WEDNESDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2017 | COMPLETEMUSICUPDATE.COM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TODAY'S TOP STORY: Cross-sector trade group UK Music has published the latest edition of its 'Measuring Music' report, which seeks to put a figure on the contribution the British music industry makes to the country's economy. This year's report also includes some insights on what the music community thinks about bloody Brexit... [READ MORE] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Music provided a £4.4 billion boost to the UK economy in 2016 In terms of your top line figures, UK Music says that the music industry's contribution to the British economy increased by 6% in 2016 so that the sector's so called 'Gross Value Added' was £4.4 billion. Of that, over £1.1 billion was generated by the music rights sector, breaking down as £640 million from recordings and £473 million from songs. Live then generated £1 billion. Though it is the music makers - artists, musicians, songwriters and composers - who together make the biggest contribution to the economy, at £2 billion. The UK music business is benefiting, of course, from the recorded music industry's return to growth globally, fuelled by the streaming boom. Though, according to UK Music's figures, music publishing and live saw much bigger GVA increases. While recorded music saw growth of 5%, publishing was up 15% and live up 14%. Nevertheless, when commenting on the latest edition of 'Measuring Music', UK Music boss Michael Dugher's customary post-brag gripe focused on the big issue for the record industry - that pesky value gap and fucking YouTube - rather than the challenges faced by the live side of the business: ie secondary ticketing and the struggling grass roots venues. Said Dugher: "The headline figures in this year's 'Measuring Music' report are undoubtedly excellent news. The number of new jobs created in the UK rose at a faster pace than the rest of the employment market and our export figures shot up across the board. The outlook for the music business is better than it has been in years". But, never forget the 'but'. "But", Dugher added, "we urgently need to address the 'value gap' on the new and exciting platforms that many people now use to listen to music. Unlike subscription services, those platforms often offer little adequate reward to the investors and creators of the music that drives so much of their traffic. There is still too often a culture of denial from the big tech firms. The way people listen to music may be changing, but certain fundamental responsibilities must continue. It's time for the free ride to come to an end". In terms of the Brexit survey, the trade group found that just 2% of the music community expected the UK's exiting of the European Union to have a positive impact on their business. Increased bureaucracy for European tours, new duties on discs and merch manufactured elsewhere in Europe, and the fact the tech lobby is generally more influential in London than Brussels, are all possible Brexit concerns for music makers. When asked "what impact will Brexit have on your work", 50% said they feared a negative impact, a fifth expected it to have no impact, while 28% gave the correct answer of "we just don't know". For more on the possible impact of Brexit on the UK music business, check this report on the discussion that occurred on that very topic at CMU Insights' Export Conference at The Great Escape earlier this year. |
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Taylor Swift accused of lyrical theft in Shake It Off... again It's songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler who reckon Swift's record nabbed lyrics from one of their songs, that song being the 2001 3LW track 'Playas Gon Play'. Hall and Butler would have sued Swift et al sooner over the lyrical theft contained within 'Shake It Off', but it took this long for them to be willing to admit they wrote 'Playas Gon Play'. The alleged lyrical theft occurs in the key 'Shake It Off' line "Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play/And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate", which Hall and Butler reckon is a full-on, straight-up, undeniable, in-your-face rip off of their lyric "The playas gon play/Them haters gonna hate". Hmm, maybe. And if you're sitting there thinking, well, OK, those lines are pretty similar, but players playing and haters hating is a pretty generic concept, well, just wait until you hear what Hall and Butler's lawyer Gerard Fox has to say. "The combination of playas/players playing along with hatas/haters hating may seem like common parlance today", states the legal man. "However, in 2001 it was completely original and unique". Though, if you're sitting there thinking, "yeah, Foxy makes a good point", well, just wait until you hear what Swift's rep has to say. "This is a ridiculous claim", don't you know. "It's nothing more than a money grab", you should note. "The law is simple and clear", remember. "They do not have a case". And that may be true. Of course, the law is rarely simple and clear, though this isn't the first plagiarism claim over 'Shake It Off', musician Jessie Braham having previously accused Swift and her co-writers of lifting lyrics from his song 'Haters Gonna Hate'. A judge dismissed that case with the hilarious declaration that the "defendants have shaken off this lawsuit". It remains to be seen if the new litigation has any more substance to it than Braham's, or whether - once again - Swift and co will be able to - wait for it - here we go - it's coming - whether Swift and co will be able to... SHAKE IT OFF! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! -------------------------------------------------- New lawsuit filed over Santa Claus Is Coming To Town royalties According to TMZ, the family of Haven Gillespie accuse Memory Lane Music of not handing over all the monies they were due from the late songwriter's work over the last two years. The lawsuit says that, under the family's deal with the publisher, they should see 85% of all monies generated by Gillespie's songs, the most lucrative of which is the Christmas classic. It then alleges that monies have been going unpaid of late, and that the publisher has admitted as much. The Gillespie family reckon they are owned more than $700,000, and their lawsuit seeks to get that money. The publishing firm is yet to respond. 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town' was last in the news in 2015 when the family of its other writer, J Fred Coots, successfully - on appeal - exercised the termination right under American copyright law to reclaim his cut of the song rights off EMI Music Publishing. |
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The Prodigy sign to BMG for 2018 album Commenting on the deal, BMG's recordings boss Korda Marshall said: "The Prodigy are one of those bands who define an entire sound and can justifiably claim to be among the architects of contemporary music. We are delighted to have the opportunity to release what will undoubtedly be one of the most important records of 2018". Meanwhile, the band's Liam Howlett said: "[I'm] very happy to be joining the BMG family for the next Prodigy album release under my Take Me To The Hospital label. [They are] great guys who totally understand our band... Now let's make some noise!" Howlett is not entirely new to the BMG family. The publishing side of the company already oversees his entire catalogue. |
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IFPI looks at global music consumption, concludes that YouTube is evil While a key conclusion of both the UK and the US research was that younger people are listening to less radio and fewer full albums, the IFPI puts the spotlight on something different, with the headline to its new research going something like this: "YouTube is ripping everyone off. Bloody YouTube, going around ripping everyone off. Oh God, that flippin YouTube. Makes me livid it does. YouTube! Don't talk to me about YouTube. Bunch of rip off merchants, YouTube. Aaaaaaaargh... YouTube". The IFPI - along with trade groups representing record labels and music publishers around the world - has been banging on about the 'value gap' for ages now, of course. The complaint is that user-upload platforms like YouTube exploit the copyright safe harbour to secure a better deal from the music industry than other streaming services. This means that - while these sites have very higher numbers of users and plays - they pay over much lower royalties to the labels and publishers. Said value gap remains at the top of the IFPI's gripe list, hence the focus on it in this new research. The top line figure from that research is that 45% of music consumers are now getting their tunes through licensed streaming services - up from 37% last year. That increases sharply the younger the audience gets, reaching 85% among 13-15 year olds. But the licensed streaming service many of those people are using is YouTube. Bloody YouTube. The research reckons that 85% of YouTube users go there for music each month, 76% seeking music they already know, rather than discovering new tunes. And is YouTube paying labels and publishers a suitable figure each month given that level of consumption? Hell, no. Bloody YouTube. "This report shows some amazing trends defining this new era, how fans around the world are enjoying recorded music and connecting with the artists they love in so many ways", says IFPI CEO Frances Moore. "The increasingly digital global music environment did not just happen. It requires an enormous amount of work from record companies and their partners to license over 40 million tracks to hundreds of digital services around the world". She continues: "The report also highlights the ongoing challenges for the industry. It provides further evidence of the value gap - the mismatch between the value that user-upload services, such as YouTube, extract from music and the revenue returned to those who invest in and create it. The global music community is united in urging policy makers to act to address this". The record industry's other main gripe-of-the-moment is also partly a side effect of music being on YouTube. The report reckons that 40% of consumers still access music through illegitimate means, and most are using stream-ripping services. Stream-ripping - converting temporary streams into permanent downloads - happens across all streaming services of course, but is particularly prevalent on YouTube, hence why the recently closed YouTube-mp3 was one of the internet's most popular websites. And just as streaming is more popular among young people, so too is stream-ripping. The IFPI reckons as many as 53% of 16-24 year olds are using such technology to download poorly compressed audio files from the world wide web. Bloody young people, going around ripping everyone off. Oh God, those flippin young people. Makes me livid it does. Young people! Don't talk to me about young people. Bunch of rip off merchants, young people. Aaaaaaaargh... YoungPeople". |
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Islington Assembly Hall goes 'mobile first' via Dice alliance Plus, of course, mobile tickets are much harder to tout. To that end, mobile ticketing has long been, well, touted as a tool for tackling touting, though that only really works once paper tickets are phased out entirely and everything shifts over to mobile. Under the new partnership, the Assembly Hall will primarily focus on mobile ticketing, though with the option of picking up tickets from the venue on the day of the show for the luddites. Confirming its new deal with the Islington venue, Dice's Russ Tannen said: "In a world where you can travel internationally using just your phone, we believe this is not a step into the future but simply the present. When venues ditch tout-friendly paper tickets and embrace mobile, literally everyone wins except for the touts. Islington Assembly Hall is the ideal venue partner, it's an iconic London venue with a forward-thinking team behind it". Speaking for said iconic London Venue, Lucinda Brown adds: "We're so excited to be working with Dice and to be leading the way as a music venue offering mobile-first tickets. Through this partnership, we are making a stand against touts and allowing fans to have more control". She goes on: "Giving our customers the best experience we can is at the heart of what we do at Islington Assembly Hall and by making the ticketing journey as seamless as possible, we're ensuring they can focus on what they really want - enjoying seeing their favourite bands and artists perform in our venue!" |
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Zex dropped by label of sexual assault claims The cancelling of the band's record deal seemingly comes, at least in part, as a result of the Beyonce story. A spokesperson for the label told Pitchfork that it had received several emails making claims against by the band's guitarist Jo Capitalcide in the 24 hours after the mis-pressing news broke. In a statement overnight, the label said: "In light of ongoing and recent accounts of alleged sexual assault tied to Zex guitarist Jo Capitalcide, the routine boycotts of promoters, venues and record stores when the band is booked or carried, and information shared first-hand by singer Gretchen Steel to the label about Jo's behaviour in their open relationship - which corroborates one of the accounts sent to the label by a survivor within the past 24 hours - Magic Bullet Records is hereby dropping Zex from its roster of artists, effective immediately". Steel told Pitchfork that the claims made in the label's statement were "absolutely untrue", denying that she had "corroborated any story". She also denied that there were "routine boycotts" of the band in their hometown of Ottawa, although acknowledged there are some issues there, saying: "What happened in Ottawa is just personal issues of people not liking each other, that's it. It's not anything else". In a later written statement Steel said that the band knew nothing of any accusations against Capitalcide beyond what had appeared in Magic Bullet's statement. The label subsequently published screengrabs of a Facebook Messenger conversation yesterday between Steel and label boss Brent Eyestone. In it, he tells her that he's had an email that "lined up" with a story that she had previously told him about "Jo thinking that he broke that girl's pelvis". Adding that record stores and the label's distribution company are already being pressured not to carry the band's records, he then adds that he is ending his label's relationship with the band. "I've got to keep the doors open and work with a clear conscience", he writes. "I can't do that with Jo and this mounting shitstorm, unfortunately". Steel responds by saying that "he didn't actually break a pelvis - it was just a turn of phrase", adding that this is "the worst news I've received all year". Magic Bullet is offering refunds to anyone who has purchased either of the band's two albums that it has released. The company has also made donations to anti-sexual violence charity RAINN and Cornerstone Housing For Women in Ottowa. |
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Justice release new video for Pleasure 1. It's fucking art, dipshit. Of the video, director Alexandre Courtès says: "Xavier [de Rosnay] and Gaspard [Augé, aka Justice] had a concept in mind of a supernatural love scene: an extrapolation of feelings during sex, a symbiosis. I fell in love with the idea, as I had something similar in mind for a while. So to combine their ideas with mine was great. For a long time, I've wanted to play with strong vivid colours and bright tubes that travel through the bodies of characters... and they liked the idea too. We ended up shooting a bold, sensual sex scene, with lavish colours". The lighting really is exceptional. So maybe you could just argue that you're doing some research into lighting when you're challenged about watching this video at work. Do you have any responsibility for lighting in your job? Maybe should try to get that written into your job description quickly now. |
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Andy Burrows, Ticketmaster France, Dolly Parton, more Other notable announcements and developments today... • Music publisher Warner/Chappell has signed one of those worldwide deals with Andy Burrows, who you may know from his drumming days in Razorlight, though he's done plenty more interesting things than that. Burrows is "so pleased" by the new deal. • Following the previously reported closure of booking agency UTA's Toronto office, one of the agents who worked there, Zaed Maqbool, is relocating to Dubai to work for Live Nation. And why the hell not? Less snow though. • Charlotte Broutin is the new Head Of Music at Ticketmaster France. Obviously! She joins the Live Nation ticketing firm from Fnac's France Billet. • Here's that new single by definite non-Twitter user Morrissey that we mentioned yesterday. • Dolly Parton is releasing a children's album on 13 Oct titled 'I Believe In You'. "My first album was released 50 years ago and it's been an amazing 50 years since then", she says. "I am very excited that now I'm coming out with my first children's album in all of those 50 years". Profits will go to her Imagination Library charity. • Kiran Leonard went to see the Pope visiting Portugal to canonise a couple of kids. Photographs and video of the trip make up the video for his new single, 'Something Beyond Reason'. • Pom Poko have released the video for new single 'You'll Be Fine'. Don't watch it if you have an irrational fear of bananas. • Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily - updated every Friday. |
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The Killers to tour as a duo: "It's hard to get four people on schedule" Guitarist Dave Keuning and bassist Mark Stoermer have both decided not to join them on the road. So you'll have to make do with session musicians playing the guitar and bass parts. You'll still get Flowers' lyrics delivered as intended though. Oh God. "There was no real perfect way to handle it", Flowers' told The Daily Star about his bandmates' decision to not join this tour. "I hope that people come to the gigs and aren't let down because a lot of heart is still going into these shows and a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this album". Vannucci adds that this does not mean that the band are splitting up, saying: "The well has not run dry. Five years is a long time between albums. I look at the work other bands put out, maybe we haven't done enough. [But] there's more to come, because I wouldn't be happy if this was it, but it's hard to get four people on schedule". Those scheduling issues have already hindered the promotion of the band's new record, with Keuning not appearing in promo photos taken by Anton Corbijn. When the first of those was published in June, the band said: "This band has been around for fifteen years. We've become fathers, husbands, even scholars. Our personal schedules conflict with our business schedules from time to time. You won't see Dave in the Anton Corbijn photos we did for the new album, but he loves them. We all do". The Killers' current tour is set to hit the UK and Ireland in November. |
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