You could argue that it is about time that the industry had some positive retail news. According to recently announced figures published by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and originating from the Official Charts Company, 2009 has been the biggest ever year for singles sales, with 117 million individual tracks sold so far.

This exceeds 2008’s sales figures of 115.1 million. An unsurprising 98.6% of the songs this year were sold as digital tracks.

The head of the BPI Geoff Taylor said in a press release: “We’ve witnessed an astonishing transformation of the UK singles market during the last six years, with digital downloads rapidly overtaking sales of CD singles and cassettes to dominate the singles scene”.

According to data from the official charts company, the fastest selling single of the year so far is Cheryl Cole’s ‘Fight for this love’, which sold 290,000 in the first week of release, overtaking Alexandra Burke’s ‘Bad boys’, which had set the previous record of 185,000..

Other major selling tracks this year include ‘Poker Face’ by Lady Gaga and ‘In for the kill’ by La Roux (single artwork pictured above).

Entertainment retail giants HMV recently announced a partnership with secondary ticketing site Seatwave that will enable fans using the service to pick up tickets in person from an HMV store as opposed to waiting for tickets in the mail. This could obviously be perceived as a response to the recent postal strikes at Royal Mail across the UK.

Seatwave will also now provide a secure ticket exchange service as part of the HMV online ticketing operation.

HMV’s London Trocadero Centre outlet is the first store to feature the Seatwave ticket collection service, which became open to the public on 23rd October.

Commenting on the partnership, Joe Cohen, CEO and founder of Seatwave, said in a statement: “HMV is clearly the most innovative entertainment retailer in the market and we’re honoured and excited to work with them to expand both of our businesses.”

Seatwave was founded in 2006 as a fan-to-fan ticket exchange operating in Europe and aiming to offer customers a more secure way of purchasing tickets to sold-out music, sports and entertainment events.

According to a report from website Ticketnews, British officials estimated that the entire secondary ticketing market in the UK was worth ₤1 billion in January 2008.
As previously reported by The Gen, HMV also made a serious move into the live music sector earlier this year by going into partnership with live promotion company Mama group.

The Business Secretary Lord Mandelson (pictured above) recently revealed specific details of the Government’s campaign against illegal filesharing.

Speaking at the Government’s Digital Creative Industries Conference (C&binet), Mandelson confirmed that the Internet connections of persistent offenders could be blocked as a last resort by the summer of 2011.

The strategy is expected to be officially outlined in the Government’s digital economy bill later this month and will involve a ‘staged’ process of warning notifications prior to implementing Internet suspension, as previously proposed by Lord Mandelson and reported by The Gen in September.

In this respect, the legislation has some parallels with the ‘graduated response’ strategy advocated by UK Music .

In what the Government has referred to as a ‘legislate and enforce’ strategy, the effectiveness of warning letters to persistent illegal filesharers will be evaluated for the first 12 months.

Consequently, if illegal filesharing has not dropped by 70% by April 2011, then cutting off Internet connections could be introduced. Under this system, repeat offenders will be warned that they are infringing and then, in a second letter, informed that technical measures could be implemented.

Further infringement will lead to the offenders’ names being put on a “serious infringers list”, with ISPs then “obliged to exercise technical measures”.

Individuals will have the right to appeal the decision within 20 working days to an independent body set up by Ofcom and the suspension will not come into force until the appeal has been heard. If the first appeal is unsuccessful the infringer can then lodge a second appeal, again within 20 working days.

Speaking at the conference, Mandelson said: “The British government’s view is that taking people’s work without due payment is wrong and that, as an economy based on creativity, we cannot sit back and do nothing as this happens.”

The Business Secretary added: “It must become clear that the days of consequence-free widespread online infringement are over.”

Cutting off illegal filesharers’ Internet access was originally ruled out in Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report released in June 2009.

Despite this, in August of this year the Department for Business Innovation and Skills under the direction of Mandelson proposed tougher measures, including suspensions as a last resort.

Digital piracy costs the music industry an estimated £180m each year.

However, some ISPs have voiced concerns regarding the implementation of such measures, with the Head of BT’s Consumer Division John Petter warning that suspensions of service could cost ISPs up to £1m each year.

Have your say! What do you think about these important issues? Is this campaign going to be completely enforceable in a practical sense? Is the Government’s aim of reducing filesharing by 70% realistic or more of a rhetorical gesture to industry? How will the ISPs respond? Will this discourage illegal filesharing in the UK?

Hip-hop group Public Enemy (pictured above) are the first high profile artists to sign up to SellaBand.

The company essentially uses a fan-funded model in a similar way to Bandstocks, the method previously used with great success by Patrick Wolf earlier this year.

Basically, fans contribute a certain amount of cash to recording costs, in this case the band are suggesting $25 per person with the group aiming to raise $250,000 USD (£158K) to complete the project.

Obviously, such funding would traditionally come from a record label but the whole idea here is that artists tap into fan communities as investors and therefore retain more copyright over the material they record. In return for their investment, fans will receive a unique, numbered digipak edition of the CD alongside a pro ratio share of 33.3% of all net revenues generated by sales.

In a statement, the band’s leader Chuck D (real name Carlton Douglas Ridenhour) said: “SellaBand’s financial engine model goes about restructuring the music business in reverse. It starts with fans first, then the artists create from there. The music business is built on searching for fans and this is a brand new way for acts to create a new album with fans first, already on board”.

The band were previously signed to a number of labels in different territories including Def Jam recordings, Columbia and Sony. Their most recent and twelfth album ‘How you sell soul to a soulless people who sold their soul?’ was released in 2007 on the Slam Jamz label, which is seemingly a subsidiary of Columbia in which Chuck D is a commissioner.

SellaBand CEO Johan Vosmeijer said in a statement: “Our goal is to empower the artist and their fans, both creatively and commercially. Working with Public Enemy is an incredibly exciting way to take the European success we’ve built over the past three years and offer it to stateside bands.”

Intriguingly, SellaBand announced a deal in March 2009 to launch in the US with Chuck D’s music company BTN (Bring The Noise) Management in which the rapper would fulfill the role of SellaBand’s “US ambassador”.

In October of this year, SellaBand launched a new model that allows artists complete flexibility in their fan-funded projects and the company doesn’t retain any rights.

Under their original business model, the funding was restricted for recording an album with raising a fixed total of either $50,000 or $100,000 USD, with shares at $10 per person.

Have your say - What are your thoughts on SellaBand, Bandstocks, Slicethepie et al? Is it an innovative way of enabling fan communities to effectively function as a record label? Is the success of this model extremely dependent on artists having a significant existing fan base that can arguably only be achieved with the traditional PR, marketing and distribution of a major label in the first place? Will we see more high profile artists choose to fund their recording in this way and retain copyright, adding weight to the argument that selling music is all about intellectual property rights now?

There finally seems to be some consensus emerging amongst artists, creative industries, industry bodies and the Government regarding what measures should be taken against illegal file sharing in the UK.

Following a three-hour meeting in London on 24th September, the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) expressed support for Government proposals of so-called “Technical Measures” to address problems of widespread online music piracy.

The Featured Artists Coalition was formed earlier this year as a representative body with an emphasis on challenging issues of music ownership alongside copyright laws and regulations, effectively presenting a platform for musicians to promote their concerns with the industry in the age of digital distribution. It is comprised of a Board of members including Billy Bragg alongside members of Radiohead, Blur and The Futureheads.

The artists involved agreed that if offenders ignore two warning letters, they should have their broadband connections suppressed “to a level which would render file-sharing of media files impractical while leaving basic email and web access”, according to a statement issued immediately after the meeting.

In addition, music industry umbrella group UK Music have sent Business Secretary Lord Mandelson a letter calling for persistent offenders to be given written warnings but for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to only implement temporary disconnection as a last resort tactic. As previously reported by The Gen, last month Lord Mandelson proposed a serious Government crackdown on illegal file sharing in the UK.

Signed by lobby groups representing musicians, managers and music companies including the rights collection agency PRS for Music, the letter stated: “We support Government proposals which would see internet service providers (ISPs) send notifications and apply technical measures to impede and discourage the use of unlicensed peer-to-peer networks and to encourage the use of legitimate services”.

It continued: “We agree that a clear distinction should be made between how technical measures are applied to the casual infringer, compared to how they are applied to the persistent infringer, with temporary suspension of broadband accounts being applicable only as a last resort.”

However, some ISPs have indicated a reluctance to implement such a strategy due to the financial implications, with the Head of BT’s consumer division John Petter warning that such suspensions of service could cost up to £1M per annum.

The Chief Executive of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) Geoff Taylor reacted with anger to this statement, telling The Guardian newspaper that BT’s claims were unsubstantiated. Elaborating, Taylor said that the Company should seek to “Recognise that reducing illegal use of its network is a cost of running a socially responsible business”.

Have your say! Are we finally reaching a point of agreement between artists, Government and industry bodies on this massive issue? What are your thoughts on these practical “technical measures”? How will the ISPs respond and seek to implement? Will such measures secure the future of British creative industries? The debate rages on!

North East outdoor festival Evolution has been nominated in several categories of the UK Festival Awards.

The two-day event, which took place over the May Bank Holiday weekend of 24th and 25th in Newcastle / Gateshead this year, has been nominated in the ‘Best Medium Sized Festival’ category alongside ‘Best Headline Performance’ (for Dizzee Rascal and The Wombats) and also for best toilets!

To vote for Evolution and find out more about the awards, go to the Festival Awards website.

Voters have a chance to win a pair of VIP tickets to every winning festival in this year’s awards.
Voting ends on 14th October so get clicking!

The winners of all categories will be revealed on Thursday 19th November at an event held at The O2 venue in London.

Jon McClure of Reverend and the Makers recently announced that he is setting up his own music magazine with a massive focus on user generated content and self-distribution through various communities of music fans.

The Ark will be a downloadable publication. The idea is that each week a pdf savefile will go online with a logo over a blank front page, plus all the columns and two pages of free adverts for any music site or fanzine interested.

This will enable the audience to download the savefile and basically edit the rest of the magazine. They will choose a front cover artist and write about what is happening within their local scene alongside political and musical issues important to them.

The magazine, when completed will be free to download with the people who have downloaded and printed the publication deciding on price and selling it through local record stores, venues, pubs etc..

Writing on his blog McClure said: “I think it’s pretty much unanimous that the public are a bit pissed off at the state of the music press and want a change”

In a scathing critique of NME Magazine McClure continued: “Its my belief that the British music scene should not be enslaved to some white posh kids in IPC tower in London on the payroll of Time Warner. NME have abused their monopoly over music press since the decline of rivals such as Select, Sounds and Melody Maker”.

McClure also confirmed that he has already confirmed several writers to contribute, including Howard Marks, Toddla T and Barry Hyde from The Futureheads.

As previously reported by The Gen last month, the circulations of the majority of traditional consumer magazines in the music sector are in rapid decline.

McClure urged anyone in the UK who wants to get involved and contribute to contact him via e-mail here.

Find out more about the project here: The Ark

Have your say! Does this sound like an innovative step in the right direction or a kind of utopian ideal that will not translate very well into practice? Do you agree with his views on NME and the contemporary music press in the UK? Will you be getting involved with The Ark?

Newcastle based music podcast Our Beat Is Correct are promoting a fantastic all day live event at The Cluny on Saturday November 7th.

The line-up is as follows:

Manila Chapter
B>E>AK>
Mammal Club
Seamonster
The Small Screen Light Show
Penny Century
Brilliant Mind (pictured above)

Doors are at 4pm, £5 entry or £4 with a special password that you can get by listening to any episode of the podcast in October.

They have plans to record all of the sets on the evening and play highlights in a
special series of podcasts in November.

To listen to the podcast go here.
Their Myspace is here.

This month, the Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has put forward a series of dramatic measures designed to crack down on illegal filesharing in the UK.

The new regulations reportedly include severing the Internet connection of users found guilty of filesharing alongside proposed fines of up to £50,000.

The music business has estimated that illegal downloading is costing their creative industry approximately £180m a year, with illegal content downloaded by an estimated seven million people annually. Mandelson and his representatives in the Department for Business have denied that the implementation came following meetings with top UK record executives David Geffen and Universal Music’s Lucian Grange and point instead towards the Digital Britain report published earlier this year.

As previously reported by The Gen, the report recommended that ‘technical measures’ should be taken against repeat offenders of downloading illegal content. These included giving regulating body Ofcom the power to potentially block access to certain websites and IP addresses that facilitate file sharing alongside capping bandwidth and introducing special filters that will block the illegal downloading of copyrighted content.

Mandelson is now recommending that Ofcom and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) keep records of computers being used to regularly download illegal material. Persistent offenders would be tracked through their computer ID numbers and issued with written warnings. Those who fail to stop would have their Internet services blocked and large fines would be imposed on the worst offenders.

However, the most recent proposals were met with some criticism from within the Labour Party, with former digital enhancement minister Tom Watson stating in an Interview with the Daily Telegraph: “Not only do the sanctions ultimately risk criminalising a large proportion of UK citizens, but they also attach an unbearable burden on an emerging technology that has the power to transform society, with no guarantees at the end that our artists and our culture will get any richer.”

Furthermore, The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA), and the Music Producers Guild (MPG), have joined forces to oppose the proposals to reintroduce the threat of disconnection for persistent file sharers, which was in fact categorically ruled out in the Digital Britain report.

The organisations issued a collective statement, saying: “We vehemently oppose the proposals being made and suggest that the stick is now in danger of being way out of proportion to the carrot. The failure of 30,000 US lawsuits against consumers and the cessation of the pursuit of that policy should be demonstration enough that this is not a policy that any future-minded UK government should pursue.”

As reported last month, American Student Joel Tenenbaum was ordered to pay a fine of $675,000 (£400,000) after admitting illegally sharing 30 songs online. Tenenbaum was the second person in the US to be found guilty of illegal filesharing, with a jury deciding that the 25-year-old should pay $22,500 (£13,370) per song to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), to be distributed between the record labels whose copyright had been infringed.

Have your say! Will such regulations discourage widespread filesharing? Or will they misguidedly criminalise a large proportion of UK citizens? Will this ultimately result in a financial boost for the creative industries and artists? Are such seemingly drastic measures needed to take the filesharing bull by the horns? Let us know what you think!

YouTube and PRS for Music have reached a new licensing deal following months of dispute, meaning that thousands of music videos are due to go back online on the UK version of the popular site.

As previously reported in The Gen, a disagreement between the two parties broke out when YouTube became dissatisfied with new payment terms put forward by the PRS for Music, leading to YouTube owners Google blocking music videos from the site in March earlier this year.

Essentially, PRS for Music were attempting to increase the royalty fees it receives from YouTube.

YouTube felt that the collecting society was being unreasonable and, as a result stopped showing all music videos in the UK, leading to criticism from the PRS for Music that the website was effectively punishing music fans and artists by removing the videos.

This resulted hypothetically in a block on all premium music video content owned by record labels in the UK despite the fact that many fan videos and a limited number of official videos continued to be available on the site.

Although exact details and figures of the new agreement remain undisclosed, the website has agreed to pay a lump sum to the collecting society backdated to January that will be distributed between its members up to 2012.

Andrew Shaw, the managing director of broadcast and online at PRS for Music, said in a statement: “We hope it is the first of many deals with other services so that music can get out there in whatever way people want to listen to it, while making sure our members get paid”.