Week In Five

CMU Digest – 10 May 2013

By | Published on Friday 10 May 2013

MegaUpload

The five biggest stories in the music business this week…

01: The US Attorney General defended America’s MegaUpload assault. Eric Holder was visiting New Zealand, where Mega founder Kim Dotcom is currently fighting extradition to face charges related to the running of the controversial file-transfer service in the US courts. To coincide with the visit, Dotcom published a paper again criticising the Americans for shutting down his original Mega business, claiming MegaUpload operated legally, and that the US authorities acted to appease their mates (and political funders) in Hollywood. But Holder disagreed in a radio interview. America’s action against MegaUpload and Dotcom, he said, “was brought on the basis of the facts, on the basis of the law, and it’s consistent with the enforcement priorities that this administration has had”. CMU report

02: Universal was rumoured to have licensed iRadio, Apple’s long rumoured streaming music service. According to the Financial Times, Apple is now offering the majors per stream rates in line with those paid by Pandora via the US digital rights agency SoundExchange – it had previously been looking to pay less. While Universal is reportedly now onboard for Apple’s Pandora-style streaming set-up, Sony Music is seemingly still pushing for better terms, which could further delay any launch. CMU reportFT report

03: Hilco was in talks about former HMV Ireland stores. According to the Irish Times, estate agent Colliers International has been talking to the landlords of up to six former HMV stores in Ireland about the possibility of agreeing new terms that would enable some shops in the country to reopen. HMV Ireland was shut down completely shortly after HMV UK went into administration earlier this year. CMU reportIrish Times report

04: Hop Farm cancelled. This actually happened very late last week. Vince Power admitted that the Hop Farm festival, which he reacquired after his company Music Festivals plc went under last year, will not go ahead this summer because of poor ticket sales. He wrote on the festival’s website: “We have worked very hard to try to make it work but it has proved too much a of mountain to climb and despite fighting hard, circumstances are such that based on poor ticket sales and the forecast selling rate substantial losses would be made”. CMU report | Vince Power statement

05: The Jacksons v AEG Live court case continued. An associate producer of Michael Jackson’s ‘This Is It’ project told the court how she feared for the singer’s life in the week before he died, because he started to look so frail. But emails showed that Jackson and his doctor Conrad Murray convinced AEG Live President Randy Phillips all was fine. Meanwhile, an expert hired by the Jackson family said there were all sorts of red flags that should have concerned AEG about Murray’s abilities to care for the singer. Murray, of course, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for causing Jackson’s death. The Jacksons are arguing AEG Live should be held liable for the late king of pop’s demise as Murray’s paymaster. CMU timeline

This week in CMU we chatted to Dylan Richards about his new project House Of Black Lanterns and got a playlist from Miike Snow’s Andrew Wyatt. We approved of Slowolf, illion and Garage Swim. There was a brand new edition of the CMU Podcast, plus plenty of updates on all that will be happening in Brighton next week at The Great Escape Convention. And don’t forget, CMU has teamed up with Essential for a special pre-Great Escape party in Shoreditch on Tuesday night – CMU Daily readers can get themselves on the guest list by emailing rsvp@unlimitedmedia.co.uk.



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