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Five Day Forecast – w/c 16 Jul 2012
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 16 July 2012
So, amongst the many things that are happening this week, I will be heading out to the Faroe Islands for this year’s G! Festival, which, despite it being half way to Iceland, I’m hoping will have better weather than the majority of British festivals have had so far this year. The weather forecast looks promising, but it’s not like there’s much of a challenge really. Anyway, here are some other things that are happening this week.
01: Vivendi and Universal will step up the schmoozing in Europe. Having responded to the European Commission’s statement of objections to its bid to buy the EMI record companies, Universal Music is expected to begin face-to-face meetings with regulators this week. Concessions are also likely to be formally discussed for the first time. As previously reported, the boss of the major’s Paris-based parent company Vivendi, Jean-René Fourtou, is also likely to get involved. We noted a couple of weeks back that possible concessions might be the sale of Universal’s stake in VEVO and EMI division Virgin Records (and only partly because they both begin with ‘v’), and speculation of both those possible remedies has risen in the last week – the FT claiming the latter, and Digital Music News the former.
02: Ice-T rap documentary premiere. A new documentary directed by Ice-T, examining the evolution of rap, will get its UK premiere later this week. For the film, entitled ‘The Art Of Rap’, the rapper’s directorial debut, he interviewed key figures in the genre, including Chuck D, KRS-One, Nas, Eminem, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West. Following the screening at the BFI Southbank in London on 20 Jul, Ice-T will also be on hand for a Q&A session.
03: MMF and MPA Music Management Professional Development Programme. Leading artist managers Scott Rodger and Stephen Budd will be guest speakers at a training event staged by the Music Managers Forum and the Music Publishers Association tonight. The first of six stand-alone sessions discussing current issues relating to artist management, this one will look at business models, skills and development, amongst other topics.
04: New releases. New albums of particular note this week are from Nas, Dirty Projectors and Meaursault, with Com Truise also releasing a rarities compilation. As well as that, two EPs you’d do well to check out are being released by Cuushe and Eagulls.
05: Gigs. Tonight I’m heading to Somerset House for M83‘s Summer Sessions gig there, where support will come, very excitingly, from Susanne Sundfør. Tomorrow night, you can head down to a muddy Hyde Park to see Madonna, or you could catch in door shows this week from Diana Vickers, Pure Love, Karin Park and Eagulls.
Andy Malt
Editor, CMU
