Pandora knocked back bid from Sirius and Live Nation shareholder Liberty Media
US media company Liberty made an offer to buy Pandora earlier this year, according to the Wall Street Journal, but the proposal was rejected by the board at the American personalised radio service, seemingly on the basis of the price per share being offered.

There has been much speculation in the last year or so, of course, about publicly listed Pandora being bought by a tech or media giant. Though when co-founder Tim Westergren returned to the CEO role after the sudden departure of former boss Brian McAndrews in March, he heavily implied that seeking a buyer for the firm was no longer on the agenda.

That led to one shareholder in the loss-making company, Corvex Management, which controls nearly 10% of the firm's stock, calling on Pandora management "to immediately engage an independent investment bank with a fresh perspective and without any prior history of advising the company to advise on a value maximisation process - including the execution of a sales process - and to evaluate the results against other options".

According to the WSJ, although Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei has been disparaging about the streaming music market in the relatively recent past - seeming to say that the high content costs make the streaming business unattractive - the media chief nevertheless expressed an interest in buying Pandora Media Inc for about $15 a share.

That would constitute a per-share premium of a few dollars - Pandora's share price having never really recovered from a slump late last year - and would value the company overall at $3.4 billion. But sources tell the Journal that Pandora chiefs reckoned their company is actually worth something more in line with the share price before that aforementioned 2015 slump, which would be something more in the region of $20 a share.

The speedy rejection of Maffei's bid may have also been influenced by the fact it seemed a highly speculative offer, rather than a serious takeover proposal. Though the Liberty chief, when asked in an investor meeting last month about why talks with the streaming firm were not progressing, apparently said "you'd have to ask the Pandora board".

Any talk of Liberty acquiring Pandora inevitably leads to speculation of some kind of merger between the streaming service and satellite radio firm Sirius XM, in which Liberty has a 64% stake. And indeed, talk of a Pandora acquisition at the aforementioned Liberty investor meeting was framed in terms of the potential benefits of a Sirius/Pandora alliance.

Sirius knows that the growth of subscription streaming is a threat - especially as digital services become increasingly available in the car - and its own dabblings in the streaming domain have been somewhat lacklustre to date. Though at the same time, the royalties that Sirius, as a radio service, has to pay to the music rights owners are significantly lower than those paid by streaming services like Pandora. Therefore, while a shift into streaming may be necessary to stay competitive, for the time being Sirius would much prefer listeners to be tuning in to its radio channels.

There is also the issue that Pandora's current ambitions are for global expansion and diversification into ticketing, which doesn't tally so much with the business priorities of Sirius. Indeed, an alliance between Pandora and another business in which Liberty has a significant stake - Live Nation - would possibly make more sense, especially given the streaming service's current plan to use its user data and direct-to-fan channels to sell gigs.

Live Nation, which already has an association with Tidal via its business partnership with Jay-Z, would potentially make a good strategic partner to anyone looking to turn a streaming service into a ticketing and direct-to-fan platform with multiple revenue streams.

And with Pandora admitting in a quarterly report this week that recent revenues were less than anticipated and user numbers were down over a million in the face of heightened competition from the likes of Apple Music, the company could possibly use a good strategic partner right about now. Perhaps $15 a share doesn't look so bad after all.

Kim Dotcom's lawyer responds to interesting MegaVideo ruling in Italy
While the world still waits for Kim Dotcom's big day in the American courts - which may or may not happen - to face charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering in relation to his former business MegaUpload, there's been an interesting ruling in Italy in relation to that company's MegaVideo enterprise.

Whereas MegaUpload was a file-transfer platform, MegaVideo was more like YouTube, though both parts of the business had a subscription option that enabled users to access more content. Like YouTube, MegaVideo hosted lots of videos uploaded without the approval of rights owners but - while Dotcom continues to insist his company operated a takedown system for said rights owners - MegaVideo didn't develop the kinds of rights management tools and/or seek the kinds of licensing deals achieved by its Google-owned rival.

Despite the entire MegaUpload business being shut down by the US authorities in 2012, a copyright case being pursed by Italian TV firm RTI against the company has continued to go through the motions, and has now finally reached a judgement. RTI accused MegaVideo of infringing its copyrights by failing to remove its content after the broadcaster requested a takedown.

Team Mega didn't actively defend the case, the company being technically defunct with its former assets frozen. Though the court did consider a possible argument that could be put against RTI's claim: that the broadcaster simply provided a list of its programmes that were appearing on MegaVideo, rather than specific URLs where its content was being streamed without licence. Most user-upload platforms insist that rights owners must provide specific URLs when requesting that allegedly copyright infringing content be removed.

This leads us back to the good old safe harbours debate, which will be at the heart of the US case against Dotcom et al if it ever actually reaches an American courtroom. Under the safe harbour rules, user-upload sites are protected from liability when users upload infringing material providing they operate a takedown system. But what form does that takedown system need to take?

The Italian court in the RTI case decided that specific URLs were not required, and information about programme names was sufficient. They also noted that content ripped off RTI channels and then uploaded to sites like MegaVideo usually had the broadcaster's logo in the corner.

That makes this long-overdue ruling against a dead company all the more interesting, as it steps up the obligations of safe harbour dwelling websites, in Italy at least. Which is something Dotcom's highest profile legal rep, Ira Rothken, criticises about the judgement in an interview with Torrentfreak.

He says: "The Rome court apparently ruled on this MegaVideo case in a default context, unknown to us, and the result is unworkable case law on ISP secondary copyright liability ... it was not explained why the copyright owners couldn't provide URLs in the takedown notices and no burden analysis based on competent evidence was done by the court".

The legal man adds that the ruling in Rome is not in line with precedent in the US - where the really big MegaUpload case will take place, extradition appeal depending. And he argues that there is a case for saying Italian judges are in conflict with European law too, concluding that "this type of secondary infringement rule, if allowed to stand, arguably violates EU freedom of expression and copyright-related treaties, amongst other things".

Liam Payne signs to Capitol
So, despite rumours of a Harry Styles solo deal, it's Liam Payne who gets to be the first technically still serving member of One Direction to sign a record contract on his own. Hey, you've got to take the accolades where you can.

Zayn Malik was actually first, of course. But he quit the band before signing to RCA, so it doesn't count. And Harry may well have signed to Columbia, but he hasn't actually officially told anyone yet, so it's no dice for him. Liam is the one who gets to set the post-1D agenda, and he's done it by sending fans into a panic that the group, rather than being on a genuine hiatus, might actually have split up. I know, I was just as shocked as you.

"I'm really happy to have signed to such a prestigious label as Capitol Records UK", began Payne's press statement, innocuously enough. "Capitol Records has an amazing history stretching right back before even Frank Sinatra and I'm really looking forward to becoming part of their story".

So that all seems fine. But then he said: "One Direction will always be my family; I'm now excited to show what I can do as a solo artist".

So what are the issues with this sentence? He says that One Direction will "always" be his family. And people go back to their families all the time, don't they? Though only usually for Christmas and the odd weekend. Maybe slightly longer for a holiday.

Though long term only if something really bad happens. And if Payne reckons he's got some exciting things up his sleeve as a solo artist, he's presumably hoping that he'll not have to go back to his childhood bedroom anytime soon.

In signing to Universal's Capitol, Payne is the first One Direction boy to exit home-of-1D Sony Music. With two more 1Ders to still sign, which of the mega-majors will secure the most members of the former boyband? That's the question no one's asking, isn't it? Perhaps Niall Horan will throw us a curveball, launch a metal band and sign to Earache? Now, that'd have the 1D faithful in a real panic. Even though Charlie Simpson will tell you, the pop-to-rock shift is always reversible.

SOCAN buys Audiam
Having bought old timer digital music provider MediaNet back in May, mainly to tap its extensive database of sound recording information, Canadian collecting society SOCAN has further expanded its data credentials by acquiring Audiam, the digital rights company set up by Jeff Price which has been involved in several songwriters and publishers working out what cash they're missing as a result of America's shoddy mechanical rights framework.

Says the performing rights organisation: "[This] acquisition empowers SOCAN to provide a unique global music industry solution with respect to licensing digital services and royalty payment for songwriters, composers and music publishers. With Audiam, SOCAN now has a comprehensive database and metadata of all musical works and commercially released digital sound recordings, and the technology and business understanding to match and connect the two, issue licenses and get rights-holders paid all they have fairly earned".

Music rights data, of course, has been a big talking point in the music community of late, as labels, distributors, publishers and collecting societies have to process ever increasing amounts of usage data from the streaming services, and then work out who needs to be paid.

As much previously noted, this challenge is bigger on the songs side of the business, because while the streaming services assume that whoever provides a recording represents the copyright in it - and therefore is the person to pay when a track is streamed - the digital platform doesn't know who owns the accompanying song copyright.

With the exception of mechanical royalties in the US - where it is left for the digital services to work out who to pay (or not as the case may be) - generally the collecting societies accept complete lists of every single track that has been streamed in any one month, and then work out which were of songs they control, or part-control, and therefore what they are due. It's a big data-crunching task, certainly by music industry standards, and is hindered when music rights data is poor, or is heavily reliant on song titles rather than song form.

Lots of societies are trying to boost their data credentials - both in terms of the structure of their databases and the data contained within - but with its MediaNet and Audiam acquisitions, SOCAN is arguably getting a head start.

The two acquisitions are also possibly a sign of another trend that is happening in the collective licensing domain, which is that societies which traditionally stuck to their own sets of rights and home territories - wary of treading on the turf of other collecting societies elsewhere in the world, many of which they worked with through reciprocal agreements - are starting to more overtly compete.

For example, by buying Audiam, SOCAN - a performing rights organisation in Canada - is getting itself involved in mechanical rights in America. "With the Audiam acquisition", said SOCAN yesterday, "[we have] expanded into collection of royalties for reproductions of music ("mechanicals"), licensing and royalty distribution in the US and Canada".

Audiam will continue to be run by Price, who has an existing relationship with SOCAN, him having consulted for the society after being pushed out of his original start-up business TuneCore. Says the official statement: "Jeff Price will remain Audiam's CEO and will work closely with SOCAN group CEO Eric Baptiste and his team".

Confirming the deal, Price was as ambitious as ever, telling reporters that the formal joining of the two organisations would "allows us to finally fix the global industry problems, remove liability for services and get rights-holders paid". Bigging up his company's new owner, Price added: "SOCAN is not only the most technologically advanced, efficient and transparent music rights organisation on the planet, but its board of directors and executive team are singularly focused on assuring all the works of composers and publishers are licensed and that rights-holders are paid for the use of their music".

Meanwhile SOCAN boss Baptiste said: "In 2013 Audiam shook up the music royalties system by identifying and correcting serious gaps in the digital music rights value chain, particularly with music used in YouTube videos, by correctly matching data to the rights-holder. By acquiring Audiam, SOCAN steps even further ahead with our vision to lead the global transformation of music rights with substantial new tools for our more than 135,000 member songwriters, composers and music publishers, dramatically expanding our ability to ensure that creators are properly and fairly compensated".

SFX took Beatport off the market because it's so bloody successful
Beatport is not for sale, people. And not because SFX couldn't find a buyer. No, because it's become so bloody successful of late.

As previously reported, a month after Beatport parent company SFX declared bankruptcy in February, it announced that the dance music-focussed digital music service would be one of the assets offloaded to keep the company afloat. Attempts to find a buyer stalled though, and the Beatport operation was cut back to just its original download store. Then a court filing earlier this month showed that it was no longer up for sale.

But the tone of that last paragraph demonstrates just the sort of negative spin the bloody media puts on everything. It's all fine. SFX doesn't want to sell Beatport anymore. Beatport is great. Beatport is keeping everything ticking along.

"Our renewed focus on the Beatport Store, following our announcement of platform changes in May 2016, has been well-received and successful", says a statement from SFX. "The changes we implemented have laid a strong foundation for Beatport that have dramatically improved its profitability".

It continued: "As a result of these improving trends, SFX has determined that retaining ownership of Beatport is in the best interest of the company and has withdrawn its motion to sell Beatport through the Chapter 11 [bankruptcy] process. We look forward to emerging from Chapter 11 in the next few months a strong and vibrant business, positioned to pursue both organic and strategic growth options".

So, get ready for SFX to bounce back everybody. It's already doubled its share price from a recent all time low of one cent. Good times.

My Chemical Romance not reuniting, duh
The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, they say. And My Chemical Romance's cryptic teaser of an announcement is a fine example of that. All they wanted everyone to do was wait patiently until September for them to announce a re-issue of 'The Black Parade' album, but you all went and assumed they were getting back together, didn't you?

As previously reported, MCR uploaded a short video to YouTube earlier this week, which did little but flag up 23 Sep this year as a date of interest in the 2016 calendar. That happens to be the nine year and eleven months anniversary of 'The Black Parade', so it was fairly safe to assume that something related to that album was happening.

We could all have just noted that and gone about our days, but people can't help themselves, so the internet was immediately filled with talk of a reunion. As a result, the band have had to reveal that the actual secret is [a] what you could have easily guessed it would be, and [b] not that interesting.

"We've been really touched and blown away by the response to the teaser trailer", the band said on Twitter yesterday. "We are not touring and there is no reunion planned - only a release for the anniversary of 'The Black Parade'. Thanks so much for continuing to keep MCR in your minds and in your hearts".

Yeah, thanks guys. And thanks for spoiling everything.

Temple Of The Dog to mark 25th anniversary by going on first ever tour
Temple Of The Dog, the short-lived group formed by members of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam in 1990, are to re-issue their one album and reunite for a US tour later this year.

Temple Of The Dog were formed by Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell to record songs he had written in tribute to Andrew Wood, the frontman of Mother Love Bone. Wood died from a drugs overdose in March 1990, days before the release of his band's debut album.

"I was compelled to write them and there they were - written in a vacuum as a tribute to Andy", says Cornell of the songs that sparked the project. "My thought was that maybe I could record these songs with the remaining members of Mother Love Bone and that maybe we could release them as a tribute".

And so that is what he did. For the 'Temple Of The Dog' album, Cornell was joined by MLB members Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, plus a friend of theirs, guitarist Mike McCready. They then went on to form Pearl Jam with vocalist Eddie Vedder, who also contributed to the album. Drums were handled by Soundgarden's Matt Cameron, who later went on to join Pearl Jam also.

"Temple was about making an album simply for the joy of doing it", continues Cornell. "We weren't concerned what anyone outside of our group of friends would think of it. It was the first and maybe only stress-free album that we all made".

After the album was recorded, Pearl Jam formed and began recording their debut LP, and Soundgarden started work on their third, 'Badmotorfinger'. As a result, by the time 'Temple Of The Dog' was released in April 1991, the band was no longer a going concern.

"We wanted to do the one thing we never got to do - play shows and see what it feels like to be the band that we walked away from 25 years ago", says Cornell of the reunion. "This is something no one has ever seen. We wanted to stop and recognise that we did this and pay homage".

The repackaged album, newly mixed by Pearl Jam producer Brendan O'Brien, will be released on 30 Sep in various formats. The band will then play five shows - in Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle - in November. $3 from each ticket sale will be split between the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation and Pearl Jam's Vitalogy Foundation.

Radar Awards winners announced
The winners of the first ever Radar Awards for excellence in music videos were unveiled at a recent ceremony at London's YouTube Space.

"The Radar Awards were a blast", says Radar Music Videos director Caroline Bottomley. "The awards connected talented new filmmakers from across the world - including USA, Canada, Ireland, Croatia, Berlin, France, Iceland and Norway - with experienced and influential industry tastemakers and all was good".

She adds: "A great venue - thanks YouTube! - plus great prizes - thanks Vevo, Marshall and all! - plus drinks all made for a great party and a lot of happy people".

But what about the winners? Well, the winners were...

Director categories
Best Director: Bob Gallagher for Girl Band - Paul
Art Department / Styling: Girl Band - Paul (Dir: Bob Gallagher)
Animation / VFX: De Staat - Witch Doctor (Dir: Studio Smack)
Cinematography / Lighting: Hammock - In The Middle Of This Nowhere (Dir: Seth Fuller)
Concept / Narrative: Death From Above 1979 - Virgins (Dir: Eva Michon)
Edit: V V Brown - Lazarus (Dir: Daniel Price)
Live: Lady Leshurr - Queens Speech 4 (Dir: Wowa)
Location / Character: Zebra Katz - BLK Diamond (Dir: Elvar Gunnarsson)
Radar Commissioned: Lea Porcelain - Out Is In (Dir: Ethan Graham)
Student: Øst - Skræmmende Tomt (Dir: Emil Øllgaard Vilhelmsen)

Artist categories
Best Artist: Fakear - Animal (Dir: Antoine Besse)
Dance: Fakear - Animal (Dir: Antoine Besse)
Grime / Hip Hop: Open Mike Eagle - Celebrity Reduction Prayer (Dir: Ryan Calavano)
Indie: Susanne Sundfør - Accelerate (Dir: Stian Andersen)

Major Lazer, Korn, Giggs, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Major Lazer have teamed up with Justin Bieber and MØ for new single 'Cold Water'. The song is a co-write with Ed Sheeran. Watch the lyric video here.

• Korn have announced that they will release their twelfth album, 'The Serenity Of Suffering', on 21 Oct. They've also released the video for new single 'Rotting In Vain'.

• Giggs has revealed the video for new single 'Whippin Excursion'. The track is taken from the rapper's new album 'Landlord', out on 5 Aug.

• The new Of Montreal single is online. This is it, it's called 'My Fair Lady'.

• They - as in the hip hop duo They, whose name is never going to get less awkward - have another track out, called 'Deep End'.

• Myrkur has released a cover of Bathory's 'Song To Hall Up High', taken from her new live acoustic EP 'Mausoleum', which is out on 19 Aug.

• Drugdealer - aka Michael Collins - has announced his debut album. Guests on the record include Ariel Pink and Weyes Blood, the latter of whom appears on new single 'Suddenly'.

• Trudy And The Romance have released a new single, 'Wild'. They'll also be on tour in October, mostly supporting The Big Moon.

• Kesha has announced the US tour she was teasing earlier in the week. The 'Fuck The World Tour' will see her performing with new project Kesha And The Creepies. "Until I can release my own music I will be re-inventing some of my old songs and some of my favourite songs from my musical idols", she explained in an Instagram post.

• Donald Trump's daughter Tiffany once released a pop single. A mixture of autotune and poor diction makes it quite hard to hear the lyrics, but I think the chorus goes "Feel like a spotter ball, crowning through the liquid love, you came when you tweeted me, baby you know big big bee". And I think we can all take something from that.

• Shaun Ryder has put himself forward to replace Chris Evans as the host of 'Top Gear' in an interview with NME. Yeah, you already wrote the punchline for this in your head, didn't you?

CMU Beef Of The Week #315: Third Eye Blind v The Republican Party
You may have thought that I was going to write about that whole thing with Taylor Swift and Kanye West this week. But, come on. Unless Kim and Kanye actually end up going to prison, I don't think there's any more humour to be drawn out of that story. People are dicks. The end. Hurling abuse at people because of their political views though? That I can get on board with.

Yeah, alright, it does little to further any debate, but politics is a scary place at the moment, so you've got to take your laughs where you can get them. Luckily, in the UK we can just watch videos of politicians being asked why the fuck Boris Johnson is the new Foreign Secretary at high profile events.

Theresa May has been praised by some for stepping up and providing decisive-looking leadership in a time of crisis. But just look at how she stumbles her way through the answer to this question about Johnson. And then from earlier in the week, Johnson himself trying to get around the thorny issue of all the insults he has thrown at the people he's now supposed to be working with is amazing. Look at John Kerry wince. How often do you get to see a politician actually wince? It may not solve any of our problems, but it is glorious nonetheless.

All this Brexit nonsense has been so all consuming that you could almost forget that America has its own stupid vote coming up. I mean, imagine how much heat would be taken off us and our silly decisions if the US was to actually elect the actual Donald Trump as its actual president. He does awkward so much more efficiently than any of our politicians too. I'm starting to think it might be in our interests to lobby for him to defeat Hillary Clinton.

Luckily, not everyone shares my view. Not least Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins, who, as we found out this week, would really rather the Republican Party and all of its supporters go away.

People in the UK might remember Third Eye Blind as 'that band that did that song', though in the US they are somewhat more well known. As a result, they get asked to play the odd high profile event.

Jenkins has previously made his views on the Republican Party more than clear, writing an article for the Huffington Post in 2012 on why he had refused an invitation to play the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. It's because they are "a party dedicated to exclusion", if you were wondering.

However, this year he did agree to appear at an event linked to the same party's big convention. Although not actually politically affiliated, the benefit show for the Musicians On Call charity, hosted by the RIAA and headlined by Third Eye Blind, was nevertheless billed as being part of said convention's festivities. It also coincided with Trump being named the official Republican presidential candidate.

Knowing full well that the audience would therefore be filled with Republicans, Jenkins set about letting them know his disdain for their views. He apparently said repeatedly through his set that he "repudiates" what the party stands for. Plus there were quips like "raise your hand if you believe in science", which drew boos from parts of the audience. "You can boo all you want, but I'm the motherfucking artist up here", he told them.

As well as changing the lyrics of songs to further criticise the Republican Party, he resolutely refused to play any of his hits, except 1998's 'Jumper', which was written about the suicide of his gay cousin. "To love this song is to take into your heart the message and to actually, actually have a feeling to arrive and move forward, and not live your life in fear and imposing that fear on other people", he said, introducing the song.

In a statement the following day, the band said via their website: "We did not play an RNC event. We performed at a benefit for Musicians On Call because we support their mission in bringing music to the bedsides of patients in hospitals. Given that the benefit was held in Cleveland, we suspected that convention types might show up and we let it be known we were there to support Musicians On Call and that we in fact repudiate every last stitch of the RNC platform and the grotesque that is their nominee".

Listing the beliefs they feel are at odds with the Republican viewpoint, they went on: "Science is science. Coal is not clean. Black Lives Matter. LGBTQ = equal. Separation of church and state (still a good idea). We could go on".

"We have Republican friends, family members, and fans, and we love them all", they added, recognising the offence they caused some during and after the show. "What we reject is what their party has come to stand for. But in keeping with Musicians On Call's message, we believe in the gathering power of music. With that spirit we don't step back from our audience wherever or whomever they are".

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Jenkins said that he hadn't expected the performance to draw the attention it has. Explaining the introduction to 'Jumper' at the event, he said: "To engage with that song means that you are participating in the belief system that all people are equal and deserving of dignity and protection, which is not what the Republican platform is. They think my gay cousin should be in conversion therapy".

"The fact that I'm on stage nineteen years after I wrote ['Jumper'] and we're still talking about equal dignity for the LGBTQ community is absurd", he continued. "But we are. And to yell 'who believes in science?' and have half the room boo is... their ideology is crumbling".

Well, their ideology is something, certainly. We've still got another four months of campaigning in which to see if it's actually falling apart at the seams. Only four months, guys! Yes, after what seems like most of the existence of life on Earth, the 2016 US presidential election campaign is now only four months away from being over.

And if I could just reiterate again, if you're reading this in the US, it would really help us out over here in the UK if you would ignore Third Eye Blind and elect Donald Trump as your hilarious and terrifying leader. I believe that is what the 'special relationship' is all about.