SANCTUARY ON TAKEOVER MENU 22/05/07
Struggling London music firm Sanctuary have confirmed that it has received approaches from third parties that could lead to a takeover offer being made. The announcement saw the music company's share price soar by nearly 50%.

LIVE EARTH - WHO NEEDS IT? 22/05/07
CMU Daily reports that the Who's Roger Daltrey has joined Bob Geldof in attacking plans for the upcoming Live Earth events, asking whether or not a concert to promote awareness of global warming and climate change are really needed. UK rockers Muse had previousy said they hadnt committed to Live Earth because of concerns over the carbon footprint the events would leave.  On a more positive green note, KT Tunstall is to invite primary school children in the US to her concert sound-checks to teach them how to do things green. The singer is planning an open invitation to schools in the areas where she's to play upcoming gigs,and will sing for them and give a talk about Al Gore's award winning environmental documentary ' An Inconvenient Truth'. The kids will also get to choose what songs she plays. A keen environmental campaigner, the singer is involved in the Global Cool campaign, and has made her own home eco-friendly by installing reclaimed wood and solar-panels.

PPL ANNOUNCE RECORD REVENUES 22/05/07
The UK's recording royalties collecting society PPL, which recently merged with  PAMRA and AURA, has just released record year end financial results for 2006 with licence fee income up 13% to £98 million. Net revenue  passed on to the artists and labels the society represents was up by 11.8%. International collections doubled to over £6 million. The Society represents 3,500 record labels and 40,000 musicians 

GOOGLE WIN 'COPYING' CASE 22/05/07
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has reached a decision in Perfect 10 v Amazon.com and Google Inc holding that Google's thumbnail cashed icons of pornographic pictires found on the Perfect 10 site are not infringing. The Court held that the pictures were not copied as they were 'inline' - a html element that displays pictures hosted elsewhere - here 'still' on Perfect 10. At first instance a District Judge had agreed with Perfect 10 saying the images had been copied onto Google but the Appeal Court found that the images were not an infringement as they were not copied.

HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS WIN NEW VICTORY 22/05/07
The epic courtroom saga that is US emo band Hawthorne Heights legal battle with record label Victory Records had another chapter closed yeterday when a federal judge ruled that whilst the band may have had an 'exclusive' contract with Victory this did not stop them recording albums for other labels. Victory seem to have been entitled to four exclusive options BUT not four consecutive exlusive albums. The case began when Hawthorne Heights tried to get out of their recording contractwith Victory last summer, accusing the independent of breach of contract, copyright and trademark infringement, fraud and abuse. Although a court subsequently threw out most of those claims in March a US judge ruled that by their current recording contract the band were not obliged to record exclusively for Victory, freeing them up to continue record deal discussions with EMI. It is unclear if Victory plan to appeal again. Meanwhile other elements of the dispute between Hawthorne Heights, Victory and EMI continue.

UK MEDIA PLAYERS MAKE THE NEWS 18/05/07
The future of media conglomerate EMAP was up in the air as rumours swirled around the UK press about a possible break up. The Q and Mojo publisher, also a major player in UK independent radio and business-2-business publishing, lost its chief executive Tom Moloney who was ousted after 26 years with the company. Shares rose on the news by 43.5p to 821p. Rumours about a possible EMI takeover also developed as the press suggested that Warner Music might be back in the buying frame for the UK's only major label as worries about European regulatory approval seem to be receding.  Again shares rose, this time by 3.5p to 245.2 . In the club world, Britain's biggest nightclub operator  Luminar is now at loggerheads with the rest of the UK licensed trade after committing to moving to plastic glass only environment. the Police supported move focuses on safety issues but Luminar also that think that they will benefit from a drop in insurance premiums as bare footed dancers leave under their own steam rather than in ambulances.  At the same time, full figures looking at the first year of the UK's relaxed licensing laws show that the fear of increases in drink fuelled violence with extended opening hours have failed to materialise although the figures may disguise the true effects of 24 hour drinking. A UK cross-party parliamentary committee has supported the BPI and I FPI's campaign to extend the terms of sound recording copyrights to something like the US model (which is 95 years rather than the 50 years available in Europe) giving hope the owners of the  Cliff Richard, Beatles and Elvis catalogues (amongst others) and finally the UK's leading indie music radio station,  Xfm, is dropping daytime DJs - preferring listeners to select their own playlist for the station.  

LIVE NATION POST LOSSES 16/05/07
Live Nation  has reported that it made losses of $45.6 million in the first quarter of its current financial year, up on both the previous quarter and the same period last year. The Company pointed out this quarter is usaually a quiet period for touring and also pointed out that last year was a very busy year with tours including U2, Coldplay, Billy Joel, Aerosmith and Depeche Mode. In the same quarter last year the company returned a profit of $5.3 million. The loss this year was despite a year on year rise in revenues, from $516.6 million to $884.2 million. Live Nation has recently acquired  House Of Blues empire and merchandise firm Trunk Ltd. Live Nation chief Michael Rapino told reporters "The concert business is a seasonal and cyclical business with a cycle of generally one to three years. If a major artist tours in one year, it is typically unlikely for that artist to tour for the next year or two". But Rapino says the "three year window" is an opportunity for business change within the company, which is expected to include a more aggressive move into the merchandising and ticketing markets.