Brixton Academy can re-open - with 77 licensing conditions

Following a two-day hearing last week, Lambeth Council’s licensing sub-committee has said that Academy Music Group can re-open the Brixton Academy, but only once 77 conditions are met to ensure the safety of concert-goers and employees after last year’s fatal crowd crush.

  SETLIST PODCAST   

FanFair, Deezer + more

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last week. On this edition, the call from the FanFair Alliance campaign group against ticket touting for the introduction of legislation to ban the for-profit resale of tickets in the UK, and criticism of Deezer’s new proposals for ‘artist-centric’ royalty payments.

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  LABELS & PUBLISHING  

Warner Music opens new "creative hub" in Berlin

Warner Music last week opened its new "creative hub" in Berlin. It is housed in a late nineteenth century building called the Schicklerhaus and boasts - the official blurb declares - "an interior performance space, four rooftop terraces and collaboration rooms featuring the latest technology, including Dolby Atmos immersive sound".

The major's German HQ will remain in Hamburg, where it has also revamped its offices. However, it says, the new base in Berlin - which will be used by both the Warner labels and the Warner Chappell publishing company - not only reaffirms its "commitment to discovering and supporting local artists, songwriters and other creative professionals in Germany" but also "the importance of Berlin as a business location, cultural capital, and one of the Europe’s most vibrant cultural, creative and technological capitals".

Says Warner big boss Robert Kyncl: “This beautifully restored building, at the heart of one of the world’s most vibrant cities, is a symbol of Warner Music Group’s commitment to super-serve our artists and songwriters. Along with our revitalised offices in Hamburg, these facilities will help our teams in Germany to keep developing our collaborative, innovative approach to music".

Doreen Schimk and Fabian Drebes, Co-Presidents at Warner Music Central Europe, add: "We see this new space, alongside our revitalised Hamburg headquarters, as sign of our commitment to local players in the creative and cultural scene, and to the importance of Berlin as a European metropolis and a location for the music industry".

Meanwhile, Lars Karlsson and Natascha Augustin from Warner Chappell state: “Our songwriters from around the world are drawn to Berlin as a vibrant, exciting city at the crossroads of Europe whose atmosphere fuels their creativity. Now we have a world-class hub where we can host them when they’re in town".

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  LIVE BUSINESS  

New All-Party Parliamentary Group focused on festivals launches

The Association Of Independent Festivals has announced the launch of a new All-Party Parliamentary Group which will be focused on festivals.

APPGs are informal cross-party groups within the UK Parliament which bring together MPs who have a common interest. They can play a useful role in lobbying because they provide a forum where relevant industries or campaigners can speak to politicians who they know are interested in their work or campaigns.

The new festival-focused APPG will consider the contribution made by all kinds of festivals and the pressures that they face, with specific topics likely to be discussed including environmental impacts and solutions; women’s safety at events; crime and drug use; and touring visas for musicians.

As well as talking to festival promoters, the APPG's members are expected to liaise with those supplying services to festivals and the landlords who own the sites that festivals use.

Initial members include Chair Giles Watlingand Vice Chairs Kevin Brennan, Alex Davies-Jones, Pete Wishart, Damian Green, Karen Bradley and Mark Fletcher. The work of the group will be supported by political consultancy Pepper Shackleton Wellard.

Says Watling: “This APPG will be open to any and all forms of festival, from rock and pop to classical to literary. There are wellness festivals, food festivals, and so many more - it will be a privilege to represent all of them and highlight their importance to Britain’s cultural offer".

Welcoming the new APPG, AIF CEO John Rostron adds: “It’s been a very busy summer this year and I’ve met with a number of MPs as I’ve visited festivals across the UK. Whether they are attending and supporting festivals in their constituency, speaking at events, or enjoying festivals for fun, we’ve had some great conversations about the importance and vibrancy of the independent festival sector, as well as the challenges that festivals are currently facing".

"The festivals APPG will enable us to carry these conversations into Westminster", he goes on, "and enable dialogue between MPs and festivals all year round”.

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  DEALS  

Koko launches new partnership with Marshall

London venue Koko launched a new partnership with Marshall on Friday, with the opening of the Marshall Vinyl Rooms within Koko's members club, The House Of Koko.

An official announcement says that the Marshall Vinyl Rooms will allow Koko members to "experience Marshall's portfolio of speaker products and headphones", as well as hosting a new monthly content series featuring artists being championed by the two companies.

That builds on Marshall's existing support for Koko TPC, a series of new talent showcases presented in different venues around the world.

Says Seb Croft, MD at Koko Studios: "Since 1962, Marshall has been an iconic and defining brand in music and culture, founded by the godfather of loud, Jim Marshall OBE. We are extremely excited about what the future will bring and this partnership is something that is going to add huge value to breakthrough talent in the UK by providing a global platform for them to perform".

Marshall Group CMO Nick Street adds: "Marshall couldn't be more excited to be partnering with Koko. We are very much looking forward to bringing to life our shared passion for supporting musicians and elevating the act of listening to music. Together we have an opportunity to amplify voices and communities and to provide a platform where we can experience new breakthrough talent across a diverse set of genres".

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  MEDIA  

Rolling Stone founder removed from Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame board following New York Times interview

Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner has been voted off the board of directors at the US Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Foundation following comments he made in a New York Times interview.

Wenner is busy promoting his new book 'The Masters', a collection of interviews with music greats like Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Mick Jagger, Bono, John Lennon and Pete Townshend undertaken by the publisher over the years. The 'masters' featured in the book are all white men, something noted by the New York Times interviewer.

In defending the line-up of artists featured in his book, he argued that the greatest female and black artists of music history were simply not as articulate as the white men who are included.

“It’s not that they’re inarticulate", he added of female music-makers. "Although, go have a deep conversation with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please, be my guest. You know, Joni [Mitchell] was not a philosopher of rock n roll. She didn’t, in my mind, meet that test".

“Of black artists - you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right?" he went on. "I suppose when you use a word as broad as ‘masters’, the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level".

"Just for public relations sake, maybe I should have gone and found one black and one woman artist to include here that didn’t measure up to that same historical standard", he then mused, "just to avert this kind of criticism".

With that interview resulting in an unsurprising backlash, the committee that oversees the US Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame - of which Wenner was a co-founder - met on Saturday to discuss whether the remarks made his position on the board untenable.

They concluded that they did. “Jann Wenner has been removed from the board of directors of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Foundation", a resulting statement declared.

Wenner has subsequently apologised for his comments in the NYT piece which, he admitted, "diminished the contributions, genius and impact of black and women artists and I apologise wholeheartedly for those remarks".

“'The Masters' is a collection of interviews I’ve done over the years that seemed to me to best represent an idea of rock n roll’s impact on my world", he went on. "They were not meant to represent the whole of music and its diverse and important originators, but to reflect the high points of my career and interviews I felt illustrated the breadth and experience in that career".

"They don’t reflect my appreciation and admiration for myriad totemic, world-changing artists whose music and ideas I revere and will celebrate and promote as long as I live", he concluded. "I totally understand the inflammatory nature of badly chosen words and deeply apologise and accept the consequences".

Wenner's media company sold Rolling Stone in the late 2010s. It initially sold 49% to Bandlab Technologies in 2016. The other 51% was then bought the following year by Penske Media, which subsequently acquired the other half from Bandlab.

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  LEGAL  

Eddy Grant reluctantly explains Electric Avenue themes in deposition with Donald Trump's lawyers

Eddy Grant was forced to explain what his song 'Electric Avenue' is all about during a deposition with Donald Trump's lawyers in May, court documents made public last week have revealed. He was keen that the attorneys know that "songwriters don't, as a rule, sit there and explain ‘what did this thing mean?’".

A transcript of the deposition was made public last week as a US court gave more consideration to Grant's copyright lawsuit against Trump. He accuses the former President of copyright infringement over the use of 'Electric Avenue' in a social media video posted during the 2020 Presidential election campaign.

While politicians can often make use of music at events relying on licences from collecting societies like BMI and ASCAP, if they use a track in a video they would usually require a bespoke licence from whoever controls the recording rights and the song rights. No such licences were secured by the Trump campaign for their use of Grant's 1983 hit, hence the lawsuit.

Grant was inspired to write 'Electric Avenue' following the 1981 Brixton riots, the track taking its title from the Brixton street of that name. However, he told Trump’s lawyers, the lyrics can be interpreted more generally because, after all, "everyone interprets a song in their own way".

According to Business Insider, the deposition transcript shows that Grant was clearly and understandably frustrated to be asked to explain the meaning of ‘Electric Avenue’, given the song's themes aren't really relevant to his claim of copyright infringement.

Although, the Trump campaign has been trying to defeat the lawsuit by using the pesky fair use defence under US copyright law, which involves claiming that the ex-President's use of the track was "transformative". So maybe, for his lawyers, the original themes of the song are relevant.

"The bottom line of the song is that it is a protest against social conditions", Grant said. He then started referencing specific lyrics, before pausing to observe that Trump's lawyers can read the lyrics for themselves.

Is the song specifically about Brixton's Electric Avenue, a Trump attorney asked. Grant: "It's not specific inasmuch as that there are many Electric Avenues in the world. You know, it stands for something, and I've created something that stands for something else”.

“So you have a street or many streets, and it's become like ... meeting in Heaven or meeting in Hell. You've never been to Heaven and you've never been to Hell, but it connotes something in your memory or in the collective memory of human beings to say, 'You're going to Hell'".

So there you go. Does that help clarify Trump's liabilities for copyright infringement? Almost certainly not.

The judge overseeing this case previously declined to dismiss Grant's lawsuit based on the Trump side's fair use arguments. According to Reuters, last week Grant's lawyers urged the judge to go further and to completely reject the fair use claim and rule that Team Trump did indeed infringe the 'Electric Avenue' copyright. Which would mean that - if the case then proceeds to trial - a jury would only need to consider damages.

Meanwhile, the Trump side asked the judge to cut back Grant's lawsuit, which currently accuses the President and his campaign of infringing both the recording and song rights in 'Electric Avenue'. Trump's lawyers argue that, while Grant has control over a greatest hits album that includes the track, he does not actually own the copyright in the original recording.

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  LABELS & PUBLISHING  

BMG announces publishing deal with three members of the Sex Pistols

BMG has announced that it has signed new global publishing administration agreements covering the song rights of three former members of the Sex Pistols. Those deals are with Steve Jones, Paul Cook and the Sid Vicious estate, and include their respective shares of the Sex Pistols catalogue.

The official announcement of the deal runs through the history and legacy of the Sex Pistols before noting how the band were the subject of the recent mini-series 'Pistol', "which is based on guitarist Steve Jones' autobiography 'Lonely Boy' and follows the band's rise to prominence and notoriety".

What it doesn't note, however, is that that TV programme itself added another interesting chapter to the Sex Pistols story. John Lydon tried to block the use of the band's music in the show.

This led to a court battle where a judge chose to enforce an old band agreement that said that no one member could veto a sync deal endorsed by the other band members.

Confirming the new admin deals, BMG’s VP of Music Publishing, Michael Howe, says: “Steve, Paul and Sid’s works with Sex Pistols are among the most important cultural and creative music of the last half-century. Their impact on society and the performing arts is orders of magnitude greater than the group’s incredibly brief lifespan and recorded output would suggest. The band’s influence resonates as deeply today as it did in 1977".

The music firm's President of Repertoire & Marketing for Los Angeles and New York, Thomas Scherer, adds: “We are honoured Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Sid Vicious's estate have chosen BMG to be the publishing home of their musical works with Sex Pistols - the crown jewels of a generation. Cash from chaos!”

Talking of cash, Jones himself is quoted in the official press release as stating, simply, “Where’s my money?!”

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  AND FINALLY...  

Suga is the third BTS member to enlist in the South Korean army

Another member of BTS has announced when he will begin his mandatory military service in South Korea. Suga will enlist later this week.

Confirming the news, BTS label Big Hit said in a statement: “Suga will be beginning his required service on 22 Sep. There will not be any official events taking place on the day he starts his service or on the day he enters the training camp. We kindly ask fans to refrain from visiting Suga at his workplace during the period of his service. Please convey your warm regards and encouragement in your hearts only".

After much debate over whether or not a change in the law could allow the members of BTS to avoid doing their two years of mandatory military service, in the end the group announced there would be a BTS hiatus, after which it was confirmed that each member would now complete a stint in the army.

Each member is undertaking their military service on a different schedule, allowing other members to release solo material while their bandmates are in the army, ensuring that the BTS fanbase still has a steady flow of new material to enjoy.

Technically South Korean men are meant to begin their military service at some point between the ages of eighteen and 28, although the law was amended to allow BTS members to put it off until their 30th birthdays. Oldest member Jin was the first to enlist, in November 2022, with J-Hope following in April this year.

Back to the announcement regarding Suga’s military service and - as well as conveying all those warm regards and encouragement in their hearts - fans were informed of another way they can support the BTS member while he is in the army: Not buying any knock-off Suga products that might be put on sale while he is out of the public eye.

“Please be mindful to avoid getting adversely affected by unauthorised tours or package products that illegally use the artist’s intellectual property", Big Hit's statement continued. "Our company will take appropriate measures against attempts at any commercial activity that make unauthorised use of artist IP".

Maybe they could call in the military.

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