Setlist

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last week. On this episode we’re discussing just one story that dominated the headlines over the last seven days – Neil Young’s protest against the Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Spotify. Saying that Rogan is “spreading fake information about [COVID-19] vaccines”, Young issued an ultimatum – ditch Rogan, or remove all of his music from its platform. Spotify chose Rogan. 

Please note: This episode was recorded prior to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and Joe Rogan’s latest statements on Neil Young’s protest.

STORIES DISCUSSED THIS WEEK
• Over 250 scientists and medics hit out at Spotify over Joe Rogan podcast
• Management looking into Neil Young’s request to boycott Spotify in Joe Rogan protest
• Spotify confirms it is removing Neil Young’s music following his Joe Rogan podcast protest

ALSO MENTIONED
• CMU Insights & Friend MTS White Paper – Building Trust #02: Harmful Content

MORE FROM CMU
• Upcoming CMU webinars
• Buy MMF and CMU Insights’ Dissecting The Digital Dollar book on Amazon
• Sign up to receive the CMU Daily news bulletin

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last week, including the artist backlash against venues that charge a commission on any merchandise they sell at gigs and the Featured Artist Coalition's new directory of '100% venues' that don't take any cut at all, plus the battle between the estates of former Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding with the Hendrix estate and Sony Music over alleged unpaid royalties. 

SECTION TIMES
01: Venue merchandise commissions (00:07:47)
02: Jimi Hendrix (00:19:01)
(Timings may be slightly different due to adverts)

STORIES DISCUSSED THIS WEEK
• FAC launches campaign against venue merch commissions, urges ‘100% Venues’ to sign up to new directory
• Jimi Hendrix estate goes to court following royalty claim from former Experience collaborators

ALSO MENTIONED
• SOPA/PIPA and the MegaUpload shutdown (Chris' blog)
• The FAC's '100% Venues' directory
• Upcoming CMU webinars

MORE FROM CMU
• Buy MMF and CMU Insights’ Dissecting The Digital Dollar book on Amazon
• Sign up to receive the CMU Daily news bulletin

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last week, including the US Ninth Circuit appeals court judges’ skeptical approach to an attempt to have the song-theft case over Katy Perry’s ‘Dark Horse’ reinstated and other song-theft lawsuits currently working their way through the courts, plus Spotify’s successful bid to block a trademark application for legal marijuana selling platform, Potify.

SECTION TIMES
01: Katy Perry (00:06:00)
02: Spotify (00:23:56)
(Timings may be slightly different due to adverts)

STORIES DISCUSSED THIS WEEK
• Dark Horse litigation back in court, but judges cautious of over-extending copyright
• Taylor Swift has one last go at getting the Shake It Off song-theft lawsuit dismissed
• Chris Brown and Drake hit back over No Guidance song-theft claim
• Spotify successfully blocks Potify trademark application

ALSO MENTIONED
• Over 250 scientists and medics hit out at Spotify over Joe Rogan podcast
• Chris Brown & Drake – No Guidance (YouTube)
• Mr Cooper – I Love Your Dress (YouTube)
• Burger King – You Got It Your Way advert 1992 (YouTube)
• Roy Orbison – You Got It (YouTube)
• Jack Dee Burger King routine (YouTube)

MORE FROM CMU
• Buy MMF and CMU Insights’ Dissecting The Digital Dollar book on Amazon
• Sign up to receive the CMU Daily news bulletin

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke discuss five companies likely to find themselves involved in big music industry controversies in 2022. They span the economics of streaming debate, the major label system, the live industry, digital licensing and more. Some of these companies will be more used to finding themselves the focus of people’s anger than others, and some more willing to fight back than others. 

SECTION TIMES
01: Spotify (00:04:29)
02: Universal (00:19:48)
03: Viagogo (00:28:13)
04: Twitter (00:35:13)
05: Live Nation (00:43:56)
(Timings may be slightly different due to adverts)

FURTHER READING
• Streaming services push for pre-2018 song royalty rate in US Copyright Royalty Board proceedings (October 2021)
• Songwriter groups make final submission to review of US royalty rates on discs and downloads (November 2021)
• Artist Rights Alliance calls Spotify’s Discovery Mode “exploitative and unfair” (May 2021)
• Believe, TuneCore and DistroKid formally endorse Spotify’s controversial Discovery Mode (July 2021)
• Universal Music shares surge 38% on day one of trading (September 2021)
• MPs again call for performer ER on streams as Universal boss’s £150 million pay packet is compared to songwriter earnings (November 2021)
• Ed Sheeran secures injunction against Viagogo over touted tickets in Germany (December 2021)
• NMPA chief says Twitch’s music licensing blog post contains some “astounding admissions” (December 2020)
• DistroKid announces partnership with Twitch (February 2021)
• Warner Music and Twitch announce new deal (September 2021)
• Congress members hit out at Twitter over rights management systems and lack of music licences (August 2021)
• Congressional committee demands documents and information from Live Nation in relation to Astroworld tragedy (December 2021)

MORE FROM CMU
• Buy MMF and CMU Insights’ Dissecting The Digital Dollar book on Amazon
• Sign up to receive the CMU Daily news bulletin

CMU's Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last year. For this edition of Setlist we’re doing things a bit differently. It's our final episode of 2021, so we're going to look back at the big five stories of the last twelve months in the music business. It's been a while since we last did this, because last time we recorded a 'review of the year' edition it took so long we nearly missed Christmas. This time we've come up with a plan though, we only have five minutes to talk about each story. Can it be done? And what were the five big music industry stories of 2021 anyway? Find out here.

SECTION TIMES
01: Streaming economy debate (00:05:54)
02: Brexit (00:12:25)
03: NFTs (00:19:39)
04: Apple Tax (00:25:57)
05: Music rights boom (00:33:41)
(Timings may be slightly different due to adverts)

FURTHER READING
• CMU reports on the streaming economy debate
• CMU reports on Brexit
• CMU reports on NFTs
• CMU reports on Epic Games v Apple

MORE FROM CMU
• Buy MMF and CMU Insights’ Dissecting The Digital Dollar book on Amazon
• Sign up to receive the CMU Daily news bulletin

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last week, including Universal’s lawsuit against investment platform Republic over its move into music (there already being music company called Republic, which Universal has owned for more than 20 years), and Tidal’s big shift to user-centric royalties. 

SECTION TIMES
01: Republic (00:06:51)
02: Tidal (00:20:38)
(Timings may be slightly different due to adverts)

STORIES DISCUSSED THIS WEEK
• Universal Music goes legal over investment platform Republic moving into music
• Tidal adds free tier – and announces artist bonuses and user-centric plans

ALSO MENTIONED
• Conference themes and lead country partner announced for Great Escape 2022
• Submit conference speakers for The Great Escape 2022

MORE FROM CMU
• Buy MMF and CMU Insights’ Dissecting The Digital Dollar book on Amazon
• Sign up to receive the CMU Daily news bulletin

CMU's Andy Malt and Chris Cooke discuss the tragedy that occurred at Travis Scott's Astroworld festival in Houston Texas on Friday 5 Nov. Ten* people were killed and hundreds more injured after a dangerous crowd-surge occurred during Scott's headline set at the festival. A criminal investigation is now underway to ascertain the sequence of events that led to the injuries and deaths, and to what extent poor planning or bad decision making on the ground contributed to the tragedy. Meanwhile, over 100 lawsuits have been filed by victims of the event, with many more expected.

*This episode was recorded before the death of nine year old Ezra Blount.

STORIES DISCUSSED THIS WEEK
• Travis Scott's Astroworld festival subject to criminal investigation and civil action, after eight people killed during crowd surge
• Astroworld lawsuits mount up, as further statements are issued over festival tragedy
• Lawyers for Astroworld victims get access to the festival's site, as calls for independent investigation increase
• Travis Scott's attorney criticises Houston officials for inconsistent statements and "finger-pointing" in wake of the Astroworld tragedy
• Travis Scott urges Astroworld victims to get in touch as another festival-goer dies from her injuries

ALSO MENTIONED
• Astroworld promo video (Instagram)
• Travis Scott sued over balcony fall at New York gig
• Travis Scott's attorney says rapper didn’t know about deadly crowd chaos (Good Morning America/YouTube)
• Rapper’s rowdy past raises red flags in Astroworld lawsuits (Associated Press)
• Gwen Stefani sued for encouraging fans to rush forward at gig
• Gwen Stefani still faces injured fan lawsuit, but Live Nation is off the hook

MORE FROM CMU
• Buy MMF and CMU Insights' Dissecting The Digital Dollar book on Amazon
• Sign up to receive the CMU Daily news bulletin

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last week, including Jay-Z claim in court that his fragrance launched in 2013 failed not because he didn't live up to his agreement regarding promoting it but because of perfume company Parlux's "crappy, lazy work", plus the All Party Parliamentary Group On Music's demand for "urgent action" from the UK government to tackle the crisis facing British musicians and crew planning to tour Europe as a result of the Brexit shambles.

SECTION TIMES
01: Jay-Z (00:04:31)
02: Brexit (00:18:16)
(Timings may be slightly different due to adverts)

STORIES DISCUSSED THIS WEEK
• Jay-Z takes to the witness stand in ongoing perfume promo dispute
• Jay-Z lays into perfume company’s “crappy, lazy work” in ongoing legal battle
• Cross-party group of MPs calls for urgent action on post-Brexit touring bureaucracy

ALSO MENTIONED
• Big Sean leaves GOOD Music “to start getting a bigger cut”
• Kanye West says signing Big Sean to GOOD Music was “the worst thing I’ve ever done”
• Submit to APPG On Music's inquiry into EU touring

MORE FROM CMU
• Buy MMF and CMU Insights’ Dissecting The Digital Dollar book on Amazon
• Sign up to receive the CMU Daily news bulletin

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last week, including the 10.7% (or 775 million euros) drop in royalties collected by the song right collecting societies across the world as a result of COVID-19 in 2020, and the leaked UK government report that suggests that COVID passports might be counterproductive.

SECTION TIMES
01: CISAC stats (00:03:39)
02: COVID Passports (00:20:50)
(Timings may be slightly different due to adverts)

STORIES DISCUSSED THIS WEEK
• COVID caused 775 million euro drop in song royalty collections in 2020, CISAC confirms
• Leaked government report warns that COVID passports could drive up infections

ALSO MENTIONED
• Dave Grohl comments on Nirvana baby lawsuit: “He’s got a Nevermind tattoo. I don’t”

MORE FROM CMU
• Buy MMF and CMU Insights’ Dissecting The Digital Dollar book on Amazon
• Sign up to receive the CMU Daily news bulletin

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last week, including UK Music stats revealing that the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out 69,000 music industry jobs in the UK and caused the economic contribution made by the music industry to slump by 46%, plus IFPI music stats showing that free services dominate how people consume music around the world. 

SECTION TIMES
01: UK Music stats (00:06:37)
02: IFPI stats (00:19:44)
(Timings may be slightly different due to adverts)

STORIES DISCUSSED THIS WEEK
• COVID-19 cost the UK music industry 69,000 jobs and caused a 46% slump in economic impact
• Free, social and video platforms online account for 45% of music consumption, according to IFPI

ALSO MENTIONED
• UK competition regulator announces market study into music streaming
• Artists and songwriter groups welcome Competition & Market Authority’s streaming market study
• Streaming services push for pre-2018 song royalty rate in US Copyright Royalty Board proceedings

MORE FROM CMU
• Buy MMF and CMU Insights’ Dissecting The Digital Dollar book on Amazon
• Sign up to receive the CMU Daily news bulletin