4 MusicWeek 06.09.13 NEWS NEWS IN BRIEF
nAIM Independent Music Awards 2013 winners revealed: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis were the only artists to win two awards at the third annual AIM Awards ceremony on Tuesday, taking home Independent Breakthrough of the Year and the PPL Award for the Most Played New Independent Act. Others honoured on the night included 4AD’s Daughter, who won Independent Album of the Year and Alcopop! Records, which triumphed as Best Small Label. The Independent Label of the Year prize went to Warp. nUniversal revenues up 16.3% in H1 2013: The major label’s financials showed that digital sales represented 53% of recorded music sales in the half compared to 47% in 2012. It’s the first time the company has seen digital account for more than half of overall sales. Meanwhile, parent company Vivendi’s net income dropped 25%. Universal Music Group recorded revenues of €2.236 million (£1.91m) in H1 2013 – up 16.3% period on period – while that of Vivendi slipped 1.5%. nNominations open for UK Festival Awards 2013: In the event’s tenth year, UK Festival Awards categories include Best Small and Best Major festival, Best Toilets and the panel- voted Promoter of the Year award. The Festival Technology Award will also be launched this year. The deadline for entries is September 27 and the ceremony will take place on December 2 at The Roundhouse in London. nSpotify launches multi-device home audio listening experience: Spotify has launched Spotify Connect – a new home audio experience that allows users to control their music across multiple devices using a tablet or iPod. It will be available on a range of speakers and home audio systems that will be marked for compatibility. The service will roll out to Spotify Premium subscribers on iPhone, iPad and audio systems over the coming months with Android to follow. nCorrection: In a recent Sync Story article about Nina Nesbitt’s cover of FleetwoodMac’s Don’t Stop for the John Lewis home insurance ad campaign, the publisher was listed as BMG Chrysalis, the publisher is Universal Music. Music Week apologises for the mistake.
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HMV legend McLaughlin backs Hilco direction
RETAILER’S FORMER COO PRAISES RENEWED FOCUS ON MUSIC
RETAIL n BY PAUL WILLIAMS
H
MV legend Brian McLaughlin has backed its new owner Hilco as it
prepares to relaunch the retailer’s original 363 Oxford Street store. McLaughlin, who retired as
HMV Group COO in 2005 after 37 years with the business, said he had been captivated by Hilco chief executive Paul McGowan and his team’s plans to put the main focus back on selling music. “Having met Paul McGowan from Hilco I was very impressed
with him,” said McLaughlin. “His attitude, experience and knowledge will be great for HMV. I feel a lot happier for [the brand] and for the people working there now they’ve got somebody like him and his team running it.” McLaughlin, who rose
through the ranks at HMV from working in his local store in Portsmouth at the end of the Sixties to eventually leading its huge expansion as UK chief executive, has got to know McGowan after Hilco agreed to having the retailer once again sponsor the annual Football
Extravaganza - the charity event in aid of Nordoff Robbins started in 1996, of which McLaughlin is still chairman. HMV was once headline sponsor of the event but withdrew its backing several years after McLaughlin’s retirement. “It all fits: they’re going back
to the original home of HMV at 363 Oxford Street and they’re coming back with the football dinner,” he said. “It’s like music and football coming home.” The event, now once again the
HMV Football Extravaganza, will take place at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on Tuesday, October 29, in the same month that HMV moves back to 363 Oxford Street. Pele will receive the Legend of Football Award on the night. McLaughlin oversaw the
closure of the 363 store in 2000 and the opening of its now- closed Bond Street store nearby, but he backed the logic of now returning to the smaller site and closing the flagship Oxford Circus store.
“For somebody who was
involved in the business for a long time it’s fabulous news,” he said. “Under the current circumstances it seems to me to make great financial sense to sell the lease of Oxford Circus and to move back into a smaller store. “I wish[Hilco] had bought
the business two or three years ago frankly. They look to me like very sensible people who understand the brand.”
Sound Performance forms JV with ‘hidden gem’ vinyl plant
CD, DVD and vinyl manufacturer and broker Sound Performance has announced a joint venture with local vinyl pressing plant Diamond Black. The partnership will see
Diamond Black produce exclusively for Sound Performance, which will channel all sales, customer services and marketing. Sound Performance has also begun to invest in and upgrade the Diamond Black plant to increase production. Whilst Sound Performance
has supplied CD, DVD and other physical media solutions including vinyl to the UK’s independent labels since 1994, MD Chris Marksberry (pictured right) recently began the search for new vinyl plant options to offer customers a more direct and efficient service.
situation” for Sound Performance, Diamond Black and customers. “We are very well known in the market and have worked with some of the best independents in the business,” he explained. “We’ve got demand and Diamond Black makes high-quality vinyl. “We’re very excited about this
“We were getting more
demand from the industry to take care of vinyl manufacturing, print sleeves and everything else that goes with it, but we were brokering vinyl,” he told Music Week. Marksberry added that Sound
Performance’s new Luton-based partner is something of a hidden gem: “They’ve been going for 14 years but Perri [D’Cruz, Diamond Black MD] (pictured
left) is an engineer, not a salesman or a marketing specialist. He makes the machines run, he keeps a good shop and makes excellent vinyl. “The European market was
going berserk on vinyl and there was a vinyl plant in Luton that had under-utilised capacity. [D’Cruz] was completely under the radar. Marksberry described the new joint venture as “a win, win, win
deal because we feel we’ve found a solution to our customers’ needs and our needs in supplying this format in a professional, fast, quality way,” said Marksberry. “We have exciting plans for the future and this is an important piece in the puzzle. We’ve got our own manufacturing for CD and DVD and now we feel we’ve got a genuine solution for vinyl pressing, which is something that pretty much every record label has a need for now.”
Brian McLaughlin
www.musicweek.com
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