SFX has a new plan, with a former AEG boss lined up to implement it
Don't worry everybody, flagging EDM peddler SFX may have abandoned its original plan for getting out of bankruptcy, but it has a new plan to take its place. A new plan everybody! Let's get those bleeps back into business.

And not only does it have a new plan, but SFX could be close to appointing a new boss too, who would be charged with the task of turning a profit from the dance music firm's portfolio of festivals. And that potential new boss, according to the Wall Street Journal, is former AEG Live chief Randy Phillips.

As much previously reported, SFX entered chapter eleven bankruptcy protection back in February after a tumultuous year which saw founder and CEO Robert FX Sillerman desperately and unsuccessfully try to take his struggling company back into private ownership.

The firm has since sought to sell off various periphery assets to help fund a revival of the core festivals business. The main two deals to date being the sale of marketing agency FameHouse to Universal Music, and ticketing outfit Flavorus to the major's parent company Vivendi.

Attempts to offload digital platform Beatport failed, though SFX insists that – since abandoning Beatport's ambitious move into streaming to refocus on selling downloads – that division is actually doing alright again.

Rumours that it was key creditors who forced the original chapter eleven plan to be dropped seem to be credible given what the WSJ is reporting about the new proposed arrangement.

Under the new deal, former owners of SFX, including Sillerman, would get nothing, with primary creditors Allianz SE and Axar Capital Management LP taking control of the business. Junior creditors, including the founders of many of the festivals SFX acquired, would also be offered smaller stakes.

Phillips departed AEG in 2013 and was last seen helping UK media company Global move its entertainment division into live music and the US via a short seven month stint as CEO of Global Entertainment. Pollstar first reported that he was being interviewed for the top job at the all-new streamlined SFX last week.

If all goes to plan, SFX could emerge from bankruptcy this autumn. The firm still has some decent brands and events on its books, and the company's new owners will presumably be hoping that Phillips – unlike Sillerman – might stay a little more focused on growing the core live entertainment side of the operation, rather than buying up any company that does something vaguely resembling dance music. Even the aforementioned Beatport might be spun off as a standalone business to allow SFX to stay focused on live events, sources say.

An announcement regarding the Phillips hire is likely imminent.

Kickass remains offline despite the clones
A former Kickass Torrents team member has confirmed that the various mirrors of the file-sharing platform that are still available online are not fully-working versions of the site, while he and others have cautioned people against signing up to KAT clones, which may be scams designed to distribute malware or grab logins and passwords and such like.

While it wasn't initially clear whether the arrest of the alleged boss of Kickass Torrents in Poland last week had actually taken the leading file-sharing hub offline, that does indeed seem to be the case. The US authorities - targeting servers used by the file-sharing operation in North America - seized various domains linked to Kickass as well as launching extradition proceedings against alleged overseer Artem Vaulin.

The former team member, going by the name Mr Black, spoke to Torrentfreak as an online community for those who used to help run the file-sharing site was launched. Though members of that community – former moderators and admins – don't seem to have access to any Kickass code, having never had any direct connection with the site's owner.

Of the online community, Black said: "We need to remember that Kickass Torrents is not simply about uploading, the heart and soul of KAT is our members, which are family and family is important as we all know. Nothing can ever take that away and no matter what happens we will not let our community down". He then added that "we guarantee that KAT will continue in one form or another and we will come back stronger than ever", though it's not entirely clear what that means.

Of course it remains to be seen if the US can successfully extradite Vaulin and, if so, what defence the KAT man will use in court, assuming it can be proven he ran the file-sharing operation. Black claims that the charges against Vaulin are "murky" at best. Though that mainly relies on the golden oldie file-sharing excuse: "KAT didn't actually host any copyright infringing files, we've never hear of 'contributory infringement', so that's all fine, right?" Though he did then add the more contemporary "DMCA compliance" excuse too.

It seems unlikely either of those defences would stand up in an American court if Vaulin ever got there and used them. Though whether that means that KAT is basically dead in the long-term remains to be seen. Meanwhile that other file-sharing hub, which has proven very resilient over the years despite spectacularly failing in court with the "but we didn't host any content" excuse - The Pirate Bay - has enjoyed a considerable traffic boost since its big rival's demise last week.

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Beyonce hits back at film-maker's 'Lemonade' rip off claims
Can everyone please take note that Beyonce's 'Lemonade' film is in no way similar to the short film 'Palinioa'? And even if it is, those similarities in no way constitute anything even nearing copyright infringement.

Not my plea, ladies and gentleman, but those of the lawyer representing the singer and her company Parkwood Entertainment, who were sued in June by independent filmmaker and 'Palinioa' director Matthew Fulks.

He says that various elements of the film that accompanied Beyonce's most recent album are taken from his work, including 'graffiti and persons with heads down", "red persons with eyes obscured", "parking garage", "feet on the street" and "side-lit ominous figures". Basically, says Fulks, Beyonce nicked the "total concept and feel" of his short for her mini-film and its trailer.

But not so says lawyer Tom Ferber, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Yes, the two films both document "a distressed lover's pain", but a common theme, and any other stylistic similarities there may or may not be, do not constitute copyright infringement.

Says he in a legal filing: "A straightforward comparison of the parties' works provides a textbook example of what does not constitute a legally cognisable claim of infringement". He adds that Fulks legal claim "describes elements and features of the works in abstractions so broad as to be meaningless - because, as even a cursory review of the parties' works makes clear, at the level of copyrightable expression the works are markedly dissimilar".

Team Beyonce want the case dismissed forthwith. A court hearing is now set for 25 Aug.

BMG signs Labrinth
Labrinth, who is, let us not even begin to forget, not only a "chart-topping singer and songwriter", but also a "producer and multi-instrumentalist", has signed an exclusive songwriting agreement with BMG. Good times.

Although probably best known for his collaborations with that there Tinie Tempah, Labrinth has also written and produced for the likes of Rihanna, Emeli Sande, Kygo, The Weeknd, Plan B and Mike Posner. Though superstar collaborations aside, this new deal comes as Labrinth preps his own somewhat delayed second album 'Take Me To The Truth', which is now due out later this year.

BMG UK's VP Creative Kate Sweetsur confirmed she was "delighted" to be working with Labrinth, which is BMG code for "THRILLED" by the way. "We're absolutely delighted to welcome Labrinth to BMG", said she. "The deal was very much a joint effort with Shani Gonzales in BMG's LA office. Working internationally across everything we do is really important to us as a company".

"Labrinth's track record speaks for itself", she added, before speaking for it anyway. "He's firmly established himself as a chart-topping artist, a highly sought after collaborator and one of the most exciting songwriters of his generation. Being able to add him to the BMG roster demonstrates our continued desire and ability to work with the best creative talent in the music industry today".

Hurrah!

Verizon buys Yahoo
So, US telecoms firm Verizon yesterday confirmed it was acquiring the core business of early-days-web-giant Yahoo for a neat $4.83 billion, which is not far off a tenth of what Microsoft offered for the company back in 2008. So that's fun.

Though the Verizon acquisition doesn't include Yahoo's 15% stake in these-days-web-giant Alibaba, or its 36% stake in the separate Yahoo Japan business, shares which are currently worth more than eight times the value of this deal.

A separate rebranded investment business will also emerge from this arrangement that will retain those lucrative share-holdings. One of the reasons for selling the core Yahoo business is to separate it from the Alibaba equity in a tax efficient way, some shareholders fearing that Yahoo management could have exploited the company's stake in the Chinese web firm to prop up its own search, social and content businesses.

Regulators and Yahoo shareholders must approve the Verizon purchase, which means the transaction won't likely be complete until early next year. The plan, though, is to merge Yahoo with AOL, the other flagging former internet star acquired by Verizon last year.

Although both Yahoo and AOL now sit in the shadow of modern day web giants like Facebook, Google and, indeed, Alibaba, they both also boast a number of popular online brands amongst their respective assets and Yahoo alone still somehow reaches over a billion people each month across its sites, and they can't all be just looking a porn on Tumblr.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong told TechCrunch yesterday that he hopes, once combined, AOL/Yahoo will be able to secure a monthly reach of over two billion people which should, he reckons, help the company compete against those bigger rivals in the web advertising space. Quite how that merger will work, and which brands will survive and which will fall, all remains to be seen.

Hey, remember how Yahoo was an original pioneer in streaming music? Launch, anybody? Ah, those were the days.

David Bowie's Lazarus musical coming to London
David Bowie's musical 'Lazarus' is coming to London for a four month run later this year.

The show, which opened in New York late last year, is inspired by Walter Tevis's novel 'The Man Who Fell To Earth', is co-written by Bowie with Irish playwright Edna Walsh and is directed by Ivo van Hove. Bowie, of course, also starred in Nicolas Roeg's 1976 film adaptation of the book. The performance features songs from Bowie's last album 'Black Star', as well as older material, such as 'Changes' and 'Heroes'.

The cast of the New York production will transfer over to the UK run, with 'Dexter' star Michael C Hall playing lead character Thomas Newton, Michael Esper playing Valentine and Sophia Anna Caruso playing Girl.

More information about the show here.

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DJ Fresh to quit touring
DJ Fresh has announced that he plans to quit touring next year because he "cannot continue to be part of this industry".

"I've decided to come off the road altogether after this year (Jan next year to be exact)", he wrote on Facebook. "If you want to see me, come out to one of the gigs between now and then. It's time to begin the next chapter of my life. And it's way overdue. Need to think about my health and life. I cannot continue to be part of this industry. I hate everything about it. It's fake, soul destroying and promotes everything BUT experimentation and heartfelt emotion (which is what music means to me)".

Although that sounds like a damning indictment of the entire music industry, he went on: "I just want to add that this is in no way related to my record label/labels who have all been fantastic (there are some good ones out there!). Maybe one day I'll write a book, and explain it then".

There is no book yet though, so for now you can read the details of some of those final shows instead.

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Insane Clown Posse to march on Washington
Amazingly, that whole thing with Insane Clown Posse trying to get their fanbase – known as Juggalos - removed from the FBI's list of dangerous gangs in the US is still ongoing. And their latest plan to get this done is to march on Washington.

You might say that gathering together a lot of people deemed to be a threat to society and then telling them to walk towards the centre of government isn't such a great idea, but that's because all the lists you're on are super boring. Also, gathering is what Juggalos do, and possibly what caused this problem in the first place.

Speaking at the annual Gathering Of The Juggalos festival, the duo's Violent J told fans, according to Detroit News: "In 2017, the weekend of 17 Sep, we need you. We're gonna do a fucking march on Washington. They call the Juggalo World a movement, right? Well, let's move! We are going to explain to the world who the fuck we really are".

Quite why they're planning this march fourteen months in advance isn't entirely clear – though after five years of battling the FBI gang listing, maybe they've just lost their sense of urgency. What do we want? The declassification of our core fanbase as a "loosely organised hybrid gang". When do we want it? Ah fuck it, whenever.

J also said that they would host a picnic and play a free show for juggalos at Jiffy Lube Live in nearby Bristow, Virginia the same weekend. Though despite this and his forthright intro, his speech then sort of tailed off a bit, with him admitting: "We don't know what's going to happen. We could totally embarrass ourselves, and there could be 25 people".

As previously reported, ICP have been involved in ongoing litigation against the FBI since their fans were included in its National Gang Threat report in 2011. The duo's lawsuit was dismissed in 2014, but was reinstated on appeal last September.

Sia, Skrillex, Wretch 32, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Sia is going to appear in the new My Little Pony movie, playing new character Songbird Serenade. The film is due out in late 2017.

• Skrillex and Rick Ross have released 'Purple Lamborghini', taken from the soundtrack album for new movie 'Suicide Squad', which is released on 5 Aug.

• Wretch 32 has released new single 'All A Dream', featuring Knox Brown. The track is taken from his forthcoming album, 'Growing Over Life'.

• Regina Spektor will release her new album, 'Remember Us To Life', on 30 Sep. Here's first single 'Bleeding Heart'.

• Alexis Taylor has released the video for 'I Never Lock That Door' from his new solo album, 'Piano'.

• Russian Circles have released yet another new track, this one called 'Afrika'. It's taken from their new album 'Guidance', out on 5 Aug.

• Shakin Stevens has announced a new album, 'Echoes Of Our Times'. "Some of the tracks directly relate to stories and situations about my family past, while others are more of a social comment relating to the world that my ancestors, and we, live in", he explains. It's out on 16 Sep.

• Avenged Sevenfold have announced that they will be touring the UK, supported by Disturbed and In Flames, in January next year. The shows will conclude with a performance at London's O2 Arena on 21 Jan. Tickets on sale this Friday.

• Corinne Bailey Rae will be commencing a UK tour at Leeds Town Hall on 28 Oct, which will conclude at the Shepherd's Bush Empire on 8 Nov.

Donut-licking got Ariana Grande banned from the White House
Ariana Grande seems to have lost out on the opportunity to perform for Barack Obama because of that time she licked a donut and then didn't pay for it, and also because she said 'ass' on Twitter once.

As you may remember, a video of Grande licking a donut in a bakery and announcing that she hates both America and Americans was obtained by TMZ in July last year. This resulted in not one but two apologies from the singer, of varying quality.

An email chain between members of the Democratic National Committee, leaked on WikiLeaks, seemingly shows that two months later Grande's antics got her turned down for a performance at the White House.

The reasoning, apparently, was that because she said she hates America, it might be seen as double standards that the Democrats were criticising Donald Trump for saying racist things about Mexicans, while welcoming someone who said daft things about America into the White House. Or something.

That might seem like a pretty spurious reason, though the fact that Grande hadn't been vilified in the same way as Trump had already been raised by Republican congressmen Jeff Duncan. Oh America, you silly billy.

The vetting process also flagged up that, when a fan on Twitter had referred to Grande's half-brother as "that homo", the singer had responded by saying "'that homo' gets more ass than you'll ever get in your life".

No one actually mentions that licking a donut you don't plan to buy is disgusting, and that she should be banned from the White House in case she starts randomly licking things. Though the email declining to book Grande does just say, "Nope, sorry". And maybe that's what that meant.