-generated content, they estimate that the song has had around eight billion plays through unauthorised sources since it was released in 2005.

Aside from this, it has also highlighted at which points in the system data is lacking. "Besides showing what's happening with Imogen's money, the aim is to have a significant use case to show everybody what is actually going well in our industry - because not everything is bad - but also where there are grey areas", said Di Ninni. "For PRS and PPL, overseas collection is a nightmare. This isn't their fault, it's because some of the other collecting societies don't report back good data. They're not magicians. If you have bad ingredients, you can't make a good cake".

The aim is to launch The Life Of A Song app in May 2018, with events in 45 cities around the world. Before that, in July, the team behind it are holding focus groups to find out what potential users would like to get from it. They are also seeking sponsorship.

To discuss any of this, you can contact Carlotta Di Ninni at [email protected] And check out all the reports and resources CMU has published around this year’s CMU Insights @ The Great Escape conferences here.

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Phil Collins cancels shows following head injury
Phil Collins has postponed two shows due to take place at the Royal Albert Hall last night and tonight. The decision came after the musician fell in his hotel room in the early hours of Thursday morning, resulting in a head injury.

"Phil suffers from 'drop foot' as a result of a back operation which makes it difficult to walk", explained a statement on his Facebook page. "He rose in the middle of the night to go to the toilet and slipped in his hotel room, hitting his head in the fall on a chair. He was taken to hospital where he had stitches for a severe gash on his head close to his eye and is recovering well. He will be kept under observation for 24 hours".

The two shows were the last of a run at the Royal Albert Hall that started last Sunday, a residency that constituted his first live concerts for ten years. The two postponed performances have been rescheduled for 26-27 Nov. He is also due to play shows in Paris, Dublin and at the British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park later this month.

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PPL publishes most played charts for 2016
The UK's record industry collecting society PPL had itself a little AGM in London yesterday, and used the occasion to publish its annual most played charts, confirming the most played artists and tracks across British radio, TV and public performance in 2016.

And here they are...

The PPL 2016 Most Played Artist Chart
1. Coldplay
2. Adele
3. Olly Murs
4. Little Mix
5. Justin Timberlake
6. Ellie Goulding
7. Justin Bieber
8. Jess Glynne
9. Calvin Harris
10. Taylor Swift

The PPL 2016 Most Played Track Chart
1. Justin Timberlake - Can't Stop The Feeling!
2. Zara Larsson - Lush Life
3. Dnce - Cake By The Ocean
4. Calvin Harris feat Rihanna - This Is What You Came For
5. Lukas Graham - 7 Years
6. Coldplay - Hymn For The Weekend
7. Shawn Mendes - Stitches
8. Justin Bieber - Love Yourself
9. Jess Glynne - Don't Be So Hard On Yourself
10. Coldplay - Adventure Of A Lifetime

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Harry Styles announces 2018 live shows
Oh, that Harry Styles. Not content with going on tour this year, he's planning to go out again in 2018. Apparently it's "due to overwhelming demand", but I think we all know that Styles just loves the bureaucracy of booking venues. He lives for it.

Following UK shows in October and November, which kick off with two nights at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, he'll be back round this way again in April.

Here are the new dates:

7 Apr: Birmingham, Genting Arena
9 Apr: Manchester Arena
11 Apr: London, O2 Arena
12 Apr: London, O2 Arena
14 Apr: Glasgow, Hydro

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Amazon Prime, Fleet Foxes, Do Make Say Think

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Amazon has confirmed rumours that Jason Carter has stepped down as head of Prime Live Events. "Jason has decided, for family reasons, that he needs to take time off from full-time employment", the company told IQ in a statement.

• Fleet Foxes have put out a new track, 'If You Need To, Keep Time On Me'. Their new album's out next week.

• Do Make Say Think have been going for more than two decades, and yet they have never made a music video. At least they hadn't... UNTIL NOW!

• The Oh Sees are now just Oh Sees and will release a new album, 'Orc', on 25 Aug. From it, this is 'Static God'.

• Kasabian will play an acoustic show at St Laurence's Church in Reading on 15 Jun. Tickets will only be available to Reading and Leeds ticketholders for some reason.

• Coldcut will mark their 30th anniversary with a show at Village Underground in London on 21 Sep. Get tickets here.

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Beef Of The Week #358: Haim v Dinosaurs
Haim were the talk of the town when they released their debut album, 'Days Are Gone', back in 2013. It was all Haim this and Haim that. You couldn't bloody move for Haim. But did they capitalise on this by rushing out a second album? No. And why not? Dinosaurs.

Well, sort of dinosaurs. More John Williams and his ability to write a catchy tune. I mean, have you heard the theme to 'Jurassic Park'? Este Haim has, and two decades later she still can't get it out of her head.

"There was a time, when we first started writing this record, where I was like, 'OK, why is every song I'm writing sounding like the theme from 'Jurassic Park'?'" she explained to BBC News this week.

"It's true!" agreed her sister and bandmate Alana. "We were like, 'Este, stop it! That's 'Jurassic Park'. Again'".

Surely there must be more to this than it just being a catchy tune though? I mean, we've all heard it. It's estimated that up to 32% of the world's population has it stuck in their head at any given time, and 82% of people have spent a period of time with it rolling around their brains. Still, not all songwriters find themselves with a four year gap between albums because they can't compose any music that isn't just a rework of the theme to 'Jurassic Park'.

Turns out that another factor was that the Haim family also grew up near the Universal Studios theme park in California, in which there has been a 'Jurassic Park' ride since 1996. "Every time you walk in, a voice goes, 'Welcome... TO JURASSIC PARK'", said Alana. That bloody music is then piped in as you make your way through the attraction.

It's amazing Haim's debut album wasn't just wall to wall majestic dinosaur themes, really. The everything-sounds-like-Jurassic-Park problem was eventually broken, ironically, when the band was asked to write a song for a film. That song ended up being 'Little Of Your Love', which features on new album 'Something To Tell You'.

"We wanted to write a simple song with a I-IV-V chord progression", says Danielle Haim of the song. "I remember hearing these songs that came out in the early 80s that kind of had a Motown vibe but with 80s production. And I thought, 'Oh, I wonder what these songs would sound like now?'"

Haim's apparently dinosaur free new album is out on 7 Jul. We'll see.

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