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
The ten most-read news stories on the CMU site in March 2014
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 1 April 2014
Our most-read news story in March was a report on Jamaican dancehall star Vybz Kartel’s conviction for murder. He and three other men were found guilty of beating Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams to death and disposing of his body in August 2011. The musician is due to be sentenced on Thursday (3 Apr), though he has already said that he plans to appeal the ruling.
Next up, two campaigns that went viral online. The first, a video featuring strangers kissing for the first time soundtracked by SoKo, which mimicked the track’s original music video, but this time had the added bonus of being an advert for a clothing brand. After that, something slightly more grassroots. Fans of Aberdeen Football Club had been campaigning to get The Human League’s ‘Don’t You Want Me’ back in to the singles chart, in recognition of the fact that they sometimes sing “Peter Pawlett, baby” to the tune of the song. Peter Pawlett being an Aberdeen FC player. At the time of our report, it looked like the song would make the top ten, though in the end it only got to number nineteen.
As we head down the top ten most-read articles, we hit the news of the sudden and very unexpected closure of The Fly magazine by its owner MAMA & Co, plus further station rejigs over at Global Radio, with its Smooth brand replacing Gold on AM frequencies. At number six, Yoko Ono was writing to Elbow in response to a namecheck in one of their new songs, ahead of news of the launch of a controversial new digital distribution platform, which undercuts competitors by charging nothing to get their music onto digital services.
After that, a bit of speculation about Amazon’s rumoured new streaming service, first a report on rumours that Amazon was in the midst of negotiations with content providers, then another report on the fact that those content providers weren’t much impressed with the deals they were being offered.
Finally, at number ten, we have a report on Spotify’s decision to cease accepting new third party apps to operate within its desktop software. It’s not yet clear what will happen to apps already on the platform, though details are expected in due course.
In CMU features last month, three reports on recent trends in the music business, taken from the January and February editions of our CMU Digest report, made the top five, covering the digital royalties debate, recovery in the record business, and the debates about royalties paid by streaming services. To get more reports like this, you’ll need to sign up to our new CMU Digest service. Two Festival Line-Up Update columns also made the list of popular features, with updates on Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds, and V Festival.
The top ten most-read news stories in full:
01: Vybz Kartel found guilty of murder
02: SoKo soundtracks first kiss film
03: Human League to go top ten because of some football thing
04: MAMA closes The Fly
05: Smooth to replace Gold on the AM network
06: Yoko responds to Elbow name check
07: Free digital distribution platform goes live in the UK
08: Speculation widens about Amazon streaming service
09: Amazon starts streaming music negotiations with very low offer
10: Spotify halts third party app programme
You can receive all our news stories, job ads and features in a handy email every weekday with the CMU Daily. Sign up for free here.
