Warner Music signs new deal with Apple Music
Apple has reportedly signed a new deal with Warner Music covering both the iTunes store and the Apple Music streaming service. According to Bloomberg, it's the first new deal between the tech giant and the mini major since Apple launched its streaming platform in 2015.

Following the lead of Spotify, which has now entered into new multi-year licensing deals with all three majors and indie-label repping Merlin, Apple is seeking to reduce its revenue share commitment to the record companies under the new arrangements.

With streaming income now such a key revenue stream for the recorded music industry, the mainly loss-making digital service providers are keen to reduce their royalty commitments to the labels slightly, partly to compensate for rate increases secured by some of the music publishers, and partly to ensure they have a business model that can actually go into profit once the certain number of paying subscribers has been achieved.

The labels are agreeing to take a slight cut to their share of the digital pie in return for commitments by the streaming companies to sign up significant numbers of new subscribers. The labels have also been looking for more data and marketing kickbacks.

Although the specifics of every deal done between a streaming service and a label, distributor, publisher or collecting society are slightly different, generally Apple offered a slightly higher revenue share split to the music companies than Spotify.

It's thought that Apple is now seeking a similar discount to that achieved by its rival, meaning it will still be paying slightly more to the labels in terms of revenue share. Unlike Spotify, cash rich Apple doesn't need its streaming business to be quite so lucrative long-term, though with 'services' becoming a more important revenue stream to the tech firm, Apple Music isn't just a break-even enterprise that exists to sell more smart phones.

Warner was the last of the major music firms to renew with Spotify, but is the first sign up to the latest Apple deals. Bloomberg's sources say a Sony deal is nearly done too, but Universal's new arrangement will take more time.

When it comes to the indies, because Apple added streaming to its existing iTunes agreements, Merlin isn't involved in these deals, which came about before the indie sector digital rights agency was launched. That, of course, resulted in a headline-grabbing skirmish between Apple and the independents when the first draft of its streaming deal was put on the table. The tech giant will be hoping all future updates to its indie agreements go a bit smoother.

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UK recorded music exports up 72.3% since 2010
UK record industry trade group the BPI will confirm at its Annual General Meeting later today that British recorded music exports are currently at their highest levels this century, the organisation having started monitoring its members overseas earnings in 2000.

Fans of foreign lands and bold stats will definitely like the next sentence. The international income of BPI member labels rose by 11.1% in 2016 to £364.6 million, which is 72.3% up on 2010 figures, and means that recorded music has contributed nearly £4.4 billion to UK's overseas earnings since 2000.

Fans of foreign lands and lovely lists will probably get a bigger kick from the next sentence. According to the BPI's analysis of the available data, the ten biggest export markets for UK recorded music, starting with the biggest, are: USA, Germany, France, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Japan, Italy, Sweden and Belgium.

Fans of foreign lands and quotes from BPI boss Geoff Taylor will be particularly pleased with the next sentence. Says Taylor: "With Britain leaving the EU, the UK needs businesses that are true global superstars; music by brilliant British artists such as Ed Sheeran, Adele, David Bowie, Coldplay and Sam Smith is streamed and purchased the world over, boosting the UK's balance of payments".

Fans of foreign lands and quotes by UK culture ministers with a focus on all things digital, like that Matt Hancock, are in for fucking treat with this next sentence. Says Hancock: "This fantastic economic success is a huge testament to the UK music industry and the wealth of talent and creativity underpinning it - not only is music a crucial factor in bringing international investment to our shores but it is also the introduction to British culture for many people around the world."

Government has a role to play in enabling the UK record industry's success abroad, the BPI added alongside today's new stats. Partly through existing and ongoing government support for expanding British music businesses via funding initiatives like MEGS and the various music industry trade missions. And partly by not fucking up Brexit.

Fans of Brexit, robust copyright and concluding quotes should probably sit down before reading this concluding quote. Adds Taylor: "The global digital streaming market represents a huge new opportunity - government can help to seize that opportunity by making sure our artists can tour freely post-Brexit and that [other] countries robustly protect music rights".

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eBay capitalises on vinyl revival with new entertainment hub
Now even eBay is looking to capitalise on the vinyl revival, launching The Entertainment Shop, a new hub on its UK site that will bring together the sale of physical entertainment products. That will also include physical things beyond those vinyl discs you all like so much - including CDs, DVDs, games, books and comics - from an assortment of sellers, who together will be flogging both new and second hand stock.

eBay says it is launching the new marketplace in response to increased demand on its UK platform for vinyl and other physical entertainment products. Many of the sellers already have a presence on eBay, though the new Entertainment Shop section seeks to make browsing physical entertainment stock on the platform easier for consumers, while offering sellers preferential rates and more marketing opportunities.

Says eBay's UK VP Rob Hattrell: "We want to be the destination for physical media in the UK driven by best value, unrivalled inventory and competitive seller fees. The first item ever sold on eBay UK was a Scorpions CD in 1999 for £2.89 and now we are home to some of the world's largest suppliers of books, music, film and games. The launch of The Entertainment Shop is a natural progression for eBay that will offer brands and sellers of all sizes the opportunity to capitalise on the UK's enduring appetite for physical media".

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Liam Gallagher responds to fans' ticket pre-sale complaints
Liam Gallagher has responded to complaints from fans that a ticket pre-sale for his October tour sold out within minutes.

Fans who pre-ordered Gallagher's debut solo album, 'As You Were', from his official website were promised priority access to tickets for the tour, with pre-sale tickets available yesterday morning. But many fans complained that said tickets had sold out before they had a chance to get any, while others said that they never even received the access codes required to buy them. Tickets also quickly appeared on resale sites, which didn't help matters.

In response, Gallagher tweeted yesterday afternoon: "COOL IT OUT. We're sorting it out. Stay cool brothers n sisters. As you were. More tickets [will be] coming back on sale. We are enforcing [a limit] per person and cancelling any multiple purchases".

A spokesperson for Ticketmaster, which administered the pre-sale, said in a statement to the NME that everything had gone smoothly, but that "this was a very high demand event, and a simple case of demand outweighing supply".

They added: "In no way did having a pre-sale code guarantee a ticket - it was a first come, first served basis".

The spokesperson confirmed that there would be a further pre-sale today, before tickets go on general sale tomorrow at 10am.

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Global focuses on festivals as two live music execs move to Live Nation
Global's live entertainment division will be focusing on its festivals portfolio rather than touring activity following the departure of two execs, who are off to join rival Live Nation.

As previously reported, radio firm Global has been growing its music business operations for a few years now, initially dabbling in artist management and music publishing before moving into live. Transatlantic ambitions in the live space saw the hiring of former AEG Live boss Randy Phillips in 2015, but his tenure was short lived, and plans seemed to be scaled back somewhat following his departure.

Though that didn't stop Global becoming the second biggest music festival owner in the UK. It initially bought into existing festival maker Broadwick Live, also in 2015, and has since bought up a number of other independent events to add to the Broadwick portfolio.

Confirming those festivals were currently the priority, a spokesperson told IQ: "Two years after we made our first move into the festivals business, we're the second largest operator in the UK, and we're seeing significant growth. We've therefore made the decision to focus on this part of the business, and while we will still do some touring, we're prioritising growing our festivals business".

The execs departing Global's live unit are Sam Bush and Joe Schiavon, who have both moved over to Live Nation UK, which continues to expand at quite a pace. Bush and Schiavon aren't the only new hires on the touring side of Live Nation's UK business, with Kamran Haq and Sean Ryman also joining the firm.

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Former MTV and Maker Studios exec to lead video for Spotify
As former VH1 exec Tom Calderone departs his job overseeing video and podcasts at Spotify, why not bring in a former MTV exec to take over? Why not indeed. And to that end Spotify has hired former MTV-er Courtney Holt to be its Head Of Spotify Studios & Video. Which is a different job title to Calderon, but the remit is similar.

One time record label exec Holt has plenty of experience working with short-form video content designed for online consumption. After MTV, and following a stint at the short lived MySpace Music, Holt joined Maker Studios, one of those multi-channel networks that help YouTuber talent generate mega-bucks around their content and brands. That ultimately meant working within the Disney empire, which acquired Maker in 2015.

It remains to be seen what Holt does with Spotify's video offering, which has never really gained much momentum, despite some high profile partnerships and commissions. It is thought the short-term aim is to build video assets around the more popular playlist brands on the Spotify platform.

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CMU Insights digital masterclass to dissect five developing news stories
The first in a new series of CMU Insights training courses will help attendees better understand at least five developing music business news stories. 'Digital Deals, Dollars And Trends – Explained!' is a half-day masterclass on 18 Sep that provides a concise but comprehensive guide to the streaming business, explaining how streaming services are licensed, how streaming royalties are paid, which streaming services dominate, and what challenges remain.

The masterclass will also explain who the current winners are from the streaming boom, and why streaming income keeps rising yet most streaming services remain unprofitable. It will provide the background to Spotify's various mechanical royalty rows in the US and what the 'fake song' controversy was all about earlier this year. And it will also explain what all the chatter about 'user-centric royalty distribution' refers to and why YouTube remains the music industry's enemy number one.

The masterclass takes place on 18 Sep at 2pm at the London HQ of Lewis Silkin - tickets are just £99 including VAT and booking fee. Click here to read a CMU Insights blog post on the news stories covered in the masterclass and click here to buy your tickets.

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St Vincent announces new album, Masseduction
St Vincent has announced that she will release her fifth album, titled 'Masseduction', in October. So that's improved 2017 a great deal. So long as we don't all get nuked to oblivion before it comes out. That would be really disappointing.

The musician announced the album in a mock press conference on Facebook, giving a guide to not getting the title wrong in the process.

"It's 'mass seduction', not 'mass education', which is a noble and worthy cause for sure, but it's not the title of my record", she said. "And you're probably wondering, and the answer is yes, I did toy with calling the record 'Ass Education'. But it seemed to me that that was much better suited to be the title of the sequel. We've gotta build up to something, you know".

Watch the whole thing here.

As well as announcing the album, she also put out a new single at the same time. It's called 'Los Ageless'. It is very good, which is the very least you should have expected. You can listen to it here.

Also, if you haven't already listened to the episode of 'Song Exploder' featuring the album's first single, 'New York', mate, what are you even doing with your life?

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U2 are going to release an album this year after all
Back in January, U2 guitarist The Edge said that the band had cancelled plans to release a new album this year, due to the election of Donald Trump.

It was a little sliver of light in some dark times, knowing that at least one good thing had come from that whole debacle. But now they've gone back on their promise and are planning to release a new album, 'Songs Of Experience', on 1 Dec. Assuming Trump hasn't nuked us all to oblivion by then. We can only hope.

The sequel to 2014's 'Songs Of Innocence' was all but finished at the point at which Trump was elected. But that event caused the band to go back into the studio and re-record some of it to address the current political situation.

In a new interview with the New York Times, Bono explains: "We needed some distance from it. The world had changed. We needed to put things on pause to take in the scale of the change".

They didn't, but whatever. Bonzo goes on: "The wickedness in the world, we just let it perforate the album. But it still had to be a very personal album, not a polemic. The elections were a shock to the system personally and a shock to the system politically, not just in America but in Europe. This is my lyrical response to both of those shocks. I leaned more on the personal than the political, but the political is there to put the personal songs in the context of time, of history".

The band premiered the first song from the album, 'The Blackout', last month. Now they're back with another, called 'You're The Best Thing About Me'.

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Foo Fighters, Zayn Malik, Beck, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Justin Timberlake appears on the new Foo Fighters record. Though you'll have to listen hard to hear him - he provides some "la la" backing vocals on one track. "He nailed it", Dave Grohl tells Rolling Stone. "I'm telling you, the guy's going somewhere".

• Zayn Malik has teased new Sia collaboration 'Dusk Till Dawn', which is out tomorrow.

• Beck's back. Back's Beck. Here's 'Up All Night'.

• A new compilation of Michael Jackson's "most electrifying and danceable tracks", called 'Scream', is out on 29 Sep. It includes a bonus mash-up, like it's 2001.

• Anna Of The North has released a new track, 'Always'. Her album, 'Lovers', is out this week.

• Edwyn Collins-produced band Spinning Coins have announced that they will release their debut album, 'Permo', on 10 Nov. From it, this is 'Sleepless'.

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Martin Shkreli puts secret Wu-Tang album up for sale on eBay
Two years after spending $2 million on Wu-Tang Clan's single-copy album 'Once Upon A Time In Shaolin', Martin Shkreli has decided to sell it. In a little over a week it'll go to the highest bidder on eBay, unless he decides to smash it first instead.

As previously reported, having pressed just one copy of the record, the hip hop group put it up for sale by auction. A sale was agreed in May 2015, and it later emerged that Shkreli - best known for buying the rights to a life-saving AIDS drug and massively increasing the price - was its new owner.

The news of this prompted Wu-Tang leader RZA to issue a statement saying that the group had no idea Shkreli was such a bell end when they agreed the sale. Shkreli later became involved in a bizarre war of words with Ghostface Killah, the rapper employing the never improved upon phrase "I'll break your heart in four days" in his barrage of insults.

Oh and there's so much more in the saga of this album - largely because Shkreli is an insatiable self-publicist. Which I guess brings us to this eBay auction.

"I decided to purchase this album as a gift to the Wu-Tang Clan for their tremendous musical output", writes Shkreli in the listing. "Instead I received scorn from at least one of their (least intelligent) members, and the world at large failed to see my purpose of putting a serious value behind music. I will be curious to see if the world values music nearly as much as I have. I have donated to many rock bands and rappers over the years to ensure they can continue to produce their art when few others would".

Yes, there was that time it turned out that Shkreli had funded the growth of punk and hardcore label Collect Records, prompting several of its bands to threaten to terminate their contracts.

Shkreli is not a man to be toyed with though. He continues: "At any time I may cancel this sale and I may even break this album in frustration. I will donate half of the sale proceeds to medical research. I am not selling to raise cash - my companies and I have record amounts of cash on hand. I hope someone with a bigger heart for music can be found for this one-of-a-kind piece and makes it available for the world to hear".

Upon selling the album, Shkreli says that he will destroy any copies he has made and pay legal costs of up to $25,000 for the buyer. So that's nice.

Shkreli was recently convicted of fraud in New York and is currently awaiting sentencing. As previously reported, recently released court documents showed that there were some problems finding impartial jurors to hear the case.

Potential jurors were rejected on a number of grounds. One after saying "I'm aware of the defendant and I hate him", one because they thought Shkreli was "the face of corporate greed in America", one simply because "he kind of looks like a dick", and another because he "disrespected the Wu-Tang Clan".

Whether this latest move is disrespectful to the Wu-Tang is still up for debate. Bidding for the record has already topped $1 million with more than a week to go. Though I'm not sure I would count on those bidding actually intending to pay up. Still, if you got a few spare quid you don't know what to do with, you could throw it into the ring here.

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