Apple Music's US subscribers to pass Spotify's by the summer
Apple Music is set to have more subscribers in the US than Spotify by this summer, according to the Wall Street Journal. The business newspaper reports that Apple's American growth rate now stands at 5%, compared to 2% for global market-leader Spotify.

Given Apple's massive marketing budget and captive audience of hundreds of millions of iPhone users worldwide, it's a bit embarrassing for Apple that it isn't dominant in the streaming market already. If it passes Spotify's US subscriber number at the point expected, it will have taken three years since launch to surpass it's main competitor in its home market.

Meanwhile worldwide, Apple Music continues to trail it's albeit older rival by quite a margin. An Apple spokesperson confirmed to Variety yesterday that its streaming service now has 36 million paying subscribers worldwide, while Spotify announced that it had passed 70 million premium users last month.

If Spotify's free users are also bundled into the mix, then its userbase far exceeds Apple's, which does not offer a free tier (apart from lacklustre radio station Beats 1).

Spotify is particularly dominant in the European market, where it originally launched in 2008. It was made available Stateside in 2011 but initially struggled to compete against existing streaming services there, in particular the free-to-access personalised radio set-ups like Pandora and iHeart Radio. Pandora in particular had a massive head start in the American market, mainly due to it being able to rely on a compulsory licence there.

Of course, any news that skews negative towards Spotify just now could impact on its impending stock market listing. By it listing itself in New York, investors will be particularly aware of the service's performance in the US market, and possibly less aware of what is happening across the Atlantic in countries where Spotify totally dominates.

In other news, music journalist Alex Gale has been named Apple Music's new Head Of Editorial. As well as overseeing written content on Apple Music and iTunes, he will also be involved in some capacity in video and Beats 1.

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Duke Dumont signs publishing admin deal with Kobalt
Songwriter and producer Duke Dumont has signed a new publishing administration deal with Kobalt. The deal covers future work and also includes his share of Katy Perry songs 'Every Day Is A Holiday' and 'Swish Swish'.

"I'm very happy to be working with the team at Kobalt on my future body of recordings", says the producer. "With a solid mechanical system in place, and a recent aggressive approach to acquiring writers, now is a good time to be working with such a team".

Kobalt's Senior Creative Director Dominique Keegan adds: "We are very pleased to announce that Duke Dumont will be joining Kobalt Music. His talent as a producer and artist, and as someone who has been at the forefront of the UK and international house music scene, is very exciting to us and we welcome him to our ever growing creative roster".

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Damon Albarn's Africa Express responds to accusation of exploiting artists
Damon Albarn's Africa Express charity has responded to accusations that it is exploiting musicians by not properly compensating then for the sale of recordings on which they appear.

Two UK-based musicians involved in a recent project in South Africa - Petite Noir and Nabihah Iqbal - have shared a contract they received after said project was completed. In it, they are asked to give up all rights in audio, photographs and video recordings made on the trip for a nominal fee of £1. The music made during the project is intended to be compiled into an album.

Sharing a photograph of the document on Facebook on Sunday - the day the project was finished - Petite Noir, real name Yannick Ilunga, said: "21st [century] colonisation is still alive! I am deeply disappointed in this collaboration between Africa Express as it pertains to African artists".

Going into more detail in a string of tweets yesterday, Iqbal wrote on Twitter: "Last week I participated in Damon Albarn's Africa Express project in South Africa. I got the chance to collaborate with local artists, making music, and it was so inspiring. The project was also a very eye-opening experience for me and it made me realise how things really work".

"At the end of the week all the artists, including myself, received this contract", she continued. "The terms state that in exchange for a nominal £1 fee, Africa Express gets all the rights to all of the music we made, forever. Regarding royalties, they're saying 'we'll pay you if we feel like it'. How is this 'committed to supporting music in Africa'? I have contacted the organisers of Africa Express stating that I cannot sign this contract until it has been amended so that the terms are more egalitarian".

The contract states that the payment of £1 grants Africa Express "all necessary consents" to document the project "in connection with the proposed new Africa Express album".

It also goes on to say that artists should ensure that any material written by them personally is licensed for use on the album "at usual statutory rates". However, unless all artists involved in the project agree that an individual artist wrote any one piece of material, then royalties will be placed into a collective pot and shared equally between them all.

In a statement on Facebook, Africa Express denied exploiting artists, saying that all money it received from the release of the album would be put back into promoting African artists.

"Africa Express is not run to make a profit", it said. "As we pay all the travel, accommodation and other costs for Western artists joining us on trips, we ask them to volunteer their time. They can make a contribution to our costs if they are willing. We do not pay them. All our contracts are negotiated, discussed and agreed, not inflicted".

While the contracts posted online do apply to UK-based Ilunga and Iqbal, the charity added that Africa-based artists involved in the project are not subject to the same agreements.

"The artists in Africa are treated differently, reflecting often different circumstances", it said. "We do pay them for their time. We ensure that all profits made from recordings - after costs - go to artists and the promotion of African music".

It concluded: "We have just finished a fantastic week of collaboration which we hope will create another great record, like 'Maison De Jeunes', 'In C Mali' and 'The Orchestra Of Syrian Musicians' before it, that will benefit the performers who joined us - and hopefully attract many more listeners for some wonderful musicians".

Another artist involved, producer Blue May, defended the contract on Facebook, saying: "We were all aware that Africa Express is a not for profit organisation. It was clear for us all to see that it must have cost a lot of money to organise such an amazing project, to bring us together, house us and feed over 40 of us for a week. It was abundantly clear that those who had organised it had worked exceedingly hard to make it the brilliant experience it was".

He continued: "I can understand how that contract, when read out of context, looks bad. I can see how easy it is to make it look like the whole Africa Express experience is some elaborate way of exploiting the people who contributed to it. What I cannot see or understand is how anyone who was actually there, who experienced it first hand, could believe that this was the intention of the organisers".

Africa Express was founded in 2005, three years after the release of Damon Albarn's 'Mali Music' album, which saw him collaborate with various musicians in the country. Since then, it has taken various Western artists to African countries to work on similar collaborations.

The latest trip to South Africa involved Albarn, regular contributor Nick Zinner, Ghetts, Spoek Mathambo and more.

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We Are Scientists announce new album and tour dates
We Are Scientists have announced that they will release new album, 'Megaplex', on 27 Apr. They've also announced new tour dates for the UK and Ireland in May.

"In the past we've used our music to educate, to enlighten, to awaken people to the depth and complexity of moral concerns", says bassist Chris Cain. "This time, we really wanted to drop a fun-bomb. Something to dance or fuck to".

Elaborating further, frontman Keith Murray adds: "At this point in our career, we've written so many songs - the pool for this record alone was something like 90 songs deep - that we know exactly what we want out of a We Are Scientists record".

He goes on: "We want it to be taut, to bang hard, to have a big hook every four seconds or so. We don't have to be precious about which songs make it onto a record; we can listen to the ones that didn't make it at home, on our own time. 'Megaplex' is just the ten most delicious songs that we have - a stacked-up compound of entertainment".

Of their career so far, he continues: "It takes a lot of hard work, a lot of honing of craft to make it to six records. I mean, the Velvet Underground never made six albums. The Smiths didn't. Pavement, Guns N Roses, The Stooges - none of them could do it. So, I guess we're just objectively better than those bands now? It's just a mathematical fact, right?"

Continuing in that vein, he says: "Van Halen made six with David Lee Roth but only four with Sammy Hagar, so I guess we're better than Hagar-era Van Halen but only just as good as Roth-era? Which, saying it out loud, makes total sense, yeah. Our brilliant work in pop song writing is unsurpassed. "It will probably make the We Are Scientists Name live beyond eternity".

The tour dates, including existing shows, are looking like this:

28 Mar: Southampton, The Joiners
29 Mar: Stoke, Sugar Mill
30 Mar: Milton Keynes, Craufurd Arms
31 Mar: Stockton Calling
1 Apr: Hull, The Welly
2 Apr: Bristol,
2 May: Bristol, Thekla
3 May: Concorde 2
4 May: London, Shepherds Bush Empire
5 May: Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
6 May: Birmingham, Institute 3
8 May: Leeds, Church
9 May: Manchester, Gorilla
10 May: Glasgow, The Garage
11 May: Belfast, Limelight 2
12 May: Dublin, Academy
13 May: Sheffield, Academy 2

This is exactly what new single 'One In, One Out' sounds like.

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Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden announce new collaboration as Lost Girls
Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden - an artist in his own right as well as being a member of Hval's live band - have announced that they are coming together for a new collaborative project, Lost Girls.

Taking inspiration from Alan Moore's graphic novel of the same name, the duo will get things started with a two track release, 'Feelings', on 2 Mar. Both tracks - 'Drive' and 'Accept' - are pushing fifteen minutes in length and are driven by a desire to experiment.

"['Drive'] kept changing because we were improvising a lot together", says Hval. "I was using words to make sense of time and music - lyrics as a compositional tool - which I found really interesting, this interplay between words as meaning and words as something that could build musical structures".

A version of 'Drive' has appeared in Hval's live sets in recent years, though - due to the complexity of their recording set up - some of the Lost Girls output can't be performed live.

"This is the death of the material", explains Hval. "The transcendence from being something ever-changing to something we can give to others that doesn't belong to us anymore. It's also an opportunity for us to keep making things".

Watch a trailer for 'Feeling' here.

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Line-up for Frank Zappa hologram tour announced
The line-up of artists involved in the upcoming touring Frank Zappa hologram show has been announced. And this time there's no mention of Dweezil Zappa.

Longtime Zappa players Ray White, Mike Keneally, Scott Thunes, Robert Martin and Joe 'Vaultmeister' Travers will make up the permanent touring line-up. Meanwhile, occasional guests confirmed to be involved include Steve Vai, Warren Cuccurullo, Ian Underwood, Vinnie Colaiuta, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Arthur Barrow and Ed Mann.

Announcing the news at Pollstar Live, Zappa's son Ahmet Zappa said: "As a futurist, and hologram enthusiast, Frank fearlessly broke through boundary after boundary as an artist and in honouring his indomitable spirit we're about to do it again, 25 years after his passing. This mind-melting show we're putting together celebrates the music, often surreal imagery and humour synonymous with Frank. We will be pushing the limits of what anyone has seen holographically on stage before in a live venue".

He continued: "Circumstances, objects, places and subject matter from Frank's songs and imagination will be brought to life for the first time on stage. We are anthropomorphizing Frank's music, so his own hand drawn illustrations, classic imagery from his album artwork and characters from his songs can all interact and perform on stage. And let's not forget, Frank himself will be rocking his fans, alongside his bandmates like nobody's business".

Last week it was rumoured that a Prince hologram would appear during Justin Timberlake's Super Bowl halftime show (in the end it was a 2D projection). This prompted a backlash - not least from Prince himself, who in an interview a decade ago called the idea of such things "the most demonic thing imaginable".

No such posthumous complaints from Frank Zappa will be arising, insisted Ahmet, saying: "My father and I actively discussed 3D and 'holography' and it was a concept he actively engaged in. He actually devoted half a chapter of his 'The Real Frank Zappa Book' to this subject. This is a love letter and a journey celebrating the genius artistry of Frank Zappa. On a personal note, I feel like I am finishing something my father started years ago".

When plans for the hologram show were initially announced last year, Ahmet Zappa hinted that his more musical siblings Moon Unit and Dweezil could be involved. However, Dweezil expressed surprise at his name being mentioned - and at the existence of a hologram show at all. He then used the announcement to draw attention to his ongoing legal battle with the Zappa Family Trust over his 'Zappa Plays Zappa' show.

Not sharing his brother's certainty that Frank would have been delighted by the show, Dweezil also began selling t-shirts emblazoned 'No fake Frank'.

Meanwhile, the hologram-heavy Zappa show has been put together by Eyellusion - a company of which Ahmet Zappa is also EVP Business Development. The company recently completed a hologram-based tour featuring late rock singer Ronnie James Dio.

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Justin Timberlake announces UK shows
Justin Timberlake has a new album out, as I'm sure you know. But did you know that he'll be touring the UK in June and July? I hope not, because it would be a waste of time me writing down all the dates here if you do.

Tickets will go on general sale on Monday, by the way. There's a pre-sale that starts this Thursday though. There'll also be various VIP packages, like getting a stool to sit on and stuff, details of which you can find here.

Anyway, these dates, which I'm assuming you want a look at, are here:

27 Jun: Birmingham, Barclaycard Arena
1 Jul: Manchester Arena
5 Jul: Glasgow, Hydro
9 Jul: London, O2 Arena

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Paul Simon announces farewell tour
As hinted at when his upcoming appearance at London's British Summer Time festival in July was billed as a "farewell show", Paul Simon is bringing his performing career to an end. He'll begin dates in Canada in May, with other UK shows in July

"I've often wondered what it would feel like to reach the point where I'd consider bringing my performing career to a natural end", says Simon. "Now I know: it feels a little unsettling, a touch exhilarating and something of a relief. I love making music, my voice is still strong, and my band is a tight, extraordinary group of gifted musicians. I think about music constantly. I am very grateful for a fulfilling career and, of course, most of all to the audiences who heard something in my music that touched their hearts".

He will play the following dates in the UK and Ireland in addition to the aforementioned British Summer Time date in Hyde Park on 15 Jul...

10 Jul: Manchester Arena
11 Jul: Glasgow, Hydro
13 Jul: Dublin, RDS Arena

Simon first suggested that he might be planning to retire in 2016, when he told the New York Times: "You're coming towards the end. Showbiz doesn't hold any interest for me. None".

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Pandora, Mixcloud, BRIT Awards, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Royal Trux have signed a new deal with Fat Possum Records to digitally re-issue their entire back catalogue. Ten album and EP releases will be made available through April and May. From 1993's 'Cats And Dogs', here's 'The Flag'.

• Pandora has promoted VP Revenue Operations David Gerbitz to the roll of Chief Operating Officer. He replaces Sara Clemens, who left the company for Twitch in December.

• Mixcloud has hired Joe Danvers-McCabe as its Senior Product Manager. He joins from Boiler Room, where he held the same position. "I'm so THRILLED to apply my professional experience in digital media as well as my personal experience as a musician and producer to help Mixcloud continue to expand and function better than ever", he says.

• Rae Sremmurd have announced that they will release their third album, 'Sr3mm', later this year. From it, here's 'T'ed Up'.

• A Perfect Circle will release their first album for fourteen years, 'Eat The Elephant', on 20 Apr. From it, here's new track 'Talk Talk'.

• Ahead of the 2 Mar release of new album 'A Productive Cough', Titus Andronicus have released new single, 'Above The Bodega (Local Business)'.

• The Cure's Robert Smith will curate this year's Meltdown Festival at London's Southbank Centre. "I am honoured and excited", he says.

• For the fifth year running, YouTube will have a livestream of the BRIT Awards, bringing the show to an international audience. It will be hosted this year by Conor Maynard and BBC Radio 1Xtra's Yasmin Evans. Maynard is "super excited", while Evans "can't wait to have some fun" on the night. "I'm excited", concedes YouTube's Lyor Cohen. BRITs boss Geoff Taylor is "THRILLED".

• Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily - updated every Friday.

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New Zealand festival goes alcohol-free after failing to get licence
New Zealand festival Shipwrecked went ahead completely free of alcohol last weekend. I know, imagine! Rather than being some stand on public health, the booze ban was actually the result of organisers failing to get the required alcohol licence.

An application for said licence was apparently made in December, but was turned down following opposition. An appeal hearing was scheduled, but did not leave enough time before the event for a decision to be made. Some clearly hoped that this would cause the whole festival to be cancelled, but it went ahead nonetheless.

Police said ahead of the event that they would be on site to ensure that there was no alcohol, saying in a statement: "Specialised advice has been supplied by the Police Alcohol Harm Reduction Officers in relation to liability should the occupiers sell or expose alcohol on the site, or allow alcohol to be brought onto the site, under the Sale And Supply Of Alcohol Act 2012".

Environmental campaigners argue that the event is disruptive to the rare birds that live in neighbouring woodland. However, the owner of the site on which it takes place, Arnim Pierau, says that the event has been treated unfairly.

"Our applications were made within given timeframes", he told Stuff.co.nz. "It would have been nice to have had alcohol on site, and would have made a tonne of money, but this sort of event doesn't rely on alcohol".

He added that he wasn't convinced by the argument that the event had a negative impact on local wildlife, saying: "Everywhere, when people can't get what they want, they pull out a rare lizard".

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