Why a $1 billion deal for Queen’s catalog is possible – and what CNN and The Daily Mail got drastically wrongA deeper dive into what could become the biggest music catalog deal of all time
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YMU explores financial restructuring, owing current lenders £70m (report)YMU is home to a transatlantic music division representing talent in the UK and US
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Timbaland to Keynote ASCAP ExperienceASCAP Experience, ASCAP’s signature event created to inspire, educate and connect aspiring songwriters and composers everywhere, has added multi-platinum, GRAMMY Award-winning super-producer and artist Timbaland as a keynote speaker. Set for June 21st as a reimagined one-day live event in Los Angeles, Timbaland joins Experience 2023's already-stacked lineup of hitmakers scheduled for sessions ranging from "Social Listening: Building a Music Career in the Social Media Age" to "Get Heard," a live feedback event where early-career songwriters can have their songs evaluated by the established pros.More info on the Timbaland session, "King Stays King: Keynote Interview with Timbaland," is below. Registration for the 2023 ASCAP Experience, set for the Avalon in Hollywood, is open now for ASCAP members at www.ascapexperience.com.

King Stays King: Keynote Interview with Timbaland @ ASCAP Experience 2023 (6/21/21, LA)You can divide the history of R&B, hip-hop and pop production into two eras: pre-Timbaland and post-Timbaland. This sonic scientist has been expanding our minds for over 25 years with his futuristic beats and unerring ear for a hook.

Fix The Tix coalition shares plan to fix ticketing, calls on Congress to actFix the Tix, a coalition that includes NIVA, NITO, RIAA, Wasserman, UMG, and 25 other major national music and entertainment organizations, has released a plan for comprehensive ticketing reform. The. Continue reading
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SoundCloud adds artist and fan DMs to its iOS appSoundCloud artists and fans can now send and receive direct messages (DMs) in the SoundCloud iOS app as well as via Android and the web. The ability to message fans. Continue reading
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There were 3 marketing strategies that drove last month’s top new songsDropping new music isn’t just about the songs but also the strategy behind the release.  Read on and learn hot the hitmakers do it. from Single This past month, we’ve seen. Continue reading
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Recent Classical Highlights for May 2023As usual, the highlights of this month's classical music span a wide range of genres. There is Baroque opera: Porpora's Carlo il Calvo; two solo guitar albums, one with Raphaël Feuillâtre (pictured) and one from Zsofia Boros; a second volume of piano encores by Piers Lane; and an impressive reading of Stanford's Requiem.

Live Review: "Euphoria" By Keiko Matsui (9/10)Shanachie

Producers: Keiko Matsui & Bud Harner

An influential, globally acclaimed contemporary jazz artist, keyboardist-composer Keiko Matsui titled her exotic and eclectic Euphoria after the uplift she feels when seeing her classical and new age influenced smooth jazz connecting people around the world. Driven by vibrant melodies and multi-cultural percussive energy, her adventure includes jazz fusion, a prayerful meditation, an R&B anthem with Lalah Hathaway, a spirited tango, a jaunt to Paraguay and a piece she calls her “jazz symphony.” – Jonathan Widran

EU calls on tech giants to label AI-generated contentThe EU is asking tech giants like Google, Meta, TikTok and Microsoft to start labeling AI-generated content on its services
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Universal’s merch company Bravado makes series of leadership appointmentsAlyssa Tobias named Vice President, Head of Creative Services, amongst other appointments
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Gen Z is drinking less alcohol. That’s bad news for live musicSmall to medium-sized venues across the U.S. are noticing a trend that’s hurting their bottom line: patrons 28 years old and younger are drinking much less alcohol than previous generations.. Continue reading
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CD Baby has stopped selling CDs. What options are left for indie artists?CD Baby recently announced that they are exiting the CD sales business. What options are still available for indie musicians who still want to sell CDs online? Michael Brandvold and. Continue reading
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Exploring the Evolution of Music Promotion in the Digital AgeDive into how digital technology has revolutionized music promotion for artists everywhere. by OrSn Hosho of SoundBoxTool.com 1. Introduction In today’s digital age, music promotion has undergone a transformative evolution. Continue reading
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Apple’s Vision Pro is about a better today rather than a shinier tomorrowApple’s long anticipated VR move finally saw daylight in the shape of Vision Pro. What is particularly interesting about the launch and its subsequent coverage is that the conversation is more about what Vision Pro enables rather than what it actually is. Apple has successfully engineered a hardware launch into a services and experiences narrative. All this, without too much at all in the way of actual new services. No mean feat. A sharp contrast with product launches for iPhone and Apple Watch, despite both devices operating within the same services ecosystem. Apple has been able to achieve this because it at least appears to have used Vision Pro to take today’s suite of services and experiences to a new level, much like iPod transformed music consumption and iPhone reinvented our wider digital lives. Claiming the legacy of those previous innovations, Vision Pro is staking its claim as a new way to experience today’s world, with the promise of facilitating an entirely new paradigm thereafter – again, just like those previous devices. 

On the surface, the Vision Pro narrative might feel simply like a riff on Meta’s VR strategy, but the differences are foundational. Meta’s VR move is bold and uncompromising. It is founded on the metaverse: a promise of an entirely new world, so transformational that the company even renamed itself after it. It is an exciting, North Star vision, but it is also a future that is distant and far from front-of-mind for mainstream consumers. Apple ensured it dropped plenty of hints that it too wants in on that brave new world (as illustrated by the VR experience in Disney’s sizzle reel), but the metaverse was limited to a supporting role in the Vision Pro show. The star was today, not tomorrow.

Apple presented how Vision Pro enables consumers to experience today’s digital world in a new environment, whether that be apps, browsing the web, watching movies or playing games. Of course, Apple emphasised how all of those are enhanced by being experienced in an immersive virtual environment, but it was crucially a representation of the familiar in new surroundings. Why? Because Apple has its eyes on the mainstream adoption of a new(ish) product category. Apple’s M.O. is that of an early follower, innovating rather than inventing. Its history is defined by making moves only when a new product category is deemed ready for primetime, letting others bleed out on the bleeding edge of new tech. 

XR (i.e., VR and AR) may not yet be at that primetime point. Currently only 4% of consumers own a VR headset, up just one percentage point from 3% in Q3 2021. But Apple has priced version one of Vision Pro so high ($3,449 – which reflects high component costs and no doubt will help recoup some of those vast R+D costs) that it will effectively constrain uptake to its early adopter elite. So, by the time the more affordable versions two and three come to market, primetime will have arrived. At least that is what Apple is likely planning on.

One element that may represent the linking piece between today and tomorrow was FaceTime. Although there was not a huge amount in terms new features (the slightly unsettling avatars aside), FaceTime has the potential to develop a new purpose and relevance in an XR environment, making the connections with other people more vital, more meaningful. This is, of course, the overlapping segment part of the Ven diagram of Apple’s and Meta’s VR strategies – and it is no coincidence that it is such a big bet for both companies. Communication and connection underpinned many of the modern world’s biggest technology shifts (the internet, smartphones, social media, video calls) and it will likely be the use case that ushers XR into the mainstream. If Apple manages to be at the centre of this, it may end up transforming FaceTime from a useful smartphone app into the foundational architecture of a metaverse-era social network. But it will get there by starting off with a newer version of today.

Legal Beat: Katy Perry Loses Trademark Infringement CaseCan’t someone use their own name to sell merchandise? The answer is: not always.

Pop star Katy Perry has lost a trademark infringement case to an Australian fashion designer with the same name, but spelled “Katie Perry.” Katie Perry sells clothes under her birth name, but uses her married name, Katie Taylor. Taylor sued Katy Perry claiming the pop star sold merchandise which infringed Taylor’s trademark. 

In April of 2023, Australian Justice Brigitte Markovic agreed with Katie Taylor, ruling that clothing sold on Katy Perry’s 2014 Australian tour violated Taylor’s trademark.

The judge ruled that Katy Perry (born Katheryn Hudson) used the Katie Perry name in “good faith,” so she did not owe any money to the designer. However, the pop star’s company will have to pay monetary damages, which will be determined in the near future.

The fashion designer began to sell clothes using her brand name Katie Perry in 2007, and registered an Australian trademark in 2009.  The singer had her first hit record in 2008. The magistrate held that she infringed the fashion designer’s trademark by selling a jacket promoting her album Roar, as well as “Cozy Little Christmas” hoodies, scarves, sweatpants and T-shirts on her Australian tour and on social media.

In 2008, Katy Perry was signed to the EMI record label. They sent Katie Taylor a cease-and-desist letter in 2009 demanding that she stop use of the “similar name” in association with her clothing label. “Imagine my surprise when one of the reactions I received was a letter from lawyers representing the U.S. singer, Katy Perry,” Taylor said on her website after the judge ruled on the case. “They stated that I should immediately stop trading under this name, withdraw all my clothes and sign a document drafted by them to say that from then on I will never trade under that name ever again.”

The cease-and-desist letter did not work. “While the singer eventually gave up trying to prevent my Australian trademark from being registered, once registered, she chose to simply disregard it,” Taylor remarked. “Singer Katy Perry clothing was sold to Australian customers during Katy Perry performance tours over here, and through retail channels, including via websites. The singer has continued to ignore my trademark and one of her companies continues to sell infringing goods unlawfully in Australia.”

Katy Perry’s attempt to cancel the Australian’s trademark was rejected by the Magistrate.

The designer compared the litigation to a “David and Goliath” confrontation.

“Over the past few years, including whilst battling it out in court, I have been bullied and trolled. My friends and family have been trolled,” Taylor stated on her website. “Not only have I fought for myself, but I fought for small businesses in this country, many of them started by women, who can find themselves up against overseas entities who have much more financial power than we do.”