CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last week, including the newly announced licensing hearing to decide the future of London’s Brixton Academy venue nine months after it was closed down when two people were killed in a crowd crush incident, plus Eminem’s battle with US presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy.
SECTION TIMES
01: Brixton Academy (00:05:33)
02: Eminem (00:11:48)
(Timings may be slightly different due to adverts)
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STORIES DISCUSSED THIS WEEK
• Lambeth Council to consider future of Brixton Academy at two day hearing this month
• Eminem tells Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy to stop using his music
ALSO MENTIONED
• ASCAP takes advantage of growing controversy over imminent BMI sale
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IDOL is a fully independent Artist & Label Services Company founded in 2006 with offices in London, Paris, Berlin, Johannesburg, Nashville, LA & New York. Following our highly selective A&R approach, IDOL offers a high level of marketing resources and personalised attention to its partners.
Constantly expanding, the company now counts 65+ people across its International offices and offers full worldwide digital distribution services to artists such as Afro B, Erick The Architect, Lord Apex & L’impératrice and labels such as Erased Tapes, Bingo Bass (DJ Zinc), Infiné, Local Action, Soundway, Fire Records, SRD (Four Tet, V Recordings), Gondwana and many more.
Additionally, IDOL offers a range of other services including digital marketing and International physical distribution through a network of trusted partners.
In parallel, IDOL also operates as a technology provider for 3rd party record labels and digital distributors, such as PIAS, Republic Of Music, Because Music, Concord Music Group, Ditto Music, Kompakt, Wagram Music and more.
MISSION
This is an opportunity to work with some of the finest labels and artists in the World. This role works closely with our International teams but is based in the London office. Your main role will consist of assisting UK-based labels with the planning and day to day management and implementation of their release campaigns.
You will be tasked with helping with the logistics of our labels release plans as well as launching creative and innovative campaigns to achieve commercial goals.
Using IDOL’s market leading B2B analytics platform Labelcamp you will also be responsible for analysing results and using data to identify areas of success and possible improvement.
Main tasks:
• Liaise closely with our label partners to deliver the highest possible levels of customer service, strategy and market insight
• Manage the labels releases using our best in class portal Labelcamp
• Plan and strategize successful and creative release campaigns
• Analyse campaign results on a regular basis in order to improve results
• Coordinate the releases with the rest of the IDOL Distribution team (DSPs relationships, Audience Development, international coordination, Content)
• Attend gigs frequently and help introduce new music and contacts to the rest of the team
PROFILE
• 5 years minimum experience in the music industry (ideally digital background), related to Label Management.
• Very good knowledge of the UK music market including an extensive list of contacts, deep understanding of the DSP landscape and new music consumption usages.
• Passionate about music and music culture, extensive knowledge of the independent music scene.
• The candidate will be customer service driven, a proven relationship builder, have excellent interpersonal and communication skills and be challenge-driven.
• They will display an ability to work autonomously and be highly organised.
CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT
Indefinite Contract
Starting date: ASAP
Salary: D.O.E
Place: Hybrid. Currently split between home and our office in London.
To apply, please send CV and covering letter to: jobs.uk@idol.io with email topic as indicated: “IDOL job application – UK Label Manager”
For us, IDOL is above all a team of people. Benevolence, respect, engagement and openness are at the core of our ethos. We are committed to promote these values. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds.
]]>A group of organisations representing different American copyright industries have set out their top piracy gripes in a letter to the US Patent And Trademark Office. It confirms that stream-ripping is still the music industry’s greatest concern, while also stressing that “reverse proxy services and the lack of meaningful access to domain name registrant data are ongoing challenges for the creative industries”.
The trade groups add that tackling online piracy requires “strong legal incentives” to ensure that various stakeholders – especially the providers of internet services – are persuaded to collaborate with copyright owners in order to hinder and halt those involved in online copyright infringement. And “governments have a critical role to play in encouraging such cooperation”.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance – which has the Recording Industry Association Of America as a member – was responding to a call for submissions made by the Patent And Trademark Office in order to inform “future strategies in anti-counterfeiting and anti-piracy”. IIPA made its submission last month, with its letter published by Torrentfreak yesterday.
It runs though some specific piracy concerns for book publishers, movie studios, TV producers and gaming companies, before getting to stream-ripping, which has been a particular worry for the music industry in recent years.
This relates to websites that allow people to grab permanent downloads from temporary streams, in particular downloading the audio from videos on YouTube. The operators of stream-ripping services argue that they don’t themselves infringe copyright, because they don’t host any infringing material and have legitimate as well as illegitimate uses.
Nevertheless, courts in some counties have concluded that, by facilitating and/or encouraging the infringement of others, stream-ripping sites can be liable for authorising or contributory infringement. Meanwhile, in the US, more recently the key argument has been that stream-ripping sites circumvent technical protection measures put in place by platforms like YouTube to stop downloads, which breaks rules in the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
“Stream-ripping services infringe the making available right and circumvent the technical protection measures used to prevent download of music streams”, the IIPA letter states. “These services have proliferated in the last few years, making stream-ripping the dominant method of music piracy globally”.
The technical protection measure rules in the DMCA seem to be providing a way for copyright owners to tackle stream-ripping – with those rules being crucial in the legal battle between the US record industry and stream-ripper Yout. However, that approach isn’t necessarily available in other countries around the world.
“While legal protection of technical protection measures, where properly implemented, enables effective enforcement actions against distributors of unlawful circumvention technologies”, the letter goes on, “these efforts are often undermined by countries that have yet to implement adequate protections against circumvention activities and services”.
As well as seeking legal powers to go after piracy sites through the courts, the copyright industries also want more help from legitimate internet companies whose services may be utilised by illegitimate operators.
That includes companies that provide so called reverse proxy services. These, the IIPA letter states, “are a serious concern … because they act as a firewall and protect websites by hiding the IP addresses and hosting providers of these websites”.
“While reverse proxy services serve a legitimate purpose, many pirate sites utilise reverse proxy services to hide true hosting information and to transmit large files faster”, it adds. “Such uses make enforcement against these sites extremely challenging. IIPA requests that the US government include reverse proxy services in its efforts to address this widespread, systemic problem and to stop the misuse of such services”.
Torrentfreak notes that the company that provides services of that kind which is most frequently criticised by copyright owners is Cloudflare. And while it isn’t specifically mentioned in the letter, it would definitely be covered by that particular IIPA request.
An organisation that is specifically named in the letter is ICAAN, which oversees the internet’s domain name system. This criticism relates to the challenges copyright owners face in identifying the companies or individuals operating at any one domain, which can be required when seeking to pursue a copyright action against the site or service using that domain.
The problem, reckons IIPA, is ICANN’s “failure to establish and implement an effective mechanism for [domain] registrars to collect accurate data and for rights holders to access the data for the protection of intellectual property”.
Keen to ensure that the Patent And Trademark Office considers the responsibilities of otherwise legitimate internet companies and organisations when developing its anti-piracy strategies, IIPA adds: “Governments have a critical role to play in encouraging such cooperation, ensuring that their laws are fit for the digital age, and confronting the services that promote, induce or benefit from infringers who exploit labourers and divert consumers from legitimate providers”.
“Attention to these issues”, it concludes, “is an essential element in correcting the present dysfunction in the online ecosystem that permits websites dedicated to infringement to continue to operate and be profitable”.
]]>Cooking Vinyl Publishing has signed a deal covering the songs catalogue of indie-rock duo Her’s, four years after they were killed in a car accident while on tour in the US.
The deal has been agreed between Cooking Vinyl, the band’s record label and management company Heist Or Hit, and the families of the two band members, Audun Laading and Stephen Fitzpatrick. It is the first time that the songs in the catalogue have been published.
“We are honoured to announce our new partnership with Cooking Vinyl Publishing in commemoration of the enduring musical legacy of Her’s, a fantastically unique duo that has left an everlasting mark on music fans across the world”, says Heist Or Hit’s Martin Colclough.
“We’re incredibly proud to have witnessed the hugely positive impact that Stephen and Audun’s songs have made over the past four years”, he goes on, “and this new collaboration will enable us to preserve their musical heritage and continue to inspire future generations”.
Cooking Vinyl Publishing Managing Director Ryan Farley adds: “We’re immensely proud to be entrusted with Stephen and Audun’s amazing songs at Cooking Vinyl. It’s an honour to represent the legacy of a great band who were undeniably one of the UK’s most exciting new acts before they were cruelly taken from us. I look forward to working with Heist Or Hit, and the boys’ families, to protect and promote Her’s’ music in the years ahead”.
Laading and Fitzpatrick, along with their tour manager Trevor Engelbrektson, were killed as a result of a head-on collision in Arizona in 2019, while on tour in the US. They released two albums, 2017’s ‘Songs Of Her’s’ and 2018’s ‘Invitation To Her’s’, which have both remained popular in the years following their deaths, with almost 3.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
]]>Ariana Grande is dropping Scooter Braun as her manager, despite claims to the contrary, according to reports. There was much speculation last month that both Grande and Braun’s highest profile client, Justin Bieber, were seeking new management, although sources at his company SB Projects denied this.
Rumours about Grande and Bieber leaving SB Projects began circulating as it was confirmed that another client, Demi Lovato, had indeed ended a four year alliance with Braun’s management firm. It also followed the departure of Idina Menzel in January this year and J Balvin in May.
As the Grande and Bieber rumours gained momentum, sources close to SB Projects said that the company was simply going through some restructuring as Braun stepped back from artist management in order to focus on his role as CEO of Hybe America.
South Korean entertainment company Hybe acquired Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, which included SB Projects, back in 2021, of course.
“All of Scooter Braun’s clients are under contract and negotiations have been going on for several months”, one of those sources told Rolling Stone. “People are spreading rumours based on what they know, but they are off. Scooter’s team at SB Projects are still handling both Justin and Ariana as they work through what this new structure looks like”.
But now more unnamed sources are denying that this is the case, telling both Variety and Rolling Stone that “Scooter’s team is spinning the story”.
Regarding Grande and Braun, Variety’s source continued: “They are friendly but she’s outgrown him and is excited to go in a different direction. Yes, there are negotiations happening because of contracts. But this is her choice. It’s time for something new”.
If Braun is stepping away from management, then it would make sense that his high profile clients would seek to find new representation. Although a mass exodus would still not be a good look for SB Projects or Hybe America more generally, both of which presumably still want to attract big names to their rosters.
]]>Tickets went on sale yesterday for screenings of a ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ concert film, which will arrive in cinemas across North America next month. And, according to Deadline, ticket pre-sales have already topped $10 million.
“The Eras Tour has been the most meaningful, electric experience of my life so far and I’m overjoyed to tell you that it’ll be coming to the big screen soon”, Swift posted on social media yesterday, alongside a trailer for the film. “Tickets are on sale now. Eras attire, friendship bracelets, singing and dancing encouraged”.
US cinema operator AMC Theatres is Swift’s partner of the concert film screenings. It said yesterday: “In a groundbreaking programming initiative for AMC and the domestic theatrical industry, beginning Friday 13 Oct, music lovers throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico will be able to enjoy ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ concert film at movie theatres, with their huge screens and state-of-the art sound systems”.
“This marks the inaugural step of a new line of business for AMC Entertainment”, it added. “In addition to exhibiting ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ concert film at its own theatres, AMC is also acting as the theatrical distributor, securing locations and screens with numerous other movie theatre operators throughout the US, Canada and Mexico”.
Obviously aware of what happened when tickets first went on sale for the actual ‘The Eras Tour’ – the issues that occurred on Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan system making the entire ticketing business a political talking point again – AMC also cautioned Swift fans to expect some delays when buying their tickets for the screenings.
“In anticipation of this announcement, AMC has upgraded its website and ticketing engines to handle more than five times the largest influx of ticket-buying traffic the company has ever experienced before”, it stressed.
“But AMC is also aware that no ticketing system in history seems to have been able to accommodate the soaring demand from Taylor Swift fans when tickets are first placed on sale. Guests wanting to be the first to buy their tickets online may experience delays, longer-than-usual ticket-purchase waiting-room times and possible outages”.
Of course, with a movie version of the show, the advantage is that it can just be screened and screened until demand runs out. As it is, in the initial weeks after the film premieres, “every US AMC Theatre location will run at least four showtimes per day on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays”.
]]>APPOINTMENTS
The Scottish Music Industry Association has announced that its Creative Director Robert Kilpatrick will take on the additional role of Interim CEO following the departure of Ronnie Gurr from the top job. The association’s Interim Chair, Nick Stewart, says: “Robert understands the SMIA’s importance better than anyone else. Hard-working and driven, he has been instrumental in achieving the organisation’s aims”.
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RELEASES
Nicki Minaj has released new single ‘Last Time That I Saw You’.
Timbaland has released new single ‘Keep Going Up’, featuring Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado.
Kylie Minogue has released new single ‘Tension’. Her new album of the same name is out on 22 Sep.
Chvrches’ Lauren Mayberry has released her debut solo single, ‘Are You Awake?’ “For a long time, I couldn’t imagine doing anything outside of Chvrches but I think some things that I needed to write had to be done from purely my own point of view”, she says. “I never really thought I’d write a piano ballad, or a solo album full stop, so life really is full of surprises”.
Bastille have teamed up with Han Zimmer to record a new version of their song ‘Pompeii’. “Having the opportunity to work with the living legend that is Hans Zimmer, and his brilliant team, has been an absolute dream”, says frontman Dan SMith. “Working with them on this new version of ‘Pompeii’ has been incredible and has put the biggest smiles on our faces throughout the whole wonderfully surreal experience”.
Griff is back with new single ‘Vertigo’. “Experiencing love and growing up, it always feels like the world and my emotions are spinning faster than I can keep up with”, she says. “’Vertigo’ is the beginning of a new creative chapter for me and I’m excited for us all to go on this journey together”.
Soft Play – the duo formerly known as Slaves – have released new single ‘Punk’s Dead’.
No Guidnce have released new single ‘Yeah Yeah’.
VV Brown has released new single ‘No Fear’, featuring Liam Bailey, taken from her upcoming new album ‘Am I British Yet?’
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GIGS & TOURS
The 1975 have announced UK tour dates in February next year, which will include two nights at the O2 Arena in London. Tickets go on general sale on 8 Sep.
Loyle Carner will headline the Royal Albert Hall on 6 Oct, performing his latest album ‘Hugo’ in full. Tickets go on general sale on 7 Sep.
Venbee is set to head out on a UK tour this autumn, including a show at Heaven in London on 1 Nov. Tickets go on general sale on 8 Sep.
]]>A court in New York has dismissed a lyric theft claim made against Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion because, and let’s be clear about this, standalone lyrics about wet pussies are not sufficiently original to enjoy copyright protection. And that, people, is the law.
“The concept of using ‘pussies so wet’ as a rhetorical device in a song is neither original nor unique to plaintiff”, district judge Andrew L Carter Jr declared in a ruling earlier this week, “and in any event, copyright does not protect ideas or themes”.
You might have guessed that the Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion song subject to this particular lyric theft claim was ‘WAP’. Denise Jones, who performs as Necey X, alleged that the 2020 hit ripped off lyrics she wrote the previous year as part in a song called ‘Grab Em By The Pussy’.
Additional claims were also made that other Megan Thee Stallion tracks – including ‘Thot Shit’ and ‘Don’t Stop’ – lifted lyrics from either ‘Grab Em By The Pussy’ or other songs Jones had written. And there was another rapper named as a defendant alongside Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, that being ‘WAP’ co-writer Pardison Fontaine, aka Jordan Thorpe.
Jones claimed that she had previously been involved in a business venture with Thorpe’s father which ended in a legal dispute. This, she theorised, provided a motive for “defendants to retaliate against her by infringing on her copyrighted works”.
However, the motives of the defendants in the case – and whether or not they had had access to ‘Grab Em By The Pussy’ before writing ‘WAP’ – wasn’t really relevant.
Why? Well, because none of the identified songs were substantially similar to Jones’s work, and while some individual lyrics were similar – as you will all surely remember – “the concept of using ‘pussies so wet’ as a rhetorical device in a song is neither original nor unique to plaintiff”.
And while it wasn’t just lines about wet pussies that the various songs named in Jones’s lawsuit had in common, the other similarities were also too generic for any claim of copyright infringement.
“Plaintiff claims”, Carter added, “that her lyrics ‘from east or west coast all the bosses fuck with me’ were infringed upon by defendants’ [’Don’t Stop’] lyrics ‘real niggas love me from the H to the D’”.
“While these lyrics might use a similar rhetorical device to demonstrate their respective rapper’s wide geographical appeal, they are in fact different sentences which communicate similar, yet clearly distinct messages”.
And with all that in mind, Carter dismissed Jones’s lawsuit.
]]>An independent investigation instigated by Japanese talent management company Johnny & Associates into allegations of sexual abuse that have been made against its late founder Johnny Kitagawa has said that the firm’s leadership should accept that the abuse took place, apologise to the victims and offer them financial relief. It also advised that Kitagawa’s niece Julie Fujishima should step down as president of the business.
The damning report into the company’s handling of abuse allegations, which spanned decades, says that Fujishima’s resignation should begin an effort to “dismantle and restart” the business, with a new management team and rigid policies designed to protect artists currently signed to the company – many of whom are young boys. It also states that Fujishima has already accepted that her resignation is necessary.
Kitagawa founded Johnny & Associates in the 1960s and grew it to become one of Japan’s biggest talent agencies, operating a near monopoly when it comes to boybands in the country. He is also credited with developing the system for developing pop groups that is now prevalent in Japan and South Korea, where hopefuls are trained in singing, dancing and acting from a young age before being debuted as public-facing pop acts.
A division called Johnny Jr was launched within the company in the 1970s to carry out this training and development. The report is particularly critical of the “sloppy management” of this division, saying that – while Kitagawa’s abuse of young boys dated back to the 1950s – it significantly increased with the launch of Johnny Jr and continued through to the 2010s, aided by “neglect and concealment” by his older sister and Executive Director of the company Mary Kitagawa, who died in 2021.
Allegations against Kitagawa were common knowledge in the Japanese music industry for decades, but they generally went unreported by the country’s media – in part due to fears at the media companies that reporting on any of the allegations would result in them losing access to the steady stream of popular boybands that Johnny’s delivered.
Many of those who have now made allegations against Kitagawa also say they knew at the time that speaking out about the abuse would end the pop careers they were seeking to pursue.
Despite those pressures, in 1999 Shukan Bunshun magazine published various accusations against Kitagawa. He successfully sued for libel, although the judgement was partially overturned on appeal. There were other allegations made beyond those published by Shukan Bunshun, but the music boss was never charged with any crime.
Kitagawa died in 2019, aged 87. Allegations against him surfaced again earlier this year with the broadcast of a new BBC documentary examining the abuse claims. This prompted further victims to come forward as well as the re-evaluation of past claims in the media.
In April, Johnny & Associates said that it would conduct an internal investigation, which has now resulted in the 71 page report prepared by former prosecutor General Hayashi Makoto, psychiatrist Asukai Nozomu and clinical psychologist Saito Azusa.
Fujishima issued an apology in May to those who had come forward to tell of how they were abused while working with the company. She said in a statement that she “absolutely do[es] not tolerate these acts”.
In a later press conference, she said that she had not been aware of the abuse carried out by her uncle. Despite being appointed as director of the company in 1999 and being interviewed for the Shukan Bunshun article, she said that for many years control of the company was mainly in the hands of Mary Kitagawa, while Johnny Kitagawa’s own office directly handled the management of the company’s artists.
The new report published on behalf of Johnny & Associates follows another prepared by the United Nations earlier this month. Although looking more widely at workplace human rights in Japan, it paid particular attention to the talent agency.
“Our interactions with victims of sexual harassment involving Johnny & Associates talents have exposed deeply alarming allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse involving several hundreds of the company’s talents, with media companies in Japan reportedly implicated in covering up the scandal for decades”, the UN Working Group On Business And Human Rights said in a statement.
In a statement alongside the new report, Johnny & Associates said: “We sincerely apologise again for causing a lot of concern and anxiety to everyone regarding this matter”.
The company also said that it plans to hold a press conference to further discuss the findings and recommendations in the report, although has not yet indicated when this will take place.
]]>ChatGPT maker OpenAI filed legal papers earlier this week seeking to dismiss elements of a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against it by three authors, including comedian and writer Sarah Silverman.
It said that claims in that lawsuit of “vicarious copyright infringement, violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, unfair competition, ‘negligence’ and unjust enrichment” should be cut from the legal action, because “none of the legal theories challenged here actually condemns the conduct alleged with respect to ChatGPT, the language models that power it, or the process used to create them”.
Although not a music case, the music industry’s lawyers are watching closely any litigation focused on the legal obligations of AI companies that use copyright-protected works to train their AI models.
The music and wider copyright industries argue that any such usage requires consent from the copyright owner. But not all AI companies agree, with some reckoning that certain copyright exceptions – or the principle in US copyright law of ‘fair use’ – should apply.
Some tech companies also argue that some copyright owners are misunderstanding or misrepresenting how their technologies work.
In its legal filing, OpenAI claims that the three authors involved in the case “misconceive the scope of copyright, failing to take into account the limitations and exceptions (including fair use) that properly leave room for innovations like the large language models now at the forefront of artificial intelligence”.
That said, this particular document deals more specifically with the elements of the lawsuit that OpenAI thinks should be immediately dismissed, rather than that bigger copyright debate. Though that does also involve some copyright issues, of course.
“Plaintiffs’ claims for vicarious infringement”, it states, “are based on the erroneous legal conclusion that every single ChatGPT output is necessarily an infringing ‘derivative work’ – which is a very specific term in copyright law – because those outputs are, in only a remote and colloquial sense, ‘based on’ an enormous training dataset that allegedly included plaintiffs’ books”.
The US Ninth Circuit Appeals Court, it adds, “has rejected such an expansive conception of the ‘derivative work’ right as ‘frivolous’, holding that a derivative work claim requires a showing that the accused work shares copyright-protected, expressive elements with the original”.
We now await with interest to see how the Californian district court responds to these initial arguments from OpenAI.
]]>Universal Music has bought UAE-based Chabaka, which provides music distribution, marketing and publishing services in the Middle East and North Africa region. As a result, it will become part of the Virgin Music Group, Universal’s artist and label services division.
The major says that the acquisition complements its “current service offering and footprint in the fast-growing and dynamic MENA market” and is “another demonstration of UMG’s strategy to increase its presence and accelerate its growth in high potential music markets around the world”.
Chabaka co-founder Ala’a Makki – who will remain CEO at the company – says: “These are exciting times for the region, which is one of the fastest growing music markets in the world, and we are THRILLED to announce the partnership between Chabaka and UMG”.
“Joining forces with the leading music group in the world coincides with Chabaka’s tenth anniversary”, he goes on, “and marks an important milestone and a new phase for the company, our artists and labels. Together with UMG, we will drive the transformation of the regional music industry and take it to new places, while creating new possibilities for our existing and potential local artists”.
Virgin Music Group co-CEO JT Myers adds: “As we continue to expand our footprint in emerging territories all over the world, Chabaka represents an important creative hub in one of the world’s most promising music markets”.
“Ala’a Makki and his team bring a level of expertise and knowledge that will enable them to create opportunities for our artists and labels in the expanding MENA region”, he continues, “and in turn, we will be able to grow the global audience for Chabaka’s amazing roster of artists and labels”.
]]>UK Music boss Jamie Njoku-Goodwin is standing down after three years at the cross-sector lobbying group. He joined the organisation back in October 2020 having previously been a special advisor within two UK government departments – initially culture and then health – and he is now returning to a government role working directly with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
He arrived at UK Music, of course, just as the industry was dealing with the mounting challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. That meant he had a role to play in securing government support for the music sector during the COVID lockdowns.
Commenting on Njoku-Goodwin’s stint at the organisation, UK Music Chair Tom Watson says: “Jamie joined UK Music when the sector was in the midst of a crisis due to impact of COVID. He swiftly played a key role in securing the vital support the industry needed to help get back on its feet”.
“He is a passionate advocate for our sector”, Watson adds, “and has worked tirelessly on behalf of UK Music and our members in our shared determination to grow our industry, create skilled jobs, boost music education and help make the music business an inclusive and welcoming place to work”.
UK Music is a trade body of trade bodies that seeks to provide a united voice for the music industry – or at least the music rights industry – bringing together organisations representing artists, musicians, songwriters, producers, managers, labels and publishers, as well as the collecting societies PRS and PPL.
There used to also be a group within UK Music bringing together trade groups representing those on the live side of the industry, though during the pandemic that group spun off to create its own standalone organisation LIVE.
This means that – although UK Music does still seek support for the live sector within political circles – its real focus is on the rights side of the business, so it has been particularly vocal of late about the issues raised by artificial intelligence.
That said, it can only work on music rights issues where all the relevant strands of the industry are aligned. Another big music-centric political talking point in recent years, of course, has been the economics of streaming. However, in the main UK Music had to take a back seat role in that domain given a lot of the conversation was around music-makers seeking political support to force labels and publishers to change certain practices.
In his new job, Njoku-Goodwin will become Director Of Strategy for the Prime Minister. Which may or may not mainly involve directing an exit strategy. Though it will definitely involve interacting with people who are in theory on the same side but frequently disagree. So, you know, more of the same.
Watson continues: “Over his three years Jamie has been a stellar success and I can fully understand why the Prime Minister would want him in a very senior Downing Street role. I’m sure he will deploy his considerable skills for the country in the same way he has for the music industry”.
UK Music’s Deputy Chief Executive Tom Kiehl will become interim CEO while a replacement for Njoku-Goodwin is recruited.
]]>Broods vocalist Georgia Nott is set to release her debut solo EP ‘Fish Bird Baby Boy’ later this year. Just released is the third single from it, ‘Oh Lana’.
“‘Oh Lana’ is about my first queer crush”, she explains. “I was probably about eleven and I got into a fight with another kid to defend her honour. I wasn’t sure how to fully express that back then, so this song has, in a way, been my love letter to that little gay version of me”.
Diverting from Broods’ electronic pop sound into something based more in traditional rock instrumentation, Georgia Gets By’s sound drifts into 80s and 90s dream-pop with hints of Billie Eilish. Like ‘Oh Lana’, previous singles ‘Happiness Is An 8 Ball’ and ‘Easier To Run’ delve deep into personal memories.
“I’m always making music to combat, you know, life”, says Nott. “As I was writing these songs, I was opening old wounds”.
‘Fish Bird Bay Boy’ is out on 6 Oct.
]]>DEALS
Exceleration Music has made an investment into India-based Azadi Records which will “help to supercharge the label’s growth and establish it as a leading force in India’s independent music scene”. Exceleration partner Charles Caldas will also take a seat on the Azadi board. “Thanks to our partnership with Exceleration, Azadi Records is poised to enter a new phase of growth while maintaining our independence”, says the label’s CEO Mo Joshi.
Concord Music Publishing has extended its existing relationship with producer and songwriter Tomas Costanza in a deal that “includes the acquisition of his catalogue as well as representation of his future works”. He says of the new deal: “I am THRILLED to be continuing and expanding my relationship with Concord. They have been an incredible partner throughout the years, allowing me to explore all my creative passions from sync to musical theatre. I am so excited for the future and to share all the projects we are working on together”.
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RELEASES
Imagine Dragons have released new single ‘Children Of The Sky’, which is apparently inspired by the ‘Starfield’ video game. “The song, like the game, asks some of the most difficult questions we face as humans trying to find our place in the universe”, says frontman Dan Reynold. “Bethesda [Game Studios] created iconic games we’ve been playing for most of our lives, and we’re honoured to have collaborated on this song for ‘Starfield’”.
The Kills have released new single ‘103’. Their new album ‘God Games’ is out on 27 Oct. They’ve also announced that they will play Pryzm in Kingston on 31 Oct.
Aïsha Devi has released new single ‘Immortelle’, the first from her new album ‘Death Is Home’.
Jlin has released new single ‘Paradigm’, taken from her new mini-album ‘Perspective’, which is out on 29 Sep.
Taking Back Sunday have announced that they will release new album ‘152’ on 27 Oct. Out now is new single ‘S’old’.
Helena Deland has announced that she will release new album ‘Goodnight Summerland’ on 13 Oct. Out now is new single ‘Bright Green Variant Gray’. She’s also announced a UK show at the Lexington in London on 21 Feb.
Maria BC has released two new tracks, ‘Amber’ and ‘Watcher’. Both are taken from new album ‘Spike Field’ – her first for Sacred Bones – which is out on 20 Oct. She’ll also be touring the UK in October.
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AWARDS
Billie Eilish has become the latest artist to receive a BRIT Billion award for passing one billion streams in the UK.
]]>US collecting society ASCAP has been having some fun on social media this week posting not especially subtle digs at its rival BMI in response to reports that the latter rights organisation is close to being acquired by a private equity outfit.
Most of the music industry’s collecting societies around the world – including ASCAP – are not-for-profit organisations owned by their members, so usually some combination of artists, songwriters, record labels and/or music publishers.
However, BMI is actually owned by a group of broadcasters. But, until last year, it nevertheless operated on a not-for-profit basis, which meant most people didn’t notice. Then, last October, BMI announced it was becoming a for-profit enterprise, arguing that going that route would allow it to seek the investment required to expand and enhance the organisation.
That decision was made after BMI had considered selling itself. The society’s board initially decided not to sell, but then last month it was reported that talks were back on with possible buyers. And last week it was revealed that private equity firm New Mountain Capital was now a frontrunner to acquire the organisation.
All of that has prompted an assortment of groups representing songwriters to demand that BMI answer a bunch of questions about what impact the profit margin is having on the fees it charges on the royalties it processes; who will profit from any sale; and what having a new private equity owner will mean for the society and its members.
So far BMI has failed to answer any of those specific questions, instead putting out vague assurances that the decision to become a for-profit entity and any imminent sale is all in the interest of the songwriters whose songs it represents. A response that hasn’t in any way placated the songwriter groups.
In the US, there are a number of collecting societies that all represent the performing rights in songs, each representing a different set of writers and the songs they have written. So ASCAP and BMI compete with the smaller and also privately owned SESAC and GMR.
In most collective licensing scenarios, licensees – like radio stations and concert promoters – seek something nearing a blanket licence, meaning they really need to get licences from all four societies. This means the real competition between ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR is within the songwriter community, where they compete for songwriter members.
As a result, while BMI and ASCAP regularly collaborate on lobbying and data projects, they very much compete when it comes to trying to persuade songwriters to sign up.
ASCAP has been using the controversies currently surrounding BMI’s for-profit status and imminent private equity deal to suggest that it is the American collecting society that is most focused on the interests of songwriters.
So, what’s your favourite BMI dig from ASCAP’s social media posts this week?
• ASCAP. Creators first. Not for profit. Not for sale.
• There is no “I” in ASCAP.
• ASCAP. We put our songwriters first in everything we do. Always.
• Private equity never wrote an iconic love song.
• ASCAP. Not for profit since 1914 and still going strong.
• ASCAP. Growth without greed.
• ASCAP writers. Who owns us? Who gets paid? You and you.
• ASCAP. We pay songwriters not shareholders.
• ASCAP. Where royalties and values unite.
• Humans first. We are not the artificial society of composers, authors and publishers.
Actually, the last one relates to the challenges posed by AI and ASCAP’s role in campaigning on all that for its members. I don’t think they’re suggesting BMI is run by robots. Well, not yet.
]]>The US Copyright Office has opened up a public consultation about all the copyright issues raised by artificial intelligence and especially generative AI. It is now inviting any interested parties to submit their opinions and positions, identifying four main topics for debate and posing a stack of more specific questions.
Its formal announcement in the Federal Register states that, to “help assess whether legislative or regulatory steps in this area are warranted”, the Copyright Office “seeks comment on these issues, including those involved in the use of copyrighted works to train AI models, the appropriate levels of transparency and disclosure with respect to the use of copyrighted works, and the legal status of AI-generated outputs”.
The American music industry is sure to have lots of opinions to share. There has, of course, been lots of debate in recent months within the music community about the challenges and opportunities posed by AI, including the AI models that generate music.
For the music industry at large, the first of the four topics identified by the Copyright Office is probably the priority. That relates to when an AI company uses existing copyright-protected works – for example songs and recordings – to train its generative AI models.
The music industry – and other copyright industries – are adamant that any such training requires consent from the copyright owner and, without that consent, the AI company is liable for copyright infringement. But not all AI companies agree.
“The Office is aware that there is disagreement about whether or when the use of copyrighted works to develop datasets for training AI models is infringing”, the Office’s announcement says.
“This notice seeks information about the collection and curation of AI datasets, how those datasets are used to train AI models, the sources of materials ingested into training, and whether permission by and/or compensation for copyright owners is or should be required when their works are included”.
“To the extent that commenters believe such permission and/or compensation is necessary”, it adds, “the Office seeks their views on what kind of remuneration system(s) might be feasible and effective. The Office also seeks information regarding the retention of records necessary to identify underlying training materials and the availability of this information to copyright owners and others”.
Another big debate within the music community – and especially among music-makers – relates to the AI models that can imitate the voice or likeness of established artists.
That is another of the four topics being considered by the Copyright Office, even though – as it notes – “these personal attributes are not generally protected by copyright law”, and instead “their copying may implicate varying state rights of publicity and unfair competition law”.
The other two topics identified by the Copyright Office relate to the copyright status of AI-generated works and who might be liable if an AI model generates content that arguably infringes copyright in one way or another.
The Copyright Office has already given quite a lot of consideration as to whether works generated by AI should enjoy copyright protection, because in the US you need to register works to get full protection under copyright law, and the Office has had to decide whether to allow AI-generated works to be registered.
Its position to date has generally been that works entirely generated by AI do not enjoy copyright protection and that position was backed by a US court earlier this month.
However, AI-assisted works – where a human creator employs AI tools as part of the creative process – probably do enjoy copyright protection. That, of course, raises further questions about how much human involvement there needs to be for a work to be AI-assisted rather than AI-generated.
“Although we believe the law is clear that copyright protection in the United States is limited to works of human authorship”, the Office’s announcement explains, “questions remain about where and how to draw the line between human creation and AI-generated content”.
“For example, are there circumstances where a human’s use of a generative AI system could involve sufficient control over the technology, such as through the selection of training materials and multiple iterations of instructions, to result in output that is human-authored?”
The final topic has not been so widely discussed in the music industry, though as the music community starts to increasingly employ AI tools as part of the music-making process, or to create visual, video or text content as part of marketing activities, it’s an important question.
If an AI tool generates a piece of content that arguably infringes copyright – either because the dataset used to train the AI model was not properly licensed or because an output is substantially similar to an existing work in the dataset and such similarity is not allowed by any licence – who is liable for the alleged copyright infringement?
Which is to say, could the person who used the AI tool also be liable? The Office notes: “If an output is found to be substantially similar to a copyrighted work that was part of the training dataset, and the use does not qualify as fair, how should liability be apportioned between the user whose instructions prompted the output and developers of the system and dataset?”
Interested parties have until 18 Oct to make written submissions.
The US Copyright Office study – part of an AI initiative it launched earlier this year – follows recent hearings in US Congress that also put the spotlight on the copyright questions posed by artificial intelligence and especially generative AI.
Those questions are also big talking points in the UK, of course, although with one difference, in that under UK law AI-generated works do arguably enjoy copyright protection.
As for the other issues, the Intellectual Property Office recently convened a working group of organisations representing copyright owners and the tech sector to develop of code of practice around AI and copyright.
That follows a previous IPO review that proposed introducing a new copyright exception into UK law that would have reduced the obligations of AI companies making use of copyright-protected works, a proposal that was strongly opposed by the music and wider copyright industries, and subsequently dropped.
The culture select committee in the UK Parliament has also just published a report that includes some discussion on copyright and AI. It welcomes the government’s back-tracking on its previous proposal of introducing a new copyright exception. However, it also criticises the fact the exception was ever proposed.
The fact it was, the MPs write, “shows a clear lack of understanding of the needs of the UK’s creative industries. All branches of government need to better understand the impact of AI, and technology more broadly, on the creative industries and be able to defend their interests consistently”.
And, more generally, “the government should support the continuance of a strong copyright regime in the UK and be clear that licences are required to use copyrighted content in AI. In line with our previous work, this Committee also believes that the government should act to ensure that creators are well rewarded in the copyright regime”.
]]>Prosecutors in Berlin have dropped an investigation into alleged sexual assaults by Rammstein frontman Till Lindemann, citing a lack of evidence.
Responding to the news in a statement, lawyers for Lindemann said: “The rapid termination of investigative proceedings by the Berlin state prosecutor’s office shows that there is insufficient evidence that our client allegedly committed sexual offences”.
Allegations against Lindemann began to surface in May when a woman named Shelby Lynn claimed online that she had been drugged after being invited to join pre- and after-show parties at a concert in Vilnius, Lithuania.
After she went public, other women came forward with their own allegations. Both Lindemann and the band strongly denied these accusations. However, police in Berlin launched an investigation.
Now prosecutors say that Lynn’s claims were too vague to pursue and that nothing she had witnessed could be deemed a criminal offence. An investigation into Alena Makeeva, a woman alleged to have been involved in selecting women to meet Lindemann backstage, has also been dropped.
]]>Bauer Media has announced yet another extension of its Greatest Hits Radio network, which will arrive on FM in the East Midlands from October.
It will take over the frequency currently used by Gem Radio, the local station Bauer acquired back in 2016 as part of its purchase of independent radio company Orion Media. Gem – which is part of Bauer’s Hits Radio network – will continue to operate but only on DAB and online.
Bauer, of course, has prioritised the expansion of Greatest Hits Radio for some time now, putting it onto various FM frequencies around the country that were previously used by other Bauer-owned stations.
Confirming the latest switchover, Bauer Media’s Gary Stein says: “Following Ken Bruce’s arrival at Greatest Hits Radio earlier this year there’s been a huge desire from FM audiences to be able to listen to his show along with the rest of our fantastic programming – evidenced by the station’s latest RAJAR [official listening] figures”.
“This change means that listeners in the East Midlands can enjoy greater access to the station”, he adds, “whilst Gem Radio’s audience can continue to enjoy the station, including the ‘Breakfast Show With Jo & Sparky’, on DAB digital radio and online”.
]]>CMU’s Chris Cooke will be at the SHIP showcase festival and music conference in Šibenik, Croatia next month, delivering a speed briefing and moderating one of the panels.
The speed briefing at 11.15am on 15 Sep will present a user-friendly guide to how the digital music business works and then talk through the key issues and debates within the streaming economy today. That includes the lively conversations around how streaming monies are shared out across the music community each month and the reforms to the current business model that are currently being proposed and discussed.
At 12.15pm, Chris will then moderate the panel ‘Choose Your Digital Distributor Wisely’. He will discuss what artists and labels need to consider when picking a distribution partner with Alek Bošković from Believe Music, Bojan Musulin from IDJDigital, Fabian Stilke from Universal Music and Lia Mansola from The Orchard.
]]>Duran Duran have announced that they will release a new Halloween-themed album in October called ‘Danse Macabre’. The thirteen track (obviously) record features new songs, spine-chilling covers and reworked versions of the spookiest songs from the band’s back catalogue.
“The idea was born out of a show we played in Las Vegas on 31 Oct 2022”, says keyboardist Nick Rhodes. “We had decided to seize the moment to create a unique, special event – the temptation of using glorious gothic visuals set to a dark soundtrack of horror and humour was simply irresistible”.
Elaborating further, frontman Simon Le Bon barks: “It’s about a crazy Halloween party. It’s supposed to be fun!”
Meanwhile, bassist John Taylor reckons the album “offers an interesting insight into the personality of the band”, while drummer Roger Taylor adds that it takes a journey “through the darker side of our inspirations into where we’re at in 2023” in a way that may leave you “with a deeper understanding of how Duran Duran got to this moment in time”.
Covers on the album include Billie Eilish’s ‘Bury A Friend’, Siouxsie And The Banshee’s ‘Spellbound’, ‘Paint It Black’ by The Rolling Stones, ‘Ghost Town’ by The Specials, and Talking Heads’ ‘Psycho Killer’, featuring Victoria De Angelis of Måneskin.
Other guests on the album include Nile Rodgers and the band’s former guitarists Andy Taylor and Warren Cuccurullo. It also reunites them with producer Mr Hudson, who they previously worked with on their 2015 record ‘Paper Gods’.
The album is out on 27 Oct. Out now is the first single and title track ‘Danse Macabre’, which Rhodes says “celebrates the joy and madness of Halloween”. Listen to that here.
]]>The brilliant Luci has announced that she will release her debut album ‘They Say They Love You’ early next year. Alongside the announcement comes new single ‘Martyr’.
She wants the LP, she says, to “touch all the senses”, commenting: “My inspiration comes from the fact that great art exists in the world. And if I can touch people, move people, and it makes people want to do things for the better. I want to be the example of doing what you love and being relentless about it”.
Speaking about the new single, she adds: “I wanted to give the people lyrics, it’s a song for the ego, something for my people to chant. I’m on my lil rap jug. Power, pressure, hard and loud but melodic”.
‘They Say They Love You’ is set for release on 2 Feb 2024.
]]>DEALS
Warner Chappell has signed a publishing deal with rapidly rising rapper Kaliii. “There’s a new generation of talented lyricists making waves in the industry right now and Kaliii is a clear standout above the rest”, says the company’s North American President Ryan Press. “She’s an incredibly talented songwriter who knows what she wants in her career and the whole Warner Chappell team is grateful to be joining her on this journey”.
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LABELS & PUBLISHERS
JKBX, the new music rights investment platform headed up by The Orchard founder Scott Cohen, will officially launch on 12 Sep providing – and I quote – “retail investors and music fans with the opportunity to reserve royalty shares of globally-recognised songs offered by its affiliate, Jukebox Hits Vol 1 LLC”. So, basically, people will be able to confirm an interest in buying royalty shares in relation to the song rights in works recorded by the likes of Beyonce, Adele, Taylor Swift, OneRepublic, Ed Sheeran, Kelly Clarkson, Major Lazer and Jonas Brothers.
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RELEASES
Jason Derulo has released new single ‘Body Count’. “This record is about having a more playful and casual attitude toward romantic and physical relationships and focusing on creating memorable experiences together”, he says. “Like the song says, ‘I don’t really care about your body count cause I just want to make that body count’”.
Corinne Bailey Rae has released new track ‘Erasure’. Wanna hear it? Well, it’s only currently available as the b-side to a limited edition seven-inch of recent single ‘New York Transit Queen’. “Some of the themes of ‘Erasure’ are concerned with the erasure of black childhood so I wanted it to be unhinged and witchy, allowing broken down collapsed mental health in”, she says. “How else do you sing, ‘They put out lit cigarettes/Down your sweet throat/They fed you to the alligators’?”
The Callous Daoboys have announced that they will release new EP ‘God Smiles Upon The Callous Daoboys’ on 20 Oct. Out now is new single ‘Waco Jesus’. “In a way, it feels like the band just started, even though we’ve been chipping away at it for the last six years”, says vocalist Carson Pace. “We want to be the defining band of this weirdo genre-swapping heavy music, where you can’t put it under an umbrella. I think what’s cool about it is it’s just immediately like, ‘Hey, fuck you, this is The Callous Daoboys!’”
Knife Bride have released new single ‘Permanent Smile’, which vocalist Mollie Buckley describes as “a romanticised revenge narrative”. She goes on: “I’ve always been fascinated with films like ‘I Spit On Your Grave’, ‘Hard Candy’ and ‘Promising Young Woman’, and that’s definitely where the concept for the song came from. Retribution is always sweet… or so says cinema”. The track is taken from new EP ‘Don’t Dream Too Much’. They will play a free EP launch show at Blondies in London on 1 Sep.
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GIGS & TOURS
Sarabeth Tucek has announced UK tour dates in support of new album ‘Joan Of All’. Taking place next week, the run will wind up at The Lexington in London on 10 Sep.
]]>They’re everywhere, just getting in the way, cluttering up the place. That’s right we’re talking about aerial photographs of discarded tents on the Reading Festival site. It’s now an annual tradition for such photos to go viral, a tradition that is both comforting and depressing.
Images shared on TikTok by drone photography company Big Ladder shows hundreds of discarded tents and other waste across the campsites from last weekend’s festival, despite efforts to convince ticket holders to leave the fields clear when they depart.
Although, while the event is clearly not having the level success some other festivals have achieved in terms of persuading attendees to take their waste away with them, after years of looking at these images, it is clear that there is some improvement.
Organisers have encouraged festival-goers to take their tents away with them in recent years, which last year resulted in a 21% decrease in the number left behind. And from this year’s images it looks like there has been a further reduction. Although, that doesn’t mean there aren’t still a fuck load of tents left on the festival’s site.
While it would be preferable for everyone to take their tents away with them, a spokesperson for Reading Festival says that what is left behind does not simply go to landfill.
“We coordinate a salvage operation after the festival”, they explain, from which organisations can “collect some of the perfectly reusable camping equipment that is left behind”, thus reducing the total amount of waste that has to be dealt with.
So that’s good, I guess. And at least things seem to be slowly moving in the right direction each year. Although we shouldn’t forget that Reading Festival has a twin up in Leeds, where this is also an issue. In fact, one volunteer who arrived at the Leeds site to help with the clear up operation there this year tweeted that they found “littering on the grandest scale we’ve ever witnessed”.
]]>The future of the Brixton Academy will be considered at a two day licensing hearing later this month. Councillors will consider whether Live Nation’s Academy Music Group should be allowed to continue running the South London venue following last year’s crowd crush incident in which two people died.
The Night Time Industries Association says that the upcoming meeting of Lambeth Council’s licensing sub-committee will be a “critical moment” for the venue, adding that the Brixton Academy and AMG will “require as much support as possible throughout this hearing”.
Concert-goer Rebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson, who was part of the security team at the venue, both died during the crowd crush, which occurred at a sold-out Asake gig at the Brixton Academy last December. A third person remains in a serious condition in hospital.
The venue has been closed ever since the incident, with London’s Metropolitan Police recommending that Lambeth Council revoke AMG’s licence to operate the building. Officers criticised the live music company’s response to the crowd crush and its proposals for safely re-opening the venue, adding that they had “lost confidence in the premises licence holder”.
AMG countered that it had “co-operated fully with the Metropolitan Police and Lambeth Council since the tragedy at Brixton occurred”, and that it had “presented detailed proposals that we believe will enable the venue to re-open safely”.
Confirming the two-day hearing later this month, a post on Lambeth Council’s website on Friday stated: “The shocking incident at the venue claimed the lives of two people and left a third in a critical condition. A full licensing hearing must take place before any proposals to re-open the venue can be considered”.
“A two day licensing hearing to consider the future of the venue’s licence will be held at Lambeth Town Hall in Brixton on 11 Sep and 12 Sep”, it then explained. “The meeting, of Lambeth’s licensing sub-committee, will be attended by key parties, including the venue’s representatives and the Metropolitan Police, and will be streamed online”.
“There are currently two outstanding [licensing] applications in relation to the venue”, it added, “a licence variation submitted by the venue’s operator and a licence review submitted by the Metropolitan Police, both of which will be considered by the licensing sub-committee meeting”.
Commenting on last year’s crowd crush incident and the upcoming review, Lambeth Councillor Mahamed Hashi said: “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Rebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson who lost their lives, as well as with the person who is still in hospital, and all those suffering the trauma of witnessing such distressing scenes at one of our borough’s live music venues”.
“We are determined to use the powers we have available to us to make sure the lessons of this tragedy are learnt”, he added, “and that we never see a traumatic incident like this again in Lambeth”.
The NTIA has been working with the Save Our Scene initiative on a campaign in support of the Brixton Academy, urging Lambeth Council to ensure that the venue re-opens.
It said last week: “We have finally received the news that the licensing review hearing will take place on the 11/12 Sep 2023 in Lambeth Town Hall. This is a critical moment for the venue as it will determine its future, and will require as much support as possible throughout this hearing”.
NTIA urged as many of the venue’s supporters as possible to request to speak during the hearing. The trade group stated: “We are asking as many people as possible to respond and request the opportunity to speak at the hearing. The more voices and people attending the stronger the representation”.
]]>The US Copyright Office has declined to review the compulsory licence that covers the mechanical copying of songs within the US in response to a request by American songwriter George Johnson. However, next year’s review of the MLC – which administrates the compulsory licence in the streaming domain – will provide another opportunity to seek a review and possible reform.
The compulsory licence – sometimes referred to as the Section 115 licence – means that anyone can make a mechanical copy of a song in the US without getting bespoke permission from its writer or publisher, providing they go through the administrative process set out in the compulsory licence and pay royalties at rates set by the US Copyright Royalty Board.
As well as covering the pressing of physical recordings of songs, the licence also applies to the copying element of a stream. This means that, whereas in most other countries streaming services negotiate deals with either publishers or collecting societies to license the copying element of each stream, in the US they can rely on the compulsory licence and the rates set by the CRB.
There have been various controversies in relation to the compulsory licence in recent years, including disputes over the rates that should be charged for both physical discs and streams, and also in relation to the administration of the licence in the context of streaming.
The 2018 Music Modernization Act – which resulted in the creation of the aforementioned MLC – sought to address the administration issues. Meanwhile, thanks to persistent campaigning – not least by Johnson – the CRB has increased the royalties due under the licence on both discs and streams.
However, despite the royalty rate increases, there remains some debate in the songwriter community as to why the compulsory licence even exists, especially in the streaming domain, given streaming services are more than capable of negotiating direct licensing deals on the open market.
In a letter to the Copyright Office back in June, Johnson noted that the compulsory licence was originally introduced all the way back in 1909 for the sale of piano rolls, the concept of mechanical rights having begun with the sale of player pianos.
Back then, he wrote, it could not have been anticipated that that compulsory licence would ultimately be “used billions of times, by the largest trillion-dollar corporations in the history of the world, with teams of attorneys”.
While the Copyright Office has reviewed the role of the compulsory licence before, Johnson also noted the major changes that have occurred in the way music is consumed over the last decade.
“Unfortunately”, he stated, “those [previous] studies are now outdated and considering the vast changes in the delivery of musical works and sound recordings, experts now think a new study would be very helpful”.
Responding to that letter last week, the Copyright Office wrote: “As you know, the section 115 licence was previously explored by the Office and it was recently amended by Congress as part of the Music Modernization Act”.
“As the changes made to the licence through the MMA have been effective only for the past two and a half years, the Office believes that it would be premature at this time to engage in a new study of the section 115 licence”.
The letter then noted a previous report it published in 2015 which acknowledged that “many parties have called for either the complete elimination or modernisation of section 115”.
At the time, it added, the Copyright Office opted for reform instead of repeal because “it was … concerned that eliminating the licence would cause extraordinary difficulties associated with negotiating individual licences for the millions of musical works offered on digital music providers’ services”.
The letter concluded: “Although we do not intend to undertake a new study of the section 115 licence at this time, we want to remind you that the Office welcomes input from stakeholders and members of the public to better inform our decision-making. I would like to thank you again for your letter and any additional views that you may wish to provide to the Office in the future”.
The Copyright Office is obliged to review the entity that administrates the compulsory licence in the streaming domain – ie the MLC – every five years, with the first review due to take place next year. It seems likely that, once that review is underway, songwriters will again urge the Copyright Office to consider not just how the compulsory licence is being managed, but the compulsory licence itself.
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