In today's CMU Daily: Live Nation booked nearly $23 billion in revenue in 2023 - meanwhile, another independent festival is forced to cancel its 2024 edition

One Liners: Bauer Media and CALM appointments; Ivors Academy songwriting camp; rejig at Kilimanjaro Live; new music from Central Cee, Lola Young, JD REID, James Vincent McMorrow, Bugzy Malone, Justin Timberlake and Frank Turner

Also today: Vice Media to cut hundreds of jobs; Internet Archive 'crackles defence' under scrutiny; TQ Tickets tout trial latest

Plus: MMF Accelerator Programme deadline is Mon 26 Feb - read our In Conversation piece with previous Accelerator alumni

Live Nation figures show a live music boom, yet crisis at the grassroots results in another UK festival cancellation

The live industry is booming, with revenues and profits surging. Well, the upper end of the live industry that is dominated by Live Nation is. The live giant published its year-end figures for 2023 yesterday, with revenues up 36% to $22.7 billion and operating income up 46% to $1.07 billion. However, these buoyant stats contrast starkly with what many artists, promoters and venues are experiencing at the grassroots and even mid-tier of the live music sector.

“The live music industry reached new heights in 2023, and demand for live music continues to build", declares Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino alongside those impressive stats. "Our digital world empowers artists to develop global followings, while inspiring fans to crave in-person experiences more than ever".

"At the same time", he adds, "the industry is delivering a wider variety of concerts which draws in new audiences, and developing more venues to support a larger show pipeline. Against this backdrop, we expect all our businesses to continue growing and adding value to artists and fans as we deliver double-digit operating income and adjusted operating income growth again this year, with our profitability compounding by double-digits over the next several years".

Top level stats from Live Nation's year-end report include that concert attendance was up 20% and, as a result, tours have 15% more shows on average compared to five years ago. There is also higher spending on food and drink at events and growing demand in the brand partnership domain, with sponsorship revenue up 13%.

And if you think that 2023 was a fluke year, think again, the live giant adds. "Concert ticket sales are pacing up 6% with 57 million tickets sold for shows this year, and arena and amphitheater sales are up double-digits", it states, adding "there is "strong demand across all price points”.

The live industry has always been top heavy, with the upper end making lots of money and things being much more challenging for those artists, promoters and venues staging smaller capacity shows. Since the end of the COVID shutdown of live, the contrast between the upper level and the grassroots has become even more stark.

In the UK, that has led to calls that the bigger shows should be doing more to support the grass roots, where the headliners of tomorrow are being developed. The Music Venue Trust has repeatedly called for a ticket levy on large-scale shows to support those operating at the grassroots and mid-tier.

Though when yet another grassroots music venue announced its closure earlier this month - The Chameleon in Nottingham - MVT boss Mark Davyd said "there’s too many people in our industry looking in the other direction and hoping this problem will just go away".

There have also been plenty of calls for more government support, in particular a VAT cut on tickets. The Association Of Independent Festivals renewed its call for that this morning after another event announced it was cancelling its 2024 edition.

Organisers of the 110 Above Festival in Leicestershire stated that "the current economic climate means it would be reckless to plough on with such uncertainty and volatile costs - particularly for a fully independent festival like ours".

“Week-by-week, day-by-day, one-by-one these brilliant, vital independent music festivals are disappearing", says AIF CEO John Rostron. "With it, we lose the pipeline of talent development for artists and a space for audiences to find new music across the UK. Future headliners were made here".

"The costs of putting on these festivals has risen so much, way beyond the price of the ticket, and so independent festival promoters - already losing money - are having to call time. This is a long tail impact of COVID and of Brexit".

He concludes, "if the UK wants to be a world leader in music, then the UK government needs to do as other countries across the world have done, and support the festival sector for a few years to make its recovery. Lower VAT on tickets to 5% for three years, and we’ll prevent more festivals having to say enough is enough and goodbye".

The Ivors Academy // Temp Event Assistant (London/Hybrid)

Union Chapel // Visitor Engagement Coordinator (London)

ICE // System Accountant - NetSuite Implementation (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

Kilimanjaro Live, Central Cee, Lola Young + more

APPOINTMENTS

Bauer Media Audio UK has promoted Robert D’Ovidio to the role of Director (Music) Broadcast, On-Demand And Premium. In that role he will bring together music teams from across the various Bauer radio brands - including Absolute, Kiss, Magic, Hits Radio and Greatest Hits Radio - to "collaborate on cross-brand partnerships and initiatives".

Suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably has announced that Tom Walker has joined its team of ambassadors. “Sadly I know first-hand the devastation that suicide can bring and I know the stigma and shame that still surrounds the subject that stops people talking about it", he says. "That’s why I’m so proud to be a CALM ambassador - I want to do whatever it takes to raise awareness of the vital work they do and encourage more people to open up and have those conversations that can help save lives".

INDUSTRY EVENTS

The Ivors Academy has announced it will stage a Songwriting Camp at Qube East in London in April in partnership with YouTube Music. Says Ivors Academy Chair Tom Gray, “Our Songwriting Camp with YouTube Music is a big moment for The Ivors Academy. Not only will our members have new opportunities for creative collaboration and professional development, but it delivers on our commitment to fostering a more vibrant and diverse music industry alongside a key partner. It’s a thrill to launch this new moment for songwriters to develop their craft, connect with their peers, learn from established names and write some incredible music". Info here.

LIVE BUSINESS

DEAG-owned Kilimanjaro Live has announced a rejig, so that its various divisions and events will now sit under the banner KMJ Entertainment. Those divisions and events include the Kilimanjaro Live tour and festivals business, plus Regular Music, FORM, Singular Artists, Fane, How To Academy, Flying Music, JAS Theatricals, Gigantic, Myticket, Tickets.ie, Belladrum Tartan Heart, Let’s Rock, Pennfest, Arches London Bridge and Kontour. Says CEO Stuart Galbraith, “Kilimanjaro Live was originally formed to provide the best live rock and pop entertainment across the UK, but as a group, we’ve now expanded into new areas and needed an umbrella name that represents and supports our growing family of companies across the live entertainment world".

RELEASES

Central Cee has released his first single of 2024 called ‘I Will’

Singer songwriter Lola Young has posted new single ‘Intrusive Thoughts’, ahead of a sold-out UK and North American tour that kicks off next month.

JD. REID has announced details of a new EP called ‘Sometimes I Wonder’, with first single ‘Plug’ already streaming.

James Vincent McMorrow has posted a new single from his new album ‘Wide Open, Horses + Shares’ - you can listen to ‘Never Gone’ here.

Want a new Bugzy Malone track? Well, here you go, here’s ‘Ladies’.

Justin Timberlake has released new track ‘Drown’.

Frank Turner has released new track ‘Girl From The Record Shop’ - his new album ‘Undefeated’ will be released on 3 May by Xtra Mile Recordings.

Internet Archive’s crackle based ‘fair use’ defence in copyright case is perverted, say labels

The US record industry has made another legal filing in its copyright legal battle with the Internet Archive over the Great 78 Project, which has digitised and made available over 400,000 recordings that were originally released as 78rpm records. Universal Music, Sony Music and Concord were responding to a motion to dismiss recently filed by IA, which raised both the statute of limitations and good old fair use.

In terms of the IA's initial bid for dismissal, the fair use defence is secondary, but the arguments it has prompted are much more fun. IA insists that the Great 78 Project is a not-for-profit venture that seeks to "systematically digitise” all these old recordings, “hisses, pops and all, in order to preserve them for scholars and future generations".

But, say the music companies, "there is zero basis for arguing that the hisses, crackles and pops that have developed over time grant defendants the right to copy, distribute and transmit on a mass scale recordings that they know copyright law protects". Not least because, they add, the crackles don't represent a historical record of the original recording, but instead simply illustrate the flaws of an old physical record format that degrades over time.

The labels sued IA in August last year, stating in their lawsuit that, “defendants attempt to defend their wholesale theft of generations of music under the guise of ‘preservation and research’, but this is a smokescreen: their activities far exceed those limited purposes”.

In its motion for dismissal, IA mainly hones in on the statute of limitations in US copyright law, which says that infringement action must be filed within three years of either the actual infringement taking place or when the copyright owner becomes aware of it. The Recording Industry Association Of America sent IA a cease and desist letter in July 2020, suggesting its members were aware of the infringement at that point.

Their lawsuit was filed more than three years later, albeit only just. Therefore, IA argues, at least some of the recordings that the labels are suing over would have been copied beyond the statute of limitations. And the claims in relation to those recordings should be dismissed.

But IA "misrepresents the contents of that letter", say the labels in their new filing. The motion for dismissal "implies that the letter identified specific works", but "the letter did not refer to any specific works and did not identify any dates related to defendants’ infringements. Thus, the letter cannot demonstrate that plaintiffs were aware, or should have been aware, that defendants infringed any of the particular works in suit at the time the letter was sent".

Although the motion for dismissal really centres on the statute of limitations, the IA's filing did also claim that its archiving of old 78rpm records "fall squarely within both the text and the spirit of the Copyright Act’s fair use defence". Under US law, if a use of copyright protected work is fair use, permission need not be sought from a copyright owner.

But, in their latest filing, the music companies state, "fair use cannot be perverted into forfeiting a sound recording’s protection under copyright law just because the recording is copied, distributed and performed in something other than its cleanest sound".

"Contrary to defendants’ arguments", they go on, "recording the hisses and crackles does not preserve how the records sounded on release. Instead, it anachronistically captures how an older format behaves after more than seventy years of aging ... if ever there were a theory of fair use invented for litigation, this is it. Defendants’ wholesale theft of generations of music is far divorced from their purported limited purposes of 'preservation and research'".

In Conversation: MMF Accelerator alumni - Frances Barber Shillito, Leon Wright, Sadé Lawson

The MMF Accelerator programme gives artist managers the opportunity to develop their skills and connect with the management community through training and mentoring and provides a springboard to help create self-sustainable artist management businesses that can go on to develop multiple artist careers.

A core aim of the programme is to enable a diverse range of ‘next-generation music managers’ to succeed in artist management, and to expand their economic and cultural footprint in the UK and around the world.

Leon Wright runs London-based artist management company Parade. “I was an A&R person for nine years in publishing, I did quite well. I felt like I was ready to become a manager because of what I learned from other managers when I was working in A&R”, says Leon.

FRNT MGMT’s Frances Barber Shillito was a makeup artist before going into management. “I worked with DJs and bands - Martin Garrix, Paul Van Dyck and people like that. I did ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, ‘X Factor’, everything like that, working with managers and labels all the time, as part of a very close knit team. I was the last person on stage with artists, the first person off stage with them. I watched the business, saw how it worked, saw it all. There were a lot of transferable skills. Ultimately I wanted to be more business minded with tha artists I worked with, rather than following them around with a makeup brush trying to make them look less hungover!”

Working between London and LA, Sadé Lawson is one half of creative studio Cozy Global and specialises in artist management consulting, video and content production, and creative project management. “I have a background working at record companies, then working in production and previously managing FKA Twigs”, she says “My experience working with Twigs, I went into something that was already set up, already moving and functioning as a business. I was probably a little bit spoiled by that - I was focusing on one part, and there were other managers doing other things”.

“Joining the MMF and then participating in the Accelerator programme has given me a more rounded view” she adds. “It’s a challenge to make something truly sustainable when you’re working with artists who are themselves still setting up their business structure. If you take out the creativity and what an artist is making then essentially, as a manager, you are working with someone who is trying to build their own business, and sustain themselves, as well as sustaining other people.”

“Working in management feels like a baptism of fire, the workload is absolutely crazy”, agrees Leon. “But the main thing is I feel like I’m really in the trenches, fully stuck in, like I’m really helping - and every day is different. It’s really exciting”.

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

Vice Media to cut hundreds of jobs and stop publishing on Vice.com

Vice Media has told staff that hundreds of jobs will be cut as it stops publishing content on its flagship Vice.com website and moves to a “studio model”, making content for distribution by other media companies.

In a memo to employees, CEO Bruce Dixon said "it is no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously. Regrettably, this means that we will be reducing our workforce, eliminating several hundred positions".

According to The Hollywood Reporter, there were already rumours circulating within the company that its news website would be closed down. At a staff meeting before the memo was sent out, Vice News Executive Editor Josh Visser said “I don’t know more than you guys besides being able to read faces and notice who is not replying to my messages".

He also added, “Our website and our work being pulled down would be completely reprehensible … I cannot even understand any business reasons why you would do something like that".

After significant growth from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, Vice has faced a number of challenging years, as it has struggled to generate enough revenue to fund what became an extensive network of websites and programmes. It also faced increased competition within its target youth demographic from the boom in content creators on platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Twitch.

As a result, a period of considerable downsizing began, with brands and sites being closed and the workforce cut back. Then last year the company filed for bankruptcy protection as it negotiated a deal to sell the business to its money lenders, ultimately being bought by a consortium led by Fortress Investment Group.

It remains to be seen quite what the remaining Vice business looks like following this latest round of cutbacks. The changes won't affect Refinery29, another media brand owned by Vice. The memo stated that Refinery29 “will continue to operate as a standalone diversified digital publishing business, creating engaging, social first content”.

Ticketmaster incentivised TQ Tickets' touting operation, says former employee in fraud trial

One of the people facing charges of fraudulent trading in relation to ticket touting company TQ Tickets has claimed that Live Nation's Ticketmaster was aware of and even incentivised the firm's operations because it was a top seller on the resale platforms that the ticketing giant used to own.

Lynda Chenery - who worked as a bookkeeper for the ticket touting business, which was run by her sister and husband - is on trial in Leeds Crown Court. Asked by her legal representative if "Ticketmaster knew what was going on" when TQ bought tickets from the primary ticketing platform in the mid-2010s in order to resell them at a mark-up, she said "I have no doubt in my mind about that".

"It was clear from conversations I have had in the office and with [her sister] Maria that they were definitely aware", she continued, according to the BBC. And, as she understood it, because TQ used Ticketmaster's Seatwave and Get Me In! platforms to resell tickets, they were "incentivised" by Ticketmaster because TQ was "classed as a top seller or broker".

As online ticket touting started to build in the 2000s, and industrial level touts started to emerge who hoovered up tickets for in-demand shows to resell for profit, there were calls from the UK music industry to regulate the resale platforms. When those calls didn't result in much change, some in the industry - including some promoters and ticketing companies - took an "if you can't beat them, join them" approach.

Some formed official alliances with the big resale platforms, plus there were plenty of allegations that some managers and promoters were colluding directly with the touts. When a new round of campaigning against touting then began in the mid-2010s, that put those in the industry working with the secondary market - officially or behind the scenes - in a tricky position.

Live Nation's Ticketmaster acquired resale sites Get Me In! in 2008 and Seatwave in 2014. Which meant that - when the music industry's campaign against touting gained new momentum in the mid-2010s - Live Nation often found itself sitting alongside StubHub and Viagogo on the opposing side of the debate from the artists, managers, agents and promoters that it works with.

Then, in August 2018, Live Nation dramatically announced it was shutting down all of its secondary ticketing operations in Europe, although it still owns resale sites in the US.

Throughout the anti-touting campaigns, the resale platforms have argued that they exist to primarily allow fans who buy tickets for an event but then can't attend to get their money back by selling them on to another fan.

But a significant portion of trade on the touting sites comes from tickets being sold by professional resellers, who often operate under the radar until laws force more transparency on the platforms. Some platforms have also been accused of encouraging and supporting the professional touts through schemes that incentivise top sellers, like the one alluded to by Chenery.

It remains to be seen if any more allegations or revelations about the music industry at large come out during this trial, even if they relate to a previous era of ticket touting. Prosecutors claim that TQ Tickets broke the law by using dodgy schemes to access tickets, circumventing restrictions put in place by official sellers. Its touting operation made around £6.5 million between June 2015 and December 2017.

Four people connected to TQ Tickets were charged following an investigation by National Trading Standards. The two main people - Chenery's sister and husband, Maria Chenery-Woods and Paul Douglas - pleaded guilty as the trial got underway last month.

The fourth defendant is Mark Woods, husband of Maria Chenery-Woods, who argued in court earlier this week that, although he was listed as a director of his wife's company, he had no active involvement in running it.

And Finally! Ed Sheeran has let British music down, and now everyone only likes K-pop

The International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry this week published its annual list of the biggest selling global recording artists of the last year. And you’ll never guess who topped it. Oh, right, you did. Beginner’s luck, I guess. Who knew Taylor Swift was so successful?

Actually, there have only been two years since the IFPI began publishing this list in 2014 when she hasn’t appeared in the top ten, and in all but those two years she has been in the top three. This is her fourth time at number one, so her success should be no real surprise to anyone. It was nice of her to give other artists a chance to get in the top ten in 2016 and 2018 though. Especially as topping the list gets you an official IFPI award.

“We are immensely proud to award the IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year Award to Taylor Swift for the fourth time, as she continues to redefine the limits of global success”, says Lewis Morrison, Director Of Charts And Certifications at IFPI. “Taylor is a singular talent and her commitment to her craft and her fans is truly phenomenal”.

This year it’s Ed Sheeran’s turn to take a break from being in the top ten - his third time failing to make the cut. Previously he’s dropped out while taking a career break between albums, but in 2023 he put out two LPs, ‘-’ and ‘Autumn Variations’, both of which were produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner.

Sheeran’s good mate Taylor Swift also previously put out a duo of albums with Dessner, although hers were far more successful. So maybe there’s a lesson to be learned there. Get your own ideas, Ed.

I am being a little unfair. Sheeran hasn’t suffered quite as big a failure as I’ve maybe led you to believe. He isn’t in the IFPI’s big top ten this year, but he did come in at number eleven, so still had a pretty good 2023. Just not the sort of year we’ve come to expect from him. Although I think he would tell you that he was trying to do something a bit different creatively and it’s not all about the numbers.

Still, ignoring that and making it all about the numbers, his lack of effort means that there are no British artists in the top ten at all this year. And when we’re constantly told that our music industry is incredibly successful worldwide and something to be proud of, this really doesn’t help that argument. Apparently no one likes British music at all. Not even British people.