In today's CMU Daily: The disaster-unicorn formerly known as Utopia Music has been served with bankruptcy proceedings after a specialist blockchain law firm took legal action over a CHF 23,000 debt. Proper Group AG told CMU today that the debt has been settled, and it’s confident it can head off the bankruptcy action

One Liners: New releases from SOPHIE, The Cure, Two Shell, Paleface Swiss, Shakira, Oh Annie Oh, Blackout Problems, Lake Malice + more

Also today: This week’s Labour Party conference passed a motion on AI that was backed by the Musicians’ Union calling on government to ensure that AI policies balance the interests of workers and businesses, which, for the MU, also means balancing the interests of musicians and labels; Mariah Carey is trying very hard to get a song-theft lawsuit filed against her over ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ dismissed

Plus: Humdrum is CMU Approved

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A Swiss court has initiated bankruptcy proceedings against Proper Group AG

Proper Group AG, the Swiss company formerly known as Utopia Music AG, has been hit with bankruptcy proceedings by a court in Switzerland. The “provisional announcement of bankruptcy” was filed on Tuesday after Proper Group failed to attend a court hearing relating to a debt of CHF 23,000.

The court action was brought by MME Legal, a Zug-based legal consultancy that describes itself as an “innovative consulting company” that “supports and represents companies and private individuals in all economic and future-oriented matters”. In particular, MME highlights its expertise in blockchain and digital assets, saying “we guide our clients in developing, operating and offering digital or blockchain-based applications”. 

A Proper Group spokesperson told CMU that the company was “unaware that the claimant had initiated proceedings and consequently missed a hearing on Tuesday. As a result, the court issued a default ruling in favour of MME Legal”. 

The company’s spokesperson says, “We are disappointed that bankruptcy proceedings have been triggered. Our company was unfortunately unaware that legal proceedings over a minor debt were taking place, and as a result we were not represented at the court hearing”. 

CMU understands that this is a result of a downsizing exercise that has been taking place across the business and that there were no appropriate staff on hand in the company’s Swiss offices to receive and process the hearing notice in good time. As a result, the company is putting mechanisms in place to ensure that the same thing does not happen again. 

However, the bankruptcy proceedings mean that the company will now have to demonstrate to the court that this debt has been settled and that it is more generally solvent.

Touring Coordinator – Europe // Allotment Productions SRL

UK Publicist // Cosa Nostra PR

The Music Works // Artistic Director

Account Director // DIABOLICAL

Senior PR Manager/Publicist // Infectious PR

Paid Media Manager // Playliveartist

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Musicians face “David and Goliath” battle with AI companies that could see “British Music consigned to history” says MU boss in Labour Party conference speech

The UK’s Labour Party has passed a motion on AI at its annual conference which says that “the interests of workers and businesses must be balanced” as AI is developed, and that major corporations “must not be allowed to use artificial intelligence in a way that exploits working people or diminishes their rights and pay”. 

The motion was backed by the Musicians’ Union with Naomi Pohl, MU General Secretary, giving a speech to conference delegates laying out the MU’s key priorities relating to AI.  

“We acknowledge the extraordinary benefits AI can bring to society across many industries, including the creative industries”, Pohl told the conference. “However, in music, we are once again facing a David and Goliath battle. Where big tech and major international corporations ride roughshod over the livelihoods and rights of our members, the music makers: performers, artists, songwriters, composers and music producers”.

Mariah Carey says‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ song-theft case based on “an unprotectable jumble” of musical elements

Mariah Carey reckons that a songwriter who filed a song-theft lawsuit against her in relation to ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ has presented “muddled, frivolous and bad faith” arguments in a bid to stop that legal action from being dismissed. 

Lawyers working for Carey, her co-writer on the Christmas hit and label Sony Music claim that they have “methodically” demonstrated that the musical elements shared by ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ and an earlier song of the same name are “unprotectable, individually and in combination” under copyright law. 

In response, they argue, the writer of the earlier song, Vince Vance, has basically tried to distract the court with “conclusory and often irrelevant arguments”. 

Vance co-wrote a song called ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ that was originally released in 1989, five years before Carey’s Christmas hit.

🎧 Approved: Humdrum

Chicago’s Humdrum, the brainchild of Loren Vanderbilt, feels like a sonic time machine. Drawing inspiration from the shimmering guitar jangle and melancholic tones of IRS-era REM and the post-punk rhythms of New Order, Vanderbilt’s project explores the intersection where indiepop meets shoegaze. 

Humdrum’s latest single, ‘Eternal Blue’, embodies this fusion, melding lush, reverb-soaked guitars with a propulsive bassline that Vanderbilt says was the song’s foundation.

“The bassline really kicked off what would become ‘Eternal Blue’”, Vanderbilt explains. “I liked the groove and found myself locked in, playing it on loop and kinda dancing to myself, trying to figure out where to take it. I was working on it at home and brought it to the practice room one day with a drum machine beat, and the other elements just kinda fell into place from there. The song is about the suffocating isolation of loneliness and believing that you can only be resuscitated by true love”. 

With crystalline production and swirling emotional intensity, ‘Eternal Blue’ reflects both on the past and hints at where Humdrum is headed, confidently navigating the space between shoegaze haze and indiepop clarity.

🎧Watch the video for ‘Eternal Blue’ here

Releases & Tours

• SOPHIE has released her posthumous eponymous album ‘SOPHIE’.
• The Cure have released their first new single in sixteen years, ‘Alone’. Their new album 'SONGS OF A LOST WORLD' is out 1 Nov.
• Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Joe Goddard have collaborated on new single ‘Neptunes’.
• Two Shell have released their new single ‘Everybody Worldwide’. Their eponymous debut album is out 25 Oct.
• Oh Annie Oh has released her new EP ‘Block N Delete’.
• Julieta Rada has released her new album ‘Candombe’.
• Paleface Swiss have released their new single ‘Hatred’. Their new album ‘Cursed’ is out 3 Jan.
• Blackout Problems and Lake Malice have collaborated on new single 'Quicker Than Death'.
• Shakira has released her new single ‘Soltera’.
• Rey Pila have released their new single ‘No Me Arrastres’.
• King Pari have released their new single ‘Somethin Somethin’. Their debut album ‘There It Goes’ is out 18 Oct.