Category Archives: Music industry

UK music investor Hipgnosis agrees £1.1bn takeover by Concord Chorus

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Shares in Beyoncé and Neil Young song fund rise amid hopes uncertainty over its future could be over

The embattled British music royalties investment fund Hipgnosis, which owns the rights to songs by artists from Beyoncé to Neil Young, has agreed to a $1.4bn (£1.1bn) takeover by a music and theatrical rights rival after months of turmoil over the company’s structure and leadership.

The Concord Chorus deal, which offers Hipgnosis shareholders a 32% premium to Thursday’s share price at $1.16 a share, could put an end to uncertainty over the FTSE 250 firm’s future.

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European cities hope jet-setting Taylor Swift fans will splash the cash for Eras tour

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The superstar arrives in Europe next month – and Swifties, tourist boards and venues are already preparing

Tim Brown, 44, and his wife, Marcella, 34, may not consider themselves bona fide “Swifties”, but when it was announced last June that Taylor Swift would be visiting their corner of the globe this summer they could not resist joining the scramble for a pair of tickets.

A post-pandemic appetite for live music events has fuelled huge worldwide interest in the American singer-songwriter’s Eras tour, which surpassed in $1bn sales in November to become the highest-grossing series of concerts in history.

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Danish man on trial over alleged £500k music streaming fraud

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Aarhus court hears he may have profited from artificially generated playbacks, in case thought to be first of its kind

A Danish man has gone on trial in the city of Aarhus over accusations that he fraudulently made 4.38m kroner (more than £502,000) in royalties on music streaming sites, in what is thought to be the first such trial of its kind.

Prosecutors allege that the 53-year-old profited from streams of 689 pieces of music across services including Spotify, Apple Music and YouSee Musik. They say the huge numbers of streams required to generate that amount of money could not have been generated by genuine users and that unauthorised techniques were likely to have been deployed instead. The alleged fraud is understood to have happened between 2013 and 2019.

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Elton John to auction off 900 items worth $10m from former Atlanta home

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Silver boots, Banksy original, pinball machine and more going under hammer at Christie’s, New York

Fans of Sir Elton John’s flamboyant style will next week have the chance to splash out on his snappiest Versace looks in a huge 900-plus lot auction that includes the contents of the Rocket Man’s $7.2m (£5.7m) Atlanta apartment.

Christie’s auction house in New York’s Rockefeller Center has been transformed into a John emporium for two live – and six online – sales of the singer’s collection, including several pairs of his trademark thick rim spectacles and a vast art collection that features a Love, Lust and Devotion section dedicated to his treasure trove of male art.

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‘Greedy and dishonest’ touts sold tickets worth £6.5m, court hears

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Ed Sheeran and Little Mix fans among those targeted by firm that resold on Viagogo and StubHub

Ticket touts acting out of “greed and dishonesty” sold tickets worth £6.5m to music fans, a court has heard, as a woman known as the “Ticket Queen” pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading nearly seven years after being named in an Observer investigation.

TQ Tickets Ltd, owned by Maria Chenery-Woods of Norfolk, used fake identities to hoover up large numbers of tickets for acts such as Ed Sheeran and Little Mix, prosecutors for National Trading Standards said.

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Music executive LA Reid accused of sexual assault in lawsuit

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Ex-executive Drew Dixon alleges Reid, known for growing stars such as Usher and Pink, assaulted her twice and derailed her career

LA Reid, the music executive known for helping develop superstars Mariah Carey, Pink, TLC and Usher, was sued on Wednesday by a former music executive who accused him of sexually assaulting her more than two decades ago.

Drew Dixon said Reid, 67, derailed her once promising music industry career after he became Arista Records’ chief executive because she rejected his advances, including two assaults that she said occurred in 2001.

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J-pop agency Johnny & Associates to change name amid sexual abuse scandal

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Japanese talent agency to create new firm to manage artists as it tries to distance itself from disgraced founder

The Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates, whose late founder has been accused of sexually abusing hundreds of boys and young men, will change its name and establish a new firm to manage upcoming artists, as it struggles to repair its battered reputation.

The agency’s president, Noriyuki Higashiyama, told a televised press conference on Monday that the company would be renamed Smile-Up, as part of its attempts to distance itself from its disgraced founder, Johnny Kitagawa.

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Private equity pioneer Guy Hands to leave Terra Firma ‘when I’m 64’

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Dealmaker and ardent Brexit critic to leave senior posts at firm he founded more than 20 years ago

Private equity tycoon Guy Hands referenced a Beatles song as he informed staff of his decision to leave the buyout firm he founded two decades ago.

The billionaire dealmaker told staff on Friday he would leave the posts of chairman and chief investment officer at Terra Firma Capital Partners in August, drawing to a close a high-profile, chequered career.

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US vinyl sales up 21.7% for first half of 2023, report finds

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Vinyl boom continues with another major leap and Taylor Swift’s Midnights leading the pack

Vinyl sales in the US are up 21.7% for the first half of 2023 over the same period last year, according to a new music industry report.

The vinyl resurgence is itself not new – 2022 marked the 17th consecutive year that sales of vinyl records rose, according to Luminate’s music midyear report. But the growth rate this year has reassured experts that the vinyl market did not hit a natural plateau after surging during the pandemic, which caused a 108% increase in 2021.

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Lords committee urges end to Brexit barriers for musicians and young people

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Chair says small changes could make big difference to cultural and educational interests on both sides of Channel

An influential House of Lords committee is urging the government to start working with EU capitals to remove Brexit barriers that block musicians, young people and professionals working easily in Europe.

After six months of research and evidence from 40 witnesses the European affairs committee says it has identified 72 areas where small changes could make a huge difference in areas of cultural and educational interests on both sides of the Channel.

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HMV to return to flagship Oxford Street store after four-year absence

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First HMV shop was opened in 1921 by British composer Sir Edward Elgar and closed in 2019

HMV is to return to its former flagship store on London’s Oxford Street after a four-year absence. It is expected to reopen towards the end of this year, in time for Christmas.

The store was empty for an extended period after the music and entertainment company vacated the site in 2019, before most recently becoming home to one of the many American candy stores that popped up on Oxford Street during the pandemic.

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Harry Styles fans left out of pocket as ticket scams jump 529%

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Huge increase in fraud accompanies record number of UK live entertainment tickets sold in 2022

Concert ticket scams have soared by more than 500% over the last year, with those defrauded losing an average of £110, as criminals target fans of leading acts including Harry Styles and Lewis Capaldi.

The UK’s live music industry has bounced back after the pandemic, but gig-goers have been warned to be on their guard against ticket scams, particularly as the festival season prepares to kick off.

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Can you copyright a rhythm? Inside the reggaeton lawsuit that could shake the pop world

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Two dembow progenitors are suing superstars including Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee – in a case that also names Justin Bieber – claiming that they deserve credit for birthing the genre

With the release of their song Fish Market in 1989, the Jamaican duo Cleveland “Clevie” Browne and Wycliffe “Steely” Johnson inadvertently changed the course of pop music. The track featured the first known example of what would come to be known as a “dembow” rhythm – the percussive, slightly syncopated four-to-the-floor beat that travelled from reggae to become the signature beat of reggaeton, today the world-conquering sound of Latin American pop.

Now, more than 30 years after Fish Market was released, Steely & Clevie Productions is suing three of reggaeton’s most celebrated hitmakers – El Chombo, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee – for what they characterise as unlawful interpolation of Fish Market’s rhythm (or “riddim”), and are seeking the credit – and royalties – they say they deserved from the start.

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Morrissey says Miley Cyrus album exit was nothing to do with his politics

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American withdrew after recording guest vocals on the Mancunian’s yet-to-be-released new record

Morrissey has spoken out after Miley Cyrus dropped out of a guest spot on his upcoming album, denying the singer had done so over his political stances, which he said are “most certainly not far right”.

In a lengthy statement posted on Thursday, the former frontman of the Smiths also attacked “cancel vultures” and alleged the existence of a campaign to “put [him] out of circulation”.

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Ticketmaster’s Taylor Swift chaos triggers US Senate antitrust hearing

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Several politicians voice concerns about dominance of ticket sales company after botched release for singer’s tour

A US Senate antitrust panel will go ahead with a hearing on the lack of competition in the country’s ticketing industry after Ticketmaster’s problems last week managing the sale of Taylor Swift tickets.

Tickemaster’s parent company, Live Nation, has blamed presale problems for Swift’s Eras tour – the pop superstar’s first US tour in five years – on “unprecedented demand” and an effort to keep out bots run by ticket scalpers.

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Rocketing costs and drop in ticket sales force musicians to pull tour dates

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Animal Collective, Bonobo and Mercury prize winner Little Simz among acts to cancel concerts

Musicians are cancelling concerts and entire tours because the rising costs of staff and materials coupled with a drop off in ticket sales is making them too expensive to run.

Earlier this month, US band Animal Collective cancelled forthcoming European dates as“not sustainable”. Within days, the UK downtempo producer Bonobo called time on future live shows in America, describing them as “exponentially expensive”. Then electronic musician Tourist rescheduled a US stint, saying “sometimes tickets just don’t get sold”.

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‘Do we want music to be a pursuit only of the wealthy?’ Anger grows at PRS Foundation cuts

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Royalties company PRS for Music has announced a major funding cut for its charitable arm. Artists such as Black Country, New Road explain why it could damage the UK music scene

One of the UK’s biggest funders of new and emerging music, responsible for fostering the careers of artists including Sam Fender, Little Simz and 2021 Mercury prize winner Arlo Parks, has this week seen its budget slashed by 60%.

The PRS Foundation, which funds hundreds of aspiring artists and music organisations across the country – including a number of artists from groups underrepresented in the music industry – announced on Wednesday that its income would be cut from £2.75m to £1m from 2024 onwards, citing financial necessity. The decision was taken by its parent company and primary funder PRS for Music, which collects royalties for musicians when their music is streamed or played in public.

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‘Don’t take the damn thing’: how Spotify playlists push dangerous anti-vaccine tunes

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Conspiracy theory songs claiming Covid-19 is fake and calling vaccine ‘poison’ are being actively promoted in Spotify playlists

Songs that claim Covid-19 is fake and describe the vaccines as “poison” are being actively promoted to Spotify users in playlists generated by its content recommendation engine.

Tracks found on the world’s largest music streaming service explicitly encourage people not to get vaccinated and say those who do are “slaves”, “sheep”, and victims of Satan. Others call for an uprising, urging listeners to “fight for your life”.

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‘They just worked’: reports of CDs’ demise inspires wave of support

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Format might not have romance of vinyl but its versatility and reliability will never be topped, say supporters

After languishing in his car boot for several years, Jordan Bassett’s CD collection – mostly dating back to his teenage years – will soon be on proud display in his newly converted home office space.

Bassett, a commissioning editor at the NME, has no means of playing the CDs and, in any case, his musical tastes have moved on. But the 100-150 thin, shiny 5in discs have sentimental value – and, who knows, one day they may be part of a revival similar to vinyl among music aficionados.

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Bob Dylan sells entire recorded catalogue to Sony Music Entertainment

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The deal covers all Dylan recordings dating from 1962 to future originals and reissues, and will explore ‘new ways’ to reach future generations

Bob Dylan has sold his entire back catalogue of recorded music to Sony Music Entertainment, as well as the rights to multiple future releases, in a deal rumoured to be worth between $150m and $200m (£111m–£148m), Variety reports.

The deal covers all Dylan recordings dating from 1962, including his self-titled debut album, which celebrates its 60th anniversary in March, and future releases and reissues in Dylan’s celebrated Bootleg Series.

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