US songwriter group raises three key concerns with Music Modernization Act
While a number of organisations representing songwriters have endorsed the proposed Music Modernization Act in the US, some in the American songwriting community reckon changes still need to be made to the legislation - as it works its way through Congress - to ensure it is truly creator friendly. Last week the Council Of Music Creators identified three key issues: governance of the new collecting society it will create, the system for distributing unallocated royalties, and the lack of a grievance process.

The Music Modernization Act seeks to end the mechanical rights mess in the US, which has resulted in some songwriters and music publishers going unpaid by the streaming services, and most of those streaming firms being sued for copyright infringement. Including, of course, the mega-bucks $1.6 billion lawsuit against Spotify.

The problem for the digital music companies in the US is that, unlike in most other countries, there isn't a collecting society that can provide a catch-all blanket licence covering the so called mechanical rights in all songs wherever the streaming firm doesn't have a direct deal in place with a music publisher.

Instead the streaming firm must identify the song exploited in any one track uploaded by a record label, work out who wrote and published that song, and then send them the paperwork and royalties as required by the compulsory licence that covers mechanical rights Stateside. This has proven tricky, not least because there is no one-stop publicly accessible music rights database to help with the process.

The Music Modernization Act would set up a mechanical rights society in the US for the first time, solving this problem for the streaming firms. It would also change the way the rates are set for royalties due under compulsory licences or the collective licensing system in the US, making it attractive to songwriters and publishers as well.

With that in mind, those behind the act are hoping to present a united front in Washington, with songwriters, publishers and streaming firms all on side, in a bid to get the Music Modernization Act through Congress in a relatively speedy fashion.

Some songwriters do back the proposals. The organisations Songwriters Of North America and Nashville Songwriters Association International were on board from the off, while the Songwriters Guild Of America formally gave the legislation its backing earlier this month after a few changes were made. In particular, an increase in the number of songwriters who will sit on the boards overseeing the new collecting society.

However, at the time the SGA did add that it would "continue to applaud the efforts of members of the music creator and publishing communities seeking further improvements". One group of writers still pushing for further change is the Council Of Music Creators which, like SGA, is part of a coalition called Music Creators North America.

Last week the CMC posted a YouTube video in which it outlined its three main grievances with the latest draft of the Music Modernization Act. The video begins by agreeing that "the bill does some very good things for music creators", but, it then adds, "it also contains a few things that need to be fixed, or at least clarified, before anything gets signed into law". The CMC then sets out its top three grievances.

First, it notes that, as a result of previous lobbying, the board overseeing the new collecting society will now consist of ten publishers and four songwriters. "The four writers are there because most of this money is writer money and they're supposed to make sure everything is done on the up and up", says the CMC. But, it adds, "the publishers want to pick the writers who sit on the board. Publishers want to decide which writers are allowed to see what's going on. We think writers should choose their own representatives".

Secondly, it raises that common question that comes up whenever a collecting society collects and distributes royalties. What does it do when it doesn't know who to pay? Because while the Music Modernization Act will mean the streaming firms no longer need to identify what songs have been streamed and which publishers and writers are due royalties, someone will still have to work that out - ie the new collecting society.

Taking issue with the current plan for distributing unallocated royalties, the CMC goes on: "Self-published writers are the ones most likely to have their music unidentified or misidentified by digital music services. If these writers don't claim their royalties from the collective, 100% of their royalties will go to publishers based on the publishers' market share. That means that the big publishers and their top writers will get most of that money. Money that belongs to the self-published writers. This needs to be fixed".

Finally, the CMC wants the MMA to set out a grievance process for the new collecting society. Noting that "things don't always work out the way we want", the organisation's video goes on: "Right now the MMA contains no grievance process for music creators who get left out of the process or feel they haven't been treated fairly. Big songwriters with lawyers and accountants will be able to audit their publishers, but tens of thousands of songwriters won't. The MMA should include some process that allows regular songwriters to have their concerns addressed by an independent party".

Most of these are ultimately issues between the songwriters and the music publishers, rather than the music community and the streaming firms. It remains to be seen what additional amendments are made to the MMA in a bid to get everyone of a musical bent to sing its praises in Washington. You can watch the CMC's video here.

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

Alice Glass has defamation lawsuit dismissed
Alice Glass claimed victory in court last week, after a defamation lawsuit brought against her by former Crystal Castles bandmate Ethan Kath was dismissed.

"I won in court today", she tweeted. "The defamation lawsuit against me was dismissed!
Thank you so much for the love and support throughout this ugly process. This is a victory for survivors of abuse and sexual misconduct in countries where abusers use the court system to further victimise and keep people silent. WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED".

Last October, Glass accused Kath of years of physical and mental abuse during their time as a couple and bandmates, starting when she was fifteen years old. Kath responded by suing Glass for defamation, accusing her of trying to "ruin his good name and reputation in the industry", to "destroy Crystal Castles" and "in turn boost her own career".

The Los Angeles Superior Court confirmed to Pitchfork on Friday that Glass's motion to strike was granted, while her attorney said: "We are extremely pleased with the court's decision to grant our motion to strike, which effectively dismisses the complaint in its entirety. As the prevailing party, we are entitled to attorneys' fees and will return to court to obtain an order in that regard".

Kath has not yet responded to the news. Earlier this month, The Daily Beast published an article detailing accusations from four others who alleged that Kath had also taken advantage of them as teenagers.

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

Former Universal and Sony boss plotting new label
Record industry veteran Doug Morris - who spent the latter part of his career running the two biggest record companies in the world, first Universal Music and then Sony Music - is plotting the launch of a brand new label, according to sources who have been busy chattering with Billboard.

The 79 year old Morris stood down as CEO of Sony Music last year, allowing British record industry exec Rob Stringer to finally take on the top job at the world's second biggest record company. However, Morris stayed on in a non-executive Chairman role for another year.

He'll step down from that job too next month, gossipers say, leaving the major to launch a new record company. Billboard's sources reckon that Morris already has funding in place for the new label business, and that a close alliance with Apple Music may be part of the venture, although the tech giant won't be a shareholder.

Morris, of course, was the boss of now Apple Music exec Jimmy Iovine when he set up his Beats business with Dr Dre. At the time both execs were at Universal Music, which took a stake in the Beats business and then cashed in big time when Apple bought the company - including its then fledgling streaming service - in 2014.

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

45 festivals now signed up to 20122 gender balance pledge
The PRS Foundation has today confirmed that the number of festivals and music conferences around the world pledging to achieve a 50/50 gender balance across their line ups by 2022 has now reached 45. The Foundation has been encouraging festivals to make the pledge as part of its Keychange initiative, which is supporting various projects that seek to address the gender gap in the music industry, both on and off stage.

A number of festivals had already made the commitment when Keychange launched at the Reeperbahn festival in Germany last year, including Reeperbahn itself and BIME (Spain), Iceland Airwaves, Way Out West (Sweden), Musikcentrum Sweden, Tallinn Music Week (Estonia), MUTEK (Canada) and The Great Escape (UK). 38 more events have now joined the pledge, taking the total number to 45.

Many of the participating events are showcase festivals where the music industry routinely scouts for new talent. Given that new artists who play these events often subsequently populate the line-ups of more conventional festivals in the years that follow, achieving a more balanced gender split at the likes of Reeperbahn and The Great Escape will hopefully ultimately result in more diverse line-ups across the board.

The dominance of male artists at music festivals and male speakers at music conferences has been much more vocally criticised in recent years. This year, in particular, initial line-up announcements from key UK festivals are being much more closely scrutinised. There are various challenges to meet in order to solve the music industry's gender diversity problem, and Keychange is seeking to address a number of them through its various projects. Line-up commitments like the one being made here are part of that process.

PRS Foundation chief Vanessa Reid says: "Our focus on gender equality in 2018 aligns with the centenary for some women being given the vote in the UK. 100 years on, the push for gender parity across society continues and with increased public awareness of inequalities across the creative industries we have an opportunity to respond and commit to tangible change in music".

She goes on: "The Keychange network of female artists and industry professionals and the festival partners' idea of establishing a collective pledge will significantly accelerate change. I hope that this will be the start of a more balanced industry which will result in benefits for everyone".

The festivals that are newly signed up to the pledge are: 53 Degrees North (England), Aldeburgh Festival (England), Blissfields (England), Bluedot (England), Borealis (Norway), BreakOut West (Canada), By:Larm (Norway), Canadian Music Week (Canada), Cheltenham Jazz Festival (England), Cheltenham Music Festival (England), Eurosonic Noorderslag (Netherlands), FOCUS Wales (Wales), Granada Experience (Spain), Hard Working Class Heroes (Ireland), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (England), A2IM Indie Week (USA), BBC Music Introducing Stages (UK), Katowice JazzArt Festival (Poland), Kendal Calling (England), Liverpool International Music Festival (England), Liverpool Sound City (England), Manchester Jazz Festival (England), Midem (France), Norwich Sound And Vision (England), North By North East (Canada), NYC Winter Jazzfest (USA), Off The Record (England), Oslo World (Norway), Pop-Kultur (Germany), BBC Proms (England), Roundhouse Rising (England), Spitalfields Music (England), Sŵn (Wales), Trondheim Calling (Norway), Waves Vienna (Austria), Westway LAB (Portugal), Wide Days (Scotland) and Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Festival (France).

--------------------------------------------------

Airbnb launches platform for intimate gigs
Airbnb last week launched Airbnb Concerts, which will promote intimate music events in unusual locations. So a bit like Sofar Sounds, then.

The new music service is a spin-off from Airbnb's existing Trips platform, which offers travellers some of those 'immersive' experiences in addition to a cheap bed for the night in someone's spare room. It seems that 'music experiences' have been among the most popular on the Trips set-up, hence the launching of a standalone service for musical events.

The company's Head Of Music James Beshara told Billboard: "It's been really exciting to see it organically grow and take off. I think music fans around the world are craving this type of format and intimate connection with artists".

He adds: "Five years from now, I think more people will experience music in intimate settings like this than they are experiencing in arenas, and stadiums and festivals. That's how big of an opportunity I think this is and hopefully we're a substantial part of that".

At launch Airbnb Concerts will be available in 25 cities including London, Paris, Tokyo, LA and New York.

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

Twitter formally writes off SoundCloud investment
Twitter has confirmed that it has written off the $70 million investment that it made into flagging streaming platform SoundCloud. The social media firm pumped cash into the music service in 2016 after speculation that it might seek to buy the SoundCloud business outright.

Many people thought that an outright acquisition by a bigger tech firm was the best option for SoundCloud, which went through a very tricky period as it pivoted its business away from providing services to content creators to becoming a more conventional streaming service, with advertising and user subscriptions as its core revenue streams.

Twitter, Apple and Spotify were all linked to a SoundCloud purchase, but no deal ever came through. Then, last year, following rumours of imminent collapse, SoundCloud announced it had secured $169.5 million from two new backers. The new finance also saw a new management team put in place and a considerable write down of the firm's valuation

This means that last week's confirmation that Twitter was writing off its SoundCloud investment because the money is "not expected to be recoverable within a reasonable period of time" was not much of a surprise. But it's a timely reminder of how risky the streaming music business remains, even for companies with substantial user-bases.

--------------------------------------------------

Neil Young accuses Google of paying no music royalties
Neil Young has accused Google of ripping off young artists, making it near impossible for them to earn a living.

Posting on his Neil Young Archives website, he argues that Google has built its business off the back of music, without passing any money back to the creators. Which is something of an exaggeration - they've definitely passed through some money through Google Play and YouTube - though not nearly enough, Young presumably means. He's also unhappy with Google search directing people to piracy. After ranting in this vein for a while he then concludes by talking up his Xstream streaming service, which doesn't really exist yet.

"Today, in the age of Facebook, Google and Amazon, it's hard to tell how a new and growing musical artist could make it in the way we did", he writes. "The tech giants have figured out a way to use all the great music of everyone from all time, without reporting an artist's number of plays or paying a fucking cent to the musicians. Aren't they great companies! It makes you wonder where the next generation of great artists will come from. How will they survive?"

In order to read this on Neil Young's website, you need to log in, which you can do with your Facebook or Google account.

He goes on: "'Don't be evil'. That was Google's corporate motto as they directed users to pirate sites to get artist's creations and not pay! Amazing tech breakthrough! Meanwhile, they reap the bucks from ads people read while listening to music made by the artists. Google just changed their motto to 'do the right thing', but haven't changed anything as they continue to rip off the artist community, building their wealth on music's back and paying nothing to the artists. Brilliant tech breakthrough! BTW, Google is YouTube. Guess who's next?"

I'm not really sure who's next. Or what he means by that question. But I was slightly distracted by all the studio quality, free-to-access, Neil Young music on the Neil Young Archives site.

He concludes by bigging up the still in development Xstream service, which powers that NYA site. At which point he switches to talking about digital audio quality, and then says that he's happy not to earn any money from the music he's sharing.

"I am so happy to be able to share my music and albums like 'Broken Arrow' with you here at NYA, where you can actually hear what we did", he writes. "Xstream high resolution music makes me feel like I was there. I hope you can feel it too. The more you enjoy this music, the happier I am to share it with you. NYA is moving into a future that is really different from what we have now. It will not be easy. We are going to break a few rules and give you what you want".

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

Girls I Rate to host gala dinner on International Women's Day
The third annual Girls I Rate gala dinner will take place on International Women's Day next week.

Founded by songwriter Carla Marie Williams in 2016, Girls I Rate provides networking opportunities and support for women working in the creative industries. The annual gala dinner is open to 100 women and will this year be hosted by radio and TV presenter Sarah-Jane Crawford. There will also be a performance from 'grime violinist' Tanya Cracknell and a DJ set from BBC Radio 1Xtra's Melody Kane.

"I founded Girls I Rate to celebrate, inspire and empower, and by doing so redress the lack of female representation and recognition in the creative industry", says Williams. "Experiencing first hand the imbalance and inequality, I was compelled to create a movement that is a platform for pushing for positive change and establishing a stronger female presence now and for the next generation of female talent".

She continues: "Three years in, I'm so proud of what GIR has achieved, but the gender diversity gap still exists, and so does the glass ceiling. With important recent causes such as #MeToo, #TimesUp, #Vote100 and #WomenInMusic, the groundswell of support for women's equality has grown and grown, but there is still much work to be done and as long as change is needed, then GIR still has a purpose".

Finally, she says: "The gala event on International Women's Day is pivotal to the cause. I urge the industry to get behind it. I've been fortunate to have some influential men support and champion my work and Girls I Rate, I think it's important for men to use their male privilege to help push gender equality forward. But above all, when women support women, anything is possible. I can't wait to bring all my girls together!"

One of the women already signed up to attend, Alexandra Burke, adds: "The Girls I Rate movement is so important for the industry and Carla's work is vital, especially in the current climate. I am proud to be a part of it and be an advocate for positive change in gender equality".

Sponsored by Vevo, the event takes place at 100 Wardour Street in Soho on International Women's Day, 8 Mar.

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

Slayer, Anne-Marie, Raye, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• As they head towards a farewell tour, Slayer are releasing a series of interviews about their career on YouTube. Here's the first, looking back at when they first formed the band 37 years ago.

• Anne-Marie has announced that she will release her debut album, 'Speak Your Mind', on 27 Apr.

• Raye has released new single 'Cigarette', featuring Mabel and Stefflon Don.

• The Breeders have released new track 'Nervous Mary'. New album 'All Nerve' is out this week.

• Asbjørn is back with new single 'Nothing 2 Lose'.

• Brilliant newcomer Mei has released new single 'Pennies'.

• Iris Gold has released the video for 'The Fruits', taken from her new EP "The Interlude'.

• Tyondai Braxton has announced that he will premiere his new work, 'Telekinesis', at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on 18 Apr. "'Telekinesis' is a work for a large orchestra, electronics and choir which forges a deeper relationship between my electronic and notated music", he says. "The piece explores the idea of abstracted scale: massive musical shapes and gestures moving through an ever evolving landscape".

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

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

Spice Girls considering "all possibilities"
The Spice Girls have reunited. But what does that mean? We still don't know. A tour, reckoned the rumour mill. No, said Victoria Beckham. Yes, insisted the rumour mill. Now Geri Horner says that they're not ruling out anything yet.

"We're talking about [live shows and new music]", Horner said on Channel 4's 'Sunday Brunch' yesterday, according to Digital Spy. "We want to do something for our fans, and all the new generation. We're just putting all the possibilities out there, so watch this space".

I really hope it turns out they've all just been sitting around drinking tea, saying "wouldn't it be funny if we advertised Schwartz spices", without any intention of actually doing anything at all. Sadly, I don't think that's the case. Horner was still toeing the party line that the world is in need of the Spice Girls' return and something tangible will definitely come from this.

"I've come to the conclusion that the Spice Girls belongs to everybody", she said. "It really does. It was in the 90s and it had that feeling like the 60s, and when we think about the music and our band, it sort of brings us back to that. And the wonderful thing is little girls like the music now. We were expressing something that I think everybody was feeling, and sometimes you all just need that support and encouragement".

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN