In today's CMU Daily: It’s been (yet) another eventful week in the world of Hipgnosis. Recent transactions involving a number of hedge funds could be about to add another dramatic twist to Blackstone’s plan to acquire Hipgnosis Songs Fund. That prompted the investment firm to issue a statement saying its most recent offer of $1.31 per share was its “best and final” offer, which the hedge funds largely seem to have ignored

One Liners: Nuno Bettencourt deal; Coldplay eco report; Motown Gospel appointments; Killer Mike, Live Nation, BTS legal news; Curve Royalty Services launch; Splice AI sample finder; Neil Young And Crazy Horse cancel shows; new releases from Lil Nas X, Mustard, The Kid Laroi, Cat Burns, Dizzee Rascal, Sasha Keable, Clairo, Amy Shark, Sevdaliza, Desire, Suuns

Also today: Spain’s competition regulator has fined collecting society SGAE (again), this time over its broadcast licences; Former Ticketmaster exec pleads guilty over Songkick hacking; More than half of Nordic consumers paying for music streaming

Plus: MIA says $100 tin foil hat is a “necessity” but will it make Diplo happy?

Are hedge funds betting against Blackstone’s Hipgnosis deal?

Anyone who has ever owned a cat will know the problem. You open a nice tin of tuna, and suddenly there it is, hovering behind you in the hope that there might be something tasty coming its way. God forbid its cat friends get word that there’s something tasty on offer, otherwise you might find yourself overrun. 

When you’re a multi-gazillion dollar private equity company, the problems are the same. You make an offer to gobble up a particularly delicious looking portfolio of music rights, and suddenly a bunch of hedge fund fat cats come circling, swishing their tails and yowling miserably as though they’ve not had a square meal in weeks.

Welcome to Blackstone’s current Hipgnosis-shaped problem: recent transactions involving a number of hedge funds could be about to add another dramatic twist to the investment firm’s plan to acquire Hipgnosis Songs Fund, or SONG. That is despite the fact that, until very recently - and after a bit of back and forth with rival bidder Concord - it looked like Blackstone’s deal to acquire SONG was a done deal. 

Just a couple of weeks ago Blackstone found another few million quid down the back of its sofa and used it to sweeten things a little more. The hope was that this cash would be enough to get shareholders to clear the path to allow a quicker and cleaner takeover, known as a ‘scheme of arrangement’.

Under the scheme of arrangement Blackstone needs 75% of SONG shareholders to back its takeover deal - and if it can secure that, all shareholders are bound by that decision, and any who didn’t vote for it have to sell their shares to Blackstone whether or not they like it, giving Blackstone 100% control. A few weeks back, that looked fairly likely.

One of the chief agitators in the recent SONG drama was Asset Value Investors. After Blackstone pipped Concord’s offer, AVI unloaded its entire holding of 90 million shares in SONG, generating proceeds of £91 million. In an email to investors in its AVI Global Trust, AVI said that its exit from Hipgnosis Songs Fund “marks the end of a highly successful investment for AGT, in which we played a key role in fighting off the proposed related-party sale of a portion of SONG’s catalogues and also making the case against the company continuing in its present form”.

A clutch of other institutional investors - including TIG Advisors, Kryger Capital, Glazer Capital - held relatively chunky holdings in SONG. However, common wisdom seemed to be that the extra cash that Blackstone had ponied up to increase its offer from $1.30 a share to $1.31 would be enough to satisfy them and get the vote across the line.

At least, it looked that way.

Drumsheds, Broadwick Live // Senior Operations Manager (London)

Drumsheds, Broadwick Live // Duty Operations Manager (London)

Drumsheds, Broadwick Live // Operations Coordinator (London)

terrible* // Finance Assistant/Bookkeeper (London)

SJM Concerts // Event Ticketing Manager (Manchester)

Sentric Music // Revenue Optimisation Manager (London/Liverpool)

Sentric Music // Copyright Manager (Liverpool/London)

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ONE LINERS

Lil Nas X, Killer Mike, Nuno Bettencourt + more

DEALS 

Primary Wave Music has acquired the recordings and songs catalogue of Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt. The deal covers all of his solo work and the entire Extreme catalogue, excluding the band’s 2023 album ‘Six’. “After getting to know the team at Primary Wave and seeing their passion, work ethic and creative ideas in action, I am happy now to have a bigger partnership with them”, he says. “I look forward to continuing to building my song catalogue into new realms of activity”.

APPOINTMENTS

Coldplay, Warner Music and the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology have announced that they have formed an advisory committee for their study into live music’s impact on climate change in the UK and US. Among the members are Ellie Goulding, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino and Warner CEO Robert Kyncl. “With the participation of the advisory committee and contributions of data from various sources, we are well on our way to producing a significant contribution to knowledge that can support meaningful actions to address climate change”, says Professor John E Fernandez, director of the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative.

Universal’s Capitol Christian Music Group in the US has announced two appointments to roles covering Motown Gospel and TAMLA Records. Walter Thomas has been promoted to VP Artist Development, while Alexandria Dollar has been hired as Senior Director Of A&R. "These iconic labels have a legacy of inspiring and uplifting music, and I am committed to continuing this tradition by developing the next generation of extraordinary artists”, says Thomas. “I am equally THRILLED to welcome Alexandria Dollar as our new Senior Director of A&R”.

LEGAL 

LA prosecutors have chosen not to pursue a criminal case against Killer Mike, following his arrest for assault backstage at this year’s Grammy Awards in February. According to TMZ, the rapper has agreed to do community service and will have to avoid any further arrests for a year, or the case may be reopened. 

Lawyers for Live Nation yesterday called for the lawsuit filed against the live giant by the US Department Of Justice to be moved from a New York court to a court in Washington DC. They argued that the DC court has jurisdiction over the consent decree that was agreed with the DoJ in 2010 when Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged. The DoJ countered that its current claim of anticompetitive conduct against Live Nation goes beyond a disagreement over the consent decree. According to Law360, the judge hearing the case in New York didn’t seem convinced by Live Nation's arguments, but said the company could submit a motion setting out those arguments in more detail. 

Three employees of subsidiaries of K-pop agency HYBE have been charged with insider trading. All three are accused of using insider knowledge to sell off shares in the company shortly before BTS announced that they were going on hiatus to undertake mandatory military service, causing a dip in the company’s share price. 

LABELS & PUBLISHERS

Downtown Music has launched Curve Royalty Services, offering labels, publishers and distributors the option to outsource their royalty accounting. “It has always been our goal to make royalties better and easier”, says Curve MD Richard Leach. “Now our royalty services team can take on those parts of the process clients would like to outsource”.

DIGITAL

Sample library Splice has announced a new AI-powered tool that will find samples to match an original loop, aiming to save hours of trawling through catalogues of sounds. “Splice AI delivers human-made sounds that are compatible with the creator's original idea, which remains at the centre of the creative process”, says CEO Kakul Srivastava. “With this tool creators can start with their own sound, select a genre, and Splice’s AI will surface sounds that fit perfectly in seconds. This sets the stage for the next generation of technology advances at Splice, putting powerful tools directly into our users’ existing workflow”.

GIGS & TOURS 

Neil Young And Crazy Horse have cancelled the remaining dates on their North American tour due to illness. Last performing in May, the group were due to play more shows in Canada this month, plus three US performances in September. “A couple” of members of the band have been unwell and have “still not fully recovered”, Young explained in a post on his website. He added that they “will try to play some of the dates we miss” in the future. 

RELEASES

Lil Nas X has released new single ‘Here We Go’. The track is taken from the new ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ sequel absolutely no one wanted ‘Axel F’, which is set to arrive on Netflix next week. 

Mustard has released new single ‘Parking Lot’ featuring Travis Scott. The producer’s new album ‘Faith Of A Mustard Seed’ is out on 26 Jul. 

The Kid Laroi has released new single ‘Girls’. 

Cat Burns has released new single ‘Met Someone’. 

Dizzee Rascal and producer Efan have paired up for new track ‘Filthy Bassline’. 

Sasha Keable has released new single ‘Auction’ featuring Destin Conrad. 

Clairo has released new single ‘Nomad’. Her new album ‘Charm’ is out on 12 Jul. 

Amy Shark has released new single ‘Two Friends’. Her third album ‘Sunday Sadness’ is out on 16 Aug. 

Sevdaliza has released new single ‘Alibi’ featuring Yseult and Pabllo Vittar. 

Desire have released new single ‘Dangerous Drug’. Their new album ‘Games People Play’ is out on 2 Oct. 

Suuns have released new single ‘Doreen’. Their new album ‘The Breaks’ is out on 6 Sep.

Spanish collecting society fined €6.5 million over its anticompetitive licensing approach

Spanish competition regulator CNMC has fined collecting society SGAE €6.5 million after ruling that the way it structures its licences for radio and TV broadcasters in the country breaches competition law. 

The regulator says that the Spanish society set up its licensing system so that most broadcasters have to accept a flat rate licence. This means that what they pay SGAE is not “related to the actual use they make of its repertoire, both in terms of the number of works and the intensity of their use”. 

That is unfair on the broadcasters, CNMC says, but also makes it difficult for smaller rival societies to get radio and TV companies to the negotiating table. Because if a broadcaster gets a licence from another society and uses music from its repertoire, and therefore less music from the SGAE repertoire, what it has to pay to SGAE stays the same. 

This is all super relevant in Spain because there is now a second song rights collecting society in the country, Unison, which competes for songwriter and publisher members. Unison launched in 2017 capitalising on changes in European law that sought to bring about more competition into the collective licensing marketplace across Europe. 

At the time SGAE was embroiled in various controversies about the society's governance and, more specifically, how it was distributing broadcast royalties. 

This made shifting over to Unison attractive for many Spanish writers and publishers. However, Unison has claimed, SGAE put in place anticompetitive measures to make it unnecessarily difficult for members to move their rights to the new society, and for Unison to negotiate licensing deals with users of its repertoire. 

CNMC previously ruled that SGAE’s attempts to make it difficult for members to switch to Unison were indeed anticompetitive, fining the society €2.95 million. Unison also successfully sued for damages in relation to that conduct, a ruling that was upheld on appeal earlier this year. 

The separate CNMC investigation into SGAE’s broadcast licensing was launched in 2022. In its findings, the regulator also criticises SGAE for “presenting its musical repertoire to users as universal” and “offering guarantees of indemnity against possible claims from third parties for the use of rights not belonging to its repertoire”. Those practices also reduce the incentive for broadcasters to negotiate licences with Unison, the CNMC concludes. 

Welcoming the ruling, Unison says “with this new resolution, the CNMC confirms that SGAE has been abusing its dominant position continuously since 2016, imposing and maintaining significant barriers to entry for new operators”. The new ruling should force SGAE to change its broadcast licensing model otherwise it will be subject to additional fines.

Former Ticketmaster exec pleads guilty over Songkick server hacking

Former Ticketmaster executive Stephen Mead pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit computer intrusions in a New York court earlier this week. That relates to the illegal accessing of digital files belonging to a former employer while working for the Live Nation ticketing company between 2013 and 2015. 

That former employer was Crowdsurge, the direct-to-fan ticketing platform that later merged with gig recommendations service Songkick. According to Law360, in court earlier this week Mead admitted that, after joining Ticketmaster in 2013, he gave logins and passwords he had used while working at Crowdsurge to his new colleagues so that they could access information about their rival “to try and give Ticketmaster a commercial advantage”. 

According to prosecutors, Mead had access to confidential information while working at Crowdsurge that he had agreed to not disclose after he left the company. And yet, it was alleged, he then shared with his Ticketmaster colleagues documents he had kept from his time at Crowdsurge as well as logins to access his former employer’s servers. 

An email from 2014 suggested that both Mead and his Ticketmaster colleagues knew about the risks of accessing those servers. In the email, Mead highlighted that he was giving a colleague access to a live tool and therefore “I would be careful in what you click on as it would be best not to giveaway that we are snooping around”.

This all came to light in 2017 as part of a big legal battle between the merged Crowdsurge/Songkick and Live Nation. Songkick first sued Live Nation at the end of 2015 accusing the live giant of anticompetitive conduct, in particular around ticket pre-sale campaigns, which was an area where Songkick was increasingly operating. 

The allegations that Mead had illegally accessed Songkick files while at Ticketmaster were added to the lawsuit in February 2017. The lawsuit was ultimately settled in 2018, by which point the song recommendations service had been sold to Warner Music and the Crowdsurge ticketing platform had been wound down. 

However, that didn't end things, because the US Attorney’s Office in New York had begun an investigation into Ticketmaster and its employees in relation to the illegal accessing of the Crowdsurge servers. 

In 2021, Ticketmaster itself agreed to pay a $10 million fine and introduced a new compliance and ethics programme in order to avoid prosecution under the US Computer Fraud And Abuse Act. However, the case against Mead personally continued. 

Having pleaded guilty this week to conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, Mead could now be sentenced to up to five years in prison. As part of a plea deal with prosecutors, he has agreed not to appeal a sentence of one year or less. 

55% of Nordic consumers pay to stream music, though number in Sweden has slipped 

The percentage of consumers in the Nordic region now accessing music via streaming services is 95%, up from 91% in 2022. 55% are paying to access those services, which is also up, from 53% in 2022. Although in Spotify’s home market of Sweden, the number of paying subscribers has slipped in the last two years from 59% to 56%. 

These stats come from a new report published by Polaris, a digital licensing hub that represents the rights of three Nordic collecting societies, Koda in Denmark, Teosto in Finland and Tono in Norway. It’s based on a YouGov survey of 4000 consumers in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. 

Given that the Nordic countries are among the most mature of streaming markets, with impressive adoption of music streaming early on, it is interesting to review trends in that part of the world. 

For the music industry, paid-for streaming is much more lucrative than ad-funded streaming, so those figures are particularly interesting. According to the study, the percentage of consumers in each country paying to access a music service is 60% in Denmark, 56% in Sweden, 63% in Norway and 41% in Finland. Although Finland has always been behind the other three markets in terms of premium subscribers, it has seen the most growth since 2022, up 6%. 

The number of people paying to access music online is less than with video services. The report notes that 83% of Nordic consumers pay for TV and movie streaming, even though the average consumer spends more time per day streaming music (3.6 hours) than video (3.1 hours). 

The top three reasons given for not paying for a music streaming service were that the consumer doesn’t feel they listen to enough music to justify paying; that there are lots of free options so they don't see the need to pay; and that the paid service is too expensive. 

Respondents were also asked about where they discover new music. Radio still tops the list of discovery channels for the population at large, at 23% for the whole Nordic region. Songs pushed to users via streaming service playlists or algorithms comes in at 11%. 

The same number of people cite YouTube as a place they discover new music, while 9% said TikTok. That number is unsurprisingly much higher among younger consumers. 

For teenagers, TikTok was the most common means of discovering new songs, coming in as high as 36% in Norway. For the 18-29 age group, TikTok was the leading discovery platform in all countries except Norway. 

And Finally! Would you buy MIA’s $100 tin foil hat?

Are you tired of people laughing at your homemade tin foil hat when you pop out to stock up on cans of beans? Well, don’t worry, MIA has you covered. Literally. She’s just launched a range of streetwear for the doomsday prepper who also wants to look good.

Under the brand name Ohmni, items on offer include “the tin foil hat you’ve been waiting for” (a silver bucket hat with copper lining), a “full shield” t-shirt, a “full protection poncho”, “potency jeans” (just the crotch area protected, to stop 5G making you infertile), “potency boxer shorts” (just to be extra sure), and a “data protection” bag. 

That ensemble will set you back $950. And that’s before you’ve got a data blocking phone case to allow you to go off grid at any moment. I’m joking, of course. The back pocket of the jeans is lined with a faraday cage, so you don’t need to buy the phone case.