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THE RIGHTS OF ARTISTS AND SONGWRITERS POST-ASSIGNMENT - PERFORMER AND MORAL RIGHTS Copyright provides creators with control over that which they create, but what happens when the creators themselves don't own the copyright in their work? Artists and songwriters who are no longer in control of their copyrights do still have some rights, sometimes by contract, and via performer and moral rights. CMU Trends considers what the law says about the rights of artists and songwriters after their copyrights have been assigned. [READ MORE] |
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THE VALUE OF MUSIC Rarely a week goes by in the music business news these days without at least one catalogue acquisition. But who - other than labels and publishers - is buying music rights, and why? Are there opportunities for individual artists and songwriters to do deals with professional investors? And how do you even value music rights? CMU Trends reviews the music rights market - past, present and future. [READ MORE] |
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MAKING MONEY FROM MUSIC MEDIA IN THE DIGITAL AGE While the challenges faced by the music industry - and especially the record industry - since the mainstream adoption of the internet in the early 2000s have been widely documented, the music media - and especially the music press - has faced many of the same challenges too. CMU Trends reviews recent developments and trends in the music media business, and the ongoing challenges faced by media owners. [READ MORE] |
| TOP STORIES | YouTube-mp3 agrees to shut down READ IN THIS EMAIL | READ ON THE WEBSITE |
| LIVE BUSINESS | Company behind Hope & Glory festival in liquidation Music Venue Trust launches fundraising campaign Ex-SFX hires Hard Events founder to lead North American operations Paul Cheetham joins AEG to book new music hall in Berlin READ IN THIS EMAIL | READ ON THE WEBSITE |
| DIGITAL & D2F SERVICES | MQA announces alliance with Deezer READ IN THIS EMAIL | READ ON THE WEBSITE |
| ARTIST NEWS | Lil Wayne "doing fine" after seizures force show cancellation Spandau Ballet to continue with new singer, following Tony Hadley's departure READ IN THIS EMAIL | READ ON THE WEBSITE |
| RELEASES | Prophets Of Rage release new single READ IN THIS EMAIL | READ ON THE WEBSITE |
| AND FINALLY... | Calls to put Prince statue in place of Christopher Columbus in Minnesota city READ IN THIS EMAIL | READ ON THE WEBSITE |
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DOMINO RECORDS - SENIOR INTERNATIONAL MARKETING MANAGER (LONDON) Domino Recording Co is looking for a Senior International Marketing Manager with five years+ proven experience in international marketing and promotions, including the running of global campaigns. The International Marketing Manager’s core responsibility is to oversee international campaigns for our artists from the inception of the campaign strategy to rollout. For more information and to apply click here. |
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CLAPHAM GRAND - SALES & MARKETING CHAMPION (LONDON) We are looking for a sales driven marketing expert to join our growing promotions team at The Grand, continuing our 117 years record of putting on world class entertainment; ensuring not only that our events are seen and heard by as many people as possible, but that those people are converted to loyal customers through your excellent marketing. For more information and to apply click here. |
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NUCLEAR BLAST - PRESS OFFICER (LONDON) London office for well-established rock/metal label is looking for a dynamic and creative Press Officer to handle PR for it’s rapidly diversifying roster. The ideal candidate should have at least two years experience in a similar role with existing contacts within the rock/metal media. For more information and to apply click here. |
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9PR - JUNIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER (LONDON) 9PR are looking for a Junior Account Manager to work across print and online. Suitable candidates must have a demonstrable understanding of PR and ideally some music industry experience. This is an excellent opportunity within one of the UK’s leading music PR companies. For more information and to apply click here. |
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KILIMANJARO LIVE - BOX OFFICE MANAGERS (MANCHESTER) Kilimanjaro Live are looking for two experienced box office managers to work on a brand new family adventure in Manchester for a fixed term period, starting 25 Sep. There is the potential for the roles to be extended to include the London run following this period. For more information and to apply click here. |
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SJM CONCERTS - VIP MANAGER/CO-ORDINATOR (MANCHESTER) SJM offer exclusive VIP ticket packages across many of our major tours for artists such as Take That, One Direction, Little Mix and Coldplay which over the last year has amounted to over 60,000 packages. We are seeking a dynamic, self-motivated individual to successfully manage and develop our VIP department. For more information and to apply click here. |
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THE ORCHARD - SENIOR LABEL MANAGER (LONDON) The Orchard needs a Senior Label Manager who will be the first point of contact for a number of labels, artists and managers. Working with internal and external teams, you will craft, create and coordinate effective and bespoke campaigns, over a number of different projects and across different musical genres. For more information and to apply click here. |
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LEX RECORDS - DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER (LONDON) Lex Records are looking for a full-time Digital Marketing Manager to work from our North London office. You would be working as part of the team to present our music to the public and helping to join up promo with sales. For more information and to apply click here. |
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THE DELTIC GROUP - SOCIAL MEDIA DEPARTMENT MANAGER (MILTON KEYNES) The Deltic Group are looking for a Social Media Department Manager to develop and shape the company's social media and marketing activity, working across 58 bars and clubs including well-known brands such as PRYZM, ATIK and Bar & Beyond. This is a newly created role and the successful candidate will have the opportunity to build a social media team. For more information and to apply click here. |
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THE DELTIC GROUP - SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER (MILTON KEYNES) The Deltic Group are looking for Social Media Managers to manage, maintain and grow the company's social communities of circa 1.5 million 18-25-year olds. This is a new team of five that is being formed in order to deliver great content to inspire our social communities and deliver our social strategy. For more information and to apply click here. |
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NAME PR - PRESS ASSISTANT/ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE (LONDON) Name PR is looking to hire a Press Assistant/Account Executive. This is a fantastic opportunity for a bright individual with exceptional writing ability and a good grasp of the music business to work on some of the most interesting music issues and developments across the globe. For more information and to apply click here. |
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Digital Deals, Dollars And Trends - Explained! MASTERCLASS | Monday 18 September 2017, London | INFO This half day masterclass, presented by CMU MD and Business Editor Chris Cooke, will explain how digital music platforms are licensed and royalties distributed, as well as reviewing the digital market in 2017 and which services are leading in terms of users and revenue. |
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How The Music Business Works SEMINARS | from Monday 25 September 2017, London | INFO Our 'How The Music Business Works' programme consists of eight two-hour seminars which together cover: the various ways the music industry generates revenue, building and engaging a fanbase, the business partnerships artists form with music companies, and how the artist/label relationship is changing. |
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Enforcing Music Rights - Safe Harbours And Piracy MASTERCLASS | Monday 20 November 2017, London | INFO In this half day masterclass, CMU MD and Business Editor Chris Cooke will look at how the music industry enforces its copyrights, at the long-running battle with online music piracy, and at the controversy around the copyright safe harbour. |
YouTube-mp3 agrees to shut down
Your favourite YouTube audio-ripping site and mine, YouTube-mp3, has agreed to shut down and hand its domain over to the Recording Industry Association Of America for safe-keeping. So that's a shame. I mean great. It's really great.
As previously reported, the RIAA finally sued YouTube-mp3 and its operator Philip Matesanz through the Californian courts just under a year ago. The ad-funded site allows users to input a YouTube URL and output an MP3 of the audio contained within the video hosted on that specific page on the Google site.
Stream ripping isn't new, of course. Indeed YouTube-mp3 was sued by the record industry in its home country of Germany back in 2013. Though that case focused on the back ups of ripped files that the service stored on its own servers, something that constituted direct copyright infringement. YouTube-mp3 vowed to stop making the back ups, though was still arguably liable for contributory or authorising infringement, ie it was liable by facilitating the infringement of others.
Although not a new phenomenon, it is more recently that stream ripping has appeared towards the top of the wider music industry's piracy gripe list. A report earlier this year by the UK's Intellectual Property Office and PRS For Music reckoned that stream ripping is now the "most prevalent and fastest growing form of music piracy". Meanwhile last September both the RIAA and its UK counterpart the BPI took action against leading stream-ripper YouTube-mp3, the former filing litigation, the latter threatening to.
At the time the boss of the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry, Frances Moore, told reporters: "This is a co-ordinated action to protect the rights of artists and labels from the blatant infringements of YouTube-mp3, the world's single-largest 'stream ripping' site. Music companies and digital services today offer fans more options than ever before to listen to music legally, when and where they want to do so - over hundreds of services with scores of millions of tracks - all while compensating artists and labels. Stream ripping sites should not be allowed jeopardise this".
Both the RIAA and YouTube-mp3 have now confirmed to the Californian court that a settlement has been reached. Specifics aren't known, though Matesanz has seemingly accepted all of the labels' claims about copyright infringement and agreed to pay undisclosed damages. The site will also shut down and its URLs will be passed to the RIAA.
The court has also been asked to issue an injunction that will ban Matesanz from "knowingly designing, developing, offering or operating any technology or service that allows or facilitates the practice commonly known as 'streamripping'". Oh, and also "knowingly infringing, knowingly causing to be infringed, or knowingly enabling, facilitating, encouraging, promoting, inducing or participating in the infringement of any copyright owned or controlled by the plaintiffs".
The court still needs to approve the settlement, but either way, you probably need to find a new service for all your stream-ripping needs. I mean, you need to stop stream-ripping, it's a terrible thing to do. No, I mean this doesn't affect any of you at all, because you've never ripped a stream in your life. What's stream-ripping?
Company behind Hope & Glory festival in liquidation
The company behind the two day Liverpool music festival Hope & Glory, which was called off half way through after severe over-crowding on day one, resulting in a series of car crash communications from organisers, has gone into liquidation.
As previously reported, although plenty of bands did play on the first day of the city centre Hope & Glory festival, gates opened late, stages ran behind all day, sets were cut short and Charlotte Church's set was cut entirely, while festival-goers reported massive queues at the gates, bars and toilets. It was also tricky moving around the festival's site, while many expressed concern about the dangerous levels of over-crowding.
Day two was then cancelled via a social media post that simply read "no festival today". The festival's official Twitter account then began sparring with angry ticket-holders, while on Facebook a statement told punters to direct their anger at a single production manager who had allegedly failed to complete the event's site on time.
A lengthy and rambling statement from promoter Lee O'Hanlon published the next day did apologise for the shambles, but spent much more time laying into the aforementioned production manager and Liverpool City Council. It also dedicated plenty of page space to complaints that council officials had sent food intended for day two's riders to a local charity without the permission of the festival's management.
Official messaging regarding ticket refunds was confused to say the least. The festival told aggrieved ticket-holders to consult their ticket agent, though it became clear that at least some of the monies collected by said agents had already been handed over to the Hope & Glory company. Nevertheless, both Eventbrite and Skiddle, which had powered ticketing on the festival's own website, started issuing refunds out of their own pockets.
It seems unlikely the ticketing companies will be able to reclaim much of that money now given the confirmation yesterday by insolvency firm Butcher Woods that the Hope & Glory company was being wound down, with nearly £890,000 being owed to 32 creditors.
Commenting on the ticket refunds his company issued, Skiddle director Ben Sebborn told the BBC that despite attempts "to co-operate with the festival owners it became clear that our customers would remain out of pocket unless we intervened". He then conceded that it was now "very unlikely that Skiddle will receive reimbursement from the festival organisers".
As previously reported, Liverpool City Council, which is among the defunct Hope & Glory company's 32 creditors, has begun an investigation into how the high profile city centre event ended up failing so spectacularly.
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Music Venue Trust launches fundraising campaign
The Music Venue Trust has announced a fundraising campaign in the run up to a benefit gig at the Electric Ballroom in Camden on 17 Oct. The organisation will also be selling a series of limited edition t-shirts designed by artists, kicking off with Frank Turner.
Monies raised will fund MVT's campaigning work on behalf of the UK's grassroots music venues, and in particular the Emergency Response Team initiative it launched last year, which aims to provide venues which are faced with sudden planning and/or licensing issues with legal advice and expert opinion.
The new fundraising campaign follows the recent news that Arts Council England had declined to fund the Music Venue Trust's activities. Next month's benefit show, under the name Fightback 2017, will take place a year on from a similar fundraising event the organisation staged last October. Artists, brands and companies interested in supporting this round of fundraising are also encouraged to come forward.
Commenting, MVT's Strategic Director Beverley Whitrick said: "Between 2007 and 2015, over a third of the UK's grassroots music venues were forced into closure. We were losing twenty venues a year, every year. Music Venue Trust launched our Emergency Response service in 2016 thanks to generous fundraising and support from artists, fans and brands".
She went on: "We promised that Emergency Response would make a real difference. One year later there are the same number of venues open. This isn't rocket science. We can stop venue closures like The Cellar in Oxford and The Sound Lounge in Tooting, we just need the resources to do it".
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Ex-SFX hires Hard Events founder to lead North American operations
LiveStyle - the company that they once called SFX - has hired Gary Richards to be its President of North America. Richards was the founder of Hard Events, the LA-based dance music-focused promoter that was acquired by Live Nation in 2012. Following that acquisition Richards stayed with Live Nation until recently.
Confirming the new hire, LiveStyle boss Randy Phillips is quoted by Variety as saying: "To complete our executive suite, we wanted to bring some real authenticity to the management of LiveStyle, and no single candidate to be the President Of North America fulfils this role better than Gary Richards. In fact, this is a delayed goal for me since I tried to make a deal with Gary ten years ago while I was running AEG Live. Not only is he an accomplished working DJ, he is a very astute businessman with an affinity to his fellow artists".
Meanwhile Richards himself says: "Randy Phillips has been a trailblazer in the music and entertainment industry for as long as I can remember. Having known Randy personally for many years, I'm excited that the stars have aligned and I'm able to build a new platform for live music with him. [LiveStyle's] portfolio of brands, such as React, Made Event/Electric Zoo, DDP and Beatport - to name a few - is an incredible place to start from and build. In addition, I plan to create new festival concepts and cruises at LiveStyle".
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Paul Cheetham joins AEG to book new music hall in Berlin
AEG has announced it has hired Paul Cheetham to be Bookings Director for a new venue it will open in Berlin next year alongside the existing Mercedes-Benz Arena.
The new 4500 capacity music hall will form part of what the live firm is calling Mercedes Platz, a new entertainment district being constructed next to the Mercedes-branded arena, that was previously known as O2 World under a previous sponsorship deal.
Cheetham, who has worked in live music for over two decades - in the UK and elsewhere in Europe - has in recent years been involved in the management of various music conferences and showcase festivals, especially in Germany, as MD of Heartburst Management. That includes the Reeperbahn Festival, which takes place again in Hamburg later this month.
In addition to announcing Cheetham's hire, AEG has also confirmed that Aissata Hartmann-Sylla, a long-time booker at the Mercedes-Benz Arena, has been promoted to the role of Senior Director and will now oversee 'event acquisition' for both the existing arena and the new music hall.
MQA announces alliance with Deezer
High quality audio firm MQA has announced yet another deal, this time with the Deezer geezers.
As previously reported, MQA combines higher quality audio with lower file sizes, and has been courting labels, digital platforms and device makers in a bid to persuade them to adopt the file format.
The new deal, we are told, will "enable MQA's technology to be integrated into Deezer's platform, as well as across the service's ecosystem of hardware partners and connected devices". And what an ecosystem that is. Yay ecosystems!
Says MQA boss Mike Jbara: "This partnership has great synergy as we already work closely with several of Deezer's hardware partners. We're looking forward to a close collaboration".
Lil Wayne "doing fine" after seizures force show cancellation
Lil Wayne's daughter has said her father is "doing fine", after he was forced to cancel a show on Sunday night due to an epileptic seizure.
According to reports, Wayne was found unconscious in his hotel room in Chicago on Sunday, and suffered a second seizure after being rushed to the city's Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Doctors then advised he cancel a scheduled show in Las Vegas, and also suggested the rapper avoid flights for a few days.
It's not the first time Wayne has suffered from seizures. He had to dispel rumours that he was close to death after suffering similar episodes in 2013.
Taking to Twitter yesterday, Wayne's daughter Reginae Carter, stated: "My dad is doing fine everyone! Thanks for the concern you guys are amazing". She then cautioned against people taking too much notice of any new rumours about her father's health, adding: "Oh yeah... don't believe everything you hear".
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Spandau Ballet to continue with new singer, following Tony Hadley's departure
When Tony Hadley announced his recent departure from Spandau Ballet, the band vowed to "move on". And true to their word, they're launching a search for a replacement.
As previously reported, Hadley announced in July that he was leaving the band "due to circumstances beyond my control". The band, however, said that Hadley "had made it clear in September 2016 that he didn't want to work with the band anymore", which had left them unable to perform together.
Speaking to The Sun, bassist Martin Kemp said: "The band will carry on and we will find the right new singer. What Tony decided to do doesn't just steal special moments and memories from the band, it also steals them from the fans. We all like to see 80s bands because those performers and those songs trigger memories, so the fact Tony chose to take that away from so many people is sad".
Of Hadley's departure, he added: "Tony sent me a text a year ago saying he didn't want to be in the band, so I took it as official that he was leaving back then. So it wasn't new. If that's what he wants to do, then good luck to him".
Exactly what form the search for a replacement for Hadley will take isn't clear. It might just be a case of phoning round their other 80s mates. Though Martin Kemp also has experience of large scale open auditions, having been a judge on Gary Barlow's 'Let It Shine' TV show. Whatever that was.
Prophets Of Rage release new single
Prophets Of Rage have released a fourth track, 'Strength In Numbers', from their upcoming debut album.
"'Strength In Numbers' is a Molotov Marshall Stack Manifesto", says guitarist Tom Morello. "We stand together or we fall apart. The world is in chaos, but if we're gonna go down we're gonna go down together... and we're gonna go down swinging. The question remains: can we be as united in the streets as we are in the mosh pit? Let's find out".
You heard the man, start moshing in the streets. The band's debut album, 'Prophets Of Rage', will be released on 15 Sep. The new single is available in the sorts of places you'd expect to find it (unless you expect to find it on YouTube).
Calls to put Prince statue in place of Christopher Columbus in Minnesota city
A campaign has been launched in the city of St Paul, Minnesota calling on officials to replace a statue of Christopher Columbus with one of local boy Prince.
Columbus is, of course, the man often credited with 'discovering' America. However, the creator of the petition, Wintana Melekin, says that removing his monument would be in line with recent efforts around the country to remove statues of people involved in the slave trade - efforts which, of course, sparked violent protests by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"Across the nation, city governments are choosing to remove statues of white supremacists, slave owners, and those who threatened the livelihood of black people", says the petition. "Here in Minnesota, communities are reigniting the demand to bring down the state's monument to Christopher Columbus, a man who murdered, raped and enslaved black and native peoples in the Americas".
It continues: "We, the undersigned, do not believe that Columbus represents the values Minnesotans carry. Rather than glorify a man who wanted to extinguish black and native peoples, we should honour members of our community whose leadership we find inspirational".
As someone who both lived and died in Minnesotan capital Minneapolis, Prince should be the person to replace Columbus, reckons Melekin, alongside another inspirational leader to be chosen by the Native American community. And the nearly 4000 people who have signed the petition presumably agree.
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