Also today: Storm Lilian causes live music delays and cancellations

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Today's email is edition #5286

Fri 23 Aug 2024

In today's CMU Daily: Impact reports are a way for large live music companies to park climate change issues, say Massive Attack, and there are too many NGOs taking public money but achieving little. “We don’t need more pledging just put it into action”, adds Robert Del Naja, ahead of Massive Attack’s Bristol mini-festival that will be the lowest-carbon concert of its scale ever held


One Liners: boohooMAN clothing, Dolly Parton lipstick, Kid Cudi cake mix and DJ Khaled milk drink; Spotify under scrutiny in South Korea; NetEase Cloud Music financials; Bandcamp's Linkfire tie-up; Camp Bestival to cut Shropshire edition in 2025; A$AP Rocky release delayed by leaks and clearances + more


Also today: Stormy weather across the UK has impacted on this week’s outdoor live music events, including New Order concert, Creamfields and Leeds Festival; both Pandora and comedians seek summary judgements in their favour in joke copyright dispute


Music industry needs to stop writing endless impact reports and  “pledging” on climate change, says Massive Attack’s Del Naja 

Massive Attack say that the live music industry is a sector “which has a lot to say about climate change, but unfortunately it’s not doing much about it”. 

The band have been addressing the environmental impact of their own shows for years now. They began working with the Tyndall Centre For Climate Change Research five years ago, commissioning and publishing a report that set out a roadmap for “super low carbon live music”.


“It's been five years and no-one’s shown much interest” in that work, the band’s Robert Del Naja tells the BBC. “A couple of bands, a couple of promoters, but very little interest. In fact, most other promoters say ‘we've got our own report’, which is slightly ridiculous because those reports are written by their own team. So that’s been really quite frustrating”.


These comments were made ahead of the mini-festival Massive Attack is staging in Bristol this weekend, which has been set up to “trial new standards for the decarbonisation of live music” and hopes to be the lowest-carbon concert of its scale ever held. 


The official blurb for this weekend’s show - which also features sets from Killer Mike, Lankum, Sam Morton and DJ Milo - positions the event as “the culmination of 25 years of climate activism on the part of the band and a first physical fruition of their collaboration with climate scientists and analysts”. 

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ONE LINERS

Deals

  • Primary Wave Music has partnered with composer and flugelhorn player Chuck Mangione, acquiring his music publishing and other music rights. 
  • boohooMAN has launched a collaboration with South African ampiano duo Major League DJz to release a 54-piece collection of clothing. 
  • Jake Owen and Keith Gale have launched Good Company Entertainment Records, an extension of their existing artist management company. 
  • Dolly Parton has launched a new cosmetic line, Dolly Beauty, in collaboration with Scent Beauty. 
  • Kid Cudi has partnered with Bisquick to release a limited-edition funnel cake mix. 
  • DJ Khaled has partnered with Nesquik for a new cinnamon bun flavoured milk drink. 
  • Kira Lynn has signed a worldwide co-publishing and administration agreement with Muserk. 

Legal

  • Spotify has come under scrutiny from South Korea's antitrust regulator over its subscription cancellation policy. 
  • Two former Kakao executives have been indicted without detention over the 2020 acquisition of production studio Baram Pictures by Kakao Entertainment.
  • Yamaha Music UK has reported the theft of a container holding 1300 PSR-F52 portable keyboards.

Streaming, digital & broadcast

  • China’s NetEase Cloud Music has reported financial results for the first half of 2024, with revenue increasing 4.1% year-over-year to RMB4.1 billion or approximately $568.8 million.
  • Instagram has introduced a new feature allowing users to add a song to their profile, which many people are comparing to MySpace's functionality in the early 2000s. 
  • Splash, an AI music startup known for its Roblox game 'Splash Skate And Music', has received certification from Fairly Trained. 
  • Apple Music has partnered with Manchester-based clubbing brand The Warehouse Project to produce spatial audio DJ sets. 
  • Bandcamp has teamed up with music marketing platform Linkfire, offering artists the ability to include Bandcamp as a destination on their Linkfire landing pages.

Live

  • CTS EVENTIM has reported accelerated growth in the second quarter of 2024, with consolidated revenue increasing by 21.2% to €793.6 million compared to the same period last year.
  • Camp Bestival has announced it will not hold its Shropshire event at Weston Park in 2025.
  • Ticket touting platform SeatGeek has launched Parties, a new ticket-sharing feature, which is being rolled out ahead of the start of this year’s NFL season. 
  • Usher has resumed his ‘Past Present Future’ tour after a neck injury forced him to postpone Atlanta dates. 
  • The Carlton Club, a 111-year-old community music venue in Manchester, has launched a fundraiser to fight an eviction notice from its landlord The Building Company. 

Artist News

  • A$AP Rocky has delayed the release of his new album 'Don't Be Dumb' due to "leaks and sample clearances". 
  • Flying Lotus has confirmed he was responsible for the creation of two ringtones used on the Apple iPhone. 
  • Imagine Dragons drummer Daniel Platzman has left the band to focus on his film composing career. 
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Storm Lilian is causing chaos across the UK with Leeds, Creamfields and New Order already affected

Leeds Festival has been forced to delay its opening and streamline its opening day programming after Storm Lilian hit the festival’s site resulting in 60mph winds. Those already camping at the festival were urged to stay in their tents this morning, while people still travelling to the event were asked to delay their arrival. 


Extreme weather conditions also meant New Order had to cancel a show in Cardiff Bay yesterday. Meanwhile festival-goers camping at Creamfields in Cheshire have also been battling with some very strong winds. 


In a statement first thing this morning, the organisers of Leeds Festival said that they were optimistic that the extreme weather would subside as the day progressed, but were clear that there would be delays and a reduction in performances. 


That statement confirmed that the BBC Radio 1 stage and Aux stage would not be able to open at all today, with a later message adding the Chevron stage to that list. 


An update at midday said that the arena that houses the festival stages, due to open at 11am, would not be open before 1.30pm at the earliest, and also asked festival goers in Leeds City Centre waiting for buses to the festival site to consider delaying their journey for a time. 


The most recent update at 2.40pm said that the first live act on the festival’s main stage, Bru-C, was due to perform on schedule at 3.10pm. The BBC Introducing stage was also expected to get going at around the same time.



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Pandora is “scrambling” for “meritless” defences to “bury” comedians in “exorbitant legal costs”, says latest filing in comedy streaming lawsuit

Pandora has asked a US court to dismiss a lawsuit filed against it by a group of comedians, insisting that it followed “longstanding custom and practice” in the comedy industry when licensing and streaming comedy content, and that late in the day allegations that it didn’t have all the necessary licences in place are unfair and invalid. 


Among other things, Pandora reckons its licences from the major record companies cover rights that the comedians claim were not properly licensed. But in their own court filing, the comedians lambast that claim, insisting that “plain language” in Pandora’s deals with the majors “make it clear not only that no underlying third-party copyrights or other rights” are covered, “but also that Pandora must obtain those rights”. 


Comedians including Andrew Dice Clay, Bill Engvall and Ron White, and the estates of Robin Williams and George Carlin, have all sued the streaming service over allegations it streamed recordings of their comedy with only half the required licences in place. 


Pandora had licences covering the recordings of the comedians’ routines from the labels and distributors that provided them. However, they did not have explicit licences covering the material contained in those recordings - so the equivalent of the licences streaming services have to get from music publishers and songwriters when they stream recorded music.



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