In today’s CMU Daily: PRS is suing Live Nation, saying that it is not properly breaking down the way VIP ticketing works, meaning that music creators could be missing out on money due to them from live performances. In an exclusive statement to CMU, PRS said the live giant has shown “disregard” for licensing requirements

Also today: With new EU Commissioners being appointed, tech sector trade group DigitalEurope has proposed a radical overhaul of the private copy levy across Europe. The music industry says the proposed changes would only benefit American and South-East Asian device manufacturers and shouldn’t be considered 

Plus: The Ninth Circuit Appeals Court recently refused to force a dispute between Live Nation and some Ticketmaster customers to arbitration after raising concerns about the live giant’s arbitrator of choice. Live Nation now says that decision sets a dangerous precedent and should be reconsidered

Plus: Horizon Future Leaders interview with Martha Cleary

PRS files lawsuit against Live Nation over VIP ticketing saying live giant shows “disregard” for creators rights to proper payment

PRS, the UK’s collective licensing organisation that represents songwriters and music publishers, has filed a potentially explosive lawsuit against Live Nation in the UK High Court and says that the live giant has shown “disregard” for the requirements of the live music licence that covers festivals and concerts. 

In an exclusive statement to CMU, PRS said that “the vast majority of promoters and venues” comply with the requirements of the live music licensing tariff, “ensuring that music creators receive rightful payment for their works”. Live Nation has shown “disregard for these requirements”, continues PRS, which, for “a company which is dominant in the live music market is unacceptable”.

The lawsuit, filed in the Intellectual Property division of the UK’s High Court by PRS and PPL PRS Limited, the joint venture with PPL which administers live music performance licensing, points the finger at Live Nation (Music) UK Limited, as well as its festivals division Festival Republic, concert promotions subsidiary DF Concerts, and two Live Nation-owned festivals, the Isle Of Wight Festival and Manchester’s Parklife.

Specifically, PRS is taking issue with the way that Live Nation accounts the value of VIP tickets and packages when calculating how much should be paid to PRS. PRS told CMU that it is “committed to ensuring correct remuneration for music creators” and through the legal action it is “addressing Live Nation’s failure to correctly report the full price consumers have paid for VIP tickets and other ticket packages”.

The dispute comes at a fairly important time for the live music industry. As promoters increasingly look to premium and VIP experiences as a key driver of revenue growth, the outcome of this case could have significant implications not just for Live Nation, but for how the entire sector approaches VIP pricing and licensing...

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Tech sector wants EU to reform private copy levies, but GESAC says changes would only benefit foreign device manufacturers

Finnish politician Henna Virkkunen is the new EU Commissioner-designate with responsibility for tech, meaning she will oversee tech policy within the European Commission. That has prompted DigitalEurope to publish a white paper advocating for a change to the private copy levy across Europe, supporting the model already employed in Finland. 

That’s the model that has been heavily criticised by the music industry, because it means that - rather than benefiting from a levy that’s applied to device sales - copyright owners are compensated for the private copying of their work by a fund controlled by the Finnish government. Which recently cut the fund in half. 

Private copy levies that were traditionally applied to things like blank cassette tapes and CDRs to compensate copyright owners for people making private copies of their works - for example creating a copy of a cassette tape to play in the car or burning music downloads to a blank CD - have, says DigitalEurope, “ballooned into a complex and outdated system applied to most electronic devices”. 

In doing so, the levies “stifle the single market and unfairly tax consumers”. While admitting that “fair compensation for creators and a thriving cultural sector are essential”, the tech sector trade group adds, “the current levy system is ineffective and urgently requires profound reform”. 

But that’s simply not true, according to GESAC, the organisation representing songwriter collecting societies across Europe. Private copy levies generally have “no impact on consumers”, GESAC told CMU earlier today, pointing out that the prices of devices on which the levies apply are, in fact “usually higher in the UK where there is no private copy compensation scheme”. 

The only real opponents of the levies, GESAC says, are the major device manufacturers, which are mainly American or South-East Asian businesses, including DigitalEurope members like Apple, Samsung, Huwaei and Amazon, which all boast “huge skyrocketing revenues”. 

Live Nation says ruling in Ticketmaster customer litigation threatens to block sensible measures for dispute resolution

Live Nation is really keen for an ongoing dispute with some Ticketmaster customers to go to arbitration rather than being fought out in court. The dispute in question includes allegations from ticket buyers that the company engaged in anticompetitive conduct, an issue that - in light of the DoJ investigation into the company - Ticketmaster is desperate to avoid being fought out in public.

The terms and conditions of Live Nation’s Ticketmaster in theory force aggrieved customers to take any complaints to arbitration rather than filing a lawsuit in court. Arbitration should be a simpler and cheaper process for both sides and, crucially for Live Nation, keeps things private. 

However, the US Ninth Circuit Appeals Court recently declined to force arbitration in this case. That decision, Live Nation now says, was wrong and “threatens to block parties from adopting sensible measures to address the new phenomenon of mass arbitration filings”.

In a new filing this week, Live Nation urges the appeals court to reconsider the case. As it stands, says Live Nation, the ruling “creates massive uncertainty” over how the US Federal Arbitration Act deals with these so called mass arbitration filings and “the potential for confusion - and for disruption of settled contracts, procedures and expectations - strongly supports rehearing”. 

Decisions by both a district court and the Ninth Circuit court to decline to force this particular dispute to arbitration hinge on the fact that Live Nation recently decided to change its arbitrator of choice from the long established JAMS to the upstart New Era. The rules applied by New Era, especially relating to mass arbitration filings, have been heavily criticised, with judges in the Ninth Circuit dubbing them “just crazy” and “a really cockamamie way to set up a system”.

🌅 Horizon Future Leaders - Martha Cleary Q&A

As part of our  Horizon Future Leaders series, we’re 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 Martha Cleary, founder of Glow Artists. 

From her early days volunteering at The Great Escape Festival and interning at NME to founding Glow Artists, Martha has built a career dedicated to supporting artists. In this Q&A, she shares how her early experience at Tru Thoughts and her strategic networking helped shape her role today, where she manages five artists and curates radio shows. Martha also offers actionable advice on breaking into the industry, leveraging connections and navigating the challenges of an evolving digital landscape.