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Business News Week In Five
The music business week in five – 24 Jun 2011
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 24 June 2011
So, I’m guessing 29% of you are in Somerset, or are on your way there. Don’t worry, it’s muddy, but it will only rain while U2 are playing. Or at least that’s what I hear. Bloody Bono. Many of the rest of you may be planning a weekend of mud-free Glastontelly, which sounds like a grand plan, after all, there’s an awful lot of BBC dudes down there on Worthy Farm, and if Andy Parfitt’s insistence that it’s worth the spend is to stack up, we really ought to all tune in.
If you’re one of the non-Glastonbury attending music journos going to the We’re Not Worthy drinks do in London being organised by Sean at DiS and Paul at RoTD this afternoon, have a goodun – alas, Friday is CMU Weekly day so it’s unlikely I’ll make it down, which presumably means I’m not even not worthy.
I will be heading into Central London later today, though, for a grand debate on all things copyright, taking place as part of British Black Music Month at the University Of Westminster at 309 Regent Street at 6.30pm. A great panel has been lined up to discuss why we should care about copyright (or not), and where the rights of users should fit into the equation. It’s free to come along, though you need to get yourself on the list, email editor@britishblackmusic.com
But first, it’s your week in five…
01: EMI was put up for sale. Or, if we are being pedantic, its owners Citigroup instigated a strategic review of options for the music company, which might include a sale, recapitalisation or even an IPO. But what that really means is that EMI is now on the market. Universal Music, new Warner Music owner Len Blavatnik, and his main rival in the bid for Warner, the Gores brothers, are all reportedly interested in acquiring the British music major. CMU reports | Billboard report
02: The three-strikes judicial review failed, though an EDM requested a rethink. Judges knocked back BT and TalkTalk’s court-based attempts to force a rethink on the copyright section of the Digital Economy Act earlier this year, and this week refused to consider an appeal of that ruling. In parliament Julian Huppert MP did submit an Early Day Motion noting a recent United Nations report that was critical of three-strike style systems like that the DEA will introduce, and suggested a rethink. However, the government is unlikely to comply with that demand. Meanwhile, the Irish government instigated a review of its copyright laws, possibly to help record companies in Ireland persuade internet service providers to follow the lead of market leader Eircom and introduce a three-strikes system for combating piracy. CMU reports | Telegraph report
03: We7, WiMP and Shazam announced expansion plans. We7 confirmed it had new investment and was now hoping to expand out of the UK and become the Pandora of Europe. Scandinavian music service WiMP said it had done a deal which would enable it to launch in Ireland later this year. And Shazam said it had raised a bucket more cash to help it develop a telly-based version of its service. So, a busy week for digital announcements. Elsewhere speculation about Facebook’s new music dashboard continued. CMU reports: We7 | WiMP | Shazam
04: Universal merged the back offices of its Motown and Def Jam divisions in the US, resulting in some job losses, part of a rampant restructuring that is quietly going on at the music major. With Sony Music also doing quite a rejig as the two record company rivals swap senior executives, there is a lot of insecurity jobs wise around the US record industry just now. And if Warner Music does successfully acquire EMI later this year, resulting in another big record company merger, that insecurity will expand across all the majors. Times are a changing, even if the top executives are the same, just with different job titles at different companies. CMU report | Hollywood Reporter report
05: A hacker was arrested for allegedly targeting the BPI and IFPI websites. Essex boy Ryan Cleary is accused of being part of the group that instigated a Distributed Denial Of Service attack against the two record industry trade bodies’ websites, taking said sites down. He’s also accused of bringing down the website of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which was possibly unwise. CMU report | Daily Mail report
And that is your lot until we go all CMU Weekly on your ass with more e-bulletins and a super duper podcast later today – sign up at theCMUwebsite.com/weekly.
Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU
