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06.02.10 Music Week 3

rrival in UK markets t enters UK

UMPG boss to push hard for further growth in 2010

Renzer expects tough year joined Spotify for free.”

“They [Spotify] have converted more people from paid to free than from free to paid,” he claims. “Can free work? I think no.”

Spotify recently announced that it has 250,000 paying users from a total of 6m in Europe. ben@musicweek.com

Target iPhone: an app is almost ready and Napster hopes to gain an added presence by being bundled with devices for north-east place to ensure the finance is spent in the correct manner,” he adds.

“The next step for us is to ensure the services are what our businesses need to grow and expand. There are increasing opportunities for small businesses to make their mark in every element of the supply chain. We want to ensure the businesses in the north-east are equipped with every chance of success through the support we can offer.”

He adds that the funding allocation could be replicated in other regions across the UK and that he will work in partnership with other regional agencies and organisations to lend expertise and assistance for further bids.

BPI chairman Tony Wadsworth says that it is vital that new and existing music businesses receive the support they need. He says the cash fund is “an important recognition of both Generator and its work supporting the development of music businesses”.

This funding comes hot on the heels of a £210,000 lottery award to Generator that will support and train DJs, young producers and artists.

Publishing By Paul Williams

UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING GROUP’s global chairman and CEO David Renzer is warning 2010 could be the most challenging year yet for music publishers, but is optimistic his company will grow its revenues.

Renzer says UMPG, the world’s biggest music publisher, performed strongly in 2009 when it beat its targets and will “push hard” for further growth this year. However, this will need to be achieved in a market he suspects will be even tougher than last year.

“I do think 2010 might be the most challenging environment we’ve ever been in,” he says. “Not only do we have the continued downward trend on mechanical income but we’ve got to hope that the impact the recession has had on sync licences turns around, particularly in the commercial area.”

Although he says there are signs of improvements here, he points to a series of other issues that will affect publishers in the coming year. “This year will be the first year ever the major performing rights organisations are seeing some challenging times,” he says. “Again it’s recessionrelated when you’ve got advertising impacting on the radio industry. Their overall blanket deals are up and they’re coming in and it’s difficult to get those licences to increase or be on a par to where they were before.”

Against these difficulties, Renzer says he is seeing some positive signs, including UMPG achieving “nice, aggressive results” from video games as well as notable growth in licensing of iPhone apps. “We’ve got something like two dozen different app companies that we’re licensing. We’re seeing the continuing distribution and growth of online music video and the remuneration from that, the successful launch of Vevo is something we’re being part of and we’re also seeing a nice healthy growth in our digital revenue.”

“I do think 2010 might be the most challenging environment we’ve ever been in...”

DAVID RENZER

Vevo, the YouTube-hosted music video and entertainment website owned by Universal, Sony and the Abu Dhabi Media Company and launched last year, is also the vehicle for an initiative UMPG is rolling out shortly. It will have on the site its own channel called Behind The Hit Songs, which will feature songwriters, artists and producers talking about their music, including songwriter Glen Ballard who has been filmed talking about writing Man In The Mirror for

UMPG has acquired rest-of-world rights to Kenny Loggins’ catalogue ahead of the release of a Footloose movie remake

Michael Jackson. The channel will launch initially in the US, but Renzer says it will not be limited to that market and will also not be restricted to Universal-signed songwriters.

Another 2010 launch will be a producer management division in the US, a step he believes is entirely logical for his company to make.

“For instance, in the urban area so often we’re signing talent early and if they’re more track-oriented writer-producers we bring those tracks to A&R people and artists. The next thing you know that writer-producer is in the studio producing the record so it’s a real natural outgrowth,” he says.

“We’re not going to limit it to the urban areas. We’re going to open it up to the pop/rock area, but we really want to be very selective.”

UMPG, along with the other publishers in the US, will also benefit very shortly from a settlement with the RIAA to pay what he says could be up to US$250m for what are known as pending and unmatched royalties, where the record labels say they have not been able to identify where publishing and songwriting royalties should be allocated for some repertoire. A similar situation is also playing out in Canada, which Renzer says could be worth as much as $50m for publishers.

UMPG will also remain aggressive in terms of acquisitions and A&R and the chairman/CEO reports there are some big deals that his company will be announcing soon. These will follow deals announced during Midem last week, one with AC/DC’s Australian publisher Albert Music to sub-publish the indie company’s entire catalogue in Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and eastern Europe, another for Kenny Loggins’ catalogue and future works for the world outside the US and Canada. The latter deal comes ahead of work due to start in March on a remake of the Eighties movie Footloose for which Loggins wrote and performed the title song. paul@musicweek.com

Bieber the achiever Teen artist triumphs in MTV’s 10 for 2010 poll

Justin Bieber has won MTV’s 10 for 2010 poll after picking up 51% of the votes and will now be the network’s Push artist for March.

In total, MTV UK received more than 200,000 votes to decide the 10 for 2010 winner from a shortlist that included Owl City, Delphic, Marina & The Diamonds, Tinie Tempah, Rox, Drake, The Drums, Ellie Goulding and Ke$ha.

All 10 artists will receive backing from MTV throughout the year. But as Push artist of the month Bieber will receive additional support from the station, with guaranteed plays all over MTV’s international channels (apart from the US), as well as 30second promotional spots running three times a day.

MTV director of music programming and artist relations Matt Cook says Bieber is “very MTV. He is a big one for us,” he adds. “And he was on our list [of tips for the year] but not on any of the others. It is a point of difference for us.”

IN THIS

ISSUE

THE BUSINESS OF MUSIC www.musicweek.com

NEWS MIDEM 2010 REVIEW The Cannes convention was shaped this year by music’s new digital landscape

FEATURES UNDER CONTROL Radio 2 controller Bob Shennan speaks to MW about a new dawn for the station

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77 66 69

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FEATURES CLASSICAL GROWTH Old stalwarts, young starlets and primtetime TV coverage see the classical genre in rude health

Station to air midweek sales flashes in ‘teaser’ show

A midweek charts dream for Radio 1

Charts By Ben Cardew

RADIO 1 IS TO AIR A WEEKLY PROGRAMME based on the Official Charts Company’s midweek sales flashes from March, in what has been described as “the biggest change to the charts in almost 60 years” by the OCC.

From March 10 a programme entitled The Official Chart Update will go out on the Greg James show between 3.30pm and 4pm every Wednesday using information drawn from midweek sales flashes for singles and albums.

It i i t d d “t ” f th

“This is possibly the most significant change to the charts since the inclusion of download data. It could even be the biggest change in almost 60 years...”

MARTIN TALBOT, OCC

the chart, like the Rage Against The Machine and Joe McElderry chart bttl b f Ch i t ”

page impressions in the week up to December 20, compared to an average of around 250,000.

Both Talbot and Ergatoudis believe that the new show can serve as a “call for action” for fans desperate to see their favourite band at number one and will therefore boost sales.

“Three weeks ago, singles by Iyaz and Sidney Samson were neck and neck throughout the week,” Talbot explains. “Both sold around 100,000 units. The aim is to use the update on Wednesday to make sure that people go out and buy singles.”

“When singles sales have been strong they are often a result of fans actively getting behind their artists,” dd E t di

Drums and Bass team up at Moshi MoshiINDIE LABEL MOSHI MOSHI has signed one of 2010’s most hotlytipped acts after securing a worlwide deal for The Drums

“The next single will come out in April followed by the album in June,” says Bass. “In the meantime they are on the NME tour and we can

NEWS MIDEM COVERAGE PLUS IMPALA SHAKE-UP 4–6 ‘Compensation’ for indie labels suggested in Impala’s 10-point report

MEDIA NEWS WORLD CUP SONG IN MOTION

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talkSPORT and South African band The Parlotones team up for anthem

LIVE NEWS STAKES RAISED FOR MERGER PLANS 10 Ticketmaster and Live Nation hit final shareholder hurdle

DIGITAL NEWS PENDULUM SWING BACK TO FANS VIA STREAM 11 Album showcase aims to ‘reconnect’ band with core following

PUBLISHING NEWS KOBALT CLEARS AIR WITH SYSTEMS UPGRADE 12 Songwriters to get more transparent revenue data

UNEARTHED BROKEN BELLS

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Bells to gain resonance ‘gradually’ in Columbia campaign; plus Dooley

FEATURES BOB SHENNAN INTERVIEW 14 The Radio 2 controller talks to Music Week as his station emerges from a hectic and difficult year CLASSICAL MUSIC RIPE FOR GROWTH 17 Public interest in classical music is growing on the back of ITV1’s Popstar To Operastar and a host of marketable new artists A BETTER LIVELIHOOD 18 Tickets sales and traditional merchandising are being supplemented by a host of new live revenue streams