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Business News Week In Five
The music business week in five – 22 Jul 2011
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 29 July 2011
So tonight, just before midnight, I shall put a rucksack containing a month’s worth of clothes on my back (believe me, there is no time for doing laundry in August) and board a train at Euston Station heading north for that place called Scotland. Yes, August is upon us, which means it is time for another Edinburgh Festival, the biggest god damn cultural party on the planet, where well over 2500 shows, concerts, performances, talks and debates will take place, most of them during the three weeks between 5 and 29 Aug. As you probably know by now, in my secret other life I co-edit the biggest review media at this festival, ThreeWeeks, making August the busiest month of my year. For much of the next four weeks you will be able to find me over at www.ThreeWeeks.co.uk.
Not that that means I’ll be taking my eye off the music business, so don’t think you can get away with doing anything drastic while I’m not looking, like introducing an affordable blanket licence for digital start ups, getting rid of rip off booking fees on gig tickets, or accepting the introduction of a private copy right without compensation. August is no time for doing things that are sensible. There will be no Week In Five for the next few weeks, but we’ll still be keeping you up to date with all the developments in the music business as and when they happen. You just watch them go and sell EMI just as I’m on one of my crucial Edinburgh deadlines. I can see myself now, proof reading from that little BBC studio next to the Scottish parliament while trying to sound intelligent about the demise/continuation/rosy future (delete as applicable) of the last remaining British major record company.
Anyway, enough of the future, let’s look back at the week just gone.
01: The industry paid tribute to Amy Winehouse. While not strictly business news, the sudden and untimely death of one of British music’s greatest 21st century vocalists last weekend was probably the one story that occupied the minds of most people in the music industry this week. Aside from the general mourning by those close to the singer, and Twitter-tributing from everyone else, some questioned whether the music business could and should do more to help those young artists who battle with addiction, given elements of how the music world operates – the fact many artist’s lives lack formal structures, coupled with the sudden easy access to both money and drugs that pop stars get as they become successful – arguably contribute to the problem. Others speculated on whether there were any unreleased Winehouse gems that could make up a third posthumous album, while the singer’s existing catalogue worked its way back up the charts, a sad reminder that death remains a great marketing tool for selling music. CMU reports | AP article on Forbes
02: BT was ordered to block access to the Newzbin2 website. Although the court order was the result of legal action taken by the movie industry, and Newzbin2 mainly provides access to unlicensed movie content, it was a significant ruling for all content industries, because it possibly opens the door for any kind of copyright owner to go to court to ask for an injunction to force net firms to block access to any website that exists primarily to enable or simplify copyright infringement. Although not unprecedented elsewhere in the world, this was the first such web-blocking injunction issued on the grounds of copyright infringement in the UK. Content owners will welcome this development, but many in the net community see it as the first step towards widespread censorship of the web. CMU report | ZDNet blog post
03: It was confirmed that vinyl sales were up 55%. Although overall old fashioned records are very much a niche product, and while one record release in particular (Radiohead’s ‘King Of Limbs’) accounted for a big chunk of the uplift, ERA and the Official Charts Company confirmed this week that sales of vinyl for the first half of 2011 were up 55% on 2010, to 168,296 units. Perhaps more interesting is that music fans seem willing to pay over double the price for vinyl compared to CD or digital, meaning the classic record format is now definitely a premium product. CMU report
04: Placido Domingo became IFPI chair. The global record industry trade body hasn’t had a celebrity Chairman before, and presumably the opera star has been handed the top job in a bid to open political doors, and to give a more friendly face to the often anonymous looking major record company system, as they lobby for tighter laws for protecting copyright online. CMU report | Bloomberg report
05: EMI bids started to come in. Current owner Citigroup distributed company information to serious bidders earlier this month, and asked for offers to be in by the start of August. According to the New York Post, BMG has already submitted its bid, while Warner Music is expected to have an offer in before the week was out. Pretty much all the parties who previously bid against Access Industries to buy the Warner music company earlier this year are expected to bid again, so a combination of existing music firms and equity groups. CMU report | Billboard report
And that’s your lot! For a month. I look forward to returning to the top slot here in your CMU Daily once September is upon us. See you then.
Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU
