So, Phonetics is the study of speech sounds. Yes, there are people out there who have dedicated their entire lives to gallantly studying all the many sounds (there are more than you’d think) that the human mouth is capable of producing.

If you choose to study Phonetics at university, which I did, briefly, you’ll probably find yourself on a Tuesday morning staring deeply into the mouth of a very old, very academic man, with at least some of his own teeth, as he shows you what shape the tongue makes in order to ‘articulate’ each sound. So, the ‘ooo’ and the ‘ahh’ and the ‘eee’. And the plosives, the ‘pah’ and ‘tah’ and ‘dah’. And let’s not forget the fricatives, the ‘sss’ and the ‘fff’ and the ‘zzz’.

I have to say, it was one of the least pleasant experiences of my entire academic career. As a general rule, I don’t like spit.

But Phonology, now here’s something more interesting and generally spit free. Phonologists look at how different languages select and organise the speech sounds available in order to allow speakers of those tongues to distinguish between words. So, how English employs the ‘tah’, ‘cah’ and ‘mmm’ sounds so that speakers can distinguish between the words ‘top’, ‘cop’ and ‘mop’.

No one language makes use of all the sounds the mouth can create. The International Phonetic Alphabet, a notation system for representing each speech sound in writing (because the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet simply aren’t enough), has 107 symbols to represent the main sounds. But then there are diacritics and other symbols that can be used if you want to be more precise, meaning there are actually many more speech sounds than even the basic IPA notates.

However, the English language makes use of far fewer. But how many exactly? Well, answering that question reveals what is for me the most interesting element of Phonology. Because if you ask “how many speech sounds are used in the English language”, well, it depends. Do you mean how many sounds do we use, or how many do we – as native English speakers – hear? Because the answer is different.

At least one text book I looked in says there are 44 ‘phonemes’ in English. And, the Collins English dictionary defines the term ‘phoneme’ as a “speech sound in any given language that serves to distinguish one word from another”. So, the ‘t’, ‘c’ and ‘m’ sounds mentioned above, which distinguish the words ‘top’, ‘cop’ and ‘mop’, would all be phonemes. So, let’s assume there are about 44 phonemes in English (I say “about” to allow for any academic debate on this issue to be accounted for).

But then, here’s the thing. One phoneme in English is ‘l’, which is fair enough. It’s the sound that distinguishes ‘lip’ from ‘dip’, and ‘pill’ from ‘pin’, that’s straight forward. Except say those words to yourself, but listen carefully and focus on what your tongue is doing. Say ‘lip’ and then ‘pill’. For many English speakers, the ‘l’ sound in those two words is quite different, and the tongue is behaving in a different way.

They are, in fact, different sounds. However, the first ‘l’ – often called the ‘clear l’ by Phonology fanatics – only ever appears at the start of a word, and the latter – often called the ominous sounding ‘dark l’ – only ever appears in the middle or at the end of words (actually, the rule varies slightly depending on accent, but they never appear in the same place within each variant of English). So our brains, as native English speakers, don’t distinguish between them, because those two sounds are never going to be used to distinguish between two words. We are happy to think of them both as the phoneme ‘l’.

The ‘clear l’ and the ‘dark l’ are called allophones. They are allophones which belong to the phoneme ‘l’. If you want to be allophonically precise (which is a term I just made up, but something you might want to aim for anyway), you’d probably put a little squiggle in the middle of the ‘l’ symbol (like in the picture above) if you wanted to show the dark variation, and then put that inside square brackets to show you’re talking about an allophone and not a phoneme. Many other phonemes have allophonic variations.

Of course, as is often wonderfully the case with spoken language, as native speakers this distinction really doesn’t matter. And even when different accents use different allophones in different places, although we might notice a slight difference in sound, because those allophones represent the same phoneme there’s never any confusion. So much so, when you point out the allophonic differences to non-Linguists, most native speakers are amazed they exist.

So there you have it. Phonology. No spit, and amazing.

So, here we are, less than a week away from The Great Escape!

As you will no doubt have seen, a whole load more announcements have been made this week about the CMU-programmed convention. Click here for an overview of this year’s programme, here for details about networking opportunities, andhere to have your say on this year’s YMCA awards. And here if you don’t yet have a delegates pass. And then we’ll see you next week in Brighton – hurrah. Meanwhile, let’s recap the music business week just gone.

01: The English courts order The Pirate Bay be blocked. Five ISPs were told to block their customers from accessing the file-sharing website at the start of the week after legal action by record label trade body the BPI. An injunction application against a sixth, BT, is still pending. Virgin Media has already instigated its block. Online there was much debate about how easy it is to circumvent such blocks and whether that made such injunctions foolish, or whether simply adding extra complications to the file-sharing process was in itself of value for those looking to protect copyrights. Meanwhile, the Bay said coverage of the blocks had resulted in a significant spike in traffic on its site. CMU report | Telegraph report

02: New stats showed that the indie sector increased its market share in 2011. Meanwhile, according to Music & Copyright, Universal, Sony and EMI all saw their respective shares of both the recordings and music publishing sectors slip slightly in the same year. Warner Music also enjoyed gains. The indie sector was collectively up 2% in the recorded music market, and 1.2% in publishing. CMU report | Music & Copyright report

03: ReDigi insisted it had the resources to fight its EMI lawsuit, after some reports noted that the firm’s original lawyer had said he planned to step back from the case, leading to speculation the tech start-up was running out of money. ReDigi offers an MP3 resale service which it claims is allowed under US copyright law. EMI says the company’s platform infringes copyrights. The judge hearing the case says the debate in court later this year should be interesting. But it will probably also be time-consuming, leading some to fear ReDigi wouldn’t be able to afford to fight the litigation. But, the tech firm this week said that, while it was changing lawyers (court approval pending), it remained well placed and financed to fight EMI in court. CMU report | Hypebot report

04: Rdio launched in the UK, albeit rather quietly. The US-based streaming platform has been expanding around the world for a few months, and speculation it would soon arrive here has been widespread for quite a few weeks. Elsewhere in the digital domain, Spotify launched an iPad app, We7 pushed out an enhanced mobile app, Deezer launched an API for app makers, and Mobile Roadie announced it was now offering digital solutions for content owners and brands wanting iPad apps or mobile websites. Rdio report | Apps report

05: Amanda Palmer broke a Kickstarter record by raising $482,141 in fan-funding in just five days. She went to the crowd sourcing site looking to raise $100,000 in funding for a new record, book and tour, offering all sorts of goodies for pledgers. Palmer, already a leading player in the whole DIY, direct-to-fan, finance-by-pre-order thing, smashed her initial target in a few hours, making it the most successful music-based crowd-sourcing campaign via the US-based platform. Hurrah for Amanda. CMU report | THR report

And that’s your lot – though do look out for the CMU podcast going live over the weekend.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

So, I spent a big chunk of this week putting The Great Escape convention programme to press, and yesterday as I signed off the pages I had the first chance to go through the entire line-up in one sitting. And it is, though I say so myself, a pretty awesome programme this year, with our content partners presenting incredibly strong sessions, plus many other great speakers, interviewees, topics and parties. Next week we’ll be putting the full programme live online, so do watch this space closely. Meanwhile, let’s look back at the week just gone.

01: Warner Music scaled back its Roadrunner operations. It’s still not entirely clear how far the cutbacks will go, though the metal label’s founder Cees Wessels has departed, and in the region of 36 other staffers have also been made redundant. Most back office operations will now be handled by parent company Warner, though Roadrunner specific A&R, marketing and promotions teams seem likely to remain, despite rumours the label would be totally wound down everywhere but the US. CMU report| Billboard report

02: Sony Music announced new chiefs for Columbia Records, after the somewhat sudden departure of the UK division’s MD Mike Smith. He will be replaced by two new Co-Presidents, existing Columbia A&R Director Alison Donald and Mark Terry, formerly at Warner’s Atlantic Records and before that EMI. Both will report into Sony Music UK chief Nick Gatfield, Terry having previously worked alongside his new boss at EMI. CMU report | Billboard report

03: The European Commission sent out a new questionnaire over Universal’s EMI bid, as its competition regulators work their way through a full three-month investigation into the proposed deal. Most of the questions asked were predictable, though some were possibly more revealing. A few showed that a big concern is the dominance a combined Universal EMI will have in the classical and jazz genres. Others are trying to work out what influence the majors have over how music is presented within digital platforms. All interested parties now have a chance to respond. Meanwhile, Reuters reckons we now won’t get a resolution on this in Europe until September (originally we thought August). CMU report| Reuters report

04: GEMA won in court against YouTube in its long running legal battle over licensing. This actually happened last Friday, in Hamburg, where a court ruled that the video site does have an obligation to ensure any songs owned by members of German publishing rights collecting society GEMA do not appear on its site if the necessary licences are not in place. YouTube generally operates under the American copyright system, whereby providing it removes unlicensed songs if and when rights owners complain, the digital operator isn’t liable for infringement, even if the site hosts unlicensed content for a time. The ruling possibly means that YouTube in Germany would have to automatically block all GEMA represented songs, unless specific publisher/songwriter permission has been obtained. Of course it would be easier for the Google-owned video site to finally agree licensing terms with GEMA, which is what the collecting society probably wants. It has been asking for higher rates thant YouTube is willing to pay. CMU report | New York Times report

05: The Three-strikes launch was pushed back to 2014. Well, a rep from the government’s Department Of Culture Media & Sport said that that was now the target date at a conference in London. The so called graduated response system for combating file-sharing in the UK was set out in the Digital Economy Act in 2010, but is yet to go live, due to various technical issues and legal challenges. According to The Register, the DCMS’s Paul Kirkman said strike one – the enforced sending out of letters by ISPs to suspected file-sharers – is now unlikely to begin before 2014. It’s not clear whether strike two will then take another four years to organise. CMU report | The Register report

And that’s your lot, until the podcast goes live this weekend. Providing we remember to record it at some point today.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

So, another batch of announcements were unleashed yesterday about The Great Escape, including the return of the Yearly Music Conference Awards, for which nominations are now being accepted. If you’re one of those people who visits a fair few music business conventions and showcase festivals, click this link and get nominating. Meanwhile, look out for another announcement on this year’s CMU-programmed TGE convention next week. And now, back to the week in music.

01: The EC approved Sony’s EMI Publishing bid. European competition regulators said they were happy that promises by the Sony-led consortium buying the EMI publishing business to sell some key UK-based catalogues would overcome fears that a combined Sony/ATV/EMI would be too dominant in the British market. Indie labels trade body IMPALA said the decision was “bad news for Europe’s publishers and writers”. Meanwhile the boss of Sony’s existing publishing company Sony/ATV, Marty Bandier, confirmed that the acquisition will result in job losses at EMI Music Publishing, but would not comment on reports in the New York Times that over half the current workforce would go. CMU report | FT report

02: Universal’s COO moved to publishing role. Zach Horowitz will cease to be COO for the wider Universal Music Group, and will become CEO of the major’s publishing business instead. Though that side of the empire has always reported into Horowitz anyway, and his new focus is seen as a sign that Universal wants to prepare to properly compete with its looming big new competitor, Sony/ATV/EMI. Horowitz will still input on public affairs issues at a group level, and sit on the UMG and VEVO boards. CMU report | Billboard report

03: Spotify and Facebook did things. Spotify announced a new partnership with Coke, which they thought warranted an NYC press conference, though few others agreed. But do expect lots of brand-owned apps to be added to the Spotify apps channel in the coming months. It’s not clear if they’ll be able to incorporate any music from the Spotify catalogue without the permission of artists and rights owners. Meanwhile Facebook added a ‘listen’ button to official artist pages, which links to music from the chosen artist via one of the social network’s streaming music partners (in Europe, mainly Spotify). Spotify report| Facebook report

04: Negotiations continued over the Mega data, the legitimate files stored on the servers previously rented by the shut down file-transfer company which are current offline. The authorities which shut down the firm say the files can be deleted, but former Mega customers, the Motion Picture Association Of America and MegaUpload’s defence lawyers all want access. The problem is who should pay for that to happen, given all of Mega’s funds have been frozen. Last week a judge told all interested parties to try to reach an agreement on the matter. If not, he’ll decide what to do himself next week. CMU report | Tech Week report

05: Leonard Cohen’s former manager was jailed. Cohen fired Kelley Lynch in 2004 over allegations she had spent all his money. Although the singer sued the manager over those allegations – and won – no criminal charges were pursued. The new criminal case related to allegations that Lynch had been harassing Cohen and his associates ever since, and had breached various restraining orders. She was given a five year sentence, with eighteen months in jail. Cohen thanked Lynch for insisting on a jury trial, saying it meant a more public spotlight had been shined on her various wrongdoings. CMU report| Guardian report

And that’s your lot, until the mighty CMU podcast returns this weekend – hurrah!

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

So, I was at the Wide Days conference in Edinburgh yesterday, which was very fun indeed. And the guys on the tech-focused panel I moderated provided some very interesting ideas and insights, for websites and apps, but also quirky physical products. The cut-out-and-make cardboard headphones that worked were a particular favourite. But what else happened in music this week?

01: MAMA managers made new plans. Following news last week that some key execs were departing HMV’s MAMA Group as the flagging retailer goes through the motions of selling the company, it emerged this week that two managers affiliated to the firm’s SuperVision management agency were resurrecting their own company, Trust Management, that had basically merged with the MAMA unit back in 2008. Meanwhile Record Of The Day reported that two other MAMA managers, James Sandom and Cerne Canning, were jumping ship to rival Red Light. CMU report

02: One Direction were sued over their name in the US. Another band called One Direction said they had the name first, had filed a trademark application in America first, and that Sony and Syco had acted unreasonably by launching their ‘X-Factor’ boyband Stateside without first dealing with the name clash. Actually it looks like the American One Direction are getting extra YouTube plays and iTunes downloads because of the confusion, but they want the British popsters to change their name and pay them damages. Expect an out of court settlement. CMU report | The Sun report

03: The Mega data debate continued. Lawyers for MegaUpload have formally asked the US courts to let them take responsibility for the currently out of reach data stored on the rogue file-transfer site’s old servers. It wants to get access to it partly to get evidence for the Mega team’s defence, and partly to give former Mega customers access to any legitimate data they had stored on the company’s cloud-storage platform. The company which owns those servers are keen to wipe the data as soon as possible to free up its hardware. Prosecutors have told the hosting firm to just do it, but various other parties want access to the former Mega files first. A judge is expected to decide what should happen later today.CMU Timeline | BBC report

04: There was more criticism of Grooveshark. First the publisher of Digital Music News hit out at the allegedly heavy handed way Grooveshark is pursuing legal action against the industry website in a bid to identify an anonymous commentator who made allegations against the streaming platform. The comment is referenced in Universal Music’s latest lawsuit against Grooveshark. Then the boss of TuneCore, which represents self-releasing artists in the digital domain, hit out at the streaming company, accusing them of “knowingly and willingly using a legal loophole to steal from artists and songwriters”. CMU Timeline | DMN post | TuneCore post

05: Spotify launched an embeddable playlist widget. It means media and bloggers can embed a pretty widget showing playlists they’ve set up in Spotify. Though when a reader presses play, it just fires up the Spotify player. And if they don’t have a Spotify account, they’ll need to register with both Facebook and Spotify to get access. Still, an interesting development that could help the streaming service sign up yet more new members, first to its freemium option, and then maybe to its premium services. CMU report | Telegraph report

And that’s your lot people. See you next week.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

Well, what a sunny Good Friday this is turning out to be, isn’t it? And while Team CMU may be enjoying the sunshine away from our Shoreditch HQ today, I’ve called in just to do a quick week in five summary for you, tracking the big stories in music this week. And look, here it is.

01: Sony was bidding for HMV’s MAMA Group, as key directors at the live firm announced their departure. The music major was tipped as a second stage bidder for the live music business, that HMV put up for sale late last year, by the Independent, with AEG Live and Time Out owner Oakley Capital also thought to be still in the bidding. Meanwhile, reports were circulating that some key directors at MAMA have announced their resignations in anticipation of any upcoming acquisition, unhappy with the way HMV is handling the sale. The departures will likely impact on MAMA’s sponsorship and management divisions, and its artist and festival partnerships, which would be an issue for any potential buyer interested in more than just the HMV company’s venue portfolio. Sony bid report | Director departure report

02: Elsewhere in Sony takeovers, Reuters reported on the concessions the entertainment conglom made to the European Commission last week as it tries to get regulator approval for its purchase of EMI Music Publishing. Sony is leading a consortium to buy EMI’s publishing business, which would report into the Sony/ATV publishing company if the acquisition is approved. Opponents say this would give Sony too much power in the music publishing sector. In a bid to allay fears, Reuters reckons Sony said it would sell the Virgin Music branded publishing catalogues currently owned by EMI, and some strategic hit songs owned by either EMI or Sony/ATV, if that would enable the EC to give its deal approval. The EC will report back on 19 Apr. CMU report | Reuters report

03: EMI terminated its deal with Grooveshark, meaning the controversial streaming service now has no major label partnership. EMI announced it was suing Grooveshark over allegations the digital firm was breaching its 2009 licensing agreement in January. This week it asked for a summary judgement in that case, and confirmed it had terminated Grooveshark’s licence to use its content. The digital company – already facing a separate lawsuit from Universal, Sony Music and Warner – claimed it had ended its partnership with EMI because of increasingly unreasonable royalty demands and concerns over the major’s pending acquisition by Universal and Sony. CMU report | C-Net report

04: Court papers were filed over the legitimate Mega data. A US man supported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation who lost access to his own content when the American authorities shut down the rogue file-transfer operation in January asked the courts for help in retrieving his data. There was talk of Mega buying the servers it used to rent – which current owners Carpathia are keen to wipe – and overseeing the return of such data, though the Motion Picture Association Of America said it didn’t trust the digital company to not start illegally distributing its members content again, and anyway the US authorities refused to free up any of Mega’s money to enable a server purchase. The MPAA proposed the American federal government should oversee the return of legitimate data from the old Mega platform, though the US Attorney overseeing the criminal investigation into the company said that data stored on the firm’s old servers wasn’t his problem. CMU timeline | Bloomberg report

05: More artists sued over their digital royalties. This week Weird Al Yankovic filed a wide-ranging royalties lawsuit against Sony Music, including the current favourite claim, that the music major should be paying him a share of download revenue as if that was licensing rather than record sales income (meaning he’d get 25-35% more of the money). Sony has previously proposed a roster-wide settlement on digital royalties, but Yankovic presumably wasn’t impressed with that offer. Meanwhile, a 1980s new wave outfit called The Motels filed a digital royalties dispute against EMI. Yankovic report | The Motels report

The CMU podcast is on a break just now, but you can check back editions here. And while the CMU podcast is joining the schools in taking an Easter holiday, our training operation is now, and we have a great course on music rights next for which a small number of places are still available. Check out info here.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

Hey there everybody, and welcome one and all to this Friday edition of your CMU Daily. Coming up, the five biggest stories of the week in music, but before that, if you haven’t already, do check out the latest Great Escape announcements that came out this week. The Temper Trap’s gallant return to TGE was among the 141 bands announced this week, and on the CMU-programmed convention side of things we confirmed we were teaming up with Arts Council England to throw the spotlight on DIY. Click those links to find out more, then check out the Week In Five.

01: Sony/ATV offered concessions to the EC competition regulator, as the initial investigation into its bid to buy EMI Music Publishing reached its conclusion. We don’t know what the concessions are, but the European Commission said it would need until 19 Apr to decide whether the offer allayed all fears about the acquisition, or whether a second longer inquiry was required. US regulators also continue to investigate the proposed deal, which would give Sony a sizable though not majority stake in by far the biggest music publishing catalogue in the world. CMU report | Washington Post report

02: Universal was shopping three catalogues of songs as its EMI bid went into a phase two investigation at the EC. The mega-major reportedly wants to sell three of its publishing catalogues to raise £200 million to go towards its bid to buy the EMI record companies. The move is not intended as a concession to competition regulators in the US or Europe though, Universal still certain it will get approval on both sides of the Atlantic without having to agree to remedies. The EC investigation entered into a three month second phase late last week, with pan-European indie label trade body welcoming the specific concerns the Commission noted about the proposed merger on beginning phase two. CMU report| FT report

03: IFPI figures showed record sales declined in 2011, but the slide is slowing down. Trade revenues for the worldwide record industry were down 3%, new figures from the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry showed, though the trade body noted that that was a “significant slowing in the fall of the market” as digital sales continue to grow, and other revenue streams like sync – declared by IFPI for the first time this year – help compensate the continued slump in CD sales. CMU report| Billboard report

04: Sonisphere UK was cancelled, leading to chatter about the state of the British festival market, ironically in the week when people were being optimistic about the record industry again. The metal fest confirmed it was not going ahead in the UK this year yesterday morning, after headliners Queen announced the cancellation the previous day. With some bands rumoured to be due their first fees from the festival this week, quite a few agents and managers were raging yesterday, while fans were disappointed that an event that has become much loved in its short lifetime won’t be occurring in Britain this year. CMU report | Rock Sound report

05: Richard Hooper published his first report on the Digital Copyright Exchange, one of the government’s grand ideas for making the licensing of content to the digital sector simpler. The music business welcomed Hooper’s admission that the British music industry was pretty good at licensing new and innovative digital platforms already, but also agreed with the government’s man that things could still be better, and said they looked forward to working with him on the next stage of his inquiry into exactly what a DCE would do and how it might work. CMU report | BBC report

And that is your lot for now – enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

Well, here we are then, another Friday, and another round up of the week in music. Deadlines passed, gaming stores headed into administration, and you all had a big party to celebrate One Direction’s undeniable chart achievements (right?). And while 27% of the people coming to theCMUwebsite.com this week may have Googled “Tulisa sex tape” first, these are the other less salacious stories our readers were consuming.

01: The EC review of Universal’s EMI bid approached phase two. In theory the European Commission’s competition regulators could green light the mega-major’s bid to buy the EMI record companies today, but everyone is certain that a longer phase two investigation will be announced instead. The FT reported last week that EC insiders had privately expressed “serious doubts” about Universal’s bid, which those who oppose the takeover welcomed, though that is a phrase frequently used in EC circles when justifying fuller investigations, so doesn’t necessarily tell us which way the regulators are currently leaning on this one, other than that they believe a full investigation is required, which we all expected anyway. CMU report | Bloomberg report

02: The Intellectual Property Office’s copyright consultation closed. Stemming from last year’s Hargreaves Review, which in turn stemmed from concerns expressed to David Cameron about the British copyright system by the bosses of Google, various interested parties submitted their opinions on copyright reform this week, including a bunch of music industry bodies. Hargreaves advocated an extension of the ‘fair dealing’ provisions in copyright law, some of which has caused concerns among traditional copyright owners, most of whom also question the amount of economic growth such extensions would really deliver (the IPO predicted £7.9 billion). Meanwhile The Register wondered where exactly the “Google couldn’t have launched in the UK because of our copyright rules” story Cameron used to justify the latest IP review actually came from. Collecting societies statement | MU statement |UK Music submission | MMF/FAC submission | MPA submission | Register report

03: A Sony Corporation Of America executive rejig was rumoured. It’s thought that the entertainment conglom’s Michael Lynton, currently head of Sony Pictures Entertainment, will become CEO of SCA once Kazuo Hirai takes over as top man at parent company Sony Corp. That will mean the two Sony music companies – the Sony Music record labels and Sony/ATV music publishing business – will report into Lynton, though he’s expected to be a pretty hands off boss. Meanwhile Sony/ATV confirmed this week that it had renewed its contract with current chief Marty Bandier. It’s thought he may also soon be directly supported by Rob Wiesenthal, currently COO of SCA, if Sony/ATV’s bid to buy EMI Music Publishing is green lighted by regulators. CMU report | FT report

04: One Direction broke a US chart record. The ‘X-Factor’ created boyband became the first British group ever to have their debut album debut at the top of the Billboard albums chart, proving a prolific few weeks of promo work had paid off. With The Wanted also doing pretty well Stateside, British boybands are doing unusually well in the American market just now, helping maintain the momentum kicked off by the likes of Adele, Sade, Mumford & Sons and Susan Boyle in recent years in terms of UK artist successes in the North American market. CMU report | Guardian report

05: Game went into administration, after suspending trading in its shares earlier this week saying there was “no equity value left in the group”. An administrator is expected to be appointed any day now, who will presumably start talks with the various companies who are thought to be interested in buying some or all of the multi-national entertainment retail firm. Game’s collapse shows the slump in physical entertainment products has affected gaming as much as music and movies. Though if the gaming retailer were to disappear from the high street, that might provide a temporary boost to HMV, whose games sales have also been in decline of late. CMU report | FT report

And that’s your lot, until Andy’s Editor’s Letter lands at the end of the day, and the next CMU podcast (the last edition for a few weeks) magically appears on theCMUwebsite.com this weekend. Enjoy.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

Hey there people, welcome to this Friday edition of your CMU Daily. It’s been a busy, busy week for music industry news, even before you add the South By Southwest announcements and debates into the mix (the big thing getting everyone talking this morning being Bruce Springsteen’s keynote). But we’ve still managed to strip it all back to the big five stories, which are as follows…

01: Sony proposed a settlement in the digital royalties dispute. The majors are facing claims from all sorts of veteran artists that they should be paid a higher cut of download sales than traditional record sales, because the former should be classified as ‘licensing revenue’, which generally has a higher artist pay out attached to it in traditional record contracts. Sony has been fighting a claim on this issue, led by the Allman Brothers and Cheap Trick, since 2006. This week the major proposed a settlement to all affected artists that would offer a one off cash pay out and a 3% increase on download royalties. It remains to be seen if affected artists accept that deal rather than pushing for more money through the courts (it’s thought although the Allman Bros and Cheap Trick have been involved in negotiations for that settlement, they also have their own secret deals with Sony on digital monies). Meanwhile all four majors still face newer lawsuits on this issue, with The Temptations being the latest group to file litigation, against Universal. CMU report | DMN report

02: There was more speculation about the MAMA Group sale. The Independent reported that a number of parties had made initial bids to HMV to buy its live music division, and that some of those bidders had been asked to make refined second offers. In particular it’s thought that AEG Live has been invited to make a second bid. HMV confirmed to the City its ‘strategic review’ of its live business was ongoing, but said it was too soon to say whether a sale would happen or not. CMU report | Reuters report

03: The Channel Islands failed to protect their VAT dodge. A tax break that means mail-order firms on Jersey and Guernsey can sell products under £15 into the UK without charging any sales tax is due to end next month. It means said mail-order operators, who have had a 20% advantage over mainland retailers because of the tax relief, are now looking to relocate to other non-EU locations where the VAT dodge will still apply. The governments of Jersey and Guernsey went to the High Court in London this week claiming the decision to remove the tax relief from just the Channel Islands was discriminatory, but the court did not degree, dismissing the legal claim. CMU report | Guardian report

04: Digital services expanded in Europe, as Turntable.fm got licensed in the US. Spotify went live in Germany for the first time, having convinced collecting society GEMA it did have a workable business model after all (presumably now that the freemium option has been scaled back). Deezer, meanwhile, announced its arrival in some Eastern European countries, claiming to now have all 46 countries of Europe covered (even though there are at least 47 countries in Europe). In the US, share-via-a-stream service Turntable.fm announced licensing deals with all four majors. Spotify report | Deezer report |Turntable.fm report

05: Secondary ticketing was discussed in parliament, courtesy of former Pete Waterman aide and now MP for Hove Mike Weatherley, who used the recent ‘Dispatches’ expose on the activities of the ticket resale companies and their tour promoter partners to justify a Westminster Hall debate on whether online touting should be regulated. Weatherley also pointed out that Olympic ticket touting had been banned. According to Music Week, at the debate a government rep said that the coalition would reconsider the issue if an Office Of Fair Trading review found “market failure”. CMU report | Music Week report

And that’s your lot, though do look out for the podcast over the weekend, where some of these stories will be discussed in more detail, plus we consider what links Coke’s flavoured water line, the London Olympics and Jessie J’s hair.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU

Hello there again. Coming up, our customary scan back over the last seven days in music, though if you’d rather find out about the future of the music business can I suggest our rather fab CMU Training course ‘Revenue, Investment & Deals’? OK, it’s another plug, but it’s a great course and we have a couple of places left for next week’s edition. I wrote more about it here, and you can book here. And now the week in five.

01: The Live Music Act became law. It was a long time in development, but after being cleared by the Commons in January Tim Clement-Jones’s Live Music Bill got royal assent yesterday. The new Act will reduce the licensing strain on small-scale gigs, hopefully encouraging more smaller venues to stage music events. The changes should come into effect in the autumn. Ironically the Act became law as grass roots musicians in Scotland began a campaign against a new law there that does the opposite to the English/Welsh legislation, making it harder to stage small events. Live Music Act reports | Scottish protest report

02: BT and TalkTalk’s DEA appeal failed. The net firms want to force parliament to rethink the copyright section of the Digital Economy Act, which sets up a three-strikes system for combating online piracy, on the grounds it breaches bits of European law. But this week the ISPs failed for a second time to force that rethink via judicial review. BT and TalkTalk said they were now considering their options. Various content industry trade bodies called on the ISPs to embrace the anti-piracy initiative, and to help pressure government to get the still in-development three-strikes system properly up and running. CMU report | Wired report

03: Digital distributors merged. First, late last week, INgrooves announced it had bought Universal’s independent distribution firm in the US, Fontana, meaning it now offers both physical and digital distribution for indie labels in North America. Universal already has a stake in INgrooves, and will continue to do so after the new deal. Then digital aggregators The Orchard and IODA announced they were merging too. IODA shareholder Sony Music will be a big stakeholder in that merged entity. CMU INgrooves report | CMU Orchard/IODA report

04: The US movie industry called for a summary judgement against Hotfile. Another file-transfer service accused of existing mainly to enable copyright infringement, the Motion Picture Association Of America have been suing Panama-based Hotfile for over a year, but this week asked for a summary judgement in their favour. Noting the criminal case against another file-transfer outfit, MegaUpload, the MPAA said Hotfile was running the same kind of business, and indeed that the company was deliberately set up to compete with the Mega empire. Hotfile insists it operates within US copyright law. CMU report |Hollywood Reporter report

05: RadioCentre’s chief called for a review of radio licensing, both kinds. Andrew Harrison was speaking at the Westminster Media Forum about plans to review the UK’s Communications Act. He backed plans to reduce regulation in the commercial radio sector, among other things asking that genre restrictions be removed from FM stations’ licenses. He also mentioned the radio sector’s other licences – those from the music industry collecting societies PPL and PRS – suggesting the radio industry felt it was now paying too much, given PPL and PRS were licensing all sorts of other newer digital competitors these days. He also returned to the radio sector’s common gripe, that those listening to their services in public places need another licence from PPL and PRS, something Harrison likes to call “double taxation”. CMU report | Harrison speech

And that’s your lot, until a somewhat sweary CMU Weekly podcast goes live over the weekend (it’s Andy Malt doing the swearing, I should add) Subscribe now!

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU