Hello there! Here is some stuff I do…

Today we published the first in a new series of special editions of Setlist which will be running through the top ten music industry lawsuits of all time. Because we love a good squabble in the pop courts here at CMU. We kick off with the biggest song-theft legal battle of recent years – the good old Blurred Lines case. Tune in here or via your podcast app of choice.

It’s the third Sunday of the Edinburgh Fringe. As always, can’t quite work out how it came round so quickly, but at the same time it feels like we’ve been in Fringe mode for months! Earlier today we published a guest column by former ThreeWeeks Editors’ Award winner Eric in which he looks back to his first Fringe as a performer and the ‘dreaded third Sunday’. It’s a great read.

A few times each month a 123reg invoice pops into my inbox and I’m reminded about all the pointless domain names I’ve registered over the years and never got around to cancelling. It’s fun trying to remember what it was I was planning on doing with each of them. But at least, during August, I do have some Edinburgh Fringe (dot) Reviews to share. So, check them out at edinburghfringe.reviews.

Depending on how you do the maths, I guess this is the half way point of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Though we’re mid-way through the Edinburgh Fringe, which is hardly the time to be trying out some maths. Anyway, what I mean to say is, the Review Edition of ThreeWeeks is now available to pick up at loads of Festival venues. And with a maths show on the cover! Info here.

After going on a short mini-break, Setlist is back. It’s a catch up edition with chatter on Tencent’s interest in Universal, TikTok taking ICE to copyright tribunal and that big Katy Perry song-theft case. You should tune in via whichever podcast listening tool you least dislike. Or here – you could always listen here.

Caro having somehow interviewed 22 people so far this Edinburgh Festival, I thought I better get around to doing my third Q&A. So I set about questioning Tom Machell of ThreeWeeks Editors’ Award winning comedy group zazU about his very interesting new theatre piece ‘Ticker’. You can read what he said here.

I mentioned the CMU sessions at Pivotal earlier in the week. The full CMU House schedule is now live. I’ll be doing a speed briefing on all things data. Sam will be running some workshops on what to do with all that data. And Phil will be discussing our Pathways Into Music mapping work. Here is some more info about it all.

Every year when I am explaining that August is a busy month for UnLimited Media because we have a magazine that covers the Edinburgh Festival, people always respond by saying “oh, interesting, so what are the best shows this year?” Then my mind goes blank and I can’t remember the name of any productions whatsoever! So, for the record, here are the shows most highly recommended by the ThreeWeeks team this year.

More upcoming conference sessions to plug! I’m also heading to Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg next month. Among other things, we’ll be presenting a session on the MMF Song Royalties Guide and I’ll be moderating a panel on rights data. Basically, it’s all about getting songwriters paid this year! Here is some info.

CMU is presenting a whole day of sessions at Pivotal in Birmingham next month in the snappily named CMU House. We are announcing more details about those sessions this week, including this one – I’ll be running through the MMF Fan Data Guide in exactly 30 minutes via a CMU Insights speed briefing. More info here.

So I am in Edinburgh for Meet The Media – what I like to call Meet The Performers. Having a pre-meet coffee in the place where ThreeWeeks was conceived. Well, it was mainly conceived in a flat in Marchmont, but it was while helping run this place at Fringe 1995 that the idea first came about. It’s great to see Bedlam Fringe continue to prosper!

Yesterday Glasgow, talking music rights and digital dollars with the very fine team at EmuBands. Today Edinburgh, mainly to hand out bonus points to those show posters which – like this one – remember that ThreeWeeks is one word with an inter-cap W. Inter-caps were all the rage in 1996. All the cool brands had an InterCap back then.

Today is the first day of the Edinburgh Fringe, so hopefully you’ll all forgive me for the obligatory ThreeWeeks plug. We are covering the world’s biggest cultural event for the 24th consecutive year, with interviews, reviews and Caro’s Three To See tips. If you are in Edinburgh, pick up our Preview Edition in any of the big venues. Meanwhile, all our coverage is also online at ThreeWeeksEdinburgh.com

Two big copyright judgements in one day – both artist v artist cases from the file marked K. When does (subconscious) inspiration become infringement? And what are the copyright implications of tiny little samples? I wrote about the Katy Perry case here. And the Kraftwerk one here.

The Mercury Prize shortlist came out like five minutes AFTER we pressed send on today’s CMU Daily. So Andy made up his own list for the bulletin. Having now received the actual shortlist, I think his might be better. I’m going to call William Hill’s PR office and see what odds they are offering on Bantz to win

The ‘Song Royalties Guide’ that sits on my desk is always good for reminding me about the complexities of digital licensing, songwriter payments and all those royalty chains. Today it’s also proven to be a pretty good fan. Because it’s all sufficiently complex that we ended up with a guide thick enough to generate a decent draft. Hurrah for complexities!

Questions, questions, questions. And answers. Lots of answers! This autumn we’ll be answering all sorts of questions with our CMU Insights seminars and masterclasses. Like, copyright questions. And music marketing questions. And digital dollar questions. And European Copyright Directive questions. And Music Modernization Act questions. In fact, all these questions here.

Big development in the ongoing Viagogo saga today as Google suspends the always controversial ticket resale site’s advertising account. Which seems like a good time to plug the Setlist special we made in February telling the story so far (as of February) of the music industry’s big battle (and occasional love affair) with online ticket touting. You can tune in here.

So I was unnecessarily slagging off the entire genre of musical theatre in the CMU Daily today, but only for comedy effect (OK, it’s an in-joke just two other people will appreciate). Since setting up a Spotify playlist of musical soundtracks about a year ago, I’ve actually rediscovered the joy of listening to songs from the shows. I think the trauma of sitting through ‘Rent’ in 1998 put me off the entire genre for 20 years. But I’m back now! Here’s why musicals were in the music business news.

Through a crazy quirk of maths and time, ThreeWeeks will be reviewing Edinburgh’s festival month for the 24th consecutive year this August. We have a few spots still available on our review team, so if you are planning to be around the Edinburgh Fringe next month and you know your theatre, comedy, cabaret, dance, musicals or spoken word, why not give it a go! Details about what it involves here.

I did another pre-Edinburgh Q&A for ThreeWeeks – this time with the writer/performer behind ‘It’ll Be Alt-Right On The Night’. It’s a fascinating show with a great back story, all of which is explained in the interview. We’ve got lots of Edinburgh Fringe updates incoming, so brace yourselves for that! Meanwhile, check out the Q&A here.

For the last eleven years I have been working with the Taylor Bennett Foundation, a magnificent charity that is making the PR industry more diverse. I’ve provided media business and comms training to so many TBF trainees I have lost count. Though today I discovered that Taylor Bennett HQ has a wall of alumni, so now I could count! I can’t quite believe this group was with us a whole decade ago.

So I tried to sell the CMU Daily to this cat that keeps jumping through my second floor window as I’m writing my articles each morning. All the latest music and music industry news neatly summarised! All those music business and legal technicalities fully explained! Inappropriate swearing in complex copyright reports! Readers routinely berated! Justin Bieber gags! He didn’t seem convinced.

Next week MMF is hosting its Managers Summit and AGM. I’ll be there chatting about the ‘Song Royalties Guide’ we published at The Great Escape this year. It’s the most complex ‘Digital Dollar’ guide yet! We’ll be focusing on the practical steps managers can take – having read the guide – to make sure their clients are getting all the digital dollars they are due. You can download the guide here.

Maybe Taylor Swift could support the heritage artists who have sued her new best buds at Universal Music over the termination right in US copyright law. If the artists win that case it could set a precedent that says the termination right applies to recordings as well as songs. And then, at least, she’d be able to start getting her masters back from (alleged) bully Braun in 2040. Meanwhile here’s my report on the big Big Machine big deal fallout. It’s big.

With Glastonbury under way once again, yesterday the BBC World Service’s Business Daily put the spotlight on the business of festivals. “Why would you even want to set up a music festival?” they asked. Well, that’s a very good question, isn’t it? Somewhere in the middle of the programme you’ll find me chatting about all the risks and challenges associated with the festival business. You can listen on BBC Sounds here.

We’re going to be presenting some sessions as part of the marvellous Pivotal Music Conference in Birmingham this September. That includes a speed briefing on the MMF Fan Data Guide that was published earlier this year and some practical workshops on what to do with all that data. We’ll have lots more info soon. Meanwhile, here’s the basics about CMU House and Pivotal in general from yesterday’s CMU Daily.

Ten years ago today I was in line at BBC News – just behind one of Five Star – ready to offer an opinion about the death of Michael Jackson. “What do you want talk about?” asked the presenter as they ran some VT, my short interview following hours of celebrity tributes. “I could talk about the insurance implications of the 50 night O2 residency that just lost its star”, I said. Was it too soon to be focusing on the commercial side? “Oh, thats great!” said the presenter, clearly pleased to finally have a new angle. Whatever your views on Jackson, his death was the biggest story CMU ever covered. Last September we made a Setlist-style recap.

I spent last night on Kobalt’s roof for the tenth anniversary celebrations of the Featured Artist Coalition. We’ve been working with FAC for two years now on the Artist:Entrepreneur programme which has seen all these artists dissecting their individual businesses on stage so that other artists can see the inner-workings and learn how they too can make money from their music. So, artists enabling artists. Which FAC at large has now been doing for a decade!

This is the cat who has started popping by once a day while I’m at my desk working (three storeys up, I should add). I duly update him on all the latest developments in the music business which is – presumably – the reason for the visits. He should just sign up to the CMU Daily like everyone else. Maybe I should give him a promo postcard.

Let’s all say it together: it’s the iTunes software that is being phased out, NOT the iTunes Store. Amazing how many people think the latter is closing too. The cynic in me wonders if Apple is allowing the confused messaging around it all so that people think the iTunes Music Store is closed, so they’ll stop downloading music, so they can justify shutting down the iTunes Music Store. Given that conspiracy theory, I might now go and download some music for the first time in two years!

I’m on the editorial board of MME 4.5. These are regular events that put the spotlight on issues, trends and debates in the music, media and entertainment sectors, exploring how the different content businesses intersect with each other, and with innovators in the technology and investment communities. The next event is on 10 Jul with lots of fascinating presentations on ‘New Content Formats’. There was more info about it all in today’s CMU Daily.

If you look up and gaze at the horizon – that magnificent mayhem rapidly coming into view? – that’s Edinburgh Festival 2019. Yep, it’s nearly Fringe time. Which means I get to talk to lots of comedy and theatre people again. Starting off with the rather marvellous Double Denim. If you’re into all things Fringe do sign up to get our weekly TW bulletin for all the updates. Meanwhile, here is my first Edinburgh Q&A of the year.

It was great to talk all things ‘Digital Dollar’ with Steve Lamacq on BBC 6 Music earlier. I’m glad to see that in this selfie era they are still making DJ promo photos (for R2 at least). There was a time in my life when I would have left with one of each. Thinking about it, if anyone wants Signal Radio and MFM DJ promo photos circa 1989, I’m sure there’s a box of them in my parents’ garage. Meanwhile, back in the digital world, my streaming chat is here.

For some reason Google Mail has started putting almost all press releases into my ‘priority inbox’. Now, no offence to all the lovely PR people out there, but press releases are rarely a priority! So that’s annoying. Because, as you can see, I need all the help I can get navigating my busy busy inbox.

I am at ICMP (that’s the Institute Of Contemporary Music Performance) in London today for the Reboot conference on music business education. At the end of the day I’ll be talking about our Pathways Into Music project and the artist career pathway that goes from classroom to Wembley in ten steps.

Thanks to the Musicians’ Union and Trac for being great hosts at the Chapter arts centre in Cardiff this afternoon where I was running a CMU:DIY session on all things copyright and streaming. In other news, can’t quite believe how much the bit of Cardiff around the station has changed since I was last in this part of the world!

We’ve now published all of the special editions of Setlist celebrating CMU’s 20th anniversary. The final one tells the often entertaining story of The Pirate Bay, which somehow managed to out-live Grooveshark, MegaUpload, EMI, MySpace (pretty much), iTunes (kind of), DRM on downloads and the print edition of the NME, all of which are covered in other Setlist specials. You can listen to all of them here.

Thanks to Team Warner for organising another great Midem dinner with a view last night. Sorry my brain had a temporary shut down in the middle of it all (well, an intense headache necessitating an impromptu lie down surrounded by priceless artworks). I think it was overloaded with all that music data! Talking of which, here is the speedy speed briefing on music data I presented during the Copyright Summit yesterday.

My mission at Midem this year is to fix the music rights data problem. OK… to talk to the people who are fixing the music rights data problem. I think I’m pretty close to having met them all by now! I’ll report back during the Copyright Summit this afternoon and then in a white paper later this month.

This is me at the International Music Summit in Ibiza last month talking about fan data. Later this week I’ll be at Midem in Cannes talking about music rights data. Still trying to decide what kind of data to discuss at the next conference. (Photo by James Chapman)

Thanks to my brilliant panel – Ipek Özsoy from META, Raffaella De Santis from Harbottle & Lewis and Sheila Shayegan at Bucks – for joining us at the Roundhouse Music Industry Insights Day on Saturday. And also to the audience, who came with some equally brilliant questions.

I am taking part in the Music Industry Insight Day at the Roundhouse tomorrow leading a session on the role of record labels and music publishers, and how record and publishing deals work. They also asked me for my top three tips for those embarking on a music career and I decided to make them artist-centric. Here they are!

While it’s my 44th birthday today (thanks for all the greetings!), earlier this month it was CMU’s 21st. Over the last year we’ve been putting out special editions of Setlist running through the 20 biggest stories CMU reported on during it’s first two decades covering the music business. We recorded the very final one today which will go out in a couple of weeks time – it’s all about the ever resilient and occasionally entertaining Pirate Bay. Check out all the others here.

Grown up music business chatter today. I was in at BBC Radio 4 to talk all things streaming on Money Box with my fellow in-studio guests Alice Enders and Chiedu Oraka Official. You can tune in over on BBC Sounds if you like.

Blatant Plug Alert! Tickets are now on sale for all of this autumn’s CMU Insights seminars and masterclasses. The copyright ones, the marketing ones, the streaming one and the other copyright one. Turns out I have a lot to say about copyright. They kick off in September, all very kindly hosted by our friends at Lewis Silkin. Info here.

Back home from Ibiza after a fascinating IMS. I stayed with Playasol Ibiza Hotels, the first hotel I’ve ever seen that reports its Facebook likes in the foyer. If it hadn’t been for the shocking customer service, terrible IT systems and circa 1999 internet speeds, I might have given them another thumbs up! Though the view from the breakfast room – I have to concede – was magnificent. If there was a Facebook page for the view, I’d like that.

Still in Ibiza, but was on-air on BBC local radio in the Midlands this morning to talk about this interesting if slightly depressing copyright story involving Wolves FC. A pensioner unsuccessfully argued in court that the Wolves logo rips off a design he came up with in the 1960s. Will the club now go after the £300,000 legal costs it was awarded? I guess that’s more a PR question than a legal one.

I have arrived in Ibiza! Just need to animate some slides and then I’m ready for the International Music Summit. I have a rather nice view while I work! I just need to get some working WiFi (40 mins stood at a somewhat useless Playasol Ibiza Hotels reception to no avail!) and we’ll be sorted.

I’m heading to Ibiza this week for my first ever visit to the International Music Summit. I’ll be talking all things fan data and will be running IMS delegates through the key recommendations in the MMF’s Fan Data Guide – which you can still download for free here.

Last TGE 2019 photo, promise! It’s me interviewing the marvellous Cassandra Gracey from Sony’s 4th Floor Creative last Friday. Don’t forget, you can download all the slides I presented at The Great Escape this year from this link. (Also, thanks to Tia Johnson for taking all the other CMU+TGE photos I’ve shared, and to Patrick Gunning for this one).

I spent a lot of time on stage at the CMU+TGE conferences last week, but I wasn’t the only person allowed to ask questions, honest! I mean nearly, but not quite. Thanks to my brilliant co-hosts, including Jen Long who led half the discussions at our Music Marketing Conference on the Friday, like this one about all the ‘content’ artist campaigns now need.

This year we got to do the ‘Article Thirteen’ bit at CMU+TGE with an actual ratified ‘Article Thirteen’ on the screen. Progress! Except, of course, it’s now Article Seventeen. And what will it actually look like when implemented at a national level across the EU? That’s what we discussed on stage. You can get my beginner’s guide to safe harbour reform in the Digital Dollar Conference slides here.

After we launched the MMF Song Royalties Guide at TGE last week I asked Nigel Dewar Gibb from Lewis Silkin to provide some practical tips for how songwriters can reduce the negative impact of all those royalty chain complexities, which he is doing here. Then MMF Chair Paul Craig set out the management community’s priorities for ensuring more writers get paid more of their digital dollars. You can download the actual guide here.

In the post-TGE haze, I’m just going back through the photos and remembering all the great conversations that took place on stage during the three CMU+TGE conferences last week. Obviously being able to chat to Chilly Gonzales about his experiences of traditional music education and why he established the Gonzervatory programme was a stand-out moment for me!

And that’s another TGE completed. This year we launched the all-new TGE Elevate professional development programme for early-career delegates thanks to support from Arts Council England and I got to meet all these guys, ie my keynote speaker bookings of the future. Thanks to everyone who took part in and supported Elevate, it was a really great first year. TGE 2020 kicks off in 366 days time!

It’s the final day of The Great Escape Festival and after our three high-speed CMU+TGE conferences on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, some more laid back Elevate Seminars today. Plus we finale, as always, with Heroes & Villains in Conference Room 2 in Jurys Inn Waterfront at 5pm – it’s going to be a good one!

So that’s two CMU+TGE conferences done. Too many highlights to list! But launching our latest Digital Dollar guide and getting to interview my musical hero Chilly Gonzales would definitely be high up on the list if I did. Tomorrow the focus is music marketing and then, on Saturday, we present the all-new Elevate seminars.

So we are presenting three – yes, THREE – full day CMU+TGE conferences as part of The Great Escape this year. The third is on Friday and will put the spotlight on how music marketing continues to evolve thanks to the rise of social and the big shift to streams. I wrote an intro to it all here.

Not only are we presenting a full day conference at The Great Escape this year based on all our Digital Dollar work for the MMF, we are also launching the latest Digital Dollar guide, explaining why many songwriters are missing out on a chunk of their streaming money. It’s all happening on Thursday and I wrote a little intro about the day’s proceedings.

So somehow it’s very nearly time for The Great Escape. Quite how that came round so quickly is anyone’s guess. It all kicks off at 10am on Wednesday with our CMU+TGE Music Education Conference, a full day for music employers, music educators and everyone who cares about the future of the music talent pipeline. Plus musical genius Chilly Gonzales will be providing the all-important artist perspective shortly after 4pm. I wrote an quick intro to it all here.

This week to Cologne to sort out all things music licensing in one hour. Yep, we’re going to fix everything. I can say that because I’m moderating, which means I just have to ask the questions. But I’m pretty confident my panel will have it all sorted by minute 58. If you’re going to Co-Pop – see you there! Info here.

So is music saved yet? It was great to discuss all things article thirteen (aka seventeen) and the wider Copyright Directive yesterday at the Brighton Music Conference with Lucie from the Featured Artists Coalition, John from PRS For Music and James from Reed Smith LLP. Here are my slides explaining the basics.

This is me at Wide Days earlier this month talking about why artists and songwriters sometimes don’t get paid. I’ll be at the Brighton Music Conference later today talking about why artists and songwriters sometimes don’t get paid. One day artists and songwriters will always get paid and I’ll have nothing to talk about! (Photo by Janice Honey)

I spent today with MMF and the Accelerator managers for the second and final Mechanics Of Music Management day. And now to Cornwall for the third and final Music Industry Insights session with Cultivator. End of term all round!

I have spent the afternoon trying to get on top of my Great Escape admin. Have I mentioned that we have three excellent CMU+TGE Conferences happening there this year? Though that said, in my Easter Weekend office it’s somewhat easy to get distracted by the boats that keep going by!

We will launch the next guide in the MMF Digital Dollar series at The Great Escape next month. This one puts the spotlight on song royalties and why songwriters often miss out on their streaming royalties. Next week we are teaming up with The Ivors Academy to give a sneak preview to the songwriting community. Info here.

I’ve spent the last two days at BIMM London hearing from business, event and journalism students about the final year projects they’ve been pursuing. The aim being to pick a winner of the annual BIMM London Entrepreneurial Award. There were some really great business ventures. Meanwhile, one of my fellow judges – Tina Hart – has already penned a LinkedIn post with some great tips based on all our feedback and deliberations. You can read it here.

There is one more TGE+CMU Conference to plug – this one focused on music marketing. First we’ll speed through the entire music marketing toolkit – does press still matter, who is still listening to radio, what about podcasts, what about influencers, are playlists peaking? Then we’ll talk strategy – how do you deal with campaigns getting longer and how can you ensure all the artist’s business partners work as one? Get yourself some info here.

Another Great Escape plug? Yes, that’s right, another Great Escape plug! We are presenting three TGE+CMU conferences this year. On Thursday 9 May we will put the spotlight on the streaming business and how artists and songwriters get paid… occasionally… on a good day… when the stars align. We’ll also discuss how you might make the stars align more often. Intro.

The Great Escape is now somehow just a month away. We are presenting three TGE+CMU conferences this year, the first one on Wednesday 8 May puts the spotlight back on music education. If you’re in music education, or are a music employer, or have a talent development role, or are interested in how the industry can better support the next generation of artists, executives and entrepreneurs, this is for you! I wrote a little intro here.

If you followed me on Twitter back when Last.fm used to tweet out weekly listening stats (and if you have a very good memory) you might appreciate how exciting it is for me to be chatting to Chilly Gonzales about his brilliant Gonzervatory project as part of our music education conference at The Great Escape Festival next month. Latest updates to our programme here.

This week’s Setlist actually has some music in it – complete with a copyright law get-out as to why we’re allowed to do that without any licence. Plus how to invest in a dying medium via a company in bankruptcy and me falling UP some stairs! Tune in.

This time next week I’ll be Edinburgh for the marvellous Wide Days talking about why artists don’t get paid and the future of music publishing. Sam from CMU will be leading sessions on fanbase building and the blockchain. Get some info here.

So yesterday the IFPI confirmed that the global record industry enjoyed a fourth consecutive year of growth in 2018 with revenues up 9.7% to $19.1 billion. Cue lots of positivity and optimism. Hurrah! But for those of us writing about it all, that’s no fun at all is it! Here is me making the best of it.

We are currently running the MMF Mechanics Of Music Management courses as a series of webinars. Tonight, all the key info you need about music copyright in just two hours. That’s right, all of it! Check out the info here.

For anyone who heard my session at Music Norway’s Eksportdagen on Friday – you can download my slides on the MMF Fan Data guide here. Even if you didn’t, you can download the full guide for free from that link too. Get on top of your artist’s data!

Spent the day at this fine establishment in Oslo where I had the chance to talk about the MMF’s Fan Data Guide. Are artists getting access to the fan data they need? And are they legally able to use it? Thanks to Music Norway for the invite!

It’s been a busy week of chatting music revenues, music rights and music management – with entrepreneurial MA students at the National Film & Television School on Tuesday, musicians with Cornwall’s Cultivator initiative yesterday, and managers on MMF’s Accelerator programme today. Tomorrow, to Norway to talk fan data.

So the European Parliament has passed the Copyright Directive. Which, depending on who you believe, will both “save music” and “kill the internet”. Before it dies, why not tune in to the recent edition of Setlist where we explained the whole music industry v YouTube saga? Here it is.

There’s more Spotify v Apple chatter on this week’s Setlist – but we snuck it in between Parliament’s new live music report and the latest BPI stats, so you’ll hardly notice. You can tune in to it all via your podcast application of choice or here online.

Really enjoyed heading up to the rather swish new campus of the University of Northampton yesterday to talk all things music business with The Ultimate Seminar. If you were there, many of the tips I mentioned are included in this article here.

I’m so exited about this new professional development programme we are launching at TGE that my subconscious pasted the headline announcing it into the CMU Daily subject line twice! But it is actually that exciting. Find out more about TGE Elevate here.

In this week’s edition of what is fast becoming the Spotify Dispute Of The Week podcast, we explain what’s actually going on with the big mechanical royalties hoo haa in the US just now. Plus Kanye’s sneaky trick to try and get out of his EMI publishing contract. Tune in here!

So this has all really kicked off this week hasn’t it? Currently thinking about setting up a wrestling ring on Brighton beach during TGE, then we can let Spotify, Apple and all the music publishers fight it out once and for all. Our report on the latest is here. Plus we’ll talk about it on next week’s Setlist.

This weekend I’m heading to Colchester for the second of two CMU:DIY afternoons with the Essex Music Development Agency. We’ll be talking revenues, rights, gigs, social and business partners with lots of local artists. And I’ll be putting diagrams like this one on a big screen! Info here.

So, the war of words is very much underway in the US over Spotify’s decision to appeal the Copyright Royalty Board’s ruling on song royalty rates for streaming services. As with all things to do with digital licensing, it’s complicated. Someone should write a book about all that digital licensing nonsense! Here’s my report on yesterday’s developments. Oh, and here’s that book, in case you’re interested.

Last year, when CMU was 20 years old, we picked out the 20 biggest stories that we had covered over the last two decades. We’ve now made special editions of Setlist in which we discuss fifteen of them. Still to come: DRM, web-blocking, MegaUpload, Live Nation and the big bad Pirate Bay! You can listen to all the special editions so far here.

On the latest Setlist special edition we talk about why CMU covers artist news as well as music business news, despite being a music business news service. It’s only partly because artist stories are often funnier. Because sometimes they really aren’t! Tune in here.

Thanks to the Confetti Institute Of Creative Technologies in Nottingham for inviting me to speak at their marvellous Industry Week earlier today – talking through all the key music revenue streams and the business partners that artists work with along the way. Basically this lecture here: cmudiy.com/makingmoney

I’m still really interested in the ever growing ‘influencer business’. Sufficiently so that I have almost – albeit reluctantly – agreed to start referring to it as the ‘influencer business’. I am mentioning it now because the next MME 4.5 event on Tuesday is on all the latest trends in influencer businesses and influencer marketing. If like me, you only tune in on this stuff occasionally, it will be a great way to get fully up to speed on all the latest developments.

Always keen to sample the local cuisine, I’m in the Dubai (Airport) branch of Giraffe. My brain can’t quite decide which timezone it’s currently in so I am having pancakes. That seems about right. Tanzania was magnificent, but next stop London.

Last week I was in Northern Ireland for Output Belfast and chatted to Peter Cinnamond about why artists and songwriters sometimes don’t get paid when their music is streamed, performed or played. You can hear the speedy interview at 13.40 here.

Another good day talking copyright, licensing and streaming at the Dar Es Salaam HQ of the British Council. This was the view from my hotel at dawn this morning, with the Indian Ocean off there in the distance. I think that might be the Omani Embassy down in front, though I am basing this on the fact I can see their wifi network on my iPhone.

Greetings from Dar Es Salaam. It was great to meet so many artists, songwriters, producers and entrepreneurs at today’s first session on the global music rights business. I’m now back in editorial mode and focused on the big stories of the day. Having read the Tanzanian Copyright Act for this trip, guess I’ll need to give the Indian Copyright Act a read ahead of writing the top story for tomorrow’s CMU Daily! So, more copyright reporting and teaching tomorrow…

So this week’s destination for some full on copyright chatter is perhaps the most exiting yet. Looking forward to meeting the Tanzanian music community and discussing music rights globally and locally.

If you heard me chatter at today’s Industry Take Over All-Dayer from Urban Development – here are some downloads…

My Meet The Music Industry slides
My A:E Guide slides
MMF Deals Guide I mentioned to someone!

Tomorrow is Urban Development’s Industry Take Over All Dayer at Kings Place. See you there!‬

Back to Northern Ireland for the brilliant Output Belfast – this year I am talking ticket touting, music mapping and what stops artists and songwriters from getting paid.

This Saturday is the Industry Take Over All-Dayer from Urban Development in London. I’ll be doing two sessions in amongst a packed programme of talks, panels, sessions, discussions, one-on-one advice surgeries and more. If you know anyone getting started in music, do let them know – info at industrytakeover.co.uk.

I am in Truro! Yes, Truro! Somehow I got to the Caucasus before I got to Cornwall. But I’m here now. Looking forward to the first of our events with Cultivator and Cornwall Music Network tomorrow putting the spotlight on music revenue streams and all things gigging.

With May kind of getting too close for comfort, we better announce some more details about this year’s CMU+TGE conference at The Great Escape. And hey, look, we just did that. We have 40 great speakers on board already to talk all things music education, digital dollars and music marketing. More info here.

Last week Spotify bought some podcast companies. So we made a podcast about Spotify and are podcasting it via Spotify! Actually, we’d already made it. It’s another of our CMU 20th anniversary editions of Setlist. Tune in.

For a very long document looking to reform lots of tedious technicalities around EU copyright law, the writing of the European Copyright Directive has created plenty of drama. For fans of ‘Copyright Directive: The Music Industry v YouTube’ here comes the sequel… ‘Copyright Directive: The Music Industry v The Music Industry’. Read more.

An on-the-ground update for Setlist listeners: the old Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street is now a Primark. Repeat: a Primark.

Brain about to switch off for the night then two very interesting new lawsuits pop in my inbox. Time to brush up on the good old termination right in US copyright law and all those attempts to employ a sneaky ‘work for hire’ get out. More in tomorrow’s CMU Daily.

‘Chris Cooke’s Copyright Tour Of The Caucasus’ may be over (and I never did get the t-shirt printed) but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped banging on about music rights. Thanks as always to Lewis Silkin for being magnificent hosts of our CMU Insights masterclasses and seminars. We had one of each today: some digital dollars and some copyright basics.

What I learned today: not only does Armenia have its own alphabet, it also has its own form of musical notation. I’m told it allows for a more precise representation of sound. So, look at me, doubly ignorant, can’t read the words or the music! Fortunately copyright protects both in the usual way and that’s what I’m here to talk about. The seminar is tomorrow.

Today I moved from Tbilisi in Georgia to Yerevan in Armenia. It was a super early flight so only managed to take a few rather-blurry middle-of-the-night snaps of Tbilisi on the drive to the airport. Basically, lots of brightly lit magnificent buildings up high on either side of the valley! Lots of CMU and TGE catch up work to be done today, but tomorrow I plan to explore Yerevan a little. Then on Saturday, the finale music copyright seminar of the trip. This one with a panel too!

Chris Cooke’s Copyright Tour Of The Caucasus (yeah, I’m still it calling that) was in the magnificent city of Tbilisi today. And if you don’t believe me, 1TV popped in with a camera to prove it. I leave the Georgian capital tomorrow morning at 3.30am, but have made mental note to return, there seems to be so much more to explore here. I do, however, now know quite a bit about the local music industry, which was my remit this time.

It’s the customary CMU copyright slides – but in Azerbaijani! Thanks to the British Council team in Baku for making me feel so welcome. Great to talk to the local music community here. Now to the airport as Chris Cooke’s Copyright Tour Of The Caucasus (TM) continues. I’m still the only person calling it that, but may as yet print up a t-shirt.

I have arrived in Azerbaijan at the start of what I’m calling Chris Cooke’s Copyright Tour Of The Caucasus! Excited to be teaming up with British Council’s Selector Pro to present music copyright seminars in Baku, Tbilisi and Yerevan. Kicks off tomorrow, with sessions on Wednesday and Friday too.

I promised a link to the latest MMF Digital Dollar guide, all about fan data. Here is a little background to it all and the all-important download link. All the Digital Dollar reports and guides rely on managers, lawyers and other experts sharing their knowledge with me – but this one in particular. It’s basically the combined insights of Tom at ie:music, Lisa at Red Light, Jessie at Wicksteed Works and Peter at Russells. I did the editing and Fiona at MMF made the magnificent diagrams. Thank you one and all!

So that’s another MMF Digital Dollar guide published, this one on all things fan data. Thanks to everyone who came to the launch tonight. I’ll share links to where you can all download a copy tomorrow.

Thanks to the team at shesaid.so UK for inviting me to talk music industry trends this evening – it was great to meet everyone and pose tricky questions like these four about the streaming business. For everyone who came along, we’ll send out the link for the slides tomorrow!

Back into chatty mode this week presenting things to people at BASCA, CISAC and RSL, talking music industry trends for the she.grows programme, then on Thursday a brand new Digital Dollar guide will be unleashed. And then on Saturday, to Belfast for the very latest Artist:Entrepreneur Day with the FAC, featuring all these guys above. Info on all that at here.

This week’s Setlist includes a discussion about the ins and outs of the R Kelly boycott. And then, for some light relief, Rihanna suing her dad. You can tune in at setlistpodcast.com.

Really excited (in fact possibly even “THRILLED”) to be able to support the excellent she.grows mentoring programme by presenting our Key Music Business Trends session at this event next week. Can’t wait! You can find out more about what that session involves here if you are interested.

Quick trip down to sunny Brighton earlier today to check out the new spaces we are using for the TGE Conference this year. It’s going to be brilliant. More info on the CMU+TGE programme coming soon, but here’s the heads up on the key themes we’ll be exploring this time.

Look, more talking about copyright, hurrah! The first round of CMU Insights seminars for 2019 are our Making Money From Music Copyright sessions. If you know anyone who wants to know more about how music copyright works, it would be great if you could let them know. Info here.

Sometimes I talk about things other than copyright you know! Today was my first session with the latest set of trainees on the brilliant Taylor Bennett Foundation programme. So that’s me talking public relations, corporate communications and stakeholders. And that kind of thing requires a whole different set of diagrams!

The first edition of Setlist for 2019 is another of our specials celebrating 20 years of CMU – this one telling the story of YouTube and the music industry’s love hate love hate love hate relationship with it.

Tune in if you feel like it here.

Artist:Entrepreneur Day is the artist-to-artist educational programme we help run for the Featured Artists Coalition. Three artist entrepreneurs talk us through their artist businesses. I chip in with some A:E Guides. Our next edition is in Belfast on 26 Jan with Help Musicians NI. Do let any early-career artists and future industry talent in that part of the world know. Info here.

So this is me moderating one of our CMU:DIY sessions at Wide Days in Edinburgh last year. Wide Days, by the way, have just announced details about their bigger and better 2019 programme. Which will include some more CMU:DIY sessions too. Hurrah! We reported on that announcement here.

The first CMU Insights training session of 2019 will be our ‘Digital Dollar’ masterclass at Lewis Silkin HQ on Monday 4 Feb. It’s basically me summarising the big long ‘Digital Dollar’ book in 3.5 hours. Though you should all buy the book too, obviously! Here is some info.