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ANALYSIS 04 INTERNATIONAL: SOUTH KOREA How a booming digital market is driving overall music sales

DIGITAL 10 INDIES ENJOY BIG PAYOUT Merlin gets nearly $4m as it settles XM dispute

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MASTERCLASS

16 PETE TONG The ‘ambassador of dance’

offers his observations of

20 years at Radio 1

Glee set to create splash with original material

COLUMBIA/EPIC LABEL GROUP CHAIRMAN ROB STRINGER IS promising to search far and wide for songs to feature in Glee, as the first original tracks penned for the hit TV show go on sale in the UK.

Glee The Music: Volume 5 is released today (Monday) and features two original songs – Loser Like Me, co-written by Max Martin, and Get It Right – alongside the usual raft of covers.

Both new songs will air in the episode of Glee that goes out on E4 on Monday April 25. This will be the first time that tracks from the show have been available to buy in the UK before they air, while Epic is pushing the tracks to radio.

“Radio can be reticent to play a cover,” said Epic head of marketing Murray Rose. “But we will be treating this like any artist with original material.”

Stringer, who assisted Ryan Murphy in the creation of Glee, said the decision to use original songs was “good news for the songwriting community”. “There will definitely be new songs going forward, although not every week,” he said. “We will spread the net as wide as we can as we go on to find people who are suitable to write songs for certain characters.”

Already Loser Like Me has sold 210,000 copies in the US, reaching number one on the iTunes chart.

In the UK, Glee The Music: Season One, Volume 1 is the best selling of the Glee albums, having sold almost 450,000 copies to date.

HUNGARY AND DENMARK COULD HOLD KEY TO TERM-EXTENSION VOTE

Pro-extension lobby expects to prevail in copyright campaign

COPYRIGHT ■ BY ROBERT ASHTON

The EU is to reopen the issue of copyright term with the Hungarian presidency signalling that it is ready to accept a vote on an extension to the current 50-year rule.

The move, which could stop early Beatles recordings falling out of copyright in two years, was signposted by a recent parliamentary scrutiny committee, which has also learned that the once anti-extension Danish Government had swapped sides. The UK Government remains resolutely pro-extension.

Copyright term campaigners are optimistic although everything hinges on Hungary – as president of the EU Council, it sets the agenda. But sources suggested the vote could take place as early as May when it is “almost certain” there would be a qualified majority.

Following that, the issue – which has been blocked in the Council for nearly two years – will move back to the Commission for drafting.

Copyright term for music recordings will then increase from the current 50 to 70 years throughout Europe.

Musicians’ Union general secretary and long-term copyright campaigner John Smith said, “We’re hopeful the vote will go through now. Denmark have changed their position; there is no movement yet but we are hopeful.”

If the vote is carried there will be a collective sigh of relief from the industry: it is only two years before copyright runs out on the first Beatles hit Love Me Do and recordings by Cliff Richard and Adam Faith have already fallen into public domain. robert@musicweek.com

ADELE SALES MAKE UP FOR ALBUMS DIP

ADELE ACCOUNTED FOR ONE IN every 10 artist albums sold in the first quarter of 2011, as her recordbreaking performance kept the market in the black.

The XL signing’s two albums shifted a combined total of 2.22m copies across the three months, as artist albums sales grew overall yearon-year by 1.5%.

However, an analysis by Music Weekof quarter one shows without her input the sector would have dropped by 8.7% year-on-year.

Her sales also made up for the losses of the majors, who collectively sold around 2m fewer full- and midprice albums compared to the first quarter of 2010.

Although some buyers of the Adele album might have made other purchases if her releases had not been in the market, it is likely the XL titles generated significant additional business, given just how big their sales were.

Her first album 19 sold another 465,829 copies in the quarter, even though it was released three years ago, while 21 shifted more copies than any previous album has during a first quarter.

It is now rapidly heading towards 2m UK sales less than three months after release and yesterday (Sunday) spent an 11th week at number one – the longest consecutive charttopping run in 27 years.

However, even Adele’s phenomenal run could not prevent overall album sales declining in Q1. The 2.3% drop was caused by a collapse in the compilations market, with various artist sales falling 19.3%, although the singles business rose again by 7.5% to take it above 40m units. • SEE PAGES 12–14 FOR ANALYSIS

6 WEEKS TO GO UNTIL THE MUSIC WEEK AWARDS • ROUNDHOUSE, CAMDEN • 24.05.11 • www.musicweekawards.com