In today's CMU Daily: Club nights will continue at Manchester’s Night & Day venue, but there are warnings that the decision in its legal battle with Manchester City Council could open up other nearby venues to more noise complaints

One Liners: Kobalt refinancing; Human League deal; Low Profile Publishing launches; Midnight Mango hires Sarah Thereze Nelsey; IPO Get Paid Guide; TikTok revenues; Yungblud announces festival; Janelle Monáe in London; new music from Marc Almond, Cat Burns, John Grant, RiTchie, Mui Zyu, Two Shell x FKA Twigs

Also today: Spotify updates its Loud & Clear website with new stats designed to stave off criticism; new music and visual arts climate change charity launches

Plus: Kee Avil is CMU Approved

Night & Day ruling makes it “open season” on Manchester’s night-time economy says Music Venue Trust boss

Manchester’s Night & Day venue has welcomed the ruling in its legal dispute over the noise abatement order that was issued by the city's council. It says the decision will allow it to continue to operate the club nights that are vital to its financial viability. However, concerns have been raised - including by the Music Venue Trust - that the wording of the ruling will put other nearby venues at risk of being subject to similar action.

The potential issues are a result of decisions judge Margaret McCormack made in order to reach her judgement. MVT CEO Mark Davyd explained, "The judge has decided, and placed on record, that the Northern Quarter is not a cultural area, it is a mixed use area".

"Consequently", he went on, "this judgement places every music venue, nightclub, restaurant and bar in this area on notice that they will, upon receipt of a noise complaint by any resident, be required to change the nature of their business to accommodate such a complaint. This applies equally to existing, new and prospective residents. As a result of this judgement, it is now open season on Manchester's night-time economy for developers".

McCormack’s ruling was a compromise, amending rather than cancelling the noise abatement order. Nevertheless, a spokesperson for Night & Day said, “This means we can continue with the club nights that N&D and other live music venues are so dependent on. DJ club nights contribute to developing the raw, amazing talent and emerging live music scene that grace our stage, Manchester and beyond".

However, they added that the venue is "disappointed" that the judgement will require it to make adjustments to its club nights "to suit an occupier of what is a defective apartment".

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

Kobalt, Yungblud, Marc Almond + more

DEALS

Kobalt has announced new financing that will bring its funds to implement growth strategies to more than $1 billion. It has secured $266.5 million on more than 5000 works in its catalogue, and announced a new $450 million revolving credit facility. This is in addition to a previously announced joint venture with Morgan Stanley. “This refinancing will fuel our growth initiatives and allow us to further fortify our position as an industry trailblazer”, says CFO Catrin Drabble.

Bella Figura Music has acquired the writer’s share of Human League co-founder Adrian Wright’s song rights catalogue. The catalogue will continue to be managed by his existing publisher BMG. “Although our ambition is to acquire catalogues we can control and manage, given we are a full-service publisher and record label, there will always be exceptions, particularly when the music is so culturally significant”, says CEO Alexi Cory-Smith. “Adrian and The Human League definitely fall into that category. So, with that in mind we took a view, turned the deal around quickly and had the whole thing signed, agreed and sealed within a couple of months”.

APPOINTMENTS

Music licensing agency Low Profile has launched a new publishing division led by Gareth Smith, formerly of Sub Pop Publishing.

Booking agency Midnight Mango has hired agent Sarah Thereze Nelsey, who brings with her a roster including Sham 69, Drum Machine, Jack Francis, The Smyths and more. “I love the bands I represent and look forward to booking shows for them around the world”, she says. “My strong relationships with my venues, promoters and my artists, alongside the fantastic reputation of the company, means that the future is bright, the future is Mango!”

MUSIC RIGHTS

The UK’s Intellectual Property Office has launched an expanded version of its Get Paid Guide, which educates artists and songwriters about music metadata, and the codes and information they need to be on top of in order to get paid when their music is played. The first version of the guide focused on song data, while the new version also covers recording and performer data. You can access the guide here.

DIGITAL

TikTok has hit $16 billion in sales in the US according to sources that have spoken to the FT. It reports that “three people with knowledge of its finances said the app achieved record revenues in the US in 2023”, which would make it really rather annoying for owner Bytedance if TikTok got banned there. Proposals to force China-based Bytedance to sell the app or face a ban got speedily passed by the US House Of Representatives earlier this month, although could yet be blocked on free speech grounds in the Senate or courts. The FT also reports that “ByteDance as a whole is on track to overtake Facebook owner Meta as the world’s largest social media company by sales”.

LIVE BUSINESS

In response to concerns raised about police and council licensing decisions in London, Black Lives In Music has been commissioned by the Greater London Authority, Mayor’s Office For Policing And Crime and The Musicians’ Union to research the impact of policies and interactions with the police, councils, venues and promoters on black, Asian and ethnically diverse music events.

GIGS & FESTIVALS

Yungblud has announced his very own festival, Bludfest, set to take place at the Milton Keynes Bowl on 11 Aug. Among those set to perform (in addition of Yungblud himself) are Lil Yachty, Soft Play, The Damned, Nessa Barrett and Lola Young. Tickets go on sale on Friday.

Having just announced a three night residency at Manchester’s Aviva Studios in July, Janelle Monáe has now confirmed a London date at Brixton Academy on 29 Jun. Tickets go on general sale on Thursday.

RELEASES

Marc Almond will release new album ‘I’m Not Anyone’ on 12 Jul. Out now is new single ‘Elusive Butterfly’. He’s also announced UK tour dates in September, including a night at the London Coliseum on 9 Sep.

Cat Burns has announced that she will release her debut album ‘Early Twenties’ on 12 Jul. Her latest single ’Alone’ is out now.

John Grant will release new album ‘The Art Of The Lie’ on 14 Jun. Out now is new single ‘It’s A Bitch’. UK tour dates are set for October and November, kicking off at St John at Hackney Church on 17 Oct.

RiTchie has released new single ‘Loop’. His debut solo album ‘Triple Digits [112]’ is out on 5 Apr, and he will be in the UK for live shows at the beginning of October, including a London date at The Lower Third on 5 Oct.

Mui Zyu has released new single ‘Sparky’ featuring Lei, E (formerly Emmy The Great). Her new album ‘Nothing Or Something To Die For’ is out on 23 May.

Two Shell have teamed up with FKA Twigs for new single ‘Talk To Me’.

Spotify publishes new Loud & Clear, says the focus now is artists “dependent on streaming as part of their livelihood”

Spotify has updated its Loud & Clear website with a big bucket of new stats, organised into ten key takeaways.

The Loud & Clear site provides useful information for the wider music community on trends in the market and about how the music streaming business model works. Though it also has a lobbying role, seeking to push out narratives that respond to and, where possible, counter criticism from within the music industry.

What's a key narrative in the latest update of the site though? Spotify really doesn’t care about grassroots artists anymore, that’s what.

"We’re focused on those most dependent on streaming as part of their livelihood", says the site, that being "the 225,000 emerging and professional artists on Spotify in 2023". That’s a far cry from the million creators that Spotify once said it would enable to "live off their art". Unless there are an awful lot of podcasters making a living from their podcasts.

Spotify's focus when it comes to musicians has shifted, of course, because of its bid to placate grumpy major label bosses by freezing millions of grassroots creators out of the royalty pool. All so that a little more cash can flow to everyone else, though inevitably mainly superstars and big catalogue owners benefit the most from that move.

You shouldn’t worry about those who have been frozen out though, Spotify insists. They are slackers making music no one listens to. To date, more than ten million musicians have uploaded at least one track, Loud & Clear declares. However, around eight million have uploaded fewer than ten tracks and around five million have scored less than 100 streams across their catalogue.

It is true that storing millions of tracks that no one ever plays is possibly unsustainable for the streaming services. But applying a blunt monetisation threshold on a global basis, at the insistence of the majors, and with zero consultation of the artist community, is not a good look for a company that has made so much over the years about how it is empowering independent creators.

The new stats on Loud & Clear do hone in on the artists who have successfully grown an audience and built their revenues on Spotify, getting themselves into the pool of 225,000 artists that the streaming firm cares about. But that doesn’t really help. Nor do clumsy analogies to football - recently employed by CEO Daniel Ek and again on the new Loud & Clear site.

"FIFA estimated there are hundreds of millions of people who self-identify as 'footballers'", it says, "but 128,694 people are actually getting paid any amount of money from it".

It was a nonsense analogy when Ek first delivered it, not least because many people participate in sport for fitness reasons. And even if it did make sense, it still doesn’t justify stopping a grassroots artist with a few hundred dedicated fans from pulling a few hundred quid out of the system each year to help fund their passion for music making.

Elsewhere, the Loud & Clear stats seek to counter three other common criticisms of the streaming service: that streaming doesn't pay; that only the major players benefit; and that songwriters are always screwed over.

"For another year, Spotify set the record for the highest annual payment to the music industry from any single retailer: $9 billion+", the Loud & Clear stats summary brags.

Repeating a figure recently shared by Ek on social media,it adds, "in 2023, indies generated nearly $4.5 billion on Spotify. This marks the first year ever that indies accounted for about half of what the entire industry generated on Spotify".

Also, "Spotify paid out $4 billion to publishing rights holders - who represent songwriters - over the last two years. Songwriters - through their publishing rights holders - are generating record-breaking revenues, driven by streaming services".

So, now you know, and you can all stop moaning. Or not. It’s up to you.

You can access all the new stats here.

Approved: Kee Avil

Kee Avil released what she calls her “controlled and synthetic” debut album ‘Crease’ in 2022. Now she is preparing to release the “raw and bony” follow-up, ‘Spine’.

“I wanted to write songs that I could sing on guitar, to combine the energy of folk music with dry, sharp electronics”, she says of the new album. Opening track and first single ‘Felt’, she continues, ”is when all this started to come together. There’s a kind of chaos in it, an almost ecstatic energy, hanging on at the brink of collapse, with a smile on my face. Consuming someone until you become them”.

To attain the sound she was aiming for, Avail limited herself to using no more than four elements when recording each song - guitar, electronics and up to two other instruments. “I wanted to show [the songs’] core, to strip off the excess, to dig myself out”, she says.

The result is an album that balances sometimes precarious fragility with a bold confidence. Reflecting the different aspects that make up a person, there’s a darkness and optimism that becomes intertwined, as she reminisces on what is and what might have been in her life.

‘Spine’ is set for release on 3 May.

🎧 Watch the video for ‘Felt’ here.

Setlist Podcast: US politicians want TikTok to sell up or be banned

In this week's Setlist Podcast: Chris Cooke and Andy Malt discuss proposals voted through the US House of Representatives this week to force TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the video-sharing app or face a ban in country, and the UK Labour Party's pledge to introduce a cap on ticket resale prices if it wins the next election.

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

Music and visual arts organisations back new climate change charity Murmur

A group of music and visual arts companies have formed a new charity called Murmur with a £1 million fund to offer grants to organisations and artists to help tackle climate change.

“Murmur is an opportunity for the leading voices and businesses in the art and music industries to show that they take responsibility for their impact on the planet and are committed to addressing climate change”, says the charity.

“Art can influence society by changing opinions, instilling values and translating experiences”, it adds. “Artists and the arts industries have the potential to ignite a critical mass of action on the climate crisis and to be leaders on this vital issue”.

Founded by Caius Pawson of the Young record label and Matthew Slotover of art magazine Frieze, music companies involved at launch include Beggars Group, Ninja Tune, Secretly Canadian, Because Music and !K7.

As well as pledging annual contributions to Murmur’s grants fund, partner organisations must also commit to a carbon audit and a reduction in their own carbon emissions.

Among a number of pilot grants already awarded, record label trade bodies the BPI and AIM have received money to run the Music Climate Pact. This will establish a commitment across the music industry to mitigate the sector’s contribution to climate change and take positive action.

Other grants will fit into three categories identified by the charity. ‘Change The Industry’ will fund projects aiming to improve the environmental impact of the music and visual arts sectors. ‘Change The Conversation’ will focus on initiatives looking to find new ways of storytelling and positive action around climate change.

Finally, ‘Change The World’ will identify projects that can have a global impact addressing the climate crisis.

Further information on Murmur is available here.