CMU Insights partners with Urban Development and BIMM to redefine music education at The Great Escape
An increasing number of articles and reports are declaring music education to be in crisis. Now CMU Insights has announced it is teaming up with both music development organisation Urban Development and music college BIMM on its 'Redefining Music Education' research project. It will be launched at The Education Conference at The Great Escape next month.

CMU Insights, Urban Development and BIMM are also co-hosting the full-day conference, which will kick off this year's Great Escape Convention on Wednesday 16 May, the day before the TGE festival swings into action.

Bringing together music educators and music employers, The Education Conference will review music education provision in England today and the skills musicians and the music industry need to succeed. There will be speakers from the likes of The Roundhouse, Musicians' Union, Live Nation, BIY Talent, Rhythmix, Youth Music, Incorporated Society Of Musicians, Featured Artists Coalition and Arts Council England, plus artists and songwriters including Georgia Train, Roxanne De Bastion, ShaoDow, Steve Hiller and Svetlana Eliason.

Launched by CMU's consultancy unit CMU Insights last month, phase one of the 'Redefining Music Education' research project is currently mapping both music education providers and the music careers available today. Phase two will be informed by the conversations that take place at The Education Conference on 16 May, and will seek to identify, assess and champion innovative approaches to music education in schools, colleges, universities and elsewhere, while looking into how music education and the music industry can become more closely aligned.

The project will be led by CMU Insights MD Chris Cooke, BIMM's Music Industry Ambassador Phil Nelson and Urban Development's founder and director Pamela McCormick, all of whom will also speak at the conference. Seeking to complement existing research into music education, the three organisations plan to work alongside a number of other groups on the research, and are also looking for companies interested in sponsoring the project in order to access extra insights.

Cooke says: "There has been a lot of talk in recent months about music education in England being in crisis, partly due to funding cuts, and partly due to the way schools are assessed. But at the same time we know about a lot of great initiatives encouraging young people to engage with music and the business of music. We're interested in exploring how those initiatives could become better connected, both with each other, and with the music industry and artist community. Basically we want to join a lot of dots. Part one of that is identifying all the dots to be joined, which is what we are doing in phase one of 'Redefining Music Education'. We'll report back on that work at The Education Conference next month".

Nelson adds: "As both a lecturer and an artist manager, I have feet in two camps, both music education and the music industry. Both sides benefit when they work more closely together, which is why BIMM has always put so much effort into proactively building its industry relationships. I've been involved in various initiatives to further enhance those connections, so it's great to now partner on the 'Redefining Music Education' project to fully understand the wider music education landscape, and how the industry can better connect and support that work, in order to access and better prepare the artists and industry execs of the future".

McCormick goes on: "We've spent a lot of time investigating and analysing how music education works, using that knowledge to inform our own programmes that seek to provide opportunities to young people whose musical passions are in genres often missed out in the more formal curriculum. We are really keen to share that knowledge with the wider world and help lead a conversation about how a sector under pressure can still succeed in encouraging and enabling young people to pursue their creative ambitions, fuelling the creative industries of the future".

Standalone tickets are available to The Education Conference, which takes place at Dukes @ Komedia from 10am-5pm on Wednesday 16 May, for just £65. TGE delegates and convention pass holders also have access to the event. For a breakdown of the discussions due to take place or to book tickets click here.

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Mariah Carey's ex-manager plotting "blockbuster exposé lawsuit"
Mariah Carey's ex-manager has filed paperwork with the courts in New York ahead of a lawsuit against her former client. That planned lawsuit is set to include allegations of breach of contract, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty and violations of employment and civil rights law, while seeking allegedly unpaid fees, damages, interest and costs.

It already sounds like a fun bit of litigation. And that was before lawyers working for Stella Bulochnikov told gossip website The Blast that Carey is a "train wreck" who is "addicted to alcohol, prescription pills and marijuana" and owes her former manager millions of dollars. If Carey doesn't settle with her former manager, the legal people add, a "blockbuster exposé lawsuit" will definitely follow, including, says The Blast, "several sordid details".

Carey parted company with Bulochnikov last year. At the time the singer and manager said that they had "determined that it is in their mutual best interest to part ways on day-to-day management". But, their statement added, the two women would continue to work together on a number of business ventures in which they were both partners.

However, the real story behind the collapse of the two women's working relationship might now come to light if this litigation goes ahead. In his conversation with The Blast, Bulochnikov's lawyer Pierce O'Donnell also talks about one of the higher profile Carey moments that occurred while his client was managing the star: her disastrous turn on the 'New Year's Rockin Eve' show from Times Square in New York at the end of 2016.

The poor performance was blamed on technical issues at the time. However, The Blast now quotes O'Donnell as saying that the real problem was that Carey was "stoned out of her mind". The lawyer goes on: "Stella pled with Mariah to get sober and she refused. Stella then became her constant guardian and protector".

Much more recently, Carey was in the news just last week after giving an interview to People magazine. In it, she revealed that she was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder in 2001, but until recently refused to accept this.

"I didn't want to carry around the stigma of a lifelong disease that would define me and potentially end my career", Carey told People. "Until recently I lived in denial and isolation and in constant fear someone would expose me. It was too heavy a burden to carry and I simply couldn't do that anymore. I sought and received treatment, I put positive people around me and I got back to doing what I love - writing songs and making music".

O'Donnell says that this is "a big lie", and that while Carey does have a diagnosis of bi-polar, "the reason that she is in the position she is in now is she refused to take her medication". Although that statement would more seem to vindicate Carey's fears than prove she hasn't begun receiving proper treatment.

Either way, this is all presumably a preview of the kind of claims that could be made in court if this lawsuit is actually filed and then goes the distance. O'Donnell adds that his client helped Carey revitalise her career but was then fired. "What did she get in return for her success as a manager and protector?" the lawyer asks. "Being summarily discharged".

For now, at least, Carey doesn't seem to be in any mood to settle with her former manager. A rep for the singer told the gossip site that "if this frivolous and baseless claim is filed, we will defend against it vigorously and successfully".

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ICE venture rejigs to become one entity
The companies operating under the ICE banner - that being the joint venture between collecting societies PRS, GEMA and STIM - are being merged into one entity to be known, simply, as ICE. And that company will be run by new CEO Thorsten Sauer.

ICE began life as a joint database initiative between UK-based PRS and Swedish collecting society STIM. It was later expanded, with GEMA on board, to include a division offering licences to multi-territory streaming services that cover the song repertoires of PRS, STIM, GEMA and their partners, and another division that processes digital royalties.

Since the expansion there have been ICE companies in the UK, Germany and Sweden, and two brands: ICE Services and ICE Operations. Now there is just ICE. So don't go trying affixing any additional words to the ICE brand from this point onwards, otherwise you will be wrong.

Sauer was previously President of Broadcast And Media Services at Ericsson and, says ICE, while there "helped build one of the largest media services companies in the industry, serving clients such as the BBC, ITV, Disney and Viacom".

Commenting on his new gig, Sauer said: "I am delighted to be joining ICE and look forward to working with an experienced team and organisation that is so highly regarded in the industry. I believe that by combining the strength of the different ICE companies, we are in a great position to deliver best-in-class services to the industry in these exciting times".

PRS For Music boss Robert Ashcroft was previously CEO of the ICE business in the UK, while Markus Nees was CEO in Sweden and Germany. The former will remain a board member, while the latter will become COO.

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See Tickets acquires Paylogic
See Tickets has acquired Dutch ticketing firm Paylogic from LiveStyle, the company that emerged out of the collapse of SFX. Under the deal, See Tickets - owned by Universal Music owner Vivendi - will also sell tickets for LiveStyle's US festivals.

The deal will further expand the international reach of the Vivendi ticketing business. Rob Wilmshurst, CEO of See Tickets, says in a statement: "We are delighted to acquire Paylogic. It is a clear statement of our intention to grow our activities in Europe and the US. We warmly welcome the Paylogic team to the wider Vivendi family and look forward to sharing an agenda of growth, service quality and technological progression".

Vivendi bought another ticketing entity from SFX back in 2016 - Flavorus - when the dance music business was going through its bankruptcy. Paylogic, meanwhile, was originally founded in 2005 and has offices in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

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Mixcloud raises new funding
Mixcloud has announced that it has raised $11.5 million of new funding from media and technology holding company WndrCo.

The money will be used to expand the Mixcloud business internationally, hire new staff and find new ways to monetise the audio-sharing platform that is mainly focused on music mixes and radio shows.

As part of the deal, two partners in WndrCo will join the Mixcloud board of directors, former DreamWorks Animation president Ann Daly and artist manager Anthony Saleh.

"WndrCo is the ideal partner for Mixcloud", says the firm's co-founder Nikhil Shah. "They are highly accomplished, and they are true operators with experience at some of the world's leading media, entertainment and tech companies. We are excited that they share our long-term vision of what we are building, and to have them as a strategic partner for our next phase".

Saleh adds: "We at WndrCo couldn't be more excited about coming together with the Mixcloud team and building on-top of the great foundation they already have in place. We believe that the market opportunity, quality of the product, and the fantastic team make for a very special future for Mixcloud".

Last year, Mixcloud - which previously licensed music rights mainly via the collecting societies - announced a direct deal with Warner Music, to cover tracks controlled by the major that appear in mixes and shows uploaded to the platform. Negotiations with Sony and Universal are thought to be ongoing.

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Hulu to air Fyre Festival documentary series
A multi-part documentary series about the disastrous Fyre Festival is set to air on US streaming service Hulu next year, reports The Hollywood Reporter. So that's good news for Spotify subscribers Stateside.

Originally announced last year, the documentary is a co-production between film company Cinemart, music business magazine Billboard and online news service Mic. The show will combine interviews with previously unseen footage, leaked documents, emails and recordings. By the time the show airs in 2019, we'll also know whether or not the festival's founder Billy MacFarland is serving a lengthy jail sentence or not.

Fyre Festival, of course, was the music event due to take place on an island in the Bahamas in April and May last year. Marketed as a super luxurious experience, the festival collapsed just as people were arriving, as it became clear management hadn't put in place the infrastructure for even a basic event, let alone the luxury set-up that had been promised.

Following the event's collapse, various civil lawsuits were launched, before MacFarland was arrested on charges of fraud. Having pleaded guilty in the hopes of receiving a sentence less than the 40 years in prison he is potentially facing, he'll find out if that plan paid off in June.

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CMU@TGE Top Questions: What do we even mean by music education?
With The Great Escape now just a month away, over the next fortnight we'll be considering ten questions that will be answered during the three CMU Insights conferences that are set to take place there this year: The Education Conference (16 May), The AI Conference (17 May) and The China Conference (18 May). Today: What do we even mean by music education?

We are presenting an entire conference focused on music education this year. This follows a flurry of articles and opinion pieces declaring that music education in England is in crisis. We want to see if that's really true and, if so, what can be done do tackle the issues and fix the problems. In particular whether more closely aligning music education with the music industry could help shift things in the right direction.

But what do we even mean by music education? Well, we are interested in every initiative and programme that encourages people to create, perform and produce music, and/or to get that music out to an audience and build a business around their creativity.

That includes music classes and clubs in school. Instrument lessons. Innovative music making programmes for young people inside and outside the classroom. Music GCSE and A-Level. Music performance, production and business courses at colleges and universities. Educational programmes run by venues, trade bodies and other organisations. Mentoring, internship and apprenticeship schemes. And the kind of continued professional development training courses we provide at CMU Insights.

We reckon that tackling any crisis in music education - and making music education provision as good as it could possibly be - means joining together an awful lot of dots. To do that we need to identify what those dots are.

That's why CMU Insights has teamed up with Urban Development and BIMM on the 'Redefining Music Education' research project. That work is already underway with a mapping exercise that is seeking to identify all the various kinds of music education available in England today. We want to know where that teaching is happening, who teaches it, what is taught, and who pays for it. Basically we are putting a lot of dots on the page which we'll then seek to join in phase two of the research, which will kick off after The Great Escape, looking to report back next year.

It won't just be a load of unintelligible dots though. We obviously need to explain what each of the different elements of the music education mix offer and provide. To that end, we are inviting people working in each of those areas to join us in Brighton to discuss their work. We'll hear from teachers, exam boards, music hubs, music colleges, industry initiatives and inspiring organisations like The Roundhouse, Youth Music and, of course, Urban Development.

So, why not join us as we answer the question 'what do we even mean by music education?', and the help us define how we redefine music education to end the crisis and ensure that the music talent of tomorrow get the opportunities they need?

The Education Conference takes place on Wednesday 16 May - more info here.

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Gang Of Four build song out of Ivanka Trump quotes
Gang Of Four have released the first single from their upcoming EP, 'Complicit'. Titled 'Ivanka (Things You Can't Have)', the song discusses Donald Trump's daughter and White House colleague.

The song's lyrics stitch together quotes from Ivanka Trump about herself and her father. The band's Andy Gill explains: "It would've been easy to be extremely damning about Donald Trump and of course, like everyone else, I could have called him all kinds of names. What drew me to this subject at all was the running commentary from Ivanka in the earlier stages of this administration".

"It was fascinating to get a kind of explanation or justification from the daughter who had already been given an official position within the White House", he continues. "And frankly, a lot of it was pretty funny. But although the characters in the Trump family are interesting, it's more the ideologies and politics which they represent and enable which need describing".

Although the band reports that some US distributors have been "a little nervous" about handling the EP - the artwork of which features a photo of Ivanka Trump and the word "complicit" - it is still set for release this Friday.

Listen to 'Ivanka (Things You Can't Have)' here.

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Kendrick Lamar wins Pulitzer Prize For Music
Kendrick Lamar has won this year's Pulitzer Prize For Music. It's fine to admit that you didn't know such a thing existed before now. Obviously I did though, and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise.

The rapper has been given the award in recognition of his 2017 album 'Damn', which organisers describe as "a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life".

Explaining how Lamar came to be in the running, award administrator Dana Canedy tells Billboard: "[The jury] were considering a piece of music they felt had hip hop influences and said, 'Well if we're considering a piece of music that has hip hop influences, why aren't we considering hip hop?' And someone said, 'That's exactly what we should do'. And then someone said, 'We should be considering Kendrick Lamar' and the group said 'absolutely'. So then, right then, they decided to listen to the entire album and decided 'This is it'".

The Pulitzer Prize For Music each year recognises "distinguished musical composition by an American that has had its first performance or recording in the United States". As well as a certificate, the winner receives $15,000 and the opportunity to attend a luncheon where they will officially receive their prize. In recent years, it has been presented to artists including Steve Reich and Ornette Coleman.

Lamar beat composers Michael Gilbertson and Ted Hearne to this year's prize.

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Sony Music, WeGotTickets, Mudhoney, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• You can now get a daily CMU news summary via our Messenger bot. Click here to get started.

• Sony Music UK has created a new division called 4th Floor Creative Group which will bring together all the creative disciplines in the major's UK business, including brands, sync, insight, creative and digital. It will be run by Cassandra Gracey, who joins from management firm First Access Entertainment.

• WeGotTickets co-founder Dave Newton has left the company. "While Dave's day-to-day involvement is coming to an end, he will maintain a keen interest in our continued success as one of our supportive shareholders", a spokesperson for the company tells IQ.

• Sub Pop Publishing has signed a new deal with Mudhoney covering their entire catalogue. The band are set to release a new album, also covered by the deal, later this year.

• Solange has unveiled a new piece of performance art at UCLA's Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Titled 'Metatronia', the piece mixes sculpture and dance, exploring "the process and mapping of creation". See more here.

• Janelle Monáe keeps putting out new music. I like that. Here's new single 'I Like That'.

• Aurora is back with new single 'Queendom'. She'll play the Bushstock festival in London on 23 Jun.

• Wiz Khalifa has released new track 'Hunnid Bands'.

• Abra Cadabra has released new track 'Hood Politics'.

• Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is back with new single 'Kimino Mikata', showcasing her new 'grown up' sound.

• Highasakite are back with new single, 'Out Of Order'.

• Jenny Wilson has released new track, 'Lo Hi'.

• Shamir will play Broadcast in Glasgow on 25 Jun and London's Camden Assembly on 27 Jun.

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

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Jessie J wins Chinese TV singing competition
Jessie J has become the first non-Chinese artist to win TV talent show 'Singer' in the country. She took the prize with a performance of 'I Will Always Love You'.

Unlike 'X-Factor' et al, the gimmick on 'Singer' is that the contestants are already well-known. Originally a South Korean show, the Chinese version first aired in 2013, under the name 'I Am A Singer'.

Posting a video of her performance on Instagram, Jessie J said: "'I Will Always Love You' is the song that made me want to be a singer when I was four years old. I have wanted to sing this song for years. Trust me, but I only ever wanted to sing it if and when I felt I had earned it and deserved it. Singing Whitney is an honour. She is the best to ever do it".

Glossing over exactly why she was performing the song, she continued: "This moment was live on TV in China and just before I went on someone said 'a billion people are watching tonight'. I fought back tears/jetlag/my voice legit going to sleep before I could and sang as best I could. I wanted to make the four year old me/Whitney/my mum and dad/my team and all my [fans] around the world proud. I cried like a baby after the last note. Thank you China for giving me this moment".

The first singer born outside mainland China or Hong Kong to win the competition, Jessie J beat Chinese musicians Hua Chenyu and Wang Feng. All three will return with other contestants for a finale concert to end the series this Friday.

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