Business News Week In Five

The music business week in five – 22 Jul 2011

By | Published on Friday 22 July 2011

Chris Cooke

So, this is the penultimate Week In Five column before it takes its traditional summer break for August. Which also means in just over a week’s time I’ll be heading to Scotland to pursue my secret other life as Co-Editor of the biggest review media at the Edinburgh Festival, the world’s biggest cultural extravaganza. The music programme at Edinburgh’s annual August fest is pretty damn big, you know, though obviously it’s in comedy and theatre where this three (four, five, depending on when you start counting) week festival really excels, it being the biggest hotbed of comedy and theatrical talent anywhere in the known universe.

You should all come for a couple of days, believe me, nowhere else will you experience something quite like Edinburgh during its Fringe. And if you are coming, obviously go check out ThreeWeeks.co.uk for show tips before you embark. But for now, back to the good old music business, and this week’s main developments.

01: Ministry Of Sound shouted ‘foul’ at Syco. The dance label says the Sony division has stolen one of its tracks, Avicii’s ‘Penguin’, as the backdrop for Leona Lewis’s new single ‘Collide’. Ministry is planning on releasing its own version of Avicii’s instrumental with vocals on top. Syco stressed that Avicii was credited as a co-songwriter on the track, while Leona herself took to Twitter to say the rising superstar DJ gave her label permission for his track to be used. But Avicii and his manager say they knew nothing of Lewis’s use of the track until ‘Collide’ showed up on Radio 1, and as a result Ministry is now consulting its lawyers. For the record, the Lewis track is awful. CMU report | Daily Mail report

02: Simon Fuller sued Fox and Fremantle over ‘X-Factor USA’. Fuller says that he should get an Executive Producer credit and fee from the new American version of Simon Cowell’s talent show, because of a 2005 agreement between Fuller and Cowell’s company Syco which was struck after the former accused the latter of ripping off the ‘Idol’ format for ‘X’. Fox was involved in the 2005 agreement, Fuller adds. The 2005 deal saw Cowell committing to work on ‘American Idol’, and to not launch ‘X-USA’ for five years, as well as giving Fuller the Exec Producer credit and fee on ‘X-Factor’ ventures. Despite the agreement, both Fox and Fremantle seem reluctant to give Fuller anything as he’s not actually involved in their new show in any way. CMU report | FT report

03: Baidu announced a deal with the majors, or at least with One-Stop China, an agency it says counts Sony, Universal and Warner amongst its shareholders. The Chinese search engine was a target for litigation from the Western music firms because its MP3 search service gave easy access to illegal music. But under the new agreement Baidu will pay a licence fee for any tracks accessed via its music search facility. The labels will also support the Chinese web firm’s new ting! service. CMU report | WSJ report

04: Andy Parfitt announced he was leaving Radio 1, after thirteen years heading up the nation’s favourite. Parfitt is leaving the BBC altogether, where he has also led other youth and pop music ventures. His deputy, Ben Cooper, will take over on an interim basis. It’s not clear whether Parfitt’s departure will be used by the Beeb to implement some of the proposals in John Myers’ recent report on the Corporation’s music stations, ie that Radios 1 and 2 should share a controller. CMU report | Telegraph report

05: Ged Doherty left Sony Music, somewhat suddenly. The major’s UK boss will be replaced by Nick Gatfield, the former Island Records President, who joined Sony in a new role overseeing all of the company’s UK label operations earlier this year. Gatfield’s promotion follows the arrival of Doug Morris at Sony Music HQ in the US. Gatfield worked under Morris – albeit at one remove in the hierarchy, he reported to then International CEO Lucian Grainge – while running Universal/Island. CMU report | Guardian report

And that’s your lot, though for more retrospective ramblings, do check out today’s podcast, going live later at theCMUwebsite.com/podcast

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU



READ MORE ABOUT: