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Business News Week In Five
CMU Digest – 16 Aug 2013
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 16 August 2013
The five biggest stories in the music business this week…
01: Ticketmaster President Nathan Hubbard was reported to be leaving the Live Nation-owned firm. It’s thought that the decision to ease out Hubbard, who has been a Live Nation exec since 2006 and head of Ticketmaster since 2010, was due to bosses feeling that the ticketing firm needed someone with more of a tech background at the top. Ticketmaster’s top man in North America, Jared Smith, it to move into the President role, at least in the interim. CMU report | Wall Street Journal report
02: Live firm MAMA & Company confirmed CEO Dean James was on “leave” and Chairman Richard Thompson was overseeing the running of the business. Although the reason for the switch isn’t currently clear, MAMA owners Lloyds Development Capital strongly refuted rumours that it had pushed James aside at the company he co-founded in 2005, and which he successfully led through the HMV acquisition and subsequent LDC-backed management buy-out. CMU report
03: Live Nation boss Michael Rapino sold a third of his shares in the company. The sale reportedly netted Rapino, who signed a new five year contract with the company last year, around $11.7 million, he choosing to sell as the shares hit a 52 week high. Live Nation said that the sale was for “estate-planning purposes”. CMU report | Bloomberg report
04: Sony withdrew its sponsorship of the Sony Awards after 32 years. The radio industry’s most prestigious award ceremony will for the time being be called The Radio Academy Awards while a new sponsor is found. On its decision to pull out of the ceremony, Sony said that it was now time for Sony to move on and focus on other areas of the business”. CMU report | Radio Today report
05: The Pirate Bay celebrated its tenth birthday. Despite continued attempts to shut it down, block access to it, seize its domains, imprison and fine those involved with it, The Pirate Bay remains firmly online. To mark the occasion, the site’s current operators held a party in Stockholm last weekend and launched a new web-block avoiding browser. CMU report | The Local report
In our features section this week, we interviewed the wonderful Julia Holter, and got two excellent playlists from Ghostpoet and The Axis Of Awesome’s Benny Davis.
Meanwhile, in the Approved column, we tipped Faroese electro duo Byrta, John Maus associate Molly Nilsson, Wildbirds & Peacedrums’ Mariam The Believer, and former Pipette Rose Elinor Dougal.
