BLACK KEYS SETTLE WITH BRANDS OVER AD SONG USE
The Black Keys have told a federal judge in the US that they have settled copyright disagreements with Pizza Hut and The Home Depot.

As previously reported, the Keys cried foul in June, accusing Pizza Hut and its ad agency of using their song 'Gold On The Ceiling' and US DIY chain Home Depot of featuring 'Lonely Boy' in an ad, both without permission. The brands and ad men denied the charges, but a lawyer working for the Ohio duo said the commercials were a "brazen and improper effort to capitalise on the plaintiffs' hard-earned success".

Details of the out of court settlements between the band and the two brands are not known, though it seems an agreement was reached with The Home Depot last month, while Pizza Hut settled on Monday. Having alerted the courts of the two developments, its thought that legal reps for the band will submit formal dismissal requests with the courts in early January.

Neither band nor brands have so far commented.

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ARTIST & MANAGER AWARDS
It was the second ever Artist & Manager Awards in East London last night, the annual awards bash staged by the Music Managers Forum and the Featured Artists Coalition.

Amongst the winners, Ben Howard's manager Owain Davies was named the Best Breakthrough Manager, while Pale Seas won the new Artist Award, which comes with a £10,000 grant from Spotify. Elsewhere, as previously announced, Kylie Minogue's manager Terry Blamey was handed the lifetime achievement Peter Grant Award.

Here's the full list of winners:

Breakthrough Manager: Owain Davies
Breakthrough Artist: Madeon

Manager Of The Year: Sam Eldridge
Artist Of The Year: Plan B

Artist Award: Pale Seas

Pioneer Award: Amanda Palmer
Industry Champion: Zane Lowe
Peter Grant Award: Terry Blamey

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IMAGEM SIGNS CO-WRITER OF ONE DIRECTION CHART TOPPER
Independent publisher Imagem Music has announced a new deal with London-based songwriter Fiona Bevan, who co-wrote the recent chart-topping One Direction track 'Little Things' with Ed Sheeran, but I don't think we should necessarily hold that against her. Bevan has been collaborating with a plethora of other artists and songwriters in the last year and, Imagem reckons, is all set to achieve big things in her own right in 2013.

Confirming the signing, Imagem UK MD Kim Frankiewicz told CMU: "A star is born with Fiona; she's on the pathway to an absolutely amazing career, as both an artist and songwriter. We're thrilled that Fiona is joining Imagem".

Meanwhile Bevan herself told CMU: "The last twelve months have been incredible, writing with a lot of different artists including Ed, Mikill Pane, Fem Fel, Kal Lavelle, Gwyneth Herbert and producer Dan Dare, and developing my skills as a co-writer. Joining Kim and [A&R Manager] Lucy [Francis] and the team at Imagem is going to present endless creative collaborations, as well as really guiding me on my first studio album".

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BMG RE-SIGNS JEFF TWEEDY
BMG's US division has announced it has renewed and extended its worldwide deal with Jeff Tweedy, he of Wilco. Tweedy previously had a publishing deal with Bug Music, the independent publisher acquired by BMG just over a year ago. Under the new deal BMG will represent the entire Wilco catalogue as well as Tweedy's other works.

Confirming the deal, BMG's EVP Of Client Services & Creative David Hirshland told CMU: "Jeff Tweedy and Wilco continue to push the artistic boundaries of rock and roll while maintaining an ever-expanding and fiercely loyal following. We are pleased to have represented them for many years and now look forward to a strong future which includes every piece of every song in the Wilco catalogue".

Tweedy himself added: "I've had a great working relationship with Bug Music for many years now, so their move to BMG made mine a pretty easy one. Having the vast majority of my catalogue in one place now, in the hands of people who have worked diligently on my behalf, is extremely fortunate and I look forward to continuing our creative relationship for many years to come".

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NICK CAVE NAMES NEW BAD SEEDS LP
Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds - individually Grinderman's Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos; plus Thomas Wylder and Conway Savage - are soon to release a new LP, and its title is 'Push The Sky Away'. The band's first album since 2008's 'Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!', it was taped at La Fabrique, a studio built in a nineteenth century French mansion. Ooh la la.

Here's what that looked like when it happened.

Praising The Seeds' "pure, instinctive inventiveness", Cave defines the new record thus: "If I were to use that threadbare metaphor of albums being like children, then 'Push The Sky Away is the ghost-baby in the incubator and Warren's loops are its tiny, trembling heartbeat".

The LP's release on 18 Feb will be preceded by a single, 'We No Who U R', which will be made available digitally on 3 Dec.

And last of all, a 'Push The Sky Away' tracklisting:

We No Who U R
Wide Lovely Eyes
Water's Edge
Jubilee Street
Mermaids
We Real Cool
Finishing Jubilee Street
Higgs Boson Blues
Push The Sky Away

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POSTHUMOUS NATE DOGG ALBUM PLANNED
Seven Arts Music and United Media And Music Group have announced the release of what is being billed as the final album by hip hop star Nate Dogg, who died last year after suffering a stroke, his second after another left him partially paralysed in 2007.

Entitled 'Nate Dogg: It's A Wonderful Life', the album will feature unreleased material by the singer featuring Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J Blige and Jay-Z, amongst others.

Seven Arts Music's David Michery told All Hip Hop: "We ... believe that Nate Dogg's talents shine in this posthumous tribute".

No release date has been given as yet, though the album is expected in the first half of 2013.

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BEYONCE'S BEYONCE FILM TO AIR IN NEW YEAR
Remember back in August, when Beyonce was shopping her self-made autobiographical documentary to various TV and movie execs? Yeah, that one. Well, it's now set to premiere via American cable giant HBO on 16 Feb 2013, after which it'll most likely be screened internationally.

A "multi-faceted portrait"- or, so purports HBO - of the R&B star's personal and professional selves, it apparently "strips away the veneer of stardom ... and charts the challenges Beyonce felt when she decided to manage her career and build her own company, Parkwood Entertainment".

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DANISH AMY WINEHOUSE PLAY CANCELLED, PORTRAIT TO ENTER NATIONAL GALLERY
A play about Amy Winehouse due to premiere in the Danish capital of Copenhagen in January has been cancelled after her estate blocked the use of her music and image in the show.

Danish copyright agency Koda had previously granted permission for the play to open at the city's Royal Danish Theatre on 30 Jan, but has had to withdraw that permission at the estate's request. Koda's Nicolaj Hylten-Cavallius told the Associated Press: "We acted in good faith when we gave them the permission for the performance. We believed that the format, a theatre play, was okay. It is Amy Winehouse's father who has thrown a spanner in the works. We were told by her father and the lawyers around him that we can forget all about the rights for the music, the photos, branding and everything".

He added that the singer's father had given no reason for the decision, though when the play was first announced earlier this year, Winehouse Senior told Yahoo: "It doesn't matter to them whether it's too soon, they're only interested in making money and nothing else bothers them. We can't do anything about it if they do want to go ahead, but I think it will be a load of rubbish. It will be like any of these unauthorised biographies that are made about her - they can't use the songs so it won't be worth seeing".

The Royal Danish Theatre's Artistic Director Emmet Feigenberg responded at the time: "The Royal Danish Theatre is an entirely non-profit institution, and the truth is that we will spend [all the] money [we make] on the production. Ticket prices will be as low as possible and 'Amy' will be performing approximately thirteen times on one of our smallest stages in a small scale and intimate production. It is fair to say, that the performance won't be any cash cow".

Still, without all that work to do in the run up to the show's opening, Feigenberg and the other people behind the show will now have time to come over to London to take a look at a portrait of Amy Winehouse by Dutch painter Marlene Dumas, which went on display in the National Portrait Gallery on Monday.

Painted shortly after her death in 2011 and titled 'Amy-Blue', Mitch Winehouse was a lot more positive about this artistic tribute, telling The Guardian: "It is a fantastic piece of work and we are fascinated to know how Amy was seen and remembered by family, friends and artists of all kinds. With the Amy Winehouse Foundation, Amy is our inspiration and it is profoundly moving to find that she still inspires so many others too".

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ROLLING STONES FINED £200,000 FOR BREAKING CURFEW
Turns out it was lucky The Rolling Stones were charging so much for tickets to their two O2 Arena shows, because they've been fined £200,000 by Greenwich Council for playing 35 minutes past their 10.30pm curfew.

The band's spokesman Bernard Doherty told The Sun: "It means a big fine - but the guys just do their thing. [And] there wasn't a janitor standing there, jangling his keys, saying 'I want to go home'".

The band are due to return to The O2 for another show tomorrow. Of course they've set the bar high now and will have to play at least an hour after curfew to top the weekend's show. Those rule-breaking scamps.

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EELS TOURING IN MARCH
American alt types Eels have just proffered a series of 2013 tour dates they'd like us all to go to. The band's main motive in doing so is to promote their new LP, 'Wonderful, Glorious', which is released on 4 Feb.

The tour starts a month or so thereafter, and its relevant dates are:

15 Mar: Dublin, Olympia
17 Mar: Manchester, Academy
18 Mar: Glasgow, Academy
19 Mar: Leeds, Academy
21 Mar: London, Academy Brixton
23 Mar: Bournemouth, Academy
25 Mar: Brighton, Dome
25 Mar: Norwich, UEA
27 Mar: Nottingham, Rock City
29 Mar: Bristol, Academy
30 Mar: Birmingham, Academy

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MILES KANE, PALMA VIOLETS, PEACE PLAYING NME AWARDS SHOWS
The NME has solicited four very relevant indie acts to play every date on its annual Awards Tour circa February 2013. They're Miles Kane, Django Django, Peace and Palma Violets, by the way.

NME editor Mike Williams gushes thus about the above: "2012 has been an incredible year for music, and 2013 promises to be even better, not least for Django Django, Miles Kane, Palma Violets and Peace, the four amazing bands heading up the NME Awards Tour 2013. This is undoubtedly one of the strongest and most exciting bills we've ever put together, and I can't wait for it all to get started!"

Anyway, to the dates:

7 Feb: Newcastle, Academy
8 Feb: Manchester, Academy 1
9 Feb: Leeds, Academy
11 Feb: Glasgow, Academy
12 Feb: Nottingham, Rock City
13 Feb: Liverpool, Academy
15 Feb: Norwich, UEA
16 Feb: Birmingham, Academy
17 Feb: Cardiff, Great Hall
19 Feb: Bristol, Academy
20 Feb: Bournemouth, Academy
21 Feb: Brighton, Dome
23 Feb: London, Brixton Academy

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INDIANS PLOTS TOUR
4AD-signed Indians, aka Danish musician Søren Løkke Juul, has announced he'll tour in advance of the release of his still-untitled debut LP, which is also sans a release date. In the meantime, the video for Juul's first official single 'Magic Kids' will have to suffice.

Tour dates:

30 Jan: Brighton, Prince Albert
31 Jan: Bristol, Louisana
1 Feb: London, The Lexington
2 Feb: Manchester, Trof Fallowfield

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METZ ADD LIVE DATEZ
Noisy Torontonians METZ have announced a string of live dates in support of their eponymous debut album, which was released earlier this year.

These are those dates:

28 Jan: Manchester, Soup Kitchen
29 Jan: Glasgow, Broadcast
30 Jan: Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
31 Jan: Brighton, Green Door Store
1 Feb: London, Birthdays

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FESTIVAL LINE-UP ADDITIONS

BY:LARM, various venues, Oslow, Norway, 13-16 Feb: Turbonegro, Taken By Trees, John Olav Nilsen & Gjengen, Kråkesølv, Highasakite, Kaveh, Nils Bech, Mariam The Believer, Bombus, CTM, Tim Christensen, Tako Lako, Black Twig, French Films. www.bylarm.no

HOVE FESTIVAL, Tromøya, Arendal, Norway, 2-5 Jul: Crystal Castles, Bullet For My Valentine, Enter Shikari, Asking Alexandria, Chvrches, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. www.hovefestivalen.no

HULTSFRED FESTIVAL, Folkets Park, Hultsfred, Sweden, 13-15 Jun: Arctic Monkeys. www.hultsfredsfestivalen.se

HURRICANE FESTIVAL, Scheeßel, Lower Saxony, Germany, 21-23 Jun: Arctic Monkeys, Sigur Rós, Deichkind, The Gaslight Anthem, The Hives, Of Monsters And Men, Belle & Sebastian, SKA-P, Marteria, Left Boy, City And Colour, Prinz Pi, Boysetsfire, Danko Jones, Callejon, Friska Viljor, Every Time I Die, The Devil Wears Prada, Turbostaat, The Bouncing Souls. www.hurricane.de

SOUTHSIDE FESTIVAL, Take Off Park, Munich, Germany, 21-23 Jun: Arctic Monkeys, Sigur Rós, Deichkind, The Gaslight Anthem, The Hives, Of Monsters And Men, Belle & Sebastian, SKA-P, Marteria, Left Boy, City And Colour, Prinz Pi, Boysetsfire, Danko Jones, Callejon, Friska Viljor, Every Time I Die, The Devil Wears Prada, Turbostaat, The Bouncing Souls. www.southside.de/en

SUNRISE CELEBRATION, secret location, Bath & Frome, 30 May - 2 Jun: Dub Pistols, The Beat, Daddy G, Dreadzone, The Correspondents, Ghetto Funk All Stars, Andy Smith. www.sunrisecelebration.com

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DEADMAU5 TO DO SOMETHING FOR NOKIA LAUNCH
In a sequel to that multimedia gig on a tower block that Deadmau5 did for Nokia in London last year, the producer will today play at a "must-see mystery event" to mark the launch of a new phone (yes, Nokia does still make phones, it doesn't just stage animated DJ gigs).

While thousands amassed on the banks of the Thames to watch last year's Tower-block bash, this one will take place in a mystery location where only 250 people will be granted admission. That's all I know, except that there is this little YouTube trailer to consume.

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DEEZER GOES APPY
Deezer will today unveil an App Studio aimed at furthering partnerships between the streaming music service and app developers.

Part of the Open Deezer initiative, the new exchange aims to both assist developers interested in integrating the music service into their own apps, but also to enable tech firms to create apps for use within the Deezer platform.

The latter moves Deezer more into Spotify territory, which opened up its platform for third-party apps just under a year ago. In the main Spotify has relied on third parties, through apps, to add editorial and discovery tools to the streaming service, while Deezer has its own editorial content. However, that's not stopping Deezer from encouraging others to editorialise as well.

For punters an App Centre will launch providing access to Deezer integrated apps available, including at launch apps from [PIAS], Shuffer.fm, Deezer staff and recent Hack Day events.

Commenting on the apps initiative, Deezer founder Daniel Marhely told CMU: "Deezer's music service is built around discovery so we need it to be continuously fresh and engaging for music fans. That is why we developed our Open Deezer programme as an invitation to the boldest and most innovative developers to take music discovery to the next level. Similarly we're building smart partnerships to better integrate music into apps and the web - with an eye to making it easy to share music with friends when you're on the go, wherever you may be".

The appy developments accompany some other bits of new music discovery functionality that has been added to Deezer this week. The upgrades precede a press conference to be staged by Spotify next week where it too is expected to announce some new developments and revamps.

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TUMBLR NOW AMONGST TEN BIGGEST SITES IN US
The company behind social-network-come-blogging-platform Tumblr announced yesterday that its website was now one of the ten biggest in the US according to Quantcast, and that it has a worldwide audience of 170 million people.

Tumblr has been around for a few years now, but has seen its most rapid growth in the last eighteen months, becoming popular in the artist community too, especially amongst pop and urban artists targeting a young demographic.

Although users can 'create' on Tumblr, it's particular good for people wanting to 'curate' ("look at this video, this photo's good, oh LOL at that quote"), and it's transpiring, perhaps unsurprisingly, that curation-based social networking tools are becoming the most popular, it being much easier to curate than create. If that makes sense.

Tumblr is also very good for visuals, which increasingly dominate in the shared content domain; though on the sharing photos front Tumblr faces competition for up-start Pinterest and increasingly, if slightly differently, Instagram.

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KELLY CLARKSON DISPUTES MIRROR INTERVIEW QUOTES
Kelly Clarkson has disputed quotes attributed to her in The Mirror's Celebs On Sunday magazine. The singer appeared on the cover of the supplement alongside the quote, "No one on the planet should be as famous as me". The article also claimed that the singer had admitted to suffering from anorexia.

But in a statement published on WhoSay.com and posted to her official Twitter feed, Clarkson said: "Um... wow, so a UK Magazine called the Mirror, Sunday Celebs edition, just put out an article on me and just to clear up the absolutely wrong so called quotes from me, I have never had anorexia nor did I ever say 'no one should be as famous as me'".

She continued: "I said in the interview, when asked about fame, that I have no desire to be as famous as Britney or Madonna. I said that kind of fame was too much for any person and that I have experienced a portion of what they deal with and that I didn't handle that well and I'm happy where I'm at in my career. Side note, I love when people take what you say and twist it to make you sound obnoxious and arrogant... nice job, Mirror".

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SHIRLEY MANSON TWITTER-SQUABBLES WITH FANS
Garbage's Shirley Manson had a little run in with some her fans on Twitter this week after she reported on the micro-blogging platform that an audience in Cologne had been somewhat "cold".

Following the gig, Manson tweeted: "Koln you were so strangely subdued! Sold out show but so cold? Funny. I know you love us but why couldn't you show it? We still love you".

But not every fan took kindly to the critique (despite the continued declaration of love), with one responding "maybe they won't bother buying tickets to see you next time around, so you won't have to put up with their coldness", before adding: "Do you really think it's alright to publicly criticise your fans, who've paid to go to your gig, for not worshiping you enough?"

Manson duly responded with "fuck you" and "oh PULEASe BLOW ME", which surprised several of her tweeting fans. Though when one said "my estimation of you has hit the floor" the Shirlster responded "you can blow me too".

As the singer threw out a few more insults at those fans taking issue with her comments, a debate then ensued between said fans as to whether Manson's Twitter feed had been hacked again, as it was last month. Though, given no retractions or deletions have since occurred, presumably it really was Manson this time round.

Assuming so, it seems the Garbage lady just felt fans were misinterpreting her original statement regarding the gig goers of Cologne, asking towards the end of the spat: "Why can't people read what I actually SAID?!?" Though given the generally tetchiness, we can probably also assume it wasn't raining in the German city this week.

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