House Of Representatives passes the Music Modernization Act
The US House Of Representatives has passed the Music Modernization Act, with everyone who voted backing the proposals. That means the legislation - which will overhaul various aspects of music licensing in the US - can now proceed to the Senate.

The Music Modernization Act being voted on in Congress yesterday actually brings together elements of four different sets of music-related proposals that have been on the table in Washington for a while.

That includes the original Music Modernization Act, which seeks to set up a mechanical rights collecting society in the US for the first time. Its implementation would mean that, as in other countries, streaming services could access a 'mop up' licence that covers the so called mechanical rights in any songs streaming on their platforms not already covered by a direct deal with a music publisher.

No such licence is available in the US at the moment, meaning streaming services need to identify each individual copyright owner for every song on their platform. US copyright law actually sets the rate that is paid when the mechanical rights in songs are exploited, but the streaming firm must provide the copyright owner with paperwork and their statuary royalties.

With the lack of a central database of music rights ownership information, the streaming firms have failed to do that with all songwriters and music publishers, resulting in mega-bucks copyright infringement lawsuits.

The passing of the Music Modernization Act and the creation of a new collecting society will fix that problem for the services. Though it doesn't necessarily mean the songwriters and publishers will get paid - the data problem remains - though unpaid copyright owners will have to take up the lack of payment with the new society.

That element of the MMA principally benefits the streaming services, hence their support for the legislation. But the act will also change the way the US Copyright Royalty Board and rate courts set what royalties should be paid whenever compulsory or collecting society licences apply, which should benefit the music industry. Those reforms will also apply to the performing rights of both songs and recordings.

Other measures in the MMA passed yesterday seek to address America's pre-1972 copyright technicality and to provide extra benefits for record producers and sound engineers, proposals which were originally contained in the CLASSICS Act and AMP Act respectively.

There are still critics of the MMA in both the music community and among music users, though there are plenty of high profile supporters of the legislation on both sides of the debate too, as well as bipartisan support in Congress. Sufficient consensus across the board, in fact, to allow the speedy passing of the proposals by the House Of Representatives, the new version of the act having only been unveiled earlier this month.

All that consensus also means there were lots of people welcoming yesterday's vote in Washington and putting out official quotes for you all to consume, digest and enjoy.

Though they're mainly slight reworks of the quotes they all put out two weeks ago when the revamped MMA proposals were first published. A bit like this entire article really. With that in mind, and given you're busy people, here's the edited highlights of the latest round of MMA quoting.

National Music Publishers Association CEO David Israelite: "Truly historic".

Digital Media Association CEO Chris Harrison: "Streaming forward".

Recording Industry Association CEO Cary Sherman: "Essential ingredient".

Nashville Songwriters Association International President Steve Bogard: "Important step".

Sony/ATV Music Publishing CEO Martin Bandier: "Game-changing".

SoundExchange CEO Michael Huppe: "Historic day".

musicFIRST Coalition Executive Director Chris Israel: "Keep fighting".

SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director David White: "Justly compensated".

Recording Academy President CEO Neil Portnow: "Honoured".

ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews: "THRILLED".

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French culture minister proposes web-block list in new anti-piracy push
A French minister has proposed launching a piracy blacklist. This would inform internet service providers, search engines and ad agencies which websites are actually naughty copyright infringers. Those companies could respectively block them, de-list them, and ensure their ad spend doesn't work its way into the pirates' pockets.

Ten years ago, when the music industry's top piracy gripe was P2P file-sharing, copyright owners started discussing two possible anti-piracy tactics: three-strikes and web-blocking. The former would see suspected file-sharers being sent stern letters by their ISP threatened disconnection of internet access if file-sharing continued. The latter would see ISPs ordered to block their users from accessing piracy sites.

In the end the latter took off in a much more prolific way. But while three-strikes was still part of the debate, France introduced such a scheme. It was probably the most draconian of all the three-strikes systems introduced - or indeed even considered - although in the end the penalties weren't quite as harsh or widespread as expected.

But France's culture minister, Françoise Nyssen, reckons that the three-strikes approach to tackling piracy is now becoming ineffective, because letters are mainly sent to those spotted uploading or downloading copyright material without licence. And - as anti-piracy experts Muso recently noted - pirated content is increasingly being streamed rather than downloaded. But those unlicensed streams aren't being monitored.

Therefore, according to Torrentfreak, Nyssen is now proposing a web-blocking style system centered on this blacklist, which would be administered by the same government agency as the three-strikes programme.

In some countries, like the UK, copyright owners must go to court each time they have a site they want blocked, securing an injunction that orders the ISPs to instigate the blockade. However, in some countries agencies have been set up - or proposed - to administer web-blocking. In theory this makes it easier to block piracy sites and the proxy domains set up to circumvent the blockades. Although some have expressed concern about agencies having the power to block websites without judicial oversight.

Quite how the proposed French piracy blacklist would work - and what powers the government agency administering it would have to force web-blocks - isn't clear, although Nyssen says that any list would be regularly updated to cope with new sites and proxies. It might be more like the list of piracy sites maintained by the City Of London Police in the UK, which is provided to payment processors and ad agencies to help them voluntarily avoid providing services and revenue to copyright infringing websites.

Or it could possibly result in much more proactive web-blocking occurring in France, so that - as with three-strikes - French law goes the extra mile in a bid to make it harder for people to access unlicensed content online.

Torrentfreak notes that Nyssen's comments on the possible blacklist come as her government is under increased pressure from the country's film industry to step up its anti-piracy activity once again.

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Universal signs "strategic distribution" deal with Empire
Universal Music has signed a deal with US independent music company Empire which will see the latter provide "strategic distribution services" to the former. Which is interesting, as usually it's majors providing distribution services to indies.

The deal will see the two companies work together on selected releases, meaning Universal artists and labels can - when appropriate - tap into what the major describes as Empire's "unique approach to distribution, digital sales, promotion and marketing".

Launched in 2010, Empire has grown into a company at the forefront of hip hop and R&B, boosted particularly by an early association with Kendrick Lamar.

It has also worked with Cardi B, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Raekwon, Anderson Paak, Rapsody and more. The company is also reportedly set to distribute releases from LA Reid's new company, Hitco.

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All new IMPEL allies with SACEM
IMPEL has now formally relaunched itself as an independent organisation. Calling itself IMPEL Collective Management, it aims to be the music publishing equivalent of Merlin, which represents many indie record labels in digital licensing scenarios.

Previously part of UK mechanical rights collecting society MCPS, which is in turn owned by the Music Publishers Association, IMPEL was originally set up when the major music publishers started licensing digital services directly rather than via the collective licensing system. The idea was that independent publishers could license digital in a similar way. Although the IMPEL scheme was administered by collecting society PRS, via its wide-ranging and long-term partnership with MCPS.

MCPS and MPA announced plans to spin IMPEL off as a standalone entity last year. Now an independent organisation, the new IMPEL this week announced an alliance with French collecting society SACEM, which will administer the digital deals IMPEL strikes up for itself. IMPEL will also have the option to participate in multi-territory digital licensing deals negotiated by SACEM on behalf of its member and other clients.

All of this new activity will be overseen by Matt Bolton, who takes on the role of Head Of Publisher Relations And Integration at the all new IMPEL. He was previously Head Of Digital, Europe at Universal Music Publishing, which also works with SACEM on its direct deals in the digital music space.

"Frankly SACEM blew us away with their level of understanding for our wish to represent our own interests", IMPEL said in a statement confirming the new alliance earlier this week. "Being indie, our perspective is different, we are of course very commercial people and SACEM's approach was by some margin more commercial than their competition".

SACEM's Jean Noel Tronc adds: "IMPEL's role as a platform aggregating a variety of independent publishers to ensure that publishers are fairly remunerated in the rapidly evolving digital environment is fully in line with SACEM's own approach to providing services to all our publisher partners in international licensing deals, due to our deep expertise and innovative, industry leading technology".

Meanwhile, David Kassner of Kassner Music, which is one of the founding members of the all new IMPEL, comments: "We believe that SACEM fully appreciates IMPEL's goals ... [and the team there], recognising the potential for growth that the independent sector carries with it, met and exceeded our expectations in terms of the levels of service they have offered. We are delighted to be working with them".

Other founding members of IMPEL v2 are Bucks Music, Reservoir Music, Legs Music, CTM Publishing, Truelove Music and Beggars Music.

Not all indie music publishers have chosen to transition over to the new IMPEL, however. Since the rights body became independent of the MPA, both Peermusic and Downtown have instead chosen to partner with copyright hub ICE on their direct digital licensing. ICE is co-owned by PRS and two other European collecting societies, STIM and GEMA.

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CMA indicates court action against Viagogo planned
The UK Competition & Markets Authority has indicated that it intends to take Viagogo to court for failing to comply with consumer protection laws.

In November last year, the CMA announced plans to crack down on secondary ticketing sites, through the courts if necessary. Yesterday, it announced that StubHub, GetMeIn! and Seatwave had all committed to update their policies in line with the law. Viagogo, however, has not done the same.

The other sites have now promised that they will ensure seat numbers and seller identities are provided on their respective platforms, and that they'll include warnings that touted tickets might be cancelled by a promoter.

"We welcome the changes already made and new commitments we've been given by StubHub, Seatwave and GetMeIn! to improve the information on offer, so that people can better judge whether they're getting a good deal", says Michael Grenfell, the CMA's Executive Director for Enforcement. "But all secondary ticketing websites must play by the rules and treat their customers fairly if anything goes wrong. We take failure to comply with consumer protection law very seriously".

He continues: "So far Viagogo has failed to address our concerns, and we are determined to ensure they comply with the law. We are prepared to use the full range of our powers to protect customers - including action through the courts".

As well as its failure to sign up to the commitments made by its rivals, the CMA said that it had other concerns about Viagogo's practises. Specifically, it making misleading statements about the availability of tickets to rush customers into a decision, issues faced by customers attempting to obtain refunds, and the advertising of tickets for sale that the company does not yet have access to.

Anti- and pro-touting organisations - respectively the FanFair Alliance and the recently launched Fair Ticketing Alliance - have both welcomed the move from the CMA.

FanFair's Adam Webb said in a statement: "Today's CMA announcement is vindication for the FanFair Alliance campaign to overhaul the online ticket resale market. UK audiences have been taken for a ride for too long by the biggest secondary platforms and the dedicated touts who fuel their business. They will now be forced to dramatically change their practices and provide proper transparency. This cannot come soon enough".

"It is disappointing, though hardly unexpected, that Viagogo continue to flout the law and mislead the British public", he added. "If they fail to follow their competitors and make similar commitments, then we expect to see prosecution for non-compliance at the earliest opportunity".

Fair Ticketing Alliance member, Scot Tobias, commented: "The Fair Ticketing Alliance is delighted with the swift action of StubHub, GetMeIn! and Seatwave to improve transparency for customers following action by the Competition & Markets Authority. Undoubtedly, this will improve the experience of live music and entertainment fans using their sites and is precisely in line with what we have been calling for as brokers".

"It's disappointing, however, that not all secondary website platforms have followed suit", he continued. "Our members have stopped listing tickets on certain sites who do not comply with everything set out by the CMA. We urge those sites to do so immediately".

Viagogo, as ever, has made no comment on the matter.

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New website offers guides on festival safety
A new website launches today called Festival Safe. It aims to act as a hub of information about staying safe at festivals, with simple advice like remembering to pack wellies to information on how to report a crime at a major music event.

The initiative has been set up by Broadwick Live's Jon Drape, who oversees UK festivals such as Festival No 6, Field Day and Standon Calling.

"I've worked and attended hundreds of different festivals and events over the years", says Drape. "I've literally heard it all, from hypothermia in July to people not realising they have to bring their own tents".

He continues: "Eventually you see patterns emerge and festival goers making the same mistakes and getting in the same jams year in year out. It was at this point that I realised no one had laid out a manifesto for how to have a great experience and not a festival fail. That's ultimately what Festival Safe is - a one-stop shop for how to have the best possible time".

The aim is not to preach, he adds: "It's not a rule book to batter people around the head with, it's a considered and knowing guide drawn from decades of collective experience, good and bad, to ensure everyone has an amazing time from first-timers to seasoned veterans".

The website covers areas such as what to expect as a festival first-timer, alcohol and drugs, camping, sexual health, mental wellbeing, attending with young children and more. Check it out here.

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CMU@TGE Top Questions: Will machines write the pop hits of the future?
With The Great Escape getting closer, we are currently 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: will machines write the pop hits of the future?

Among the technologies under the spotlight at The AI Conference at The Great Escape next month are three automated creation tools, one that composes music, one that edits music, and one that creates video to accompany music.

The AI platforms that compose music are fascinating and the technology is evolving rapidly. Though, to date, most of these tools are creating soundtracks to accompany videos.

In that respect they are competing with the production music business, the libraries that provide all sorts of rights-cleared music for those making films and TV programmes who need quick and easy access to the 'right kind' of sounds, and who don't necessarily have the time or budget to be licensing commercially released music for their soundtracks.

The downside of library music is that lots of other video makers are likely licensing the same compositions. Whereas an AI platform - while also providing speedy and cost-efficient access to music - should also give you something unique.

Now, whether the music coming out of these AI platforms is of the same quality as the better production music libraries is debatable. However, the music composition abilities of these technologies are getting better all the time, making this kind of AI a definite threat to the production music sector.

But could these technologies also be composing pop songs? Which is to say tracks that stand on their own and could be commercially released. Are the music composition machines of today not only competitors of the production music business, but also future competitors of artists and songwriters everywhere?

In the main, the people behind these technologies aren't making such bold claims. They tend to see their platforms as tools for artists and songwriters that could help them take their songwriting and music making in new directions. They could also help creators who have a musical vision but not necessarily the conventional skills required to make that vision a reality.

There are, however, some people who reckon these technologies will, ultimately, start writing the pop music that will dominate the charts of the future. Indeed, some would argue that the machines are already basically co-writers on a bunch of pop songs that have enjoyed considerable commercial success. If that's true, quite how far would the music making machines go? Manufactured pop maybe, but what about other genres?

And here's another key question. If machines do become the pop writers of the future, who owns the copyright in that music? The default owner of a song copyright is the composer or songwriter. And how long the copyright lasts is linked to that person's lifetime - so life plus 70 years across Europe. How is copyright law coping with this new form of songwriting?

These are all questions we will seek to answer during The AI Conference next month. Gregor Pryor from Reed Smith will discuss the copyright implications, while joining the debate on whether machines will replace humans as the pop makers of the future are Cliff Fluet from Lewis Silkin; Helienne Lindvall from Auddly; Scott Cohen from The Orchard; and artist Chagall.

The AI Conference takes place on Thursday 17 May - more info here. See more questions we'll answer at The Great Escape here.

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Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks release Kim Gordon collaboration
Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks have released a new single, 'Refute', featuring guest vocals from Kim Gordon. The track arrives ahead of the release of the band's new album, 'Sparkle Hard', on 18 May.

The idea behind the song, says Malkmus, was to "queer the duet", mixing up "Nashville tropes in light of current trends in evolutionary psychology [by reversing] the classic 'he said/she said' narrative, where in this case the 'wife' is the cheater, and the omniscient narrator enters at the end to offer cold comfort".

Meanwhile, the band have launched a quiz via which you can calculate your 'sparkle level', which I know you were wondering about. I "sparkle hard with a vengeance", which I'm not sure I needed a quiz to tell me, but it's nice to have that confirmed nonetheless. See how you match up here.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about the tour dates they've announced too. That wouldn't do. Here are the tour dates they've announced:

17 Oct: Manchester, Albert Hall
18 Oct: Glasgow, SWG3
19 Oct: Dublin, Vicar Street
21 Oct: Bristol, SWX
22 Oct: Birmingham, The Asylum
24 Oct: London, Hackney Arts Centre
25 Oct: Brighton, Concorde 2

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Agnez Mo, Years & Years, Plan B, 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.

• 300 Entertainment has signed Indonesian singer Agnez Mo. "As we continue to build our international footprint, we believe there are superstars all around the world", says 300 CEO CEO Kevin Liles slightly patronisingly.

• Years & Years have announced that they will release their second album, 'Palo Santo', on 6 Jul. This morning, they've released a trailer narrated by Judy Dench.

• Plan B has released the video for 'Stranger', taken from his imminent new album 'Heaven Before All Hell Breaks Loose'.

• Simian Mobile Disco have released new track 'Defender'.

• Roo Panes will release his third album, 'Quiet Man', on 15 Jun. From it, this is 'My Sweet Revenge'.

• Ängie has released a video combining her single 'Here For My Habits' and her cover of The Velvet Underground's 'Venus In Furs'.

• Mellah has released new track 'Cigarette Lighter'.

• Warmduscher have released the video for latest single 'Standing On The Corner'.

• Lovebites have released new single 'The Crusade', taken from upcoming new EP, 'Battle Against Damnation'.

• RABBII are back with new track 'Afraid of The Dark'.

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

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Royal Wedding recording proves the vinyl revival has gone too far
Universal's Decca label has announced that it will be releasing a recording of the upcoming wedding of Harry Windsor and Meghan Markle on vinyl. They really missed a trick not putting out the birth of that new royal baby as a twelve-inch.

The label plans to make the ceremony, and the various musical performances set to be a part of it, available on streaming services within hours of it taking place. In the event you give a shit about this event, it's happening on 19 May. The vinyl release will follow on 25 May.

"Decca is hugely proud of its historical connections to The Royal Family and is very much looking forward to recording, and making available within hours, this truly special event", says Decca President Rebecca Allen. "This unique and prestigious occasion will be available to stream across all music platforms globally - a first for a royal wedding".

Among the performers at the wedding will be cellist Sheku Kanneh Mason and Welsh soprano Elin Manahan Thomas. There'll also be some God stuff and the line "I do" spoken at least twice, presumably.

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