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Song right societies saw collections grow 8.4% in 2019, but fear a 35% drop in 2020 due to COVID
In normal times global collecting society grouping CISAC would today be bigging up the 8.4% growth in music revenues collected by its members in 2019, with total income nearly reaching nine billion euros. However, these are not normal times. And instead, the headline-grabbing figure in the new CISAC Global Collections Report is that COVID-19 could cause a 35% drop in collections in 2020, equating to 3.5 billion euros of lost income.

In amongst the doom and gloom, the latest CISAC stats pack - aggregating figures from song right collecting societies across the world - shows that 2019 was a good year for music rights. The ongoing streaming boom meant that digital royalties collected by the societies that represent songwriters and music publishers were up 27.2% to just over two billion euros.

Meanwhile, revenues collected from broadcasters, the live sector and businesses that play recorded music in public were up too. TV and radio income was up 4.5% to 3.3 billion euros, while royalties paid for live and public performance were up 5.6% to 2.6 billion euros. Good times. But then COVID struck.

Now, one narrative that we have seen in the last six months is that, while the COVID shutdown has brought the live industry pretty much to a standstill, the recorded music business has been much more immune to the impact of the pandemic.

Yes, physical product sales initially took a hit when the high street closed, and sync, broadcast and public performance royalties have all been negatively affected. However, streaming service subscriptions continue to rise, and the royalties paid by user-upload and video-sharing platforms are going up too. And given that digital is more than half of the recorded music business today anyway, the digital increases are generally compensating for those revenues that have had a COVID wobble.

However, the song rights business - while not affected to the same catastrophic level as the live industry - is much more impacted by COVID than the record industry. There are various factors behind that trend.

Mainly for reasons of history, and because of upfront investments in new music, there are some music right revenue streams where the majority of any money generated goes to the recording rights - controlled by labels and artists - with only a minority going to the song rights - controlled by publishers and songwriters.

Then there are those revenue streams where money is split more or less equally between the rights. And then there are those revenue streams where recorded music isn't actually used, so all the royalties go to the song rights. COVID has hit most those revenue streams where things skew towards the song rights.

For starters, songwriters and publishers earn whenever songs are performed live - whereas, with no recorded music being used in those live performances, labels and artists do not. That's a significant revenue stream for songwriters and publishers, even though only a single figure percentage of ticket money is usually taken to cover the public performance of copyright-protected songs. And, needless to say, that's a significant revenue stream that pretty much stopped as the live sector went into shutdown.

Then there are the monies paid by broadcasters and businesses that play recorded music in public. That revenue stream hasn't stopped entirely as a result of COVID. But where broadcasters pay a royalty linked to their ad sale revenues, the impact of COVID on the advertising industry comes into play. With background music, many licensees have been closed at various points during shutdown.

This affects labels too. But whereas broadcast and public performance accounts for 12.6% of recorded music revenues each year, it's around half of the monies collected by the song right collecting societies.

Meanwhile, the revenue stream that is most COVID immune - streaming - is a revenue stream where much more income goes to the recording rights. Every streaming deal is different, but recording rights will commonly earn about four times more per stream than the song rights. Hence in 2019 digital was 63.3% of recorded music revenues, but only 22.8% of CISAC collections.

Therefore, while digital income will continue to grow in 2020, that growth won't be sufficient to overcome the drop in live performance, broadcast and public performance revenues on the songs side.

As a quick aside, it's always worth remembering that the CISAC figures do not include all the digital income that goes to songwriters and publishers. With a lot of Anglo-American repertoire, some of the money goes directly to the publishers and is therefore not included in the CISAC figures. So digital is always a bigger deal for songwriters and publishers than the top line CISAC figures suggest.

However, even accounting for that, the songs business is still going to feel the burn from COVID much more than the recorded music business.

In addition to compiling 2019 figures from all its member societies, CISAC has also been consulting those societies about what has been happening in 2020, what revenue streams have immediately slumped, and what long term impact those societies are anticipating from the ever-extending COVID-19 shutdown.

Those societies report that they expect live income to slump 60-80% in 2020, with total revenues down 20-35%. That, and other affected revenues, will likely take total collections down to 2015 levels.

Money can take some time to pass through the collective licensing system, especially on a global basis. That has both upsides and downsides. It means that the immediate impact of the COVID-19 shutdown on songwriters and publishers has been softened, but at the same time it also means that impact will be felt well into 2021, and probably 2022 as well.

The CISAC report also summarises some of the initiatives set up by collecting societies around the world to support their members during the COVID crisis, while also using the pandemic and its negative impact to put the spotlight back on various copyright reforms that the music industry would like, not least safe harbour reform.

The latter is underway in Europe as a result of last year's European Copyright Directive, of course, though quite how those reforms get implemented remains to be seen. And the music industry would like to see similar changes to the copyright safe harbour elsewhere in the world too.

In his introduction to the report, CISAC President Björn Ulvaeus writes: "We were the first industry to be impacted and we will be the last to return to health. Creators are innovative, entrepreneurial, and resilient, but to build a long path out of this crisis, we have to turn to governments".

"This is not just for emergency funds, however welcome those have been", he goes on. "Policymakers also need to tackle the problems in front of them: the deep flaws that have skewed the playing field for creators for many years. COVID-19 did not create this skewed level playing field. But it has sure aggravated and exacerbated it. This is the time for governments to show they take creative industries seriously. It is time for policymakers to wake up and act".

Meanwhile, CISAC Director General Gadi Oron writes in his foreword: "Looking ahead, this report reflects extraordinary resilience across our sector, but not yet recovery. Things will get worse for creators before they get better, with loss of collections in 2020 translating into reduced distributions in 2021. In this crisis, CISAC's member societies have acted to defend their creators with all means available. While the current crisis is exposing the deep fragility of the collective management system, it is at the same time showing the vital importance of its work for creators".

And finally, the chair of CISAC's board, Marcelo Castello Branco, also CEO of Brazilian society UBC, says: "This year, we have all been caught in a perfect storm. The coronavirus pandemic has thrown into reverse our global growth, and its effects will be felt throughout 2021 and 2022. This troublesome period is clearly not over – but it is fair to say we are all building bridges to whatever comes next while staying positive and alert to future opportunities and challenges. We must now battle to stay in the game and be ready to support, represent and pay our right holders what they deserve and expect from all of us".

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Jay-Z criticised over deleted emails in ongoing perfume case
A New York judge has ruled that Jay-Z improperly erased emails relevant to his ongoing dispute with perfume company Parlux and that, as a result, when the case gets properly to court the jury can infer that the lost emails would have hurt the rapper's case.

Fragrance company Parlux sued Jay-Z – real name Shawn Carter – back in 2016, accusing the rapper of failing to meet his commitments to plug Gold Jay-Z, a perfume that Parlux and Carter launched together.

The case has been slowly working its way through the courts ever since, with Parlux seeking access to Carter's work diary, in order to assess what he was up to when he was meant to be flogging its perfume. Carter tried his best to not share any of that information, with limited success.

The latest side dispute in the case relates to a load of Carter's emails that Parlux wanted to read, again to assess what he was up to during the 'he should have been flogging this bloody perfume' phase. But, alas, those emails have been deleted.

Parlux argued that the deletion occurred after it had sent a letter outlining its dispute with the rapper which, the fragrance firm reckons, basically put Carter on notice that legal action was likely and therefore instigated a duty on his part to preserve any communications that would be relevant to the litigation.

According to Law360, the judge overseeing the case basically agreed, noting that when Carter received Parlux's letter he contacted his lawyers, confirming that said letter implied legal action was incoming. The judge also sparred with Carter's lawyer over whether the deletion of the emails had been a mistake - and therefore "negligence" - or deliberate - and therefore "wilful or wanton behaviour".

Concluding, the judge declined Parlux's request for summary judgement in its favour on the basis of the deleted emails, instead concluding that "adverse inference is the appropriate remedy". That basically means that - assuming the case gets to a full hearing before a jury - said jury will be allowed to infer that the lost emails would have negatively impacted on Carter's case.

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Kendrick Lamar signs to Universal Publishing
Kendrick Lamar has signed a new worldwide publishing agreement with Universal Music Publishing. The rapper has spent the last ten years with Warner Chappell.

Announcing the move, boss of the rapper's label Top Dawg Entertainment, Anthony Tiffith, says: "Kendrick and I are excited for our new partnership with Jody Gerson and UMPG. Jody was passionate from the jump - she fought to make this deal happen".

If you're wondering just how much enthusiasm was required to seal the deal, here's UMPG boss Gerson: "Kendrick Lamar is not only one of the greatest lyricists that has ever lived, but he has done as much or more than any artist to promote much needed change in our society through music. I and my colleagues at UMPG are deeply honoured to be afforded the opportunity to join Kendrick, Anthony 'Top Dawg' Tiffith and the TDE family to help forward his unique and important vision".

Lamar hasn't released an album since 2017's 'Damn'. Although that one did result in him winning a Pulitzer Prize, so you can see why he might feel a certain amount of pressure while making a follow-up. That said, this deal follows the latest round of rumours that he's almost ready to drop something new.

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Reservoir signs Ben Harper
Reservoir has signed singer-songwriter Ben Harper to a new global publishing deal. The agreement covers his entire catalogue, including his latest instrumental album, 'Winter Is For Lovers', which came out last week.

"Some of the most forward-thinking conversations I'm having around music right now are with the people at my new publisher Reservoir", says Harper. "The first 27 years of songs I've written are now with them, and hopefully my next 27 years, as the best is yet to come".

Reservoir Global Creative Director, Donna Casein, adds: "Ben Harper's music is essential. His music continues to tell rich stories and move the soul. From 'The Three of Us' to 'Paris' on his latest release 'Winter Is For Lovers', Ben's musicianship and excellence is unparalleled. We are so grateful he put his songs in our care and look forward to all the new music ahead".

From 'Winter Is For Lovers', this is 'London'.

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Sentric announces partnership with Beatport
The Sentric Music Group has announced a partnership with Beatport which will see the music publishing firm directly license its repertoire to the dance music platform. Meanwhile Beatport will promote Sentric's rights management services to the dance music community.

Creators of electronic and dance music have often missed out on royalties - especially on the composition rights side - due to a lack of knowledge and understanding in that community of how copyright works, and the fact that when you create a piece of electronic music there are two sets of rights at play, one in the recording itself, the other in the composition (or 'song' if you prefer).

Some collecting societies and music publishers have been making an effort to educate that community in recent years, and that includes Sentric, especially since it ramped up its operations in the dance music space by acquiring a stake in electronic music publisher Black Rock back in 2018.

Through the new alliance with Beatport, the dance music platform will be encouraging electronic music creators to sort out their composition/song rights by signing up to Sentric. It will then log those rights with collecting societies around the world, and also directly license the mechanical rights of those works to a whole load of digital platforms.

Talking of Sentric directly licensing mechanical rights in the works it represents to digital platforms, the new partnership with Beatport also includes a direct licensing relationship between it and the publisher, similar to those Sentric already has with other download and streaming services.

By directly connecting to collecting societies around the world - and by utilising direct deals with platforms like Beatport - music creators generally get paid their royalties a lot faster and more accurately than if they just rely on their home collecting society and the collective licensing system.

And, of course, they'll definitely see an uplift in revenue if, in the past, they've forgotten about their composition/song rights entirely.

Sentric also points out that dance music labels that get involved in the composition/song rights of artists they sign - which is more common in electronic music - can also benefit from its network and direct licensing deals.

Commenting on the new partnership, Sentric's Mark Lawrence says: "Our aim is to ensure every electronic music artist, producer and label has the opportunity to enter a publishing deal that's right for them and for those already published by us, to increase the speed and value of royalties paid".

"It's not acceptable for creators to wait two or three years to be paid", he goes on. "By partnering with Beatport and collecting from the store directly, we are able to invoice for and pay our clients quarterly. Offering our service to every artist and label currently selling music on Beatport will close electronic music's publishing deficit and provide the solution that our community deserves".

Beatport's Director Of Industry Relations, Susan Gloy-Kruse, adds: "Sentric is one of the most forward thinking successful independent music publishers in the world. This deal empowers the community we work so closely with to more efficiently and effectively tap into an important revenue stream in a way that is seamlessly integrated into the Beatport ecosystem. We are THRILLED to be able to offer this new service to our clients".

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Abbey Road Institute launches scholarship for black music production students
Abbey Road Studios has announced a new scholarship scheme, which will allow two black students per year to attend its Abbey Road Institute music production school for free. Following the completion of their studies, they will also be offered a year-long engineering work placement in the studios themselves, as part of a bid to improve diversity in the audio industry.

Successful applicants for the scholarship will earn a place on Abbey Road Institute's Advanced Diploma in Music Production and Sound Engineering course. Applications will be considered by a selection panel, which will include singer-songwriter Raye.

"I'm so proud to be part of this brilliant initiative to encourage more black students down the path of music production and audio engineering", says Raye. "Black producers and engineers are under-represented in the professional recording environment and we need to address that. During my time at The BRIT School I learned how important music education is and it's been instrumental in helping me get further in life".

Abbey Road Institute CEO Luca Barassi adds: "Our ethos has always been to expand the range of diverse creative and technical minds aspiring to work in professional audio. The new scholarship will help this in two ways: by funding students who may not have previously been able to join the programme, and by creating more awareness of the audio industry for younger generations who may now find their goal of becoming a music professional more achievable".

You can find more information on the scholarship and how to apply here.

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COVID-19 SUPPORT INTIATIVES

UK record industry trade group BPI and its BRIT Awards have donated £54,000 to Stagehand's COVID-19 Crew Relief Fund. "As the BPI and BRITs donate £54,000 to Stagehand, it is met with our sincerest appreciation", says Stagehand Chair Of Trustees Mike Lowe. "Forming part of our ongoing COVID-19 Crew Relief Campaign, their contribution will be invaluable, and has now enabled the fund to reach the £240,000 mark".

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DEALS

Cut Copy have signed a global publishing deal with BMG. "We are incredibly pleased that Cut Copy has chosen BMG as their new global publishing partner and we couldn't be more THRILLED to be helping the band launch their new music while also creating innovative ways to further enhance global awareness of their iconic back catalogue", says BMG Australia MD Heath Johns.

Sony/ATV has signed Australian country singer-songwriter Brad Cox to a worldwide publishing deal. "Songwriting is such a huge part of me and my career", he says. "I'm super stoked to be working with Sony/ATV both in Australia and in Nashville. I love them all and this is going to be an awesome partnership".

Universal's Bravado merch division has partnered with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to launch a store on the latter's Tmall Global online marketplace. "This partnership with Tmall Global, in conjunction with our colleagues at Universal Music China, will provide both international and domestic artists with opportunities to engage more deeply with fans in China, and to continue to reach new consumers and audiences around the world", says Bravado CFO John Habbouch.

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RELEASES

Steps have released 'Something In Your Eyes', the second single from their upcoming 'What The Future Holds' album. "It's so much fun and is a nod to old Steps", say the band of the song. "You can't help but sing along and feel uplifted by it". The album is out on 27 Nov.

John Carpenter has announced new album 'Lost Themes II: Alive After Death'. It'll be released through Sacred Bones on 5 Feb. From it, this is 'Weeping Ghost'.

Benee has released new single 'Plain', featuring Lily Allen and Flo Milli. "I wanted to make it a song someone could listen to when they find out their ex is with someone new", she says. "The feeling sucks, so I wanted 'Plain' to make ya feel like you have the upper hand. Lily and Flo Milli both have such cool sass, and both their verses really elevated the track". Her debut album, 'Hey U X', is set for release on 13 Nov.

Flohio has released new track 'With Ease', featuring Kasien. Her new mixtape, 'Unveiled', is out on 27 Nov.

Actress has released a new short film titled 'Karma & Desire', to accompany his recently released album of the same name.

Dirty Projectors have announced the final EP in their five EP series, 'Ring Road'. Set for release on 20 Nov, an anthology collection of all five releases will come out the same day. From the new release, this is 'Searching Spirit'.

Real Estate have released a video for their song 'Gone'. You can watch it here, if you want. Or you can download the green screen performance for yourself and create your own video with whatever backdrop you like. "We've always wanted to play inside of your refrigerator", say the band. It's totally up to you whether or not you allow them to fulfil that dream.

Justin K Broadrick in his Jesu guise has released new single 'Alone'. The track is taken from new album 'Terminus', which is set for release via Broadrick's own Avalanche Recordings on 13 Nov.

Drones have released new single 'Josephine'. "Growing up in Britain with its normalised binge-drinking culture, I never thought much about the fact I was relying on alcohol to feel relaxed and to have fun", says vocalist Lois McDougall. "People started referring to the intoxicated me as 'Josephine'. At first this was funny. Josephine was a clown. But there's nothing funny about self-abuse. This song is about me realising that".

Group A have put out a previously unreleased video for their song 'Initiation' to mark the new vinyl release of their 2013 debut album, also titled 'Initiation'.

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

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Classic FM's firework-busting show for pets to return this November
We've had radio for pets, podcasts for pets and radio BY pets. Now it's time for, well, radio for pets again. Sorry, I thought that would be more dramatic. Although the point of Classic FM's 'Pet Sounds' programme is to avoid drama, so if your dog is looking at you quizzically as you read this to them, please explain that my introduction to this story was actually very clever.

Hosted by Bill Turnbull, the classical station's pet-centric show is next week returning for the third year with the aim of pacifying your pets on Bonfire Night. Animals, of course, are not that keen on the annual firework-exploding celebration - unable to fathom why their owners are so happy that King James I survived an assassination attempt 400 years ago.

"He only went and died 20 years later anyway", cats often seem to be thinking. "And aren't we in some ways also celebrating the death penalty", dogs appear to mumble. "Fuck the monarchy", mutter the rabbits between nibbles of carrot. Rabbits hate royalty.

Oh, and all those explosions. They don't like all the explosions.

Aaaaaaaanyway, since 2018, Classic FM has aired 'Pet Sounds', a show aimed specifically at animals to coincide with Bonfire Night. It will play a selection of music designed to soothe pets as they assume that the world outside is collapsing in on itself. It will also offer advice from the RSPCA on how to comfort frightened animals. Although that bit is for pet owners, so you'll need to come inside and have a break from letting off fireworks in order to hear it.

"While fireworks season will be very different this year without the major events, many pets will still be scared by the smaller fireworks displays in gardens", says Turnbull. "I'm THRILLED to host Classic FM's 'Pet Sounds' again, which will relax even the most terrified cats and dogs this November".

"Since the programme launched in 2018, we have had the most incredible response, with hundreds of messages from listeners who have found Classic FM to be the perfect sanctuary during this stressful time", he goes on. "I can't wait to welcome back our furry fans and hopefully comfort some new ones, as we play the best soothing and calming music. It's one of my favourite evenings of the year".

Mine too. I bloody love fireworks. This year there will be two editions of 'Pet Sounds'. The first on Thursday 5 Nov from 7-10pm, and then on Saturday 7 Nov, again from 7-10pm.

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