Sony's deal with Jackson estate shows "clear and emphatic" support for Sony/ATV, says Sony/ATV chief
OK, everybody, here is your task for the day. Can you think of a "clearer or more emphatic way" for Sony Corp to show support for its global music publishing business than buying the Michael Jackson Estate out of said company?

What if the big bosses made it so that every Sony-produced TV show and movie only ever synced in Sony/ATV published songs? What if they told their Japan-based music publishing unit to stop insisting it needs to be separate from the global music publishing business, and just let itself be absorbed by US-based Sony/ATV? What if they made it so that anyone playing 'Guitar Hero' on the PlayStation Network saw a daily alert that said "why don't you actually learn to play the guitar properly, and then buy some sheet music from our friends at Sony/ATV"? What if the Sony Corp board back in Tokyo were to hold hands every single morning and sing a suitably uplifting rendition of 'Hey Jude'?

No, I think Marty Bandier is probably right, I can't think of "a clearer or more emphatic way for Sony Corporation to show its support" for its music publishing business than it spending $750 million to acquire the Jackson Estate's 50% of the Sony/ATV company. "This outcome is very positive news for Sony/ATV and everyone who works [here]", added the publishing major's CEO, and "it demonstrates [Sony Corp's] absolute faith in our company and recognises the terrific job we are doing". Oh, I wouldn't go that far.

Anyway, Sony/ATV chief Bandier has sent a memo to the music publishing giant's workforce following the news earlier this week that Sony Corp has agreed to pay $750 million to buy the Jackson Estate out of the joint venture songs business that began when Sony and the then king of pop merged their respective publishing assets in the mid-1990s. The two parties had been reviewing their joint venture since last year after a 'buy-sale' provision in their existing agreement was activated, meaning either side could buy the other out.

"I know the last few months have created some uncertainty since the buy-sale process was announced last October", Bandier added in his memo, after all that stuff about emphatic ways, absolute faith and terrific jobs. "I cannot be prouder of the way everybody has continued to do their jobs in a professional and diligent manner and ensured that it really has been business as usual during this time. With the announcement this week we can now fully focus on the future. I said at the time when the buy-sale process began our best years are still ahead of us and this deal has only confirmed that".

Though don't be thinking Bandier's apparent glee with this deal is all about seeing the back of the men and women running the Michael Jackson Estate. "I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Estate and particularly John Branca, John McClain and Karen Langford for all their support and input over the years of the joint venture", he added. "They will always be an important part of the Sony/ATV legacy". Though, of course, the Estate will retain its stake in the EMI Music Publishing catalogue, which Sony/ATV administrates, so he can't just say "so long suckers, I hate you all".

"Sony/ATV is and remains the world's leading music publisher", Bandier went on to conclude. "And these past twelve months have been another great year both creatively and financially for the company. For those of you working in New York there has already been the fresh start over the last few weeks of moving into tremendous new offices and we will also have a brand new home in Los Angeles later in the year. There will be much to look forward to this year as we take the first steps in this exciting new era".

Good times all round. Perhaps now they could start work on sorting out that database.

Justin Bieber settles outstanding pap attack case
Justin Bieber has settled that lawsuit filed by a photographer in 2013 over an alleged incident at a Californian shopping mall the previous year, in which the popstar was accused of kicking and punching the pap man.

Jose Duran said that Bieber, who was still hanging around with Selena Gomez at the time, "delivered a martial arts-type kick" after he tried to photograph the couple. The incident left the photographer, according to his lawsuit, suffering from "severe emotional distress".

Duran's legal rep confirmed the matter had now been resolved yesterday, but gave no further comment. Presumably the photographer had to settle, because Bieber is now such an all round amazing guy, no one could ever even begin to imagine the messiah of pop being involved in anything as tawdry as a paparazzo scuffle.

Such is the glorious majesty of the modern Bieber, of course, not one person can still remember the bad times. Not the monkey trafficking. Nor the egg throwing. Nor the pissing in a bucket. There's a couple of satanic priests who still talk about the possibility of naked holiday snaps, but the very fact they've not suppressed all memories of those photos deep into their subconscious tells you all you need to know about those heretics.

Indeed, I think you'll find leading theologians now doubt that any such Jose Duran ever even existed. Or if he did, Bieber was almost certainly karate kicking evil demons out of Duran's body that sunny day, and in doing so saved some children somewhere.

Jesus Bieber himself was unavailable for comment.

Rights management firm says its new data product could help with mechanical rights issues in the US
What with all the songwriter lawsuits piling up against the streaming services over unpaid mechanical royalties, shitty music rights data is something of a talking point in the US at the moment. Now, American music rights management firm Music Reports has announced a new product at South By South West which, it says, "addresses one of the biggest challenges in the $4 billion music publishing industry by bringing a revolutionary level of transparency to a decades-old problem".

The new Music Reports 'claiming system' allows music publishers to more easily claim any recordings that embody songs they control, and for that information to then be kept alongside other data relating to the creation and ownership of the song in question.

There are various issues around music rights data, of course, both in the US and worldwide, though the missing database at the heart of the various mechanical rights disputes between American songwriters and the streaming services is the one that states which songs are contained in which recordings - so which locks the ISRC code that identifies the recording to the ISWC code that identifies the song.

There has been disagreement in the past as to whether such a database - especially one that could be made publicly available - is the responsibility of the digital services, the record labels or the music publishers, though the latter arguably benefits from it more.

Music Reports says its new system will make it much easier for publishers to log which recordings are linked to their songs. Claims will then be "validated by Music Reports' research department of 40 musicologists" and, where there is no conflict, song licensing on those recordings will be much more efficient, especially from labels and digital services utilising the US compulsory licence that covers mechanical rights.

Says the firm's VP and General Counsel Bill Colitre: "Music Reports' new claiming system is an absolute game changer for the music industry because it solves the 'unmatched recordings' problem - a problem that is increasing exponentially".

He goes on: "The claiming system offers the publishing community the opportunity to bring its expertise to bear on the area it knows best: its own catalogue. By providing publishers unprecedented access to match recordings and source music publishing information in this way, Music Reports is flipping a historical problem on its head and helping to ensure that every song is licensed, and every royalty is paid".

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BMG launches in Australia
You know how you were trying to impress your mum the other day by telling her that BMG was a major company in the Australian music industry?

Well, first, I don't know why you were bothering, because the only music company your mum's heard of is the Britannia Music Club, so she just assumed she'd misheard 'C' as 'G' and you were talking about that. Secondly, and all the more embarrassing for you, is the fact that BMG didn't even exist in Australia when you were saying all that. It does now though, so at least your pointless babbling can have a small amount of accuracy in retrospect.

Yeah mate, BMG's launched in Australia. That's the news. Or maybe the news is that in the modern music industry, big music rights companies operate in China for eighteen months before they get around to launching down under. Either way, BMG Australia is now a thing.

"Australia has long been one of the greatest music producing nations in the world", screamed BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch. "Australian songwriters and artists are an important element of the BMG catalogue. It is therefore a logical step for us to launch our own operation in Sydney, giving Australian songwriters and artists a genuine alternative to the established companies".

As for why anyone in Australia might want to work with BMG, he added: "We are proud to be the only music company in history to set out its stall from day one to offer transparency and service to the people who make the music. A commitment to fairness is in our DNA. We believe these values are as important to Australian music-makers as they are to our clients in the rest of the world".

The new office will be overseen by Heath Johns, who joins from Universal Music Publishing, where he was A&R Director. Said Johns: "What BMG has achieved in just seven years is extraordinary. They have created a new kind of business designed to cater for what songwriters and artists want today. Having met the BMG teams in LA, London and Berlin and having seen the company's values in action, I am convinced BMG will prove very appealing to Australia's creative community".

Let's hope so, or your mum is going to be very disappointed in you when she finds out the truth.

MIA and H&M team up to promote clothes recycling
MIA has teamed up with H&M to create a new music video promoting the recycling of clothes, as part of World Recycle Week.

Both are very disappointed that you buy clothes, wear them once and then flush them down the toilet, bury them, or force-feed them to horses. Well, it's putting clothes in the bin so that they end up in landfill that they're focussing on, but those other things are bad too. They would much rather that you gave your old clothes back so that they can be recycled into textile fibres for new garments.

H&M has apparently been doing this since 2013, but I didn't know about it, so I'm assuming you didn't either. Which is why MIA needs to make a video about it.

"Hopefully, garment collecting will become a natural part of fashion", says H&M. "Alongside MIA's insanely cool music video - seriously, it's a must-watch - bloggers and characters from the video will also film rehaul clips, showing the pieces they will recycle during World Recycle Week. That's right - haul videos are so last season, rehaul is the new new".

I don't know what any of that means. Whatever, the video will be put out on that internet on 11 Apr. World Recycle Week actually runs from 18-24 Apr.

Deezer comes to the Apple Watch
This just in, Deezer is "rubbish at building watches". And before you all think, "oh there goes CMU again, laying into poor old Deezer without any good reason, I bet the streaming company's watch would be an awesome watch, and anyway CMU, I don't see you building any watches, I bet the CMU watch would be woeful to the max", please pause, sit down and read the next paragraph very carefully.

There are three things you need to know here. Firstly, it's not me saying that Deezer is "rubbish at building watches". I'd never dream of saying such a thing. I'd never judge anyone on their watch-making abilities, and especially not my good pals at Deezer. No, that's them saying that. Deezer called me yesterday just to declare, "we are rubbish at building watches". And anyway, secondly, I bet a Deezer watch would be really shit. Whereas, thirdly, the CMU watch - my friend - may only exist in my imagination, but it's magnificent.

Anyway, Deezer was declaring its incompetence in watch building yesterday as a means of announcing the fact that its on-demand music service is now available on the Apple Watch. "Our state-of-the art music service is finally available on Apple Watch" says the streaming firm. Deezer, rubbish at watches, but "state of the art" when it comes to music. Hey Deezer, what are you trying to say here? Apple, state of the art when it comes to watch design but, when they turn their hand to streaming the tunes, what? Yeah, I see what you're doing there.

So, to conclude: Deezer on a watch. Music on demand. Curation via Flow. Mixes for every mood. Lots of charts. "I love my classic watch, but when I want to listen to Flow on-the-go, it's my Deezer on Apple Watch that lets me listen to all my favourite tracks on hand - anytime, anywhere", says Deezer Chief Content And Product Officer Alexander Holland. None of which is rubbish. But that's at least 50% down to Apple.

Michelle Obama releases single ahead of SXSW keynote
Michelle Obama appeared at South By Southwest yesterday to deliver the first keynote of this year's SXSW Music conference. As previously reported, she used the event to promote her Let Girls Learn campaign, and she did this by launching a new single to raise funds and awareness.

The aim of the campaign is to reduce barriers for the 62 million girls around the world who currently do not access to formal education. Obama spoke about how being told "what I couldn't do" in her youth spurred her to work harder and achieve more. However, she noted, many women and girls do not have that opportunity. "I've heard horrifying stories of young women who are pushed down because they're trying to get an education", she said.

The Queen Latifah-led discussion - at which Sophia Bush, Diane Warren and Missy Elliott also spoke - followed the premier of 'This Is For My Girls', a new Warren-penned single featuring vocals from Missy Elliott, Kelly Rowland, Janelle Monae, Kelly Clarkson, Zendaya, Jadagrace, Lea Michele, and Chloe & Halle.

"We haven't had an anthem like this in a while", Warren told Billboard. "I envisioned the record being with all these different women, never just one girl singing on it. With Kelly Rowland on it, it's almost like an updated Destiny's Child record. I think it can be a huge worldwide anthem. I hope it becomes that".

Well, step one on that road would be making the track available outside the US. For now, Stateside music fans can buy the track on iTunes, and you can hear a clip of it here.

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Kanye West and The National contribute to crowdsourced charity album
Kanye West and The National are among the artists who will appear on a new compilation featuring lyrics submitted by members of the public. Yes, I know that sounds like a terrible idea, but it's for charity, so you can't say that.

'Metamorphoses' is being curated by Mumford & Sons' Ben Lovett in aid of anti-poverty charity Global Citizen. Lyrics are being collected from across the planet and will be set to music by a selection of big name artists.

"'Metamorphoses' has the potential to break down our preconceptions of the voices of creativity, what different people around the world are thinking and who has the right to be heard", says Lovett. "In my own life, I've experienced people trying to define me and put me in boxes and categories. Through collaboration we can show people how those lines can be blurred and are ultimately redundant".

He continues: "The artists involved in this project are some of the most genuine artists the world has to offer. Artists like Kanye West and The National are doing something globally important that is touching people down to their DNA. And these masterfully creative people are going to be interpreting incredible submissions from people across the globe. It has been a joy reading all of the submissions we received over the past six months. I'm truly excited to see what we will create together".

The deadline for submissions has been extended to the end of this month, though I should probably point out now that it's very unlikely that you'll be able to get Kanye to rap what you're currently thinking. Give it a go here though.

Jay-Z, Snapchat, Instagram, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Jay-Z albums like 'Reasonable Doubt' and the three 'Blueprint' LPs have been pulled from both streaming platforms and download stores and can now only be legally consumed in digital form via the rapper's own streaming platform Tidal. Which means non-Tidal subscribers will have to, well, wait for Tidal to go out of business and then they'll presumably return to iTunes and Spotify again. Patience, my friends.

• Former Pandora CTO Tom Conrad is now VP of Product over at the bloody Snapchats. As it happens, I was Snapchatted last night. I'm totally down with the kids now, so can't wait for these new products Tom's gonna make us.

• Instagram has announced it's going to start fiddling with user's feeds, so they see priority photos before the newest photos. Which basically means it's adopting the system of parent company Facebook. Twitter too has been prioritising certain posts in user's feeds of late. Or, as social media bosses would probably say: "Twitter, prioritising certain posts, late, user's feeds, been, has, too, in, of".

• The saga of the new Tool album continues. "We've found a common ground", frontman Maynard James Keenan told Press Enterprise. "We just can't seem to move forward".

• The eight finalists for this year's Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition have been announced. You can listen to them all in this handy playlist.

• Yes, well, there is another new Last Shadow Puppets track out. And its video is here.

• You can listen to new Deftones track 'Doomed User' here.

• Saul Williams has released another single from his 'MartyrLoserKing' album. Here's 'Think Like They Book Say'.

• Bugzy Malone has released new track 'Late Night In The 0161'. Watch the video here.

• Approved earlier this week, 'Hope' by Iiris now has a video.

• With her debut solo album on the way, former Long Blondes frontwoman Kate Jackson has announced a short UK tour. It will include a show at London's Courtyard Theatre on 3 Jun.

• Eliza Shaddad, whose new EP 'Run' is out this week, will be on tour later this month and into April. Among the dates are a show at the Sebright Arms in London on 31 Mar. From the EP, this is 'Wars'.

Virgin Radio to relaunch on a train
Virgin Radio will go live later this month via a "world first" and a "feat of technology" - a live broadcast from a moving train! Though it's a Virgin train, so movement isn't necessarily assured. But let's not spoil this exciting spectacle by being all down on Virgin Trains.

Though if this live broadcast plan is in any way, shape or form relying on the train firm's on-board wi-fi, there probably won't be much radio either. But let's not spoil this exciting spectacle by being all down on Virgin Trains.

As previously reported, Virgin Radio is returning to the UK, though not through a rebrand of the station the original Virgin Radio rebranded into (which is Absolutely staying as it is) but in the form of a brand new pop and rock station broadcasting on the brand new national digital radio multiplex. So everything is new. Except the train. Which will still have no space for luggage and a lingering smell of sewage in every carriage. But let's not spoil this exciting spectacle by being all down on Virgin Trains.

The all new Virgin Radio's prime time presenters, Edith Bowman and Matt Richardson, will both be on the train - which is being renamed Virgin Radio Star - as it speeds from Manchester to London via such magnificent towns as Crewe. Which is where I'm from. Hence all my Virgin Train experiences. Though it was on the East Coast line where I once paid for a first class ticket only to have no heating and no working power sockets, which didn't seem like much of a first class journey to me, whatever the guy on their Twitter feed reckoned. But let's not spoilt this exciting spectacle by being all down on Virgin Trains.

Because if you're thinking this whole adventure, due to kick off at 11am on 30 Mar, is all about Bowman and Richardson, then think again. You're forgetting the live acoustic performances from Travis, The Feeling, Mystery Jets, Gavin James, Emmy The Great and Walking On Cars. And the man Sam Branson will be on board too. He's a "major music fan" see. Shame he's not a "major train fan", then he could invest his time into fixing his dad's useless train company rather than supporting the radio station that's set to carry his dad's brand. But let's not spoilt this exciting spectacle by being all down on Virgin Trains.

Says the man they call 'Sam's dad': "Virgin is steeped in music history and I'm delighted that Virgin Radio is set to hit the UK airwaves once more. While many people thought the rise of digital would be the death of radio, it has instead enhanced the experience. We like to do things differently, that's why we're launching the new sound of Virgin Radio with a live broadcast from a Virgin Train. With presenters like Edith and Matt on board and with music from some of Britain's leading bands, listeners are going to get a great launch experience. We're excited to be back".

Meanwhile Virgin Trains marketing man Adrian Varma adds: "Virgin is a brand famous for creativity, ambition, humour and glamour, whether on a train or over the airwaves. At Virgin Trains we pride ourselves on embodying that spirit, so can't wait to team up with Virgin Radio when it becomes the first national radio station to broadcast from a train travelling at a speedy 125mph! With an exciting line-up of top artists, hosted by some of the best presenters in the business, we expect the Virgin Radio re-launch to be an event to remember".

Did I mention that time I was given a Virgin Trains 20% off voucher because my train was majorly delayed, but then when I tried to use it the firm's website wouldn't accept it, and when I phoned them up four people insisted that that's because the voucher could only be used at a station, even though the voucher clearly said it could only be used online, and it eventually turned out that you had to click a six point sized text link at the very bottom of the Virgin Trains home page to use it? But let's not spoil this exciting spectacle by being all down on Virgin Trains. Virgin Radio's back, "world first", "feat of technology", woo!