In today's CMU Daily: TikTok has submitted its opening brief in its legal battle to stop the platform being banned in the US next year. It goes in with a scathing attack on US Congress, calling the legislation against the company “an extraordinary speech restriction” that cannot be justified

One Liners: Warner, Miley Cyrus, Verzuz deals; Bravado, F That appointments; major label AI lawsuits incoming; DEAG spins off hip hop division; Radio 1 Breakfast Show extended; Heart x Pride; new releases from Coldplay, Ariana Grande, Charli XCX, Headie One, Yungblud, Blackpink, Mura Masa, Griff, and more

Also today: Kneecap’s legal action against UK government allowed to proceed; Musicians should receive performer remunerations says US appeals court

Plus: Bathwater-filled vinyl anyone? Oh, it’s Saltburn bathwater

US TikTok ban is “an extraordinary speech restriction” that cannot be justified, says TikTok

TikTok has submitted its opening brief in the legal battle to stop the platform from being banned in the US next January. It is scathing of US Congress, which passed the law instigating the ban. 

“Never before has Congress silenced so much speech in a single act”, it says. Under the US constitution, the court is now obliged to “examine such an extraordinary speech restriction with the utmost care and most exacting scrutiny”. And yet, TikTok claims, Congress has provided very little information to scrutinise. 

“Congress enacted no findings”, the legal filing continues. “There is no indication Congress even considered TikTok’s exhaustive, multi-year efforts to address the government’s concerns” about the security of US user data on the TikTok platform. “Congress said nothing about the less restrictive alternatives to a ban”, including the 90 page agreement the company negotiated with the US government which “offers multi-layered safeguards and enforcement mechanisms”. 

Lawmakers in the US took action against TikTok over concerns that the Chinese government has access to American user-data via the social media company’s China-based owner ByteDance, something TikTok denies. Technically the ban can be avoided if ByteDance sells TikTok by 19 Jan 2025, although it has repeatedly claimed that doing so isn’t possible. 

In the new legal filing, TikTok says it has “repeatedly explained why this type of divestiture would not work”, arguing that “Congress apparently never even considered whether it was possible”. 

Even if a sale of TikTok just within the US was viable, it goes on, the standalone US version of the app would be “a shell of its former self, stripped of the innovative and expressive technology that tailors content to each user. It also would become an island, preventing Americans from exchanging views with the global TikTok community”. 

A group of TikTok creators are also seeking to block the ban and they have filed their own opening brief. They argue that neither Congress nor the US government has provided evidence supporting the alleged data security risks and, even if they had, “there would be far narrower means to address any data security concern”. 

They argue that a more narrow approach for dealing with any data security concerns should be prioritised, because of the fundamental attack on free speech caused by an outright ban. 

Running with that theme, they state, “Our constitutional tradition leaves no room for the government to stop petitioners from expressing their ideas through the editor and publisher they have chosen. The government could no more prohibit a freelance journalist from publishing in a magazine of her choice; forbid an actor from working with a particular director; or tell a musician what studio he can record in”. 

The arguments made in both filings have been made before, though the language is particularly bombastic here. “In many nations, the right to free speech is subject to the whims of politicians”, the creators declare. “Not in this one, where the First Amendment stands as a bulwark against governmental efforts to censor speech - and all the more so where the censorship is based on the content of speech, its speaker, or the editorial practices that facilitate its publication”. 

TikTok itself concludes, “the Constitution does not allow Congress to single out one speech platform, make no findings, announce no justifications, ignore less restrictive alternatives, and discriminate based on speaker and content”. 

Based on all that, the courts should block Congress’s big TikTok ban, TikTok and its creators state. 

The US government now has until 26 Jul to put together its defence of the sell-or-be-banned law.

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)

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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.

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ONE LINERS

Coldplay, Ariana Grande, Charli XCX + more

DEALS

Warner Music has taken a minority stake in Croatian indie label Dancing Bear. “This investment by Warner Music is a vote of confidence in the future of music from the West Balkans”, says co-founder Silvije Varga. “We look forward to working together to take music from our existing roster to the wider world and to uncover the next generation of local talent”.

Miley Cyrus has signed a new deal with CAA, re-joining the talent agency after four years with WME. 

Swizz Beatz and Timbaland’s Verzuz rap battle platform has signed a new distribution deal with X. The producers regained ownership of Verzuz earlier this year, following a deal with TikTok rival Triller in 2022 that quickly turned sour. “We are beyond THRILLED to have found the best partner for Verzuz”, says Swizz Beatz. “Not only are we excited to have Verzuz on X, we’re excited to help X build the biggest entertainment company in the world”.

APPOINTMENTS

Universal Music’s merch and brand management company Bravado has announced a new leadership structure. Among a raft of new hires and promotions, Colin McIntosh has come on board as Chief Financial Officer, Ashley Fogerty now heads up Business Affairs, Bill Ashton becomes SVP Commerce, Brian Schechter leads Brand Management, Keith Taperell oversees licensing, and Stacie Swanson becomes VP Artist Strategy.

Digital creative agency F That has promoted Stella Foster to Head Of Creative Operations and Shannon Conway to Senior Animator & Designer. Meanwhile, Charlie Croft has joined as a Senior Project Manager. “I’m very happy to have recently promoted Stella and Shannon who are vital to the agency’s success”, says founder Matt Pilcher. “It’s also great to welcome Charlie to the team. Celebrating our fifth anniversary feels like the start of an exciting new chapter. We’ve elevated our capabilities in nearly every aspect over the past few months and I'm eager to see how far we can go in the next five years”.

LEGAL

The three major music companies are considering legal action against recently buzzy music AI start-ups Suno and Udio over allegations they trained their respective models using unlicensed music, according to Billboard. There are now numerous lawsuits accusing AI companies of copyright infringement, the outcome of which will clarify the legal obligations of businesses using existing content to train generative AI. Most of the lawsuits to date have related to images and the written word, with the one big music case already filed centring on lyrics. As a result, any lawsuits against Suno and Udio focused on the alleged infringement of sound recording copyrights will be very interesting to follow. 

LIVE BUSINESS 

Live music company DEAG has spun off its hip-hop booking division, launching new company District Live. “With District Live, we are deliberately creating a brand that gives urban/hip-hop acts a strong representation and optimal staging”, says MD Alex Handwerker. 

MEDIA

Greg James’s Radio 1 Breakfast Show has been extended by half an hour as part of the station’s summer schedule. “Being on the radio is pretty much my entire personality so why not do an extra half hour a day for all those who can’t be bothered waking up early for the Breakfast Show in the summer holidays”, he says.

Heart has become the official radio partner of Manchester Pride and Leeds Pride. It already has similar agreements with Pride in London and Brighton & Hove.

RELEASES

Coldplay have released new single ‘feelslikeimfallinginlove’. 

Ariana Grande has released a remix of her cover of ‘The Boy Is Mine’ featuring Brandy and Monica. 

Charli XCX has released a new version of ‘Girl, So Confusing’ featuring Lorde. The original version features on her latest album ‘Brat’. 

Headie One has released new single ‘Tipsy’ featuring Aitch. His new album ‘The Last One’ is out next week. 

Yungblud has released new single ‘Breakdown’. 

Blackpink will screen concert film ‘Born Pink’ in cinemas on 31 Jul. Tickets go on sale on 28 Jun. Find your nearest screening here. 

Rudimental have released new single ‘Bring Me Joy’ featuring Karen Harding. 

Mura Masa has released new single ‘We Are Making Out’ featuring Yeule. 

Griff has released new single ‘Anything’. Her debut album ‘Vertigo’ is out on 19 Jul. 

Jayda G has released new single ‘If We Only Knew’. The track is taken from her new documentary ‘Blue Carbon’.

Efterklang will release their latest album ‘Things We Have In Common’ on 17 Sep. Out now is new single ‘Animated Heart’ featuring the South Denmark Girls’ Choir. They’ve also announced a live show at the Barbican in London on 5 Oct. 

Zeal & Ardor have released new single ‘Fend You Off’. New album ‘Grief’ is out on 23 Aug and the band will play London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 22 Sep. 

Listen to all the new music we covered this week on our Brand New On CMU playlist on Spotify.

Judge confirms Kneecap can take legal action against government

Belfast rappers Kneecap have secured permission from the high court to take legal action against the UK government over its blocking of a grant from the Music Export Growth Scheme. That grant, which is government funded, was seemingly blocked by the Department For Business And Trade because of the politics of the group’s output, in particular their support for a united Ireland. 

Welcoming the latest development, Kneecap member DJ Próvaí insisted that the band’s legal action was not about the money they lost when their grant was blocked, but the principle of the government’s conduct.

The government’s decision, he said, according to the BBC, was “an attack on artistic culture, an attack on the Good Friday Agreement and an attack on us and our way of expressing ourselves. We are paying taxes and surely we have a right to the benefit of those taxes, regardless of our political beliefs”. 

It emerged earlier this year that Kneecap’s application for MEGS funding had been approved by a music industry panel but then blocked by the department of Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch, seemingly because of the group’s political views. A spokesperson for the minister said at the time that they did not want to hand taxpayers' money “to people that oppose the United Kingdom itself”.

The band almost immediately confirmed that they would take legal action over the decision. Their lawyer Darragh Mackin said this week that Badenoch’s intervention to block the group’s grant was an attack on identity, freedom of expression and the fundamentals of the Good Friday Agreement. “The underpinning discrimination is hiding in plain sight”, he added. 

Specifically, the band have been seeking a judicial review, which is a legal case where a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public authority. 

Judge David Scoffield yesterday confirmed that he was “granting leave to apply for a judicial review”, with a full hearing scheduled for November. Although, he noted, that decision “doesn’t say anything in particular about the ultimate strengths of the case”. 

Of course, by November the UK will have a new government, although the lawfulness of ministers blocking funding on political grounds can still be scrutinised. 

Badenoch, meanwhile, seems likely to retain her seat in Parliament, although in the current General Election nothing is certain for Conservative Party candidates. However, assuming she does win, she will likely be one of the few prominent Tories left in Parliament, making her a key contender for the next leader of the party.

Performer remuneration should actually be paid to performers, confirms US appeals court

A US appeals court has ruled that - when American copyright law provides ‘performer remuneration’ as part of the SoundExchange-administered licence - the money should definitely be paid to performers. 

It may be stating the obvious, but that judgement overturns a lower court ruling in a case involving Puerto Rican group El Gran Combo. The dispute centred on whether - when you have a band - the band as a single entity or the individual band members should be considered the “artists featured on a sound recording” in legal terms. 

Judge David J Barron noted that the court’s judgement was pretty straightforward. “If you think that Paul, John, George and Ringo were ‘the recording artists featured’ on the ‘White Album’ - even though that iconic record’s cover mentioned none of The Beatles by name - then you will not be surprised", he said, at how the appeal judges arrived at their judgement.

Nevertheless, “the prompt for our analysis is not a trivia question”, he added. It’s an appeal from the district court of Puerto Rico “in connection with a dispute between the owners of El Gran Combo - one of the most popular Puerto Rican bands in history - and the band's former lead vocalist, Carlos AponteCruz”. 

Most copyright systems say that, in certain scenarios such as broadcast and public performance, performers must receive remuneration when recordings on which they appear are utilised, oblivious of any deals they have done with other artists or a record label. In the US, this remuneration right applies when online or satellite radio services use recorded music, and payments are managed by the collecting society SoundExchange. 

Where this performer remuneration is paid, a distinction is usually made between ‘featured artists’ and ‘non-featured artists’. That means featured artists in the old school record industry definition of the word, defined by the UK’s Musicians’ Union as “the artist or band whose name a track is released under”. Non-featured artists are the session musicians and backing vocalists. 

All performers are due remuneration, but often more money flows to the featured artists than the non-featured artists. In the US, of the money received by SoundExchange, 45% goes to featured artists and 5% to non-featured. 

With a band, the money due to the featured artist would usually be shared between the band’s members. However, with El Gran Combo, the band is run by its founder Rafael Ithier, who set up the group, appoints its members and owns the outfit through a company called EGC Corp. 

He argued that the band, as an entity, is the featured artist, and therefore any remuneration due to the featured artist should be paid to his company. 

That’s actually how things originally worked, with EGC Corp receiving the featured artist share of SoundExchange income. However, Aponte-Cruz - lead vocalist on over 200 El Gran Combo recordings - claimed that he should be directly paid a cut of that money by the collecting society after he left the group in 2014. 

That claim resulted in a legal battle between Ithier and Aponte-Cruz. Ithier argued that, when US copyright law talks about “artists featured on a sound recording”, that should be taken to mean the artist whose name appears on the artwork of the record. That’s El Gran Combo, not the individuals who perform. 

Therefore, he said, featured artist payments from SoundExchange should go to the band as an entity, which means his company. Aponte-Cruz, Ithier added, could then claim his cut of the non-featured artist payments. 

The lower court agreed with Ithier. Aponte-Cruz then appealed, with SoundExchange itself supporting the performer. 

The collecting society stated that allowing Ithier to collect the performer income as the owner of the band was “a radical departure from the distribution policies and practices that SoundExchange has implemented over the last 20 years”, based on its interpretation of US copyright law, as well as “international recording industry norms”. 

The appeals court agreed with Aponte-Cruz and SoundExchange. 

The judges said that El Gran Combo's top dog Ithier wanted the court to reject the way US copyright law has been “implemented for at least the past 20 years” based on a definition of the word ‘featured’ “that does not hold up when considered carefully”.

To that end, they concluded that Aponte-Cruz is ‘the recording artist featured on a sound recording’ and is therefore entitled to his share of featured artist income paid by SoundExchange on El Gran Combo tracks.

And Finally! Circling the drain - Saltburn’s bathwater-filled vinyl

The trend for filling vinyl with liquid continues. Although it’s going to be hard to follow up the new limited edition version of the ‘Saltburn’ soundtrack, which is filled with bathwater. Your reaction to that news is going to differ greatly depending on whether or not you’ve seen the film - or are at least aware of one of its most notorious scenes. 

Over the last year or so we’ve reported on albums allegedly filled with urine and tears. Although you have to take their word for it about what’s really inside the record. Does the ‘Saltburn’ vinyl actually contain the particular cocktail of water and… man-made fluid seen in the film? Well, unless you want to crack it open and lick the contents out of a plug hole, it’s probably best to leave that question open too.