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TUESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2018 | COMPLETEMUSICUPDATE.COM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TODAY'S TOP STORY: Private equity company Epiris yesterday announced a deal to buy NME publisher Time Inc UK in a transaction reported to be worth £130 million. The acquisition of Time Inc's UK business comes hot on the heels of a deal in the US in which the Meredith Corporation is buying the parent company. Presumably US-centric Meredith wasn't so excited about the British magazines that came to it under its big Time Inc deal... [READ MORE] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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NME publisher Time Inc UK sold to private equity in £130 million deal One of the main magazine publishers in the UK, the British wing of Time Inc publishes music titles NME and Uncut. Other magazines in its eclectic portfolio include Wallpaper, What's On TV, TV Times, Soaplife, InStyle UK, Look and Marie Claire. According to The Guardian, it is thought that new owner Epiris will likely review all the magazines currently published by Time Inc UK and could seek to offload underperforming titles. Meanwhile, it may well seek to acquire additional magazines from other publishers - a possible bid for independent media firm Dennis Publishing is rumoured - while also seeking economies across the business that could result in some downsizing of the workforce. These assumptions are partly based on remarks by Epiris partner Chris Hanna, who said of Time Inc UK: "At its heart this is a diverse, robust and cash-generative business. We intend to bring clarity and simplicity to it, to focus on maximising the potential of its high-quality portfolio". Confirmation of the Time Inc UK deal coincided with the news that NME Editor Mike Williams has decided to step down from the role with immediate effect. He says that after more than five years in the job he felt it was time to move on. Williams has edited the title since 2012, overseeing the music weekly during its big shift from being a paid for music-focused magazine to a free title with a wider entertainment remit. Elsewhere in media deals news, it's emerged this morning that US broadcasting giant Comcast is bidding to buy the Sky TV business in Europe. In doing so it is attempting to gazump a bid by Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox, which already owns nearly 40% of the publicly listed Sky plc, and which has been trying to secure complete ownership of the satellite telly company for some time. The idea of the Murdoch-led Fox having complete ownership of Sky plc - and its Sky News channel - has proven controversial in the UK, of course, what with the also Murdoch-led News Corp already owning The Times, The Sun and various British radio stations. And with Murdoch being Murdoch. And with all that phone hacking business. And with all of that "we never did any phone hacking, except, oh, actually we did" business. 21st Century Fox's bid to buy Sky has been slightly complicated by Disney's move to acquire 21st Century Fox, which would see Murdoch become a minority shareholder in the combined entertainment powerhouse. So, hurrah for the rival bid from Comcast complicating things even further. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
50 Cent doesn't have $8.5 million worth of bitcoin 50 Cent declared himself bankrupt in 2015 amid a legal battle with Lastonia Leviston, who sued him over a sex tape he had posted online in which she appeared. Though the bankruptcy didn't actually stop that litigation, as he had been hoped. The court subsequently approved a bankruptcy settlement in 2016. If, as TMZ reported last month, 50 Cent had been sitting on 700 bitcoins since 2014, that might have changed those bankruptcy proceedings somewhat. The gossip site said that the bitcoins gathered through sales of 'Animal Ambition' had been unredeemed. Worth $400,000 in 2014, that many bitcoins would now be worth anything up to $8.5 million. However, in a legal filing seen by rival gossip site The Blast, 50 Cent's lawyers insist that any bitcoins earned by the 2014 record were cashed in long ago. They told the court that a third party had handled bitcoin sales of 'Animal Ambition' and passed monies onto their client in dollars. They added that the rapper "never owned, and does not own, a bitcoin account or any bitcoins, and to the best of his knowledge, none of his companies had a bitcoin account from 2014 to the present". As for why 50 Cent didn't just say this when the TMZ report first circulated - well - because the idea of him selling records for bitcoins and then sitting on the virtual cash while it boomed in value made him look like a shrewd operator. The Blast quote the rapper as stating to the court: "As a general matter, so long as a press story is not irreparably damaging to my image or brand, I usually do not feel the need to publicly deny the reporting. This is particularly true when I feel the press report in question is favourable to my image or brand, even if the report is based on a misunderstanding of the facts or contains outright falsehoods". | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Magic Numbers ally with Absolute on new album The band's manager Phil Jones at Riverman Management says: "I fell in love with 'Outsiders' the moment I sat down and played it for the very first time. This is a band at the top of their game, and we are THRILLED to be joining forces with Mark and the Absolute team to deliver this wonderful record. I can't think of a better home from which to launch the next chapter of The Magic Numbers' career". "But who's this Mark of whom you speak" I hear you all shouting at your screen. Well, it's Absolute Label Services Director Mark Dowling. Obviously! Says he: "I have been a big fan of The Magic Numbers since their debut so I'm very happy that the band and Phil at Riverman have chosen Absolute to be their partners on 'Outsiders'. It's a phenomenal album with incredible songs from a band that is back to their very best". | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fuck me, Ed Sheeran was the most successful act in 2017, who knew? That's good news for us Brits, who like to boast about how our music industry consistently punches above its weight on the global music stage, given this year everyone else in the top ten harks from North America. However, before all you Trumpers start boasting that that's what happens when you "make America great again", let's all note that the second most successful artist of 2017 is Canadian. Hey Canada, how you doing? Look at us, pushing those Americans into third place. Fuck them, I say. Away from all this unrelenting patriotism, the more depressing feature of the 2017 'most successful artists' list is surely the fact that third place Taylor Swift is the only woman in the top ten. The list always skews male, but not usually to that extent. Quite how diverse this list is in terms of gender, ethnicity and nationality does always depend, to an extent, on the release schedule, and which of the very small group of truly global superstar artists have been active in the previous twelve months. Still, the notable lack of female acts this year makes the various initiatives to address the gender gap in music all the more pressing. Especially given that, even when a few more female superstars do populate lists like this one, you always know that the songwriters, producers and session musicians those superstars have worked with are likely to be mainly male. But hey, Brit-boy Ed Sheeran, the most successful artist of 2017, woo! "Being crowned the biggest star in the world, with the biggest song and biggest album, is the result of years of ambition, creativity, and hard work on a global scale", says the boss of Sheeran's record company Warner Music, Max Lousada. Adds Lousada: "Ed is truly an incredible songwriter, vocalist and performer, whose ability to tell stories and make people feel is what stands him out from the crowd. He's always had a totally authentic connection with his fans, something he places over everything else. Congrats also to [Sheeran's manager] Stuart Camp, the Atlantic teams in the UK and US, and everyone at Warner who contributed to Ed's amazing success story". Now that we've all suitably celebrating Sheeran's success, let's all get depressed again over the full top ten... 1. Ed Sheeran | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rainbow Venues' outdoor space taken over by MJR MJR plans to rebrand the site the Digbeth Arena, with shows from James Arthur, Texas, The The and Garbage already scheduled for August and September. Rainbow Venues has meanwhile said that it plans to return to promoting shows around the UK, as Rainbow Events, suggesting that it may give up more of its venues in Birmingham. Rainbow's various venues have been closed since November last year, when Birmingham City Council revoked the company's licence. The council's decision came as the result of two drug-related deaths in the main Rainbow warehouse clubbing space. Eighteen year old Dylan Booth died at the venue in 2015, while nineteen year old Michael Trueman died at a Halloween event last year. The club's operators argued that they had extremely strict anti-drugs and security policies. However, they said that no one can "promise that drugs will not enter licensed premises", while also pointing out that it was the drug users, not the venue, who had broken the law. Rainbow has since launched a campaign calling for better drugs education, rather than having councils shut down clubs, which just pushes the problem elsewhere. It is also raising money in order to appeal the decision to revoke its licence, and has announced a festival to push its education agenda. That event is due to take place on the site that Rainbow has just given up on 29 Sep. MJR's Benjamin Newby says in a statement: "We are honoured and humbled to become part of the innovative and artistic hub that is Digbeth, Birmingham. We have already started developing great relationships with the business and creative community and look forward to what the future will bring. We recognise the dedicated and inspirational work Rainbow Venues have put into their venues and Digbeth as a whole". Commenting on the deal, Rainbow Venues founder Lee McDonald adds: "Our business will return full circle to the position from where we originally started. Working with emerging and established artists, bands and labels to produce extraordinary and memorable experiences for music fans and clubbers across the country under The Rainbow Events. We have a strong relationship with The MJR Group and could not be happier that they are the company taking the arena forward into the future". A growing concert promoter and venue operator, Bristol-based MJR already runs The Marble Factory in Bristol, The Engine Rooms in Southampton, Sub 89 and The Bowery District in Reading, and The Globe and The Tramshed in Cardiff. -------------------------------------------------- Expedia moves into ticketing, but as a resale platform Confirming the addition of tickets to its site, Expedia Local Expert VP Jen O'Twomney said earlier this month: "We know travellers are looking for unique and authentic experiences while in-destination. They want to catch a baseball game at a stadium they've never been to, or see a show that isn't playing in their hometown". She went on: "There's also a growing trend to build entire trips around events, to attend a music festival, follow a specific artist on tour, or root for your team at an away game. Adding event tickets to our product offering makes all the sense in the world and gives us another way to help travellers get the most out of their vacation". Given the increasingly vocal campaign against online ticket touting, it's interesting to see Expedia move into this space by becoming a marketplace for resellers rather than allying with primary ticket agents. The site does state that "we are a resale marketplace, not the ticket seller" and that "prices are set by third-party sellers and may be above or below face value". Although individual listings for tickets for British shows don't contain all the information resale sites are obliged to provide under UK law. True, it's selling them to American customers, though that's still not necessarily a very good look. Commenting on the innovation, Adam Webb from the UK campaign against touting, FanFair, told CMU: "What with the heightened political and regulatory scrutiny around secondary ticketing, it's certainly bold timing on the part of Expedia to partner with a large US ticket resale platform. And to allow listing of tickets for UK events that appear to breach UK consumer law. They might want to rethink this. Until then, we would recommend incoming tourists avoid this service, and find their ticket information instead on either the artist or authorised event website". All that said, adding gig tickets to travel websites does offer the live sector an extra route to market, though that could just as easily be a route provided to primary rather than secondary sellers. Start-up Coras is dabbling in this space already and announced a partnership with Ryanair last year. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
People and machines collaborate on new K-pop songs Jukedeck explains: "Enterarts' well-known team of composers and producers have taken pieces of music composed by Jukedeck as their starting point and composed and produced K-pop songs using Jukedeck's music as the main musical material, in a process they describe as 'putting the human emotion' into the song". The company adds that both it and Enterarts believe that, "rather than replacing human composers, the power of AI lies in its ability to be used as a tool by human composers and producers to fuel their creativity. This collaboration is an exciting early example of human musicians working with AI to compose something new". After today's performance, recorded versions of the new songs will be released on iTunes and all the key streaming platforms in Korea. The Jukedeck team will also be taking part in the CMU Insights AI Conference at The Great Escape in May, discussing how AI-based music composition tools fit into the music making process. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Festival Republic announces V Festival replacement V Festival, of course, took place on two sites, with line-ups alternating across the two. It's not clear if Festival Republic also plans to stage an event at Weston Park in Staffordshire, either under the Rize brand or something else. It was announced last October that Virgin had decided to pull its sponsorship from the event after 22 years. Revealing the news, and despite saying that it had been an "honour" to be involved with the festival for so long, the only two positive memories Virgin boss Richard Branson could come up with happened in the 90s. One of those was Stereophonics playing the event as a new signing to his then new V2 record label. So, booking the band for Rize could be seen as a bit of a dig at him. Or a nod to the event's history. Whatever. Also announced to perform are Bastille, Rita Ora, Rag N Bone Man, James Bay, Craig David, Plan B, Manic Street Preachers, Years & Years and Maximo Park. So quite heavy on the white men. Tickets go on sale this Friday, priced £59.50. You can have a look at the currently pretty sparse website here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chris Cornell, Pendulum, Rolling Stones, more Other notable announcements and developments today... Â The global grouping of indie label trade bodies worldwide, the Worldwide Independent Network, has announced the appointment of Beggars Group boss Martin Mills to the new position of Non-Executive Chair. Â One of Chris Cornell's final recordings has been released. 'You Never Knew My Mind', features lyrics drawn from an unpublished poem written by Johnny Cash. It'll appear on new album, 'Johnny Cash: Forever Words', out on 6 Apr. Â Pendulum have announced their first album since 2010's 'Immersion'. Titled 'The Reworks' (they're a bit vague about whether or not it's a remix album) the new record will be released later this year, alongside a boxset called 'The Complete Works'. Â Shirt, the first rapper signed to Jack White's Third Man Records label, has shared a video of his first visit to the company's vinyl pressing plant. Â Peggy Gou has released new track 'Han Jan'. She describes it as "my little tribute to 90s electro music". 'Han Jan' is taken from her new EP, 'Once', out this Friday. Â Those Rolling Stones have announced that they will tour the UK for the first time in more than a decade this summer. Tickets go on general sale on Friday. Â The Pet Shop Boys will return to the Royal Opera House in London with their 'Inner Sanctum' show for four nights in July. The duo are "THRILLED". Tickets go on sale tomorrow. Â Ash have announced UK tour dates for this October, finishing up at The Forum in London on 24 Oct. Their new album, 'Islands', is out on 18 May. Here's new track, 'Buzzkill'. Â Mitski will tour the UK and Ireland in September, finishing at the Shepherds Bush Empire on 26 Sep. Tickets on sale this Friday. Â Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily - updated every Friday. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Moby definitely invented the iPhone "I'm hesitant to talk about this because it sounds either like nonsense or self-aggrandising", he tells the Observer. Oh, do go on. According to the article, he explains that after Apple launched its iTunes software in 2001, he told Apple marketing exec Jimmy Dickson that the company should build its own proprietary MP3 player. "A year or two later they brought me to a hotel room at the Crosby in New York, handed me the first iPod and said: 'Steve wanted you to have this'", claims Moby. So that's a fun story. Although the iPod came out about nine months after iTunes and there is absolutely no way that the two weren't being developed at the same time as each other. Anyway, how did Moby react to being handed the first iPod? "I said: 'You do know at some point this is going to have a camera and a phone attached to it?' And they laughed at me and said that could never happen". Hahaha. How they laughed. It must have been a laugh a minute at Apple back in those days, given that Steve Jobs had been talking about wirelessly connected handheld devices since the early 80s. The company's first fleeting attempts at handheld computers date back to the early 90s, and the development of the iPad pre-dates the iPhone by some years. But sure, Moby invented the iPhone. Anyway, Moby has a new album coming out this week. He's just released the video for new single, 'This Wild Darkness'. Has Moby ever told you how he invented video? And music. No, he'd probably be hesitant for fear of sounding self-aggrandising. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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