MEPs debate safe harbour reform... again
Debate is underway in the European Parliament on the draft new copyright directive, with a vote expected imminently.

Much of the debate is focused on the two most controversial proposals, which includes the safe harbour reform that the music industry has been lobbying hard to secure for several years now. This reform, if it goes through, will increase the copyright liabilities of user-upload platforms like YouTube. Who, needless to say, would prefer to keep their liabilities down super low.

The music industry says that reform of this kind will end a damaging distortion of the digital music market caused by YouTube exploiting the safe harbour in order to pay much lower royalties than its rivals. YouTube owner Google says the changes will break the internet.

When MEPs last considered the directive in July they voted it down, in no small part because of rampant (and, the music industry reckons, misleading) lobbying on the part of the tech sector. Which that in mind, this time the music community has gone into overdrive to try and secure enough votes in favour of the directive and its safe harbour reforms.

During today's proceedings, the Parliament was due to consider eight possible reworks of the safe harbour reforming article thirteen, including a proposal to remove it entirely, and other rewrites of the text that were considered back in July. The rework preferred by most of the music industry - which is the closest to the July draft - is the last one set to be discussed.

Among the musical types chit chatting about the whole thing ahead of today's vote has been that there Wyclef Jean, who has urged lawmakers to "embrace and improve the internet, rather than attempt to block and hinder it". By that he meant they should vote down article thirteen. The former Fugee clearly didn't get the memo. Or maybe he got Google's memo. In an op-ed for Politico he added: "Don't tear down the building, be the landlord".

Responding to Jean's intervention, the boss of indie label repping IMPALA, Helen Smith, urged MEPs to ignore the music star and think instead of the wider music community. "Think of the artists you haven't even heard of yet and decide whether you want a level playing field for all". Just to be clear, IMPALA's position is that it's their preferred version of article thirteen that will level that field of play.

There's a chance that by the time you read this article the vote will have already happened. We'll regroup here in the CMU Daily tomorrow to see how it went and - if it goes in the music industry's favour - to find out if anyone is THRILLED about it.

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Ja Rule says he shouldn't be liable for Fyre Festival disaster, despite online brags
Ja Rule has told a New York court that him bigging up the Fyre Festival on social media and YouTube isn't enough to hold him liable for the disaster that subsequently unfolded. Aggrieved festival-goers should therefore seek compensation from the defunct company behind the festival and its soon-to-be-jailed fraudster boss, he says.

Fyre Festival was originally billed as a joint venture between Ja Rule, real name Jeffrey Atkins, and supposed entrepreneur Billy McFarland. Both promised a luxury party experience in the Bahamas, but when festival-goers arrived on the island hosting the damn thing in April last year they found that organisers hadn't put in place the infrastructure for even a very basic event.

The doomed event has resulted in a flurry of litigation from angry ticket-buyers, suppliers and investors, in addition to the criminal action taken against McFarland in relation to his fraudulent activities. Because of his association with the festival, and with him actually having some assets to go after, Atkins quickly found himself named as a defendant on some of those lawsuits.

That includes the $100 million class action working its way through the New York courts. According to Law 360, he has now asked said courts to remove him as a defendant on that particular case, arguing that his promotion of the festival online wasn't sufficient to make him liable for the resulting shitstorm.

Atkins' legal filing concedes that in late 2016 he declared on social media that the Fyre Festival would be the "biggest FOMO-inducing event of 2017". In a subsequent YouTube video, meanwhile, he toasted the festival's organisers and said: "Here's to living like movie stars, partying like rock stars".

However, such bold statements were not enough to make Atkins liable for the failings of the festival's management, his legal filing argues. Not least because there is no evidence claimants in the class action even saw those social media plugs or were persuaded to buy tickets because of them. And there were plenty of other 'influencers' on the social networks busy talking up the event at the same time.

Atkins' legal filing states: "Tellingly, not a single plaintiff claims to have seen, have been aware of, or have been influenced by Atkins' statements. You cannot rely on what you do not know and therefore, even if each of the [complaint's] alleged facts are true, plaintiffs could not have reasonably relied on the statements because they were unaware of them".

If the courts do let Atkins off the hook - basically on the basis that he was just a celebrity front for an operation owned and run by McFarland - that will mean that the various lawsuits in relation to the failed event will be seeking compensation from a company and an individual with seemingly no cash to hand.

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CMU Insights puts the spotlight on key music business trends with in-house courses
As the next season of CMU Insights seminars kicks off in London next week, bookings are also being taken for the in-house primer course 'Key Music Business Trends'.

The CMU Insights evening seminars take place each Monday at 6.30pm at the London HQ of Lewis Silkin. The first three sessions of the season are focused on music copyright and the music rights business, with the first seminar - 'How Music Rights Work' - taking place this coming Monday at 6.30pm.

Places on individual seminars are £49.99 including VAT and booking fee, while a ticket getting you access to all three of the copyright seminars is just £125. Info here.

In addition to the seminars at Lewis Silkin, CMU Insights also offers a range of 'primer courses' that are taught in house at music companies as part of their own training schemes or for trade organisations as part of their member event programmes.

That includes the popular seminar 'Key Music Business Trends', which provides a concise and easy-to-follow overview of the five biggest developments in the music industry this year, including the streaming business, safe harbour, piracy, ticketing and data.

This session is taught at a client's own offices and is currently available at the special price of £299 (plus VAT and travel costs if outside London). For details of this session and the other off-the-shelf primer courses that are available click here. And for details on CMU Insights other training services click here.

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Nick John dies
Mastodon and Gojira have paid tribute after their manager Nick John died on Saturday. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Last week it was revealed that John's diagnosis was the reason that Mastodon had recently cancelled their entire North American tour with Dinosaur Jr. In a statement following his death, the band said: "Thank you for your guidance, your wisdom, your never ending hard work and dedication to Mastodon, always pushing and reaching, turning over every stone to make sure we were always protected and always had every opportunity any of us could dream of".

They continued: "Thank you for making yourself available morning, noon and night to handle every crisis or situation that ever came up. Thank you for being so passionate and believing in us with such enthusiasm that we considered you part of the band. Thank you for your calm demeanour, your level head and your sharp sense of humour. Thank you for showing all of us how to work our phones and computers with incredible patience".

Concluding, they wrote: "Thank you for your smile and your infectious laugh but most of all, thank you for your unconditional love and friendship, we love you very much and are going to miss you more than we know".

Another of John's bands, Gojira, said that they had "lost an exceptional human being".

Beginning his career at Def American in the 1990s, John worked at management company Rick Sales Entertainment for more than two decades. As well as Mastodon and Gojira, he worked closely with Slayer.

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How To Dress Well announces new album, The Anteroom
How To Dress Well has announced that he will release a new album, 'The Anteroom', on 19 Oct. New single 'Nonkilling 6 | Hunger' accompanies the news.

"I wrote the record after moving to Los Angeles, which is a crazy and maybe dreadful place, right after the 2016 election, with hell and death gaining ground all around us on every corner of the globe", says the musician. "'The Anteroom' is testament to a two year period in which I felt myself slipping out of the world and into a cosmic loneliness in which I would eventually be dissolved".

He continues: "In order to give myself a way back, I began to try to understand my station as some kind of anteroom - a space between - a chamber that separates the known and the unknown, stable life from total disintegration".

Watch the video for 'Nonkilling 6 | Hunger' here.

Ahead of the album release, there will be a UK live performance at Corsica Studios in London on 15 Oct.

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Villagers announce 2019 live dates
With various UK and Ireland shows also lined up between now and the end of the year, Villagers have announced their first 2019 shows. All of this will follow the release of a new album, 'The Art Of Pretending To Swim', which is out on 21 Sep.

Ahead of all of it comes new single, 'Again', which you can listen to here.

Here are the newly announced dates:

28 Feb: London, Roundhouse
1 Mar: Manchester Cathedral
2 Mar: Newcastle, Wylam Brewery

Tickets go on sale on Friday.

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LSO Live, ReBalance, Spotify, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• [PIAS] has signed a global digital distribution deal with LSO Live, the in-house label of the London Symphony Orchestra. "LSO Live enthusiastically welcomes its relationship with [PIAS]", says LSO Live boss Becky Lees. "Their expertise in this field brings a means of reaching a global audience which is a key to our future plans and will further our label's digital offering".

• Kobalt's AWAL has signed a new and expanded worldwide label services deal with Liverpool band The Night Café. They have already worked together on two EP releases. "We're very happy about signing our first record deal with AWAL and look forward to the future", says frontman Sean Martin.

• Festival Republic and the PRS Foundation's ReBalance programme, which provides recording time to female musicians, has announced two new winners of its funding. Poet TrueMendous and techno producer M T Hall were chosen from over 200 nominees.

• Spotify has announced plans to adopt Neilsen's Brand Effect analytics platform to allow its advertisers to better measure the effectiveness of their advertising. "Whether an advertiser is looking to make decisions on creative format, length or placement, Nielsen Brand Effect will be able to help bring real insights based on real people to better inform those choices on maximising the value of their investments", says Neilsen's Jessica Hogue. Spotify already uses a number of Neilsen products to measure ad effectiveness.

• A whole 30 years after launching in the US, a UK version of 'Yo! MTV Raps' is being launched. From 25 Sep, Snoochie Shy and Poet will present the programme, with guests including Stefflon Don, Flohio, Ray BLK and more.

• Fucked Up have released another new track, 'House Of Keys', from upcoming new album 'Dose Your Dreams'. They've also announced that they will be touring the UK in January.

• Dir En Grey have released the video for new single, 'Ranunculus'. Their new album, 'The Insulated World', is set for release on 26 Sep.

• Yassassin have released the video for new single, 'Wreckless'.

• The Levellers have announced five UK shows to mark their 30th anniversary. Taking place in November, the band will play Cardiff, Brighton, Bristol, Norwich and Nottingham. A standalone, intimate and very much sold out London show is already set for The 100 Club on 6 Oct.

• Stefflon Don has announced UK tour dates for November, which will finish up at the Hammersmith Apollo on 29 Nov.

• Nadine Shah is set to tour the UK this December, including a performance at Heaven in London on 4 Dec.

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

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Paul McCartney recalls masturbating with John Lennon
In a new interview with GQ, Paul McCartney says that The Beatles benefitted as a band from a closeness developed in their early years together, before they became famous. As a group, this included huddling together for warmth at night while on tour. Although, as teenagers, he and John Lennon got a head start.

"What it was, [I] was over at John's house, and it was just a group of us", he says. "And instead of just getting roaring drunk and partying, we were all just in these chairs, and the lights were out, and somebody started masturbating, so we all did".

As they went on, the young Lennon, McCartney et al would shout out names to, er, aid things along. "We were just, 'Brigitte Bardot!' 'Woo!' And then everyone would thrash a bit more". Which all went fine until someone decided to derail the proceedings. "I think it was John [who] said, 'Winston Churchill!'" recalls McCartney.

None of this was that big a deal, or even something that they thought much about afterwards, McCartney adds. "I think it was a one-off", he says. "Or maybe it was like a two-off. It wasn't a big thing. But, you know, it was just the kind of thing you didn't think much of. It was just a group. Yeah, it's quite raunchy when you think about it. There's so many things like that from when you're a kid that you look back on and you're, 'Did we do that?' But it was good harmless fun. It didn't hurt anyone. Not even Brigitte Bardot".

For more insights of this kind - such as whether or not there were Beatles orgies, and info on McCartney's frog massacre, his discovery of DNA, and ongoing anxieties around the break up of the band - read the full interview here.

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