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Business News Week In Five
The music business week in five – 10 Jun 2011
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 10 June 2011
So, this seems to have been a very long week to me, was HMV’s big loan agreement announcement and the resulting commentary really only on Tuesday? Though it might seem that way to me because of my 48 hour round trip to Edinburgh, where preparations for this year’s Fringe are now hotting up, meaning I get to wear my other hat as co-Editor of ThreeWeeks, the biggest reviewer at the world’s biggest festival. It was lovely meeting up with the guys from The Edge Festival, the Fringe’s big music strand, at one of the programme launches yesterday, I love it when my different projects collide and I can talk to people simultaneously as CMU and ThreeWeeks. Anyway, a long week it may have seemed, but we’ve still managed to get it down to five main stories.
01: HMV secured new loan agreements, but at a cost. The retail firm ended months of speculation about imminent doom by confirming its banks had agreed to a new two year loan facility based on the group’s current financial performance. In theory it allows HMV chief Simon Fox to get back to the job of reinventing the entertainment firm, though some City types wondered if two years was long enough to bring about such a transformation, and focused in on the high costs of the loan facilities that have been secured. CMU report | Telegraph report
02: Apple launched its iCloud, the first licensed digital locker service on the market, albeit only licensed by the majors as yet. As expected, the new service will provide a back up of any tracks bought on iTunes, which can be downloaded or redownloaded to any Apple or iTunes-carrying device. From the autumn (or more likely early 2012 in the UK), for $25 a year, users will also be able to use the iCloud to store and access their whole MP3 collection, oblivious of its origin. Because it is licensed by the labels (unlike Amazon and Google’s rival lockers), Apple will be able to offer a ‘scan and match’ service which means that in most cases you won’t actually have to upload your MP3s, they will automatically appear in your iCloud once the Apple platform has scanned your hard drive, moved over from Apple’s existing digital catalogue. CMU report | PC World report
03: PPL boss Fran Nevrkla announced he would stand down at the end of the year, with Peter Leathem, who is promoted to MD with immediate effect, due to take over Nervrkla’s CEO role in 2012. The announcement was made at the recording royalty collecting society’s AGM this week, where it was confirmed the body collecting a record amount of royalties in 2010. CMU report | The Stage report
04: A government report called for age ratings to be applied to music videos, in a bid to curb the “sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood”. The Bailey Report, commissioned by David Cameron, made various recommendations about the music, TV and advertising industries, and how they can protect children from being exposed to possibly unsuitable content. It is thought the government will initially propose that affected industries adopt voluntary codes, but with the threat of new regulation if they don’t. CMU report | Guardian report
05: A new UN report said three-strikes breaches human rights. The report by Frank La Rue was critical of the so called graduated response systems adopted in the UK and France to try and stop online piracy, by sending warning letters to copyright infringers and ultimately threatening to cut an infringer’s net connection. The UN report said that disconnecting the net connections of infringers, even for a short time, was a disproportionate penalty. The UK government stressed that it would continue to implement the Digital Economy Act, which contains the British version of three-strikes, though stressed net disconnections were some way off and would require more input from parliament. CMU report | Ars Technica report
And that’s your lot, see you next week.
Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU
