In today's CMU Daily: It’s taken a while, but the first criminal trial over streaming fraud is getting started. And it’s Denmark that’s got there first, with a man accused of illegitimately making £500,000 by uploading other people's tracks and then using online tools to rack up plays for them

One Liners: EYC and Glass Beams deals; Moonbug, Wise and PULSE appointments; Nickelback ruling; Jordan North and McFly media moves; BPI innovation unit; Tate McRae at BRITs; Nadine Shah gig; new music from Machine Gun Kelly, Jack Savorietti, Perfume Genius, Richard Hawley, Allie X, Bodega and USA Nails

Also today: Spotify makes itself a matchmaker for artists and brands, a $4 million sexual abuse judgement against R Kelly is overturned, and the Universal-backed NTWRK acquires Complex

Plus: Lubiana is Approved with her debut single ‘Respect’

Man accused of £500,000 streaming fraud operation fighting criminal charges in Danish court

Streaming fraud is back in the spotlight in Denmark where a man is in court over allegations he fraudulently generated £500,000 of income from the streaming services by uploading copyright infringing tracks and using manipulation tools to boost their streams.

There has been lots of debate and media coverage about streaming fraud over the years, but little criminal action. Although anyone hoping for a quick legal precedent to be set by this case may be disappointed. The defendant's lawyer told Danish broadcaster DR: “I don’t think that such a case – regarding matters which the prosecution believes to be data fraud in connection with playbacks of musical works via various tendering services – has ever been tried in court".

“Somewhat dependent on the result, there is a possibility that both my client and the prosecution will appeal the verdict to the high court", he added, before predicting the matter could end up before the country's Supreme Court.

Prosecutors allege that the accused man distributed 689 pieces of music to streaming services, including Spotify and Apple Music, between 2013 and 2019. The huge numbers of streams that were then generated by those tracks demonstrate that manipulation tactics must have been employed, it's alleged.

Ditte Rie Agerskov from the Danish Rights Alliance says that the music uploaded by the defendant got streams at a scale “only achieved by major international stars”. According to The Guardian, the Alliance first reported the suspected fraud in 2018. The matter was then investigated by Denmark's National Unit For Special Crime.

“Criminals see a market in generating artificial plays that mimic organic listening patterns, in order to access royalties from music streaming services", Agerskov added. "However, artificially generated plays are in violation of the user terms found on music services".

There are many different kinds of streaming fraud, with some of the manipulation happening within the music industry, and some by opportunists outside the sector gaming the business model employed by services like Spotify. It will be interesting to see what tactics the defendant allegedly employed to boost the streams of his music, although streaming fraud has evolved since 2019 and scammers are likely also employing other manipulation methods today.

The fact that the man in this case was gaming the system on multiple services demonstrates that tackling streaming fraud requires a joined-up approach, involving all the streaming platforms and all the distributors. That can be achieved through initiatives like the Music Fights Fraud Alliance and platform-agnostic anti-fraud specialists like Beatapp.

Legally speaking there needs to be a multi-pronged approach, with the industry pursuing legal action against the websites that provide manipulation services, while also following the money and putting pressure on their payment providers. But agencies like the National Unit For Special Crime also have a role to play. The Danish case may provide some useful insight in that domain.

Prosecutors in the case are reportedly seeking a fine, prison sentence and the confiscation of the defendant’s royalties.

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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.

👉 Click through to see the current selection.

ONE LINERS

Machine Gun Kelly, BRIT Awards, Jordan North + more

DEALS

Warner Music’s Atlantic Records in the UK and talent agency EYC have partnered on new label EYC Records. "I am extremely happy about the launch of EYC Records - a platform to develop the acts we believe in, facilitate brand partnerships in our field of expertise and push our creative visions to the next level”, says EYC boss Cora Delaney. The label’s first signing is Betty, whose latest single is ‘Take Me Under’.

Glass Beams have signed to Ninja Tune and will release their new EP ‘Mahal’ through the label on 22 Mar. Watch a live performance of the title track here.

APPOINTMENTS

Former MTV and Spotify exec Courtney Holt has joined children's entertainment company Moonbug Entertainment as the company’s first Global Head Of Music And Strategic Audio Initiatives. “I look forward to collaborating with our talented team to explore new opportunities, forge strategic partnerships and push the boundaries of what is possible”, he says. “As a parent, I am inspired by the work Moonbug has been doing to produce great and inspirational content for kids”.

Wise Music Group has appointed Thomas Jamois as Managing Director of Wise Music France. “It's an honour to serve such a prestigious catalogue owned by a family group”, he says. “The nobility and diversity of the repertoire, combined with the international network, enable us to anticipate with confidence and creativity the challenges that our profession is constantly facing”.

PULSE Records has hired Tim Glover as President of A&R. He joins from Universal Music’s Interscope Geffen A&M. "The PULSE team is synonymous with artist creativity, artist development, building a strong creative community, and they go out of their way to customise their A&R strategies to the unique needs of each and every artist”, he says. “I'm honoured and excited to join the team, and I look forward to big things ahead”.

LEGAL

The US Fifth Circuit Appeals Court has ruled against musician Kirk Johnston, who claims that Nickelback’s 2005 track ‘Rockstar’ ripped off a song he had written for his band Snowblind Revival with the same title four years earlier. The judges agreed with an earlier ruling that both songs reference well-known cliches but are not “strikingly similar” otherwise.

MEDIA

Jordan North is to replace Roman Kemp as host of Capital Radio's breakfast show, having announced his departure from BBC Radio 1 last week. "Getting to host Capital Breakfast has always been a dream of mine and it's a once in a lifetime opportunity that I simply couldn't turn down”, he says. Kemp’s final show will air at the end of March.

McFly’s Danny Jones and Tom Fletcher are to become judges on the next series of ‘The Voice UK’, replacing Olly Murs. Just Olly Murs? Yes, in the latest BBC cost-cutting measure, they’re going to have to share a chair. They also had to issue a joint statement, saying in unison, “To be making ‘The Voice UK’ history as the first ever double chair combo is going to be epic and we're both ready for the challenge”. Also new on the show is LeAnne Rimes, who is replacing Anne-Marie. Still holding in there are Tom Jones and Will.i.am.

RESEARCH

The Innovation Hub of UK record industry trade group BPI has been rebranded as BPI Insight & Innovation with the aim of expanding its focus on future trends, data and analysis within the UK’s recorded music industry. It will officially launch at SXSW in March, and the same month will release the first episode of innovatively named new podcast ‘The BPI Innovation Podcast’.

AWARDS

Oh what, you thought all the performers for this year’s BRIT Awards had been announced? How wrong you were. No one had told us that Tate McRae is going to do it. She is the last performer to be announced though. So the full list is as follows: Becky Hill and Chase & Status, Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding, Dua Lipa, Jungle, Kylie Minogue, Raye and Rema. Oh, and Tate McRae. It’s on 2 Mar.

GIGS & FESTIVALS

Nadine Shah has announced that she will play the Kentish Town Forum in London on 22 Nov. Her new album ‘Filthy Underneath’ is out tomorrow.

RELEASES

Machine Gun Kelly has released new single ‘Don’t Let Me Go’.

Jack Savoretti has announced that he will release his first Italian language album ‘Miss Italia’ on 10 May. Out now is first single ‘Senza Una Donna (Without A Woman)’ featuring Zucchero - a cover of the song Zucchero originally recorded with Paul Young in 1991.

Perfume Genius has released a cover of ‘What A Difference A Day Makes’, taken from Jack Antonoff’s soundtrack to Apple TV+ series ‘The New Look’.

Richard Hawley will release new album ‘In This City They Call You Love’ on 31 May. Out now is new single ‘Two For His Heels’.

Allie X has released new single ‘Weird World’. Her new album ‘Girl With No Face’ is out tomorrow.

Bodega have released new single ‘City Is Taken’. Their new album ‘Our Brand Could Be Yr Life’ is out on 12 Apr.

USA Nails have released new single ‘The Sun In The Sands’. New album ‘Feel Worse’ is out on 22 Mar.

Approved: Lubiana

Following a viral pre-release campaign on TikTok, Lubiana's debut single, 'Respect', not only meets but exceeds expectations. Hailing from West London, Lubiana embodies the capital's cross-cultural fusion, seamlessly blending the energy of London rap with baile funk and Brazilian influences.

Lubiana set the stage for 'Respect' with cheeky and inventive TikToks, swiftly amassing 30k followers in the process. Her creative approach even extended to setting up a stall in Portobello Market, trading cups of tea for pre-saves. This release, as fresh, feisty and independent as its campaign, firmly establishes Lubiana as an independent artist worth keeping an eye on in the future.

🎧 Listen to ‘Respect’ here.

Jimmy Iovine and Universal-backed NTWRK buys Complex to capitalise on the superfan opportunity

NTWRK - a platform that offers "curated livestream shopping experiences featuring the world's best creators" - has acquired youth culture media company Complex and announced partnerships with Universal Music labels Interscope Geffen A&M and Capital Music Group. The aim? To create a "digital hub at the forefront of convergence culture". So good news for fans of convergence culture.

It is ultimately about capitalising on the superfan opportunity, which we already know is a priority for Universal Music right now. The plan, presumably, is to utilise Complex's brand and content to build a community onto which artists and other celebrities can push their superfan products and experiences. This interestingly contrasts with Warner Music selling off its media platforms at the same time as likewise making superfan products a key priority.

"Complex has been a beacon of culture and innovation for over two decades", says NTWRK co-founder and CEO Aaron Levant, who also co-created the ComplexCon event. "My journey with Complex began as an admirer of their original magazine in 2002 and it has now come full circle as I step into the leadership role. Alongside this impressive team, we will create the definitive global content, commerce and experiential platform of convergence culture".

The combined NTWRK/Complex is hoping to collaborate with all the majors and many indies on creating superfan products with their artists, although Universal is a "strategic partner". That partnership - and the fact the major's Interscope label will be involved from the off - is perhaps not surprising, given another NTWRK co-founder is Jamie Iovine, son of record industry veteran, former Universal exec and Interscope founder Jimmy Iovine.

And Iovine Senior is also a backer. "Aaron Levant, along with Jamie Iovine and Gaston Dominguez-Letelier, are building an incredible platform and this acquisition will exponentially accelerate its growth", says he. "Combining the power and reach of Complex with the NTWRK engine serving creators across music, fashion and art will be transformative for the next generation of consumer technology".

Warner Music got directly involved in the youth culture media business when it bought Uproxx in 2018 and then HipHopDX in 2020. Given that Warner Music CEO Robert Kyncl also talked up the superfan opportunity at the start of the year, you might have thought the company would seek to utilise those platforms to create something akin to what NTWRK/Complex has planned.

However, Kyncl has also announced a round of downsizing at the mini-major which includes a plan to sell off Uproxx and HipHopDX. So, no then.

NTWRK has bought Complex off Buzzfeed in a deal worth $108.6 million. Buzzfeed acquired Complex itself back in 2021 in a $294 million deal, although that did also include the First We Feast brand, which is not part of the NTWRK transaction.

The Complex sale comes amid wide-ranging restructuring at Buzzfeed, which also includes a downsizing that will affect about 16% of its workforce.

Setlist Podcast: When arts funding and politics collide

In this week's Setlist Podcast: Chris Cooke and Andy Malt discuss questions and potential legal action over the politicisation of arts funding, as Kneecap are denied money by the British government and Arts Council England issues new guidance for anyone thinking of being controversial, plus the legal battle over royalties currently brewing between MLC and Pandora, and more.

🎧 Click here to listen - or search for 'Setlist' wherever you normally listen

Spotify launches in-house brand partnerships agency

Spotify has launched a new in-house brand partnerships agency called AUX. Led by Jean-François Pathy, it will advise brands on how best to use music in their marketing campaigns and team them up with willing artists. Or at least that’s the idea.

“Spotify is always looking for ways to leverage our music ecosystem to deepen the connections between artists, brands, and fans”, says Jeremy Erlich, Head Of Music Content at Spotify. “AUX is a natural step for us to help brands strengthen their music strategy and better connect with new audiences through our expert insights and observations from our music team, tailored to meet brands’ needs”.

As Spotify continues in its endeavour to become a profitable operation, boosting its ad and brand income is a key priority. It currently makes considerably more money from selling subscriptions despite having more users on its ad-funded free-tier.

By facilitating more extensive brand partnerships built around its platform, Spotify presumably hopes to access bigger budgets from advertisers. Which sounds like fun.

Being the middleman for brand partnerships in music can be complex though, as there are so many stakeholders involved, with multiple rightsholders controlling the music itself, and the artist and their management team playing the most important role. And Spotify’s music industry deals are generally with record labels and music publishers, not artists.

Still, at launch, AUX has bagged a biggie. It has teamed Coca-Cola up with Peggy Gou for the drink brand’s new Coke Studio campaign. As part of that, emerging artists will be offered recording time in a studio at Spotify’s LA offices.

Involving emerging talent in these projects is probably a wise move, given earlier career artists are generally easier and cheaper to engage. And maybe getting brands to champion new acts will help people forget how Spotify is freezing millions of grassroots musicians out of the royalty pool.

R Kelly victim’s $4 million judgement overturned on procedural grounds

An appeals court in Illinois has dismissed a $4 million default judgement that was awarded to Heather Williams after she accused R Kelly of sexual abuse. Appeal judges concluded that the state's procedural rules had not been followed after the lawyers representing Kelly in the case stood down in 2020.

Acccording to Law360, the judges said that Kelly should have been - but was not - served with papers confirming that his lawyers had stepped down in January 2020, and that a default judgement had subsequently been made against him the following month.

"Kelly was not apprised of the trial court's deadline for filing [an alternative attorney]" as a result of this, they wrote. "The record does not reflect that the January withdrawal order or the February order of default were served on [a relevant attorney] or any other party on Kelly's behalf".

Williams argued that Kelly did in fact have another attorney working for him by the day of a final court hearing in March 2020, but that he arrived late. As a result she said throwing out the default judgement in Kelly’s favour would be "manifestly unfair".

However, the appeal judges disagreed. They stated, "although we express no opinion on the ultimate merits of Williams' cause of action, we do not find it manifestly unfair under the circumstances for those merits to be tested in court instead of Williams obtaining a multimillion-dollar judgement by default".

Williams says that she met Kelly in 1998 when she was sixteen and initially agreed to spend time with him at his studio because he promised to put her in a music video. Instead, she says, they then began a sexual relationship that she now views as abusive.

After going legal, Williams first won a default judgement in her favour in April 2019 after Kelly failed to respond to her complaint. However, his attorneys successfully argued that the litigation should be reopened, but then stood down from the case before it reached court again.

By that time Kelly was in jail awaiting trial on multiple criminal charges in relation to his sexual abuse of women and teenagers.

Kelly's failure to appoint new representation resulted in the second default judgement in 2020, with the musician ordered to pay $4 million in damages. His current legal team filed a new petition to vacate the judgement at the start of 2023. A Cook County judge then voided the judgement in April 2023, after which the case then headed to the Illinois appeal court.

Alongside all that, lawyers working for Williams have also pursued other legal action in a bid to secure their client her damages from Kelly.

That included a bid to claim the royalties that Kelly is due from Sony Music, although other creditors were going after that money too. And, in 2022, Williams' lawyers accused Kelly of fraudulently selling his music rights to a childhood friend in order to avoid that intellectual property from being claimed in lieu of the damages he owed.