New GEMA court ruling could "devastate" German industry, say music publishers
There's been quite a bit of hoo and a little bit of ha in the German music industry this week over the potential ramifications of a court ruling on Monday that could force collecting society GEMA to change the way it distributes royalties to its members.

A sufficient hoo-ha, in fact, for the VP of the Independent Music Publishers Forum to declare that the implications of the ruling are "far-ranging and shocking" and could "result in the devastation of the German music industry". So that's fun.

The ruling came from a case pursued by Bruno Kramm and Stefan Ackermann of electro-industrial outfit Das Ich over how GEMA pays out money collected when licensees use their songs. GEMA, of course, is the German collecting society for songwriters and music publishers, and handles the licensing of song rights in an assortment of scenarios.

It's pretty standard in music publishing that where a collecting society administers the performing rights in songs, for signed songwriters, the society pays a chunk of the money it collects for each work direct to the writer and another chunk direct to the publisher. Splits vary from country to country, and in Continental Europe the same often applies to mechanical rights income too.

This is because (except in the US) the songwriter actually assigns their performing rights (and possibly more) to their society rather than their publisher. Any subsequent publishing deal simply sees the publisher get a contractual right to share in any income the society generates from the writer's song; an income share that it would then usually get direct from the collecting society.

It's that last bit of the process that is now under question as a result of the Das Ich case. In their lawsuit, Kramm and Ackermann argued that they should be paid the publisher's share of income linked to their songs as well as the writer's share, and the court agreed. The grounds for that decision have not yet been published, though it seems that Kramm and Ackermann's case in part centred on the fact the duo's publishing agreement did not explicitly state how the publisher should share in GEMA income.

But there is potentially a wider precedent that would mean only the party which 'brought' a song to GEMA - which would usually be the songwriter, though could be a publisher - can directly receive income generated by the work from the society. It would mean that a publisher with a contractual right to share in that income would have to then claim the money it was due from the writer, or possibly deduct it from any income generated where the publisher licenses directly.

Needless to say, German music publishers are not impressed by the ruling, and nor is GEMA. Its CEO, Harald Heker said yesterday: "We consider this decision to be wrong. It is particularly deplorable that the Higher Regional Court only bases its decision on who actually brought in the rights. This principle could, depending on the form of the publishing contract, also be applied to the disadvantage of authors".

He went on: "It is, however, more important that authors and publishers had an agreement for decades that both sides should benefit from the collected royalties through the assignment of their rights. If an author wishes to pay a publisher in consideration for the publishing activities of the latter, such a share is legitimate".

Meanwhile composer Professor Dr Enjott Schneider, in his role as Chair of the GEMA Supervisory Board, added: "Authors and publishers sit jointly at the table at GEMA - as is the case in the majority of other collective management organisations - because they need each other. Cultural diversity can only be created by this kind of alliance. Luckily, politicians have understood that the long-established cooperation between authors and publishers is absolutely necessary and therefore a legal clarification must be established".

This week's judgement, which is not yet legally binding, but which could be applied to GEMA payments all the way back to 2010, will feed into a wider and ongoing political debate around copyright in Germany, which in part has resulted from the European Union's Collective Rights Management Directive. The plaintiffs were likely aware of that, Kramm being - until recently - an active participant in Germany's Pirate Party, and therefore definitely opinionated on copyright matters.

Either way, music publishers in Germany and beyond will be putting pressure on politicians in the country to reduce the impact of any precedent that may have been set here. The aforementioned VP of the Independent Music Publishers Forum, Rolf Budde, said yesterday: "This would result in the devastation of the German music industry, and is yet another example of attempts to legislate and regulate our industry that end up annihilating the long standing work of the music publishing community".

He went on: "The implications of this latest ruling are far ranging and shocking. The system of partnership between authors and publishers in GEMA is a constant for decades in Germany and therefore this decision is both wrong and damaging. The underlying principle is the agreement of authors and publishers that both parties should benefit from income arising from the rights, and as this is a legitimate contractual arrangement between two parties, the interpretation of the courts is simply wrong".

Prince companies sue Tidal over catalogue streams
Prince's NPG record label and music publishing business - now controlled by the Bremer Trust, which is administering the late musician's estate - has sued Jay-Z's Roc Nation over Tidal streaming a whole load of records from the Prince catalogue, allegedly without licence.

Prior to his death, Prince pulled much of his music of other streaming platforms when he allied with Tidal around the release of what turned out to be his final two albums, 'Hit N Run Phase One' and 'Hit N Run Phase Two'. Tidal enjoyed a period of exclusivity on both those records, making them available to subscribers on its streaming service, and for sale on both download and CD.

Tidal's Prince alliance seemed to cover catalogue too, giving Jay-Z's service the edge following the musician's death, when everyone wanted to stream the classics. But, says NPG's lawsuit, it is not aware of any licence giving Tidal the rights to stream older Prince material, despite Jay-Z's company insisting an agreement is in place.

This is according to a new lawsuit filed by the NPG companies this week. The legal papers confirm that Prince did enter into an agreement with Tidal around his new material which was outlined in a letter of intent that "granted an exclusive licence to Tidal for the exploitation of 'the next newly recorded studio LP by the recording artist known as Prince'".

That LP was 'Hit N Run Phase One' and the agreement gave Tidal 90 days of exclusivity from the day the deal was done.

Beyond this, the lawsuit goes on, the Prince estate is "not aware of any agreements with Roc Nation or Tidal by NPG Records or NPG Music Publishing other than the letter of intent", yet "Roc Nation, through its Tidal service, is exploiting many copyrighted Prince works in addition to the works that comprise the 'Hit N Run Phase One' album".

After being appointed to administrate Prince's estate, the Bremer Trust seemingly asked Tidal and Roc Nation for any documents it had beyond the letter of intent that allowed it to stream other recordings controlled by NPG. Roc Nation subsequently made three filings to the court overseeing the Prince estate stating that it had "oral and written" agreements giving it the exclusive right to stream the star's entire catalogue.

However, claims the Bremer Trust, "despite [our] repeated requests, and Roc Nation's multiple filings [to the court], Tidal and Roc Nation have not provided any documentation or evidence of any oral or implied agreement granting Roc Nation any rights beyond those rights granted in the letter of intent".

So that's all fun. The lawsuit wants the court to order Tidal to stop streaming all and any Prince tunes other than those on 'Hit N Run Phase One' while seeking unspecified damages.

New music company Babelogue aims to improve music industry's gender balance
New label and management company Babelogue launches this week, with a focus on improving gender equality in the music industry.

Set up by Sarah Joy, who by day works for ATC Live, and Joanie Eaton, who works for Domino Records, the company is entirely staffed by women and will work exclusively with female-fronted acts. They kick things off with Yassassin, who release their new single 'Pretty Face' tomorrow.

"Our core mission statement is to help female musicians find encouragement and a place for their music", explains Joy. "As we're both young women working in the music industry, we know how difficult it is to push through barriers, so we created Babelogue to help do that. Instead of managing acts for gain and trying to squeeze them for profit, our ethos is about respect, collaboration with great people, the creative process and helping more women achieve success within the music profession".

"You just have to look at the statistics; only 16% of PRS members are female, only five women have ever won the Mercury Prize, the gender split in music is 67.8% male to 32.2% female", she adds, on why active work to improve the music industry's gender balance is needed. "How many times have female music workers been called groupies? How many female musicians patronised by soundmen? How many girls are on that festival line up? There is still a lot to do".

Eaton adds: "We want to focus on what we can do now and how we can change things, educate and inform to build equality within the industry. I'm super proud to work at a label where the ratio of men and women is pretty much equal. It's an incredible working environment to be part of for so many reasons and I just want that to continue to progress for the entire industry".

Read our full interview with Joy and Eaton here, and watch the video for Yassassin's 'Pretty Face' here.

MPs recommend investigation of "far-ranging and disturbing factors" in ticketing market
MPs have recommended further investigation of the ticketing market after that hearing on online ticket touting before the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee in Parliament on Tuesday uncovered "far-ranging and disturbing factors" about current practices.

The select committee hearing followed Nigel Adams MP's proposal of an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill banning the use of 'bots' by touts to hoover up large amounts of tickets before genuine fans can get to them on primary sites. Adams then agreed to retract that proposal after the government committed to instigate a meeting to assess whether such bots actually already contravene the Computer Misuse Act, though the culture committee now plans to propose a similar DEB amendment itself.

Reps from two of the big secondary ticketing firms were called in for yesterday's meeting, while artist and management representatives spoke out against touting and the conduct of the ticket resale platforms. As previously reported, although the secondary sites represented at the meeting argued that they were doing nothing wrong themselves, Damian Collins MP accused Ticketmaster's Chris Edmonds of being "extraordinarily complacent" and dubbed his defence of his company's various resale sites "extremely unsatisfactory".

In a statement following the session issued yesterday, the select committee said that while the initial focus of this week's meeting was the "distortion of the ticketing markets" through the use of bots, "the evidence session has shed a light on much more far-ranging and disturbing factors in the market, including clear indications of too close relationships between those selling tickets on the primary market and sellers on the secondary market".

It continued: "Witnesses' failure to give satisfactory answers to the committee's questions about where companies' main profits are made, the possibility of even Chinese walls between parts of the same company, and the willingness of the ticket selling companies to even try to identify, let alone bar, large-scale ticket touts and fraudulent sellers have led us to conclude that a fuller investigation of the whole area of ticketing is needed".

"The Secretary Of State is holding a round table on this area at the end of the month", it said, moving onto its next steps, and referencing the aforementioned bots-focused meeting that has been called by Culture Secretary Karen Bradley.

"We will decide how best to take the issues forward once we know the outcome of this", the committee added, "and in light of the conclusion of a Competition And Markets Authority investigation, expected shortly, into whether ticket companies are complying with the law. In the meantime, we will be writing to the Secretary Of State urging her to study the evidence given to us about the under-reporting of income by known touts and to raise this with HMRC as an area which warrants their investigation".

While it was unhappy with much of the evidence given by the secondary sites on Tuesday, the committee noted that one area where there was unanimous agreement on both sides of the debate was that bots are no good. Therefore, that aforementioned new amendment to the Digital Economy Bill seeking to ban said bots will be tabled later this month.

Commenting on the outcome of the hearing, anti-tout group the FanFair Alliance said: "This is fantastic news for all UK music fans and those who have campaigned so long for action. Yesterday, the dysfunctional market and bad practices of the big four secondary ticketing websites were laid bare before members of the Culture, Media & Sport Committee. We anticipate that a fuller investigation of this market will lead to much-needed reform".

"The FanFair Alliance fully supports further actions into the fraudulent activities of online ticket touts and the industrial abuse of this market, as well as an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill to ban the misuse of bots", it added.

Watch the select committee session in full here.

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Spotify announces Ticketmaster deal as it ramps up gig plugging efforts
Spotify has announced an alliance with Live Nation's Ticketmaster as it ramps up its gig plugging efforts with a new concert recommendations email for subscribers in most markets, listing upcoming shows that it thinks each Spotify user will be interested in based on their listening choices.

There has been lots of chatter for some time now about streaming services pushing out targeted gig listings to their subscribers, and a number of platforms have already done that to an extent. Pandora in the US has probably been most proactive in this domain, it seeing getting involved in ticket sales as an extra revenue stream, rather than just an added value service to win over the support of artists (especially those unhappy with the royalties streaming services pay).

Spotify also already pushes gig listings to users through its app, to date via a partnership with Songkick, though the new initiative sending concert plugs to user's email addresses expands that activity somewhat.

Confirming the Ticketmaster tie-up, Spotify said in a blog post: "Ticketmaster's global scale provides Spotify users with the most diverse options for live events and will help drive more fans to concerts. Working directly with the Ticketmaster team and their data feeds will simplify the purchase experience and deepen our understanding of how recommendations drive sales. By combining listening data with purchase behaviour, we'll be able to refine our recommendations - and ultimately provide you with a sharper understanding of your fans".

The Songkick partnership will continue, with it providing listings for shows where Ticketmaster is not a seller. Though that's still a sizable step down for Songkick which - despite diversifying into direct-to-fan ticketing and pre-sale campaign management of late - is still best known for its gig recommendations platform, something it was bigging up itself just last week as its Shazam partnership was announced.

Also, of course, Ticketmaster and Songkick are hardly on good terms at the moment, the latter suing the former's parent company in the US over allegations of anti-competitive behaviour. That legal battle continues to rumble on.

Most recently a judge ruled on arguments over whether or not Live Nation had failed to preserve documents relevant to the case and whether it had a duty to do so, and also denied a request by Songkick for a forensic search of the defendant's files. Live Nation saw the most recent ruling as a success for its side, though Songkick disputed that interpretation in a statement to IQ.

PRS International Showcase Fund to be opened to Scottish acts through Creative Scotland partnership
The PRS For Music Foundation has announced Creative Scotland as a new partner on its International Showcase Fund. The hook up provides Scottish acts with the opportunity to apply for funding to perform internationally, as artists in England and Wales already do.

"I am delighted that Creative Scotland will be partnering with us and the existing partners on the International Showcase Fund", says PRS For Music Foundation chief exec Vanessa Reed "This additional investment means that we can now open this fund to talented Scottish artists who are looking to access a new oversees territory for the first time".

Creative Scotland's Head Of Music Alan Morrison adds: "Connecting Scottish talent to the wider world is one of Creative Scotland's main ambitions, and this new partnership with the International Showcase Fund will allow us to do so at an increased level. We firmly believe that Scottish musicians deserve to stand shoulder to shoulder with the best the world has to offer, and that our up-and-coming acts will be the stars of the future. The International Showcase Fund is the key that will open doors to a wealth of industry platforms at some of the biggest festivals and music events on the calendar".

The International Showcase Fund was first launched in 2013, and a PRS For Music Foundation report earlier this year found that artists who had benefitted from it had generated £8.90 in additional revenues for every £1 in funding they received.

CMU Insights to present its overview of digital music now at next week's masterclass
CMU Business Editor Chris Cooke will present his review of the digital music market as we head in 2017 next Monday as part of the CMU Insights masterclass 'Digital Deals, Dollars And Trends - Explained!' Premium CMU subscribers will also be able to access the review in written form via next week's CMU Trends.

Says Cooke: "While Spotify and Apple Music continue to dominate in the premium streaming space, the recent launch of Amazon's standalone streaming service is very interesting, both in that it is a new high profile competitor in the £10 a month domain, but also because of its experiment with offering cheaper streams locked to the Echo device. Meanwhile in the US the incoming new products from iHeart and Pandora will also test consumer appetite for mid-price services with less functionality".

Cooke's review will look at which services are most important right now in terms of audience and revenue, as well as considering the challenges around creating cheaper more mainstream streaming products, and the future of free streams.

The masterclass will also explain how streaming services are licensed by the music industry, providing the background information on copyright law, record and publishing contracts that is required for the current licensing model to make sense. Tapping into the research Cooke undertook for the Music Managers Forum report he authored, 'Dissecting The Digital Dollar', he will also run through the key issues that remain in the digital music sector.

Tickets for the half-day masterclass, which takes place on Monday at 2pm at the London HQ of Lewis Silkin, are just £99 and can be bought here. To become a premium subscriber of CMU for just £5 a month and get access to the regular CMU Trends articles, click here.

BBC renames Radio 2 building in honour of Terry Wogan
The BBC has announced that it is changing the name of its Western House building in Central London to Wogan House in honour of Terry Wogan, who died earlier this year. Wogan was a regular in the building, which is home to BBC Radio 2.

In a statement, Wogan's family said: "BBC Radio 2 was such an important part of Terry's life. He spent so many happy years there doing what he loved - chatting and laughing with the listeners from his studio in BBC Western House every weekday morning. We are so proud that the building is being renamed 'Wogan House' in his honour, the whole family are extremely touched by such a wonderful gesture".

BBC Director Of Radio Bob Shennan added: "Terry was a much-loved Radio 2 personality and it is right we honour him in this way. Each time we all walk through the doors of Wogan House we will be forever reminded of him - his warmth, wit and endless charm".

An official renaming ceremony took place yesterday morning.

Leonard Cohen's death "sudden, unexpected and peaceful", says manager
Leonard Cohen's manager Robert Kory has confirmed that the musician died in his sleep after falling in the middle of the night.

In a statement, he said: "Leonard Cohen died during his sleep following a fall in the middle of the night on 7 Nov. The death was sudden, unexpected and peaceful".

As previously reported, Cohen's death was announced in a statement on his Facebook page last week. He was buried at a private family funeral in Montreal at the weekend, with a public memorial due to take place in LA at a later date.

Willow Smith, Bauer Media, Deadmau5, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Willow Smith has launched a new range of socks - no, "an anthology of socks" - for sock maker Stance. "This collection is my personal journey. I just wanted people to see how I see through these socks", she says. To reiterate: they are socks.

• Magazine and radio firm Bauer Media has promoted Nadia Holmes to become its new Head Of Digital Audio. "This is a well-deserved promotion", says Bauer's Vicky Foster.

• Deadmau5 is teaching an online masterclass in electronic music production, due to go live later this year.

• Chemical Brothers have shared the video for new single 'C-h-e-m-i-c-a-l'.

• Brian Eno has announced that he will release a new ambient album, 'Reflections', through Warp on 1 Jan.

• Agnes Obel has released the video for new single 'It's Happening Again', ahead of UK tour dates later this month.

• Soulwax have released a new track, 'Transient Program For Drums And Machinery'. They've also announced that they'll play two UK shows in Manchester and London next April.

• Ty Segall will release new album, 'Ty Segall', on 27 Jan. From it, this is 'Orange Color Queen'.

• Pissed Jeans are back. They'll release their fifth album, 'Why Love Now', on 24 Feb. Here's new single 'The Bar Is Low'.

He's not going all the way to bloody Sweden to pick it up, but Bob Dylan is still dead chuffed with his Nobel Prize
Well, this has turned out to be quite a rollercoaster ride, hasn't it? Bob Dylan has now confirmed that he will not turn up in Stockholm to receive his Nobel Prize For Literature on 10 Dec.

Quick recap: Bob Dylan was named the winner of the prize. He didn't acknowledge it for two weeks, leaving everyone to assume he thought it was a stupid prize and didn't want it. Then when he finally spoke, he said that it was "amazing" and that he really did want it. He also said he would turn up to receive the prize, but he wouldn't speak to the bloody press about it, thank you.

Now he's confirmed that he's still well up for being a Nobel Prize winner, but "pre-existing commitments" mean he won't actually be able to come and pick it up. His current tour finishes on 23 Nov, so I assume he's got to wait in on 10 Dec because his boiler's being serviced. You know what it's like, they've only told you that they'll be there between 8am and 6pm, and they might come really early, but he can't risk saying that he'll definitely pop over to Sweden only for them to turn up at five to six.

In a statement, award organiser the Swedish Academy said that it had "received a personal letter from Bob Dylan, in which he explained that due to pre-existing commitments, he is unable to travel to Stockholm in December and therefore will not attend the Nobel Prize Ceremony".

However, it added, "he underscored, once again, that he feels very honoured indeed, wishing that he could receive the prize in person".

Honoured, he is. Super honoured. This situation, the Academy noted, is "unusual, to be sure, but not exceptional", with a number of recipients deciding not to attend the ceremony in the past. "The prize still belongs to them, just as it belongs to Bob Dylan", it said.

This doesn't mean Dylan is never going to Stockholm though. There's still the matter of the lecture that he must give within six months of 10 Dec if he wants to receive his prize money. Unlike the prize itself, that is not automatically his. The Academy has already said it would accommodate ideas that don't fit a traditional lecture, such as a concert, but no indication has yet been given on Dylan's plans there.

Who Dylan will send in his place on 10 Dec has not yet been announced either. I hope it's Anthony Keidis.