Apple in talks to buy Tidal - report
Apple is in talks to acquire Tidal according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, and which now seems to be have been confirmed by other outlets such as Recode. The report of the talks comes only a day after Spotify issued a statement saying that "Apple has long used its control of iOS to squash competition in music," in response to US Sentor Warren's speech in which she said Apple was trying to “snuff out competition.”
BMG acquired the recording assets of The End Record
The End Records specializes in rock, metal, indie and electronic music. Established in 1988 in Pasadena, California, The End Records has grown under the charge of CEO Andreas Katsambas to represent world-renowned and platinum-selling artists including Better Than Ezra, Billy Talent, Dead Letter Circus, Everclear, HIM, Hinder, Petula Clark, Terrorizer, The Zombies, American Sharks and Trapt. As part of the deal, BMG is acquiring the label’s entire catalogue, as well as its rights to future recordings. Upcoming releases on the label include Billy Talent’s fifth studio album Afraid of Heights; Billy Talent is opening for Guns N’ Roses next month (July).
"Chaos" feared with the Department of Justice's 100% licensing scheme
US music publishers and performance rights organisations have expressed their disappointment and bemusement at the decision from the US Department of Justice, which looks after anti-trust issues, to decline amending the consent decrees that rule the two main PROs ASCAP and BMI since 1941 and to introduce a contentious new licensing scheme, known as "100% licensing". The reluctance from the DoJ to change the decrees means that publishers will be constrained by a system that so far prevented them from partially withdrawing their repertoire from PROs to negotiate direct deals with digital platforms.
BRIT Awards and Somethin’ Else Win Best Social Media & Digital Marketing Campaign for BRITs 2016
The team, lead by Emmy Lovell, VP Digital Warner Music UK and BRITs Head of Digital, Giuseppe de Cristofano and digital agency, Somethin' Else, beat off strong competition including Stand Up To Cancer YouTube Party (Princess Productions/Google), Hollyoaks (for Channel 4), Humans (for Channel 4) and the Tim Peake Social 7 Digital Project (BBC), to win the prestigious award."It’s been an incredible year for the BRITs in the digital world and I'm extremely proud to have led and worked with such a great team at the BRITs and at Somethin’ Else,’ said Emmy Lovell. 'We introduced a lot of new platforms and initiatives to bring the show to an even bigger audience and it’s paid off."
NME extends distribution target to top festivals
NME’s hyper-targeted distribution network is to take in the UK’s most exciting festivals this summer to put the magazine directly into the hands of young music fans. Locations will include national and regional travel hubs and festival hot-spots. As festival season gets underway, one-off distribution locations have been added around 10 UK festivals - including Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds – which more than two million fans are anticipated to descend upon over the summer. Over 240 distributors will be handing out copies at the most popular travel points for each festival, as well as at festival hot-spots.
Burnley nightclub owners arrested and pay £20,000 for illegally playing music
Music licensing company PPL recently settled legal proceedings against Jason and Rebecca McQuoid, the operators of the Vogue Nightclub, Burnley, and before it closed, the Vogue Nightclub in Leigh. This followed the operators agreeing to pay outstanding PPL licence fees of £7,893.98 and an additional £12,411 to cover PPL’s legal costs. The settlement took place after the owners were arrested on 23rd May 2016 for failure to appear in court for Committal proceedings.
