Now Apple is trying to cut the labels' share of the digital pie too
Now, you might think that Apple Music is just a pale imitation of market-leading streaming platform Spotify, and that product development strategy meetings at the tech giant's music division mainly involve asking the all-important question: "what did Spotify do last month that we could copy?". But then you're famously harsh and I couldn't possibly agree. Meanwhile, in a licensing strategy meeting at the tech giant's music division, someone asks the all-important question: "what did Spotify do last month that we could copy?"

So, yes, as Apple Music approaches its second birthday, and its two-year licensing deals with the record companies get ready to expire, sources say that Apple execs are following the lead of Spotify bosses in trying to negotiate down the revenue share split enjoyed by the record companies. Both Universal and indie-label repping Merlin have now signed new multi-year deals with Spotify which alter their rates.

The deals the streaming platforms do with the record companies, music publishers and collecting societies are - at their heart - revenue share arrangements, though with minimum guarantees and advances thrown in for good measure.

Every label, publisher and society negotiates their own deal, though the original agreements saw the record companies get a revenue share of 55-60% and the publishers and societies that control the song rights 10-15%. In theory that left the streaming firms with approximately 30% of the income, though the aforementioned guarantees and advances meant they actually got to keep much less.

As the streaming market has started to boom, the streaming platforms - as each deal has come up for renewal - have tried to negotiate the labels' revenue share split downwards, partly because the bigger publishers have managed to push their splits up to the higher end of the 10-15% bracket, and partly because the loss-making streaming services are desperately trying to work out a way to go into profit in the relatively near future.

Reducing the revenue share splits was one of the key sticking points that made Spotify's most recent label negotiations so long drawn out. And some of those negotiations continue, of course. With the new deals that have been struck, the streaming firm has offered the rights owners more control over their content and access to more sophisticated data, while the better rates themselves are conditional on certain growth targets being achieved.

Sources have confirmed to Bloomberg that similar conversations are now underway between Apple and the record companies over its streaming service. Insiders say that the labels are generally open to reducing revenue share splits with Apple in line with the deals that have been done with Spotify, providing the tech giant offers similar commitments on growing its business, and presumably some other kickbacks on data and marketing.

Of course, for the time being at least, both Spotify and Apple Music continue to sign up new premium subscribers at quite a rapid pace each month, meaning that while revenue share splits may dip a little, the record industry at large should continue to see its streaming income grow. And while the labels would like as big a slice of the digital pie as possible, they are becoming so reliant on the streaming market - which is in turn so reliant on a small number of service providers - that they need to help the major platforms tweak their business models as they seek to become profitable.

Artists are generally kept in the dark about the specific terms of these deals, so don't know exactly what revenue share their label partners have negotiated, nor what advances or minimum guarantees are involved, nor what kickbacks the record companies are getting in terms of marketing and data. Which, of course, remains a major bone of contention among the artist and management community.

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UK Music offers mixed response to the Queen's Speech
So, the Queen of this disUnited Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland got all dressed up yesterday, though at the same time dressed down, to deliver her big speech to the Westminster Parliament setting out the legislative agenda of the sort-of-government that has shuffled itself forward following the recent hilarious General Election.

The Queen was sans-crown because the timing of the snap General Election, and other regal commitments, meant that Team Windsor decided against staging the full pantomime usually associated with the state opening of Parliament. Though plenty of parallels were made between the low-key nature of the event and the stripped backed speech that was actually delivered, Prime Minister Theresa Mayhem having abandoned a bunch of her plans now that she no longer commands a majority in the House Of Commons.

But among the Brexit-heavy ramblings Ms Liz was forced to read out yesterday, were there any measures of relevance to the music industry? Well, reckons Michael Dugher, former MP and now CEO of UK Music, there will be opportunities to push for stronger copyright protection, at home and abroad, via some of the government's planned initiatives.
Though concerns remain about Brexit and where the hell is 'agent of change'?

Said Dugher yesterday: "We welcome the chance offered by the Trade Bill in the Queen's Speech to build on the UK music industry's £2.2 billion export contribution".

"The Trade Bill is an ideal opportunity for the government to stress that copyright and its enforcement should be a key part of the trade negotiations", he continued "And that the UK creative industries must not be used as a bargaining chip in any trade talks. We also welcome proposals for a new Digital Charter and hope it will cover the vital issues concerning infringements of copyright and intellectual property". Yeah, well, it might.

What about stupid silly smelly Brexit though? "UK Music will be holding the government to account to get the best possible Brexit deal for the thousands of people who work and depend on the UK music industry", Dugher insisted, noting concerns about the status of EU citizens currently working in the UK music business and about possible new costs or bureaucracy that could become associated with European tours for British artists.

"The proposed Immigration Bill must reassure EU workers in the UK music industry about their futures and ensure that we can still attract talented people from overseas", he said. "And any changes to the immigration system must not put unnecessary barriers in the path of touring artists visiting the UK or our artists touring abroad".

Finally, staying with live music, Dugher noted that the government's new agenda doesn't include any plans to introduce so called 'agent of change', which puts obligations on property developers who put new residential properties next to existing music venues. Such developments can result in licensing problems for those venues down the line. 'Agent of change' means the developer must protect the venue, eg by paying for sound proofing.

Dugher concluded: "We are disappointed that the Queen's Speech does not include any 'agent of change' proposals - a simple planning reform that would protect the future of many live music venues. We will continue to fight for this important change to protect our cherished music venues and to campaign against any proposed legislation that could damage our industry".

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Live Nation sued over drug death at Electric Daisy Carnival
The parents of a man who died at the 2015 edition of the flagship Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas are suing the festival's promoter, claiming that the slow response of staff at the event to their son's medical emergency led to his death.

Live Nation is involved in the dance music festival via its alliance with Insomniac Events, and both are listed as defendants on the new lawsuit. The legal papers concede that Nicholas Tom collapsed after taking ecstasy on the third day of the festival. But the lawsuit then alleges that it took attendees and festival staff 30 minutes to get Tom to a medical tent, that said tent was then empty, and that the crew that did subsequently arrive did not have the required medical training. Tom died while in the medical tent.

Shortly after Tom's death in 2015, Insomniac expressed condolences to the festival-goer's family, before adding in a statement that: "Participating in illicit drug behaviour can have tragic consequences and we hold a strict zero tolerance policy for illegal activity while continually educating our fans on the dangers of drug use".

Neither Live Nation nor Insomniac have responded to the Tom family's lawsuit. There has, of course, been much debate of late about the limitations of venues and festivals having 'zero tolerance' policies to drugs, and of the importance of promoters having sufficient medical staff on site and running high profile education campaigns about the dangers of illegal substances, and how to consume them more safely.

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US record industry shouts 'value gap' ahead of Donald Trump's NAFTA review
Old Donnie Trump from the United States Of Trumpton is having a good go at reforming the North American Free Trade Agreement - or NAFTA to its friends - the long-established free trade deal between the US, Canada and Mexico. And with that in mind, interested parties Stateside have been invited to make submissions outlining what they would like to see prioritised in any new trade talks between the three North American nations.

And guess what the Recording Industry Association Of America has put at the top of its priority list. Go on, have a guess! Think about it. Think about it. What is the one thing the US record industry would like the Trumpeters to discuss when they sit down with their Canadian and Mexican comrades? That's right, the big bad value gap! Well done. You win a prize. Though the headline to this article sort of gave it away, didn't it? So on second thoughts, no prize. Because that would be a prize for reading.

But yes, the RIAA wants American negotiators to talk safe harbours with their Canadian and Mexican counterparts. The music industry, of course, reckons that the safe harbours that protect internet service providers and such like from liability for their customers' copyright infringement should not apply to user-upload platforms like YouTube. And they want copyright law rewritten to that effect.

In its submission on the upcoming NAFTA negotiations, the RIAA writes: "According to one recent report, this safe harbour exemption acts as an enormous subsidy to the dominant incumbent video-streaming service [YouTube], a subsidy worth approximately $650 million to $1 billion annually. This company-specific industrial policy places one incumbent service at a fundamentally unfair advantage over other legitimate music services, which do not receive this enormous discount that was never intended by the legislative drafters, and instead negotiate commercial licenses with rights holders".

The three North American countries, reckons the RIAA, should together pursue "a concise, high-level and high-standard service provider liability provision with respect to copyright infringement", meaning that "the safe harbours are only available to passive intermediaries without requisite knowledge of the infringement on their platforms, and inapplicable to services actively engaged in communicating to the public".

Of course, the American record industry hasn't achieved that in America yet, let alone Canada and Mexico. And few expect the ongoing US Copyright Office review of safe harbours to result in a speedy rewrite of the country's Digital Millennium Copyright Act - where the safe harbour resides Stateside - even if the review advocates reform. Which is something Canada and Mexico are sure to point out if the US demands this measure.

Still, worth asking. The RIAA's lengthy submission covers an assortment of other copyright issues, including firming up the controls that come with the copyright, cutting back on compulsory licences and copyright exceptions, and other anti-piracy measures. You can read the full submission here.

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Sam FM apologies after DJs talk up a sponsor's free car
Local radio station Sam FM has apologised to media regulator OfCom after its presenters went on rather too long about an electric car that had been loaned to the station by one of its sponsors.

According to Radio Today, a Sam FM presenter started singing the praises of the Renault Twizy, which had been loaned to them by a local car dealer called City Motors, during a sports programme sponsored by said company.

Although noting the vehicle's small size, the presenter - being questioned by a colleague who was commentating on a local rugby match - said of the car: "It is fully electric, 100% electric. No emissions, it's all green. You don't even need any tax". After presenter guy stated that the Twizy's top speed was 50 miles an hour, commentator guy added "that's all you need, isn't it?" To which presenter guy said: "Absolutely, I was going down The Portbury Hundred towards Portishead with some pace ... last week or so".

A listener complained about all this on air plugging, arguing that it violated OfCom rules about keeping editorial and commercial content separated. Sam FM owner Celador stressed that City Motors was clearly positioned as the sponsor of its rugby coverage on air, but admitted that the Alan Partridge style chit chat about the Renault Twizy was "a lapse in editorial judgment". I mean, for starters Partridge would not approve of such a small car.

Stressing that the conversation was impromptu and not part of any sneaky advertorial deal with its sponsor, Celador said: "A guest commentator filled a gap in the on-field action by starting a conversation [about] a car that had been supplied by the sponsor earlier in the week for an on-air promotion. The guest's questioning unintentionally [led] the presenter to further detail the sponsor's product which, on this occasion, was a lapse in editorial judgment under the pressure of a live broadcast by the presenter".

Of course, we're not covered by OfCom rules here in the CMU Daily, so if City Motors wants to chuck us a free car we'll plug it big time. All we've got to lose is our credibility. And last time I checked, you can't drive to the shops in your credibility.

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CMU@TGE 2017: A Recent History Of Getting High
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, A Recent History Of Getting High.

While the latter half of the CMU Insights Drugs Conference looked at addiction and recovery, the first part of the day considered drug taking at music events, and drugs as part of clubbing culture. To inform that debate, host Jen Long spoke to Mixmag Editor Duncan Dick about recent trends in drug use amongst clubbers, including stats from the Global Drug Survey - a project originally started as a Mixmag feature two decades ago and now a major independent operation surveying global trends in drug use.

"We started the drugs survey at Mixmag around the late 90s", Dick explained. "At that time, dance music was a subculture, and a subculture that was built around ecstasy. We were really the only people documenting that culture so it was really important to us to reflect what was going on".

"We've always seen ourselves as telling the truth about drugs", he added. "Drugs are completely linked to dance music, from the people that make it to the people that dance to it. I'm not saying that everybody involved in dance music is on drugs, but it's definitely part of the culture. A lot of people would like drugs to go away, but they're not going to go away. And as journalists, as dance music lovers, we'd like to report on the world as it is rather than the world that someone would like it to be".

The Global Drug Survey defines clubbers as people who have been clubbing in the last three months. Reviewing the 2016 figures, Dick said: "It will not shock you to know that the most popular drug amongst clubbers is ecstasy. And ecstasy use has been growing year-on-year over the last five years".

"Ecstasy is more fashionable than it has ever been, in my opinion", Dick continued. "And cocaine is up as well". Those trends might surprise people, given all the media attention enjoyed by so called legal highs in recent years, and the subsequent crackdown on such substances in the UK last year.

"Nitrous was massive in 2016", Dick added, of the substances that fell under the 'legal high' banner, "but I don't know whether the new laws will have an affect on that".

One of the legal highs that was particularly newsworthy for a time was mephedrone aka Meow Meow. "Mephedrone seems to have died a death and that is mainly because pills got stronger", Dick revealed. "It's almost as if the cartels that make MDMA - that's probably some Dutch guys on a farm in Utrecht - got to together and thought, 'well, this is killing our market, we've got to compete with these labs in China'. The quality of MDMA has gone up massively in the last few years [and] that was a direct response to the popularity of mephedrone".

Increasing the strength of drugs does tend to increase their popularity, Dick confirmed, adding that: "The stronger the drugs, the more people report having a good time on them, so the more likely people are to take them. I would certainly say that more people are taking MDMA now, in the form of pills or powders, than they were six or seven years ago when pills were £2 a pop but they were 2% pure".

Drugs getting stronger makes them more dangerous if people continue to consume them at the same quantity - not realising a pill now contains much more of the actual drug. With poor drugs education, and a lack of good information of legal highs let alone illegal drugs, that creates a risky situation that can be fatal.

"There's a huge void in drug education at the moment", Dick said. Reckoning that bad drugs education was as much about a lack of funding as it was a nervousness among the powers that be about being seen to condone drug taking, he continued: "That's combined that with a generation of millennials that started taking mephedrone because they assumed it was safe, because no one knew anything about it, because it was easy to get. And now they're now moving onto illegal drugs with little information about them. It's a perfect storm".

Mixmag has attempted to fill the drugs education void where possible, he said. Last year the magazine ran the 'Don't Be Daft, Start With A Half' campaign, after there was "a rash of people having convulsions, overheating" due to taking "super-strong pills". This kind of editorial, of course, means adopting an approach some people consider controversial, ie taking drug consumption at clubbing events as read, and talking about how to take drugs safely, rather than insisting that drugs should just be avoided.

Dick is an advocate of other media and the music industry embracing this approach.
"I think festivals and clubs really have a moral responsibility to step in here and, instead of chasing people around with aggressive bouncers, to try to educate folk on how to take drugs safely. To support campaigns like ours. And to talk about this work openly".

"The truth is, you're not going to change people's behaviour by simply heightening security", he went on. "It's just not going to work. Look at the sad deaths around Fabric recently - one of those kids took their pills outside the club. What's the club supposed to do about that? The only way you can save lives is by education".

The government should also be playing a more proactive role here, he added: "It would be nice to see the government spending a little bit of money on education campaigns. Talk To Frank is a website and a couple of flyers in a club".

He continued: "It'd be nice to see a bit more engagement with the clubbing community and with the people that own venues especially. With the Lib Dem manifesto, there was talk of putting responsibility for drugs under the Department Of Health again. Just that kind of mindset, where we're talking about protection and education rather than trying to lock people up, I think would make a massive change".

"Drugs are getting stronger and people need to take responsibility for their own actions, but they also need to have the full information at their fingertips", he concluded, encouraging clubbers to seek out as much information as they can. "There's a lot more drug checking and drug purity testing available. I would urge people to take full advantage of them".

Check out all the reports and resources CMU has published around this year's CMU Insights @ The Great Escape conferences here. Since The Great Escape, the 2017 Global Drugs Survey has been published, which you can read here.

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Sofar Sounds launch global gigs programme with Amnesty for World Refugee Day
Amnesty International announced a tie up with Sofar Sounds earlier this week that will see a thousand musicians perform in 300 homes in 60 countries on World Refugee Day on 20 Sep, with a view to raising awareness of the ever worsening refugee crisis, and funds to support initiatives helping those forced to flee their homes.

Jessie Ware, Jack Garratt, Kate Tempest, Billy Bragg, Oh Wonder, The National, KT Tunstall, Lianne La Havas, Zero 7 and Wild Beasts are among those due to play as part of the massive of day of intimate Sofar Sounds gigs, which are taking place under the banner Give A Home. The shows will also bring together refugees and local communities, and activists will speak alongside the musical performances. Vice and Facebook are set to promote and live stream the proceedings.

Confirming the venture, Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International, said: "With more than 21 million people forced to flee their home country, the world refugee crisis is one of the defining issues of our era. How we respond to it now will shape who we are for generations to come. This is our moment to defend the things that unite us and refuse to let fear and prejudice win".

He continued: "Music and art have always been powerful partners to the cause of justice because they share an ability to stir something deep within us. They help us to look beyond borders and see what unites us. That is why this World Refugee Day we are announcing the Give A Home concerts. The shows will be an opportunity to reflect on our shared humanity and strengthen our resolve to tackle this unprecedented humanitarian challenge".

Also commenting on the project, Sofar Sounds co-CEO Rafe Offer added: "Give A Home aligns Amnesty International and Sofar's vision of a global community united by the things that really matter, in the same way that Sofar unites thousands of people all around the world every day through a shared love of music. On World Refugee Day, the global music community will come together like never before to celebrate a more hopeful narrative, one that champions and celebrates the fundamental equality and dignity of all human beings".

More info here.

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DJ Mag to support UNICEF via this year's DJ Poll
DJ Mag has announced a tie up with children's charity UNICEF, and will use its Top 100 DJs poll this year to raise money for the organisation. Voting for the annual survey of clubbers worldwide opens on 5 Jul, with the winner announced at the Amsterdam Dance Event in October.

Confirming the new charity partner, DJ Mag MD Martin Carvell told reporters: "We're very excited to have UNICEF as the charity beneficiary of Top 100 DJs 2017. Both the Top 100 DJs and the dance music industry have grown immensely over the last 25 years. Over one million people voted in last year's poll and with the continuing global expansion of electronic music, we feel that the time is right for us, as music fans, industry, and DJs, to give something back".

Meanwhile UNICEF UK's Deputy Executive Director Catherine Cottrell added: "We would like to thank DJ Mag for supporting UNICEF through the 2017 Top 100 DJs poll. The money raised through working with this long-established cornerstone of the dance music calendar will have a great impact on the lives of children around the world. DJ Mag readers' donations will help UNICEF to continue to protect children in danger and transform their lives. With your help, we can make the world a safer place for children".

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Kali Uchis, St Vincent, Lucian Grainge, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Kali Uchis has released the video for 'Tyrant', featuring Jorja Smith.

• Ariel Pink has announced that he will release new album, 'Dedicated To Bobby Jameson', on 15 Sep. Here's recently released single 'Another Weekend'.

• Mumdance & Logos have released a new double a-side single, featuring new tracks 'FFS' and 'BMT'. They have also made the full back catalogue of their Different Circles label available digitally for the first time, via Bandcamp.

• Jay Johnson has released a new single, 'Island'. He'll play The Fighting Cocks in Kingston-Upon-Thames on 7 Jul.

• Orka will release a new EP, '<13', on 21 Jul. Here's a teaser. There'll be a launch party at Rye Wax in Peckham on 5 Jul.

• St Vincent has announced that she'll be touring the UK and Ireland in September. She'll play shows in London, Manchester and Dublin. Tickets go on general sale on 30 Jun.

• Universal Music boss Lucian Grainge has been named Cannes Lions Media Person Of The Year. He dedicated the prize to his older brother, Ensign Records founder Nigel Grainge, who died earlier this month.

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Napalm Death interviewed by Ed Miliband on Radio 2
There was a little ripple of confusion on social media yesterday, as people assumed they'd misheard an announcement on BBC Radio 2 that Ed Miliband would be interviewing Napalm Death frontman Barney Greenway.

For non-UK readers, Radio 2 is the BBC station aimed at people who think they still like pop music but claim not to be able to hear the words in all the "noise" that young people listen to on Radio 1 these days. Ed Miliband is the former leader of the Labour Party, who lost the 2015 General Election due to eating a bacon sandwich badly. And Napalm Death are a band who make the sort of noise that Radio 2 and even Radio 1 listeners would generally agree is "not music".

Miliband was on Radio 2 standing in for Jeremy Vine, who presents the mid-morning arguments show on the station. I'm still not entirely sure why Barney Greenway was there, but it doesn't appear to have been an accident. Actually, if Miliband is to be believed, the booking was due to him being a big fan of Napalm Death.

"I've been a groupie for SO long", he wrote on Twitter. "Been to the gigs, got the t-shirt, now's my chance to meet Napalm Death in person".

Nothing about the interview suggested he had been aware that Napalm Death existed before that morning. Still, discussing the fact that Glastonbury will be hosting its first ever dedicated heavy metal stage, courtesy of Earache Records, this weekend, Miliband played music by Morbid Angel and Wormrot, and also interviewed Greenway about death metal, grindcore and why people should give extreme metal a chance.

"I understand it", said Greenway of people's distaste for the genre. "We appreciate that people feel that [extreme metal is 'just noise']. And actually we get a perverse sense [of pleasure] out of annoying people, because there's kind of a paradox. The band is very sonically violent, but actually the ethos behind it is about humanity, equality, tolerance. You know, all the things that appear to be the complete antithesis. A lot of musicians can be quite sensitive about their art, but we sort of welcome people's revulsion ... We're always trying to find the notes that make people quite ill".

Miliband also spoke to Earache label manager Dan Tobin about the stage at Glastonbury, who said: "It's the first time they've really included this area of music. Yes, they're had Metallica on and Motorhead on, and a couple of other bands, but this is a big deal for the bands involved".

However, the highlight of the feature (aside from an incongruous break to play Shalamar) was Miliband taking a lesson in extreme metal vocal technique, attempting to perform Napalm Death's 'You Suffer'. See how he got on here.

Listen to the full interview, from one hour and 35 minutes in, here.

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