Musicians demand control of music rights
Robbie Williams, Radiohead and Kate Nash are among Britain's top pop and rock acts who are demanding more control over their music.
More than 60 acts have joined the Featured Artists' Coalition to wrest back some control from record labels.
EMI poaches Google exec to spearhead digital strategy
Music group EMI has appointed Doug Merrill, a senior executive from Google to run its digital strategy. The move is part of EMI's private equity owner Guy Hands efforts to rebuild the troubled firm.
France seeks extension to musicians' copyright
Despite a long and bitter campaign by the UK's leading musicians, to get music copyright extended to 95 years, in common with the US, the UK government remains adamantly opposed.
Now help is at hand from France. The French Prime Minister Nicholas Sarkozy, a big fan of veteran pop star Johnny Halliday, has declared his intention to make extending the copyright a priority when France takes over the EU Presidency in July 2008.
EMI stars in revolt
Tony Wadsworth, EMI's widely respected head of recorded music in the UK, has quit after 26 years, as "part of the ongoing restructuring of EMI Music".
The company's stars are restless.:Radiohead announced last month they would not be re-signing to EMI; Coldplay and Gorillaz are making unhappy noises over Wadsworth's departure and the Rolling Stones plan to release their next album independently.
Music Publishers kick UK internet radio into touch
Online radio site Pandora is to halt its UK operations following a breakdown in negotiations with royalties collectors.
Unlike many Web 2.0 sites, Pandora actively set out to engage with copyright bodies as part of efforts to legalise its activities.
Despite these efforts, the project has failed to find an "economically workable" arrangement with the Phonographic Performance Limited and the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society.
"It continues to astound me that the industry is not working more constructively to support the growth of services that introduce listeners to new music and that are totally supportive of paying fair royalties to the creators of music," said founder Tim Westergren.
Clear case here of the big boys trying to flex their muscle when dealing with minnows but totally failing to solve the biggest problem they faced recently, extending copyright for musicians to 70 years. Who do they think they are helping with this stance?
Row between EMI and artists breaks cover
Thom Yorke, leader of Cult rock band Radiohead has hit out at the chief of its former label after a news report claimed the rock band rejected a 3 million pound advance for its new album and demanded the rights to some of its older albums.
Since private equity mogul Guy Hands took over running the troubled record industry giant, he has issued regular press briefings expressing his shock and dismay at the excesses he has found.
However hiring the BBC's widely disliked former D-G John Birt, to revamp the A and R division, does not augur well for the artists' relationship with the company. Birt was notorious at the BBC for only communicating with staff in a form of mangled management speak.
Hands meanwhile has scolded the artists for not working harder, threatened to review and possibly cancel many of the advances common until now and possible drop underperforming stars.
After years of fleecing the artists for recording costs and leaving them to pick up touring costs, the record companies, facing with falling sales of CDs have been eyeing the lucrative touring circuit and new contracts now contain clauses enabling the record company to share the profits.
In a ground breaking deal recently Madonna left Warner Brothers, her record label of 24 years, to sign up with promoter and venue owner Live Nation in a deal that has sparked fresh debate over the future of record labels.
The US singer is thought to be getting a $17.5m cash advance with the US firm, the world's largest live music group, as well as another $50m in cash and shares and multimillion dollar windfalls for each of three albums she will commit to.
Digital Revolution a "wake-up" call for record industry
Guy Hands, the financier whose private equity group, Terra Firma, bought EMI in August, has circulated an email to staff spelling out his view that the music recording industry had been too slow to embrace the digital revolution.
Hands' letter was in response to the decision by Radiohead, now out of contract with the label, to release their latest album via the internet and at a price decided by fans. Hands described Radiohead's action as "a wake-up call".
Radiohead blaze a digital trail
In a move eagerly watched by the rest of the record industy, indie band Radiohead announced in October that their new release In Rainbows would only be available to order via www.radiohead.com. Fans can pre-order the download at any price they choose or pay £40 for a "discbox", which includes two CDs, two records, plus artwork and booklets.
Hands Off EMI Music, says Hands
“We will definitely keep EMI Music [the company’s recorded music arm]. We are committed to making it viable,” Mr Hands said at the sidelines of the Royal Television Society (RTS) annual conference in Cambridge.
"We have to get away from the cult of the hit, " he added. "This can’t be an industry where it is only possible to make a profit from selling two million albums.”
Nicoli leaves EMI with £1.65m payoff
Eric Nicoli is leaving EMI tomorrow with a £1.65m payoff and shares worth more than £1m after its new owner Terra Firma decided not to hire the veteran chief executive. Mr Nicoli, one of the longest-standing chief executives in the FTSE 250, ran the music company behind the Rolling Stones and Robbie Williams since 1999.
Terra Firma wins EMI
Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd.'s 2.4 billion-pound ($4.9 billion) offer for EMI Group Plc was accepted by 90.3 percent of EMI shareholders, at the start of August, ensuring the firm can get financing to buy the record label of the Beatles.
Prince gives away latest album free in Sunday newspaper
Pop star Prince has sparked fury among music retailers by giving away millions of copies of his latest album "Planet Earth" in a British Sunday newspaper.
Warner in talks with private equity firms over bid for EMI
Warner Music is in talks with more than one private equity firm about a potential break-up bid for EMI ahead of next Thursday's put-up or shut-up deadline. Hopes of a counter bid by Warner have been fading in the weeks since EMI agreed to a £2.4bn bid by private equity firm Terra Firma pitched at 265p a share.
Least not Last in Internet radio stakes
Three young internet pioneers have just harnessed a multi-million pound fortune with the sale of their internet radio and social networking site to US broadcasting giant CBS.
CBS plans to use its sales force to leverage advertising income at the music sharing site.
Sanctuary Group seeks shelter at Universal
Universal Music Group has agreed to buy struggling British rival Sanctuary for 44.5 million pounds ($88 million) to develop its merchandising, live agency and artist management businesses.
Sanctuary manages artists James Blunt and Elton John and markets merchandise for over 30 big-name acts including Oasis and The Who. It also handles live events for over 350 artists including Avril Lavigne, Amy Winehouse and James Morrison.
Warners ups the Ante
Warner Music is still considering its position on EMI and is more likely than not to make an improved offer before the deadline for offers expires in late June.
Alternatively, Warner could allow Terra Firma to buy EMI and then make an offer to the private equity group for EMI's recording unit at a later date. The Terra Firma-EMI proposal includes a 24 million pound break clause.
Here they go again - EMI signs up with Youtube
EMI has signed an agreement with Google's video-sharing website YouTube to allow its users to view "authorised" videos and recordings from the music firm's roster of artists.
EMI band Ok Go caused a mild sensation on YouTube last year with its music video that featured running machines
Amazon.com to sell DRM free music
Amazon.com announced on 16 May 2007 that it will open a digital music store later this year featuring songs without anti-piracy technology, enabling buyers to play songs on virtually any device and copy them to CDs.
British MPS back music copyright extension
British MPs have backed UK musicians’ call for an extension of the UK copyright on sound recordings to bring it into line with other countries.
MySpace snaps Photobucket
Only a few weeks ago they weren't on speaking terms but now they have announced their engagement and a wedding is on the cards. In early May comes the news that MySpace has snapped up the fast growing photo sharing website Photobucket for $250 million in cash.
Save Net Radio Campaign Builds Up Steam
More than 200,000 Pandora listeners contacted their US congressional representatives to protest at planned increases in listening royalties which could force Internet radio stations like Pandora and last.fm off the air. The entire fax infrastructure on Capitol Hill ground to a halt as listeners faxed in their protests.
News Corp and NBC Universal challenge YouTube
NBC Universal and News Corp are teaming up in an effort to challenge YouTube's pre-eminence. When it launches in the summer 2007 their new venture (as yet unamed) will feature thousands of hours of full-length TV shows and videos for free on AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo - shortly after they appear on television networks.
"On launch, this will be the largest advertising platform on earth," said Peter Chernin, president of News Corp.
Fox bites Youtube
20th Century Fox recently served YouTube with a subpoena demanding the company reveal the identity of a user who "uploaded copies of entire recent episodes of primetime series 24 and The Simpsons", before their official January airing.
HMV Chain Hit by Falling Sales
HMV said the value of the UK music market, including digital downloading, fell 14 percent during October and November. The music and books giant posted a first-half loss of 31.8 million pounds
UK Music Charts to include Downloaded Singles
The Official UK Chart Company announced that from January 2007 the UK singles charts will include songs downloaded from the internet.
UK recording artists continue fight to extend copyright
British recording artists have lost their three year battle to have their performance royalties extended from 50 years to 95 years in line with the States. British singer Sir Cliff Richard has been leading the campaign with support from leading musicians like Bono.
Victory for Procul Harem organist in royalties battle
The legal battle over authorship of the organ melody in Procul Harum's 1967 hit 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' has ended in court with founder member of the group Matthew Fisher being awarded 40% of the song's copyright.
Is Digital Rights Management Dead?
Is Digital Rights Management Dead? Peter Jenner former Pink Floyd manager, thinks it is.
"I see music as a commodity as being the driver. There's far more casual access to music and for those people, you need all of the music. It's no good just having Sony's catalogue. While for the fans, they want more from one artist. They want to get close to the artist, they want better packages".
Digital a Raw Deal For Some Artists
Weird Al Yankovic claims that he, along with some other recording artists, are getting a raw deal over record sales royalties, being paid less for digital downloads than CDs.
