In today’s CMU Daily: After the news earlier this week that Universal Music has bought [PIAS] outright, indie label trade group IMPALA has urged regulators to investigate the deal, while also calling for a “new competition approach” from regulators to address concerns around the “creeping dominance” of the three majors 

Also today: Ticketing company Festicket collapsed in 2022. Many promoters said money from their ticket sales should have been held in trust, but a judge ruled their contracts with Festicket didn’t establish a trust. Some now claim to have an implied trust arrangement with Festicket’s payment processor Stripe

Plus: Horizon Future Leaders interview with manager and label owner Trina Smith

IMPALA says Universal’s “creeping dominance” and “pursuit of key independent players” is a cause for concern after [PIAS] deal

Pan-European indie label trade group IMPALA has urged regulators within the European Union, and beyond, to investigate Universal Music’s acquisition of independent label group and distributor [PIAS] which, it says, “squeezes the independents further in an already very concentrated market”. 

IMPALA says in a statement, “The bottom line is Universal Music Group’s acquisition of [PIAS] will increase the power of UMG across Europe and beyond, including the UK and the USA, and IMPALA expects regulators in these jurisdictions to take action. The pursuit of key independent players by all three majors has been happening in national markets across Europe and elsewhere and there is a serious risk of this continuing and posing real disruption for the independent sector”.

It was announced on Tuesday that Universal now owns [PIAS] outright, having previously acquired a 49% stake in the business from founders Kenny Gates and Michel Lambot. The [PIAS] Label Group will remain an autonomous division within the Universal empire, though the indie’s [Integral] distribution and label services company becomes part of the major’s Virgin Music Group. Integral and Virgin will then provide distribution services to the [PIAS] labels. 

[PIAS] was a key player in the independent sector for decades, and was an active participant in various organisations championing indie labels, including IMPALA. The trade body’s statement acknowledges that, saying that “[PIAS] is an inspiration for all entrepreneurs in music”, and thanking Lambot and Gates “for their support and insight over the past 24 years”. As a Universal subsidiary, [PIAS] will no longer be an IMPALA member. 

The indie sector has long been concerned about the major record companies becoming ever more dominant, partly by merging with each other...

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£5 million still locked in Festicket’s Stripe account after promoters raise trust claims

The administrators of Festicket have published their latest report, revealing that payment processor Stripe is still holding more than £5 million from tickets sold by the defunct UK ticketing company. Mainly because a number of promoters that used Festicket have claimed that they have an “implied trust arrangement” with Stripe, which would allow those promoters to make a direct claim against Stripe for money they were owed by Festicket prior to its collapse. 

“Stripe are (understandably) nervous about passing funds over to us”, the administrators write. “The main reason for their nervousness appears to be because a few promoters have contacted Stripe to intimate that Stripe have an implied trust arrangement with them because of the manner in which they traded with Festicket. Accordingly, Stripe have been advised by their lawyers not to hand over funds to the company”. 

Festicket appointed insolvency practitioners ReSolve Advisory in September 2022 after seemingly becoming a victim of the impacts of the COVID pandemic on the live music sector. 

After the company announced that it was insolvent, about 40 promoters that had sold tickets via the Festicket platform claimed that the implied terms of their contracts with the ticketing business meant money from the sale of their tickets should have been held in trust. 

If that was the case, that money should have been kept separate from Festicket’s own accounts and would therefore be protected from its collapse... 

🌅 Horizon Future Leaders series - Trina Smith Q&A

As part of our new Horizon Future Leaders series of interviews, we are connecting with the music industry’s next generation of leaders to gather candid advice and insights into their career journeys. 

This week, we caught up with Trina Smith, a powerhouse in the music industry who wears many hats, from managing producers and composers to co-owning a label and serving on the executive board at the Association For Electronic Music, or AFEM. 

In this Q&A, she shares her advice on building relationships that matter, especially for newcomers, and underscores the importance of being involved in advocacy groups like AFEM and mentoring programmes that support managers and creatives alike.