In today's CMU Daily: Barclays has ended its sponsorship deal with Live Nation’s UK festivals, following months of controversy about the partnership. Numerous artists pulled out of The Great Escape, Latitude, Download and the Isle Of Wight Festival in protest at the bank providing financial services to defence companies that have supplied weapons to Israel

One Liners: Spotify launches in-house creative agency; Ed Sheeran remains UK’s most played artist; Nas to adapt 1984 hip hop movie for Broadway; Paul McCartney, Crowded House, Headie One tour dates

Also today: Explosive K-pop dispute goes legal; Live Nation arbitration battle discussed in appeals court; Feid sued over uncredited loops

Plus: The Setlist podcast examines the latest twist in the music publishers’ battle over Spotify’s audiobooks bundling

Barclays ends sponsorship of Live Nation festivals after growing boycott

Barclays has suspended its sponsorship of Live Nation’s UK festivals this summer, including Download, Latitude and the Isle Of Wight Festival. It follows a high profile campaign against that sponsorship - which led to many artists pulling out of Live Nation’s events - in protest at the bank providing financial services to defence companies that have supplied weapons to Israel. 

In a short statement, Live Nation said, “Following discussion with artists, we have agreed with Barclays that they will step back from sponsorship of our festivals”. 

A spokesperson for Barclays itself told The Guardian: “Barclays was asked and has agreed to suspend participation in the remaining Live Nation festivals in 2024. Barclays customers who hold tickets to these festivals are not affected and their tickets remain valid”. 

The bank entered into a five year brand partnership deal with Live Nation’s UK festivals division last year. The involvement of Barclays in music events has caused a little controversy in the past because of its investment in fossil fuels. However, this year the controversy surged because of the situation in Gaza and the bank’s investments in the arms industry.

A group of artists and music fans began to protest over the involvement of Barclays in Live Nation’s events, calling on and pressuring other artists to refuse to play at them. 

The Great Escape was the first event to see the impact of that campaign, with more than 100 acts who had been booked to play ultimately pulling out of the Brighton showcase festival. It then became clear that all of Live Nation’s other summer festivals, including this weekend's Download, would also have to contend with protests, boycotts and acts pulling out. 

Although Barclays will no longer have a presence at Live Nation’s events, it is thought that some other elements of the five year deal will stay in place. Nevertheless, the protest group Bands Boycott Barclays say that the sponsorship announcement is a “victory” for its campaign.  

"As musicians, we were horrified that our music festivals were partnered with Barclays, who are complicit in the genocide in Gaza through investment, loans and underwriting of arms companies supplying the Israeli military. Hundreds of artists have taken action this summer to make it clear that this is morally reprehensible, and we are glad we have been heard”. 

“Our demand to Barclays is simple: divest from the genocide or face further boycotts”, they add. "Boycotting Barclays, also Europe’s primary funder of fossil fuels, is the minimum we can do to call for change”. 

The sponsorship of cultural events by companies with links to things like arms or fossil fuels has caused controversy in the past. However, the pressure on events to avoid such partnerships - and on performers to boycott events that do - has increased in recent years. 

And the pressure is having an impact. Edinburgh-based investment firm Baillie Gifford recently ended its support of various literary festivals, including the Edinburgh International Book Festival, because of controversy over its investments in fossil fuel businesses. 

While many may feel that these are positive developments, and that these companies should never have been involved in culture, many events and festivals rely heavily on sponsorship to be viable. As certain potential sponsors withdraw from music and culture - probably diverting their budgets to something like sport - some of those events may struggle to find alternative funding. 

This is something Barclays claimed in its statement to The Guardian, saying, “The only thing that this small group of activists will achieve is to weaken essential support for cultural events enjoyed by millions. It is time that leaders across politics, business, academia and the arts stand united against this”.

ICA // Music Event Manager (London)

Chalk Press Agency // Senior Music Publicist (London)

SJM Concerts // Event Ticketing Manager (Manchester)

Sentric Music // Revenue Optimisation Manager (London/Liverpool)

Sentric Music // Copyright Manager (Liverpool/London)

Solar // Finance Manager (London/Hybrid)

terrible* // Finance Assistant/Bookkeeper (London)

Horizon is CMU's new weekly newsletter - published each Friday - that brings you a hand-picked selection of early-stage career opportunities from across the music industry.

Whether you're looking for your first job in music or you're ready to take a step up, Horizon is here to help you find your dream job faster.

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ONE LINERS

Spotify Creative Lab, Ed Sheeran, Nas + more

DIGITAL 

Spotify has launched an in-house creative agency, Creative Lab, to help brands to create marketing campaigns. It will also experiment with generative AI-created adverts. “At Spotify, we’re always looking for ways to strengthen creative output and foster deeper connections between consumers and brands”, says Spotify Global Creative Director Kay Hsu. “Creative Lab allows us to go a level deeper, working even closer with advertisers to create unique creative experiences that build more meaningful connections with consumers”.

ARTIST NEWS

UK record industry collecting society PPL has announced that Ed Sheeran was the most played artist in the UK in 2023, continuing his unbroken seven year run at the top of the most played list. “Thank you for naming me the most played artist for last year”, says Eddo. “I want to say thank you to my promotions team” - that’s the Atlantic Records promotions team - “you have consistently done amazing things, not just for me but for all the other artists you work with and I’m happy that you get this recognition - thanks so much and here’s to the next year!” 

Nas has announced plans to adapt 1984 hip hop film ‘Beat Street’ into a Broadway musical. “‘Beat Street’ wasn’t just a film – it spread the revolution of hip hop culture throughout the country and the world. It left an indelible mark, inspiring generations of young artists and creating new hip hop fans alike”, he says. “It’s an honour to breathe new life into this iconic work and celebrate its enduring legacy”.

GIGS & FESTIVALS

Paul McCartney has announced his first UK shows since headlining Glastonbury in 2018. There will be two nights each at Manchester’s Co-op Live and London’s O2 in December. Tickets go on general sale on Friday.

Crowded House will be in the UK for a run of arena shows in October, including one night at the O2 in London on 11 Oct. Tickets go on general sale on Friday.

Headie One has announced UK shows in November this year, finishing with a performance at Wembley Arena in London on 29 Nov. Tickets go on general sale on Friday. The rapper’s new album ‘The Last One’ is out on 28 Jun.

Bitter dispute between members of K-pop group EXO and SM Entertainment goes legal

A dispute between K-pop agency SM Entertainment and three members of the boy band EXO has exploded into a “full-on war”. The agency has now sued over claims made by Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin - collectively known as EXO-CBX - with the singers saying that they will countersue and refer the agency to South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission.

SM accuses EXO-CBX of failing to pay a 10% intellectual property royalty fee, after leaving the company to set up their own agency to manage their solo careers. CBX say that SM has reneged on a promise to allow them to pay a reduced fee to distribute their music via SM’s majority shareholder Kakao.

Following some heated press statements from both sides last week, SM went legal on Thursday, saying that “CBX's nonsensical actions cannot be tolerated anymore”. CBX responded by saying that they were ready to reveal “everything” about how the company has allegedly mistreated them.

This dispute dates back to last year, when Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin reached a new agreement with SM, allowing them to manage their solo careers through their own agency INB100. The group is still managed by SM, although the semi-split came after CBX accused SM of mistreatment. 

Under the agreement they reached, EXO-CBX were reportedly required to pay a 10% royalty in order to use their stage names and the EXO name in relation to their solo activities. They are now refusing to pay this, as they claim that SM is not upholding the agreement on the distribution fee, which was why they agreed to the royalty.

At a press conference last week, President of the holding company that owns INB10, Cha -Ga-won, said that SM had breached the deal by failing to honour a 5.5% distribution fee - much lower than the usual 15-20% for acts operating outside SM. 

This fee was not mentioned in the written agreement but - said Ch Ga-won - it was “verbally promised by then-CEO Lee Sung-su of SM Entertainment”. They have a recording of this deal being offered, she said, adding that a verbal offer is “legally binding by the Korean legal system”.

“We declare a full-on war against SM Entertainment, which has made a promise that it could not keep and committed what could be perceived as fraud”, she said at the press conference on 10 Jun.

SM quickly responded with its own statement, saying that “what INB100 argues is an unfair act on our side is different from the truth”.

“The item was discussed as a gesture that we would help CBX negotiate with the distributor. We never had the power to decide the distributor’s fee rate”, it went on. “CBX did in fact ask that a clause regarding the distribution fee be put in the agreement, but we explained that it couldn’t be included because we just don’t have the power and took it out, which means that no such clause is included in the agreement”.

Instead, it said, it allowed Baekhyun to release his solo album through INB100, rather than SM as was originally planned, and paid a cancellation fee when he pulled out of a concert in Japan. As a result, the company said, “CBX never really suffered any damage”.

When it filed legal action the following day, it added claims that EXO-CBX had been “stolen” by Cha Ga-won and business partner MC Mong. This is something it claimed during last year’s dispute, but ultimately it retracted and apologised for that allegation. The key demand of the lawsuit is that EXO-CBX honour the 10% royalty clause in their contract. However, it is expected that a separate suit calling for damages is also likely to be filed.

EXO-CBX said on Friday that they plan to countersue and would reveal “everything” that led to their split from SM last year. They will also ask for the South Korean government’s Fair Trade Commission to investigate the company.

“We will prove, in court, that SM's payment system is wrong”, they said in a statement. "We will also report the unfair exclusive contract [of SM Entertainment] to the FTC and have it judged by the justice system”.

There have been fears that this all puts an upcoming EXO album in jeopardy. In their statement last week, EXO-CBX said that they would “earnestly participate in EXO’s full group activities with SM in the future”. That was before everything went legal though.

Live Nation’s chosen arbitrator has rules that are “just nuts”

The Ninth Circuit Appeals Court in the US has considered ongoing efforts by Live Nation to force a lawsuit accusing it of anticompetitive behaviour to arbitration. 

A lower court blocked those efforts mainly because the live giant changed its chosen arbitrator to a company called New Era. Earlier in the dispute the processes employed by New Era were dubbed “Kafkaesque”, and it turns out the appeal judges have some similar criticisms. 

According to Law360, the judges variously referred to New Era’s arbitration rules as “circular and problematic”, “crazy”, “cockamamie” and “just nuts”, none of which is exactly a ringing endorsement. And possibly suggests Live Nation should have stuck with its former arbitrator of choice, JAMS. 

Live Nation and its Ticketmaster division have a long history of seeking to force legal disputes initiated by ticket-buyers to be settled via private arbitration. Under Ticketmaster’s terms, agreed to by any ticket-buyer, any disputes must be taken to arbitration first. As a result, its attempts to go to arbitration - rather than court - are usually successful.

In theory, the arbitration approach should be simpler, cheaper and more efficient for both parties than filing a lawsuit in court. Another attraction - and perhaps of particular significance for Live Nation - is that arbitration happens in private whereas litigation is fought out in public. 

That’s especially important when customers accuse Live Nation of anticompetitive conduct, because the market dominance of the live giant is of great interest to regulators and lawmakers in the US at the moment. 

This particular ticket-buyer-led lawsuit, which accuses Live Nation of breaching competition law, would probably have been forced to arbitration had it not been for Live Nation switching its chosen arbitrator from the long-established JAMS to New Era. 

Live Nation argues that New Era is better set up for disputes that involve multiple customers, which is often the case with its ticketing business. However, the ticket-buyers involved in this lawsuit said Live Nation picked New Era because its processes favour the live music company. 

Last year judge George H Wu declined to force arbitration, saying that the change in arbitrator resulted in an “unfair surprise” for the ticket-buyers and made forcing arbitration “procedurally unconscionable”. It’s that decision that Live Nation wants the Ninth Circuit to overturn. But given last week’s hearing, that’s looking unlikely. 

The judges raised issues with various rules employed by New Era. That included the rule that allows the arbitrator to decide whether any one question is ‘arbitrable’, meaning it is capable of being settled by arbitration. It’s “just crazy” to ask the arbitrator to rule on ‘arbitrability’, one of the judges said, because that’s an obvious conflict of interest. 

After calling the New Era process “a really cockamamie way to set up a system”, another judge asked Live Nation’s lawyer who came up with the rules. The lawyer said it was probably the founders of the arbitration company. That didn’t seem to placate anybody. 

The judges are yet to make a final decision. If this case does end up in court, it will be running in tandem with the US government’s own lawsuit accusing Live Nation and Ticketmaster of exploiting their market dominance in an anticompetitive way.

Setlist Podcast: Spotify referred to FTC over “unlawful conduct”

In this week's Setlist Podcast: Chris Cooke and Andy Malt discuss the latest escalation in the fight over Spotify’s reclassification of its premium subscription as an audiobook and music bundle in the US, the lawsuit against Drake for putting one of his own song titles on a t-shirt, and the return of the band formerly known as Easy Life, who have nothing to do with easyJet.

🎧 Click here to listen - or search for 'Setlist Podcast'

Feid sued after allegedly using producer’s guitar loops without credit and compensation

Colombian artist Feid - also known as Ferxxo - and his label Universal Music have been sued for copyright infringement by a producer who claims that his guitar loops were used in three tracks without proper credit and compensation. That includes ‘Ferxxo 100’, the third single on Feid’s 2022 album, the somewhat ironically named - given the copyright dispute - ‘Feliz Cumpleaños Ferxxo Te Pirateamos El Álbum’ or ‘Happy Birthday Ferxxo We Pirated Your Album’. 

The producer, Sébastien Graux, says that his guitar loops have previously been used in tracks by the likes of Ricky Martin, Rema, NBA YoungBoy and Booba. His lawsuit explains how he met with the team at Columbia-based Icon Music during a trip to the country in 2021. They then introduced him to a producer called Jowan, who Graux subsequently met in Miami, where he shared several audio files containing his loops. 

Jowan was a producer on ‘Feliz Cumpleaños Ferxxo Te Pirateamos El Álbum’ and, following their meeting, Graux was told that his loops would be used on three tracks on Feid’s then upcoming album. He says that he was “ecstatic at the opportunity” to feature on Feid’s next record, and that he “looked forward to receiving a producer credit for his contributions” to the three songs: ‘Ferxxo 100’, ‘X20X’ and ‘De Tanto Chimbiar’. 

However, “despite months of reassurances from Jowan and others associated with defendants that Graux would be credited and compensated appropriately for his contributions”, no such credit or compensation has occurred since the album’s release in September 2022. 

He suspects that the “false reassurances” provided in 2022 “were merely guises to ensure that Graux did not upset the release schedule for the songs and so that defendants could avoid their obligations with regard to Graux’s copyrighted contributions to these hit songs”. 

The lawsuit says that Graux has been attempting to settle this dispute ever since, but without success. This is why he is now suing. Icon Music and Jowan are also listed as defendants alongside Feid and Universal.

Colombian artist Feid - also known as Ferxxo - and his label Universal Music have been sued for copyright infringement by a producer who claims that his guitar loops were used in three tracks without proper credit and compensation. That includes ‘Ferxxo 100’, the third single on Feid’s 2022 album, the somewhat ironically named - given the copyright dispute - ‘Feliz Cumpleaños Ferxxo Te Pirateamos El Álbum’ or ‘Happy Birthday Ferxxo We Pirated Your Album’. 

The producer, Sébastien Graux, says that his guitar loops have previously been used in tracks by the likes of Ricky Martin, Rema, NBA YoungBoy and Booba. His lawsuit explains how he met with the team at Columbia-based Icon Music during a trip to the country in 2021. They then introduced him to a producer called Jowan, who Graux subsequently met in Miami, where he shared several audio files containing his loops. 

Jowan was a producer on ‘Feliz Cumpleaños Ferxxo Te Pirateamos El Álbum’ and, following their meeting, Graux was told that his loops would be used on three tracks on Feid’s then upcoming album. He says that he was “ecstatic at the opportunity” to feature on Feid’s next record, and that he “looked forward to receiving a producer credit for his contributions” to the three songs: ‘Ferxxo 100’, ‘X20X’ and ‘De Tanto Chimbiar’. 

However, “despite months of reassurances from Jowan and others associated with defendants that Graux would be credited and compensated appropriately for his contributions”, no such credit or compensation has occurred since the album’s release in September 2022. 

He suspects that the “false reassurances” provided in 2022 “were merely guises to ensure that Graux did not upset the release schedule for the songs and so that defendants could avoid their obligations with regard to Graux’s copyrighted contributions to these hit songs”. 

The lawsuit says that Graux has been attempting to settle this dispute ever since, but without success. This is why he is now suing. Icon Music and Jowan are also listed as defendants alongside Feid and Universal.