YouTube to launch music streaming service next week, adds credits to music videos
Hey, so you know that new premium music service YouTube's going to launch? Well it's going to launch it next week. So it's not long now before you can be one of the millions of people not signed up to it.

In a blog post announcing the 22 May launch, the company said that YouTube Music (as it is to be known) will make "the world of music easier to explore and more personalised than ever". Basically, the idea is that you will never need to leave YouTube for any of your music listening needs ever again. The gaps in YouTube's existing music catalogue will be plugged by the new set-up, creating one mega service filled with music you'll find on all the other platforms, and lots you won't.

There are the usual promises of a brilliant user experience, awesome personalised recommendations and thousands of great playlists that streaming services always make. Plus, YouTube reckons its music service will have such an amazing search option that it will be able to find stuff even when you're not sure what it is. One example the company gives as a possible search term is "that hipster song with the whistling". Though I'm not sure how it will fair with "the one on that advert with the dog that goes mmmmanan nnnn nuh shhshh BAP dungh prroororrrrrr".

YouTube Music is set to launch in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico on Tuesday, with a free ad-supported version and a $9.99 per month option.

It had been thought that the new service might replace the Google Play Music streaming service, although the company says that this is not the case. Existing Google Play Music subscribers will have the premium version of YouTube Music bundled into their packages though. So that's nice. For them.

As well as this, YouTube also announced that it plans to rebrand its platform-wide subscription service, YouTube Red, as YouTube Premium in the near future. Continuing to provide ad-free access to the website, it will also include a YouTube Music subscription, resulting in a price increase for new users to $11.99 per month.

Also yesterday, YouTube announced that it will now provide detailed credits for the music contained in official music videos on its entire platform, as well as user-generated content soundtracked with other people's songs, via a new 'Music In This Video' section on its pages. The newly-displayed data now features on more than half a billion videos on the platform, the company reckons.

On videos which simply feature music in their soundtrack, viewers will also now be able to link through to the official videos for the tracks they hear playing, as well as seeing who was involved in making them.

"Bringing 'Music In This Video' to the diverse content that exists on YouTube is made possible due to the data and technology behind Content ID, which allows copyright owners to identify and manage their content on YouTube", explains the company in another blog post. "It's also possible due to YouTube's partnerships with record labels, music publishers and music rights societies around the world".

So that's nice. The ramping up of musical credits on YouTube follows a similar commitment made by Spotify earlier this year, and by Tidal in 2017, though with the UCG add-on, of course. When Spotify added beefed up metadata to its desktop app it was a little more muted in its fanfare. "A lot of this data is going to be a load of old shit, because the information the record labels provide us with is fucking useless", said the company. Or words to that effect. I may not have remembered it exactly right.

Oh wait, look I've found it. Spotify actually said: "We realise some of the label-provided credits are incomplete or may contain inaccuracies, but this is just the first step in displaying songwriter credits on Spotify". So there you go, I was right. A load of old shit.

Still, these moves by digital music services to display more information about those involved in the making of music responds to something that many in the music community have been demanding for a long time. So the addition of this data by YouTube will be welcomed by music types, although it may not stop them thinking the Google-owned site is evil. Maybe the streaming service will do that though, who knows?*

*Me. It won't.

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

Vivendi board set to meet today to discuss Universal IPO
The board of Universal Music's parent company Vivendi is reportedly set to meet today to discuss the possibility of floating a portion of the major label on the stock market, reports the FT.

Speculation about a Universal IPO has appeared at various points in the past, but has been particularly circulating for the last year, since Vivendi execs started talking up a $23.5 billion valuation for the major music firm.

At the company's AGM last month, Vivendi CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine confirmed that a formal proposal to launch a Universal IPO was being put together. Today's meeting is seemingly the first step towards reaching an actual decision.

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

Dice hires Jason Edwards as new Head Of Music
Ticketing firm Dice has announced former Coda agent Jason Edwards as its new Head Of Music. He replaces Russ Tannen, as he moves up to the role of Managing Director.

"Dice is bringing significant and long-needed change to the live music industry, and fans and artists love it", says Edwards. "I was hugely impressed with Dice as an agent, and being able to lead the music team to help spread the word is an exciting proposition. We will help grow promoters' margins, build sustainable and exciting careers for artists while ensuring fans have the best experience. Dice has become an integral brand in the music industry".

Also new to the company is former NME journalist Leonie Cooper, who takes on the newly created role of Editor.

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

Kilimanjaro Live adds two promoters
Concert promoter Kilimanjaro Live has announced the addition of two new promoters to its team, Peter Thomsen and Jamie Anderson.

Anderson joins from PCL Presents in Scotland, while Thomsen joined the company last year, initially as an intern, before moving into an assistant role.

"I'm delighted to welcome Peter and Jamie to the fold and have them join myself, Carlo Scarampi, Alan Day, Georgie Donnelly and Mark Walker in representing Kilimanjaro in the incredibly competitive live music scene of the UK", says company director Steve Tilley.

"Peter and Jamie are here to build their own careers as well as those of the artists they bring in", he went on. "And we're excited to have them on board and to be able to contribute to their development in the industry".

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

Tidal accused of delayed label payments
Norwegian business newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv is keeping up the pressure on Tidal, with new claims that the streaming service is behind with royalty payments to labels - including all three major labels - in some cases by more than six months.

The paper spoke to a number of indie labels for its latest article on the company, including Propeller Recordings boss Frithjof Boye Hungnes, who said: "We have not been paid since October. The agreement is that we will be paid monthly. People are talking about withdrawing, I think there's a pretty hostile atmosphere".

Sveinung Rindal, CEO of digital distributor Phonofile, which works with over 1000 indie labels in the Nordic region, confirmed that the company was experiencing delays in payments from Tidal.

Earlier this month, DN accused Tidal of inflating listening figures for its exclusive albums from Kanye West and Beyonce. Internal data from Tidal obtained by the newspaper corroborated the published listening stats. However, when journalists contacted individual listeners many denied that they had played the albums as much as the service's data said. Academics asked to analyse the data also concluded that it had been tampered with.

Tidal was bullish in its response, accusing the paper of running a "smear campaign", and the journalists of manipulating the "stolen" data.

Of course, overstating the popularity of certain albums is nothing new in music. However, due to the way streaming services are licensed, it doesn't just provide an ego boost and higher prominence for the artist. It would also mean higher royalties for the artist whose figures had been tampered with, and lower payouts for all others on the service.

Norwegian collecting society Tono has already filed a police complaint over the accusations, with other royalty collecting organisations thought to similarly be considering what action to take.

Tidal has not commented on the new complaints of late payments.

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

US TV sitcom based on Harry Styles' life to air this autumn
Harry Styles is to act as Executive Producer on a new sitcom based on his own hilarious life. 'Happy Together' is set to premiere on US TV network CBS later this year, starring Felix Mallard as a Styles-like pop star who moves in with a suburban married couple, played by Damon Wayans Jr and Amber Stevens.

The show is loosely based on a period early in Styles' career with One Direction, when he moved down to London from Cheshire. He found a house to buy in Hampstead, and while he waited for the sale to go through moved in with TV producer Ben Winston and his wife. Initially the plan was for him to stay for two weeks, Winston told Rolling Stone last year, but it ended up being nearly two years. Two apparently hilarious years.

"Those 20 months were when they went from being on a reality show, 'X-Factor', to being the biggest selling artists in the world", he said. "That period of time, he was living with us in the most mundane suburban situation. No one ever found out, really. Even when we went out for a meal, it's such a sweet family neighbourhood, no one dreamed it was actually him. But he made our house a home. And when he moved out, we were gutted".

Winston is now an Executive Producer on 'The Late Late Show With James Corden' - a show Styles stepped in to present at short notice when Corden's wife went into labour last December. More importantly, I suppose, he's also an Executive Producer on 'Happy Together'. So two years spent sleeping on an old mattress in an attic turned out to be quite fruitful for young Styles.

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

Apple Music, Big Shaq, G Flip, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Apple's Tim Cook has announced that Apple Music has 50 million subscribers now. It only announced it had 40 million last month. Although, as Music Ally points out, last month's figure didn't include people on free trials and this month's does. So it's not actually that impressive.

• Big Shaq has released the follow-up to viral hit 'Man's Not Hot'. Here's 'Man Don't Dance'.

• G Flip is back with new song, 'Killing My Time'. "The story behind 'Killing My Time' revolves around a girl who kept distracting me from making music", she says. "It was hard to escape and be productive so I inevitably ended up breaking up with her because I wanted to focus".

• Melody's Echo Chamber has released new song, 'Desert Horse'. "This track was a monster", she says. "It's the most sculptural and mad I guess. It embodies my difficult life journey these last few years through my own personal desert of heartaches, thirst, mirages, moving sands, disillusionment and of becoming an adult woman in a mad world. It's a little punk to me somehow".

• Hilary Woods has released new track 'Prodigal Dog'.

• Death Cab For Cutie have announced that they will play The Scala in London on 19 Jun. Tickets on sale this Friday.

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

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

Tickets for Labour Party music festival not selling that well shocker
Jeremy Corbyn's assumption that if people were excited about seeing him at Glastonbury, they'd also like to see him at his own festival turns out to have been somewhat flawed. According to the Huffington Post, only 15% of tickets for the Labour Live festival in June have so far been sold.

The event is due to take place at the White Heart Lane Recreational Ground in North London on 16 Jun. Among the artists lined up to perform are The Magic Numbers, Rae Morris and Reverend And The Makers, interspersed with political chat from John McDonnell, Owen Jones and J-Corbz himself.

Despite this, tickets are not flying off the shelves, with reports that free busses are being offered to transport party members to the event. Still, with less than a month away, Labour is facing significant losses, possibly topping £1 million.

A Labour spokesperson told the Huffington Post: "Ticket sales have been positive, and we are offering free tickets to under fourteens. We look forward to hosting Labour Live with our supporters and everyone from the local community".

Come on guys, Glastonbury's not even on this year! Get your tickets everybody! Did I mention they've got Owen Jones speaking?

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN