Great Escape Convention is underway - education, AI and China in the spotlight
The Great Escape is upon us once more. The TGE Convention kicks off today with the CMU Insights Education Conference. And we've made a special magazine to celebrate - which you can download here.

CMU Insights will present three conferences at TGE this year. Today's Education Conference, with Urban Development and BIMM, will investigate how music education and the music industry can be more closely aligned. Tomorrow's AI Conference will assess the technologies most likely to revolutionise the music industry in the next decade. And Friday's China Conference, with the BPI, will provide a one-stop beginners guide to the rapidly expanding Chinese music market.

All three conferences take place at Dukes at Komedia, packed with talks, interviews, discussions and debate. Alongside those sessions, CMU's music business podcast Setlist will be in Dukes 2 interviewing key panelists for a special series of podcasts that we will publish later this year.

Being interviewed today are Peter Chivers from Brighton & Hove Music & Arts, Vanessa Wilson from Value Added Kids, Jane Beese from The Roundhouse, Adam Joolia from Audioactive, Mark Irwin from BIMM, Matt Griffiths from Youth Music, Oli Morris from UK Music and Silvia Gargiolo from BIY People & Talent.

CMU will celebrate its 20th birthday in the middle of this year's Great Escape. To mark that occasion we've picked the 20 biggest stories we've covered over the last two decades, each of which are summarised in the aforementioned CMU Great Escape Special magazine, which will be handed out to all of this year's TGE delegates.

As well as all this, CMU will also host an in conversation with Kobalt founder and CEO Willard Ahdritz and launch a new research project with AIM that will map the digital supply chain.

All this sits alongside a programme of other panels and sessions presented by TGE's industry partners at The Old Courtroom, the Brighton Dome and AIM House. And, of course, parties and networking sessions galore, and the whole bloody TGE festival presenting hundreds of bands in venues large and small across the city.

Check out CMU's guide to Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the TGE Convention online. And see you in Brighton!

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Merlin has sold off all its Spotify stock
If, like me, you have a white board on your wall monitoring the record industry's offloading of its Spotify equity, get your board rubber out, wipe away the words "0% sold" from next to the word "Merlin", and get ready to make an amend.

This means you're going to need to locate the favourite of all your white board pens. A nice independently-minded pen, mind. Not some horrible smudgy polluting pen that harks from the big bad corporate regime. No, an ethical pen. A groovy pen. A cool dude pen. An indie label pen. And with that pen write up, next to "Merlin", the words "100% sold".

Yes, indie-label repping digital dealmaker Merlin has sold off all of the Spotify stock it secured as part of its original licensing deals with the streaming firm. And that money has already been passed on to the Merlin membership, who now have to work out how to make good on the previous commitments most indie labels made to share their Spotify equity profits with their artists.

Speaking to Music Week earlier this week, Merlin chief Charles Caldas confirmed that the organisation had sold on its Spotify stock, explaining: "Merlin is an organisation that exists solely to maximise the value of our members' rights and keeps only the monies that it needs to operate. It is outside of Merlin's remit to hold a long-term equity position in a publicly-listed company where there is a liquid and transparent market for that equity. We therefore worked quickly to liquidate our interest in Spotify and have passed the proceeds to our eligible members".

Sony Music and Warner Music have both also sold on significant portions of their Spotify shareholdings (50% and 75% respectively at last count). We await word on Universal's moves in this domain, although it looks like the entire record industry could have sold on all its Spotify shares in the not too distant future. Which means we'll need another use for that white board. Maybe, a "which streaming firm will go bust next" chart?

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New PRS live performance licence gets Copyright Tribunal approval
PRS For Music has received Copyright Tribunal approval of new terms for one of its main live performance licences, what the rights body calls its 'Tariff LP' licence. The new terms will now become effective at the beginning of next month.

Concert promoters need public performance licences from whoever owns the copyright in any songs performed at the shows they promote. These licences are usually issued via the collective licensing system, which means PRS in the UK. Under its current 'Tariff LP' system, PRS takes 3% of ticket monies from any gig or festival in the UK where its members songs are performed, which is most gigs and festivals in the UK.

That system has been in place since 1988, though PRS has instigated two reviews in recent years, mainly because the live sector boomed in the 2000s. After its first review, the society announced in 2011 that it would keep things as they were. But when a second review came along just four years later in 2015, it seemed certain this time changes would be proposed. This prompted two years of negotiations with the live industry, before new terms were finally agreed last year.

The proposed overhaul was then sent to the Copyright Tribunal, the court that can intervene and set rates in the collective licensing domain when licensees and licensors can't agree on terms. Its approval was required for this revamp.

Although PRS went to Tribunal with most music industry stakeholders endorsing its proposal, there was a delay because the new licence didn't accommodate the recent trend for some artists to license their songs to promoters directly when they are performing them themselves. PACE, a company that assists artists who have opted to go that route, objected, resulting in a final amend to introduce a little flexibility into the PRS licence where direct licensing occurs. Though quite how that will work remains to be seen.

"By working together with our colleagues across the live sector we have successfully negotiated an agreed outcome for all parties and I'm very pleased that the Copyright Tribunal has now approved the terms, as agreed between PRS and the live sector representatives", says PRS For Music's Executive Director of Membership, International & Licensing, Paul Clements.

"We have reached an agreement which not only recognises and rewards the huge contribution made by our songwriter and composer members to the live industry", he continues, "but, as importantly, recognises the different needs and strengths of the thousands of venues and events across the UK that are critical to the ongoing sustainability and diversity of the UK live music scene".

The outcome of the review is basically that rates go up slightly at the top of the live sector, and down at the bottom, with the previous minimum charge removed entirely. When the new terms come into effect on 1 Jun, the royalty rate for concerts, and all other live music events within the scope of Tariff LP, will increase from 3% to 4%. However, a new rate will also be introduced to the tariff for festivals that meet certain criteria. These festivals will see the rate drop to 2.5%.

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Entertainment Agents' Association warns promoters of fake agent scams
The Entertainment Agents' Association has published a checklist for promoters, following an increase in email scams involving fake agents.

The trade body for booking agents says that, in recent months, fraudsters have attempted to convince promoters that they are the official representatives of artists including Adele, Justin Timberlake, Dire Straits, Beyonce, System Of A Down and Eminem, when they most definitely are not.

"We're seeing a worrying increase in this style of email scam", says Association president Neil Tomlinson. "Before agreeing any show and sending deposits, promoters must be 100% sure that they are dealing with the real booking agent for that artist".

Emma Banks of booking agency CAA adds: "Please be very careful if you get mails that don't quite look right. Follow the common sense steps that the Agents Association have suggested and don't send any money until you have double checked that the 'agent' is indeed who they say they are. Please get on the phone to the agents you are doing business with - everything on email makes these scams so much easier for people to instigate".

Those common sense steps there mentioned are as follows:

1. Check the email address is correct, in particular the email domain, and if in any doubt call the agency to confirm it (do not use the telephone number on the email).
2. Check the artist's website for any conflicting touring plans.
3. Make sure you have full contact details of the agent you are working with and speak to them on the phone at least once.
4. Before sending a deposit, call the agency to confirm the booking and check their account details.
5. Check with promoters in other markets to verify the artist is touring in that region at that time.
6. If an offer is accepted and seems too good to be true, it probably is.

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Freddie Mercury biopic set for release at last, first trailer unveiled
In production since roughly the middle of the Bronze Age, it appears that Freddie Mercury biopic 'Bohemian Rhapsody' will be out later this year. A release date has been announced - 24 Oct - and a trailer pushed out onto the internet.

The troubled production has churned through various directors and lead actors over the years. In December last year, Dexter Fletcher returned to direct the film (having previously dropped out in 2014), after Bryan Singer left the project on acrimonious terms.

With old Fletch back on board, things finally seem to have got on track, allowing 'Mr Robot' star Rami Malek to take on the role of Mercury. Although being cast in that role didn't 100% fill Malek himself with confidence.

"One thing I will say is, when I got this role, I thought, 'Oh my God, this could be a career-defining performance'", he said at the recent CinemaCon. "And about two minutes later, I go, 'This could be a career killer'. I'm not kidding. You don't get this right, and it's trouble. [Mercury] is, without a doubt in my mind, the greatest performer that has existed".

So this is make or break for Malek! It's always good to throw a little jeopardy into the proceedings. Will he ever work again after this? Well, see what you can deduce from this quick cut trailer.

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Travis documentary to attempt to unravel why people even like the band
Travis have announced that they will premiere new documentary, 'Almost Fashionable - A Film About Travis', at this year's Edinburgh Film Festival.

Journalist Wyndham Wallace fronts the film. He interviewed fans of the band at shows in Mexico in 2016, with cameraman Cristian Pirjol in tow. And his questions were genuinely curious about why people like the band.

Travis frontman Fran Healey explains: "Wyndham is a very charming man and a very good writer but, mostly the reason he was there covering our trip was because he wasn't the biggest fan of the band. I thought a documentary from this unusual angle would be a lot more interesting than one from a journalist who was a fan. As it turns out, I was right".

There will be two screenings of the film at EIFF in June. Find out more and watch the trailer here.

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Years & Years, Tune-Yards, Teleman, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Years & Years have released the video for new single, 'If You're Over Me'. "This is a song about trying to stay friends with an ex", says frontman Olly Alexander. "Spoiler alert - it doesn't often work".

• Tune-Yards have released a video for 'Honesty', from their latest album, 'I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life'. You can also watch a short documentary about the making of the video here.

• Teleman are back with new single, 'Cactus'. "In youth, most preoccupations are base and wasteful - what to wear, what party to go to, who said what to whom", says vocalist Tom Saunders of the idea behind the song. "If you carry these on into later life you might be deeply unfulfilled".

• Connie Constance has released new single, 'Yesterday'. With various UK festival dates upcoming, she's also announced a headline show at Omeara in London 17 Jul

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

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Janelle Monáe launches app to replace your playlists with her album
By now you should have discovered that Janelle Monáe's new album, 'Dirty Computer', is excellent. It really is.

In fact, I'm not sure you need to listen to anything else ever again. And to help you on your way to that, she's just launched a new app that will 'clean' all of your Spotify playlists, replacing all tracks with her album.

"Feel what it's liked to be cleaned, and update your playlists with me", Monáe announced in a tweet.

If that seems like something you'd want (and I see no reason why you wouldn't), click here to try it out.

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