News archive items listed by month below (click here).
JAMES BROWN, THE GODFATHER OF SOUL, DIES ON CHRISTMAS DAY 26/12/06
From shoeshine boy to professional boxer to armed robber to black rights advocate to international star - James Brown, the legendary 'Godfatjer of Soul' never had a quiet life. He died aged 73 (or perhaps, 78) from heart failure after contractung pneumonia. Born in 1933 (but there again, perhaps 1928) amid crushing poverty in Barnwell, South Carolina and abandoned at age 4, young James was raised by relatives in a brothel in Augusta, Georgia . A brush with the law landed him in reform school as an adolescent, but it opened a door onto his future career. A friend's family took Brown into their home, and into a gospel group but it didn't take long for Brown to cross the line into the commercial music world. His first big hit, now a rhythm-and-blues classic, was recorded in 1956 with the Famous Flames - it was Please, Please, Please. Success in the mainstream pop market took a while to come, but by 1963 he had scored his first US Top 20 single with Prisoner of Love and powered his way to No 2 in the American album chart with his landmark album, Live At The Apollo. But it was his 1956 hit Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag that chaged popular music for ever. It was his first Top 10 hit in America and his first hit of any description in the UK. It marked the beginning of a golden era for Brown, who proceeded to issue a string of classic recordings including I Got You (I Feel Good) , It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World and Cold Sweat. His star waned in the 80s and wothout a recoridng contract but he resurgent by the 90s. Brown, who was one of the first performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, won three Grammy awards, including a lifetime achievement honour. Despite his brushes with the law Brown's influence on the black community was so strong that his TV appeals for calm after the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King in 1968 played a vital part in defusing a potentially explosive situation on the streets of America’s inner cities. Two months ago he had appeared in London as part of the BBC’s Electric Proms line-up, and last month he played at Alexandra Palace. Still touring Brown was scheduled to perform at B.B. King's club in New York New Year's Eve. He is survived by his fourth wife, Tomi Raye Hynie, one of his former backup singers. His third wife, Adrienne, predeceased him in 1996. He had six children.
UK SPECTRUM SELL OFF PITS WALKIE TALKIES AGAINST HDTV 21/12/06
Moves by the UK communications regulator OFCOM to sell off more spectrum has ignored pleas by UK broadcasters to set aside space for High Definition TV - broadcasters had wanted some of the spectrum between 470MHz and 862 MHz to be set aside for additional HDTV service for the UK's Freeview service. The planned auction has also led to fears in the music industry that the spectrum used for mobile microphones and walkie-talkies might also be sold although the expectation is that wireless mics will be able to operate in the gaps betweeen future spectrum users (which might include mobile television services and broadband internet services). The only spectrum left untouched will be for Dutch and UK radio astronomers who hunt the heavens for evidence of alien life. Have a look at any music festival - you'll find plenety of alien life there m'dears!
KEYBOARD PLAYER WINS 40% OF 'A WHITER SHADE OF PALE' 21/12/06
Matthew Fisher, a founding member of 1960s rock group Procol Harum, has won a High Court battle over who wrote their hit song A Whiter Shade of Pale. For almost 40 years, the song has been credited to lead singer Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid but Mr Justice Blackburne decided that the keyboard player who played the distinctive organ melody on the 1967 made “a distinctive and significant contribution to the overall composition and, quite obviously, the product of skill and labour on the part of the person who created it". Mr Justice Blackburne ruled he was entitled to 40% of the copyright. However Fisher's claim for back royalties of up to £1m was rejected and he faces a substantial costs bill. Brooker was granted leave to appeal.
SONY SETTLE ROOKIT LAWSUITS WITH TEXAS AND CALIFORNIA 21/12/06
Still the 'Rootkit' fiasco rumbles on for Sony BMG Music Entertainment who have now settled lawsuits with California and Texas which stemmed from the November 2005 disclosure that the company's audio CDs were planting spyware-style rootkits on users' PCs without their knowledge. Under terms of the agreements, each state will receive $622,000 in damages and $128,000 to cover legal costs and fees. Sony BMG will also refund up to $175 to each resident of Texas and California who spent money to repair computers damaged by attempts to uninstall the Rootkit code used to mask Sony's CD copy-protection software. The Attorneys General of both states had filed lawsuits last year charging Sony with unfair business practices and/or violations of anti-spyware statutes and on the basis that these settlements cover just two states this could still end up being a very very expensive foray for SonyBMG.
POWER GETS CBE21/12/06
Mean Fiddler founder Vince Power has been honoured with a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in recognition of his services to the music industry. The award was presented by the Tessa Jowell MP, the Secretary of State for Culture Media & Sport who said "Mr Power has done a huge amount to raise the profile of live music in the UK. Through his work with music festivals and venues, his contribution has been fundamental in shaping the landscape of music in Britain today."
RIP 21/12/06
A fond farewell to Denis Payton of the Dave Clark Five (aged 63) famed for Glad All Over and Bits & Pieces, glam rock Mud's drummer Dave Mount (aged 59) who thumped out the drums on Tiger Feet, The Cat Crept In and the seasonal 'Lonely This Christmas' and Mariska Veres (also 59) who was the vocalist in Dutch band Shocking Blue who had the first hit version of 'Venus' in 1970.
LIVE NATION CHRISTMAS SPREE 21/12/06
Live Nation has consolidated its European concert business acquiring Spanish promoter Gamerco and having agreed to buy the majority stake in Jackie Lombard Productions, a leading concert promoter in France.
TEN DIE IN JAVA CONCERT STAMPEDE 21/12/06
Ten people have been killed and dozens injured in a stampede at a pop concert on the Indonesian island of Java. The Indonesian guitar band Ungu had been playing to a stadium reportedly packed to double its 6,000 capacity according to www.bbc.co.uk. The stampede happened when people tried to exit the stadium in Pekalongan which has only two narrow exits, police said. The casualties were said to be mostly teenagers. The band's manager said tickets for the concert had sold out but denied the stadium was too full but The BBC report that local police sources said the stadium was over-filled as thousands of people had entered without tickets. The problem, they said, was compounded by a lack of exit gates and a crowd of another 2,000 fans waiting on the road outside. Police said the 10 fatalities suffocated or were trampled to death.
ATLANTIC FOUNDER AHMET ERTEGUN DIES 15/12/06
Less than a month after the death of singer Ruth Brown, Ahmet Ertegun who built the Atlantic label on the careers of acts including Brown, Ray Charles and Arethra Franklin has died aged 83. Ever the socialite, he became ill after a fall at a Rolling Stones concert in October and has been in a coma ever since. Atlantic is now part of the Warner Music Group.
GLOBAL LIVE INDUSTRY UP 30% IN 2006 15/12/06
The global live music industry rose 30% to top $3.4B (£1.73b), according to Billboard Boxscore numbers. Live Nation was the biggest promoter in the world with grosses of $2.3B (£1.17B) followed (a considerable distance behind) by AEG Live with $543M (£274M). While big-name tours by the likes of The Rolling Stones and Madonna helped push up the gross figure, attendance actually rose 13% to 61M (and this was despite the actual number of shows only increasing by 3.4%). The North American concert business grew 35%, boasting $2.8B (£1.43B) in box office sales after two years of slight decline The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang tour was the top-grossing tour of the year. It brought in $437M (£223M) while Madonna's Confessions tour generated $195M (£100M), the top-grossing tour by a female artist ever. For the sixth year running, Madison Square Garden was the top-grossing arena. The Billboard numbers cover the period 16th November 2005 to 14th November 2006:
www.billboard.biz
www.billboard.com
EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE UNIVERSAL ACQUISITION OF BMG MUSIC 09/12/06
Perhaps unsurisingly in light of the comments by the European Court of Justice when they annulled the European Commission's apporval of the Sony-BMG record label merger, the European Commission has extended its investigation into Universal's $2.2bn (£1.12bn) acquisition of BMG's music publishing business by up to 90 wprking days (to April 27th 2007). The combined Universal Music / BMG Music would have an appoximate 22% of the music publishing market. Both BMG and Universal Music currently have 11% market shares, behind EMI Music's 20% share and Warner's 15% share but ahread of and Sony Music (7%). The regulator wants more time to consider whether the deal will undermine competition. The inquiry could last up to five months. In a statement Universal said that "although we understand why, in the current environment, the European Commission has sought more time for its review, we believe, as we have always done, that the merger will be approved" adding that Universal were looking "forward to working with the Commission over the next few months to complete the process. The original Sony-BMG ECJ review was due to a law suit from the European trade association IMPALA which represents independent labels and IMPALA has promised to battle the Universal takeover effort just as fiercely. IMPALA chairman and head of the Beggars Group, Martin Mills, said the issue for the Universal takeover was one of market access. "One of our main concerns is the ability of the majors to leverage excessive market strength in recording and publishing as well as the crucial online market," he said. "We have also asked the commission to implement the Sony-BMG judgment as a matter of urgency. These mergers are bad news for artists and music." The new investigation again casts doubts of where EMI might be going - recent gossip has been that private equity group Permira were interested in the UK based major - but talk of a Warner-EMI merger/takeover is ongoing.
GOVERNMENT RESEARCH SAYS THAT THE UK LICENSING ACT US WORKING 08/12/06
New reseach by MORI commissioned by the UK Government says that more than 60% of smaller venues have a licence to put on live music. Creative Industries Minister Shaun Woodward said that the figures were encouraging and evidence that venues understood the new system. DCMS commissioned the survey pf 2,101 venues to gauge whether they are taking advantage of the new rules brought in under the Licensing Act 2003 which introduced a single, integrated premises licence which permits premises to supply alcohol, to provide regulated entertainment and to provide refreshment late at night. The survey looked at 2,101 establishments, most with a capacity of fewer than 500 people (including pubs, restaurants and village halls) to ascertain how many have a licence to put on live music. The research showed that 63% either obtained a music licence (61%) or put on music via other means (2%) just up on 60% under the old laws. Encouragingly the research also showed that a quarter of venues (25%) now have a licence to put on music for the first time. However the number of venues who used to operate under the 'two in a bar rule' have dropped by 30% which mujst be dissapointing for the 'grass roots' development of live music. Woodward added "It's early days. But this survey is encouraging. And shows smaller venues getting to grips with the new laws on licensing. Small venues provide the lifeblood of the music industry. That's where top selling artists such as the Kaiser Chiefs are discovered and cut their teeth. It's good to see that so many smaller venues have applied to stage live acts. And a quarter chose to do so for the first time. Feargal Sharkey, chairman of the Live Music Forum said "This picture is encouraging and confirms much of the evidence that the forum has uncovered. We know that the majority of venues - large and small - can now put on live music and that's fantastic news. But there's always room for improvement. The forum will publish its final assessment of the legislation with recommendations on how the Government can make our live music industry even more successful early next year." The Act is now generally receiving favourable press comment and seems to be generally supported by the police and the licensed trade. Problems do remain though with the complexities of application forms and a combination of the Licensing Act and other new legislation (such as the new door supervisor legislation and disability discrimination legislation) combining to put off some potential organisers from applying to start or continuing with live music.
http://www.culture.gov.uk/Reference_library/Research/research_by_dcms/live_music_exec_summary.htm
The first baseline study of music venues was carried out in 2004 and can be found at
http://www.culture.gov.uk/Reference_library/Publications/archive_2004/live_music_in_england_wales.htm
EBAY TAKE ON BIG DAY OUT 06/12/06
Organisers of the 2007 Big Day Out music festival in Austrlia and New Zealand who cancelled tickets sold online by scalpers are facing a legal action from eBay who have filed a suit in the Federal Court. Promoters of the Big Day Out placed new conditions on their tickets promising to cancel tickets sold for profit - but Ebay is now taking legal action under Trade Practices law saying that "the term and condition in the Big Day Out tickets is, we believe, misleading and deceptive". Organisers of the Big Day Out believe eBay has no legal grounds for taking court action. Festival Co-Producer Viv Lees told ABC "What they're saying is that we really should have " 'may' be cancelled", not " 'will' be cancelled". They're nit picking, and they're saying that we can't guarantee that the ticket will be cancelled in all cases, so therefore it's not a logical conclusion that... an absolute fact that the ticket will be cancelled." Lee added that it's not about punishing fans and that the festival had, until now, a relaxed approach to ticketing, and doesn't mind if tickets are transferred between friends. It's the "auctioning of tickets for profit" that the Festival objects to.http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2006/s1805500.htm
GOWERS REVIEW SAYS NO TO UK COPYRIGHT EXTENSION AND YES TO PRIVATE COPYING RIGHT 06/12/06
As expected, former Financial Times editor Andrew Gowers yesterday formally recommended to the UK Government that the recording copyright in the United Kingdom should remain at 50 years, and should not be extended to 95 years to bring it in line with sound recording protection the US (as the record companies had been campaigning for). Elsewhere in his report, Gower also recommended that new copyright laws should allow consumers the 'private copying rights' enjoyed by consumers in many other countries, which allow people to legally make copies of music they have bought for personal use (eg transferring music from CD to MP3 player, or making a second CD copy for use in the car). Gowers is however, tough on piracy, and especially online piracy. The report says that piracy and counterfeiting are probably the biggest challenge facing the "intellectual property system", estimating that 20% of the entertainments industry's potential turnover was lost to illegal copying. It also suggests that online piracy should be taken as seriously as that involving physical product and therefore piracy penalities for people who sell pirated versions of music and film over the net should be on par with those for people who sell bootleg CDs and DVDs. Gowers also suggests that Trading Standards Officers who currently only deal with physical piracy should also have a remit to investigate online pirates.
WARNER PROFITS AIDED BY KAZAA PAYOUT 05/12/06
Warner Music Group has posted a fourth quarter profit with losses down on the same period last year and the added bonus of revenues from the legal settlement with file sharing service Kazaa at $13 million. The compensatin meant the Group moved into profit. Sales were down on the same quarter the previous year despite high selling releases from Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gnarls Barkley and Panic At The Disco as overall the quarter's release schedule was weak compared to the same quarter a year earlier, which included releases from Green Day, Faith Hill and James Blunt.
LIVE SECTOR STRUGGLES IN ITALY 05/12/06
CMU Daily reports that whilst the live music sector is still seemingly in good health on a global level, the Italian music industry has announced a fall in the amount of money being spent there on gigs and concerts. Italian collecting society SIAE reports that the amount of money spent by Italians on live music in the first half of 2006 was down 12.6% on the same period the previous year. SIAE also monitors other ticket sales and noted that in other parts of the entertainment industry sales are up - cinema sales were up 14.4% and theatre sales up 29.4%. Of the billion euros generated in entertainment based ticket revenues in the first half of 2006 only 7% was from live music. 31% was from cinema, 23% from dancing, 16% from theatre and 14% from sporting events.
EC EXPECTED TO LAUNCH IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION INTO UNIVERSAL'S BMG PUBLISHING PURCHASE 01/12/06
Billboard has reported that the European Commission is about to announce that competition regulators plan to undertake an in-depth review into Universal Music's proposed acquisition of BMG Music Publishing. French owned Universal were the preferred bidders to acquire Germany's Bertelsmann's publishing company, with the former planning on merging the latter with its existing music publishing operation. However, that deal needed regulatory approval and whilst gaining US regulatory approval the ECJ's annulment of the Sony-BMG merger approval from the Europan Commission put serious doubts on the acquisition of BMG Music. Universal have seemed confident of winning approval throughout the but IMPALA's opposition and the criticisms of the EC by the ECJ mean that the planned December 8th formal decision by the EC will not be a straight forward 'rubber stamping' of the proposed deal.
REGULATORS SAY THAT HAMSARD/ACADEMY MERGER WOULD REDUCE COMPETITION BETWEEN LIVE MUSIC VENUES IN LONDON 01/12/06
The Competition Commission (CC) has provisionally decided that the proposed acquisition
of a controlling interest in Academy Music Holdings Limited (Academy) by Hamsard 2786 Limited (Hamsard) would lead to a loss of competition in relation to certain live music venues
in London. Hamsard is jointly controlled by Live Nation (Music) UK Ltd (Live Nation) and Gaiety Investments Ltd. Through its ownership of Mean Fiddler Music Group Ltd, Hamsard operates live music venues in London, including the Astoria and the Forum. It also has a management contract for the Wembley Arena. Academy owns the Shepherd’s Bush Empire (SBE), and the Brixton Academy as well as a number of other venues in London and elsewhere. Live Nation owns the Hammersmith Apollo, and a number of theatres in London. It also owns venues (mostly theatres) in 20 other cities in the UK.
The Competition Commission Inquiry Group has concluded that the acquisition is expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition.Inquiry Group Chairman, Diana Guy, said: The extent to which different live music venues provide alternatives for artists, agents and promoters depends on a number of factors, including capacity, ambience and the type of events generally held there. On this basis, we found that the Brixton Academy and the Hammersmith Apollo are the closest alternatives to each other, and similarly for the SBE and the Astoria, with the Forum also acting as a significant substitute for the SBE. Under the planned acquisition, these five venues would all come under common control, removing the existing competition between them. We expect that this would lead to higher venue rentals as well as some loss of service quality. Although booking agents, particularly those who represent a substantial roster of artists, may at present be in a relatively strong bargaining position, this depends in part on their having a choice of venues into which to put their artists.
The CC did not identify any competition concerns relating to live music venues outside
London or music promotion services, which are also provided by the parties.The full provisional findings report will be published next week. Along with the summary the
CC has also published a notice of possible remedies to address the anti-competitive effects
of the acquisition, including possible divestment of some of the relevant venues in London.
GCAP PROFITS DOWN 01/12/06
GCap Media's profits fell by almost a third in the first half of the financial year as the radio group continued to suffer from a difficult advertising market. Profits for the six months until the end of September were £8.4 million, down 32% from the same period last year.
ALLOFMP3 FACES DIRECT ACTION FROM RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT01/12/06
Russian download website AllofMP3.com appears to be on its last legs as the Russian government has agreed to shut down the site. A key provision of the Russian/US bilateral trade agreement that paves the way for Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization are new terms for fighting optical disk piracy and Russia has agreed to shut down "websites that permit illegal distribution of music and other copyright works". AllofMP3.com is specifically named in the agreement as an example site. AllofMP3 maintains that it is properly licensed by Russian collection society ROMS. Record label association the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) counters this pointing out ROMS has no mandate from copyright owners to do this saying "under the copyright laws of virtually every country in the world, including Russia, it is illegal to distribute recordings without the permission of the rights owners." ROMS was jeceted from the international association of copyright collection societies, CISAC, in 2004. Russia has agreed to modify its laws by June 1, 2007.
EMI CONFIRM TAKEOVER APPROACH01/12/06
That EMI Group yesterday confirmed it had been approached regarding a possible takeover. The major music company told the London Stock Exchange in a statement that it had "received a preliminary approach for the company which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company".
UNIVERSAL MAY LOOK FOR IPOD ROYALTY 01/12/06
Universal Music chief Doug Morris yesterday said he might look to secure aroyalty fee on iPod sales when Universal renews its contract with Apple Computers in the New Year. Universal aready have a hardware royalty on the new Zune player as part of its deal to licence its content to the Microsoft platform. It will be interesting to see how artists benefit in this new royalty as it is, of course, directly linked to their content being licensed as part of a label deal but not licensed specifically.
COPYRIGHT TERM EXTENSION REJECTED 01/12/06
The BBC have reported that the Gowers Review into intellectual property law in the UK will reject any extension of the term of copyright in sound recordings beyond the current 50 years found in the UK and other Eurpoean Community countries. The Report is officially published on December 6th. Andrew Gowers, a former editor of the Financial Times, was asked to undertake the review by the UK's Chancellor, Gordon Brown. The recording industry led by the IFPI and the BPI have lobbied extensively for an extension - they will now lobby government directly to reject Gower's recommendations according to a perss statement from the IFPI CEO John Kennedy.
SANCTUARY RACKS UP YET MORE LOSSES 01/12/06
Sanctuary Music Group has announced that its losses for the year may be even larger than expected because of what it called "difficult" market conditions in the recorded music sector. The latest announcement follows news that Rough Trade Records - in which Sanctuary owns a 49% stake - is "likely" to post a pretax loss of about £2.8m for the
full financial year. Shares in the music group fell by 25% to a low of 7.5p.
WEMLEY DATE FOR DIANA TRIBUTE? 01/12/06
According to newspaper reports, Prince William aand Prince Harry are considering staging a charity pop show in their mother's memory at the new Wembley Stadium next summer with profits from the televised event going to charities suppored by the late Princess of Wales. Names in the frame include Sir Elton John, Beyonce, George Michael and Kylie Minogue whilst www.Allhiphop.com reports that Pharrell Williams is currently in negotiations to appear.
FATBOY GETS BEACH LICENCE 01/12/06
Fatboy Slim's sold out New Year's Day beach party in Brighton has got its licence from the Brighton City Council for 20,000 punters. Tickets for the third Big Beach Boutique event were limited to Brighton locals.
FAREWELL TO ANITA O'DAY AND BETTY COMDEN 01/12/06
The Jazz world is mourning the loss of Anita O'Day, one of the finest vocalists and improvisers of her time. Anita's career was muddled by serious drug addications and even a spell in prison but she ressurected her career with successful albums such as A Mellow Tone (1989) and Rules of the Road (1993). She played at the 1999 JVC Jazz Festival in New York and made her last London appearance was 2004. Its also sad to report the death of Betty Comden, who along with writing partner Adolph Green , wrote some of the most memorable librettos and lyrics for Broadway musicals and film musicals including Singing' in the Rain (1952). She has died aged 91.
STONES KEEP IT ROLLING IN 01/12/06
Billboard has said that The Rolling Stones' current A Bigger Bang tour is the "top-grossing tour in history" at $437m. The tour played 110 shows in front of 3.5 million fans. The previous top grossing tour was U2's Vertigo which grossed $337m. The numbers exclude the Stones' huge free concert in Brazil in February, when an estimated 2 million fans saw the band perform on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
HARRIS AND CARTY APPOINTED AT PPL01/12/06
After its formal merger with artists collection society AURA and producers society PAMRA, Phonographic Performance lImited (PPL) has announced the appointment of two new senior staff members. Artist manager and MusicTank chair Keith Harris has been appointed to the role of Director Of Performer Affairs, a new position that will provide a link between the society's Performer Board, the main PPL board and the PPL management team, ensuring performers' views are heard. Sue Carty will take on the role of Director Of Member And Performer Services, another newly created role that will see Carty coordinating aspects of services provided by PPL to both its record label and performer members as well certain areas of revenue distribution.
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