CMU Daily 14.08.17: SoundCloud thrown $169.5m lifeline, judge trims DJ's legal case against Taylor Swift

SoundCloud confirms both new funding and new management
SoundCloud was thrown a $169.5 million lifeline on Friday, which is a pretty nice lifeline to have, especially when you've been drowning for several months now. As expected, it is boutique bank The Raine Group and Singapore's state investment fund Temasek providing the new cash, which will buy the flagging streaming firm a bunch more time as it continues to try and shift its business into the more conventional streaming space.

The new cash injection will be accompanied by a change at the top of the SoundCloud business. Although co-founder Alexander Ljung will stay on as Chairman of the board, the top executive role will now be filled by Kerry Trainor, who previously headed up video sharing platform Vimeo. Another former Vimeo exec is also joining the top team, with Michael Weissman becoming Chief Operating Officer. Ljung's fellow founder Eric Wahlforss remains involved as Chief Product Officer.

While the new investment has resulted in a change in management - and a considerable write down of the digital company's valuation - it will bring to an end weeks of speculation that the end is nigh for all things SoundCloud. The digital firm has been far from financially secure for sometime now, though the doom and gloom predictions heightened after the company laid off 40% of its workforce and talked about only having enough money in the tin to get the business through to quarter four.

The Raine Group and Temasek clearly believe that there is still an opportunity to build a long-term profitable business on the back the SoundCloud platform, which still plays an important music discovery role among early adopters and decision makers within the music community. Though in recent years the company has shifted away from its original business of selling hosting services to content creators and instead moved into ad-funded and subscription streaming. Which puts SoundCloud into a very competitive market where even the major players, who have signed up millions of paying users, are currently loss-making.

But for now, for certain, Team SoundCloud can relax a little. Though there'll presumably be pressure on Trainor and Weissman to come up with a realistic game plan in the relatively near future. It remains to be seen if they are as optimistic as Ljung about the firm's chances of signing up music consumers, rather than creators, to premium accounts.

Meanwhile, here's some optimistic quotes about the future. Says new boss Trainor: "As a huge fan of the SoundCloud platform since its founding, I deeply admire what Alex and Eric have built. There is only one SoundCloud and its importance to creators and music culture is undeniable. I'm very excited to join this talented team and build the next chapter of growth around SoundCloud's mission to empower audio creators. I look forward to sharing more about our plan and path forward in the months ahead".

Ljung hailed the start of the next chapter of his business by declaring: "Now in its tenth year, I'm proud to say SoundCloud stands as an indispensable part of global music culture. I look forward to fully dedicating my time to leading the board and helping drive SoundCloud's long term strategic vision, and forging strategic partnerships and connections with industry partners and our one-of-a-kind creative community. With Kerry's love of music and sharp business acumen, I know SoundCloud is positioned for continued success for many years to come."

Speaking for the money men, Fred Davis at Raine added: "SoundCloud is a unique and essential music platform for new and developing artists. For ten years, SoundCloud has been the birthplace of genre-breaking musical movements in electronica and hip hop. We are excited to partner with Temasek on this investment and are confident our involvement can ensure it remains the most artist-friendly music creation and streaming platform in the world".

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Radio DJ has case against Taylor Swift cut down before jury deliberations
The US judge overseeing the Taylor Swift grope case threw out most of the claims made against the pop star on Friday after a week of testimonies.

Swift accuses former radio DJ David Mueller of groping her during a meet and greet at a concert in Detroit in 2013. It was Mueller who first went legal, after he lost his radio job shortly after the alleged incident with Swift. He claimed he'd been sacked because of the allegations, and sued the singer and her team for defamation. She then responded by suing him for assault and battery.

As previously reported, both Swift and her mother took to the witness stand last week and stood firm with their claims that, while having his photo taken with the musician, Mueller reached under Swift's skirt and "grabbed her ass". The former DJ was less forthright in his earlier testimony, while his ex-girlfriend – who was with Mueller at the time of the alleged incident – said she hadn't seen any inappropriate touching, but then she was facing forward having her photo taken at the time and "I don't have eyes in the back of my head".

According to the Associated Press, the court also heard about tensions between Mueller and his bosses at radio station KYGO that pre-dated the Swift incident. Mueller and his then co-host had had disagreements over plans to introduce a female co-presenter onto their apparently flagging show, with the existing presenters wanting to recruit someone from outside the radio industry, while management wanted an experienced DJ.

On Friday, after Swift's legal team had announced they weren't planning on presenting any witnesses in addition to those already called by the plaintiff's side, judge William Martinez said that Mueller's team had not presented sufficient evidence that Swift had set out to get the DJ fired. Various elements of his lawsuit were dismissed by the judge, though the DJ's claim that some of Swift's management team were liable for "tortious interference with contracts" will still go before the jury. As will Swift's allegations of assault.

Consideration of those remaining matters will continue in court later today. Though the conclusion of Friday's proceedings definitely swung in Swift's favour.

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Liverpool mayor confirms Hope & Glory investigation underway
Liverpool's elected mayor has confirmed to local newspaper the Liverpool Echo that his investigation is now underway into the shambles that was the Hope & Glory festival, which took place in the city the weekend before last.

As previously reported, day two of the indie rock pop fest was called off after queues, over-crowding and the late-running of stages marred day one. After unconventional communications from organisers over the festival weekend, chief promoter Lee O'Hanlon then posted a lengthy statement last Monday shifting much of the blame onto the event's production management provider and council officials.

But mayor Joe Anderson seemed keen to shove the blame back at O'Hanlon and the Hope & Glory company when speaking to the Echo last week. He said: "As the local authority, we will do absolutely everything in our power to fully investigate how Hope & Glory's organisers got things so wrong. We will draw up a detailed timeline of events and look at how we can ensure that things like this do not happen in the future".

Keen to portray the city's council as both competent supporters and producers of major events, Anderson went on: "As a capital of culture, Liverpool is home to some of the best free and paid festivals in the country. The ones we run ourselves are always incredibly popular and well-received, and the private ones we work alongside, again, generally go without any problem".

He added: "From Africa OYE, Fusion, Liverpool Loves and Pride, to our own huge events such as LIMF, the Three Queens, the Giants, Liverpool knows how to run a successful festival. If it was left to us, I'm sure the Hope & Glory festival would have gone without a hitch but, unfortunately, it wasn't our event and the organisers allowed it to fall apart".

As the failed festival continues to be dissected by both officials and the public, those who bought tickets to the event are most interested in refunds, of course. After some confusion over who was responsible for refunding ticket monies, some disgruntled punters started to see refunds come through last week.

Though Eventbrite and Skiddle – which powered ticket sales on the festival's own website – said that they were paying for those refunds out of their own pockets, because the Hope & Glory company – which had already received at least some of the ticketing income - hadn't yet made an official ruling on the matter. In an update on Facebook, before the festival's official page was taken down, O'Hanlon said he was now in dispute with one of the directors of the company set up to run the event.

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More festival queue chatter on the social networks this weekend
While nothing occurred quite on the level of the Hope & Glory festival this weekend, at least two major music events were subject to negative chatter online due to significant queues to get on site, possibly because of increased security measures at the gates.

As the Boomtown Fair got under near Winchester last week, there was plenty of talk online about the queuing situation on Thursday. Some had to wait hours to enter the fest, seemingly the result of the gates opening late, some issues with ticket scanning kit and the increased security. A fake Twitter account putting out unapologetic responses to disgruntled punters didn't help calm the crowds.

Organisers subsequently told the BBC that weeks of rain had had a "knock-on effect" on the event's site, resulting in the late opening. They added that they did "everything we could" to try and help those caught up in the queues, where ironically it was the hot weather causing problems for those waiting in line for several hours to get on site.

Meanwhile, over the weekend itself, it was London's Sunfall Festival where the big talking point on the social networks were the queues, with some saying panic ensued at times over fears the crowd waiting to gain access to the event could get out of control.

On a seemingly genuine Twitter account, organisers stated: "For everyone's health and safety, heightened security/search measures have been put in place. This is causing some delay on entrance. We are putting additional resources in place to try and speed up the entry process, we appreciate your patience on this matter".

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TicketWeb US to boost fan engagement tools via start-up acquisition
The US wing of Live Nation's grass roots ticketing platform TicketWeb last week announced it had acquired the fan engagement technology of a company called Strobe Labs.

TicketWeb, which will integrate said tech into its own platform, says that Strobe's system gives "venues and promoters a simple and powerful way to learn more about their fans and engage them more effectively". And who doesn't like simple and powerful ways to learn about their fans and engage them more effectively? No one, that's who.

Says the SVP Small Venues & Clubs at Live Nation's Ticketmaster North America, which is Matt Shearer by the way: "Strobe's platform completely simplifies the complex process of fan segmentation and ad creation and placement. When you combine that with Ticketmaster's massive reach, we think it instantly becomes a leading marketing tool in live music to help clubs connect with their fans and find incremental audiences".

And if you're wondering what the dudes at Strobe Labs think about this deal, well, co-founder Alex Oberg says: "The entire team at Strobe is proud to join a market leader like Ticketmaster. We've spent years developing best-in-class technology and are THRILLED to now be able to deploy at scale". Of course you are Alex, of course you are.

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Kesha discusses the pain that inspired new album 'Rainbow'
Kesha published a short essay about her new album 'Rainbow' as it came out on Friday. The singer's third studio album has been much delayed, of course, because of her multifarious legal battle with one-time collaborator and label boss Dr Luke.

Work on the album began while Kesha was in rehab in early 2014, as she recalls in the post on Refinery29. She writes: "I was in a very dark place. I was alone and scared in rehab for an eating disorder that had gotten wildly out of control. I wasn't allowed to work or have any technology - no phone, no computer, no texting, no social media. At first, they wouldn't let me have any kind of instrument either. I begged them to let me have a keyboard - even a toy keyboard. I had so many emotions, and I didn't know how else to deal with them. Writing songs is the only way I know how to process things".

She says she "begged and begged", and eventually they allowed her boyfriend to send her the keyboard. "Every day I sat there on the floor and played", she goes on. "This is how the song 'Rainbow' came to be. The whole album idea and tour and everything, came from me crying and singing and playing and dreaming until my hour was up and they took the keyboard away again. Every day I would just cry and play that song because I knew I had to get through that incredibly hard time. I knew I had to change and learn to take care of and love myself, and I had no idea how to even begin".

She later adds: "I wanted to call the album 'Rainbow' because after the storm, there's a rainbow - and recently, I feel like I've gone through some things that have felt like a storm in my life. This was my way of telling myself that I was going to make it through".

You can read the full article here.

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Bon Iver cancel mini-fest ten days after announcing it
Earlier this month Bon Iver announced a new mini-festival that would take place in Mexico next January at the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya.

The event, called Days Have No Numbers, would include three Bon Iver gigs, plus sets from the likes of Sylvan Esso and Poliça, and some other shenanigans like workshops and yoga and such like.

Does it sound like fun? Yeah, fun, fun, fun. Well it's been cancelled. So, you're out of fucking luck. Why has it been cancelled just ten days after being announced? Unforeseen circumstances, my friend. Circumstances that were never even just once foreseen.

Says the non-event's official website: "This event has been cancelled and full refunds are being issued automatically to all booked guests. We are very sorry for the inconvenience".

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Republican Super PAC hopes Kid Rock will run for Senate
There is at least some support within the Republican movement for Kid Rock to stand in the party's name in the next election for US Senate, and that support is coming from an organisation set up to fund Republican candidates, so that's a good start.

The Senate Leadership Fund is one of those 'super PAC' money-disher-out-things that you get in American politics. A relatively new fund, it's stated ambition is "breaking down the freedom-choking, job-killing, big-spending agenda of former President Obama and his liberal cronies in Congress". Which means, it says, "protecting and expanding the Republican Senate majority when Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, together with their army of left-wing activists, try to take it back in 2018".

All of which means Donald Trump-fan Kid Rock is probably right up this super PAC's street. And, as previously reported, he has let it be known that he's thinking about standing in the 2018 elections to represent Michigan in the American Senate.

Asked about the musician's political ambitions, Senate Leadership Fund President Steven Law told C-SPAN last week: "We'd be actually very interested in his candidacy. I certainly wouldn't count him out. The truth of the matter is that he's done a lot in his home state philanthropically, he's a pretty smart guy, he thinks about policy, and he's a shrewd businessman. If you're watching, Kid, we hope you run".

It's not known if Kid Rock watches C-SPAN. But in his most recent blog post on political matters late last month, he wrote: "We will be scheduling a press conference in the next six weeks or so ... and if I decide to throw my hat in the ring for US Senate, believe me... it's game on mthrfkers".

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