In today's CMU Daily: Sony Music has reportedly agreed a catalogue deal with Queen for around $1.27 billion, which is a cool £1 billion. The agreement will give the major label not only the band’s recordings and songs catalogues but also their brand and likeness

One Liners: Hope publishing deal; A2IM brings IMPALA’s Carbon Calculator to the US; Hackney Church partners with Ticketmaster; Bauer to broadcast Isle Of Wight Festival, Power Up funding recipients announced; new releases from Pixie Lott, Self Esteem, One True Pairing

Also today: Madonna tardiness lawsuit dismissed; Tom Petty doc accused of using footage without permission; Interpol apologise for tour poster artwork rip off

Plus: Famous are CMU Approved

Sony wants it all in Queen deal, with a cool billion on the table

Sony Music’s much rumoured deal to acquire the entire Queen catalogue is reportedly in its final stages, valued at a neat billion. And that is £1 billion in pounds, so about $1.27 billion in US dollars. According to sources who spoke to Variety and Hits, there was another bidder in play, who dropped out once the price passed $900 million. 

It’s the biggest in the long line of mega-bucks catalogue deals that have been signed in recent years, although it’s hard to accurately compare any one of these deals with another, because it’s not always clear what specific rights they cover. 

Sony’s Queen deal is reportedly very wide-ranging, covering not only recordings and songs, but also brand and likeness. With a band like Queen, which has a long standing global presence, those brand and likeness rights will be very lucrative. Pretty much the only revenue stream not covered by the deal is live activity, which means that Brian May and Roger Taylor’s Queen shows with Adam Lambert are excluded. Though, of course, royalties relating to the performance of songs at those shows would not be. 

Like any deal of this scale, there are some complexities. Disney-owned Hollywood Records acquired the North American rights in the band’s recordings catalogue - for life of copyright - in a $10 million deal back in 1990. However, the band gets a decent royalty revenue stream from that deal which - assuming the Sony deal completes - will be assigned to Sony.

Universal Music currently controls the recordings in the rest of the world under a distribution deal, which has a couple more years to run. Again, Sony will get the band’s share of the money generated by that distribution arrangement in the short-term, before taking on distribution directly when the UMG deal expires.

Queen originally signed with EMI in the UK in 1973, and for the US initially worked with Elektra before switching to EMI’s US-based Capitol label in the mid-1980s. They then did the deal with Hollywood Records in 1990, the year before Freddie Mercury’s death. Outside North America, the band’s recordings catalogue stayed with EMI until 2010, when the big distribution deal with Universal Music was announced, a couple of years before Universal acquired the whole EMI record company. 

On the songs side, the band were published by EMI Music Publishing, which was then acquired by Sony Music Publishing, which means the Sony publisher already handles all the administration of the songs catalogue. 

The nitty gritty of these big catalogue deals is rarely revealed, so we don't always know exactly what the buyer gets. However, they do often include a contractual undertaking to direct revenues to the buyer that would traditionally go directly to artists and songwriters via the collective licensing system, even when they are locked in to existing record and publishing deals. 

For recordings, that includes performer equitable remuneration from the broadcast and public performance of music. For composition and lyrics, it’s the writer’s share of performing rights income that flows through collecting societies.

With the Queen deal including brand and likeness rights, we can presumably expect a number of significant new products and experiences beyond the music. 

While Queen have always been quite prolific when it comes to exploiting the brand, there are a range of new opportunities - including digital brand exploitations and virtual performances like ABBA’s ABBA Voyage. If there’s a band well primed to follow Abba's lead in getting digital avatars performing their songs on stage every night, you have to think it is Queen - though that is perhaps something that will only be realised when May and Taylor finally decide to retire from touring with Lambert.

Drumsheds, Broadwick Live // Senior Operations Manager (London)

Drumsheds, Broadwick Live // Duty Operations Manager (London)

Drumsheds, Broadwick Live // Operations Coordinator (London)

terrible* // Finance Assistant/Bookkeeper (London)

Chalk Press Agency // Senior Music Publicist (London)

SJM Concerts // Event Ticketing Manager (Manchester)

Sentric Music // Revenue Optimisation Manager (London/Liverpool)

Sentric Music // Copyright Manager (Liverpool/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

Pixie Lott, Isle Of Wight Festival, Hackney Church + more

DEALS

Wise Music Group has signed Hope to a publishing deal through its Bosworth Music subsidiary. “We are very much looking forward to working with Bosworth and the people at Wise Music Group”, say the band. “We have encountered individuality, quality and a love for detail, which connects us with our aim as a band to be constantly in pursuit of the new and unknown. From here on, we walk this path together, and welcome our future collaboration”.

LABELS

American indie label trade group A2IM will make IMPALA’s Carbon Calculator available to US indie labels for free. The calculator, developed by pan-European group IMPALA, is being made available beyond Europe for the first time as part of a one year pilot programme supported by digital rights agency Merlin. “We are very excited that the US is the first territory in the internationalisation of IMPALA’s Carbon Calculator”, says A2IM CEO Richard Burgess. “Thanks to Merlin's support, our members will be able to shape the tool for the US market and play a key role in the expansion of its use”.

LIVE BUSINESS

The 1800 capacity Hackney Church in East London has announced a new partnership with Ticketmaster. “Despite the ongoing economic challenges of running a venue of our size, we are looking ahead with confidence that we will be able continue to deliver high quality events and positively impact the local community in Hackney”, says Enterprise Director Thando Zulu. “We are proud to partner with Ticketmaster and their mission to support local venues. It is an exciting step on our continued journey of being a ‘cathedral of Creativity’”.

MEDIA

Bauer Media has announced a deal to broadcast coverage of the Isle Of Wight Festival across Absolute Radio, Greatest Hits Radio and Hits Radio. “The Isle Of Wight Festival is one of the year’s most anticipated live music events, and we are THRILLED to immerse our listeners in the experience, whether it be winning their way into the event or making them feel like they are there, as we bring their favourite artists to their radio, smart speaker and phone”, says Gary Stein, Director Of Audio for Bauer Media Audio UK.

FUNDING

PRS Foundation and Ben Wynter’s Power Up programme has announced the 40 black music creators and industry professionals who will receive funding this year. “As we move into our fourth year of Power Up, I am incredibly proud of the brilliant selection of Year Four participants”, says Wynter. “This initiative has been recognised Europe-wide as an award-winning programme, and the quantitative evidence of our Power Up Fellows successes across various sectors in the industry proves that when black talent is given an opportunity to succeed, it thrives”.

RELEASES

Pixie Lott has announced that she will release her fourth album ‘Encino’ on 27 Sep - her first LP for ten years. Out now is new single ‘Somebody’s Daughter’. 

Self Esteem has teamed up with Moonchild Sanelly for new single ‘Big Man’. 

One True Pairing - aka Tom Fleming formerly of Wild Beasts - has released new single ‘Be Strong’.

First Madonna slack time-keeping lawsuit dismissed

The first of the lawsuits filed over Madonna’s slack time-keeping has been dismissed. However, the lawyer representing the musician and her promoter Live Nation is keen to stress no settlement deal is behind the dismissal. It seems likely his clients will now seek to force the litigious concert-goers to cover their legal costs. 

Madonna and Live Nation, states attorney Jeff Warshafsky in a letter to the court, “believe that this action was a frivolous strike suit designed to force them to incur legal expenses”. The other side has now “abandoned this lawsuit when it became clear that this approach would not result in a settlement payment and that they would need to oppose defendants’ motion to dismiss”. 

Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden sued Madonna in January in relation to shows that took place in New York last December. They claimed that the concert was scheduled to start at 8.30pm but Madonna didn’t arrive on stage until after 10.30pm. That, they claimed, was a breach of contract and false advertising that caused them lots of inconvenience. 

Two other lawsuits have since been filed by angry concert-goers pissed off at Madonna’s tendency to arrive on stage late. Madonna and Live Nation have been forthright in their responses, insisting that everybody knows that when a big pop star’s show has an 8.30pm start, that doesn’t mean the pop star is on stage at that time. And Madonna in particular is well known for performing late into the night. 

Earlier this month Fellows and Hadden announced that they had reached a settlement with Madonna and Live Nation, and to that end they filed a notice of settlement with the court. However, Warshafsky insisted that, while there had been talks of a possible settlement, no such deal had been reached, and Fellows and Hadden had therefore filed a false statement. 

The judge overseeing the case rejected the notice of settlement, meaning the concert-goers had until 1 Jul to respond to the motion for dismissal filed by the defendants. 

Lawyers for Fellows and Hadden yesterday said they were dismissing the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning they will not be able to file any future litigation relating to this dispute. In his letter responding to that, Warshafsky added that his clients “reserve the right to move for sanctions, attorneys’ fees and costs” because of the false notice of settlement.

Approved: Famous

I had a whole cliched music journo intro worked out for this article. It was all like, “Ha! Imagine calling your band Famous! Good luck trying to Google that, suckers!” Then I googled ‘famous band’ and almost all the top links were about them. So now I’m just left with this fairly boring story about some admin I did. 

Without a fun hook to start off with, and to ease both me and you into this introduction to Famous, I guess the only thing I’m left with is to talk about their music. But that leaves me with another dilemma. Where exactly do I start? Because, you see, their new double A-side single doesn’t provide me with an easy route into talking about their sound. Why, Lord? Why is nothing easy?

Right, so, it kicks off with ‘God Hold You’, a post hardcore track with a guitar part that sounds like a dentist drill slowly wearing away a hole in your skull. In the best possible way. Frontman (the band’s only consistent member) Jack Merrett delivers low, nonchalant vocals that occasionally fall into the void of noise swirling around him. Despite this, it never feels like they are in anything but complete control of the chaotic elements they are invoking. 

Next comes ‘It Goes On Forever’, a hypnotic folk song, showing off an entirely gentler side. Chaos still hints at its presence, but if there’s anything consistent about this two-track release, it’s that the exact right amount is being allowed out. If anything, ‘It Goes On Forever’ is the tamed version of ‘God Hold You’. 

Both tracks are taken from the band’s new album ‘Party Album’, which is set for release on 11 Oct. “What's funny is we had this idea of making this very authentic rock record”, says Merrett of the LP. “We were constantly talking about how we wanted to make a classic rock record. A stadium-ready classic rock record. But yeah, it just became different over time”.

🎧 Listen to ‘God Hold You’ and ‘It Goes On Forever’ here

Warner Music sued over Tom Petty documentary

Photographer, designer and film-maker Martyn Atkins has sued Warner Music over the 2021 documentary ‘Somewhere You Feel Free’, about the making of Tom Petty’s 1994 album ‘Wildflowers’. The film, Atkins claims, contains 45 minutes of footage he filmed and owns which was used without permission.

The documentary was actually Atkins’ idea, according to his lawsuit, with him and Petty regularly discussing the project before the musician’s death in 2017. 

The Petty estate then decided to proceed with the documentary in 2020, approaching Atkins to discuss his involvement and to inquire about how they could access the footage he had recorded in the 1990s. 

However, he alleges, the estate then teamed up with Petty’s label Warner to make ‘Somewhere You Feel Free’ without his involvement, and made heavy use of his footage without permission. 

“Atkins did not provide consent, did not otherwise license any of the footage, and was not compensated in any manner for the film’s unauthorised, brazen exploitation of the works Atkins created and owns”, the lawsuit declares.

Atkins was initially hired to create the artwork for ‘Wildflowers’ in 1994. He quickly became friends with Petty, he says, and ended up spending lots of time with the musician in the studio and on tour. Along the way he started documenting Petty’s music-making on film.

Perhaps anticipating a dispute over who owns the rights in that footage, Atkins is keen to stress that the filming was done “on his own volition and at his own cost”. And while the footage was subsequently stored by Warner, he is still the “exclusive owner and author”.

As a result, Atkins claims, Warner is liable for copyright infringement and should pay him lots of damages.

Setlist Podcast: Spotify referred to FTC over “unlawful conduct”

In this week's Setlist Podcast: Chris Cooke and Andy Malt discuss the latest escalation in the fight over Spotify’s reclassification of its premium subscription as an audiobook and music bundle in the US, the lawsuit against Drake for putting one of his own song titles on a t-shirt, and the return of the band formerly known as Easy Life, who have nothing to do with easyJet.

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

Interpol apologise for tour poster artwork rip off

Interpol have apologised to visual artist Tony Sjöman for copying a piece of his work on their  tour posters. The band said that they were “under the impression that the designer we were working with was presenting us with original work” until the matter was brought to their attention. 

The poster for the band’s upcoming 20th anniversary tour for their ‘Antics’ album is not identical to Sjöman’s original artwork but is so similar that there could be no question that one was based on the other. The original piece, called ‘Dream Factory’, was commissioned for a New York property company.

In a statement, the band said, “Interpol would like to apologise to Tony Sjöman and acknowledge that all usage of his work was without his consent or prior discussion. We were under the impression that the designer we were working with was presenting us with original work. We were wrong”.

“Ultimately the responsibility lies with us to ensure we do not disseminate an artist’s work without their permission in our promotions”, they went on. “For that reason we apologise and pledge to do better moving forward to ensure the protection of the artist’s creative property”.

The copying was initially spotted by art collector Andrew Gutterson, who said that he contacted Sjöman to congratulate him on getting a commission from the band. Sjöman replied to say that he did not create the poster and was not previously aware of it. Gutterson then posted about it on Instagram, which is seemingly how Interpol came to be aware of it. 

Sjöman himself said, “Having your work plagiarised is unfortunate, but the way in which Interpol immediately took action is both rare and admirable”.

“The band had no prior knowledge of my work being used in their merch and the irony of it all is that - as a decades long fan of their music - I would have loved this commission”, he went on. “If you haven’t in a while - crank up ‘Antics’, the band’s sophomore album, celebrating 20 years this summer, it’s great!”

The tour is set to arrive in the UK and Ireland in November, including a show at London’s Alexandra Palace on 8 Nov.

You can buy Tony Sjöman’s work direct from his store here.