Google bigs up its new ticket tout advertising rules, FanFair says more to be done
Google has been bigging up its new rules that aim to force secondary ticketing websites to be more upfront about their unofficial status when advertising on the search engine.

The web giant unveiled the new rules and a new certification system for ticket resellers last year, but has been talking about them again as they actually come into effect. The aim is to help consumers better distinguish between approved primary sellers of tickets, and the websites where all the touts do their touting.

Speaking to Radio 4 programme 'You & Yours', Google's Head Of Advertising Communications for the EMEA region, Jennifer Kaiser, said earlier this week: "We felt like we needed to do more to make sure the advertising of secondary ticketing is clear on our platform. To carry on advertising on Google, secondary sites can't use words like 'official', they can't use the artist or venue name in the website URL, and they'll need to clearly say they are a reseller at the top of their page".

Kaiser added that it's not for Google to try to stop the resale of tickets for profit online, but that it can ensure that consumers are better informed about who they are buying tickets from. She continued: "At the end of the day secondary ticketing is completely lawful and it's a consumer right to resell your ticket if you want to. [But] if the government wants to push for further rules we would certainly comply with those rules".

The new Google advertising regulations responded to calls from anti-ticket-touting campaigners - most notably the FanFair campaign - after research suggested many consumers are confused about the difference between primary and secondary ticketing sites. Misleading communications by the latter - and especially big bad Viagogo - contribute to that confusion.

Said campaigners have generally welcomed Google's new regulations, although they are also watching with interest quite how they work in practice. Kaiser insists that Google is committed to ensuring its new rules are fully complied with. She concluded: "We're not just going to certify resellers and go away. We'll be constantly making sure they maintain the criteria in order to run advertising".

For its part, FanFair reckons that this week's developments are a good and sizable first step, but there is still more to be done. It said in a statement this morning: "FanFair welcomes Google's proactive involvement to bring further transparency to the ticket resale market. The rollout of a global certification system for ticket resellers is a big step forward and already achieving positive impacts, with the largest secondary platforms now providing clearer disclosure on their own websites about the true nature of their business".

It continued: "However, more needs to be done, and especially in one crucial area. In their online advertising, the largest resale sites still fail to make clear that they are secondary platforms, listing secondhand tickets. Given their continued prominence on search pages, the implication remains that these are authorised primary sellers or 'official sites'. That is simply not the case. Until their ad messaging is amended, we suspect UK ticket buyers will continue to be misled".

With that in mind, FanFair says: "This is something we look forward to discussing with Google and will urge them to act upon. Unless secondary ticketing sites are forced to 'be honest', the full consumer benefits of certification are unlikely to be achieved".

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Jean-Michel Jarre leads call for European Parliament to "shape a fairer digital market"
As all the copyright directive chitter chatter continues in Brussels, musicians Jean-Michel Jarre and Angelique Kidjo have both put their names to an open letter to the European Parliament urging MEPs to back safe harbour reform.

The draft copyright directive spent all of last year working its way through the motions with a flurry of amendments being proposed. There are various articles in the directive of relevance to the music community, though it is the clause that seeks to reform the safe harbour that has got the most attention. This, of course, seeks to increase the liabilities of user-upload websites like YouTube, mainly to strengthen the negotiating hand of music rights owners so to force up the royalties the Google video sites pays.

While all that has been going on, YouTube has entered into new licensing deals with the majors, and on the back of that some record label execs seem to be warming to the big bad Google business once again. Though that didn't stop a stack of music industry trade bodies signing a recent letter to the new EU presidency, urging it to back safe harbour reform as the copyright directive reaches its final stages.

Jarre and Kidjo have now written to the European Parliament in their guise as President and Vice-President of CISAC, the global grouping that brings together all the song right repping performing rights organisations around the world. The CISAC membership also includes some collecting societies representing other creative sectors, so this week's letter was also signed by visual artist Miquel Barcelo and film directors Marcelo Pineyro and Jia Zhang-ke, who are all also VPs of CISAC.

In their letter to all those MEPs, they write: "The proposals by the European Commission, currently being discussed in the European Parliament, are among the most important copyright reforms of the last 20 years in Europe. They are a first step in the right direction, offering a historic opportunity to bring fairer remuneration for creators and drive economic growth and jobs in the creative industries".

Honing in on safe harbour reform and the music industry's 'value gap' campaign, the letter goes on: "In particular, Europe now has a chance to address the 'transfer of value' or 'value gap' which is caused by loopholes in the law allowing some of the world's largest digital platforms to deny fair remuneration to millions of creators. To do this effectively, it is essential for the legislation to ensure fair remuneration by user uploaded content platforms such as YouTube. EU law should not be a shield to allow such platforms to make vast revenues from creative works while not fairly rewarding the creators".

Noting that CISAC - as a global organisation - is hoping Europe can lead on all this, they add: "The proposed copyright reform puts Europe in a unique position of international leadership. As creators representing regions around the world - Africa, Asia, North and South America and Europe - we are watching events in Brussels with great hope. We know that our governments are also monitoring the situation very closely and may follow up with similar laws".

In conclusion, Jarre et al state: "Thousands of artists and authors within Europe have already voiced their solidarity with the European Commission's proposals. We now send our own message of encouragement to take this legislation to its full potential. Members of Parliament, we ask you to take this opportunity to shape a fairer digital market for creators in the 21st century".

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A court may have overturned BMG's safe harbour win, but RIAA reckons the ruling helps its own ISP litigation
Last week an American appeals court overturned BMG's $25 million win against internet service provider Cox Communications. However, that's not stopping the Recording Industry Association Of America from using that ruling to try to strengthen its own similar legal case against another net firm, this time Grande Communications.

The record label repping trade group sued Grande Communications last year in a case that has many parallels to the BMG lawsuit against Cox Communications. Both Cox and Grande are accused of failing to deal with repeat copyright infringers among their respective customer bases. That failure, the music industry argues, means the internet companies should no longer qualify for safe harbour protection under US copyright law. Which means they could be held liable for the copyright infringement of their customers.

Although BMG's 2015 win against Cox Communications was overturned on appeal last week, that was mainly on a technicality linked to instructions provided to the jury in the original trial. Other elements of the appeals court judgement actually strengthened BMG's case against Cox.

The RIAA is now using that judgement to try to strengthen its case, which Grande is trying to get dismissed. In a new legal filing earlier this week, the RIAA stated that last week's appeals court ruling "affirmed the holdings ... that [we] rely on here, and expressly rejected the central arguments [Grande] advance in their motions to
dismiss".

The RIAA's submission goes through various things in last week's ruling that it reckons helps its case, including that the appeals court "held that wilful blindness is sufficient to satisfy the knowledge requirement for contributory infringement".

It goes on: "Grande has already admitted that it received notices from [anti-piracy agency] Rightscorp and, to use Grande's own phrase, did not 'meaningfully investigate' them. Thus, even if this court were to apply the [appeals court's] 'wilful blindness' standard, the level of knowledge that Grande has effectively admitted exceeds the level of knowledge that the [court] held was 'powerful evidence' sufficient to establish liability for contributory infringement".

For its part, while Grande concedes that it received a flood of takedown notices from Rightscorp and that it didn't really do much with them, it argues that that was because the paperwork supplied by the anti-piracy agency was generally flawed, and therefore unactionable. It remains to be seen if that existing argument is sufficient for Grande to avoid being deemed 'wilfully blind' to the infringement on its networks.

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Sony/ATV promotes Lettice Summerscale
Sony/ATV in the UK has announced the promotion of Lettice Summerscale to the role of VP Marketing, Digital And Catalogue Promotion.

"Lettice has made a swift ascent through the publishing ranks since joining us", says the publisher's President Guy Moot. "She has quickly forged key relationships with all the main DSPs as an innovative, go-to playlist curator, plugging both our mainstream repertoire and catalogue to them. This knowledge and expertise is increasingly being utilised by the DSPs, our writers and their representation".

He continues: "Her understanding of how to use social media channels means we are able to provide a unique and unparallelled service to our writers both new and old, allowing us to take advantage of the opportunities out there for promoting and marketing the catalogue via these channels. Her regular signature 'dish', the Twitter Takeover, with guests such as Eddy Grant and Gorgon City is an eagerly-anticipated event. I am absolutely THRILLED to recognise her talents with this move".

Summerscale adds: "I am really excited to embark on this next stage of my career at Sony/ATV. Since I started with the company, Guy has inspired me with his vision and recognition of the importance of digital marketing in the rapidly-changing music publishing business, in particular across streaming and social media. I am honoured to have the support of Guy and the wider team here, and am so pleased to be able to continue to promote the greatest song catalogue and best songwriters in the world".

As alluded to by Moot, Summerscale joined Sony/ATV as Marketing Co-ordinator in 2011. Since then she has been promoted through various positions in the company, and was most recently Head Of Marketing, PR & Communications.

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Quincy Jones not much of a Beatles fan either
Quincy Jones recently made headlines when he proclaimed Taylor Swift to be one of "the people that don't wanna do the work" when it comes to songwriting. In the same interview he said that Elvis "couldn't sing". It seems he's developing a shtick, because he's at it again in a new interview with Vulture. Targets this time include Michael Jackson and The Beatles.

As one of the people who worked with Jackson most during his life, Jones is first asked to demystify something about the late pop star. "He stole a lot of songs", comes the unexpected reply. Why? "Greedy, man. Greedy".

Off on a roll, he turns his attention to The Beatles. On his first impression of the band, he says: "They were the worst musicians in the world. They were no-playing motherfuckers. Paul was the worst bass player I ever heard. And Ringo? Don't even talk about it".

He goes on to claim that during one studio session, jazz drummer Ronnie Verrell had to be brought in secretly to record over Starr's drum tracks. "Great guy though", he adds of the official Beatles drummer.

U2 also aren't making good music, because "there's too much pressure on the band". However, he won't have a bad word said against Bono. "When I go to Dublin, Bono makes me stay at his castle because Ireland is so racist", he states. "Bono's my brother, man. He named his son after me".

Elsewhere in the interview, Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein and all rap music also come in for criticism. But for all the negative talk, he also says he's positive about the future of the world, if not the present.

"We're the worst we've ever been, but that's why we're seeing people try and fix it", he says. "Feminism: Women are saying they're not going to take it anymore. Racism: People are fighting it. God is pushing the bad in our face to make people fight back".

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Daphne & Celeste announce second album
Daphne & Celeste and back. Properly back. You probably forgot that they'd already been back, but that doesn't matter, because now they are back again. And this time, there's an album.

The pop duo you remember for being fun/novelty/annoying/having bottles of piss thrown at them at the Reading Festival [delete as applicable] had a fairly short-lived career in 1999/2000. It probably went on for slightly longer than you might have expected though. I mean, they got an entire album out of it. It went to 140 in the UK charts. Hence the abrupt end to their ambitions.

Then, back in 2015, they returned with a new single, 'You & I Alone', produced by Max Tundra. There was talk of an album, but nothing ever came of it, which is why you'd forgotten all of this.

But wait! Something has come of it! There is going to be a second Daphne & Celeste album. It is called 'Daphne & Celeste Save The World' and it will be out on 30 Mar. Thirteen new songs produced by Max Tundra. One of those songs poses a question I often ask myself, 'Whatever Happened To Yazz?'

"Hey folks", say the duo in a statement. "We are a couple of humans named Daphne and Celeste. You haven't seen us for a while, but we've been busy making something very special for you all".

Anyway, they've got a new single out called 'BB', which may or may not be a swipe at Ed Sheeran.

Here also is a trailer for the record.

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Piano Day returns, Barbican announces special event
Nils Frahm's Piano Day is back for another year. For the fourth time, the 88th day of the year (usually 29 Mar, unless it's a leap year) will be a day celebrating the 88-keyed musical instrument known as the piano.

Numerous events will take place worldwide, with London's involvement focussed on an event at the Milton Court Concert Hall, promoted by the Barbican. It will host performances by piano users Poppy Ackroyd, Marina Baranova and Florian Christl.

Commenting on the event as a whole, Frahm says: "Why does the world need a Piano Day? For many reasons. But mostly, because it doesn't hurt to celebrate the piano and everything around it: performers, composers, piano builders, tuners, movers and most important, the listener".

Tickets for the Milton Court event go on sale this Friday. More info here.

For more on Piano Day as a whole, click here.

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Craig David to take part on Youth Music's Give A Gig Week
Craig David is one of the artists taking part in this year's Youth Music Give A Gig Week, which takes place next month.

Launched last year, the event sees Youth Music ask artists to perform in aid of the music education charity. The aim is to have around 100 fundraising shows taking place over the space of a week.

"I'm very happy to be part of Give A Gig Week from as far away as LA, where I'll be making a donation from my shows there to support the great work Youth Music does", says Craig David. "Music has transformed my life and I want all young people to have the chance to develop their musical creativity and achieve their ambitions".

He continues: "Youth Music has been providing these kinds of opportunities for years to young people facing difficult circumstances in their lives. I applaud the charity's emphasis on diversity and gender equality, and share its belief that all young people should have access to music-making regardless of background, gender or circumstances. I wish Youth Music every success with Give A Gig Week and hope others will join me in supporting their valuable work".

As well as David, artists taking part this year include Pixie Lott, The Wombats, Newton Faulkner, Dream Wife and Femme.

Lott, who will be curating a show with singer-songwriter Jocee, says: "Youth Music and I share a common interest in giving young musicians an opportunity to develop their musical creativity and talent. The charity does great work supporting young people who face difficult challenges in their lives which is why I'm very happy to be taking part in Give A Gig Week".

Give A Gig Week 2018 takes place from 16-25 Mar. Find out more here.

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Warner Music, Eventbrite, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Warner Music Norway has a new General Manager in the form of Mike Herbrik. He has been with the major since 2014, most recently as A&R Director.

• Universal Music has appointed Ulf Zick to the job of MD International at Universal Music Germany. He will "oversee strategic development and marketing for Universal Music Group's diverse international talent roster within Germany". And why not, I say.

• Ticketing firm Eventbrite has announced that Andrew Dreskin has joined its board of directors. Dreskin has been President of the firm's music division since it bought the company he co-founded, Ticketfly, last year.

• Kendrick Lamar and SZA have released the video for their track 'All The Stars'. The track features on Lamar's soundtrack for new movie 'Black Panther', which is out this week.

• The Breeders have released a cover of Mike Nesmith's 'Joanne'. They've also updated their website with a new biog written by Neil Gaiman.

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

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The Sherlocks caught trying to bump themselves up festival bill
The Sherlocks are playing the Y Not Festival this year. Although they'll be on slightly earlier in the day than you might have thought if you've been looking at their Twitter feed.

Y Not announced its 2018 line-up earlier this week, posting an image of a poster detailing the bill. But when the same image was posted by the Sherlock's shortly afterwards, there was a slight difference. They appeared to have moved up a level in the festival's billing, while The Amazons had moved down.

If you're going to taper with an image like that, you might as well make yourself a headliner, rather than trying to sneak your band into joint third billing. Various people subsequently did just that for the band, doing their own Photoshop work to place The Sherlocks at the top of Y Not and other festival's line-ups. Other people on Twitter claimed to have been blocked for questioning the band about their own tweak of the Y Not poster.

The band eventually deleted the offending tweet, but last night made light of all the hoo haa, posting a new update saying, "Not sure what all the fuss is about with Y Not Festival's line-up. Has anyone seen Glasto?" They then presented a doctored Glastonbury line-up poster with themselves placed at the top. They also had to add '2018' to it, because it was a poster for the 2003 edition of the event. There not being a Glastonbury 2018.

The Sherlocks began a UK tour earlier this week. They hit London tomorrow night, starting a twelve night run at Wembley Stadium.

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