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CMU Digest
CMU Digest 17.10.16: Amazon, FanFair, RIAA, SFX, Isle Of Wight Festival, Ed Sheeran
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 17 October 2016
The key stories from the last seven days in the music business…
Amazon launched its full catalogue on-demand streaming service in the US. As expected, while the new service has the same price point as rivals Spotify and Apple Music, there is a cheaper $3.99 a month option that only works on an Amazon Echo speaker. Prime subscribers also get a discount on the ten dollar standard price. It remains to be seen if Amazon can grow a mid-price streaming market where others have failed. [READ MORE]
The FanFair Alliance criticised Q magazine for allowing StubHub to sponsor its annual awards this year. The recently launched campaign against secondary ticketing and industrial touting said that the sponsorship deal was likely “an attempt by StubHub to buy legitimacy”. The Alliance said to would write to the managers of nominated artists to share these concerns. [READ MORE]
The Recording Industry Association Of America made its annual submission to the US Trade Representative’s notorious markets review, which identifies key copyright infringing set-ups and the countries that host them. The trade group raised particular concerns about the rise of stream-ripping sites and the use of reverse proxy services to hide the locations of piracy platforms. [READ MORE]
Dance music firm SFX formally opposed a claim from its founder and former CEO Robert FX Sillerman for over $15 million. He wants the money to fight lawsuits where he is a co-defendant with the company and to cover debts where he guaranteed SFX deals. SFX is still working its way through bankruptcy, and reckons it shouldn’t have to make these payments to Sillerman. [READ MORE]
The Isle Of Wight Council published a report about attempts to cut costs of the IOW Festival. The company which produces the event for the island, Solo, says it needs to cut costs to stay viable, and had proposed the Council drop the fee it charges for use of the event’s main site. The Council had been due to consider that proposal this week, but then said it was now considering other options instead. [READ MORE]
Lawyers for Ed Sheeran hit back at the song-theft lawsuit being pursed against their client by the writers of the Matt Cardle track ‘Amazing’. Sheeran is accused of ripping off that record on his song ‘Photograph’. But legal reps for him and his business partners say the lawsuit is far to verbose and should get to the point much quicker about what exactly the plaintiff’s complaint is against each of the eleven defendants. They really want the case dismissed. [READ MORE]
The big deals from the last seven days in the music business…
• Shazam partnered with Vadio [INFO]
• Sentric signed a deal with Defenders Entertainment [INFO]
• The Really Useful Company partnered with Concord Bicycle Music [INFO]
• Robomagic signed on to co-produce the Essence Durban festival [INFO]
• CAA signed Boy George [INFO]
• WME signed RZA [INFO]
• Cooking Vinyl signed The King Blues [INFO]
• Xtra Mile Music signed Johnny Lloyd [INFO]
