SiriusXM confirms "definitive agreement" to buy Pandora outright
It's been a long-time coming, but yesterday SiriusXM announced a "definitive agreement" to acquire Pandora Media. This will bring the American satellite radio broadcaster and personalised radio service properly into one business. The two firms reckon it will be "the world's largest audio entertainment company". And who doesn't love a bit of audio entertainment?

SiriusXM has long been tipped as a buyer for Pandora. The personalised radio set up has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2011 and, like most digital music businesses, is still trying to work out how to making the delivery of musical streams profitable. There was talk of a Sirius acquisition of Pandora Media last year, but in the end it bought a slice of the company instead - nearly a fifth - in a $480 million transaction.

Assuming the new deal goes through, Sirius and Pandora will still remain as separate products and brands, but there will be plenty of co-promotion between the two. The combined company will also be looking for economies of scale, while also hoping that each side can benefit from the other's relationships in the advertising industry, the music community, and with other key partners like the automobile industry.

Sirius has much more experience in the subscriptions business, and Pandora has been more active in the subscriptions market in the last couple of years. While it has always offered an ad-free version of its personalised radio set-up for a monthly fee, it started more proactively pushing all that following a relaunch in 2016. Plus, of course, Pandora now also offers a fully on-demand option of the Spotify and Apple Music model for the standard $10 a month.

That said, you sense that management at Sirius also reckon that there is still much untapped potential in online audio advertising and, given the size of Pandora's audience, it is well placed to capitalise on those opportunities. For its part, the music industry is much more focused on growing online subscriptions at the moment, but it is true that ad-funded services will likely remain a key part of the streaming music market long-term.

In terms of music industry relations, both Sirius and Pandora have had run-ins with the music community over the years. Mainly because both have relied on compulsory licences on the recordings side and collecting society licences on the songs side, and have then lobbied hard the Copyright Royalty Board and rate courts to keep the royalties they have to be pay down. And, of course, earlier this month Sirius was loudly criticised by some in the music industry over its last minute intervention on the Music Modernization Act.

But Pandora's relationships with the music industry have, in the main, improved in recent years as the company has struck up more direct deals with the record companies and music publishers rather than relying so much on the collective licensing system. And while the music business might bicker with Sirius and Pandora when it comes to licensing, the industry's marketers recognise the value of reaching each service's respective audience.

In terms of the specifics of the "definitive agreement" announced yesterday, which has board backing but must still be approved by Pandora Media's shareholders, under the proposals those with Pandora shares will be offered newly issued Sirius shares on a "fixed exchange ratio of 1.44". Which means that Pandora's other shareholders will get themselves some lovely stock in the newly expanded SiriusXM business.

Explaining the maths in a little more detail, the companies said in a statement: "Based on the 30 day volume-weighted average price of $7.04 per share of SiriusXM common stock, the implied price of Pandora common stock is $10.14 per share, representing a premium of 13.8% over a 30 day volume-weighted average price". So now you know.

Confirming all of this, SiriusXM boss man Jim Meyer said yesterday: "We have long respected Pandora and their team for their popular consumer offering that has attracted a massive audience, and have been impressed by Pandora's strategic progress and stronger execution. We believe there are significant opportunities to create value for both companies' stockholders by combining our complementary businesses".

Expanding on what those opportunities might be, he continued: "The addition of Pandora diversifies SiriusXM's revenue streams with the US's largest ad-supported audio offering, broadens our technical capabilities, and represents an exciting next step in our efforts to expand our reach out of the car even further".

"Through targeted investments, we see significant opportunities to drive innovation that will accelerate growth beyond what would be available to the separate companies", he added, "in a way that also benefits consumers, artists, and the broader content communities. Together, we will deliver even more of the best content on radio to our passionate and loyal listeners, and attract new listeners, across our two platforms".

On the Pandora side of the table, its CEO Roger Lynch added: "We've made tremendous progress in our efforts to lead in digital audio. Together with SiriusXM, we're even better positioned to take advantage of the huge opportunities we see in audio entertainment, including growing our advertising business and expanding our subscription offerings".

"The powerful combination of SiriusXM's content, position in the car, and premium subscription products, along with the biggest audio streaming service in the US, will create the world's largest audio entertainment company", he mused on. "This transaction will deliver significant value to our stockholders and will allow them to participate in upside, given SiriusXM's strong brand, financial resources and track record delivering results".

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Ticketmaster chief responds to latest secondary ticketing hoo haa Stateside, while Viagogo sparring continues in the UK
The President of Live Nation's Ticketmaster has spoken to Billboard about an exposé in the Canadian media last week about the firm's secondary ticketing operations in the US. The report from the Toronto Star and CBC showed the ticketing giant courting touts at a trade fair in America, and being both very candid and very blasé about how those touts routinely break the rules on Ticketmaster's primary site in order to access tickets to resell.

Amid the debate around secondary ticketing on both sides of the Atlantic, allegations have been repeatedly made that some people in the music industry are complicit in ticket resale - even while sometimes publicly criticising the touts - by actively making tickets available to resellers. Or, at least, by turning a blind eye to resellers who routinely break the rules that limit the number of tickets any one individual is allowed to buy from the primary seller.

Some promoters argue that they only ever got involved in the touting of their own tickets when it seemed that lawmakers would never regulate the secondary market, and so they adopted an 'if you can't beat them join them' approach. Which is to say, if anyone is going to benefit from a resale mark-up, it might as well be the promoter.

But some reckon that promoters benefit from touting in other ways too. It helps them offload large numbers of tickets quickly aiding cash-flow, plus it provides the option to anonymously put discounted tickets on the market at the last minute if sales haven't gone well.

Meanwhile, with a company like Ticketmaster, which has both primary and secondary ticketing platforms, there has long been the allegation that it is in the company's interest for tickets to go from promoter to primary site to secondary site to fan, because it gets to charge two fees instead of one. It can charge a commission on the primary site, and then a higher commission on the secondary site.

In Europe, of course, the Live Nation ticketing company recently switched sides in the ongoing secondary ticketing debate, announcing it would shut down its two resale sites, Get Me In! and Seatwave. When confirming that shift, Ticketmaster UK said: "That's right, we've listened and we hear you: secondary sites just don't cut it anymore and you're tired of seeing others snap up tickets just to resell for a profit".

However, in the US Ticketmaster is still very much in the ticket resale game. The Toronto Star/CBC report focused on a trade fair for touts - or 'ticket brokers', if you prefer - in Las Vegas. The journalist fronting the report spoke to a rep for Ticketmaster's TradeDesk platform, which helps touts organise and manage the tickets they have bought and which they are reselling on the secondary market.

The journalist asks the rep whether Ticketmaster would seek to stop him from using multiple user accounts on its primary site in order to access large quantities of tickets to resell, in violation of those rules that limit the number of tickets any one individual can buy. "Uh, no", the TradeDesk guy responds. "I have a gentlemen who has over 200 Ticketmaster.com accounts ... who syncs his tickets in every day".

Reckoning that pretty much every tout is using multiple accounts on Ticketmaster.com to access the tickets they resell, the TradeDesk rep then muses that "they have to, because you want to get a good show, the ticket limit is six or eight, you're not going to make a living on eight tickets". Which is in many ways stating the obvious, but it's newsworthy because this guy is a Ticketmaster employee.

While in the secondary ticketing business, Ticketmaster has generally been critical of touts harvesting large numbers of tickets off its primary sites in this way, and of technologies said touts use to help with the process. But the TradeDesk guy was adamant that his side of the business would never share information with the other side of the company which is looking to crack down on the kind of activities his clients participate in on a daily basis.

In a statement last week, Ticketmaster said that it did not "condone the statements made by the employee" in the Toronto Star/CBC video, "as the conduct described clearly violates our terms of service. The company has already begun an internal review of our professional reseller accounts and employee practices to ensure that our policies are being upheld by all stakeholders. Moving forward we will be putting additional measures in place to proactively monitor for this type of inappropriate activity".

Subsequently speaking to Billboard, Ticketmaster President Jared Smith has now insisted that "we absolutely do not turn a blind eye to the misuse of our products". He then added that the Toronto Star/CBC story was "predicated on misinformation and a misunderstanding". However, he did then concede that "there's clearly some things that we're not doing well enough. We'll learn from it and we'll make some changes. I'm happy to make those changes. We think we should make those changes".

He insists that Ticketmaster continues to actively stop people who harvest tickets off its primary platform in violation of its own rules and regulations. The tools employed to do this are not perfect, he says, but the company continues to hone and improve them. However, he added, just because a reseller using the firm's TradeDesk service has 50 tickets to a show where the cap on purchases was eight, that doesn't mean they can assume that reseller has broken the rules. "They could have bought them from other resellers or directly from the venue", he says.

Elsewhere in the interview Smith defends the secondary market and his company's continued involvement in it. Some of the arguments he employs relate to specific features of the US ticketing market, while others mirror the arguments previously employed by his colleagues in Europe until their decision to shut down Get Me In! and Seatwave.

"At the end of the day, the secondary market is going to exist", Smith says. "People are going to buy these tickets, whether they use TradeDesk or not. If tomorrow we said, 'OK, we're in conflict, we're going to shut down TradeDesk', all that's going to happen is that these tickets are going to go someplace else. [Touts] aren't going to stop trying to buy tickets. They'll buy the tickets, they'll put them in a different marketplace, the tickets won't be validated and fans will be worse off".

But Smith does then say that new ticketing technology - including that conveniently being developed by Ticketmaster - can be used to restrict touting. "The real solution is in the ticket", he states. "We've got to get rid of PDFs, we've got to get rid of the barcode, and we've got to expand identity-based ticketing. We have to use 'verified fan' and digital tickets so the artist has the tools that they need to be able to dictate how those tickets are sold".

Elsewhere in secondary ticketing news, this weekend Damian Collins - chair of the UK Parliament's culture select committee, which recently put the spotlight back on touting - penned an op-ed piece for the Daily Record. The Scottish newspaper has been more prolific than most in documenting and investigating the secondary ticketing market, and in calling for better rules and regulations of touting, and for existing rules to be enforced.

In the piece, Collins calls for Ticketmaster and other primary sites to step up their efforts in stopping touts from harvesting large numbers of tickets. He writes: "I agree with the Daily Record's assertion that Ticketmaster should be blacklisting touts. It is very easy for the platforms to identify people who are selling large amounts of tickets".

He goes on: "Whenever they see someone has bought a cluster of tickets for an event, all at the same time, where tickets are going to the same address or to a bunch of connected emails, the platform should cancel them at the primary stage". Noting that activity of this kind indicates industrial level touting, he says that if and when Ticketmaster et al "can see that these tickets are being bought and resold in bulk, [the buyers] should be banned".

Although, perhaps unsurprisingly, Collins is most scathing in his piece about that other major player in resale: Viagogo. Because, of course, the most controversial of all the secondary ticketing sites recently stood up Parliament's culture select committee for a second time.

"We have seen with the non-appearance of Viagogo before the committee, proof that they are rogue operators who aren't interested in playing by the rules or abiding by our laws", Collins writes. "My message to anyone wanting to see their favourite band or sports event is clear - don't buy from Viagogo ... it's just not worth the risk".

Collins' article follows the news last week that Ed Sheeran will play four more shows in the UK next year, with measures being put in place to make it even harder to tout tickets for those gigs. Sheeran's promoter also urged fans to not buy tickets from the rogue resale site. Urging customers to only buy from official ticket agents as listed on the musician's website, its statement added: "Viagogo.com is not an official ticket vendor for this tour".

But the newly chatty Viagogo is adamant that it will be selling tickets for those Sheeran concerts, and that that's just fine. Responding to the statement from Sheeran HQ, it said on Friday: "All tickets on Viagogo are genuine and we will have tickets to all Ed Sheeran's UK tour dates at a wide range of prices. Fans can buy from us with absolute confidence that they can turn up to the gig and simply walk straight in".

Viagogo, of course, has sued one of Sheeran's UK promoters, Kilimanjaro Live, over the anti-touting policies it employed at the last round of his shows. It argues that, while Kilimanjaro was cancelling tickets resold on the Viagogo site, the promoter generally didn't know which tickets had been touted unless a buyer revealed the source of their ticket at the venue.

With that in mind - and ensuring that its war of words with Kilimanjaro and its boss Stuart Galbraith continues - the company then alleged: "Ed's promoter, Stuart Galbraith of Kilimanjaro, made grandiose claims that he could cancel any tickets listed on Viagogo but he recently admitted in a BBC interview that he cannot. In fact, he is now being sued for these and other fraudulent claims he made during the last Ed Sheeran tour".

Kilimanjaro, of course, strongly denies all the allegations Viagogo has made against both it and Galbraith. And while it may be true that, at past Sheeran concerts, fans with Viagogo sourced tickets could often get into shows if they avoided the 'Victim Of Viagogo' desks, the promoter would likely point to the additional anti-touting measures it is employing next time.

Either way, while in America it is Ticketmaster's continued involvement in resale that remains the story, in the UK it seems likely that it will be the Viagogo v Sheeran saga that keeps us most entertained as the big secondary ticketing debate marches on.

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Universal partners with 7digital
7digital has announced a new deal with Universal Music which will see it provide services to three of the major's own digital music initiatives. According to reports, the plan is to build bespoke streaming products based around individual artists.

Although there are few details about the specifics of those projects, 7digital CEO Simon Cole confirmed the new deal to his investors yesterday.

He said in a statement: "We are delighted to be announcing agreements with the world leader in music-based entertainment, Universal Music Group, since each contract focuses on UMG initiatives that enable deeper engagement between artists and their fans, and leverage a range of revenue streams within digital music".

Prior to the deal being announced, Cole told City AM yesterday that the company is looking to build streaming services "outside of the standard £9.99 [a month] model".

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Beastie Boys announce London book launch event
The death of Adam Yauch in 2012 marked the end of Beastie Boys as a performing and recording act. You will, however, have the chance to see surviving members Adam Horovitz and Michael Diamond on stage again later this year. They'll be in London for one of six worldwide events marking the release of their long-awaited memoir in November.

'Beastie Boys Book' is set to be published by Faber & Faber on 30 Oct, with a month long series of events planned around the launch. The mini-tour will reach the UK, at London's EartH venue, on 30 Nov.

Mike D and Ad-rock will be in attendance to read from their book. They will also be interviewed and take part in Q&A sessions, all of which will apparently be live-scored by Mix Master Mike. And there will also be a new Beastie Boys exhibition to wander through.

Sidestepping the format of the traditional music memoir, the book also features contributions from other people, including Amy Poehler, Colson Whitehead, Spike Jonze, Wes Anderson and Luc Sante. There'll also be a collection of recipes from chef Roy Choi, photographs, illustrations, a graphic novel, tracklists for mixtapes you might like to put together, a map of Beastie Boys' New York, and more.

Tickets for the London event will go on sale this Friday here.

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Enter Shikari release remix, announce new book
To mark the first anniversary of the release of their fifth album, 'The Spark', Enter Shikari have released a new remix and announced a book of lyrics.

'The Spark - Lyrics & Exegesis Of Rou Reynolds' is set to be published by Faber Music in November. It combines all the lyrics of the album's songs with essays by frontman Rou Reynolds on the inspiration behind them. It follows the same format as previous book 'Dear Future Historians', which collected lyrics from and essays on songs from the band's first four albums.

"I'm THRILLED to be working again with Faber and publishing my second book of lyrics and essays", says Reynolds. "I'm a strong believer that dissection and analysis of music or art does not - contrary to popular belief - diminish it or reduce its magic. As Beethoven said, 'don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that'. I hope readers of this piece of explanatory literature will find it exciting and interesting".

Of the newly released remix of 'Live Outside', which was the first single from 'The Spark', he adds: "The 'Live Outside' remix has been a staple of our Shikari Sound System DJ sets for a while now and always goes down a treat".

He added that the band were "excited to finally release it into the world on the anniversary of the album's release. We're truly touched that 'The Spark' affected so many people worldwide, and so viscerally too. It was both a struggle and a joy to make, and still gives me such a rush to play the songs live".

Watch the video for the remixed track here.

Alongside all this, the band are currently preparing for a lengthy tour of the UK, set to begin in December and run through to February.

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Metallica announce 2019 UK & Ireland shows
Metallica have announced that they will be touring Europe next summer, with three shows in the UK and Ireland. Tickets are set to go on general sale on Friday.

As well as access to the show, buyers will get a physical or download copy of the band's latest album, 'Hardwired... To Self-Destruct', and a download of a recording of the show they attend. The latter after it's happened, obviously.

You'll also be able to add top-up options to your ticket, including early venue access, a jaunt round the band's travelling museum, and meet-and-greets. Fans feeling flush can also opt for a 'black ticket', which provides access to all and any shows they wish to attend.

The UK and Ireland dates are as follows:

8 Jun: Dublin, Slane Castle
18 Jun: Manchester, Etihad Stadium
20 Jun: London, Twickenham Stadium

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Genting Arena, NME, Within Temptation, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Birmingham's Genting Arena is being re-branded as the Resorts World Arena, and anyone who gets it wrong will be kicked in the shins. It actually kind of makes sense, because the arena is opposite Resorts World Birmingham, a casino and entertainment complex owned by Genting, which has had naming rights on the Birmingham arena venue since 2015.

• NME's NME 1 radio station has expanded its reach on the DAB network, meaning it can now be heard in parts of central London, as well as Brighton and Norwich. Listeners can also now play NME 1 and NME 2 by barking those names at their Amazon-Alexa-enabled device. "Being available on DAB+ in central London and having dedicated Alexa skills is a further step forward", says Station Manager Sammy Jacob. "The developments benefit the bands and artists we support too - both established and emerging".

• Within Temptation have released the video for new single 'The Reckoning', featuring Jacoby Shaddix. The track is the first to be released from upcoming new album 'Resist', out on 14 Dec.

• Novelist has released the video for 'Dot Dot Dot', from his Mercury-nominated album, 'Novelist Guy'. "The inspiration behind the video was to provoke thought and listening, the video is quite dark and minimal for this purpose", he says.

• Lil Simz has released new track 'Boss', following last week's 'Offence'.

• One OK Rock have announced that they will play a one-off UK show at Heaven in London on 5 Dec.

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

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Cardi B reportedly negotiating solo Super Bowl set, Foo Fighters discuss being passed over for halftime show
It seems assured that Maroon 5 have indeed been booked to perform at next year's Super Bowl halftime show. But it's also now rumoured that Cardi B is attempting to temper that horrorshow by negotiating to perform her own solo set.

Cardi B is already thought to be booked to perform her collaboration with Maroon 5 - 'Girls Like You' - as part of their Super Bowl performance. However, according to TMZ, she also wants to do a few tracks on her own.

Whether or not NFL bosses go for it remains to be seen. It would at least add some hip hop to the proceedings. Although it may also be seen as another slap in the face for the very many Atlanta rappers who haven't been asked to play the show, despite this year's Super Bowl taking place in their city.

Since it was decided that Atlanta would host the 2019 Super Bowl back in 2016, it had been suggested that this would be a great opportunity to celebrate the city's rich and well-established hip hop scene. Then they go and book Maroon 5. Reportedly. But there's still time to turn this thing around.

Though if organisers are still insisting on something more guitar-based, they could at least approach a slightly more rousing band, like - says - Foo Fighters. Except it turns out that they have, several times, but have always ended up going with someone else.

"I've had multiple conversations over the years with them where they say, 'We want to have a rock n roll band'", Dave Grohl tells US radio station KROQ. "[They say] 'Do you think you could do it? Do you think you could do a stadium?'"

"I was like, 'Yeah man, we do it all the time'", he goes on. "We're like, 'Oh my God, I think we're gonna do the Super Bowl!' And then it'll be like, Madonna or Katy Perry, or somebody like that".

After being passed over a number of times, Grohl reckons an incident at a party might have actually scuppered the band's chances of ever getting booked to play the big sporting bash once and for all.

"I actually got really hammered at this party in France once, and got to meet the dude that does the Super Bowl thing", he says. "I was like, 'I don't even want to do the Super Bowl! I used to want to do it - now I don't want to do it anymore!'"

Yeah, saying that you don't want to do a thing does often make people think that you don't want to do that thing. But it doesn't really matter that the Foos never get booked for this gig, because the band's drummer Taylor Hawkins reckons that playing the Super Bowl "always seems to be the final chapter in your career".

"Yeah, I don't know if it's jumping the shark, I don't know", adds Grohl, before admitting "we're just trying to come up with excuses why we haven't done it".

Indeed, whoever heard of that Beyonce following her Super Bowl outing? Anyone? Actually, Hawkins is wrong, plenty of acts have done the Super Bowl and gone on to have new successes in their career. Katy Perry didn't jump the shark, and her Super Bowl show had jumping sharks in it. Although, if Hawkins' theory does sometimes stand up, well, we can always hold out hope that it might apply to Maroon 5.

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