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Five Day Forecast – w/c 14 Nov 2011

By | Published on Monday 14 November 2011

Andy Malt

Well, that was all very exciting, wasn’t it? Having waited all year for EMI to be sold, the final announcement came and went rather quickly. Well, I suppose it would. Though the sale of EMI Publishing was confirmed while we were all asleep, which seems a bit unfair.

But there you go, it’s all done now and all that is left is to wait for are all the legal challenges and technicalities. This also means this is the first week in some time where the sale of EMI doesn’t feature in my Five Day Forecast. Let’s see what’s there instead.

01: Google Music announcement. Google has sent out invitations to journalists for an announcement that will take place at 2pm PST (so 10pm in the UK) on Wednesday. The company doesn’t say what it will be announcing, but the Spinal Tap-themed invitation would suggest that it’s something music-related, while the livestream URL suggests it will involve the Android mobile OS too. If it is the much rumoured Google download store, it seems likely it will be launching without Sony and Warner on board, which will be interesting. You’ll be able to watch the announcement yourself at www.youtube.com/android.

02: UK Festival Awards. This year’s UK Festival Awards are due to take place at The Roundhouse in London tomorrow night, while during the day the festival industry will come together for the annual Festival Conference at The Forum just up the road. In what has been a tricky year for many festivals in the UK, last week we spoke to the Festival Awards’ MD James Drury about the history of the event and some of the issues facing the industry.

03: New CMU Training dates. You’re probably sitting there quietly sobbing to yourself because you’ve just realised you missed last week’s music copyright training course. Well dry your eyes, my friend. There are still some CMU courses to come this side of Christmas, and later this week we will announce a load of dates for early 2012, plus the launch of three new courses from our sister company UnLimited Insights aimed at PR and communications people. Watch this space.

04: New releases. My top release this week is the twelve-inch re-issue of Portishead’s ‘Chase The Tear’, which is backed by a cover of the same song by the excellent Doldrums. All proceeds from sales of the record will go to Amnesty International. As well as that, The Fall, Russian Circles, Los Campesinos!, The Dø, and Jah Wobble & LoneLady all have albums out, plus Dems release their brilliant ‘Houses’ EP. And to mark the end of the band, REM release their career retrospective ‘Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth Part Garbage 1982 – 2011’, an album that bizarrely boasts to have the world’s first animated gif cover artwork on the digital version, which seems like an odd claim to make and almost certainly isn’t true.

05: Gigs. This Tuesday, The Cure are due to play the Royal Albert Hall, while the brilliant Mondkopf will headline XOYO on Friday, and Factory Floor will launch their new single at The Garage on the same night, and Tru Thoughts present a showcase of some of its artists at Koko on Saturday. Touring this week are Lana Del Rey, Skrillex, Battles, Dum Dum Girls, Washed Out, Billy Bragg with Akala, The King Blues and Sound Of Rum, Okkervil River, The Twilight Sad, Cults, and Gillian Welch.

And don’t forget to check out the latest CMU podcast, in which I attempt to deliver important tax news while drinking a quite unpleasant drink. It’s even more thrilling than it sounds.

Andy Malt
Editor, CMU



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