CMU Daily 15.01.19: Norwegian crime agency investigating Tidal data fiddling allegations, Spotify does deal with Indian music company T-Series

Norwegian crime agency investigating Tidal data fiddling allegations
In a streaming market dominated by Spotify, Apple and some super buzzy emerging market players, at least Tidal has its dodgy data scandal to keep it in the headlines. And helping with that process this week is the Norwegian Authority For Investigation Of Economic And Environmental Crime, which has now confirmed it is investigating allegations that the Jay-Z owned streaming service fiddled the figures relating to Beyonce and Kanye West streams.

This, of course, all relates to the exposé about Tidal stats published by Norwegian business newspaper Dagens Næringsliv last May. Jay-Z's streaming business is of particular interest to journalists in Norway because the rapper got into the digital music game by acquiring the Nordic company WiMP and its Tidal brand back in 2015.

The core allegation in the DN report was that Tidal skewed the streaming stats around the release of Kanye West's 'Life Of Pablo' and Beyonce's 'Lemonade', both albums over which the streaming firm enjoyed exclusives. The newspaper said that it investigated after chatter to the effect that the official number of plays for both albums in the weeks following release seemed very high given the size of Tidal's global userbase.

It then got its hands on some internal data from the streaming firm and got in touch with a bunch of Tidal subscribers which the system said had been heavily playing the Beyonce or West releases. DN alleges that some of those subscribers then denied playing either album as often as the official figures suggested. The journalists also got some academics to scrutinise the data it had acquired and they concluded it had been tampered with.

Tidal, for its part, strongly denies the allegations, has been pretty scathing of the journalists and the newspaper making them, and reckons the bigger story is the theft of its data.

Any fiddling of streaming figures that may or may not have occurred at Tidal is important, because such data manipulation wouldn't just give Beyonce or West the ego and marketing boost of high play counts, even if that was the aim of any such activity. Because the deals between the music industry and the streaming services are, at their heart, revenue share based on consumption share, if the plays are artificially increased for one artist, not only will they earn higher royalties, other artists could receive lower payments as a result.

That is why collecting societies representing music publishers and songwriters in the Nordic region, and organisations speaking for the artist community, both sought answers in the wake of the DN report last year. It was Norwegian collecting society Tono that urged the country's economic crime agency, aka Okokrim, to investigate.

The agency has now confirmed that it is indeed investigating. In a statement yesterday Okokrim said it had "launched an investigation into the allegations that streaming numbers for some tracks have been manipulated".

Although it then added it wouldn't divulge any information about that work "in the interest of the investigation and the parties involved", Okokrim's Chief Public Prosecutor Elisabeth Harbo-Lervik did reaffirm its main focus. She is quoted by Bloomberg as saying: "It has been made known through media coverage that the reports relate to Tidal's streaming service and a suspicion that someone has manipulated the number of plays of some songs".

Tidal continues to deny all the dodgy data allegations and said in a statement yesterday that the company "is not a suspect in the underlying investigation" and that "we are communicating with Okokrim". Again focusing on how DN got its hands on the firm's internal data, the company added that it was aware at least one person had been questioned on suspicion of involvement in the data theft.

The company also continues to be critical of the newspaper, stating: "From the very beginning, DN has quoted documents that they have not shared with us in spite of repeated requests". Not only that, the firm added, "DN has repeatedly made claims based on information we believe may be falsified".

So there you go. But hey, look at the bright side, at least people are talking about Tidal for a change. Deezer needs to get itself some scandal to likewise stay in the spotlight.

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Local residents vow to fight on after London council does deal with Live Nation over Wireless noise restrictions
A residents group in the Finsbury Park area of London say "the fight isn't over" after their local council did a deal with the Wireless festival over its new licensing conditions.

Wireless owner Live Nation has had a number of run ins with the Friends Of Finsbury Park group since it relocated its now urban music centric festival to their neighbourhood in 2014. After last year's event some local campaigners were calling for the festival not to be granted a licence at all for 2019, while others demanded it have its capacity significantly cut.

Haringey Council nevertheless agreed in October to provide Wireless with a licence for 2019, without the significant capacity cuts, but with some extra rules for Live Nation to comply with. The live music firm then took issue with some of those extra conditions, particularly those relating to noise levels and curfew, and to that end appealed the council's decision regarding the Wireless licence at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court.

However, last week it withdrew that appeal having seemingly done a deal with the local council over noise level restrictions and presumably having learned to live with the earlier-than-ideal curfew. But FOFP say they'd have preferred the appeal hearing to go ahead, so they could have presented their arguments, rather than the council doing a deal on noise restrictions behind closed doors.

According to the Islington Gazette, the council told local campaigners that, after Live Nation filed the appeal in November, it hired a noise consultant to review data and advise on the possible implications of altered restrictions. It was based on that work that it did a deal with the promoter, with the council's licensing sub-committee also agreeing to the changes.

FOFP campaigner Martin Ball told the Gazette that he felt that the council had "capitulated" in doing the deal over noise restrictions, adding "what a betrayal of those who call for tougher controls on the event". Meanwhile, another representative of the group confirmed plans to continue to fight the Wireless licence, probably by taking the matter to the high court. Campaigner Tom Palin told the Islington Tribune: "It feels like a David versus Goliath battle but we fight on - it isn't over".

Speaking for Haringey Council, Councillor Kirsten Hearn last week said of reaching a deal with Live Nation: "We're pleased Haringey will continue to play host to Wireless Festival - a world-class urban event that helps to fund the park the whole year round".

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Spotify does deal with Indian music company T-Series
Spotify has announced a global licensing deal with T-Series. The deal brings the Indian music and film company's catalogue of 160,000 songs, including Bollywood soundtracks and more, to the streaming platform.

"One of the ways Spotify has helped revolutionise music discovery is through its ability to connect millions of fans with the best music and artists from all over the world in a way that just wasn't possible before streaming", reckons Paul Smith, Spotify's Head Of International Licensing.

"Today's deal with T-Series", he goes on, "significantly strengthens our Indian music catalogue, bringing Bollywood to more than 200 million Spotify users worldwide. Having T-Series on Spotify is hugely significant and shows our commitment towards providing the very best music for our users".

Chairman and MD of T-Series, Bhushan Kumar, adds: "We are bullish about India's most popular music company tying up with the world's most popular music streaming service. We are confident that together we will be able to reach new markets and spread the love for Indian music far and wide".

In other news, Spotify now reckons it has more than 200 million active users.

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The Japanese House announces new single, live dates
The Japanese House, aka Amber Bain, has released new single 'Maybe You're The Reason' and announced new UK live dates this March.

"It's about being depressed and realising there's no meaning in anything", she says of the new song. "Then in the chorus I thought, I can't keep this up! I need to make it something nice. I thought about my girlfriend at the time, and how maybe loving someone is the reason you live? It's the cheesiest chorus ever, but I think it needed it".

Her new album, 'Good At Falling', is set for release on 1 Mar, with the live shows set to follow later the same month. Here are all the dates:

11 Mar: Brighton, Concorde 2
12 Mar: Oxford, Academy 2
14 Mar: Leicester, Dryden Street Social
15 Mar: Sheffield, The Plug
16 Mar: Manchester, Academy 2
18 Mar: Edinburgh, The Caves
19 Mar: London, Electric Ballroom

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Susanna releases second single from Hieronymus Bosch inspired new album
Almost a year after the release of her last album, 'Go Dig My Grave', Susanna is back. This time she's working with a new group of musicians she's dubbed The Brotherhood Of Our Lady. They have just released 'Ecstasy X', the second single from their new album 'Garden of Earthly Delights', which is inspired by artist Hieronymus Bosch.

"That man feels so alive, like someone I just met", says Susanna of Bosch, who died in 1516. "While this is not a soundtrack to his paintings, I feel a resemblance between the absurdity in his pictures and today's existence. Humanity has never been more enlightened and competent to make sustainable solutions for everyone, but we still close our eyes to poverty, environmental issues and lack of equality".

The album was created in collaboration with fellow Norwegian musicians Stina Moltu, Ida Løvli Hidle, Ina Sagstuen and Natali Abrahamsen Garner. It's set for release on 22 Feb. Listen to 'Ecstasy X' here.

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Bros announce Brixton Academy show
Grab your conkers, Bros have announced plans to tour the UK, following the viral success of their documentary 'After The Screaming Stops'.

So far the duo have only confirmed one show in London, which will see them navigate The Embankment, Big Ben and all those cab drivers to get to Brixton Academy on 5 Jul.

'After The Screaming Stops' follows the Goss brothers as they prepared for their 2017 reunion tour of the UK, which was cut down to two shows due to "logistical issues". After it was aired by the BBC over Christmas, and added to the iPlayer, word spread of its 'This Is Spinal Tap' similarities. Except, of course, Bros are a real band.

"It was almost like going through therapy in front of a nation, I didn't realise there were so many unresolved issues between me and my brother", said Matt Goss on ITV's 'Good Morning Britain' yesterday, as he and his brother announced the tour via satellite links from LA and Las Vegas. "To have to do that in front of cameras - me and Luke are notoriously quite private people but we made a decision between the two of us to not have any rights to editing, and for us what you see is what you get".

Commenting on the reception to the film, Luke Goss added: "[Documentary making is] a subjective art form. If you go into it thinking everybody's going to love it you're setting yourself up for a fall. There are some funny moments in the documentary for sure. There's lots of moments where Matt and I would laugh at this documentary, because you become a musician not to put on a shirt and tie everyday - it's a crazy business".

In addition to the Brixton 'homecoming' show, more dates around the UK and internationally are expected to be announced. Then it'll be off back H-O-M-E.

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Sony/ATV, Warner Bros, BMG, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Sony/ATV has appointed Shawn Holiday to the newly created position of Head Of Urban Music in the US. "His creative instincts and people skills are amazing", reckons boss man Marty Bandier. Though he's leaving soon, so who cares what he thinks?

• Music lawyer Julian Petty has joined Warner Bros Records in the US as EVP and Head Of Business & Legal Affairs. "If you know me, you know that the only way I would have given up private practice is to be part of a company that encourages artists to go after their dreams", he says. I don't know him.

• BMG has promoted Patrick Joest to EVP Global Partnerships & Sync. His business card actually says 'Synch', but I removed the 'h' here to make it correct. I don't really know why the music business is investing so much time on nonsense like safe harbour reform when we've still not tackled major internal issues like the continued mis-spelling of 'sync'.

• Ensuring that there continues to be sound in 2019, Radio 1 will invest some of your licence fee pounds into broadcasting 'BBC Sound Of 2019 Live' on 31 Jan, live from Maida Vale Studios. It'll feature performances from this year's Sound Of winner, Octavian, and the sound of 2010, Ellie Goulding, as well as other acts from the 2019 longlist.

• Michael Buble has announced the launch of his very own Alexa skill. Is that sort of thing too tedious to talk about already? Well, I heard a funny story about Michael Buble the other day that really made me chuckle, so let's give him the benefit of the doubt. The Alexa thingy is called Buble Daily and will give you daily inspirational quotes and personal insights. Here's the man himself demonstrating it.

• Bombay Bicycle Club went on hiatus two years ago. I know you kept telling everyone they'd split up, but it was definitely a hiatus. If they've split up, what are they doing in a room together?

• The Cinematic Orchestra have updated their website with an interesting quirk - it only works if you cut off your internet connection. Parts of it are currently blurred out, so I guess you'll need to keep going offline to find out exactly what's going on.

• Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily - updated every Friday.

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Fabric goes dark
Fabric is in the middle of a black out. All social media posts have been deleted, its website is now just a black page, and the London club itself is hidden behind black boards.

All of this is almost certainly something to do with the legendary music venue's 20th anniversary this year. Although, thanks to high profile licensing issues in recent years and a period of actual closure after Islington Council withdrew its licence in 2016, many fans are now concerned that this might be the end. Particularly those who have just seen the boarded up club, I think.

If you want information about what's actually going on, though, you're out of luck. The only posts on the club's Twitter and Instagram pages are images of a black square and its Facebook page has been taken down entirely. So no point raising questions there. The next obvious thing to do is send a panicked email to any members of staff you may know at the club. But if you do that, you'll just get an automatic reply featuring 20 black squares.

So this is all fun, isn't it? Unless Fabric has actually closed down, in which case I apologise for reporting on this sequence of events in our flippant 'and finally' slot.

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