Warner acquires Songkick gig discovery business, but not the ticketing platform
Warner Music announced on Friday that it had acquired the data and discovery side of the Songkick business. The Songkick ticketing platform - much of which grew out of CrowdSurge - will remain a separate standalone company.

Songkick is still best known for its original service, ie compiling gig listing data and recommending shows to its users. In its original incarnation, the company simply provided links to other ticketing platforms alongside recommended shows, taking an affiliate commission if users clicked and purchased.

The firm subsequently moved into also selling tickets itself, a side of the business that grew significantly when it merged with direct-to-fan ticketing solution CrowdSurge in 2015. Songkick could earn much bigger commissions being the actual ticket seller on some shows, though the shift of emphasis put the start-up into the more conventional ticketing business, a very competitive marketplace still dominated by a small number of major players.

Warner Music owner Access Industries was a backer of CrowdSurge and subsequently pumped more money into the combined Songkick/CrowdSurge business, so there was already a link between the major record company and the ticketing start-up. The merger of the two companies is not, therefore, all that surprising, but the fact that Warner has opted to take the data business but not the ticketing platform is interesting.

Warner also gets the Songkick trademark as part of the deal, while the ticketing business that remains independent gets to keep Songkick's messy litigation with Live Nation.

As previously reported, Songkick has accused the live music giant of anti-competitive behaviour in the way it allegedly pressures the artists it works with as a promoter, manager and venue owner to work with Ticketmaster rather than other ticketing providers, in particular on fan-club pre-sale promotions - something Songkick has specialised in of late.

Those bits that have been acquired by Warner will now sit within the major's services division WEA, alongside its distribution, merch, playlisting and direct-to-fan operations.

Confirming the deal from Warner's side, WEA President Tony Harlow said: "Fans all over the world trust Songkick to help them find events featuring the artists they love. It's a passionate, highly engaged music community, always on the lookout for new experiences. Bringing together Songkick's discovery platform and world-class technology with our existing ecommerce expertise and global reach represents a powerful step in strengthening and evolving our direct-to-fan capabilities".

Meanwhile CrowdSurge founder and Songkick CEO Matt Jones added: "Songkick was founded on the promise of improving the live experience for fans and the artists they love. Over the years, we have helped tens of millions find their next great live experience. And today, I'm excited to pass the baton on the discovery service to the great team at WMG, an ideal organisation to carry on this mission and to take it in new, innovative directions. And, on behalf of the many artists and fans we've served over the last decade, we are committed to continuing our litigation against Live Nation and Ticketmaster independently".

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Quincy Jones v Michael Jackson Productions: Pitbull on Bad! Whose idea was that?
The legal battle between legendary producer Quincy Jones and the Michael Jackson estate turned into something of a jukebox jury type session on Friday as everyone pondered on who's idea, exactly, it was to have Pitbull guesting on a remix of 'Bad'.

As previously reported, Jones is suing Jackson company MJJ Productions and Sony Music in a $30 million royalties dispute. One of the allegations made against MJJ Productions is that it ignored an agreement between Jackson and Jones that said that the latter would always be given the first option to create any remixes of the recordings he had produced for the former. Following Jackson's untimely death in 2009, MJJ and Sony organised remixes of said recordings without consulting Jones.

The Jones side says that this contract term was as much about giving the producer a say over his and Jackson's combined musical legacy as it was about trying to secure extra remixing income. With that in mind, the Jones team argues, some of the posthumous remixes of Jackson's output were sufficiently mediocre to negatively impact on the producer's reputation.

To try to back up that assertion lawyers presented Michael Fremer, editor of the website AnalogPlanet.com, to discuss the posthumous reworks of the Jackson recordings Jones had produced. The Afrojack remix of 'Bad' featuring Pitbull - which appeared on the 'Bad 25' rerelease album in 2012 - was picked out as a particular dud.

According to Billboard, Fremer told the court "I like club mixes" but that this remix of 'Bad' was "inconsistent with [Jackson's] spirit and who he was".

He later told the US trade mag that that particular rework should never have been released, saying: "Before the trial I did some research and the comments online were really negative about that song. People were outraged. It was just a mess and it should have never come out".

This may seem to you like a perfectly decent critique of that particular remix, though Fremer's reviews are not so relevant to the Jones v MJJ legal battle it would seem, as the judge overseeing the case subsequently decided to exclude the editor's testimony from the trial. Still, that little bit of Pitbull dissing provided some light relief during Friday's court proceedings, so all is good.

The case continues.

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Sony's Epic Records signs Louis Tomlinson
That Louis Tomlinson formerly off of One Direction will release his debut album via Sony Music's Epic Records.

We know this because Epic tweeted on Friday: "We're THRILLED to welcome @Louis_Tomlinson to the Epic family!" And they included a photo of the 1D boy himself in a bright red tracksuit, so we know they mean business.

Tomlinson himself then retweeted the Epic tweet adding a sunglasses emoji. And that, I'm pretty sure, constitutes a binding contract in 2017.

It means that three fifths of One Direction are now working with Sony labels on solo releases - Tomlinson, Harry Styles and Zayn Malik - which only seems fair, given it was the Sony-controlled chemicals facility Syco Inc that manufactured the pop product to start with.

Meanwhile, ungrateful shits Liam Payne and Niall Horan are working with Universal Music labels on their solo output.

Tomlinson recently said in an interview that he originally expected to take on a behind-the-scenes music business role once One Direction went on hiatus, but then he started working on solo material. The first solo release was his collaboration with Steve Aoki, 'Just Hold On', put out by the also Sony-allied Ultra Records last December.

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Sony Music reportedly taking a majority stake in Believe
There was a time when you could fill an entire conference centre with a trade fair of music distributors. But we're starting to get close to the point where the only distributor left to exhibit will be Sony's The Orchard. Though imagine what its stand will be like! Epic!

Anyway, according to Japanese business newspaper Nikkei, the ever acquisitive Sony Music is close to taking a majority stake in independent distribution and label services firm Believe, seemingly by buying out existing shareholders. The deal, thought to be worth between $355 million to $444 million, could close within the year. Neither Sony Music nor Believe have, as yet, commented on the report.

It's not clear what the relationship between Believe and Sony would be if any deal were to go through. As Sony isn't buying the distributor outright, the new parent company may well choose to have a hands-off relationship with its new acquisition, which would then presumably continue to operate pretty much as normal.

Though Sony would probably want to include the catalogues of music distributed by Believe - and its DIY artist distribution business TuneCore - in any subsequent deals with the big streaming platforms. Market share has an influence on the outcome of a label's streaming deals - especially when it comes to kickbacks beyond the core revenue share and minimum guarantee arrangements - and that's one reason behind Sony buying into so many distribution businesses in recent years.

Many of those previous acquisitions, of course, were streamlined by the major under its Orchard brand last month, it have taken complete control of the once independent The Orchard in 2015.

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Irish advertising regulator to investigate Viagogo's use of the word 'official'
The Irish Advertising Standards Authority is assessing whether Viagogo - the least apologetic of the ticket tout ticklers - has breached advertising rules with the way it promotes its ticket sales on Google.

As previously reported, last week UK-based anti-touting campaign FanFair noted how the secondary ticketing sites, and especially Viagogo, buy Google ads so that links to their tickets appear at the top of the list when people search for a gig. This despite the fact tickets are still often available cheaper from primary sites, rather than from a tout via a resale platform.

Campaigners argue that this confuses the average gig-goer, who don't necessarily understand the difference between bought and organic listings on the Google search engine, and who will likely assume that the top listing is the official - ie artist approved - source for tickets.

It doesn't help that Viagogo uses the word "official" in its Google ads, seemingly justifying doing so by saying that the link goes through to the 'official' Viagogo website. But consumers will likely assume that billing means that Viagogo is an official seller of the tickets being sought, when in fact tickets bought via the resale platform are often so unofficial that the promoter of the show might cancel them.

According to The Times, the use of the word 'official' by Viagogo on its Google ads is one of the things the Advertising Standards Authority For Ireland is investigating.

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Melvin Benn apologises for overcrowding in Longitude queues
Festival Republic's Melvin Benn has issued an apology for what he describes as an "uncomfortable start" in the queue at Dublin's Longitude festival on Friday. Others have called it a "stampede".

Various ticketholders complained of overcrowding in the queue to enter the festival on the first day of the event. Organisers initially dismissed those claims, though acknowledged that there had been delays at the gate due to increased security measures.

In a later statement, Benn said: "The opening hour of yesterday's entry was not what I wanted. We had encouraged people to arrive early and they heeded the encouragement to a greater level than anticipated making that first hour difficult and I owe those caught up in it an apology".

He continued: "However, every single person caught up in the shock of the uncomfortable start was able to continue into the concert and enjoy the day despite that. As you would anticipate, my teams have worked throughout the night to improve the entry for today and tomorrow so everyone can enjoy Longitude at its best".

According to reports, issues had been resolved by Friday evening.

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Rob O'Shea leaves Sheffield Arena
The General Manager of the Sheffield Arena, Rob O'Shea, has announced that he is leaving the venue to focus on his event promotions company, Manifesto Events.

Having got his start in the music business as a gig promoter, O'Shea has continued to put on events while at the same time working in venues, at Sheffield Arena and previously the Manchester Apollo, over the last two decades.

"Promoting has always been a passion of mine but I have only been able to treat it as a hobby given the demands of running an arena", says O'Shea. "There is a clear gap in the market for a Sheffield promoter who isn't tied to a specific venue. I am looking forward to continuing to work with agents and promoters I worked with as Sheffield Arena GM in my new capacity".

O'Shea launched Manifesto Events with fellow promoter Stuart Basford in 2012.

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SoundCloud's not going to fold, says SoundCloud
Look, doom-mongers, will you stop going around everywhere telling everyone that SoundCloud is about to go offline? Because SoundCloud isn't going anywhere. Oh no. And how do we know this? Because SoundCloud founder Alex Ljung says so. In a blog post! So it must be true.

As previously reported, in the wake of SoundCloud axing 40% of its workforce and subsequent comments made during an all-staff meeting about the firm's financing, there was plenty of speculation last week that the streaming service could go offline at some point in the next few months. Such was the chatter, some more prolific SoundCloud users got busy backing up files they had uploaded to the platform while looking for alternative places to upload and share their audio.

But, says Ljung, that's just a load of misleading noise. "There's an insane amount of noise about SoundCloud in the world right now", he wrote in a blog post on Friday. "And it's just that, noise. The music you love on SoundCloud isn't going away, the music you shared or uploaded isn't going away, because SoundCloud is not going away. Not in 50 days, not in 80 days or anytime in the foreseeable future. Your music is safe".

He continued: "Along with each of you, we've built this incredible creative community of artists, podcasters, DJs, producers and more who are the driving force in pushing culture forward in the world. That's not going to change. Last week we had to make some tough decisions to let go of some of our staff, but we did this to ensure SoundCloud remains a strong, independent company".

So that's alright then. Though, maybe check you have offline copies of any files you uploaded onto SoundCloud, yeah? Just in case.

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Miley Cyrus on image change: "It got to a point where I did feel sexualised"
The world's leading academic on Miley Cyrus circa 2013-2015 - aka 2017 Miley Cyrus - continues to give good insights into that 'shocking' stage of her career.

In a new interview with Harper's Bazaar, she says that there was a point to be made at the beginning of that period in her life. However, it was eventually lost under the weight of controversy and exploitation from the very parts of the entertainment industry she was attempting to send up.

"It became something that was expected of me", she said. "I didn't want to show up to photo shoots and be the girl who would get my tits out and stick my tongue out. In the beginning, it was kind of like saying, 'fuck you, girls should be able to have this freedom', or whatever. But it got to a point where I did feel sexualised".

She added that she's not sure why people held up her previous squeaky clean child star image as something better than the image she adopted while first transitioning into being a grown up popstar.

"People were so shocked by some of the things I did", she said. "It should be more shocking that when I was eleven or twelve, I was put in full hair and make-up, a wig, and told what to wear by a group of mostly older men".

Of that side of the industry, and how women are treated in general, she added: "Beyonce said, 'Girls run the world', and that was an important thing to say because I think subconsciously we are beaten down to believe that isn't true our whole lives. It's no wonder that a lot of people lose their way and lose who they really are because they always have people telling them who to be".

Read the full interview here.

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Heed the lesson of Trump and take Kid Rock seriously, says US Senator
US Senator for Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren has warned supporters not to be complacent about the possibility of Kid Rock attempting to enter politics.

As previously reported, last week the musician launched a website that indicated he plans to attempt to become a politician by standing as a Republican candidate in Michigan next year. He insists that the website is entirely real. However, he has not as yet filed the necessary paperwork and the local Republican Party says it has not had any discussions with him on the matter.

Still, wary of the rise of Donald Trump, Warren has said that no matter how daft it might look at the moment, Democrats should be taking this very seriously.

In a fundraising email to supporters, obtained by the Boston Herald, Warren wrote: "I know a lot of people are thinking: this is some sort of joke, right? Well, maybe this is all a joke - but we all thought Donald Trump was joking when he rode down the escalator at Trump Tower and announced his campaign, too. And sure, maybe this is just a marketing gimmick for a new album or tour - but we all thought Donald Trump was just promoting his reality TV show too".

In a blog post on his website on Friday, Kid Rock insisted that he too is very serious about his move into politics - noting that he has fifteen days from his announcement to officially file the relevant paperwork.

"Senator Stabenow and I do share a love of music, although probably not the same kind", he wrote. "I concede she is better at playing politics than I am, so I'll keep doing what I do best, which is being a voice for tax paying, hardworking Americans and letting politicians like her know that We The People are sick and tired of their bullshit!"

The election for the position of Senior Senator for Michigan - with has been held by Debbie Stabenow since 2001 - will take place in November 2018. So, yes, we have a lot of this still to come. Oh joy.

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