So, here we go, the final Week In Five of 2011, because this time next week we’ll have eaten far too many mince pies to be writing a CMU Daily. Talking of food, somehow today I’ve got to fit a Music Publishers Association Christmas lunch in around four publication deadlines, which should make for an interesting few hours. Do you think Team MPA will mind if I’m editing a podcast while eating all their food? Hmm, oh well, better get on with this then…

01: MegaUpload sued Universal. The file-sharing platform said the major had misused US copyright law to force a promotional video Team Mega had made off YouTube, because it was pissed off various artists signed to its labels could be seen bigging up the file transfer service at the same time the big music majors were accusing the Mega company of fuelling piracy. Universal said it was acting for artists featured in the video without their permission, but MegaUpload said it had signed agreements from all participating talent. The major then said it couldn’t be sued over the takedown notice it had issued over the video, because it had issued the notice according to a contractual agreement with YouTube, and not using the statutory system set out in the DMCA. CMU reports | Wired report

02: Madonna signed to Universal. The label will release the first album coming out via the singer’s partnership with Live Nation. The live music conglom has a multi-layered partnership with Madonna from a multi-million dollar 2007 deal, but Live Nation’s initial plans to have a division to handle things like record releases have long been dropped, so it’s been assumed for a while that the company would look to work in partnership with an existing record company on such things. It’s another big name signing for Universal, Madonna having previously worked with Warner on record releases. CMU report | BBC report

03: iTunes Match went live in the UK. The scan-and-match bit of Apple’s digital locker service, which distinguishes it from its Google and Amazon-owned rivals, had only been previously available in the US. There was some confusion as to whether the arrival of the functionality in the UK and elsewhere yesterday was a mistake, but seemingly not. It means that for 22 quid a year, users can access their MP3 collections via Apple’s servers from any net-connected device without actually having to upload any content. Elsewhere in digital news, iTunes launched in Latin America, Spotify revamped its personalised radio service, and Omnifone launched something new called Rara.com. CMU report | ZDnet report

04: The government announced a review of copyright laws. The wide-ranging review will look into the practicalities of putting recommendations made by the Hargreaves Review of intellectual property law into action. Much of it will focus on expanding fair use principles under UK copyright law. It will also consider introducing a private copy right in the UK. The record labels are OK with that, but want some sort of levy attached to digital music devices as in some other European countries where a private copy right already exists. Hargreaves proposed a private copy right with no such levy. CMU report | FT report

05: Warner complained about Sony dominance on the ‘X-Factor’ final shows. Four of the guest artists on the final two ‘X’ programmes were Sony-signed. Sony Music, of course, is co-producer of ‘X’ via its Syco division. Warner complained to OfCom, saying that ITV had failed to ensure Sony didn’t abuse its position as producer of the UK’s biggest music show. But Sony says that overall this series Universal has had more artists feature on ‘X’, that both EMI and Warner had three artists each, and of four Sony acts on the final shows, three were former ‘X’ contestants, making their appearances editorially justified. CMU report | Guardian report

And that is your lot. But do look out for the final CMU Weekly podcast of the year going online this weekend.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

Hello there. So, have you all voted in AIM’s new Independent Music Awards? And this applies to all of you, because three of the gongs at the inaugural awards bash from the indie label trade body are open to public vote – Indie Champion, Best Live Act and Best Independent Festival. I’m not sure why we’ve not mentioned it before, but look, we’re mentioning it now, and you’ve still got a week to vote. The shortlists have been drawn up already, so you just need to go and put a tick next the media bod, band and festival you rate the most. Hurrah. More info here. But before you click that, read this – your lovingly crafted Week In Five.

01: Facebook announced some shit at their big F8 event in San Francisco. What the social networking giant has done in the background to change the way users can learn about what their friends are doing, reading, consuming and listening to, and the potential for users to share in those experiences at the click of a button and chat about them through the social network, is possibly very interesting. Though what it actually means for existing users of content services plugged in to the new look Facebook, including Spotify, is possibly less exciting in the short term. Though it will likely turn those existing users into better, and basically unknowing, brand advocates. CMU report | Guardian report

02: Spotify defended its record for paying artists. The streaming music service was in jubilant mood, having been made a top booking at Facebook’s aforementioned F8 conference, and with the two million paying subscriber landmark having been passed. But there was more chatter online as to whether artists were getting a fair deal, partly after self-releasing indie-folk outfit Uniform Motion posted a blog comparing what they earned from different mail-order, download and streaming music services. Spotify said it was wrong to compare the per-stream rate it pays with what an artist earned from an iTunes download. Uniform Motion subsequently agreed, but said their frustration was that the link between what a customer pays and what an artist earns is much clearer with the Apple service. Spotify’s business model is obviously more complicated, but many grass roots artists wonder whether it needs to be shadowed in quite so much secrecy. Does the secrecy mean Spotify and their major label partners are ripping off the little guy? CMU report | Uniform Motion blog

03: Universal and Live Nation formed a JV. The two music congloms will launch an artist services agency specialising in brand partnerships and online fan engagement and sales platforms. The new company will be led by Live Nation’s Front Line management business. Universal hopes to bring artists – whether those managed by its management companies, or those signed to its labels – to the table. The scale of the partnership probably isn’t as big as some suggested, though many in the independent sector fear any collaboration between these two powerhouses of the wider music industry. CMU report | LA Times report

04: Play.com was sold for £25 million. The Jersey-based mailer-order firm, which enjoyed a 14.3% share of the UK record sales market last year according to Music Week, was sold to Japanese online retail company Rakuten. The sale comes as Play.com and competitors The Hut Group face the prospect of the UK government ending the Channel Islands tax loophole that has allowed them to sell CDs and DVDs by mail-order without charging VAT. CMU report | FT report

05: Joel Tenenbaum’s damages payment was restored to $675,000. The famous America file-sharer, who, when sued by the RIAA for file-sharing, let the case go to court, was ordered to pay six figure damages by a jury in 2009. The judge hearing the case, Nancy Gertner, subsequently cut that to $67,500 on constitutional grounds the following year. The RIAA appealed, and the appeals court this week restored the damages to $675,000, albeit because it believed Gertner had not followed the right procedure in cutting the damages payment. CMU report | Ars Technica

And that’s you’re lot. For more Facebook bitching – I mean, insightful analysis of Facebook Music – check out today’s CMU Weekly podcast, online this afternoon at www.thecmuwebsite.com/podcast/

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

Sign up to the CMU Daily here.

So, I can confirm today’s CMU Daily is 100% April Fools joke free. Well, unless our newsgathering team accidentally picked up someone else’s and opted to report it as fact. Frankly we’ve been far too busy to be making up stories this year; so busy in fact we weren’t 100% certain the Daily would be out before midday anyway. And look, it isn’t. So that worked out well.

Part of that busy-ness has been down to the fact that last night saw the official launch of The Great Escape 2011 at the Irish Embassy in London town, and we’ve been very busy pulling together the final strands of what is set to be one freaking good conference, if we do say ourselves, which we do. As of Monday I’m going to be introducing a different Great Escape session each day here in the Daily, so probably don’t need to say much more now other than what a great venue for our launch the Irish Embassy made.

Also keeping me busy is the crash course in the music business I’m about to deliver to the music community here in Norwich. I say “here in Norwich”, because I’m writing this here week in five in that very city. Shortly I’ll be going on the hunt for wi-fi, which if not successful might mean this Daily not only misses the midday April Fools deadline, but misses the first of April entirely. On the off chance that’s not the case, here’s your week in five…

01: Amazon launched a licence-free music-based digital locker. It came as quite a surprise because everyone had been too busy gossiping about Apple and Google’s ambitions in the digital locker space to notice Amazon getting such an offer ready. The currently US-focused Amazon locker lets users store MP3s on a remote server, and access them through a cuddly player via more or less any net connected device. It’s the cloud player element that sets these sorts of music locker services apart from the many other digital locker platforms on the market (which can be used for storing music). There is much debate as to whether technology companies running music lockers need licences from the record labels. Amazon thinks not, and therefore involved no content owners in the new locker launch. CMU report

02: There were gloomy revenue figures galore. The IFPI revealed that the record industry saw its revenues slump $1.45 billion last year, mainly because of poor trading in the music business’s two biggest markets, the US and Japan. But that was pretty much the same the previous year too. More interesting were PRS’s figures which revealed that the amount of monies it collected on behalf of songwriters and publishers dropped slightly year on year for the first time ever. The slump in record sale revenue – of which publishers and songwriters get a small cut – was to blame, of course, though in previous years other areas of PRS licensing have compensated for record sale declines. Seemingly no more. CMU report

03: HMV admitted it was considering selling off Waterstones, as well as its Canadian business, in a bid to placate its bankers as it struggles to meet the terms of its bank loans. A sale of the Waterstones book shops has long been tipped as an easy way for the entertainment retailer to address its debt issues, though previously top man HMV has resisted calls for a sell off. Despite admitting at least one unit of the entertainment company was now likely to be offloaded, HMV stressed that nothing was set in stone as yet and that a full sale of the whole group would not happen. CMU report

04: Bluebeat.com settled with EMI for a million. The US digital music service sold low price MP3s, including The Beatles catalogue, without a license from any record companies. The service’s owner had some crazy excuse to do with him re-simulating the tracks so that copyright no longer applied. But when EMI sued a US judge quickly threw the defence, leading to this week’s million dollar settlement. CMU report

05: Live Nation bid for Warner, sort of out of nowhere, or so said the Wall Street Journal. The seventh serious bidder for some or all of Warner Music – it’s reported the live firm wants the record labels – if it was to be successful it’s assumed competition regulators would get involved. WSJ report

Right, best go and give this talk.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

Sign up to the CMU Daily here.

Hello there. So yes, as promised, this week we revealed the first details about The Great Escape convention line up for 2011, and it’s all looking very exciting. If you missed it, you can find out what we announced here, and I’ll be going into more detail about some of the key sessions here at the top of the Friday edition of the Daily in the coming weeks.

But for now, the most important thing to tell you is that the early bird delegates discount runs out on Tuesday. If you buy your pass before then you get it for a mere eighty quid. Now, I’m hugely biased I know, but given that gets you access to the whole convention – which is going to be extra special this year – as well as all the gigs and showcases in The Great Escape festival, I think that’s a marvellously good deal. So much so, that when I was telling someone about it the other day, I started to doubt myself that that really was the price on offer and had to go and double check. So take note, to be part of the most exciting event for the new music business this year for just eighty of your earth pounds, get yourself over to escapegreat.com this weekend.

And here ends the plugging. Now for some end of week news reviewing…

01: ‘Guitar Hero’ was axed. The boss of games giant Activision, Eric Hirshberg, told his investors in a call this week that no new ‘Guitar Hero’ games will be made and that the unit which oversees the franchise is being closed. After a peak eighteen months ago, sales of the ‘Hero’ games, and of their main competitor in the pretend-to-play market ‘Rock Band’, have slumped. Coupled with the high music licensing costs associated with the titles, Hirshberg said, making new versions of the games had just ceased to be commercially viable. CMU report | USA Today report

02: Live Nation took complete control of Front Line, the management firm founded by the live giant’s Executive Chairman Irving Azoff. Although Ticketmaster took majority control of Front Line in 2008, before its merger with Live Nation in 2010, Azoff and the Madison Square Garden company both retained minority stakes. They have now been bought out. As part of the deal Azoff will also become Chairman of the Live Nation board proper, taking over from interim chair John Malone. CMU report | Bloomberg report

03: Warner boss said over half of their artist deals are now multi-stream. Edgar Bronfman Jr was this week trying to convince investors that, despite sliding revenues, including digital and publishing revenues, there was light at the end of the tunnel for the music major. He said he believed the growth of Spotify-style streaming services (though possibly only subscription-based ones) will result in a new era of digital growth, while adding that, long term, new revenue streams from 360 degree style artist contracts will mend his company’s woes. He added that 55% of the company’s current artist deals gave it a stake in revenue other than sound recordings. It’s been known for a while that Warner is, in the main, only signing multi-stream deals these days. CMU report | Reuters report

04: Rumours circulated of an HMV takeover. This is all because of last week’s news that Russian shareholder Alexander Mamut, who owns 6% of the entertainment and retail group, has asked bankers Credit Suisse to review the company’s operations. This has led to speculation Mamut might try to takeover the whole of HMV, and then split it up and sell some of the recently diversified firm off. Some reckon Mamut is only really interested in the Waterstones bit. All idle speculation, but it resulted in HMV’s share price going up for a change. CMU report | Telegraph report

05: We wondered whether the ACS case might impact on the Digital Economy Act. The judge hearing the disastrous anti-file-sharing lawsuits brought to court by the now defunct London law firm ACS:Law said that he was unconvinced that an ISP customer could be held liable for file-sharing done on their net connection by a third party. It provides anyone accused of file-sharing, based on activity via their IP address, a great way to avoid liability (assuming they are either innocent or willing to lie). With little legal precedent in the UK on this, some wonder what will happen if and when net users accused of file-sharing via the DEA’s graduated response anti-piracy system use this excuse. The BPI insist the ACS case is not relevant to three-strikes, but others reckon Judge Birrs’ comments pose even more problems to those trying to get the DEA’s anti-piracy system up and running. CMU report | Telegraph report

And that’s your lot. Though for more week in view chit chat, do check out the CMU Weekly podcast this afternoon. Sign up in iTunes here.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

Sign up to the CMU Daily here.

We promised you a little update on preparations for this year’s Great Escape convention earlier this week; and you know we like to stick to our promises. Well, sometimes.

As much previously reported, we here at CMU are programming the convention side of Europe’s leading festival for new music this year, and we’ll be bringing together some of the most interesting, inspiring and innovative people in music, from all quarters of the business. We’ll be announcing the first big list of names very soon, but I think we can let slip that we’ve got two truly inspiring music makers lined up for our in-conversation programme, both of whom have had a huge impact on their respective genres, one on-stage, the other behind the scenes. Look at me, being a tease. But watch this space, all will be revealed soon.

On the panels side, we’ve already got some great people from established labels, publishers, promoters and management all ready to share their new approaches to the music business – again, more on them to come – though we also know there are some great brand new businesses out there who we should also be checking out. This is where the Great Escape Start-ups Forum will come in.

This year we are inviting any music-related start-up (so, less than eighteen months old) to put themselves forward for a little moment in the TGE spotlight. We’ll invite five such businesses to present at the Forum, giving them the chance to meet with, sell to and learn from key industry players. If you’re involved in such a venture, we’ll post details of how to put yourself forward for this opportunity next week at thecmuwebsite.com/thegreatescape.

More TGE news in this spot next week, and probably before then too, meantime, let’s get on with this week’s Week In Five news summary…

01: Citigroup took control of EMI. We all knew it was going to happen imminently, though possibly not quite so suddenly. One of the holding companies through which Terra Firma owned EMI was put into administration on Tuesday for failing to meet the covenants of its loan agreement with Citi. The bankers then took ownership of the music firm, cut its debts to the bank to £1.2 billion, confirmed its faith in the current management team, and insisted it was business as usual. Though everyone knows the bank will now look to sell the company, leading, no doubt, to weeks of speculation about buyers. CMU report | Guardian opinion piece

02: Jeremy Hunt asked OfCom to review a section of the Digital Economy Act. It’s the section that would set up a system through which content owners could get injunctions forcing internet service providers to block access to websites that exist mainly to infringe copyright. One of the most controversial parts of the Act, in order to get it through parliament a line was inserted saying this system could be introduced, rather than it would be. Hunt says he has no problem with the principle of blocking access to infringing websites, but wants to know if the proposals in the Act for how this would be done are really feasible. CMU report | Independent report

03: Michael Cohl counter-sued Live Nation. The live music giant says the legendary promoter owes them five million relating to an agreement the two parties made when Cohl stood down as Live Nation chair in 2008. But this week Cohl said that Live Nation had breached a clause of that agreement – not to compete with him to bid for the rights to promote a possible 2011 Rolling Stones tour – and that was why he was withholding payments. All of which was more interesting given the Stones said they don’t currently have any plans to tour this year. CMU report

04: AEG Live confirmed ticketing ambitions, by forming an alliance with Canadian company Outlook Technology. The first part of the partnership is about enabling AEG to sell tickets for its events and venues without relying on Ticketmaster, which is now owned by their competitors Live Nation, of course. But there are also plans for AEG and Outlook to market their ticketing platform, which lets promoters sell direct to fans, to other players in the live entertainment space also, competing head on with Ticketmaster. CMU report | Ticket News report

05: Jo Whiley announced she was leaving Radio 1 after seventeen years, to take over a new evening show on Radio 2. This sparked a number of other BBC Radio announcements. Huw Stephens will take over Whiley’s current weekend show on Radio 1, while Matt Edmondson will get Stephen’s mid-week evening slot. Whiley will replace Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Marconie on Radio 2, who will get an afternoon show on 6music instead, them shunting 6 incumbent Nemone into a weekend slot. CMU report | Mirror report

And that’s you’re lot. More chat on the week just gone in the CMU Weekly podcast, online this afternoon. Why not subscribe in one of these ways…

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Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

Sign up to the CMU Daily here.

Hey ho, here it is, Friday people. And I told you seven days ago that this week I would be able to name some of the bands that are due to play The Great Escape this May, and look, this is me making good on that promise.

As you may have already seen earlier this week, a big bunch of bands have already been stuck on the bill for Europe’s leading new music festival, with Katy B, Brother, Worriedaboutsatan, Little Dragon and Wave Pictures among the reasons to be excited. The first of the ‘Dome shows’ that take place during TGE has also been announced. These are open to TGE wristband holders for just six quid, and the first band confirmed in this part of the programme is the marvellous Friendly Fires. Hurrah.

And then, of course, there’s Warpaint. Team CMU caught these girls playing in that little bar at the end of Brighton Pier at TGE last year and got so excited that Andy went on to include them in his artists of the year top ten last month. If you missed them in 2010, well you need to do some catching up, but you’ll find them quite a bit higher up the TGE bill this coming May, one of the Great Escape’s great success stories.

You’ll find the full band line up as confirmed so far over there at escapegreat.com. And now for another promise. This time next week, I’ll be able to start telling you about the first few confirmed panellists, speakers, topics and other delights confirmed for the TGE convention that we here at CMU are programming this year. So, see you in seven days to make good on that promise. Meanwhile, here’s your week in five.

01: VEVO’s UK launch was confirmed. Actually, Sony Music digital man Thomas Hesse said at the launch of that IFPI Digital Music Report last week that the Sony/Universal owned online music video service would go live in the UK this year, but with the digital firm now recruiting its British sales team VEVO’s sales chief David Kohl told Media Week that launch would come in the next “few months”. Everyone seems to think April. Elsewhere in digital news, Sony’s Omnifone-powered cross-device streaming music service, Music UnLimited with Qriocity, already live in the UK, expanded into a number of other European territories this week. CMU report | Marketing report

02: The Pirate Bay promised a new file-sharing service.Which was nice of them. The file-sharing group has put up a webpage at fear.themusicbay.org, with an insider telling TorrentFreak the current TPB team are planning on launching an uber new file-sharing service to coincide with the upcoming 78th birthday of the aforementioned IFPI. The music industry should be “afraid” the anonymous source added. CMU report | TorrentFreak report

03: A Chinese file-sharing service started to block illegal content, presumably because the authorities in China recently published details of new penalties for online piracy, with up to seven years in jail for the worst offenders. VeryCD started blocking links to unlicensed content last Friday. Its owners have hopes to relaunch as a legitimate music platform, though will presumably have lost most of their users by the time that happens. CMU report | Variety report

04: ACS:Law’s main man stepped back from sue-the-fans litigation. Lawyer Andrew Crossley – whose London law firm led the way in sending legal letters to alleged file-sharers last year demanding damages from the accused – told the judge hearing the 27 cases that were actually taken to court that he wanted nothing more to do with file-sharing litigation. He said he was quitting because of harassment by the file-sharing community, and not because the judge had previously said his firm’s legal arguments in court were flawed on all sorts of levels. ACS most notably worked for porn firms, but had a few small music clients. CMU report | Inquirer article

05: Live Nation settled its long running delivery fees case.The live giant’s ticketing firm Ticketmaster was sued years ago by two consumers who claimed the ticketing agency misled customers by implying so called “delivery fees” covered the cost of delivering tickets, when the firm actually made a profit on them. The lawsuit became a class action last year. Although not admitting fault, Live Nation agreed to compensate confused customers and cover all legal costs, to the tune of $22.3 million. CMU report | ABC News report

And that is it. Do look out for your CMU Weekly, complete with Go! Team compiled Spotify playlist and the second ever CMU podcast, out this afternoon – www.theCMUwebsite.com/weekly.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

Sign up to the CMU Daily here.