Business News Week In Five

The music business week in five – 29 Jun 2012

By | Published on Friday 29 June 2012

Chris Cooke

So, what a very busy week for music news this has been, making it pretty hard to get the week down to just five key developments. But look, I’ve done it anyway! Though let me remind you here in this top bit that tickets also went of sale for the 2013 edition of The Great Escape this week, more info here. And now, the week in five.

01: Glastonbury parted company with Festival Republic. The uber-festival has been working with Melvin Benn’s festivals company for ten years, it assisting Glasto on licensing, logistical and security matters, and helping the event fully gain the confidence of its local council’s licensing committee. The parting is amicable, with Benn wanting to focus on his company’s other expanding portfolio of music events, and Glastonbury now confident it can bring logistical matters back in-house. Benn will assist with the appointment and briefing of a new Logistical Director. CMU reportFestival Republic statement

02: Guardian Media Group sold its radio company to Global Radio, after weeks of speculation that a sale was in the offing. A bidding war between Global and rivals Bauer for the Smooth and Real Radio networks reportedly pushed the asking price up to £70 million. The deal with be subject to competition regulator approval, as Global is already the UK’s biggest radio firm, and the acquisition of GMG Radio will give it over a 50% share of the radio advertising market. Bauer, UTV Radio and Absolute Radio have all already called on regulators to block the deal. CMU reportFT report

03: OfCom published a new draft of its three-strikes code, which outlines how the warning letters ISPs have to send suspected file-sharers under the 2010 Digital Economy Act will work. There are only a few changes from an earlier draft of the code, relating to how rights owners will monitor file-sharing, what information suspected file-sharers will receive, and how they can appeal if they believe they have been falsely accused. The content industries said “about time too, let’s get this moving”, while opponents to three-strikes said the whole system was still fundamentally flawed. Stakeholders, the European Commission and Parliament will all have further input before anything is approved, so letters are unlikely to be sent until 2014. CMU reportReactions

04: The Word announced it was closing. The popular music magazine’s August edition will be its last. Co-founder and publisher David Hepworth wrote “dramatic changes in the media and the music business have made it more difficult for a small independent magazine to survive and provide its staff with a living”. CMU reportThe Word statement

05: A US judge accused Universal of trying to ‘bamboozle’ the court in the FBT case, the landmark legal battle over what level of royalties artists should receive from their digital sales. Having already won the right to a higher cut of income, the Eminem collaborators are to return to court soon to work out how much more money Universal should pay them. But the major only plans to account for revenues received directly by Eminem’s label Aftermath, and not revenues generated from Eminem record sales for other Universal subsidiaries around the world. FBT want to dispute this approach in court, but Universal said the judge hearing the case had already approved that method when clarifying some points about an earlier ruling late last year. But said judge disagreed, saying the major had tried to “bamboozle” the court and defendants by assuming a very specific point had been addressed by asking a very generic question. Meaning Universal’s financial reporting approach will be discussed when the parties in this case return to court. CMU reportHollywood Reporter report

And that is your lot for now, though look out for the latest CMU podcast going online this weekend.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU



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