And just like that, EU regulators created a label.
Well, not directly. But as part of a complex regulatory arrangement hammered out with EU officials, Warner Music Group agreed to divest significant catalog following its acquisition of Parlophone. Now, a brand-new indie, RT Industries, has been birthed to house roughly 1,000 copyrights divested, including songs from Sheena Easton, Fat Joe, Jesus Jones, Sugar Ray, Trapt and The Vapors. Circularly, RT will be distributed via Warner-owned ADA. The label is officially kicking off on Record Store Day (April 21st).
125,000 tracks and counting.
Stephen Arnold Music has announced an expansion of its production music library, The Vault. It most recently added 50,000 unique titles from BMG Production Music. The Vault now encompasses over 125,000 tracks.
A performance with 50 violins and 50 loudspeakers. Maybe a bit too much?
On May 9th, New York-based composer Tristan Perich will give a world premiere of Drift Multiply, a musical composition for 50 violins and 50 loudspeakers. Experimental composer Lesley Flanigan will also perform at the historic Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan. It’s all part of this year’s Red Bull Music Festival.
Expanding the Summer Block Party.
Jill Scott, Miguel, and Babyface are now among the headliners for Live Nation’s 4th annual Summer Block Party Festival. For the first time, the festival will also host a second night at its original Chicago site. Philadelphia has also been added to the festival market lineup.
What federal investigation?
Live Nation has announced plans for a long-term deal with Long Island Events, LLC. The move will see Live Nation cast as the exclusive promoter of The Amphitheater at Bald Hill in Farmville, Long Island. As part of the agreement, the company will oversee ticketing, marketing, strategic planning, and programming at the 7,000 person venue, starting with its upcoming 2018 season.
What bankruptcy?
iHeartMedia Denver has promoted Director of Sports Sales Jeff Johnson to Vice President of Sports Sales & Partnerships. Johnson has spent his 15-year career in the iHeartMedia Denver building. He has focused on selling sports properties.
CTS Eventim ama L’italia!
Elsewhere in the budding concert space, live ticketing and event company CTS Eventim has just acquired a controlling stake in Vivo Concerti, an Italian producer of musicals and concerts. It’s the fourth big purchase for CTS in the Italian live space in the past 8 months.
10 million reasons why radio is far from dead.
An anonymous donor, dubbed Suzanne, gave Seattle radio station 90.3 KEXP FM close to $10 million. Betsy Troutman, KEXP’s Director of Development, called the gift “transformational.” The station will place the money in a longtime reserve as well as provide seed money for education programs “aimed at inspiring younger audiences to engage their curiosity around music; services and programming for emerging artists; media-creation experiences for aspiring DJs and music journalists, and outreach activities aimed at deepening KEXP’s connections to local communities”.
“Shazam!”
Deezer has made its SongCatcher feature available for Android users. Following Apple’s acquisition of Shazam last year, the streaming platform added the audio recognition option for mobile. The SongCatcher functionality, powered by ACRCloud, is available to premium and free users.
A Divided Reputation.
Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran led the first batch of nominees for the 2018 Billboard Music Awards. The event will air on NBC for the first time this year, broadcasting live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 20th at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT.
Walk-ing out of The Four.
Sean Combs, DJ Khaled, and Meghan Trainor will return for the second season of Fox’s The Four sans beleaguered music executive Charlie Walk. Five women had accused the former Republic Records executive of unwanted advances, touching, and lewd comments. Walk hired some high-powered lawyers to defend himself, but nothing was brought to court (at least not yet).
Honoring Canadian independent artists and music managers.
The Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA) has announced four honorees for this year’s CIMA Celebrations and Awards Gala. The Music Managers Forum Canada has also released five names of inductees to its annual honor roll. Both ceremonies will take place in Toronto.
No room for Apple Music in South Korea.
Melon, the streaming music app operated by South Korean mobile business giant Kakao, dominates the country’s music streaming market. According to WiseApp, a Seoul-based app analytics firm, Melon saw 5.69 million users last month, up 5.76% over last year’s 5.29 million. Genie Music landed at a distant second with 2.06 million users, a 7.56% increase over last year’s 1.87 million. Kakao Music came in third with 1.73 million users, up 10.16% from last year’s 1.33 million. YouTube, Google’s video platform, came in seventh place with 490,000 users, a 6.52% increase over last year’s 460,000. Apple Music launched in South Korea in 2016. The service didn’t rank on the list. Spotify has yet to launch in the country.
163 million voted for GOT7.
Soompi has announced the winners of its 13th Annual Soompi Awards. The audience-driven awards show recognizes the best in K-Pop, Korean Drama, and fandom from around the world. GOT7 won the #TwitterBestFandom award. 163 million votes were sent in from 190 billion countries, delivering over 1.8 billion impressions from a young, diverse, and active fan base.
Do You Need The Code?
Live video broadcasting platform Live.me has partnered with The Code, a Grammy-nominated writing, production, and artist development company, to launch You Need The Code. The live streaming music program provides users with videos featuring 14 hand-selected independent artists. Users can tune in to watch live concerts, one-on-one Q&A’s, exclusive record releases, and backstage studio sessions.
A new global sub-publishing agreement deal.
Sony/ATV Music Publishing has signed a global sub-publishing agreement with independent publishing and record company ABIAH. The deal covers ABIAH’s entire song catalog, including songs by rising classical singing star and lyricist Carly Paoli.
What’s in a name?
DJ Khaled and his wife Nicole Tuck have filed a trademark for their son’s name, Asahd. More details here on Digital Music News.
A new age for LiveXLive.
LiveXLive Media has appointed Michael Zemetra as its Chief Financial officer. He succeeds Jerry Gold, who guided the company through important milestones, including LiveXLive’s listing on NASDAQ, the acquisition of Slacker Radio, and a significant capital raise. Gold will become the Chief Strategy Officer and has joined LiveXLive’s Board of Directors.
Featured image by YouTube (screengrab)