NME NOMINATIONS OUT 25/01/06
Kaiser Chiefs are 'front-runners' in the ShockWaves NME Awards 2006 with six 'nods'. Also nominated are Oasis(with 5), Artic Monkeys (with 4) , Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party. All five are up for Best British Band. Best event nominations are for the Carling Weekender, Glastonbury, V, LIve 8 and T in the Park. Best International band niominatins are for the Killers, Arcade Fire, Green Day, the Strokes and Kayne West. The awards take place on 23rd February.

See the full shortlist at:
http://www.nme.com/news/nme-awards/22040

PPL LAUNCH NEW ONLINE LICENCES 21/01/06
Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL), the UK collection society representing record labels and copyrights in sound recordings has announced a new webcast licence that covers archive programming, customised services and limited interactive media players offering skip/pause functionality for the first time. PPL launched its first non-interactive internet radio licence in 2003.

MS DYNAMITE CONVICTED OF ASSAULT 21/01/06
Ms Dynamite has been convicted of assaulting a woman police officer after slapping her in the face at the end of Dynamite's birthday celebrations. She has been ordered to pay £50 in costs, a £500 fine, £750 in compensation and do 60 hours of unpaid community service for the assault. She had pleaded gulity to the offence.

WILSON PICKETT PASSES ON 21/01/06
Soul legend Wilson Pickett has died aged 64 after suffering a heart attack in Virginia. His management company said that he had been in poor health for the past year, and last performed in 2004. Born in Alabama, Pickett shot to fame in the 1960s, with hits including In The Midnight Hour (which Picett co-wrote) and Mustang Sally.

CALE GOES SMOKE FREE 21/01/06
John Cale has announced that his next tour, to promote new album BlackAcetate, will be held in smokeing free venues. Cale, who had bronchitis as a child and was brought up in Wales where pneumonoconiosis ('black lung') was common in miners has said that he is now very sensitive to cigarette smoke. On Wednesday the 26th January he plays the Garage in London's Islington and the venue will be smoke free for the first time in its 13 year history. The idea is not quite that novel - Pere Ubu's David Thomas used to insist that venue bars were shut,  UK movement 'Gigs In Digs' promotes quiet concerts in smoke free home environments and the Straight Edge hardcore movement frowns on any artificial stumulants (poisons) such as alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine and drugs.

See The Times  20th May 2006. www.healthyconcerts.com/artists/gigs_in_digs

NEW UK COURT DECISION GIVES SOME CHEER TO VENUE OPERATORS 21/01/06
In a decision reminiscent of the common sense approach taken by the House of Lords in Tomlinson v Congleton Borough Council & Others (see www.musiclawupdates.com  Archive December 2004) the UK's Court of Appeal have held that a hotel operator had no duty of care to fit bars or blocks inhibiting the opening of bedroom windows in a hotel so as to prevent injury from a fall. The case may give some comfort to venue operators and promoters who face liability claims from visitors to their premises and events. The appellant, Christian Lewis, had fallen from a second floor window in 2000 and suffered serious injuries. Whilst he had been drinking it was accepted that he was not drunk at the time and the fall was unexplained. The aperture was 68cm. Lewis relied on S2 of the Occupiers Liability Act 1957 and that the hotel had failed in its duty to take reasonable care. The trial judge (Mr Roger Ter Harr QC) held that it was not reasonably foreseeable that an adult occupying the hotel room leaning forward would fall from the window and the court held that there was no duty of care on the defendant to require them to install limiters or blocks on sash windows to restrict their opening

WALK THE LINE SCOOPS GOLDEN GLOBE 19/01/06
The Johnny Cash biography Walk the Line won the Golden Globe for best musical or comedy film last night and earned acting honors for stars Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, boosting their Academy Awards prospects. The pair portrayed Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, in the film and also did their own singing. The film joins a growing list of music business related films including last year's critically acclaimed Ray on the life of Ray Charles, 24 Hour Party People starring Steve Coogan and detailing the rise of Factory Records and In The City head honcho Tony Wilson:  Julien Temple's forthcoming 'Glastonbury' epic about Michael Eavis's Festival is due out in 2006.

SONY SEES VALUE IN HERITAGE ACTS 19/01/06
Sony BMG has set up a new label, Burgundy Records, that aims to revive the careers of acts from the past. The label is "poised to rebrand music icons" and Chaka Khan and Aaron Neville are its first signings. Burgundy will focus on signing acts with large catalogues and it will market them to older consumers – a demographic many have criticised the music industry of overlooking. Interestingly, Burgundy is not taking a traditional TV and radio promotional route. It will instead establish strategic  partnerships with other brands and mobile companies and market the acts through these alternative channels.

INGENIOUS LAUNCH NEW FUND 19/01/06
Ingenious Media has launched a new Venture Capital trust (Ingenious Music VCT 2). It will provide funding for independent artist and repertoire financing. It has already given £300,000 of financial backing to The Heights, funding their recordings, touring, videos and marketing. In structuring the deal, Ingenious formed a joint venture, the Heights Recording Ltd, with Channelfly Group, which will create new copyrights and license recording, marketing and distribution rights for the band. With the launch of VCT 2, Ingenious claims to be the largest source of independent A&R investment in the United Kingdom with a potential £45 million ($79 million) under management.

FRENCH MINISTER MOVES TO 'CLARIFY' DIGITAL COPYRIGHT LAW 14/01/06
The French Minister of Culture and Communication Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres is expected to present a "clarified" digital copyright bill before the Parliament in the coming weeks. It is expected that industry representatives from all sides of the business will be involved in lobbying lawmakers to cancel out the French Parliament's moves to introduce a blanket license system for consumers. The music and entertainment industies received the partial backing of French President Jacques Chirac who called for a "fair balance" between fight against piracy and user's freedom. Passage of the bill was suspended after an amendment, introduced by Member of Parliament Alain Suguenot from the ruling coalition UMP, was adopted by the French Lower House. The amendment opened the door to an "optional blanket license" system for content on the Internet.

CLEAR CHANNEL FACE AUDIT PROBE 9/01/06
Clear Channel Entertainment will have to defend itself over allegations that the company didn't report all the revenue it earned at a South Bay concert venue. A Santa Clara County judge ruled last week that CCE will have to stand trial in February on claims of racketeering, conspiring to steal public funds and hiding revenues from concerts earned at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View after an audit found that CCE allegedly underreported their revenues by approximately $20 million (£14 million) between 1999 and 2004. The city's lease with Shoreline calls for rent to be based on a percentage of gross revenues earned at the concert venue. Mountain View officials claim the company was hiding revenue, but Clear Channel officials counter by saying the city is trying to extort money from the operators.

Source  http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=4311348&nav=9qrx

TOWNSHEND WARNS iPOD FANS OF DAMAGED HEARING 9/01/06
The Who's guitarist Pete Townshend has warned music fans against potential hearing damage caused by headphones as portable players become more popular. The 60-year-old said studio headphones caused his hearing problems, rather than playing loudly on stage. "I have unwittingly helped to invent and refine a type of music that makes its principal proponents deaf," Townshend wrote on his website about the new love of MP3 players. "My intuition tells me there is terrible trouble ahead." Townshend, who is preparing to tour with the Who this year, said he discovered he had "badly damaged" his hearing in the 1970s. "My ears are ringing, loudly," he wrote. "My own particular kind of damage was caused by using earphones in the recording studio, not playing loud on stage." He revealed that work on the first Who new studio album for 25 years and the new tour had been delayed because of his hearing problems and Townshend said that he must take 36-hour hearing rests while recording a new album with fellow Who member Roger Daltrey, He also revealed that the late John Entwistle, the Who's bassist, often played out of time live because of damaged hearing. Noise is becoming a big issue Europe at the moment with a noew workplace nopise directive due to be implemented. In March 2002 on being told of the EU's now imminent plans to limit noise at concerts, Motorhead's Lemmy told the NME 'The very essence of rock n roll is loud music. How the hell are we supposed to enjoy ourselves if we have to turn it down?'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4580070.stm
http://www.nme.com/news/motorhead/10956

see Noise Annoys (articles)

UNIVERSAL TOP MAJOR LEAGUE 9/01/06
Figures from Nielsen SoundScan show that Universal Music remains the largest major label and actually increased its market share – from 29.6% in 2004 to 31.7% last year. Sony BMG was in second place, although it dropped from 28.5% to 25.6%. Warner Music saw slight growth from 14.7% to 15% over the same period. EMI, however, saw a slight dip from 9.9% to 9.5% to put it in fourth place. If Sony and BMG had not merged, Warner Music would have been the second-biggest label in the US and EMI would have been fifth. Sony BMG's share works out as follows: Sony had 13.8%; BMG had 11.8%. Sony, individually, increased its share slightly in 2005 (from 13.3% to 13.8%) while BMG saw a significant drop from 15.2% to 11.8%:  source  Five Eight Magazine

NEDERLANDER APPOINTS NEW CEO 9/01/06
Former House Of Blues executive Adam Friedman has been named CEO of Nederlander Concerts, effective January 19th 2005 . Friedman will report to James M. Nederlander, chairman of the Nederlander Organization, and will be based at Nederlander's headquarters in Los Angeles. In the newly created position, he will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the company, including the booking and promotion of concerts and special events, and management of all concert venues and third party facilities exclusively managed and promoted by Nederlander nationwide. The Nederlander Organization is a privately owned and operated business, established in 1912, that owns and/or operates more than 26 live theatres and music venues in the United States and England, including the Marquis, Gershwin and Nederlander Theaters on Broadway; the LaSalle Bank Theater in Chicago (formerly the Shubert under renovation); and the Dominion in London. Nederlander Concerts was the seventh ranked promoter in the world in 2005, according to Billboard Boxscore, reporting grosses totaling $48.5 million from 201 shows.

UK DVD SALES FALL IN 2005 9/01/06
In a surprise to the industry the British Video Association  has said that there was a 5% fall in DVD unit sales in 2005 despite an increase in household penetration of DVD players. The blame for the decline was placed in part on the maturing of the market, a "challenging" retail climate, increasingly sophisticated piracy operations, a disappointing slate of films and also on the dramatic decline in VHS sales. VHS sales fell 72% year-on-year to 10.4 million units, according to the Hollywood Reporter, and were not made up by the DVD format. The major labels had used music DVD as a major driver of new business growth alongside downloading and this news will be a worry.

DIABETIC CLUBBER OPENS UP DEBATE ON DISCRIMINATION 9/01/06
A diabetic clubber's anger at being refused permission to keep her pre-loaded insulin pen on her at a nightclub has opened up a debate about whether or not door staff are right to take medication from customers before they enter a club. Lisa Morris, 27, first wrote about her November 2005 experiences at London's The End nightclub in the Balance magazine. She explained how she was told that she could not take her insulin pens into the club and had to give these to door staff for 'safe keeping'. Lisa had previously taken the pens into the club. Lisa was unhappy about handing over her pens - in case they were tampered with and because of hygiene issues. Lisa was attending as a VIP to write a review on the Club but was asked to leave by door suprvisors. In Balance magazine Lisa admitted that she realised the issue of hightened security post 9/11 and the London bombings and that insulin pens have needles. The End banned all syringes and knives but Lisa countered by pointing out that they were allowed on aeroplanes and that in a club and at  events bottles and glasses posed far more of a risk. DJ Magazine (http://www.djmag.com/newsfeat122.php) which reported on the incindent noted that London clubs Ministry of Sound, Fabric, and Turnmills, have all made dramatic u-turns in their door policies as a result of their article and that diabetic clubbers could now keep their pre-loaded insulin injection pens on their person inside the clubs and no longer have to leave their medication with staff but the magazin reported that The End nightclub is still refusing to change its 'possibly illegal and discriminatory door policy'. Lisa's article in Balance pointed out that the new provisions of the UK's Disability Discrimination Act make it clear that servicve providers should not make it difficult for disabled persons to make use of a service. In fact there is a postive duty to make reasonable adjutments to facilitate a sefrvice for the disabled. But at least one fellow diabetic clubber disagreed with Lisa and Peter Jones wrote in a letter in the next issue of Balance that "an insulin pen in the wrong hands could be used to devastating effect on unsuspecting innocents", pointing out "how easy it is to have items lost/.stolen from us in darkened nightcklubs after a drink or two". This issue will clearly trouble venues, event organisers security and doorstaff as they balance up new responsibilities under diability discrimination (and other new legislation) against current policies designed to provide safe and secure services.

Balance Magazine is published by Diabetes UK  www.diabetes.org

SCOTTISH WOMAN JAILED FOR NOISE BREACHES 3/01/06
Marion Beresford, a 48 woman has been sentenced to 40 days in prison by Glasgow Sheriff Court for flouting an anti-social behaviour order (Asbo). Beresford was first served with the order in June 2004 after complaints about loud music blaring from her flat. She was finally taken to court in October this year and has now been sentenced. She will spend Christmas and New Year behind bars. In court, the Sheriff said that she had rendered the Asbo meaningless and the court was left with little alternative but to imprison. In a statement, the Glasgow Housing Association said it would use any legal means to ensure tenants could enjoy a peaceful life in their homes.

US LEGAL DOWNLOADS DOUBLE AS CD SALES FALL 3/01/06
Legal downloading in the USA almost doubled last eyar, up from 134 million downloads in 2004 to over 333 million songs in 2005 according to new research from Neilsen SoundScan. The figures will give some comfort to the labels who saw CD sales slip 8%. Album sales fell from 651 million in 2004 to 602 million inm 2005. Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi and 50 Cent's The Massacre topped the sales charts, each selling 4.8 million copies.

KING TUT CRACKS DOWN ON FORGED TICKETS 3/01/06
ONE of Glasgow's top music venues has introduced a fake ticket detector to combat forgeries. The 300 capacity King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, which has lau Legal downloading in the USA almost doubled last eyar, up from 134 million downloads in 2004 to over 333 million songs in 2005 according to new research from Neilsen SoundScan. The figures will give some comfort to the labels who saw CD sales slip 8%. Album sales fell from 651 million in 2004 to 602 million inm 2005. Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi and 50 Cent's The Massacre topped the sales charts, each selling 4.8 million copies.

KING TUT CRACKS DOWN ON FORGED TICKETS 3/01/06
ONE of Glasgow's top music venues has introduced a fake ticket detector to combat forgeries. The 300 capacity King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, which has launched the careers of scores of top acts, is piloting a hi-tech system which scans concert-goers' tickets as they enter the venue. The hand-held system, called AccessManager, scans a barcode on each ticket before music fans are allowed entry to gigs. The detector is similar to a supermarket-style checkout system which uses a laser to scan products and records their prices. The move is to combat the increasing number of forged concert tickets which have been circulating Tut's owners DF Concerts today said the move was necessary to stop fake tickets being used at the venue. DF had already trialed the system at this year's T in the Park festival. The system also gives an accurate pictures of numbers of patrons in a venue as well as showing patterns of ticket purchasing. DF Concerts piloted the authentification system at the Balado following a court case in which T in the Park's security co-ordinator admitted he couldn't tell the difference between genuine tickets and forgeries. This led to the collapse of the trial of Mark Weston from Essex who was accused of selling fake tickets at 2004's event for £60.

BLOCK PROMOTED TO HEAD OF SALES AT SONY WHILST TOM BECOMES SIR TOM 3/01/06
Michael Block has been promoted from Senior Vice President for head of Sales for Sony reporting to Sony Music Label Group president and COO Michele Anthony in the US, as well as to the label heads of the Columbia Records Group, Epic Records, Sony Music Nashville and Sony Urban Music. Block will supervise account advertising on both the national and regional levels, and work closely with individual departments in each label group in creating and implementing sales campaigns and strategies for Sony Music Label Group US releases (www.billboard.com). And arise Sir Tom Jones, made a knight bachelor in the United Kingdom New Year's Honours List as is jazz performer and composer John Dankworth. Eddi Reader and the Beverley Sisters become Members of the British Empire (MBEs) and from the fashion world Vivienne Westwood becomes a Dame of the  British Empire (DBE).

NEW UK LEGISLATION USED AGAINST FLYPOSTING 3/01/06
In July 2004 London's Camden Council targeted  two of the majors, Sony and BMG over illegal street flyposting. Sony Music chiefs escaped after promising not to commission any more illegal postering. The executives faced summons on the basis that flyposting has been defined as causing "harassment, alarm or distress" and so could be actioned under the Public Order Act 1986. Now the Magistrate magazine (January 2006 Vol 62 No 1) reveals that Wolverhampton City Council have been using fixed penalty notices under the 2005 Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act and have issued over 220 to flyposters. One festival alone received 139 fixed penalties for a single event resulting in the promoter paying fines of £6,950.00. The Council reports significantly lower levels of flyposting

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