Well, what a very busy week this has been – all that SOPA action in the US spilling over into the UK as Wikipedia went dark, the campaign against the EMI sale gaining some momentum, The Big Chill being cancelled for 2012, and more developments from Planet Grooveshark. And then, just as we thought we were done for the week, the US announced it’d shut down MegaUpload and arrested its bosses for criminal copyright infringement.

All things considered, I’d better get on with the Week In Five with no delay…

01: A global spotlight fell on US anti-piracy proposals as Wikipedia went on strike. The online encyclopaedia blocked access to its English language edition for 24 hours in protest at two pieces of legislation being considered by US Congress – SOPA and PIPA – both of which would introduce a system by which copyright owners could force ISPs and search engines to block access to copyright infringing websites. Opponents say the acts would result in censorship of the internet, and many US-based tech firms and websites supported Wiki’s protest, leading to some key political sponsors of SOPA and PIPA withdrawing their support. A rethink of the anti-piracy proposals is now likely. CMU report | Billboard report

02: MegaUpload was taken offline by US authorities. The file-transfer and video sharing service has been pissing off the US music and movie industries for some time now, they accusing the site’s owners of committing copyright infringement on a vast scale to create a multi-million dollar business. Last night it was announced the American authorities were beginning criminal action against key execs at the Mega company, and that they had got court approval to shut down Mega operations at the Virginian centre where many of its servers were stored. Four Mega execs, including co-founder Kim Schmitz, were arrested in New Zealand and will now likely be extradited to the US, where they face infringement, racketeering and money laundering charges that could result in 20 year jail sentences. CMU report | BBC report

03: The campaign against Universal’s EMI acquisition gained momentum. The UK Association Of Independent Music urged its members to contact their MPs to stress that they oppose Citigroup’s intent to sell the EMI record companies to Universal Music, and the EMI publishing catalogues to a consortium led by Sony/ATV. The deals will have a damaging effect on the wider music industry, the indie trade body claims. The campaign came as Warner Music – the third major, which will be dwarfed by its main competitors as a result of the EMI deals – hired the services of a US legal firm that specialises in anti-trust lobbying, leading to speculation they too may oppose the Universal and Sony deals as American and European competition regulators consider them. CMU report | Legal Times report

04: There were Big festival finales and cancellations. First, organisers of the Big Day Out touring festival in Australia announced that the New Zealand date of the venture, the 2012 edition of which is happening right now, will be the last in the country. From 2013 the Big Day Out will only take place in Australian cities because disappointing ticket sales have made the New Zealand version unviable. Meanwhile in the UK, Festival Republic announced The Big Chill would not happen this year, blaming the Olympics which will clash with the festival’s August dates. CMU Big Chill report | CMU Big Day Out report

05: Grooveshark hit back, in face of lawsuits from all four major labels. First it launched an HTML5 web app making its streaming platform available to smartphone users, their traditional apps for the iPhone and Android phones having been removed from the Apple and Google app stores after complaints from the big music companies. Then it sent legal papers to Digital Music News to try to identify the anonymous reader who left a comment on the DMN site accusing Grooveshark bosses of copyright infringement, a comment being used in Universal’s lawsuit against the web firm. And finally it dissed German collecting society GEMA, saying it was having to cut off their service in Germany because of the society’s unreasonable royalty demands. GEMA denies having had any negotiations with the Groovesharkers. CMU reports

And that’s your lot, people! Have a good day.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

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

So, I’m writing to you this week from a frosty corner of Cheshire, having headed North yesterday to take part in the recording of a special edition of the BBC Introducing show on Radio Lancashire. Put together in association with Creative Lancashire, it brought together artists and bloggers from across the region to discuss the role of grass roots music writers online in helping to nurture and promote local talent. It was a really good evening – with a few excellent acoustic spots from said local talent thrown in for good measure – and I’ll try my best to remind you when it appears on the iPlayer later this month. Meanwhile, let’s get on with the Week In Five shall we?

01: Universal’s Grooveshark lawsuit was published. The biggest of the music majors is suing the often controversial streaming service, claiming that while Grooveshark execs say it’s their users who are uploading Universal content onto their website (and therefore, as they also operate a content takedown system, they are protected from copyright claims under US law), in fact it’s the very same execs who have been posting many of the major’s tracks into the Grooveshark system. Universal’s legal papers were made public this week and, while we still have to take the major’s word for it regarding their central claim, the lawsuit does include emails from Grooveshark’s chairman, also an investor, admitting that the company’s plan is to skirt around copyright issues as long as they can, in the hope that they gain sufficient users and user data that the labels will be forced to do a deal. Not necessarily a smoking gun, but it confirms a lot of the fears of the label and artist communities. CMU report | C-Net report

02: Spotify added an apps channel. Whether it really warranted a much hyped big press announcement is debatable, but the arrival of third party apps within the Spotify player – properly bringing editorial and curated lists into the platform for the first time – was an interesting development. The Guardian, Pitchfork and Billboard are among the early app partners, though with an open API any third parties are invited to join the in-Spot app party. Though with no real way to monetise such apps – at least not yet – the only real benefit for third parties is reaching Spotify’s ten million users. Which will be less attractive the more crowded the Spotify app store becomes. Still, some of those initial free apps are rather cool. CMU report | Billboard report

03: Dizzee Rascal allied with Universal Music. Having worked with the Beggars Group’s XL Recordings on his first three albums, before going it totally alone on album four, the Rascal announced a deal with Universal earlier this week, technically a partnership with the rapper’s Dirtee Stank label. Universal’s Island Records will provide marketing and distribution services for the next Dizzee album, and work with other Dirtee Stank artists, in particular Katie Pepper. CMU report | NME report

04: Google extended its blocked autofill word list. This actually probably happened in the middle of last month, but came to wider attention via a report on Torrentfreak. Google previously promised content owners that they would stop suggesting to users – as they typed search terms into the Google search engine – alternative terms that would almost certainly lead to unlicensed content, such as the word ‘BitTorrent’ after an artist’s name. This list of blocked words has seemingly been extended to include the names, or variations thereof, of various popular file-sharing services including The Pirate Bay. Whether this extension was motivated by pressure being put on the web giant as it negotiated deals for its Google Music service with the big music companies isn’t known. CMU report | TorrentFreak report

05: The Napster-era ended in the US, in that the legit Napster service stopped trading in America following the company’s acquisition by rival digital music set up Rhapsody. Napster users in the US will now become Rhapsody users, and anyone going to Napster.com is now urged to sign up to the Rhapsody service, the streaming platform original set up by Real Networks. The Napster brand will seemingly remain outside the US for now, where Rhapsody never launched. CMU report | C-Net report

And that’s your lot, until later today when I finish editing out all the sniffs and coughs from this week’s CMU podcast (one day I’ll get rid of this cold) and stick it online at www.theCMUwebsite.com/podcast. This week’s guest drink is very green.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

So hello there one and all, and welcome to Black Friday, America’s national day of shopping which Amazon is trying to inflict on the rest of us with its various “Black Friday Week” offers.

If we’re going to adopt one of America’s holidays personally I’d rather have Thanksgiving, I quite like eating excessive amounts of food, but absolutely hate shopping. And besides, ‘Black Friday’ was named because of the horrific congestion all those shoppers caused in American cities and malls. Who wants to adopt that?

But the good news is that there is no Black Friday in London, so there shouldn’t be any out of the ordinary congestion, which means there’s no excuse for not heading down to the main Topman store at Oxford Circus today for the mega-DJ-jam involving our very own Eddy Temple-Morris, and designed to raise awareness for CALM, an incredibly important charity designed to reduce the number of suicides among the young male population. If you can’t make it to Oxford Circus, do read Eddy’s column on the venture, and if you can, well do enjoy watching Eddy, Zane Lowe, Dan le Sac, Kissy Sell Out, Herve, the Loose Canons and many more going head to head in a DJ fashion.

But first, take a few moments to catch up on this week’s big music business stories…

01: Universal sued Grooveshark, again. Based on data it got access to as part of a previous legal dispute with Grooveshark, Universal says it has evidence that bosses at the often controversial streaming music service have themselves uploaded unlicensed content to the company’s web platform. Grooveshark is a Spotify-style set up that allows users to upload music to its catalogue, meaning it streams music from many more labels than the handful it has licensing agreements with. Owners of the service say they operate a DMCA takedown system for that unlicensed content, so are protected under US copyright law. But, Universal’s lawyers argue, that does not apply if Grooveshark staff are uploading the unlicensed material. The web firm said the major was deliberately misinterpreting the data it had handed over, but if Universal were to win this one, it would likely push for millions possibly billions in damages based on the statutory damages allowed in the US for copyright infringement. CMU reports |WSJ report

02: UK Music called on music types to contribute to live licensing review. The government is reviewing the 2003 Licensing Act which many in the live sector reckon has made it too hard to stage grass roots music events. The government’s consultation on the issue is actually considering proposals for cutting live entertainment red tape considerably more radical than those already set out in a private member’s bill on this issue, Lord Tim Clement-Jones’ Live Music Bill. Submissions to the review need to be in by 3 Dec, and UK Music called on anyone in the music space who supports these proposed changes to put that support in writing. CMU report | UK Music statement

03: European courts said ISPs couldn’t be forced to become the piracy police. In an ECJ ruling relating to a long running battle between Belgian collecting society Sabam and net firm Scarlet, the Euro judges said that forcing ISPs to monitor all traffic with a viewing to blocking the sharing of unlicensed content – which Sabam wanted Scarlet to do – would breach various bits of the EU’s Charter Of Fundamental Rights. Although a pain for Sabam, its arguable that the ruling doesn’t affect too many other efforts to force ISPs to assist in stopping illegal file-sharing, because other demands to this effect have been much more narrowly defined than by the Belgians. CMU report | PC World report

04: The Music Managers Forum backed a speech by EU Digital Commissioner Neelie Kroes which called for more reform to European copyright systems, including more collective licensing in the digital domain. Kroes also called for content owners and technology companies to collaborate on systems to better monitor copyright ownership and royalty distribution. MMF Chair Brian Message said: “Neelie Kroes summed up our views succinctly and with passion. Her final sentence – ‘let’s not wait for a financial crisis in the creative sector to happen to finally adopt the right tools to tackle it’ – says it all. We applaud her and wholeheartedly share her vision”. CMU report | Register report

05: CMU was confirmed as convention programmers of The Great Escape 2012. It may be a bit self indulgent to include this here, but yes, Team CMU will once again programme the convention side of Europe’s leading festival for new music next May, bringing together the very best minds from across the music, media and digital industries to share ideas, advice, case studies and opinions. Early bird tickets that get you into the whole convention plus priority access to the festival are just £120, get yours now! CMU report | TGE tickets

And that’s your lot till the CMU podcast this afternoon, see you for that later.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

Hello there! How you doing? Coming up, the five biggest music business news stories of the week, but before that will you let me do two quick plugs? First up, voting has opened for this year’s Record Of The Day Awards, and you should all go and vote now and then tell any students you know to put themselves forward for the CMU supported student categories.

Second up, we still have a couple of a places left on next week’s CMU Training course, which is my particular favourite, Music Rights Inside & Out. Alas we won’t get to talk about Justin Bieber’s (alleged) backstage groupie action, but we can discuss why he won’t being going to jail for uploading covers of other people’s songs to YouTube, even if a new bit of American copyright law making unlicensed streaming a criminal offence goes through (and despite what those who oppose the new law say). We’ll also cover everything you need to know about music rights, how they exist, how they work, how they make money and, most crucially, how the music rights industry is changing. Book your places here.

Now, back to the Week In Five…

01: There was no progress on the EMI sale. Except that last weekend it emerged that Warner had pulled out of the bidding for the EMI record companies, following Universal’s lead a few days earlier, leaving no one actively bidding for the labels. Though it’s assumed both Warner and Universal will return to the table if Citigroup budges on price. Talks are ongoing with BMG and Sony/ATV re EMI Music Publishing, but no actual announcements were made this week. CMU report | Bloomberg report

02: The digital royalties case against Universal was allowed to proceed. Rob Zombie and the Rick James estate have launched a class action against the major arguing that it should treat download revenues as licensing income and not record sales – on many pre-web record contracts that would mean paying the artist a bigger cut of the money. Previous legal attempts by heritage artists to get a bigger share of digital royalties have failed, but then Eminem producers FBT Productions won when they sued on this issue, directly resulting in the Zombie/James litigation. Universal objected to the case being given class action status, but a judge knocked back that objection this week. CMU report | Billboard report

03: There was an interesting extra ruling in the EMI v MP3tunes case. MP3tunes.com is a digital locker service sued by EMI, which also provides a platform allowing users to share links to music, a lot of which is unlicensed. MP3tunes successfully argued in court that that service did not constitute contributory copyright infringement because they operate a takedown system under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. EMI went back to the judge to ask about pre-1972 recordings, which are covered by state copyright laws, not federal law. Did DMCA protection apply there to? Yes, said the judge this week. Which is a bugger for Universal, which is using the same argument to try and render Grooveshark’s use of the DMCA protection defence redundant. CMU report | Techdirt report

04: EMI announced an interesting new service for app makers. A partnership with The Echo Nest, EMI will make available content from both new and catalogue artists to play with in app development. The major will also consider proposals for music-based apps and, if it likes them, will look after licensing and marketing and split revenue. CMU report | Wired report

05: The Radio Festival took place in Salford, bringing together the great and the good of British radio. BBC boss Mark Thompson talked a lot about how the Beeb and commercial radio could collaborate, Global Radio boss Ashley Tabor then criticised the BBC for “dragging its feet” over DAB digital radio expansion, Bauer Media’s Dee Ford said her company would gladly have run 6music had they been given the option when the BBC service faced closure, and Andrew Harrison of commercial radio trade body RadioCentre said the Corporation should let commercial operators run its local stations. Elsewhere EMI’s Andria Vidler called on radio stations to collaborate with record companies more on nurturing new talent – beyond just saying “we’ll playlist their songs” – and Pete Townsend said a lot of nonsense about iTunes. CMU report | Guardian reports

And that’s your lot, till the CMU podcast this afternoon where we will be discussing Bieber’s backstage shagging that probably didn’t happen.

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.

Oh hello there, how the devil are you? I’ve not been here for while. That is to say, not in this slot on a Friday, I have been around writing business stories for the Daily though, albeit from a secret corner of a large hotel in Edinburgh for much of August. Because, as the more observant will know, I spend my summer at the world’s biggest cultural festival co-running the biggest review media there, which involves throwing myself into the worlds of comedy, cabaret, dance, musicals and theatre.

But, bar one stint chairing a panel at a rather good comedy industry conference in Greenwich yesterday, my brain is now fully focused back onto the good old music business. Who will buy EMI? Will copyright extension really go through this time? What are Vivendi’s ticketing ambitions, and will they ever be branded Universal? What are the chances of the government actually doing something about the Licensing Act? Whose idea was it to serve fish at the Mercury dinner? See, I’m on top of everything. And to prove it, here’s the bold return of your Week In Five.

01: It started to look like the EU really could extend the copyright term for sound recordings. The UK government already supports an extension, albeit to 70 years rather than the 95 years the record industry would like. But any extension needs to be EU-wide. The Hungarian presidency of the EU put term extension back on the agenda earlier this year, and this week it was discussed by the Committee Of Permanent Representatives who, insiders say, have drafted proposals that satisfy those member states previously opposed to longer copyrights for recordings. The industry will now wait with bated breath to see if the all-important Council Of Ministers rubber stamp those proposals next week. CMU report | FT report

02: Terra Firma sought information about Citigroup’s EMI grab. The private equity group and former EMI owners went to the High Court to request information from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accountants who, back in February, helped Citigroup and senior execs at EMI wind up the holding company through which Terra Firma owned the music business, allowing Citi to take ownership of the music major as principal creditor. Terra Firma seem to think PWC were wrong to say they could not “support” EMI’s debt to Citi, and presumably want info about the accountant’s conclusions, possibly with a view to taking legal action over the way EMI was taken from them. CMU report | Sky News report

03: Vivendi bought See Tickets, the UK-based ticketing firm that originally span out of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s theatre business. That the Universal Music owners chose to enter the UK ticketing sector through acquisition was a bit of a surprise, though Vivendi had already bought into a ticketing business in home country France last year. CMU report | City AM report

04: Deezer won a copyright squabble with Universal. The French-based streaming music platform, currently launching in the UK for the first time, has been struggling to renegotiate its licensing terms with the world’s biggest record company. Universal asked the courts to force Deezer to remove their music from its streaming platform until a new licensing deal was agreed. But Deezer argued that the changes Universal wanted to make to a previous licensing deal ran contrary to an industry wide agreement supported by the French government and signed by various digital and music companies earlier this year, including Universal. The French courts agreed. CMU report | AFP report

05: PJ Harvey won the Mercury Music Prize. But how many more records did that help sell? Well, according to Music Week sales of winning album ‘Let England Shake’ are up more than six-fold, WHICH equals about 3335 units being sold. Which is good, it’s a great album. Adele, of course, while not winning the Mercury, this week went into chart history as the first artist to shift more than three million copies of an album in the UK in one calendar year. CMU report | Music Week report

And that’s it. There’ll be a slight new look round here from Monday, but Andy will tell you more about that later. Meanwhile, see you next week!

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

Sign up to the CMU Daily here.

While some artists get all hot and bothered when tracks from their new albums appear online before official release, rapper Drake is annoyed that his label is going around the internet ordering leaked tracks be taken down. Though this is mainly because it’s him leaking the tracks via his own blog!

The rap man last week hit out at Universal Music, owners of Lil Wayne’s Young Money imprint, to which he is signed, after they ordered the removal of two new Drake tracks from his own blog and various other websites. Both tracks presumably come from the rapper’s new album, ‘Take Care’, which isn’t due for release until October. Drake tweeted late last week: “Universal needs to stop taking my f**king songs down. I am doing this for the people not for your label”.

It’s an interesting quandary isn’t it? Drake would presumably argue that by drip-feeding his fans tracks from his Fall release now, he’ll build interest and excitement among his fanbase, who will then all rush out (well, rush online) to buy the record when it finally drops later this year. But his record company might argue back that, if he’s given away downloads of half the tracks on the album already, his fans are actually less likely to rush to buy the finished long player. And in the short run they probably have more to lose financially.

That said, Drake’s keenness to release new tracks now possibly has less to do with any strong beliefs on how to market your new album online, and more to do with impatience. Many artists finding the time between finishing songs and their labels finally releasing them to the public incredibly frustrating, especially if that delay is extended because of other priorities in their label’s schedules, or, in the case of hip hop, because of problems licensing some of the samples used.

Of course there is an argument that, as artists shift to releasing almost exclusively digitally, and with core fans probably as impatient to hear new songs as an artist is to release them, perhaps holding off for a full album release at some point in the future no longer makes sense. Why not release, promote and sell new songs as and when they are finished, rather than waiting until there is a set of ten tracks the label thinks are worthy of a big orchestrated marketing push.

For some artists, and some fanbases, that old fashioned big album with a big marketing campaign approach works. But for other artists I suspect the ‘release as you go’ method could work too, and it surprises me more artists haven’t gone that way. Presumably the fact labels are set up to do the big campaigns plays a part. So perhaps Drake should actually suggest a new approach to his record company rather than telling tales out of school on Twitter.

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So, I’m guessing 29% of you are in Somerset, or are on your way there. Don’t worry, it’s muddy, but it will only rain while U2 are playing. Or at least that’s what I hear. Bloody Bono. Many of the rest of you may be planning a weekend of mud-free Glastontelly, which sounds like a grand plan, after all, there’s an awful lot of BBC dudes down there on Worthy Farm, and if Andy Parfitt’s insistence that it’s worth the spend is to stack up, we really ought to all tune in.

If you’re one of the non-Glastonbury attending music journos going to the We’re Not Worthy drinks do in London being organised by Sean at DiS and Paul at RoTD this afternoon, have a goodun – alas, Friday is CMU Weekly day so it’s unlikely I’ll make it down, which presumably means I’m not even not worthy.

I will be heading into Central London later today, though, for a grand debate on all things copyright, taking place as part of British Black Music Month at the University Of Westminster at 309 Regent Street at 6.30pm. A great panel has been lined up to discuss why we should care about copyright (or not), and where the rights of users should fit into the equation. It’s free to come along, though you need to get yourself on the list, email editor@britishblackmusic.com

But first, it’s your week in five…

01: EMI was put up for sale. Or, if we are being pedantic, its owners Citigroup instigated a strategic review of options for the music company, which might include a sale, recapitalisation or even an IPO. But what that really means is that EMI is now on the market. Universal Music, new Warner Music owner Len Blavatnik, and his main rival in the bid for Warner, the Gores brothers, are all reportedly interested in acquiring the British music major. CMU reports | Billboard report

02: The three-strikes judicial review failed, though an EDM requested a rethink. Judges knocked back BT and TalkTalk’s court-based attempts to force a rethink on the copyright section of the Digital Economy Act earlier this year, and this week refused to consider an appeal of that ruling. In parliament Julian Huppert MP did submit an Early Day Motion noting a recent United Nations report that was critical of three-strike style systems like that the DEA will introduce, and suggested a rethink. However, the government is unlikely to comply with that demand. Meanwhile, the Irish government instigated a review of its copyright laws, possibly to help record companies in Ireland persuade internet service providers to follow the lead of market leader Eircom and introduce a three-strikes system for combating piracy. CMU reports | Telegraph report

03: We7, WiMP and Shazam announced expansion plans. We7 confirmed it had new investment and was now hoping to expand out of the UK and become the Pandora of Europe. Scandinavian music service WiMP said it had done a deal which would enable it to launch in Ireland later this year. And Shazam said it had raised a bucket more cash to help it develop a telly-based version of its service. So, a busy week for digital announcements. Elsewhere speculation about Facebook’s new music dashboard continued. CMU reports: We7 | WiMP | Shazam

04: Universal merged the back offices of its Motown and Def Jam divisions in the US, resulting in some job losses, part of a rampant restructuring that is quietly going on at the music major. With Sony Music also doing quite a rejig as the two record company rivals swap senior executives, there is a lot of insecurity jobs wise around the US record industry just now. And if Warner Music does successfully acquire EMI later this year, resulting in another big record company merger, that insecurity will expand across all the majors. Times are a changing, even if the top executives are the same, just with different job titles at different companies. CMU report | Hollywood Reporter report

05: A hacker was arrested for allegedly targeting the BPI and IFPI websites. Essex boy Ryan Cleary is accused of being part of the group that instigated a Distributed Denial Of Service attack against the two record industry trade bodies’ websites, taking said sites down. He’s also accused of bringing down the website of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which was possibly unwise. CMU report | Daily Mail report

And that is your lot until we go all CMU Weekly on your ass with more e-bulletins and a super duper podcast later today – sign up at theCMUwebsite.com/weekly.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

Sign up to the CMU Daily here.

Well, hello there, and well done for making it through another week. And as a reward, have a Bank Holiday Weekend, on me. No, don’t mention it, it’s yours. For free. Though it does mean you won’t be getting a CMU Daily on Monday. What we do have next week, though, is the latest CMU Training course, this one on all things music PR and promotions. It’s taking place in Shoreditch on Wednesday. Why not start June better informed on how to build profile and buzz for your bands and projects? More details at theCMUwebsite.com/training. Meanwhile, here’s your week in five…

01: More artists sued Universal over digital royalties, following the court victory of Eminem producers FBT Productions in arguing that download revenues should be treated as licensing rather than record sales income, on which they contractually earn a bigger cut. Universal insist the ruling in the FBT case does not set a precedent that applies to all pre-internet record contracts, but Rob Zombie, Whitesnake and Dave Mason all followed the lead of the Rick James estate this week in begging to differ, and filing a class action lawsuit that calls for all legacy artists to get the higher share of digital monies. CMU report | Reuters report

02: Leaked Katy Perry rider shows insider touting. Among various diva-ish demands on the Perry rider, published by The Smoking Gun, was one that said promoters should set aside a number of tickets per show for the singer’s team to resell via ticketing agencies of their choice, which might include secondary ticketing auction sites. That some artists and managers tout their own tickets for profit isn’t a secret, but Perry is possibly the first high profile artist to be outed as a touter in this way. Some will argue the singer is ripping off her fans by letting her people sell tickets at hiked up prices. CMU report | Smoking Gun report

03: The European Commission set out its intellectual property plans, which included the usual stuff (for EC statements on IP) about the music industry making pan-European licensing simpler, with various further calls for collecting society reform. Perhaps more interesting were commitments to taking EC-level action to curb illegal file-sharing and other online piracy, even if this paper was vague on what form that action might take. CMU report | European Patent Office Announcement

04: Concerns were raised about the Police Reform Bill, which some say will make licensing music events, especially festivals, more difficult, even as the Live Music Bill tries to simplify such things. Campaigner Hamish Birchall told Music Week that by pursuing both the Live Music Bill and the licensing section of the Police Reform Bill the government was trying to both deregulate and regulate at the same time. The police bill was being discussed by a Lords committee this week. CMU report | Event Industry News report

05: There was chatter about a Facebook and Spotify alliance, which Forbes span as Facebook launching its own Spotify-powered streaming music service. Though some think that Facebook is actually talking to numerous content providers, including various digital music players, about them offering some of their services within the Facebook environment. Some sort of music partnerships announcement from Facebook is expected soon though. CMU report | Billboard report

And that’s your lot – enjoy thank bank holiday now.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

Sign up to the CMU Daily here.