| We've covered the music business each day since 21 Jun 2002 Today's email is edition #5319 |
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| | In today's CMU Daily: Peter Löhr, a key advisor to the bankrupt Proper Group AG, was previously convicted of embezzling from bankrupt companies in Sweden. As Proper Group faces unprecedented scrutiny from the Swiss authorities sources associated with the company are asking why Löhr is still there
Also today: Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino has revealed another shift in the company’s position on regulating ticket touting, he is now supporting a price cap in the US; Universal sues Chili’s over music in its social media posts; The Leadmill’s operator has failed to block his landlord from getting a shadow premises licence for the venue
Plus: Yoo Doo Right are CMU Approved
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| | Lawyer previously convicted of embezzlement from bankrupt companies in Sweden is pulling the strings at Proper Group AG
| | As Proper Group AG battles bankruptcy in the Swiss courts, sources have revealed that a long term advisor to the company, Peter Löhr, was previously convicted of embezzlement in a Swedish scandal.
Löhr - who has a very minimal online footprint - has been a constant presence throughout the company’s chequered history, serving as a “general advisor” to former CEO Mattias Hjlemstedt, and somehow surviving round after round of culls of senior executives that has seen the zombie company fall from a supposed $2.5 billion valuation and hundreds of employees to the ‘barely-there’ status of today, with only a skeleton team left in Switzerland.
Throughout the rise and fall of the company formerly known as Utopia Music, Löhr has somehow managed to remain in place as a trusted advisor to a string of executives who have tried to turn the business around, and continues to advise John Mitchell, a key investor in the business who was the board chair of Proper Group AG prior to bankruptcy proceedings being instituted against the company in the Swiss courts.
Sources have characterised Löhr as an “enforcer” tasked with doing dirty work as and when needed, including issuing legal threats to anyone critical of Utopia’s business, as well as being involved in processes around firing staff, negotiating settlements and strong-arming former employees into confidentiality agreements. It is also believed that Löhr was one of the executives who pulled together the bankruptcy appeal. Yesterday, John Mitchell told CMU that the appeal had involved “a 200 page document that a small group of executives worked tirelessly on for ten days”.
Löhr’s name has come up repeatedly in conversations with many sources associated with Utopia, with many former employees apparently aware of Löhr’s colourful past... | Read the full story | |
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | 👉 See all current jobs at https://completemusicupdate.com/jobs | | Horizon is CMU's weekly newsletter 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.
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Live Nation boss Michael Rapino says he’d “love” regulation of secondary ticketing including 20% price cap | | In a huge shift in the company’s position, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino has said he would now support a price cap on ticket resale in the US, telling the Bloomberg Screentime conference in LA, “we would love for resale to be regulated in some sense, cap it at 20%”.
Rapino’s comments - which come in the face of a wide ranging US government antitrust investigation into Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary - represent a significant shift in the live giant’s position on ticket touting, or scalping.
That shift is likely motivated, at least in part, by ongoing controversies around ticket pricing, including in relation to the Oasis reunion tour, and the pending antitrust lawsuit. Live Nation is increasingly taking the position that the various issues that have been raised around ticketing for concerts and other live shows all begin with the touts, and not Live Nation’s business practices.
“We think you should be able to resell”, Rapino stated, but more regulation is needed to deal with the professional touts that use bots to hoover up tickets from the primary sites.
“We got hit by multi-billions of bots on the Oasis on-sale”, he then revealed...
| Read the full story |
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| | Universal Music sues Chili’s over music in social media posts | | Universal Music has followed the Beastie Boys’ lead and sued the Chili's restaurant chain in the US for using unlicensed music in its social media posts. It’s the latest in a string of lawsuits to be filed over brands using music on social media without permission, although one recently filed by Sony Music against the Marriott hotel company has just been dismissed.
In the new Chili’s lawsuit, Universal declares that, “in order to draw the attention of consumers in the fast-moving world of social media”, the restaurant company “chose to rely on the use of popular music as an integral part of their Chili’s messaging”.
However, it has “failed to pay” Universal’s labels and music publishing business “for the music that serves as the soundtrack for Chili’s social media ads posted on their social media accounts”...
| Read the full story |
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| | Judge rejects appeal against The Leadmill’s landlord getting a premises licence | | A judge in Sheffield has rejected an appeal by the operator of The Leadmill against Sheffield City Council’s decision to grant his landlord, The Electric Group, a shadow premises licence for the venue. Allegations of mismanagement and bad conduct made against other venues run by The Electric Group were mere “hearsay”, district judge Tim Spruce concluded.
“The Electric Group continues to operate despite the suggestion that those premises are a den of iniquity for rape, sexual assault, violence and the proliferation of drugs and anti-social behaviour”, Spruce stated, adding that, therefore, “I am being asked to conclude that the licensing authorities of Lambeth, Bristol and Newcastle turn a blind eye to a blatant undermining of the respective licensing objectives of those cities”.
Long-time Leadmill operator Phil Mills has been fighting efforts by The Electric Group, which has owned the Leadmill building since 2016, to take direct control of the venue. The landlord gave Mills twelve months notice to vacate the premises in March 2022. When Mills refused to do so, Electric Group boss Dominic Madden began eviction proceedings. An initial court hearing on that matter in May was adjourned, with the case now due to return to the Leeds Business And Property Court on 16 Dec.
Concurrent to all that was The Electric Group’s efforts to get a shadow premises licence for The Leadmill...
| Read the full story |
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| | 🎧 Approved: Yoo Doo Right | | Montreal-based trio Yoo Doo Right blend post-rock, krautrock, shoegaze and musique concrète to craft a distinctive, avant-garde sound.
Their latest single ‘Eager Glacier’ marches to the beat of turbulent drums, guiding through sprawling soundscapes of deep synthetic whirs, unrelenting electric strings, mercurial melodies and distorted reels. Subtle echoes of ‘Kid A’-era Radiohead can be felt in the track, as they balance tense soundscapes with moments of atmospheric calm.
The music video was directed by Stacy Lee, who shared her thoughts on its creation, “I’ve recently embraced the surrealist and absurdist in me, and this project reflects my desire to blur the lines between reality and the subconscious. Inspired by my recent deep dive into experimental cinema, I’ve come to see genres as fluid - cinema, like music, exists on a continuum, and my work is an ongoing exploration of that range”.
“This video doesn’t follow a traditional narrative but instead invites viewers into a space where they can create their own meaning”, she adds. “Through visual experimentation, I wanted to transport us into another dimension, where magic literally unfolds on screen”.
The band’s new album ‘From The Heights Of Our Pastureland’ is out 8 Nov via Mothland. 🎧 Watch the video for ‘Eager Glacier’ here
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