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Business News Week In Five
The music business week in five – Friday 9 Jul 2010
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 9 July 2010
Right, this is coming to you from sunny (well, cloudy) Liverpool, and a room in the rather wonderful Parr Street Studios, which doubles up as a bar and hotel these days. I’m here because last night I spoke at a Vision & Media event at the studios on the current state and future of creative industry business models. It was a fascinating night that resulted in my head spinning with a bunch of great ideas that I now hope I can still remember by the time I get back to London. Meanwhile, I’ve got to get across the Mersey for a family dinner on The Wirral by 1pm, so I might make this week’s review of the week in music even more concise that normal. I mean, you wouldn’t want me to miss out on a free feed, would you? So, here goes.
01: 6music was saved, after the BBC Trust said that the Corporation’s radio bosses had failed to present a good enough argument as to why the digital music service should be axed. The Save 6 campaign had clearly had an impact on the BBC regulator. The Trust told the Beeb to do a full review of its whole digital radio output. In theory, BBC bosses could have another go at closing 6 at the conclusion of that review, but it seems unlikely that they will try. BBC Radio boss Tim Davie defended his original strategy plans, but admitted it was right the Trust had listened and responded to licence fee payer demands. CMU reports | BBC radio boss responds in The Guardian
02: The Live Music Bill was relaunched by Lib Dem lord Tim Clement-Jones. This is the Bill that intends to reduce the bureaucracy around grass roots (ie small) music events, most of which was introduced by the 2003 Licensing Act. A previous attempt to get the Bill through was halted when parliament was dissolved for the recent General Election, though even if it had gone through all the motions that time, the then Labour government would probably have blocked it. With the Lib Dems now in coalition government, Clement-Jones is more hopeful about getting it through. Elsewhere, campaigners who support the Bill presented a 17,000 signature petition to 10 Downing Street. CMU report | Morning Advertisers report
03: Terra Firma prepared the way for a future sale of EMI shares, by getting approval from its investors to sell up to £500 million in shares in Maltby Capital, the company through with the equity group owns the music major. Terra Firma insisted it wasn’t planning a share sale at the moment, but that the resolution was designed to give EMI’s top guard more flexibility in the future should it need to raise some serious cash. Meanwhile, newly appointed Group CEO Roger Faxon is reportedly busy writing a business plan that meets the waffle set out in a recent Terra Firma instigated press release declaring that EMI would become a “comprehensive rights management company”. CMU report | Evening Standard report
04: Ed Vaizey supported digital switchover but not a firm FM turn off date. The Culture Minister said that the government were keen to see a move of radio listening from FM to the DAB network and that 2015 would remain the target for switchover, though added that the switchover would only go ahead if the market was ready – ie enough consumers owned DAB radios. The commercial radio industry is split on DAB switchover, some wanting it asap, others lobbying against the 2015 target date. CMU report | Guardian report
05: There was lots more MySpace speculation. TechCrunch reported that the floundering social network’s UK traffic had halved in the last twelve months and that jobs were being cut at the firm’s London office. Elsewhere, there were subsequently denied rumours that owners News Corp were looking to sell the web firm. Meanwhile, others reported a subscription version of MySpace Music is very much in the pipeline. CMU reports | City AM report
So there you have it. I’m off for lunch in Hoylake, while the rest of Team CMU busy themselves making you a CMU Weekly. Look out for that in your inbox later today.
Business Editor, CMU Daily
