Business News Week In Five

CMU Digest – 7 Jun 2013

By | Published on Friday 7 June 2013

City Of London Police

The five biggest stories in the music business this week…

01: The City Of London Police threatened two piracy sites with criminal action. The police body confirmed it had written to the operators of two UK-based websites requesting they get in touch, adding that “intellectual property crime is a serious offence that is costing the UK economy hundreds of millions of pounds each year”. Copyright infringement can become a criminal matter where rights are infringed on an industrial scale for profit, and can result in jail time. It is thought both the music and movie industries are actively supporting the City Of London Police’s latest anti-piracy initiative. CMU report | Torrentfreak report

02: Apple signed up Warner for iRadio, its planned Pandora-style streaming music service. The agreement covered both Warner Music’s sound recording and publishing catalogues, the first deal Apple has struck for its streaming platform on the publishing side. Universal Music is reportedly also onboard on the recordings side, but Universal Music Publishing and both Sony’s record and publishing companies are all reportedly holding out for better rates. Apple still seems keen to go live with its streaming service as soon as possible, with reports that it will launch at next week’s World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco. CMU report | WSJ report

03: A US appeals court ordered Terra Firma v Citigroup retrial. This actually happened very late last week, and means that the messy legal battle between equity group Terra Firma and US bank Citigroup over advice the latter gave the former when it bought EMI in 2007 will return to court. Terra Firma claims that it would have never gone ahead with its disastrous (as it turned out) acquisition of EMI at the time and on the terms that it did but for misleading information provided by Citigroup, which bankrolled the deal. At first instance a US court rejected that claim, but an appeals court says that the judge hearing the case misadvised the jury on certain bits of English law, relevant because the EMI deal was done in the UK. So now all the squabbles can occur for a second time. CMU report | Financial News report

04: Scott Weiland countersued the Stone Temple Pilots. The band’s former frontman, who claims his bandmates didn’t have any right to sack him in February, has sued for damages and to try and stop the remaining Stone Temple Pilots from using that name. It follows a lawsuit by Weiland’s bandmates last week, in which they claimed their former frontman was hindering their work by making erroneous claims about the STP trademark. CMU report | BBC report

05: Jacksons v AEG Live rumbled on. While the tabloid press are probably waiting for the celebrity witnesses that are due to appear down the line, the testimonies this week from senior AEG Live executives were fascinating. Legal reps for the Jacksons have focused on contradictions in various statements made by and emails sent between AEG management, while also honing in on the various incidents and occurrences that – they argue – should have made AEG bosses concerned about Michael Jackson’s health. The Jacksons say AEG should be held liable for the late king of pop’s demise for hiring and mismanaging his personal medic Dr Conrad Murray, who caused the singer’s death through negligent treatment. AEG counters that it didn’t recruit or manage Murray. The case is due to continue for a few more weeks yet. CMU timeline

This week on CMU we got a playlist from Emily Wells, while CMU’s Aly Barchi reported on her visit to Primavera Sound and Andy Malt questioned the “music is more disposable in the digital age” mantra. We announced a load more CMU Insights training courses too, and along the way approved of Laura Welsh, Congo Natty, Hibou and DAVIDS.



READ MORE ABOUT: | | | | | | | | | |