Skepta wins Mercury Prize
Skepta has been announced as the winner of the 2016 Hyundai Mercury Prize for his latest album, Konnichiwa. The grime artist came out on top out of six shortlisted finalists: David Bowie, Laura Mvula, Michael Kiwanuka, Radiohead and The 1975. The awards show was held last night at the Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith, and was broadcast live on BBC Four and BBC Radio 6 Music. On collecting the winner’s trophy and cheque for £25,000 Skepta said: “The star is the person on the mic who always gets seen but I want to say thank you to every single person who made Konnichiwa happen.” The judging panel said: “This is such a great record! Confident, funny, clever, scary, personal and political. Skepta makes music for our times.”
Pandora announces Warner licensing deal
Pandora has announced a direct licensing agreement for recorded music with Warner Music Group, securing deals with all three majors, as it prepares to launch a subscription streaming service. The company announced direct licensing agreements for sound recordings with indie labels' licensing agency Merlin Network, two major companies - Sony Music and Universal Music Group - alongside digital aggregator The Orchard and over 30 other independent labels and distributors earlier this week.
Ospreys 'cost T In The Park promoter £1m'
T In The Park promoter Geoff Ellis has said that protecting a pair of nesting ospreys at the festival site in Perthshire, Scotland, has cost his DF Concerts firm £1 million. Despite an increase in overall turnover, the company's pre-tax profits fell from £6.24m to £3.6m after the July event. "The already costs of the move were significantly increased by the late discovery of an unregistered osprey nest, which in itself has brought about an annual increase in operating costs of around £1m per annum.," said Ellis. (Daily Express)
Songwriters challenge in court the US Department of Justice on 100% licensing
One of America's foremost copyright experts has joined a group of songwriters to sue US Department of Justice (DoJ) for forcing songwriters to have their compositions licensed under what is called 100% licensing. Jacqueline Charlesworth, the former general counsel and associate register of Copyrights of the US copyright office who left the organisation during the summer, said that the DoJ's decision to introduce in the marketplace 100% licensing, which allows a party which only represents a portion of a song to license the whole song, has "turned songwriters' world upside down." Speaking at a panel at the MondoNYC conference in New York onSeptember 15, Charlesworth said that the DoJ anti-trust lawyers "do not understand how the music industry works." She added, "I don't think they knew what they were doing."
Prince tribute concert confirmed
The official Prince tribute concert will take place at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on October 13. The event was originally set to be held at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Christina Aguilera, John Mayer and Tori Kelly are among acts scheduled to perform. (Star Tribune)
Really Useful Group and Concord Bicycle Music set up The Musical Company
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group (RUG) and US independent music company Concord Bicycle Music have joined forces to set up The Musical Company, a new firm managing the assets of creators of musical theatre works. TMC will be jointly owned by Lloyd Webber, Concord Bicycle Music and the Really Useful Group, and will operate from RUG offices in London and CBM offices in New York.
ole secures a $500 million credit line
Toronto-based music publishing and rights management company ole has secured a $500 million credit facility that will be used to finance future acquisitions. The credit line was guaranteed by 12 US and Canadian banks led by Los Angeles-based City National Bank. The transaction was originally launched as a $400 million facility, but the company said that it "generated strong demand from both new and existing lenders, and as a result was increased to $500 million, making it the largest credit facility in independent music publishing industry in recent years."
Bucks signs Troy Miller
Bucks Music Group has signed an exclusive worldwide publishing deal with producer, songwriter and musician Troy Miller. Miller was the producer and co-writer on the last two Laura Mvula Albums, along with tracks on Gregory Porter's Grammy Award-winning Liquid Spirit LP. Most recently, he produced and co-wrote Rebecca Ferguson's fourth album, Super Woman, which is due out on RCA on October 14.
