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CMU Digest
CMU Digest 17.11.17: CISAC, 696, Prince, UK Music, Guvera
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 17 November 2017
The key stories from the last seven days in the music business…
CISAC published its annual report bringing together figures from all the collecting societies that represent song rights around the world. Overall collections were up 6.8% to 8 billion euros, a jump aided by a 52% increase in digital income. Meanwhile in Europe, monies generated by the live and public performance of songs out-performed TV and radio royalties for the first time. [READ MORE]
London police dropped the controversial form 696. The piece of licensing paperwork only applied to events where people performed to backing tracks, and people argued that meant it was unfairly targeted at certain urban genres of music. Under pressure from the UK government, London mayor Sadiq Khan ordered a review. And the Metropolitan Police, while defending past use of the form, said that, as a result of the review, it had decided 696 was no longer required. [READ MORE]
The Prince estate accused Tidal of possibly fabricating a contract in an ongoing dispute over what rights Prince granted the Jay-Z led streaming service while he was still alive. The estate reckons Tidal only got access to Prince’s final two albums, while the streaming firm reckons the deal included catalogue. The new allegations came as the estate pushed the court to grant them access to emails between Tidal and one of the musician’s business advisors sent while the initial deal was being done. [READ MORE]
UK Music urged Chancellor Philip Hammond to rethink a planned increase in business rates, arguing that recent changes in how rates are calculated are already hitting hard small businesses like music venues and recording studios. UK Music boss Michael Dugher said: “The Chancellor must rethink these changes which are woefully unjust and could have a potentially catastrophic impact on some music venues and recording studios”. [READ MORE]
An Australian law firm announced it was planning a class action in relation to defunct streaming service Guvera. Questions have been asked about how private equity company AMMA raised finance for the streaming set-up, with AMMA and Guvera having a founder in common. It’s alleged that unsophisticated investors who handed over cash weren’t provided with sufficient information. AMMA denies the allegation. But Bannister Law is now seeking unsophisticated investors who did invest for a class action lawsuit against AMMA and various accountants they worked with. [READ MORE]
The big deals from the last seven days in the music business…
• Warner Music signed a deal with streaming service Anghami [INFO]
• YouTube announced a partnership with Ticketmaster [INFO]
• Warner Music also signed a deal with streaming service Mdundo [INFO]
• Ryanair announced a deal with ticketing aggregator Coras [INFO]
