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Business News Week In Five
CMU Digest – 14 Sep 2012
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 14 September 2012
The five biggest stories in the music business this week.
01: A US court reinstated the original damages figure in the Jammie Thomas case, she being one of the few file-sharers sued by the Recording Industry Association Of America to go to court. This long-running case has been in front of judges and juries on multiple occasions, all agreeing Thomas was liable for copyright infringement, but with differing opinions on what damages she should pay to the labels. Juries tend to decide on mega-damages, $1.9 million at one point, while judges have generally backed much lower figures around $54,000. Though this week a panel of three appeal judges agreed with the RIAA that that amount was too low, and that damages of $222,000 were more appropriate. That was the figure decided on in the very first trial back in 2007. Team Thomas will likely appeal. CMU report | BBC report
02: Muse were accused of concept theft. An American songwriter called Charles Bollfrass says that the last three tracks on the band’s 2009 album ‘The Resistance’, which were together titled ‘Exogenesis’, were ripped off from a concept he had devised in 2005 for a rock opera of the same name. Bollfrass alleges that he approached Muse about them collaborating on the project, but that they declined the offer, and then used his ideas for ‘Exogenesis’. The songwriter is suing Muse’s label Warner Music. Though a rep for the band has said the claim is “complete nonsense”, adding that it was based on a rock opera concept that “the band never received or saw, produced by someone the band has never heard of”. CMU report | NME report
03: AEG settled with Lloyds Of London over the ‘This Is It’ insurance dispute. Part of the fated Michael Jackson London residency was insured by a Lloyds insurer, and the live firm tried to claim on that policy when the king of pop died. But Lloyds claimed AEG misled the insurer regards Jackson’s health, and so sued through the US courts to have the policy declared void. This week it was announced AEG and Lloyds had reached an out of court settlement, though the insurer would continue in its action against Michael Jackson LLC, controlled by the MJ Estate, which was also a claimant on the policy. CMU report | CNN report
04: Universal confirmed it had paid Citigroup for EMI, more or less. The mega-major has handed over just short of £1 billion to the US bank for the EMI record company (it will pay £1.2 billion in total) in accordance with the two parties’ deal made last November. The money has been handed over despite the regulatory investigation into the acquisition being ongoing in both the US and Europe, though both regulators are expected to rule in the next fortnight. It is thought the deal will get approval subject to a commitment to sell off between a quarter and a third of EMI assets, including the global rights to some catalogues, most likely Parlophone. CMU report | Hypebot report
05: Apple revealed an overhaul of iTunes, but it didn’t include the much rumoured Apple streaming service. The new look version of the iTunes software and store, due to go live next month, will have a slicker design, and be fully integrated with Facebook, meaning you’ll have another bit of software trying to share your music consumption data with your Facebook friends. The Facebook alliance means Apple’s own efforts at a music-sharing social network, Ping, will be turned off, much to the distress of its user. The new iTunes will also more fully integrate with iCloud, so that new purchases automatically download to all registered devices, and other info will be shared across the cloud too, so that if you stop a track half way through on one device, you can pick it up at the same point on another. The iTunes announcement was one of many made by Apple at a press event this week, including the launch of the iPhone 5. CMU report | Register report
Meanwhile on CMU this week, Andy Malt first chatted to Gallows’ Lags Barnard about the band post-Carter, and then speculated about what might be on the Mercury shortlist (speculation that you can compare to the real shortlist here). Elsewhere The Dying Seconds compiled a rather fine playlist for us, and DIIV, LCMDF, Taken By Trees and Hidden Orchestra were all approved.
