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4 MusicWeek 12.07.13 NEWS NEWS IN BRIEF


SHAZAM: The music-tagging app company has received $40m in new investment. It says it will keep its base in London and create up to 130 new jobs over the next two years. The company also plans to expand into South America and move further into the TV market. SPOTIFY: The streaming service has hired Sunita Kaur to head up its operation in Asia. The exec was formerly director of Asia for social networking giant Facebook. BICYCLE: The Bicycle Music Company has acquired California punk label Nitro Records. Nitro is home to recordings from bands such as The Offspring, The Vandals, The Damned, TSOL and AFI. TWICKETS: Fan-to-fan ticket marketplace Twickets has been revealed as the official ticket resale partner for Mumford & Sons’ forthcoming Gentlemen Of The Road Stopover Festival in Lewes on July 19- 20 and will facilitate the exchange of tickets that have been purchased from Music Glue, the primary ticketing company. SUB POP: The US label which released Nirvana’s debut album Bleach amongst other grunge/indie classics, is set to celebrate its 25th birthday with a free silver jubilee party in Seattle this week (July 13). iTUNES FESTIVAL: Elton John, Arctic Monkeys, Tom Odell and John Legend are amongst the latest acts to be added to the iTunes Festival line-up. Taking place from September 1-30 at Camden’s Roundhouse, other acts just announced include Pixies, Robin Thicke, The Olms and No Ceremony. INTEGRITY CLUB: A concierge service launched in November 2012, is looking to obtain clients in the music business. The firm (integrityclub.co.uk) has signed partnerships with Emirates Holidays, Live Nation, W Hotel and Selfridges. It offers services from organising diaries to booking holidays. Founder Neil Meredith said: “Most people I know have PAs or admin staff but very few of them can get the VIP privileges and savings that we can.” THE VOICE UK: The creators of BBC television talent show The Voice UK are searching for another ‘young and current’ female solo artist to replace the outgoing Jessie J. Rumours have pointed to Emeli Sande, Paloma Faith and Mel B.


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.com RETAILER EYES JAPAN, DISCUSSES POSSIBILITY OF STREAMING LAUNCH


Amazon: AutoRip could reignite British CD sales


RETAIL  BY TIM INGHAM


A


mazon has predicted that the launch of its AutoRip platform in the UK can


significantly increase CD music sales in the territory. AutoRip gives customers free


MP3 versions of CDs and vinyl music they purchase from Amazon.co.uk, automatically adding the digital file to their Amazon Cloud Player libraries free of charge, for immediate playback or download. Additionally, customers who


have purchased AutoRip albums at any time since Amazon.co.uk first opened its Music Store in 1999 will find MP3 versions of those albums in their Cloud Player libraries – also automatically and for free. More than 350,000 albums


are already available for AutoRip, after all major labels and leading indie Beggars Group licensed the service, which hit the UK on June 27. “Since the end of vinyl, the


way we look at this is, it’s been a long time since anyone added value to their [recorded music] product, and made it more exciting,” Amazon VP of Music


Steve Boom told Music Week. “We’re already seeing an increase in music sales as a result, so it seems that the old adage that if you deliver more value to your customers then they’ll buy more stuff, works out pretty well.” Boom (pictured) added: “This


is a great way to help make buying music make more sense than stealing it. The best way to counteract piracy is to deliver more and more value in music and accessing music legally. We haven’t met a lot of resistance - I have to say thank you to the labels for all the support they have given us.” UK retailers have long lobbied


labels to bring to market a combined digital and physical music item, so Amazon’s launch marks a turning point for product innovation. According to Official Charts Company data, the CD format has accounted for 61.7% of total albums sales this year - including artist and compilations LPs - down from 67.8% at the same point in 2012. On artist albums alone this year, CD claims 60.1%, down from 66.2% in 2012. Boom told Music Week that Amazon was ready to launch AutoRip “everywhere in the world” and had obtained licenses to do so. The service is currently available in the US, UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. “You should expect anywhere that sells music, we’re going to roll out AutoRip - it’s just a question of when,” he said. “The one country that stands out for us, the most interesting one, is Japan. It’s a huge music market, and Amazon has a very nice music business there - we’re the No.1 retailer of physical music.” He added: “We’re going to


sell physical music until people don’t want to buy it anymore. I don’t think that it’ll ever go away fully, but there’ll definitely be a, relatively speaking, decline against digital over time - that trend is not going to reverse. But I think you will see an increase in physical music [sales] as a result of something like AutoRip.” Amazon has its own


streaming movie platform in LoveFilm, which boasts nearly 3 million paying subscribers across the world. However, the company is yet to challenge Spotify or Deezer in the music streaming realm. “Right now we are focused on


music ownership rather than the access model,” Boom told Music Week. “Consumers like to consume music in many ways. Even consumers who buy music will use access products or [online] radio products - which is very strong in the US. “There’s no question that


there’s an increasing trend in those [streaming] services that provide excellent value to consumers. We’ll continue to monitor it and see if there’s something we should be doing there, but I don’t have anything to announce.”


Alex Fisher promoted by Lester


London-based artist management company Twenty First Artists has promoted Alex Fisher (pictured left) from senior artist manager to general manager. He joined the company when it merged with CLM Entertainment in 2010 but has worked for Twenty First Artists CEO Colin Lester (pictured right) since interning for him in 2007. Fisher, who takes up his new position with immediate effect, will report directly to Lester. The exec has headed up breakthrough campaigns for the likes of Tich, Charlie Brown and Angel this year, as well as working closely with Craig David on his sold-out world tour.


Colin Lester said: “In this business when


you find someone with great potential you need to nurture and guide them. Alex has been an incredibly loyal and a fantastic asset to our company. His promotion to GM is a reward for his hard work and a recognition of the fact that he is a really important part of our plans for the future.” Alex Fisher said: “Twenty First Artists is


Fisher has recently taken on responsibility


for the careers of Ebony Day, who won MTV’s Brand New for 2013 poll, and Andrea Begley, the winner of The Voice UK 2013, who is signed to Capitol Records and currently recording her debut album.


in a great position to achieve big things moving forward. “Colin Lester, the team, and the artists we


work with, make this an inspiring place to be. I’m really looking forward to the challenges ahead and the opportunity to build on our existing success.”


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