In today's CMU Daily: Universal Music's Capital Markets Day at Abbey Road Studios offered significant insight into how UMG sees the current global music business, where it sits, and how it's going to grow in coming years

One Liners: Warner Chappell, Believe, Frontiers Label Group, Artone, Townsend Music, Warner, 300 Entertainment, peermusic, Hipgnosis, Nettwerk Music Group, The Orchard, Spotify, Sony Music Publishing, Soundstripe, SoundCloud, TikTok, CISAC, IFPI, UD, War Child, Polaris Music Prize, Zumba

Also today: Morrissey moans continue, with latest trademark rant provoking response from Johnny Marr who insists Morrissey knew all about the trademark when it was filed back in 2018. Plus: the board of ticketing company Lyte are trying to find a buyer for the business after it ceased operations last week following the departure of founder and CEO Ant Taylor. Insiders say that the firm’s 2022 acquisition of UK ticketing outfit Festicket was the “stupidest deal ever done” and contributed to its problems

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The music industry is entering the era of “Streaming 2.0” and could be on course for 2 billion paying subscribers says Universal Music boss Lucian Grainge

The music industry is entering the era of “Streaming 2.0” says Lucian Grainge, propelling the global music business to more than 1 billion paying music streaming subscribers by 2028, asking “how long could it take us to get to 2 billion?”

At yesterday’s Universal Music’s Capital Markets Day, which took place at Abbey Road Studios, CEO Grainge and UMG’s leadership team articulated their vision for how this might happen.

The fundamental message was that streaming needs to shift from a single consumer value proposition of ‘all the music, any time, anywhere’, and simple digital monetisation strategies focused on subscriber growth (‘get people to pay, and then get more people to pay’), to a more complex model that maximises customer value and focuses on both subscriber and ARPU growth.

In simple terms, yesterday’s mammoth session - which lasted nearly five hours - can be condensed into “pretty much everyone understands what streaming is, a lot of people are willing to pay, so let’s find ways to get people who haven’t yet subscribed to sign up, and let’s find ways to get people who are already paying to pay more”.

Underpinning this, said Grainge, are “five big shifts” that Universal has identified - and those five big shifts are, effectively, Universal’s agenda for the next few years.

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ONE LINERS

Deals

Warner Chappell Music has signed DJ and broadcaster Will Manning to a publishing deal.

Believe UK has signed Craig David in a worldwide artist services deal. The agreement covers a new album set for release in 2025, with singles scheduled for autumn 2025.

Frontiers Label Group has launched a new imprint called FLG, focusing on rock and alternative acts, and signed Skunk Anansie as its first artist.

Artone has acquired UK-based global D2C e-commerce music retailer and distributor Townsend Music.

Appointments

Warner Music has announced further departures as part of its ongoing reorganisation. Kevin Liles, CEO of 300 Entertainment, and Kaz Kobayashi, President and CEO of Warner Music Japan, are both stepping down.

peermusic has appointed Samantha Schilling Robinson as Vice President Of peermusic Neighbouring Rights. Robinson, previously Vice President Of Neighbouring Rights at Songtradr, will be based in peermusic's Los Angeles office, reporting to Erik Veerman and Paul Smelt.

Hipgnosis has promoted Sara Lord to Chief Creative Officer, leading the company's engagement with creative industries to enhance collaboration with its catalogue.

Nettwerk Music Group has appointed Katie Graham as Director Of Catalogue Marketing and Development and Ruth Wyatt as Director Of Sync for UK & Europe.

Maik Pallasch has announced his departure as Managing Director for Central and Eastern Europe at Sony Music’s The Orchard, effective at the end of September.

Spotify's VP and Head Of Podcast Business, Sahar Elhabashi, will depart the streaming company at the end of 2024 after a six-year tenure.

Sony Music Publishing has promoted Antoine Dathanat to Managing Director of France, succeeding Nicolas Galibert, who will retire at the end of September.

Soundstripe has appointed Angela Abbott as Global Head Of Music Partnerships.

Streaming, Digital, Broadcast & Retail

SoundCloud has introduced new release notifications to help users stay updated on the latest music from artists they follow.

TikTok has released data showing that 27% of songs in Germany's top 100 singles chart for 2023 first appeared on its 'Hot 50' rankings.

Other Industry News & Events

CISAC, IFPI and various organisations representing music publishers have upgraded the Global Cue Sheet Standard to include recording metadata for audiovisual productions.

Talent development organisation UD has announced the full line-up for its 2024 Industry Takeover event, taking place from 25-28 Sep at the Talent House in Stratford.

War Child UK has announced details of its Women In Music And Creative Industries Panel Day event, set to take place at Google Digital Studios in London on 9 Oct.

Artist News

Jeremy Dutcher has won the 2024 Polaris Music Prize for his album 'Motewolonuwok', becoming the first artist to win the award twice. Dutcher, an Indigenous singer and classical composer from Fredericton, New Brunswick, released 'Motewolonuwok' on Secret City last autumn.

Zumba has partnered with Mel B to launch a new class called 'Spice Up Your Moves' on the Zumba app.

Johnny Marr responds to Morrissey moans over releases, reunions and trademarks

Johnny Marr has issued a statement responding to various recent comments made by Morrissey on his Morrissey Central website, which is possibly as close as we’re going to get to a reunion of The Smiths.

Marr was prompted to respond after a series of allegations on Morrissey Central over the past few weeks. Most recently, Morrissey was letting off steam about ownership of The Smiths trademark, saying in a post on the site on Tuesday that, “J Marr has successfully applied for 100% trademark rights / intellectual property ownership of The Smiths name”.

“His application has been accepted on whatever oaths or proclamations he has put forward”, the statement continued. “This action was done without any consultation to Morrissey and without allowing Morrissey the standard opportunity of ‘objection’”.

A cursory check of the UK trademark registry shows that a company owned by Marr and his wife Angie registered The Smiths as a trademark back in 2018, so it’s not entirely clear why this has become a bone of contention with Morrissey right now. Though a possible clue comes from another recent post on the Morrissey website bemoaning that The Smiths can’t follow Oasis in staging a mega-bucks reunion tour because Marr won’t participate.

This week’s Morrissey Central post continued by stating that, because Marr owns the trademark in his former band’s name, he can “tour as The Smiths using the vocalist of his choice”. Meanwhile Morrissey is prohibited from using the name denying him “considerable financial livelihood”, even though “Morrissey alone created the musical unit name ‘The Smiths’ in May 1982”.

At least two thirds of this statement was bullshit, to use the legal term. Or at least so says Marr...

Ticketing company Lyte implodes after “stupidest deal ever done”

US ticketing company Lyte ceased operations last week seemingly following disagreements at the top of the business over future direction. Insiders say that the 2022 acquisition of UK ticketing company Festicket, which had fallen into administration, contributed to Lyte’s downfall.

The Ticketing Business quotes one insider claiming that Lyte “went downhill” after the Festicket transaction was completed, with another calling the acquisition “the stupidest deal ever done”. That was partly because the Festicket deal expanded Lyte’s operations so that it started competing with some of its existing partners and clients, plus it ended up saddled with the UK company’s considerable debts and some angry creditors.

Lyte’s core service allowed event promoters to manage ticket reservations and resale, in many ways sitting somewhere between primary and secondary ticketing. Launched in 2014, founder and CEO Ant Taylor raised around $53 million to grow the business. However, like any ticketing start-up, it faced tough competition from existing players, especially Live Nation’s Ticketmaster which has evolved its own services around resale and dynamic pricing.

The Festicket deal expanded Lyte’s geographic reach and its involvement in other parts of the ticketing business. At the time the company said the acquisition would enable Lyte “to offer unique and beloved experiences to fans attending live events across the globe, while building upon our successful partnership integration model with ticketing platforms in the United States”.

Employees at Lyte were reportedly told last week that the company was ceasing activities and product development. Since then the Lyte website has been down, displaying the message “our website is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance, we should be back shortly”.

RELEASES & TOURS