In today’s CMU Daily: Earlier this year sync agency Zync sued Round Hill Music in a dispute over a former joint venture business. At the core of the dispute was the valuation of the rights acquired by that JV. A judge has now said that that issue should be decided through an ‘appraisal process’ rather than in court

Also today: Music copyright brought in $45.5 billion in 2023, according to Will Page, who has collated industry stats to calculate a figure for the entire sector. Though he says the actual figure is probably higher, because not all the industry reports he relies on capture all the revenue

Plus: Yet another lawsuit against Kanye West, this time alleging a violent sexual assault against a performer on a music video for Polydor-signed artist La Roux, when Kayne was signed to Def Jam. With those labels both subsidiaries of Universal Music, the major has been named in the lawsuit

Releases & Tours: Each week CMU rounds up standout releases and tour announcements from the last seven days. This week: Kendrick Lamar, Nils Frahm, Paula Tape, Cosmic Crooner + more, while tour announcements include Jamiroquai, cleopatrick, The Pogues and others

Judge says Zync’s falling out with Round Hill Music should not be in court

A US judge has ruled that a dispute over the value of the rights acquired by a former joint venture between sync agency Zync and Round Hill Music should be thrashed out through an ‘appraisal process’ rather than being decided in the courts. The judge also ordered that Zync’s lawsuit against Round Hill should be paused pending the outcome of that appraisal.

It was Round Hill which told the court that the matter should be settled via appraisal, arguing that a 2017 joint venture agreement between Zync and Round Hill laid out that course of action in the event of a dispute over the valuation of the rights.

A spokesperson for Round Hill says the company is “happy that the court confirmed Round Hill’s position that the parties are subject to a valid and binding agreement calling for an appraisal to resolve the central issue in this case and not protracted litigation”.

Round Hill’s lawyer Josh Schilling says it’s “unfortunate that Zync chose to file a lawsuit”, but that his client “is pleased that the court has respected the parties’ agreement” to seek appraisal rather than litigation, noting that the decision of the judge “respects the will of two sophisticated parties who agree to an alternative form of dispute resolution”.

As part of its lawsuit, Zync made a variety of colourful allegations against its former business partner, including that Round Hill “grossly misstated” the JV’s income and expenses, and that Zync’s leadership were subject to “bullying and mistreatment” from Round Hill executives.

Round Hill has been keen to portray those other allegations as distraction tactics employed by Zync to draw attention away from the core dispute over the valuation of the JV’s rights, after Zync’s founders failed to get their way regarding what that valuation should be.

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Will Page says music copyright generated $45.5 billion in 2023

Global music copyright revenues in 2023 were $45.5 billion, 11% up year-on-year, according to economist Will Page, who has just published his annual study that seeks to capture as many of the rights and revenues of the wider music rights industry as possible.

That said, Page admits that the actual value could be higher than that. His study reviews various industry reports, including those published by IFPI, CISAC, IMPF, MiDIA and Music & Copyright.

For calculating the total revenues figure, Pages relies on a combination of data from IFPI (recorded music), CISAC (song royalties collected by collecting societies) and Music & Copyright (music publisher direct income), before removing ‘double counting’ that happens by bringing together those figures.

However, depending on which of the full set of industry reports you choose to pull your figures from you’ll get a different global total, because each report employs a different methodology, with some including periphery but growing revenue streams that others don’t capture.

For example, media consultancy MiDIA’s reports include revenues from the DIY artist and production music sectors not necessarily included in the other reports.

Because it captures a wider range of revenue streams, MiDIA - Page notes - “estimates global recorded music revenue in 2023 to be $30.5 billion”, which is 6.6% higher than record industry trade group IFPI in its ‘Global Music Report’. As for music publishing income, MiDIA “puts the figure around $10 billion, a billion more than Music & Copyright”.

“This is art, I am like Picasso” screamed Kanye as he sexually assaulted model alleges new lawsuit, naming Universal Music

Kanye West has been accused of sexual assault in a new lawsuit that also names Universal Music as a defendant based on the fact that the alleged incident in 2010 occurred on the set of a shoot for La Roux’s ‘In For The Kill’ music video, released via Universal imprint Polydor. West was also signed to Universal’s Def Jam at the time.

The major label, the lawsuit claims, should have had a code of conduct in place that prevented West from assaulting the alleged victim while he was filming the video, not least because it knew about the rapper’s “publicly documented history of misogynistic behaviour”.

The lawsuit has been filed by a model called Jenifer ‘Jenn’ An with a court in New York under the city’s Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law. That law, introduced in 2018 to provide a civil remedy for victims of gender-motivated violence, was then amended in 2022 to remove the statute of limitations for people to bring lawsuits against alleged perpetrators, providing litigation is launched before 1 Mar 2025.

In that respect, it is similar to New York State’s Adult Survivor’s Act, which similarly removed the statute of limitations for a time, and which prompted some of the initial legal claims against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.

With the deadline for filing lawsuits under the ASA passing a year ago, some of the more recent lawsuits against Combs have also relied upon the Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law, where alleged incidents happened in New York City.

⏩ Releases & Tours: Nov 2024 (Week 47)

Each week CMU rounds up standout releases and tour announcements from the last seven days This week: Kendrick Lamar, Nils Frahm, Paula Tape, Cosmic Crooner + more, while tour announcements include Jamiroquai, cleopatrick, The Pogues and others

Tour announcements