In today's CMU Daily: Yesterday Spotify issued a statement lashing out at the introduction of a streaming levy in France. In a blistering attack on the Centre national de la musique - the French government-backed organisation that will administer revenues generated from the new levy - Spotify made a number of startling statements about how and where money from the levy will end up. Today, CNM has responded - and highlighted a number of misrepresentations in Spotify's statement.

One Liners: Kings Of Leon and NIKA deals; Interscope Capitol Labels Group appointments; Women In Trade Associations Powerlist; new label from Alan McGee and Youth; Festival Republic relaunches ReBalance; UK Country Radio Chart launches; new music from Lauren Mayberry, Girl In Red, Twin Atlantic and Yaya Bey

Also today: Cox Communications and the majors both file new papers in their billion dollar copyright battle; US Copyright Office explains why humans need to be involved for an artwork to get copyright protection; the ASA rethinks its FKA Twigs ruling; and Boom Radio asks its listeners for formally object to the proposed Radio 2 spin off

Plus: Calvin Harris and his theory that six raw eggs can save you from jet lag.

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CNM statement shows that Spotify’s rage about new French streaming levy misrepresents key facts

Yesterday Spotify issued a statement lashing out at the introduction of a streaming levy in France which will, they said, “impede our ability to operate in France”. As a result Spotify subscribers in the country will “soon experience a price increase due to additional costs on music streaming services imposed by the government” meaning that “French users will now pay the highest subscriptions across the European Union”.

In a blistering attack on the Centre national de la musique - the French government-backed organisation that will administer revenues generated from the new levy - Spotify made a number of startling statements about how and where money from the levy will end up.

A key claim made by Spotify is its “worry” that the “CNM tax” will “not go directly to artists, nor will it have a tangible output visible to fans”. This is absolutely not the case, says the CNM. In a statement issued this morning, the organisation states, “the proceeds of the levy are invested entirely in financial aid programmes that sustain grassroots, diversity and international development for French music”.

Spotify also highlighted the fact that the levy will generate €15 million - a figure it then placed alongside a statement that the CNM’s “administrative budget” is €20.2 million. It was therefore heavily implied - but not openly stated - that the €15 million generated by the levy would simply be used to offset administrative costs.

Again, not true, says the CNM. “Contrary to what Spotify says, not a single cent of the levy will be used to fund the CNM’s operations”. Spotify is not only incorrect, but also misrepresenting the figures, the CNM adds, saying that the €20.2 million sum “does not correspond to the CNM's administrative budget but covers the resources allocated by the institution to non-financial schemes for music professionals”, which include training for artists and their teams, career resources, advisory services, promotional resources and other activities.

Various sources who have talked to CMU over recent months have questioned why Spotify has been so bombastic in its criticism of both this levy in France and also the introduction of equitable remuneration on streaming in Uruguay.

As previously reported, in France Spotify said that the tax would mean it would have to “disinvest” from the country, and shortly afterwards it pulled financial support from a number of French festivals. In Uruguay it said that it would pull out of the country entirely, going as far as to disable new account creation for customers based in the country, as well as emailing existing Uruguayan Spotify subscribers to tell them it would be shutting down its service on 1 Feb 2024.

Sources from the independent sector who spoke to CMU at the time highlighted the fact that the Spotify licence agreements that they had seen make it clear that the streaming service would not have to cover the cost of ER on streams in Uruguay, with that liability falling on labels. Therefore the only reason that equitable remuneration would make its business unsustainable was if the major labels had different terms.

Of course, Spotify did not shut down its service in Uruguay and issued another statement saying that after “clarification” from the country’s government it would continue to operate.

A recurring refrain in statements issued by Spotify over the last year is that any external changes to the model - equitable remuneration on streams, levies on revenues - makes their business unsustainable.

Similarly, Spotify tends to position itself as being surprised by the imposition of legislative change. Yet, as CMU reported earlier this week, Spotify has a significant lobbying operation in the EU and has held dozens of meetings with MEPs and the European Commission in recent years. Sources familiar with the company’s public affairs and lobbying operations say that it is similarly engaged with the political infrastructure at national levels in key territories.

So is Spotify really so surprised by these changes and is it really as outraged as it seems - or is something else driving its stance here?

>>> There's more to this story - click through to read the full piece

AEG Europe // Strategy And Insights Analyst (London)

AEG Presents // Tour Accountant, International Touring (London)

Kilimanjaro Live // Event Coordinator (London Hybrid)

Horizon is CMU's new weekly newsletter - published each Friday - that brings you a hand-picked selection of early-stage career opportunities from across the music industry.

Whether you're looking for your first job in music or you're ready to take a step up, Horizon is here to help you find your dream job faster.

👉 Click through to see the current selection.

ONE LINERS

Kings Of Leon, ReBalance relaunch, Lauren Mayberry + more

DEALS

Reservoir Media has signed a new publishing deal with Kings Of Leon. “Expanding our catalogue with new music from Kings Of Leon is a golden opportunity for Reservoir to work alongside one of the greatest rock bands of recent times”, says President Rell Lafargue. “We look forward to working with the band through the rollout of [upcoming album] ‘Can We Please Have Fun’ and as they embark on their international tour to bring this excellent rock record to their fanbase worldwide”.

Warner Music South East Europe has acquired a minority stake in Slovenian independent label NIKA. The major has had a long-standing relationship with the indie, which has been its licensee in Slovenia since 1995, and which utilises the services of Warner's ADA distribution division. NIKA co-founders Darjo Rot and Marko Stopar say, “We’ve worked with Warner Music for almost three decades, and that’s because it puts its trust in us and enables us to do what we do best in Slovenia. And now with this deal we’ll be working even closer to ensure we’re bringing our artists to the world stage".

APPOINTMENTS

Universal Music’s Interscope Capitol Labels Group - the new name for the merged Interscope Geffen A&M and Capitol Music Group - has promoted Steve Berman to Vice Chair and Annie Lee to Chief Operating Officer. “Steve and Annie are both highly accomplished executives who have been critical to our company’s growth and success for more than two decades”, says CEO John Janick.

INDUSTRY PEOPLE

Senior executives from record industry trade group BPI and ERA, the organisation for entertainment retailers and digital platforms, have been included in the 2024 Women In Trade Associations Powerlist. Among those included are ERA CEO Kim Bayley; BPI CEO Jo Twist; and BPI Chief Strategy Officer Sophie Jones. The Powerlist is compiled by the Trade Association Forum, Confederation Of British Industry and the Federation Of Small Businesses, who say "TAF, FSB and CBI are proud to be led by strong female champions and to be supported in our respective organisations by brilliant women at all stages of their careers. It is our shared ambition to support our own staff and other inspirational women in trade associations to be powerful advocates for diversity and inclusion in their sectors and more widely to support and encourage female business leaders and entrepreneurs".

LABELS

Creation Records founder Alan McGee and producer Youth have announced new label Creation Youth. “We are excited and psyched to execute this ambitious and visionary artistic venture”, says Youth. “Working with Alan for decades has always been a great experience. He is unmatched, with a passion and genius for music and bands, management, labels and publishing”. Releases are in the pipeline from artists including Jamie Reid, Brix Smith and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry.

LIVE BUSINESS

Live Nation's Festival Republic has relaunched its ReBalance initiative, which supports female and gender-expansive artists on stage and in the studio. Six acts will participate in a revamped programme, getting five days of studio time and a guaranteed slot at one of the company's festivals, plus educational days and mentoring. The artists are: Mary O’Donnell, Sprout, Bebeluna, Samxemma, Cruush and Red Ivory.

MEDIA

A new UK Country Radio Airplay Chart has been announced, to be compiled by airplay monitoring company Radiomonitor and the Country Music Association’s UK Task Force. It will include data from Absolute Radio Country, CountryLine: The Big 615, Downtown Country Radio and Smooth Country Radio, plus Radio 2's 'The Country Show with Bob Harris'.

RELEASES

Lauren Mayberry from Chvrches has released her latest solo single, ‘Change Shapes’.

Girl In Red has released new single ‘Doing It Again Baby’.

Twin Atlantic have announced that they will release new album ‘Meltdown’ on 9 Aug. Out now is new single ‘World Class Entertainment’. UK tour dates are also set for November.

Yaya Bey has released new single ‘Sir Princess Bad Bitch’. Her new album ‘Ten Fold’ is out on 10 May.

Cox again challenges the copyright claims of the major record companies, which in turn try to retain their billion dollar pay day

US internet service provider Cox Communications recently forced a recalculation of the damages it must pay in its copyright legal battle with the major record companies, potentially slashing the previous billion dollar damages bill. But that's not enough for Team Cox.

Returning to the Fourth Circuit Appeals Court, the ISP wants the copyright infringement ruling against it overturned entirely. And not just in a bid to get the billion dollar damages bill down to zero, oh no, it's for the benefit of human civilisation at large. Well, internet-using humans. Which I guess is most of them in the US.

Because, it argues, under the precedent set in this case, "if an ISP receives more than one accusation that some anonymous person used a specified internet connection to download infringing songs, it can avoid liability only by swiftly throwing every person in that home or business off the internet, disconnecting the guilty and innocent alike from their schools, their livelihoods, their nanny cams, their news, and everything else they do online".

"If instead the ISP continues to provide the connection", Cox's new filing with the Fourth Circuit adds, "a jury can find it engaged in 'culpable conduct' akin to aiding-and-abetting a crime". The result, it adds, is the "most draconian approach" to copyright enforcement in the country.

The record companies have also returned to the Fourth Circuit in a bid to keep their billion dollar pay day. The majors employ a legal technicality rather than hyperbole in their latest legal filing.

In the original majors v Cox court case, the ISP was found liable for contributory infringement - for facilitating its customers' downloading and distribution of unlicensed music - and vicarious infringement - for profiting from that facilitation. Based on that, the jury awarded the billion dollars in damages.

On appeal, judges in the Fourth Circuit concluded that vicarious infringement had not been proven, hence the need to review the damages. However, the majors argues that, in the original trial, the jury was told "if you find that Cox is liable for contributory infringement OR you find Cox is liable for vicarious infringement, then you should consider the amount of money to award the plaintiffs".

Not only that, the wording “contributory OR vicarious”, rather than “contributory AND vicarious”, was proposed by Cox itself. Therefore, the majors now argue, the fact that - on appeal - Cox was not held liable for vicarious infringement shouldn't impact on the damages bill.

Cox is one of a number of US ISPs to have been sued by the music industry for not doing enough to stop its customers from infringing copyright.

The argument in these cases usually goes that the ISP had a deliberately slack policy for dealing with repeat infringers among its customer base, even when they were made aware of those repeat infringers by copyright owners. As a result, the ISP cannot rely on the copyright safe harbour to avoid liability for the infringement of its users.

The big test case was pursued by BMG against Cox. On the back of BMG's success, the majors sued Cox and others. Some of the other cases have resulted in out of court settlements, some have seen the majors win in court, albeit with damages considerably lower than that billion dollars.

Cox's new filing with the Fourth Circuit basically challenges the conclusion that has been reached in all those cases regarding the liability of ISPs for contributory infringement.

It also argues that - even if Cox is liable for contributory infringement - it should not be considered wilful contributory infringement. That distinction definitely has an impact on damages, because under US law potential damages increase five-fold if the infringement is wilful.

The ISP wants the Fourth Circuit to review the entire case en banc, so that more judges would be involved. The majors want a review of the decision to recalculate the damages, possibly with the original panel of judges, or possibly en banc.

Advertising regulator changes its mind about FKA Twigs ad for Calvin Klein

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority has partly changed its ruling regarding a Calvin Klein ad campaign that featured FKA Twigs.

The regulator previously concluded that the advert presented the musician "as a stereotypical sexual object" and was therefore "irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence". But it decided to review that decision based on the "strength of public feeling" and "views expressed by FKA Twigs" herself.

Earlier this week it published its revised decision, stating that the ad "showed FKA Twigs wearing an unbuttoned denim shirt loosely worn over one shoulder and drawn halfway across her otherwise naked body, revealing the side of one breast and the side of her bottom. Although that drew viewers’ attention to the model’s body, we considered the image was not sexually explicit, and the ad presented a woman who appeared to be confident and in control".

Following the original ASA ruling in January, FKA Twigs posted on Instagram, "I do not see the ‘stereotypical sexual object’ that they have labelled me [as]. I see a beautiful strong woman of colour whose incredible body has overcome more pain than you can imagine".

Calvin Klein itself pointed out that the advert featuring FKA Twigs was similar in style to others it has produced in the past, featuring both women and men. Those other ads were alluded to in FKA Twigs' Instagram post. She wrote, "In light of reviewing other campaigns past and current of this nature, I can’t help but feel there are some double standards here".

Although the ASA has backtracked on its conclusion that the FKA Twigs ad would "cause serious offence", it upheld its decision that the ad should not have been distributed through an untargeted medium - ie posters in the street - where there is no targeting of the audience and the ads can be seen by children.

On that, the regulator says, "we considered FKA Twig’s seductive gaze, pouting lips and the positioning of the shirt revealing the side of one breast and the side of her bottom, when taken in combination, meant the image was overtly sexual and was, therefore, not suitable for display in an untargeted medium".

As a result, the ad "must not appear again as a poster in an untargeted medium. We told Calvin Klein Inc to ensure that future ads were targeted appropriately".

US Copyright Office sets out why AI-generated works should not enjoy copyright protection

The US Copyright Office has set out its arguments for why AI-generated works should not enjoy copyright protection, in the latest stage of a dispute over the copyright status of an AI-generated image called 'A Recent Entrance To Paradise'.

"Precedent confirms the human-authorship requirement", the government agency says in a filing with the Washington DC appeals court. "Since the Nineteenth Century, the Supreme Court has recognised human creativity as the touchstone of authorship. Other circuit courts have rejected efforts to claim copyright in works allegedly authored by nonhumans. And the Copyright Office, in turn, has consistently stated its agreement with these views".

"The text and structure of the Copyright Act evince Congress’s view that the author of a protected work must be human, not machine", it goes on. "From a copyright’s beginning to its end, the Act presumes that a human created the work".

Expanding on that theme, it continues, "the statute automatically vests exclusive rights and ownership in the author. It measures a copyright’s term by the author’s natural life and death. Several sections reference an author’s family or heirs. Still others assume an author’s ability to execute employment arrangements and legal contracts. These provisions plainly contemplate an author’s humanity".

There has been much debate over the copyright status of AI-generated works, whether that's text, images, video, audio or music. It is generally felt that, under most copyright systems, such works do not enjoy copyright protection. Although UK copyright law provides default ownership rules for "computer generated" works, suggesting that those works may, in fact, be protected under the UK system.

To get full protection under American copyright law, works need to be registered with the US Copyright Office, which is why it needs to have an official position on the copyright status of AI generated works. So far it has refused to register works that are entirely generated by AI.

That includes 'A Recent Entrance To Paradise', generated by an AI model developed by Stephen Thaler. He has been fighting the Copyright Office on this for some time, including through the Washington DC courts. A lower court sided with the Copyright Office, so Thaler has taken the dispute to appeal.

One of his arguments is that copyright law allows for companies to own the copyright in works and companies aren't humans. And, in US law, under the ‘work for hire’ principle, companies can be the default first owners of copyrights. Many American record labels would tell you that their record deals are work for hire agreements, meaning they are the default first owner in the recordings they release.

But, the Copyright Office counters, while companies may own the copyright in works, human beings are still involved in creating those works. And where a company owns the copyright on a work for hire basis, it is human beings who are hired to create the work.

"The [work for hire] doctrine allows employers and proprietors - including nonhuman entities like corporations - to be 'considered the author' of a copyrighted work by operation of law", its latest filing states. "But it does not mean that Congress contemplated that nonhuman entities could actually be the 'authors' of a work, as opposed to merely being 'considered the author'".

We await to see if Thaler is able to convince the appeal judges that the Copyright Office is wrong and his artwork does indeed have copyright protection.

Currently the music industry seems to mainly agree with the Copyright Office on this. However, as more artists and labels start to use AI in the creation of music and accompanying artwork, they may ultimately change their minds and seek copyright protection for that content.

Though the Copyright Office has already said that "AI-assisted" works do get copyright protection, which might be enough for AI-using artists and labels. Depending on how much human involvement there needs to be for an AI-generated work to be deemed “AI-assisted”.

Setlist Podcast: UK music revenues are back to their CD peak (sort of)

On this week's show we discuss the news that UK music retail revenues are back to where they were at the peak of the CD era in 2001. So long as you imagine that no time has passed in between. Plus, the legal battle over Kanye West’s “shameless” interpolation of a Donna Summer track.

🎧 Click here to listen - or search for 'Setlist' wherever you normally listen

Boom Radio urges listeners to formally oppose planned Radio 2 spin off

Boom Radio - a UK-wide commercial radio station targeted at the 'boomer' generation - has urged its listeners to write to the BBC and their MPs to oppose the plan to launch a new Radio 2 spin off station that will play pop music from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Because that's what Boom Radio does already.

In a statement on its website, the commercial station says, "Boom Radio was created by a group of individuals who felt the BBC had stopped caring about the interests of older listeners. We got together, invested our own cash, worked exceptionally long hours and created something of which we are very proud".

"The BBC's plans will generate a new unexpected competitor to Boom", it adds, which could negatively impact on the commercial station's listener numbers and listening hours. "Depending how serious the damage and the economic climate”, it goes on, “it could even place the existence of Boom Radio in doubt".

The BBC announced plans last month to launch four new stations on the DAB digital radio network. Two of those stations will be decade focused, with a Radio 1 spin off playing music from the 2000s and 2010s, and the Radio 2 spin off that will compete with Boom Radio.

BBC bosses say that the proposed new stations will allow the licence fee funded broadcaster to "better meet the expectations of listeners" and offer more choice "especially to those who currently are underserved by the BBC".

However, the plans have been widely criticised by the commercial radio sector, with opponents pointing out that there are plenty of decade specific music stations provided by commercial broadcasters, which the BBC will now compete with.

Commercial radio trade group RadioCentre said at the time that the BBC was "attempting to compete directly with commercial radio stations, interfering with the market and failing to provide distinct public value". Media regulator OfCom, it added, "should reject these proposed market interventions that would just offer duplicate services and not deliver against the BBC’s obligations, at the same time as harming commercial innovation".

One of the founders of Boom Radio, radio industry veteran Phil Riley, subsequently told the Telegraph, “When the BBC gets the bit between its teeth it can steamroller the opposition. We’ve seen it on multiple occasions over the years, both on TV and radio. It’s typical. They wait until someone else has a good idea and then they say ‘Well that’s a good idea, we’ll do it’".

The post on the Boom Radio website continues, "whilst many of us support the BBC's excellence in many areas, we do not feel it should be investing licence fee payers' money in creating a very similar radio station in a way which could seriously damage Boom. We are thoroughly puzzled about spending money on this when the BBC has chosen to seriously reduce BBC local radio services".

When announcing its planned new radio stations, the BBC explained "the plans are subject to the relevant regulatory approvals, including a 'public interest test', a process which the BBC will start in the coming weeks and is expected to run until the end of 2024".

It's as part of that public interest test that Boom Radio is urging its listeners to contact the BBC to oppose the planned Radio 2 spin off. "It would also be worthwhile writing to your MP", the commercial station adds.

And Finally! Calvin Harris chugs raw eggs to beat jet lag. Horrifying? Yes. Smart? Possibly

Everyone reckons they have a cure for jet lag. I’ve got one. You’ve got one. It seemed to work once and the fact that it’s never worked again doesn’t dissuade you from telling anyone about to embark on a flight somewhere about it. It worked once, damn it.

Next time you’re sat on a Ryanair flight next to Calvin Harris, be warned that he’ll probably start cracking eggs and swallowing down the raw yolks at some point. It’s the best way to avoid jet lag, he reckons.

Find out if he’s right and check out more of this week’s funniest music news stories.