In today's CMU Daily: Song rights income was through the roof in Germany last year, according to GEMA. That’s no thanks to digital services though, says the collecting society, where growth was underwhelming, especially when compared to stats from the recordings side of the industry

One Liners: Bella Figura funding; Sony Music buys Neon Hum; Feed.fm x Cyanite; MaMA appointments; Apple App Store rule change; Glastonbury resale; Dream Theater, Chilly Gonzales, Rise Against shows; new music from Caribou, Greg Saunier, Mandy Indiana, Girls In Synthesis

Also today: Dave Rowntree launches class action lawsuit against PRS For Music; Push for US Senate to “urgently” consider proposed TikTok sell-or-be-banned legislation; Universal Music Publishing sued over unapproved sample in 1992 Mary J Blige track; Billie Eilish details sustainability plan for new album release

Plus: NikNak is CMU Approved

GEMA says German song right income is booming, but digital growth is lacking

German song rights collecting society GEMA yesterday hailed its "most successful financial year to date", but noted that digital growth in 2023 was somewhat disappointing. 

Contrasting its own numbers with the digital revenue growth rates reported by the record industry, the society said it would continue to campaign "intensively" and "consistently" to secure a "fair share" of digital income for its songwriter and music publisher members. 

Globally, the record industry saw digital revenues grow by 10% last year, with German record industry trade group BVMI stating that digital revenue in its market was up 7.9% year-on-year. GEMA saw digital income grow by just 3%, and that was partly due to "new video-on-demand contracts". 

"Although the market is growing, GEMA’s revenues from music streaming have barely increased year-on-year", the society said in a statement. "This makes it all the more important for GEMA to continue intensive and consistent campaigning for a fair share of the revenues from digital music use in its negotiations with digital music platforms and politicians". 

There was more upbeat news within the GEMA figures related to live music. The German live sector at large has fully bounced back after COVID, it said. Total public performance income was up by 24% to €444 million, significantly up on the pre-pandemic peak in 2019 of €407.4m. Total GEMA collections were up €99 million year-on-year to €1.27 billion.

In terms of the digital disappointment, GEMA clearly believes that part of the problem is the streaming business model. Many songwriters have long criticised the fact that, with music streaming, 50-55% of revenues flow to the record industry and the services keep 30-35%, while 10-15% normally flows to songwriters and music publishers. 

The share allocated to songs on a stream is higher than with a CD, in some markets more than double, though not in Germany where the rate on a CD is higher than in the UK. The share allocated to the song has also increased since the streaming services first launched, while the share going to the recording has decreased. 

Nevertheless, many songwriters argue that - given the different role played by labels and retailers in digital - the song share should be significantly higher. Achieving that is tricky, given that streaming services separately negotiate recording rights and song rights, so there isn't a forum where all the stakeholders come together. 

GEMA's statement suggests that, while it will continue to negotiate hard to get a better rate directly with the services, it also hopes the political community may be able to help in some way. Quite how isn't clear, although the Culture Committee of the European Parliament last year called for new rules to regulate music streaming, stating that “pre-digital” conventions that tend to favour record labels should be “revised”.

FKP Scorpio Entertainment // Head of Marketing (London)

FKP Scorpio Entertainment // Ticketing Manager (London)

FKP Scorpio Entertainment // Social Media Manager (London)

The O2 // Box Office Manager (London)

The O2 // Contact Centre Manager (London)

foundation.fm // Account Manager (London)

Double Six Rights Management // Performer Repertoire Lead (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.

👉 Click through to see the current selection.

ONE LINERS

Apple, Glastonbury, Caribou + more

DEALS 

Bella Figura Music has closed a new round of funding led by private equity firm Freshstream to continue its run of buying up music catalogues. “We aim to continue building and enhancing our catalogue of beautiful music while generating significant value for creators and rights owners”, says CEO Alexi Cory-Smith. “Bella Figura is built for the digital music age, unburdened by legacy systems with a strategy that truly reflects how we all access and consume music in today’s world. We are delighted to have a growing base of investors joining us on this journey”.

Sony Music has acquired podcast production company Neon Hum. The deal comes five years after the major made a strategic investment in the company and sees Neon Hum founder Jonathan Hirsch become VP Global Podcasts and Head Of US Creative at Sony Music’s Global Podcast Division. “Neon Hum and Sony Music have always been aligned in our audio-first mentality and approach”, he says. “I’m excited for the next steps as the Neon Hum team becomes a full part of Sony Music Podcasts and we continue to produce premium audio content”.

Feed.fm has partnered with AI music tagging and search company Cyanite to improve music discoverability on its platform. “We are very excited about AI solutions' potential to help the music industry strengthen licensing compliance while also growing total revenues for recorded music”, says Feed.fm’s VP Product Brita Nordin. “Cyanite is a leader in building AI technology that delivers tangible value to music rights holders and companies that rely on music to grow their business”.

APPOINTMENTS

Paris-based music festival and conference MaMA has announced that co-founder Fernando Ladeiro-Marques has taken ownership of the organisation, following the retirement of its other co-founder Daniel Colling. It has also announced a number of appointments to its conference programming team. Emmanuel Legrand becomes coordinator of the main programme; Emily Gonneau joins as curator of the MaMA Invent strand; Flavien Appavou becomes coordinator of new ideas and social trends forum Le CosyLab; and Elise Yacoub is coordinator of the overall MaMA convention.

DIGITAL

Apple has announced that it will relax its App Store rules that prohibit app developers from signposting users to payment methods outside its own ecosystem. Under the changes, which will only apply within the European Economic Area, music streaming apps will be allowed to invite users to submit an email address to receive information about other ways to pay for subscriptions. This follows the €1.8 billion fine levied against Apple by the EU for "abusing its dominant position" in relation to the distribution of music streaming apps for iOS devices. Apple is appealing that fine.

GIGS & FESTIVALS

If you’re hoping to get Glastonbury tickets in this year’s resale, there is good news and bad. The good is that the date when you’ll get your chance will be announced shortly. The bad is that, according to Emily Eavis in a post on Instagram, the event had the “highest percentage of ticket balances paid ever” when the deadline passed last week. As a result, the amount of tickets set to be put back up for sale is “very limited”.

Dream Theater have announced that they will play a 40th anniversary show at the O2 Arena in London on 20 Oct. It will be their first show since reuniting with drummer Mike Portnoy. Tickets go on general sale on Friday. 

Chilly Gonzales has announced that he will play the Royal Albert Hall in London on 28 Oct. Tickets go on sale on Thursday.

Rise Against have announced that they will play the Ritz in Manchester on 20 Aug and London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 21 Aug. Tickets go on general sale on Friday. 

RELEASES

Caribou has released new track ‘Honey’. 

Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier will release his debut solo album ‘We Sang, Therefore We Were’ on 26 Apr. Out now is ‘Grow Like A Plant’. 

Mandy, Indiana are back with new track ‘Idea Is Best’, their first new music since last year’s excellent ‘I’ve Seen A Way’ album. 

Girls In Synthesis have released new single ‘Deceit’. Their third album ‘Sublimation’ is out on 3 May.

Blur’s Dave Rowntree leads class action lawsuit against PRS For Music seeking “hundreds of millions of pounds” for songwriters

Blur drummer Dave Rowntree has launched a class action lawsuit against PRS For Music, accusing the collecting society of breaching UK and EU competition rules in relation to unallocated royalties. He is requesting that all 160,000 writer members of the organisation be beneficiaries of the action.

The musician, working with law firm Maitland Walker, claims in a recent legal filing that PRS misallocates ‘black box’ income. These are royalty payments that have been received by the society but, usually due to a lack of data, it doesn’t know which members to pass the money on to. The lawsuit claims that PRS handles this income in a way that benefits music publishers more than songwriters.

“I’ve agreed to be class representative because musicians’ royalties, perhaps to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds, have been paid to the wrong people”, says Rowntree. “It’s because of bad data and processes, and in today’s digitally connected world, there’s no excuse for either”.

PRS denies the allegations made against it in the filing, which was submitted to the Competition Appeal Tribunal last week. 

In the UK, royalties from the broadcast and performance of songs are collected on behalf of songwriters and publishers by PRS. It then distributes those royalties to the members whose music has been used, with 50% usually flowing to the writer and 50% to the publisher. 

However, in some cases it doesn’t know which specific members to pay, usually because it doesn’t have data about what specific songs were broadcast or performed. Those unallocated royalties - often referred to in the industry as the ‘black box’ - are then distributed to members based on a set of distribution rules, with money usually being allocated based on market share. 

The new lawsuit claims that there is no transparency on exactly how this money is shared out, and alleges that far more of it should be flowing to songwriters than is currently the case. However, it adds, as much of the income that is in the ‘black box’ gets there because of incorrect or missing data, it is difficult to establish exactly what is owed. 

In a statement to its members, PRS wrote: “PRS For Music rejects the allegations set out in this claim, which are factually incorrect and fundamentally misrepresent our policies and operations. PRS is owned by its members and its rules, which are robust and determined by members, treat the interests of both writers and publishers fairly”.

It says that the legal claim is based on “a misinterpretation of PRS’ governance and operational practices” and adds that it “provides far greater transparency than other collecting societies”.

Adding that it has been “constructively engaged” with the lawyers who have now gone legal with this claim for over two years, it concludes, “Unfortunately, this means PRS will need to allocate significant resources to defend a proposed class action brought in the name of members - against their own society. Nonetheless, PRS will continue to operate in the best interests of its members by robustly defending itself against these allegations”.

Rowntree is himself a trained solicitor, although currently not practising, and is currently also preparing to stand as an MP for the Labour Party in Mid Sussex at the next General Election. 

His class action lawsuit is structured to automatically include all 160,000 writers who have been members of PRS since March 2017 - although they are able to opt out if they so wish. All those who remain opted in will be able to share in any award granted by the court, should the claim be successful. 

Further information on the legal action is available at prssongwriterclaim.co.uk

Approved: NikNak

NikNak, a trailblazing musical polymath, has established herself as a unique force in the electronic music scene with her high-octane experimental jungle that borders on the truly cinematic.

Her latest single, ‘12000RPM’, released via Accidental Records, serves as a captivating preview of her fourth studio album 'Ireti’, scheduled for release on 21 May. Embracing her identity as a self-proclaimed nerd, NikNak draws inspiration from iconic films and video games such as 'Blade Runner' and 'Cyberpunk 2077’.

With a fusion of turntablism, experimental synthesis, haunting vocals and dynamic electronic elements, NikNak crafts a cinematic experience that transcends genres, encompassing jazz, jungle and experimental.

Describing the context of '12000RPM' within the album, NikNak explains, "‘12000RPM’ is a fight scene. The main character is being chased by enforcers around the city, doing parkour through the rainy streets before an epic fight scene unfolds like something out of ‘District 13’ or ‘The Boondocks’. It's also arguably the most dancey track on the album too… one for the DJs, for sure”.

🎧 Listen to ‘12000RPM’ here

Timeline for TikTok law in Senate still to be confirmed, though Minority Leader says its deserves "urgent attention"

Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Minority Leader in US Congress, yesterday endorsed the proposals to pass a "sell-or-be-banned" law targeting TikTok, stating that he would support "common sense steps" that take "one of Beijing's favorite tools of coercion and espionage off the table".

Last month the lower house of Congress, the House Of Representatives, speedily passed a proposed law that would force TikTok's China-based owner ByteDance to sell the app or face a ban in the US. It's based on concerns that the Chinese government has access to TikTok user-data via ByteDance, something TikTok continues to deny. 

Having been voted through in the House super fast, the proposals are expected to get more scrutiny in the Senate. The timeline for that scrutiny is still to be confirmed. Last week Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, did say that the TikTok legislation was a priority and would be among the bipartisan proposals to be considered in the "weeks and months ahead". Though it remains to be seen if we are actually talking weeks or months. 

Meanwhile, Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell was due to meet with the other Democrat members of that committee yesterday to discuss the TikTok proposals, promising a "game plan" after that meeting. She has previously said that she might stage a public hearing on TikTok and the "sell-or-be-banned" law. 

According to The Hill, McConnell stated in the Senate yesterday that, “America’s greatest strategic rival is threatening our security right here on US soil in tens of millions of American homes. I’m speaking, of course, about TikTok". 

Some have raised constitutional concerns about the proposed TikTok law, predicting that - even if passed by Congress - it could still stall in the courts, most likely on First Amendment free speech grounds. 

However, McConnell insisted that “requiring the divestment of Beijing-influenced entities from TikTok would land squarely within established Constitutional precedent. And it would begin to turn back the tide of an enormous threat to America’s children and to our nation’s prospects in the defining competition of the 21st century".

He then concluded, “This is a matter that deserves Congress’s urgent attention. And I’ll support commonsense, bipartisan steps to take one of Beijing’s favorite tools of coercion and espionage off the table".

Universal sued over sample on 1992 Mary J Blige track

Universal Music Publishing has been sued over a sample on Mary J Blige's 1992 song 'Real Love', with the owner of the sampled track expressing bemusement that the label which released Blige's record has settled its claim but the publisher will not. That label being, well, Universal Music. 

New York based independent Tuff City Records says it has "repeatedly" advised the Universal publishing company that 'Real Love' includes an unapproved sample of 1972 Honey Drippers track 'Impeach The President', in which it controls both the recording and song rights. And yet, it says, UMPG "has repeatedly refused to engage in substantive negotiations to rectify the foregoing, let alone agreed to compensate plaintiff for the past infringement or on an ongoing basis". 

In a lawsuit filed last week, it adds that the publisher’s “refusal to cooperate with plaintiff is difficult to reconcile with the fact that plaintiff reached an agreement with UMG Recordings Inc with respect to the presence of the uncleared sample from ‘Impeach the President’ on the master sound recording of 'Real Love'.

It's not entirely clear why it took Tuff City more than three decades to go legal over the uncleared sample in 'Real Love'. This is by no means the company's first time filing a lawsuit as part of a sample dispute, having previously instigated litigation over allegedly unlicensed samples on tracks released by the likes of Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Frank Ocean. Although many of those lawsuits were ultimately dismissed. 

In terms of the 'Real Love' legal battle, Tuff City would like actual damages plus the defendant's profits from the alleged infringement, or statutory damages of up to $150,000.

Setlist Podcast: Make big shows fund grassroots music, politicians told

Chris Cooke and Andy Malt discuss UK Parliament's Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee's hearing on the grassroots live music crisis, the Nirvana logo legal battle's return to court, and more. 

🎧 Click here to listen - or search for 'Setlist Podcast'

Billie Eilish won’t release any singles ahead of new album release, details efforts to make physical editions more sustainable

Billie Eilish has announced that she will release her third album ‘Hit Me Hard And Soft’ on 17 May. Wanna hear a song from it? Well, you can’t. She’s also said that there will be no singles released ahead of it coming out. What she has made available though is full details of the sustainable manufacturing processes for the physical releases of the album. Which is the next best thing, I’m sure you’ll agree.

An advocate for more sustainable practices in the music industry throughout her career, she has announced that eight different variations of the record will be released on vinyl. The standard black edition will be made from 100% recycled black vinyl. Seven coloured editions will be made using a combination of two different solutions, Eco-Mix and BioVinyl.

Eco-Mix is made using leftover material from other records during the manufacturing process meaning “every disc will be unique and look different from the last”, according to Eilish’s website. BioVinyl, meanwhile, is made using “non-fossil fuel materials like used cooking oil or industrial waste gases”.

The shells of the cassette edition will be manufactured from other recycled cassettes, while the packaging of all physical releases, including CDs, will be made out of card using a combination of recycled and sustainable fibres. 

Although producing multiple editions of her own album, Eilish was recently critical of artists producing multiple physical editions of their records in order to boost sales and therefore chart positions - particularly when done in an unsustainable way. 

“I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is”, she said in an interview published by Billboard. “I find it really frustrating as somebody who really goes out of my way to be sustainable [that] some of the biggest artists in the world are making 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more”.

However, she also noted that this is the result of the structure of the industry and the way charts weigh physical sales against digital streams. This creates a system where putting out multiple physical editions is “the only way to play the game” and simply highlights “this already kind of messed up way of this industry working”.

Recognising that, even with her efforts to be more sustainable, she is still playing into this system by producing eight different vinyl editions of her new album, her website notes, “sustainable design [is] an imperfect journey of efforts” but she and her team are working “towards constant improvement”.