Business News Week In Five

The music business week in five – Friday 14 May 2010

By | Published on Friday 14 May 2010

So, we’re coming to you live from The Great Escape in Brighton this morning. Well, actually from a cafe in the Lanes, where the wifi doesn’t wobble quite so much as at TGE Central. If you’re down in Brighton today or tomorrow do come say hi, if nothing else you will find us in The Dome Founders Room today at 12.30pm and tomorrow at 2.30pm where I’ll be interviewing music lawyer and author Steven Machat and AIM boss Alison Wenham respectively. But for now, let’s get on with this  ‘week in five’ thing, before I finish this croissant and the café staff start to suspect I’m just here for their web connection and not their fine drinks and lovely cakes. So, here goes…

01: A US judge ruled against LimeWire in the Recording Industry Association Of America’s long running legal battle with the file-sharing company. Presumably applying the principles of the 2005 Grokster ruling, the judge said the Lime company was liable for contributory and inducing infringement. Unlike when the record industry had court success against Napster, Grokster and Kazaa, LimeWire is still actually used by a lot of people, so if the RIAA can now get it shut down that could have an impact on a significant slice of the file-sharing community. Though LimeWire has vowed to keep on fighting. CMU report | C-Net report

02: It was a good week for 6music, the doomed BBC digital radio station. First they took two gongs at the radio industry’s big awards event the Sonys, then the RAJAR radio listening figures came out and revealed the music station’s audience was up 50%. The various Save 6 campaigns also stepped up their action as the deadline for the BBC Trust’s consultation on the closure approaches. Whether the Trust will do the right thing, though, still remains to be seen. CMU report | Guardian report

03: EMI is now unlikely to be put up for sale. According to reports, its owners Terra Firma managed to persuade their investors to cough up £105 million in cash, and to let the equity group’s bosses lend that money to the music firm. It means EMI should now be able to pay the loan fees due to Citigroup next month, meaning the bank won’t seize control. So, all good. Except Terra Firma have not, as they hoped, raised enough money to ensure next year’s loan fees are also covered. So, things are still a bit uncertain at EMI. CMU report | Guardian report

04: Loads of music companies released financial updates. Universal Music had a disappointing first quarter, with revenues and profits down. The recently merged Live Nation/Ticketmaster saw both revenues and losses rise. Sony Music had a “flat” 2009, which was seen as good news in some circles given trends elsewhere in the record industry, though what success the major had was in a big part down to the Susan Boyle phenomenon and Michael Jackson dying. CMU reports: Universal Music | Live Nation | Sony Music

05: YouTube and GEMA’s licensing talks faltered. The video service has been in dispute with the German collecting societies over royalties for a while now, and the two company’s last licensing arrangement has expired. GEMA requested 600 videos of songs by its members be removed this week, while both sides issued strong statements defending their viewpoint. YouTube think GEMA want far to much money per play, while GEMA think the Google-owned website is profiting at their members’ expense. CMU report | PaidContent report

And there you have it, the week in five. Look out for a summary of artist stories in the CMU Weekly this afternoon, and if you’re in Brighton, enjoy the rest of the Escape.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU Daily



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