In today's CMU Daily: NewJeans recently demanded that their label, HYBE subsidiary Ador, reappoint Min Hee-jin as CEO by today. Min was pushed out of that role last month after months of feuding with HYBE. Ador says it will reppoint Min as a director but not CEO. That seems unlikely to placate NewJeans, who could now sue

One Liners: Sheltered Music, Duolingo, ADA, The Core Records, The Valory Music Co, The Leadmill, Official Charts Company, Apple Music Classical, Hook, un:hurd music, Ministry Of Sound, Artist & Manager Awards, Nashville Songwriter Awards + more 

Also today: Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs - currently in jail after being charged with sex trafficking and racketeering - has been sued for an eleventh time over allegations of sexual assault; The Great Escape has decided to “withdraw the Faroe Islands as our lead country partner” for 2025 after concerns were raised about the partnership by the Sussex Dolphin Project

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HYBE label Ador reinstates Min Hee-jin as director but not CEO

South Korea’s HYBE has announced that the former CEO of its Ador label, Min Hee-jin, will be reappointed as an internal director of the subsidiary. However, it will not reinstate her to the role of CEO, something that members of Ador-signed NewJeans demanded earlier this month, leading to speculation that the group could now begin legal proceedings against the label. 

HYBE presumably hopes that today’s announcement will ultimately be seen as an acceptable compromise to both Min and NewJeans. However, that’s not yet assured, and Korean media are suggesting that the group might try to “find legal grounds for contract violations” to get out of their Ador deal, or even “pay a substantial penalty to terminate their contract”. 

In a statement earlier today, the Ador board said that it would convene an extraordinary shareholders meeting to “reappoint Min Hee-jin as an internal director”. However, “the board cannot accept the request for her reinstatement as CEO at this time. Min Hee-jin’s role and authority as the producer for NewJeans are fully guaranteed and further discussions on specific terms will take place in the future”.

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Deals

• Travis Meadows has signed a global creative deal with Sheltered Music. 
• King Henry has signed an exclusive co-publishing agreement with Big Machine Music. 
• Leo33 has signed Americana and heartland rock band Jason Scott & The High Heat, who have also signed with Triple 8 Management and Wasserman for bookings. 
• Duolingo has partnered with instrument brand Loog to launch a portable piano, complementing the language-learning company's music course introduced last year. 

Appointments

• Corey Sheridan has departed his role as Global Music Product Partnerships & Strategy Lead at TikTok and ByteDance to join Warner Music Group's independent label and artist services arm ADA as Global Head Of Commerce And Revenue.
• Warner Chappell Music has promoted Spencer Nohe to Vice President, A&R. 
• The Core Records has appointed Jon Borris as General Manager, overseeing the label's day-to-day operations, artist strategy, A&R, marketing and distribution. 
• The Valory Music Co has appointed Andi Brooks as Director Of Streaming. 

Legal

• The Leadmill in Sheffield will have its future decided at a hearing scheduled for 16 to 20 Dec at the Leeds Business And Property Court. 
• OpenAI has agreed to provide access to its training data for inspection in copyright cases brought by authors including Sarah Silverman, Paul Tremblay and Ta-Nehisi Coates. 

Streaming, Digital, Broadcast & Retail

• Drew Hill has been elected as chairman of the UK’s Official Charts Company, effective 29 Sep.
• Apple has updated its Apple Music Classical app, adding digital album booklets for thousands of albums and a new 'Recently Added' section. 
• Hook, an AI-driven social music expression app, has launched for iOS devices, enabling users to select 30-second clips from its library of licensed songs and apply AI-powered effects such as genre transformations, tempo changes, and video customisation. 
• SoundCloud has introduced Mood & Genre Filters, allowing users to sort their liked songs instantly.
• un:hurd music has announced new partnerships and membership tiers to support independent artists, including CD Baby, SoundCloud, Audiomack, Amazon Merch On Demand, EmPawa, feature.fm, beatBread, Laylo and others.
• The BBC has expanded its sound effect library to over 33,000 samples, which are now available for free download. 
• US performing rights organisation AllTrack has launched a suite of performing rights API tools for creator-centric platforms, with TIDAL becoming the first streaming service to integrate them. 
• Alliance Entertainment has reported a 3.2% year-on-year increase in compact disc sales for the first half of 2024, bucking the global trend of declining CD sales. 
• Awin has released a survey revealing that content creators and influencers are experiencing high levels of burnout across social media platforms. 
• Meta has confirmed that more than 600,000 people, including celebrities such as James McAvoy, Ashley Tisdale and Tom Brady, have shared a viral hoax message on Instagram claiming to deny the company permission to use their images for AI training.

Live

• Macklemore has been removed from the line-up of the inaugural Neon City Festival in Las Vegas following controversial comments. 
• Ministry Of Sound has announced plans to reintroduce 1991 pricing for its 33rd anniversary celebrations. The London club will release 20,000 tickets priced at £5 over the next twelve months, with 100 such tickets available for each event. 

Other Industry News & Events

• Paul Hamlyn Foundation has increased its Awards For Artists from £60,000 to £75,000 per recipient to mark the programme's 30th anniversary. The awards, given annually to five visual artists and five composers, allow recipients to use the funds without restrictions for their creative development.
• Pet Shop Boys and their manager Angela Becker have been announced as recipients of the Artist Manager Partnership Award at the 2024 Artist & Manager Awards.
• The Nashville Songwriters Association International has honoured top songwriters at its annual Nashville Songwriter Awards at the Ryman Auditorium. 
• The Campaign Against Living Miserably, orCALM,has released a new film featuring New Order's track 'Your Silent Face'. 
• Kenny Chesney donated over $1 million to various Massachusetts charities ahead of his three-night performance at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough in August. 
• Infinite Auctions has entered into a partnership with Gotta Have Rock And Roll, a music and entertainment memorabilia auction house, to expand its presence in the collectibles market.

Yet another Diddy sexual assault lawsuit filed - bringing count to eleven

Another lawsuit has been filed accusing Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs of sexual assault. The latest litigation follows the recent arrest of Combs on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, though the allegations in the new lawsuit are separate to those set out in the criminal indictment. 

Combs has been denied bail since his arrest, something his latest accuser, Thalia Graves, noted during a press conference announcing the new lawsuit. Graves, who claims she was raped by Combs and another man in summer 2001, told reporters, “I’m glad he’s locked up, but that’s a temporary feeling of relief”. 

Graves’ lawsuit sets out in graphic detail the alleged 2001 assault. She says that her boyfriend was working for Combs’ Bad Boy Records at the time. Combs asked for a meeting to discuss supposed issues with her boyfriend’s performance at work. Keen to support her partner, she agreed to meet with the musician. 

Combs and his bodyguard, co-defendant Joseph Sherman, then picked her up from her mother’s home in New York and drove her to the Bad Boy Records studio. She alleges that, on the journey, she was drugged and became unconscious. When she awoke, she was restrained at the studio and subsequently violently sexually assaulted by Combs and Sherman.

The Great Escape drops Faroe Islands as lead country partner following protests

The Great Escape has announced that the Faroe Islands will no longer be the festival’s ‘lead country partner’ in 2025, just a week after announcing the partnership. The tie-up was criticised by the Sussex Dolphin Project because of the involvement of the Faroe Islands in whaling. 

It’s a further illustration of the recent trend in the festival sector for sponsorships and partnerships to be scrutinised and criticised, with promoters facing the risk of boycotts from both artists and ticket-buyers if that criticism gains momentum. 

The Great Escape was hit hard by that trend earlier this year when its sponsorship deal with Barclays resulted in more than 100 acts pulling out of the event because of the bank’s connections to defence companies that have supplied weapons to Israel. 

Confirming the decision on the Faroe Islands partnership in a social media post, the Brighton showcase festival said, “After careful consideration and dialogue with our community, The Great Escape has made the decision to withdraw the Faroe Islands as our lead country partner for this year’s festival”.

Releases & Tours

• JADE has released her new single ‘Midnight Cowboy’.
• Maxo Kream and Tyler, The Creator have collaborated on new single ‘Cracc Era’.
• DARGZ has released his new single ‘Save You’.
• Barry Can't Swim has released his new single ‘Still Riding’.
• Primal Scream have released two new singles ‘Ready To Go Home’ and ‘The Centre Cannot Hold’. Their new album ‘Come Ahead’ is out 8 Nov.
• Seething Akira have released their new single ‘Times Change’. Their new album ‘Cancel Estate’ is out 25 Oct.
• Linkin Park have released their new single ‘Heavy Is The Crown’.
• Azymuth have announced a UK/EU winter tour, including a show at O2 Academy Islington on 5 Dec. Tickets are on sale here.
• Franz Ferdinand have announced their 2025 tour, including two shows at Shepherds Bush Empire on 5-6 Mar.
• The Lumineers have announced a 2025 UK arena tour, including a show at The O2 arena on 24 May. Tickets go on sale 4 Oct.