News archive items listed by month below (click here).
MUSIC PUBLISHERS LOOK TO EUROPEAN LICENSING 24/01/07
FiveEight reports from MIDEM that EMI Music Publishing have announced that the deal they struck last year with the UK's MCPS-PRS Alliance and Germany's GEMA to offer pan-European digital licensing deals is ready to launch. EMI Music Publishing president Roger Faxon said that the new licensing method will bring all EMI's writers together in one place for its Anglo-American repertoire and allows a "one stop shop" for service providers to license content. He criticised the fact that the structure of collection societies structure have not evolved rapidly enough with the rise of digital services and this new solution will ensure prompt payment for them and their writers. Warner/Chappell Music are also launching a system to restructure the way they license content to digital services in Europe, but are said to be offering collection societies non-exclusive rights to handle the licensing if certain standards of the publisher are met. also see www.billboard.biz
ACADEMY REPORT NOW PUBLISHED 24/01/07
The UK Competition Commission's report into the proposed Hamsard 2786 Ltd / Academy Music Holdings Ltd deal has now been published. The final report and accompanying press release available at: http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/. The Competition Commission has formally decided that the proposed acquisition of a controlling interest in Academy Music Holdings Limited (Academy) by Hamsard 2786 Limited (Hamsard) would lead to a substantial lessening of competition in relation to certain live music venues in London, resulting, in particular, in rentals at the venues concerned being higher than would otherwise be the case. If the acquisition of the controlling interest is to proceed, the merging companies will first be required to sell one of either the Brixton Academy or the Hammersmith Apollo and one of either the Shepherd’s Bush Empire or the Forum. These venues represent the closest alternatives to each other in London for artists, agents and promoters of popular live music events and would come under common ownership following the acquisition. Hamsard will not be permitted to acquire a controlling interest in Academy until there is a binding sale/purchase commitment for the venues in question. The sale will need to be approved by the Commission so that it is made to a suitable purchaser(s) and is likely to include venue management and booking teams, contracts with customers and suppliers as well as customer information and contact lists, in order to help ensure the viability of the venues for any purchaser(s). 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 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.
MORE EUROPEAN GROUPS CALL FOR iPOD INTEROPERABILITY 23/01/07
More consumer groups in Europe are joining a campaign led by agencies in Scandinavia to persuade or force Apple and other download providers to unlock their DRM - in particular to allow other manufacturers to make iTunes compatible music players and to allow other download platforms to sell DRM protected music that can be played on the market leading iPod. Last year France backed away from passing new copyright laws which wuld have made Apple's DRM based business model illegal but Consumer ombudsmen and agencies in Norway Denmark and Sweden where consumer agencies have all called into question Apple's model - now their counterparts in Finland, France and Germany - Kuluttajavirasto, UFC-Que Choisir and Ferbraucherzentralen respectively - are joining their alliance against Apple. Norwegian officials have already met with Apple and given them to next September to change their business model on the threat of legal action if they fail to do so.
GLOBAL AGENCY'S FIRST DEAL IS WITH MYSPACE 21/01/07
Merlin, the world independent record sector's new licensing agency, today agreed its first ever global deal, with the digital music company SNOCAP. The agreement will enable repertoire from potentially thousands of independent labels across the world to be put into SNOCAP's retail MyStore initiative, which enables music to be downloaded from web sites across the world, including, via their partnership with MySpace, the world's number one social networking site. MyStore's tie in with MySpace, set to launch in the near future with labels, will enable independent-signed artists from across the world to sell digital downloads of their music from their MySpace pages. The downloads will be sold as unprotected MP3 files enabling them to be played on all digital music players including Apple's iPod.
The agreement, the first of its kind, is a global template deal which will be offered to all members of Merlin across the world over coming days.
DIGITAL BOOMS IN INDIA 20/01/07
A new report from Soundbuzz suggests that India will become the second market (after South Korea) where digital music sales overtake those of physical. Over-the-air will be the major driver as broadband uptake (currently around 2M subscribers) is low and the market is more culturally-focused on mobile. FiveEight magazine say that the value of the Indian music industry stood at $329M in 2005, but could leap almost threefold to $930M by 2009; of this, mobile will account for a staggering $810M (up from $102M in 2005). Physical sales, meanwhile, could slump from $22.7M to $11.36M over the same period. Beyond India, Soundbuzz is predicting that mobile sales across the Asia Pacific region will leap from $2.89B in 2005 to $8.57B by 2009.
EMI RESTRUCTURES 20/01/07
Following last weeks exit of David Munns and Alain Levy, EMI has announced a number of key management appointments. JF Cecillon is named as chairman and CEO of EMI Music International (covering all markets outside of the UK and US). He was previously chairman and CEO of EMI Music Continental Europe. Ian Hanson moves up to the role of COO of EMI Music. He was previously SVP, chairman's office, EMI Music:
www.billboard.biz
MUNNS AND LEVY LEAVE EMI AMID PROFIT WARNING 15/01/07
Amid profit warnings and a major restructuring programme at EMI Group, Alain Levy (CE of EMI Music) and David Munns (vice chairman) are exiting the company with immediate effect. Full-year revenues at the recorded music arm of the company are expected to be down 6-10% compared to 2005, with the finger of blame being pointed at an underperforming release schedule heavily weighted towards the second-half. Revenues at EMI Music Publishing, however, are said to be in line with expectations. It is suggested that "hundreds" of jobs could also be axed across the company as part of a cost-saving programme which could cost £150M but deliver £110M in annual savings. It also plans to "de-layer" its management structure. Eric Nicoli, executive chairman of the company, will step into the CE role. EMI's share price dropped 16.5p to 248p following the announcement.
GLASTONBURY GAINS 25,000 AND PLANS PHOTO-TICKETS 15/01/07
The Glastonbury Festival is planning to expand its capacity by a further 25,000 to 175,000. In order to cut car traffic to the site, the extra tickets 25,000 could be sold as part of coach packages. And the festival has announced a pre-registration system for all tickets and that final tickets will carry the applicants own photo as ID as Michael Eavis continues his fight against touts
STONEWALL FIGHTS AGAINST AGE LIMITS 15/01/07
FiveEight magazine reports that Country star Stonewall Jackson (who is 74) is suing the Grand Ole Opry, claiming that an age discrimination policy is preventing him from performing at the venue.
ITALY OFFERS TAX BREAKS FOR INDIES 10/01/07
The Italian government is to offer smaller music companies tax breaks. The new breaks apply to any company with annual revenues less than 15 million euros, and will enable companies to avoid paying tax on the first 100,000 euros earned on first or second works from new artists. The saved tax can be spent on production, videos, digitalisation and promotion. The scheme follows a similar initiative by the French government, which was approved by the European Commission last May and the Italian scheme is still subject EC competition approval.
APPLE LAUNCH PHONE 10/01/07
With reports out that spending on digital music would hit $2.5 billion (£1.3 billion) by 2011, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has introduced the much-anticipated iPhone at the MacWorld conference in San Francisco on January 9th. The mobile phone features a 3.5-inch touchscreen interface, an 8 GB hard drive, and the ability to synch not only music, but also photos, video and personal contact info via an iTunes interface. It runs on the 2.5G network. Thinner than even the slimmest phone on the market today, the iPhone runs Apple's OS X operating system and uses a patented new touchscreen user interface called MultiTouch - a feature he says is as central to the phone as the clickwheel is to the iPod. It also features a 2-megapixel camera and a visual voicemail function. The handset should be available in the UK in June 2007 and will cost approximately £250 (E350).
IS THERE A SOLUTION TO THE DVD FORMAT WARS? 06/01/07
Korea's LG Electronics have developed the first DVD player which will play both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray DVD discs - the competing formats in the new high resolution digital DVD market. Alongside this, Warner Bros have developed a disc which can hold both formats. Music and other sales on DVD have recently dipped and ILMC regular Ben Challis, who looks after the Glastonbury Archive and is working with the Prince's Trust on their archive added "its a relief - I think consumers have noted that there are two rival formats and they have been simply sitting it out before they upgrade - and not buying DVDs - that's bad for the music DVD market and bad for live music." Business reports said that if LG can get the price to an acceptable level this could be a solution to kick start the market. Challis added "no-one wants to be saddled with obsolete technology they have paid for - think of betamax - and minidiscs - or laser discs - lets hope this paves the way forward for a sensible solution to the technology wars."
HOT TIPS FROM THE BBC 06/01/07
The BBC have named their top ten to watch for 2007 headed by singer songwriter Mika. Mika is followed by Twang, Brummmie rockers the Klaxons, R&B diva Sadie Ama and rock-dance hybrid Enter Shikari. The final five places feature Air Traffic, Cold war Kids, Just Jack, Ghosts and The Rumble Strips. Also in the UK Snow Patrol's Eyes Open was top selling album of the year followed by Take That's Beautiful World, Scissor Sisters Ta-Dah, Artic Monkeys Whatever People Say and Inside In Inside Out by the Kooks. Top selling single was Gnarls Barclay's Crazy followed by new X-factor star Leona Lewis with A Moment Like This. Album sales dropped by 2.5% to 159 million units but singles rose 39.7% to 66.9 million units as digital downloads featured for the first time in chart positions (source:BPI).
END OF ARTISTE AND SPORTSMAN TAXATION IN THE NETHERLANDS 05/01/07
After a long period of lobbying from by the music industry, led by Dick Molenaar at All Arts, the Dutch government has decided to abolish the taxation of non-resident artistes and sportspeople as per 1 January 2007.
SONYBMG TO LICENCE PODCASTS 05/01/07
SonyBMG has reached an agreement with San Fransisco based Rock River to allow for a series of promotional prodcasts for corporate clients. Clients such as Ford and Chrysler will pay Sony a flat fee for the right to use music in podcasts regardless of the number of tracks downloaded by end users.
YOUTUBE MISS PIRACY DEADLINE 05/01/07
Google owned YouTube has missed a January 1st deadline with the major record labels after it failed to implement a promise to develop a system to track and remove videos on the video sharing website whch infringed the label's copyright.
COKE AD 'COPIES' BAND'S VID 05/01/07
London unsigned act Seven Seconds of Love have claimed that an advertisement for Coke in Argentinia is a rip off of one of their videos. The band, who have enlisted the help of music lawyers Olswang, suspect that an Argentinean Coke advert infringes the bands copyright since the animation style and the music used in the ad is very similar to that of the video. The video was made available by the band on MySpace and YouTube and their Argentinean fans reported the existence of the Coke ad to them.
BONNAROO ORGANISERS TO BUY FESTIVAL SITE 05/01/07
Superfly Productions and A.C. Entertainment, producers of the annual Bonnaroo Music Festival, are finalizing the purchase of the bulk of the festival site land near Manchester in Coffee County, Tenn. The festival will end up owning about 530 acres alongside Interstate 24 purchased from landowner Sam McAlister. Bonnaroo has long-term leases with owners of 300 additional acres at the site. Superfly president Jonathan Mayers told Billboard.com that serious negotiations to buy the property have been in place for about six months. He declined to reveal a price tag for the land, but did say the plan is to not only build a permanent infrastructure at the site, but to host other events in addition to Bonnaroo at the rural site. Last year's event grossed $14.7 million, according to Billboard Boxscore, with such headliners as Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Radiohead, Beck and My Morning Jacket
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