This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Week In Five
The music business week in five – 3 Jun 2011
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 3 June 2011
So, next week I’ll be heading north to the Burgh for the programme launch of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s biggest cultural festival, which takes over the Scottish capital each August with a simply unrivalled mix of comedy, theatre, musicals, dance, art, talks and, yes, who knew, music. I’ll be at the Fringe launch in my secret other identity as Co-Publisher and Co-Editor of ThreeWeeks, the biggest review media at the Fringe.
Sitting behind ThreeWeeks is a widely acclaimed media education programme, through which around about 100 students and aspiring journalists get access to some top quality free training, plus unique on-the-ground journalism experience, seeing, writing about, and critiquing, between them, well over 1500 of the shows that take place during the Edinburgh Festival. If you know any young aspiring writers or arts practitioners who could benefit from this experience, well, tell them they have til midnight tonight to apply to join our team this year. They’ll find all the info they need over at www.threeweeks.co.uk/jointhereviewteam.
And now I’ve finished plugging that, let me put my CMU Business Editor hat back on, and present you with your week in five.
01: The iCloud loomed on the horizon. Apple confirmed this week its new music service would be called iCloud, and that it would be launched at a conference in San Francisco next week. As of last night, we know all four major record companies are on board for Apple’s digital locker, and we hear the major publishers have also reached a licensing agreement. The indies are, in the main, notable by their absence so far. iCloud will be first music industry endorsed digital locker, though getting those licences will result in limitations – only music bought from iTunes will be available for streaming via any one user’s Apple locker. CMU report | LA Times report
02: Anne Muir got three years probation for file-sharing. She was the Scottish grandmother found to be sharing over 30,000 music files via her computer back in 2008. It’s rare for file-sharers to be prosecuted under criminal law, though the BPI managed to persuade Scottish police that Muir’s file-sharing was so rampant they should step in. Muir’s legal rep said their client was suffering from depression at the time of her file-sharing, and uploaded so much content because it upped her rating on the file-sharing network she was part of and that boosted her self-esteem. Although found guilty a couple of months back, Muir was sentenced this week. CMU report | Guardian report
03: BT and TalkTalk sought to appeal the DEA judicial review ruling. This actually happened late last week. The two ISPs are having another go at persuading judges they should send the copyright provisions of the Digital Economy Act back to parliament for reconsideration on the grounds they conflict with various European laws. BT and TalkTalk’s original judicial review failed. CMU report | Outlaw report
04: HMV’s boss was upbeat in an interview with gaming industry mag MCV. Simon Fox said he believes the recent sale of Waterstones, and the cash it will bring in, will solve the entertainment retailer’s recent financial problems, enabling him to refocus on reinventing the company, in particular growing their digital and live operations, and stepping up technology and games in their high street stores. CMU report | MCV interview
05: The BPI pledged to update parental advisory guidelines for the digital age, applying similar rules to online operations, both download stores and streaming audio or video services, so that people are made aware of content that may be inappropriate for younger listeners/viewers. Although some digital services already operate such a system there is no industry standard. CMU report | Register report
And that’s your lot, until this week’s CMU Weekly podcast, coming up later with, for some reason, at least two minutes spent discussing ‘Super Gran’. So that’s something to look forward to. Sign up in iTunes so you don’t miss it.
Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU
