Sunday 30 September 2012

Legals chart for BitTorrent


File-sharing company BitTorrent has said that it had facilitated 124,191,862 legal music downloads in the first six months of 2012 – making up 31% of all of its 405 million downloads . The legal downloads are from artists and labels who want to disseminate their music for free to help “emerging and established creators monetize their content via the BitTorrent ecosystem". Some bands are signed to majors, and some allowed specially tailored packages to go out for free. They even have a chart of the most downloaded freebies:

1.      Death Grips: 34,151,432
2.      Counting Crows: 26,950,427
3.      Billy Van: 18,702,053
4.      Gods Robot: 12,172,672
5.      Way Too Sick: 9,974,321
6.      Paz: 6,485,001
7.      Bray: 5,878,492
8.      Pretty Lights: 5,005,061
9.      DJ Shadow: 4,349,048
10.   Chester French: 523,356

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eliot-van-buskirk/the-mostdownloaded-legal-_b_1923146.html

Friday 28 September 2012

Radiohead ticketing row erupts

Radiohead, vocal critics of secondary ticketing, have been caught up in a row with their own fans after it was discovered that rules put in place to stop the re-sale of tickets on the secondary market are actually penalising fans who can't attend a concert - as they cannot sell or even give away the tickets to friends. Anyone else attending with a buyer is also effectively barred from attending. 

Tickets for the bands upcoming Manchester Arena and London O2 Arena can only be collected on the day of the show and the buyer must present the credit or debit card with which the tickets were purchased as well as some form of photo ID - meaning that fans who cannot attend are stumped - as are their guests - especially as the tickets are unrefundable. Ticketmaster said "Terms and conditions relating to the purchase of paperless tickets are clearly outlined to customers at multiple stages during the purchase process, including the initial purchase page, the shipping page and the billing page. Information relating to their purchase of paperless tickets is also conveyed on the confirmation email they receive" adding "our dedicated customer services team are happy to work with both customers and our clients, be that the venues or promoters, if a customer's circumstances change".

Bieber touted by Team Bieber

Ticketnews.com reports that a recent investigative report by Phil Williams, chief investigative reporter for NewsChannel 5 in Nashville, Tennessee, uncovered ticketing documents to an upcoming show on Justin Bieber's Believe tour that shows members of Bieber's management were withholding tickets from the general public and selling them on the secondary market for a huge mark-up, leaving fans to purchase tickets well above face value. Another day, another potential ticketing scandal!

Thursday 27 September 2012

AIM Music Awards nominations out

The nominations are out for this year's Independent Music Awards, organised by the Association Of Independent Music are out and it was confirmed that Edwyn Collins will take the Outstanding Contribution trophy while Mute's Daniel Miller will take home the Pioneer Award. Other nominations include Hardest Working Band Or Artist: 65daysofstatic, Cancer Bats, Enter Shikari, Frank Turner, Skinny Lister; Best Live Act: The Cribs, Dub Pistols, Enter Shikari, The Prodigy, Frank Turner: The PPL Award For Most Played Independent Act: Adele, Arctic Monkeys, Caro Emerald, Madness, Travis; Independent Album Of The Year: Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls, Enter Shikari - A Flash Flood Of Colour, Liars - Wixiw, Future Of The Left - The Plot Against Common Sense, Rustie - Glass Swords; and Best Independent Festival (The Golden Welly): In The Woods Festival, Truck Festival, Y Not Festival, Leefest, Bearded Theory.

http://www.musicindie.com/awards/theceremony2012



Andy Williams 1927-2012


Andy Williams has died at the age of 84. The legendary crooner whose hits included Moon River and Music To Watch The Girls Go By  died in Branson, Missouri, following a year-long battle with bladder cancer.

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Guilfest another victim of the UK summer

Tony Scott's Scotty Events, promoters of the 20,000 capacity Guilfest, has  gone into administration, following poor ticket sales for this year's event. In an announcement on Facebook Scotty Events said: "Scotty Events Ltd regret to announce that Guilfest has ceased to trade due to poor ticket sales at this year's event in July. We assess that this was down to the worst weather conditions we have experienced in history of the festival, combined with intense competition presented this year from other events. On-going matters now lie in the hands of the insolvency practitioner Leigh Adams LLP". Launched, in 1992 the family friendly festival has become a key fixture on the UK festival calendar. Founder Tony Scott told the BBC that poor ticket sales this year - due in part to locals holding off buying tickets in order to see how the weather turned out - had left the festival with debts of £300,000, pointing out that over the weekend the weather was indeed dire and the site very muddy, and that "The Olympics were on, a lot of people were going to that. Farnborough Air Show was on the same weekend as us for the first time this year. There was Tom Jones playing up the road at Sandown Park, Bruce Springsteen was playing in London, and there was an awful lot going on around our weekend, as well as the bad weather" adding "I'd love to see Guilfest keep going, but I think it's got to be somebody with deeper pockets ... to make sure it goes through".

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Glastonbury cool at 7


The Glastonbury Festival has risen to No 7 in the chart of 'cool brands' in the UK - based on a survey of 3,000 consumers and a panel  of 39 designers, style magazine editors and other experts. Judges are asked to rate brands based on their uniqueness, originality, style, innovation, authenticity and desirability and include Bestival promoter Rob da Bank, musician Carl Barat, DJ Gemma Cairney,  fashion writer Susanna Lau, Rizzle Kicks and singer and film director Plan B

YouTube, in at No 2, and The BBC's iPlayer in at No 6 pipped Glastonbury to the honour of the highest new entrant to the chart, and another new entrant, Virgin Atlantic, came in at No 8. 

The Coolbrands 2012 top 20
1. Apple
2. YouTube
3. Aston Martin
4. Twitter
5. Google
6. BBC iPlayer
7. Glastonbury
8. Virgin Atlantic
9. Bang & Olufsen
10. Liberty
11. Sony
12. Bose
13. Haagen-Dazs
14. Selfridges
15. Ben & Jerry's
16. Mercedes-Benz
17. Vogue
18. Skype
19. Nike
20. Nikon

Image: Coldplay at Glastonbury 2011 (Denis O'Regan)

Two more acts sue for digital royalty boost

Boz Scaggs and REO Speedwagon have joined the ever growing list of artistes, many well established, who have filed digital royalty lawsuits against the  major bales for a bigger cut of digital revenue. The defendant in both suits is Sony.  FBT Productions have already won a court case against Universal to get a bigger share of digital royalties from 'Eminen' recordings they worked on, and Cheap Trick, the Allman Brothers and a number of other artistes have settled a case with Sony. Cases from Rob Zombie, Whitesnake, Toto, Weird Al janKovic, Dixie Chicks, Chuck D, George Clinton, Peter Frampton, Sister Sledge, Rick James's estate, Kenny Rogers and James Taylor are pending.

Proud2 licence suspended

The Proud empire's Proud2 venue at the O2 Dome has had its licence temporarily suspended following an incident earlier this month. According to reports, a fight at the House Of Joy night hosted at the venue on the 2nd September resulted in two men being stabbed and a bouncer being hit with a bucket. The venue was subjected to a 28 day suspension of its licence pending an investigation by Greenwich Council, which will result in a full licence review on the 4th October. Proud are confident the licence will be confirmed, potentially with additional conditions.

Monday 24 September 2012

Power Failure

Vince Power's listed company Music Festivals plc has called in administrators as of September 23rd.  Previously the company had said that it has unable to secure new funding, and that it was had asked the Alternative Investment Market to suspend trading in its shares. The company owns the UK's Hop Farm festival and Spain's Benicassim, The Feis Festival in Finsbury Park, London and a new festival called Costa de Fuego, also in Spain. The company suffered particularly from poor ticket sales at the Hop Farm, although the 2012 edition of Benicassim was also not sold out, prompting Power to lend the company £750,000.  In a statement yesterday the firm said: "The board of Music Festivals has resolved to appoint an administrator and once that appointment has been agreed a further announcement will be made in due course". Power owns 23.29% of the shares and his family another near 20% stake. COO / Finance Director Jon Hale owns 5%. 


Friday 21 September 2012

Universal get EC green light for EMI deal

UMG have been given outline approval by EC regulators to buy up EMI's recorded music division - but the major will have to divest a number of key catalogues to meet competition requirements. Among the EMI assets to be sold are the Parlophone, Chrysalis and Mute labels and catalogues (minus The Beatles and Robbie Williams) and the EMI Classics division. A number of commentators, in particular independent labels, say that the move will give UMG unassailable market dominance alongside Sony, who since purchasing EMI's music publishing division, have a 30% plus market share in the business of songs. It is expected UMG will have a 38% plus share of the global market in recorded music and many fear that the major will use market dominance to either prioritise its own services such as Vevo, or insist on large upfront payments or equity stakes in new digital start ups which want to use music, as it did with Spotify (UMG own 4% of Spotify, EMI 1.9% and Sony 5.8%, and Sony and UMG jointly own Vevo with the Abu Dhabi investment company). The deal is still subject to US  regulatory approval, which is expected next week. The Commission said that "the very significant commitments proposed by Universal will ensure that competition in the music industry is preserved and that European consumers continue to enjoy all its benefits". Pan-European indie labels trade body IMPALA did not agree, and said it would consider its options once the EC's full decision was published.

Ticketmaster face paperless ticketing claim

A new class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court in New York which alleges that Live Nation and Ticketmaster violated New York state law by offering only paperless ticketing for a Swedish House Mafia event on December 16, 2011. The suit, reported in Ticketnews.com,  seeks damages from Live Nation for consumers who purchased tickets to numerous events in New York

Thursday 20 September 2012

Pandora and Apple top the digital charts


Apple and Pandora have topped a new survey of digital platforms, with Apple's iTunes remaining the dominant  player in  the paid for music download service sector, with a 64 percent share of the market in the second quarter of 2012. Amazon's MP3 Store comes a distant second with 16 percent, and no other purveyor of paid downloads exceeds 5 percent. Google Play, eMusic, Zune Music Pass and all of the others combined only account for 20 percent. The NPD survey also said that  50 percent of US internet users were aware of Pandora’s free ad-supported radio service, and a third of them also knew that Pandora offered a paid subscription service. Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio had 25 percent consumer awareness, followed by Spotify with 19 percent.

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Anschutz to sell AEG


The Anschutz Company has revealed plans to sell one of its core assets, the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which includes the world's second biggest live music promoter AEG Live, as well as various interests in the sports sector and an extensive network of sports and live entertainment venues. The firm has hired the services of the Blackstone Group to advise on the deal. Anschutz bosses reportedly hope to complete any sale sometime next year.

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Rob Clark had departed EMI's Virgin Records division, where he has been Senior Promotions Manager since 2007, having originally worked in the major's college promotions unit since 2000. And Former EMI Publishing US executive 'Big' Jon Platt is also leaving EMI and heading for Warner Chappell. 

Reverb goes to Reservoir

UK-based music publisher Reverb Music has been bought by New York-based Reservoir Media Management. Under the deal, Reverb will continue to operate as normal in the UK and Europe under that name, but will also work in partnership with its parent company's publishing business in America. The London office will still be led by Reverb MD Annette Barrett.

Green Events Europe shapes up


The program for the 3rd GreenEvents Europe Conference in Bonn on Nov 5th and 6th 2012 is shaping up nicely, with some outstanding speakers at the leading pan-Europe's conference on sustainability in the live music and events industry. Speakers include leading lights from the Green Music Initiative, A Greener Festival, Bucks New University, The Green Festival Alliance, De Montfort University and Blauer Engel and panellists from major events like Roskilde Festival, Boom, Öya Festival, Republic Of Kazantip, Tollwood Festival and Open Air St.Gallen.  http://www.green-events-germany.eu/The_Program_2012.47.0.html?&L=1

Are UK festivals in decline this year? eFestivals statistics tend to disagree

Our friends at eFestivals have been looking at whether or not the UK festival market is in decline, with some surprising results. After the wettest summer on records, the recession and with the unanticipated fall-out from the Olympics for the festival market, as well as some high profile cancellations including Sonisphere UK, WowFest, The Last Jubilee, The Big Chill and the Bloc Weekender, eFestivals decided to have a look at the figures, and see whether 2012 was as bad as many pundits are declaring. EFestivals say that whilst it is true that more festivals have been cancelled in 2012 than ever before, with 19 more festivals cancelled this year than the average (38 festivals a year) over the last five years, as a percentage of the overall number of festivals that were planned in the UK (excluding Northern Ireland) the figures look slightly different over the last six years - with no significant increase in cancellations as a percentage of shows that actually took place.

More at http://www.efestivals.co.uk/news/12/120907c.shtml#oYp4jGdxC8ps4T0H.99

AEG buys Front Gate

Live music giant AEG Live has further expanded its interests in the US ticketing space by buying Austin-based Front Gate Tickets. AEG has bought Front Gate as part of a joint venture with independent live firm C3 Presents who are also Austin based. One of C3's founders, Charles Attal, was also a partner in Front Gate.

Thursday 13 September 2012

Russian PM calls for Pussy Riot clemency

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has called for the three jailed members of punk band Pussy Riot to be freed, saying their continued incarceration on convictions for religious hooliganism  is "unproductive" saying "In my view, a suspended sentence would be sufficient, taking into account the time they have already spent in custody". At least two of the other members of the band are believed to have fled Russia for fear of prosecution for the Christ the Saviour Cathedral alter protest against Vladimir Putin.  

Wednesday 12 September 2012

Three dead in Bestival coach tragedy

Three people have died after a coach returning to Merseyside crashed into an oak tree in Surrey on Monday eveming. A number of other passengers were injured and some had to be cut free from the wreckage, with Juice FM DJ Chris McGee named as one of the injured. 53 people were on the coach.

Coach driver Colin Daulby (63) was named as one of the dead, along with 18 year old Michael Molloy from the band Hostile Radio, and 23 year old Kerry Ogden, all  from Merseyside. No other vehicles were involved in the crash and it is thought that Mr Daulby may have suffered a heart attack.  All surviving passengers were taken to hospital and eleven casualties remain, many with 'life changing' injuries.

Tuesday 11 September 2012

AEG withdraw Jackson insurance claim


Following on from a rather embarrassing leak of emails which could have been interpreted as showing that AEG executives had hidden concerns about Michael Jackson's mental and physical health prior to the planned ‘This Is It’ residency in London’s O2 in 2009, AEG Live has dropped its $17.5 million insurance claim against Lloyds Of London resulting from Jackson's untimely death that year. AEG had tried to claim compensation from Lloyds, which had insured part of the planned 50 night O2 extravaganza. Insurers had claimed that the live firm had misrepresented the state of Jackson's health when taking out its insurance policy. CNN have reported that AEG has now agreed with Lloyds to withdraw it’s insurance claim, and as a result the insurer will have the promoter removed from its lawsuit in the USA, which seeks to void the policy.


The Michael Jackson estate, which controls Michael Jackson LLC, is still pursuing the insurance payout, its lawyer said and is still a defendant in the case brought by Lloyds.

UMG pay up towards EMI - as regulators reach conclusions


Universal Music has paid just under a billion of the £1.2 billion that it committed to pay Citigroup for EMI's recorded music division, according to parent company Vivendi. Decisions by EU and US competition regulators are nearing completion with at least some divestment of catalogues such as Parlophone and Chrysalis mooted for the EU if the sale is to go through.

Sigur Ross sorry for No-Tube


Sigur Rós have apologised for deciding not to broadcast their Bestival set, via the festival's YouTube channel saying that the "expansive demands" of Saturday night headliners New Order - who played straight after Sigur Rós - meant that the band's performance was pushed forward from its desired "darkness" slot into daylight, undermining the band's stage visuals, which were designed to be seen at night and that “that the band went on to have a thoroughly miserable experience on stage too. And to spare everyone's blushes a decision was made to draw a discrete veil over proceedings. Sorry, but we can be so much better than what you missed. Another time, for sure".

UK Unions support right of musicians to get paid


Following on from the Olympics where it seems numerous musicians were expected to perform for free, the UK’s Trade Union Congress, meeting in Brighton this week, has backed a motion by the Musicians' Union which states that professional musicians should not be expected to work for free with MU Gereral Secretary John Smith saying "This summer's Olympic Games brought the issue back to the fore. Despite the agreement between LOCOG and the TUC regarding fair terms and conditions, and undertakings from LOGOG to the MU that professional musicians would be paid for their services, the MU uncovered countless examples of its members being asked to perform for no payment at events connected with the Games".

Supergrass to get PRS Award

PRS for Music today announces that one of the UK’s greatest and best loved indie bands, Supergrass, will receive a PRS for Music Heritage Award on 3 October at the site of the gig where they were signed. band members Gaz Coombes, Mick Quinn, Danny Goffey and Rob Coombes will collect the award.

The Jericho Tavern in Oxford is renowned for its support of local live music and where Supergrass performed regularly during their early years.

Faithless are also being honoured, with a plaque being stuck to the wall of the Jazz Café in Camden, where the group played their first proper gig in 1996.

Monday 10 September 2012


London basked in yet another weekend of amazing sport and amazing entertainment as the Africa Express reached London on Saturday as part of the London 2012 Festival and the Paralympics closed on Sunday.  The Africa Express train based tour ended with Led Zepplin's John Paul Jones and Sir Paul McCartney joining the likes of Baaba Maal, Damon Albarn,  Jupiter & Okwess International, Kano,  Fatoumata Diawara , Rizzle Kicks , The Noisettes and the amazing Rokia Traoré in a five hour sold out marathon live set in Granary Square in London's King's Cross -  in front of 5000 delirious London 2012 Festival goers, on what must of been one of the hottest sunniest days of the year. And what a night!

And then on Sunday on to the closing ceremony for the Paralympic Games in the Olympic Stadium in Stratford. The Festival of The Flame kicked off with a parade of weird and wonderful cannibalised and recycled vehicles from Joe Rush's Mutoid Waste Company and was followed by an extraordinary show that  featured a set from Coldplay and special guests Candoco Dance Company,  the seventeen piece British ParaOrchestra - and my old friend from Canterbury, Mat Fraser, as a guest drummer with Coldplay! Congratulations to show director Kim Gavin - for once the show actually involved people with disabilities -  Candoco and from Rio's Corpo em Movimento both mix able-bodied and disabled dancers, and the Paraorchestra  features disabled musicians. In the Rio section, visually impaired ballet dancers performed a samba na ponta - actress and model Viktoria Modesta played the snow queen with a beautiful prosthetic leg on show (there was sort of a four seasons theme), Lissa Hermans, who is blind and autistic, sang the National Anthem and narrrator Rory Mackenzie from South African was serving as a medic with the British Army when he was blow up and lost a leg . 

Joining in the fun, Prince Edward and IPC President Sir Philip Craven enter the stadium in a specially made 'Mad Max' vehicle driven by Captain Tony Harris. Captain Harris is also an amputee after being injured in Afghanistan. There were disabled aerialists, climbers, child performers and Mat has phocomelia, shortened arms - and he one is heck of a drummer! Captain Luke Sinnott who lost his legs and an arm in a blast on the battlefields of Helmand tonight helped close the Paralympic Games - by climbing a flagpole and proudly flying the Union Flag. Oh, and and there were some lovely fireworks - and on top of all of that special guest appearances from Rihanna and Jay-Z - both of whom had kicked off the summer of fun headlining at the BBC Radio 1 Hackney Weekender ! 

Teenage swimming star - and face of the games - Ellie Simmonds, 17, was joined by sprinting sensation Jonnie Peacock, 19, to play a part in the final moments of the Games to extinguish the flame but before it died  they used torches to pass on the flame to  light hundreds of torches held by members of the cast throughout the field of play. It’s been an amazing few weeks in London, some of the best of times!

Saturday 8 September 2012

One Direction top VMAs

Rihanna, Chris Brown and Drake were all winners at the VMAs,  but Brit boy band One Direction stole their thunder winning  best new artist, best pop video and most share-worthy video. Rihanna’s “We Found Love” (featuring Calvin Harris) was video of the year; Brown’s “Turn Up the Music” was best male video; Drake’s “HYFR” (featuring Lil Wayne) was best hip-hop video. Drake’s labelmate Nicki Minaj won best female video for “Starships.” Coldplay picked up best rOck video for "Paradise". The MTV event was held at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles but suffered fierce competition for TV viewers from the Democrat's National Convention 2012.

Friday 7 September 2012

Luford joins Glastonbury


Glastonbury Festival has announced that APL Events' Paul Ludford will become its new Operations Director, replacing Melvin Benn, who left the role when the festival its ten year relationship with Festival Republic in June. Tickets for the 2013 festival which go on sale on the 7th October will cost £205 each. Buyers can initially put down a deposit of £50, before paying the balance next spring. http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/information/tickets/2013-ticket-info

Thursday 6 September 2012

New Leeds venue to open

A new arts and music venue will open in Leeds later this month in Canal Mills, a former textile mill. The venue will be run by local events company Sound Channel, one of the firms behind the Hideout Festival in Croatia.  The new space plans to stage gigs, clubs, exhibitions, theatrical productions and film screenings. The opening weekend will kick off with two club nights, the first on 28 Sep featuring Simian Mobile Disco, Julio Bashmore and Tensnake, the second the following day being the Leeds date of the Skreamizm tour, headed up by Skream.

Bloc overcrowding explained?

The organisers of the London Bloc weekender which was shut down on police advice because of serious overcrowding, have put forward their explanation of the cancelled event in a statement which puts the blame on "serious delays associated with the building of the London Pleasure Gardens site, leading to non-completion of groundwork, venues and general infrastructure" saying that "The Hub', a 2800 capacity high-spec venue that we had contracted to host one of our main stages, was not going to be ready for us to us". The organisers also point to the event's ticketing system although the providers of that, Crowd Surge, had previously said the were not at fault. Bloc organisers say that "we did experience problems with the management of the admission control systems" and the statement says that there were problems with both the checking of e-tickets (with scanners) at the gates saying "Knowledge of the suspension of scanning combined with ticket touting enabled people to gain entry to the event without having purchased a ticket from our website. We'll never know exactly how many people [did this]". Bloc is in administration, as are the London Pleasure Gardens holding company, and ticket-buyers will not be able to get any money back from Bloc and are advised to apply for a refund from the bank or credit firm who provided the card with which they made payment.

Monday 3 September 2012

Harket gets green award


Morten Harket, former front man of Norwegian superstars Aha, and now a successful solo artist, has been named as the winner of the first ever the Green Music Award 2012 for his outstanding commitment to the environment in the music industry – in particular his commitment to electric mobility and renewable energy. The Award will be made for the first time at the Clean Tech Music Awards in Berlin on September 7th to a person who is committed to protect the environment and raise environmental consciousness with fans and the public. Harket said “"As a public figure I have the opportunity to focus attention on environmental issues and thus perhaps to promote environmental awareness of being Green Music Award. this one way, and I feel very honoured to receive this award ". The award is made by the Green Music Initiative in Germany in co-operation with the Clean Tech Media Award and organisers said Harket was “a great ambassador for green ideas”

Clean Tech Media Award 7th  September 2012, Tempodrom / Berlin
http://www.cleantech-award.de/

Photo: Morten Harket introduces the first electric Panda in Norway.

Creamfields makes refunds


Organisers of this year's ill-fated Creamfields festival, which finished a day early after severe flooding, have confirmed that day ticket holders for the Sunday of the two-day dance weekender will be given a full refund while those who had tickets for the full weekend will receive half of the original sums paid.

Hal David


Legendary American lyricist Hal David, best known for his many successful collaborations with Burt Bacharach, has died aged 91. With Bacharach his hits included 'Magic Moments', 'Don't Make Me Over', 'Walk On By', 'I Say A Little Prayer' and 'Do You Know The Way To San Jose'. The duo wrote for numerous top singers of the sixties, including Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and Gene Pitney, and also began to successfully write hit songs for the movies. David was also President of ASCAP from 1980 to 1986

Saturday 1 September 2012

Bestival for you ... and you ... and you

The Isle of Wight's Bestival will be live streamed to a dedicated YouTube channel for fans around the World covering both the Main Stage and Big Top on September 7th, 8th and 9th. Music fans will be able to watch headline performances from Florence + the Machine and New Order, a UK festival exclusive appearance from The xx and live sets from Friendly FiresTwo Door Cinema ClubEmeli SandeBat for LashesOrbitalMiike SnowAzealia Banks and many more. The detailed daily program of the live stream will be available on the Bestival YouTube channel. Once Bestival comes to a close, individual songs from acts will be available on-demand for the next 90 days on the Bestival YouTube channel.




Patrick Walker, Senior Director of YouTube Music, Europe, Middle East & Africa said: "As the premiere destination for music lovers worldwide, YouTube has been working hard to expand our offering of live gigs and festivals to satisfy the hunger for great original content. We're delighted to announce a partnership with Bestival, whose dream line-up of musicians including Florence + the Machine, The xx, Emeli Sande and New Order, will now be made available to anyone, anywhere with an Internet connection." And Bestival Promoter / Curator Rob da Bank commented: "I've been watching festivals such as Coachella and Tomorrowland on YouTube and loving the futuristic new angle on showing festivals in a different light via a medium that nearly everyone in the music and festival worlds is tuned into. We're really pleased that Bestival is the first UK festival to go down this route.”

www.youtube.com/user/bestivaltv

Quest take on X-men - and women

Music Week has reported that Scott Rodger's Quest Management, which is home to Arcade Fire and Paul McCartney, has reached an agreement with the producers of 'X-Factor' giving it first option to take on the management of any acts which make it through to the final stage of the UK's major televised talent contest. Previously the post-X management duties fell to Modest Management.

Chris Lighty 1968-2012

The US hip hop industry has been shocked by the sudden and untimely death of Chris Lighty, one of the American industry's most savvy urban music entrepreneurs, and most recently COO of talent management powerhouse Primary Violator working with acts such as Missy Elliott, Mobb Deep, LL Cool J and 50 Cent. Some US media reports have suggested that Lighty committed suicide and faced an unpaid tax bill.

UMG second quarter financials out

In Universal news, the major reported earnings of 88 million euros for the most recent quarter, from revenues of 961 million euros. Revenues were down on the same quarter in 2011, but profits were up. The major is currently awaiting both European and US competition regulators' approval of its planned acquisition of EMI's recorded music division.