Business News Week In Five

The music business week in five – 13 Jan 2012

By | Published on Friday 13 January 2012

Chris Cooke

So hello there everybody, how’s your 2012 going so far? Have you joined in with the “whatever happened to guitar bands” debate yet this week? Or the “why the hell didn’t these acts get any BRIT nods” discussion? Or the latest chapter in the “streaming services, blah” saga, perhaps wondering why the new single from the officially reformed (again) Roth-fronted Van Halen isn’t on Spotify in the US? So much to talk about already this year, and it’s not even my Dad’s birthday yet. Though it is this Sunday. Happy Birthday, Dad. Must remember to post a card. But first, this…

01: HMV released gloomy Christmas sales figures. Sales for the all important Christmas period were down 8.2%, and this time there was no snow to blame it on. Though the positive-out-of-a-negative story spinners at the entertainment retail group pointed out sales declines in the run up to Christmas were less than sales declines in the run up to the run up to Christmas. Oh, and headphones are selling very well thank you very much. The short term plan is to raise some cash by selling live division MAMA, and there’s seemingly lots of interest – AEG, Live Nation, Warner, Sony and various equity types have been tipped as buyers. What happens to HMV once the profitable MAMA is sold off is anyone’s guess. The positive-out-of-a-negative story spinners could be busy in 2012. CMU report | Guardian report

02: The record industry sued Ireland. The four majors in the country reckon the Irish government isn’t doing enough to help them combat piracy, and that means they are failing to fulfil obligations under European law. Or something like that. Weirdly the lawsuit comes just a couple of weeks before Irish ministers are expected to publish proposals for new anti-piracy laws, probably a high speed injunction system to help copyright owners have access to infringing websites blocked. Presumably label chiefs expect those proposals to be delayed or unsatisfactory, given they are pre-empting the announcement with legal action. CMU report | Active Politic blog post

03: EMI sued ReDigi, the MP3 resale website that insists it is on the right side of US copyright law because it allows the resale of CDs, and so should allow users to sell on their digital music. Apparently the ReDigi system checks the authenticity of tracks for sale, and deletes them from the seller’s computer after they are sold. The record industry is not convinced and, believing copyright law to actually be its side, EMI led the charge this week by filing litigation against the American digital firm. CMU report | New York Times report

04: The Marley estate settled with Universal, while Sugar Hill Gang sued. The Marley estate, like an increasing number of heritage artists, disputed the cut of digital royalties Universal was paying it. Though this dispute was more complicated than other digital royalty disputes because of seemingly conflicting terms in the same record contract. Anyway, it was all settled out of court this week. Meanwhile the Sugar Hill Gang, and the estate of Sugar Hill Records founder Sylvia Robinson, launched a lawsuit claiming Universal – who now own the Sugar Hill catalogue – were failed to report and pay royalties. It’s the latest in a number of lawsuits relating to Sugar Hill’s output. Marley storySugar Hill story

05: Twitter announced partnerships, MySpace launched some second screening action. Twitter’s partnerships with Echo Nest and Gracenote will make it easier for music services to access and display tweets from verified artist accounts, so they could pop up on streaming music services while an act’s music plays. Meanwhile MySpace’s new owners – including Justin Timberlake – used the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to announce their big plan, a platform that will allow live chat between online friends about content being viewed on the digital platform – so, second screening basically, albeit via one screen. At launch the content/discussions will all be music based. It probably won’t work. Twitter story | MySpace story

And that’s your lot, until the first CMU Weekly Podcast of 2012, going live later today. Sign up now at www.theCMUwebsite.com/podcast.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU



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