Deezer and Universal announce ‘ambitious’ streaming model – with bigger rewards for artists

Published

10 months ago

September 6, 2023

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Universal Music Group (UMG) and independent streaming platform Deezer have announced the “most ambitious change” to the economics of streaming since its creation, with the launch of a new model promising higher royalties for artists.

The collaboration between UMG, the world’s largest record company, and French streaming platform Deezer means artists will be paid double if users actively search for their music, rather than listening to it when a song auto-plays.

And performers deemed to be “professional artists” – those who generate at least 1,000 streams a month from a minimum of 500 listeners – will also receive double that of non-professionals.

The amount of money paid to music acts through streaming has been a huge issue in the industry in recent years.

Stars – including Nile Rodgers, Noel Gallagher, Lily Allen, Gary Barlow, Paul McCartney and Robert Plant – have all criticised the current model used by streamers.

A UK inquiry also concluded in 2021 that musicians and songwriters receive “pitiful returns”.

Taylor Swift famously boycotted Spotify for a period from 2014, saying at the time that “music should not be free”.

While Deezer is a relatively small platform compared with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music, Deezer and UMG’s new model could have a significant impact should its rivals follow suit.

Change is ‘ambitious’ and ‘necessary’

“This is the most ambitious change to the economic model since the creation of music streaming and a change that will support the creation of high-quality content in the years to come,” said Jeronimo Folgueira, chief executive of Deezer.

“We are now embracing a necessary change, to better reflect the value of each piece of content and eliminate all wrong incentives, to protect and support artists.”

Other changes include the replacement of “non-artist noise content” which makes up about 2% of streams on the platform – including background sounds such as rain or birds tweeting – with Deezer’s own content, which will not receive royalties.

The company has also promised to continue work to tackle fraud and protect royalties.

The model will launch in France at the end of 2023 before it is widened out.

“The goal of the artist-centric model is to mitigate dynamics that risk drowning music in a sea of noise and to ensure we are better supporting and rewarding artists at all stages of their careers, whether they have 1,000 fans or 100 thousand or 100 million,” said UMG’s Michael Nash, adding that music by artists “that attracts and engages fans will receive weighting that better recognises its value”.

Entertainment

Dua Lipa at Glastonbury: A masterclass from a proper pop star

Published

4 hours ago

June 29, 2024

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Dua Lipa at Glastonbury: A masterclass from a proper pop star

Dua Lipa has set the bar high for this year’s Glastonbury headliners, performing a slick set of hits to an enormous crowd at the festival’s famous Pyramid Stage.

The 28-year-old star told fans she had manifested the moment, but watching her command the stage – hit after hit played, voice soaring, dance moves effortless – it seems her talent was always going to bring her here.

Starting with Training Season, from her latest album Radical Optimism, Lipa kept the energy levels high throughout for tracks including Be The One, Levitating, Hallucinate, One Kiss, Physical, New Rules and Don’t Start Now.

As is Glastonbury tradition, fireworks lit the sky, during and after the set, while several costume changes also added to the sense of occasion – which the singer described as “the maddest night of my life”.

Telling the crowd about manifesting the experience, she also hinted she would be staying on at the festival to enjoy the rest of the weekend (although probably not in a tent, I’m guessing).

“I have written this moment down. I’ve wished for it, I’ve dreamt, I’ve worked so hard in the hopes that maybe one day I’ll get to do it and I can’t believe I’m here,” she said.

“You know when I wrote it down, I was very specific, I said I really wanted to headline the Pyramid stage on a Friday night because then I knew I could party for the next two days in the best place on Earth.

“I’m so grateful, little me would just be beside herself right now.”

Lipa’s performance included Cold Heart, her Sir Elton John collaboration, which saw her greeting delighted fans at the front of the crowd, who had no doubt been there for hours beforehand to save the spot.

She followed another Glastonbury tradition by bringing out a surprise guest – Kevin Parker from Tame Impala, to perform The Less I Know The Better from his band’s 2015 album, Currents – and teased Barbie’s Dance The Night during one of her several costume changes.

The star also showed awareness of the festival audience, with 90s rave imagery on screens and confetti cannons blasting rainbows.

It’s something some big acts can get wrong – to go down in Glastonbury headlining history, it needs to be more than just an extra tour show.

At times, however, the set was so slick, it felt more geared to the TV audience than to the crowd – a couple of songs saw Lipa performing to the camera, back to the audience, for good chunks of time – but when the choreography is this good, it’s captivating to watch wherever you are. It’s a small complaint.

Festival organiser Emily Eavis had said beforehand that Lipa was “born” to headline.

By the time the star had closed the set with Houdini, she had proved her absolutely right.

If Lipa is indeed staying on to enjoy the weekend, she’ll get to see for herself the huge array of brilliant acts on offer.

But as headline sets go, hers will be a hard act to beat – a masterclass from a world-class, proper pop star.

Entertainment

Damon Albarn makes surprise Glastonbury appearance with Bombay Bicycle Club

Published

15 hours ago

June 28, 2024

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Damon Albarn makes surprise Glastonbury appearance with Bombay Bicycle Club

Damon Albarn has made a surprise appearance at Glastonbury – addressing politics and the Israel-Hamas war as he turned up on stage to perform with Bombay Bicycle Club.

The band performed on the Other Stage this afternoon, ahead of artists including Anne-Marie, D-Block Europe and Idles.

Blur and Gorillaz star Albarn features on Bombay Bicycle Club’s 2023 song Heaven, and speculation he would join them had been rife ahead of their Glastonbury set.

They had teased a special guest, without revealing a name, and the @secretglasto Twitter account hinted beforehand that the mystery artist “could make Bombay Bicycle Club’s set go by in a Blur”.

Albarn headlined the festival with Blur in 2009 and again with Gorillaz the following year, as a last-minute replacement for U2 due to frontman Bono injuring his back.

After joining Bombay Bicycle Club at this year’s festival, he spoke on stage about Palestine, the general election, and world politics.

“Three things: you have to show me how you feel about it – are you pro Palestine? Do you feel that’s an unfair war?” he said.

“The importance of voting next week – I don’t blame you for being ambivalent about that but it’s still really important. And thirdly – maybe it’s time we stopped putting octogenarians in charge of the whole world?”

Speaking to Sky News about their collaboration, Bombay Bicycle Club said it had all been unexpected.

“We were never expecting to have him on the record or to be playing a show with him, but… we just kind of asked, and he was really up for it. You don’t ask, you don’t get.”

There wasn’t much time to rehearse, they added, with about an hour to get things right for the live performance. “But, you know, with him, that’s all you need.”

Kasabian, Liam Gallagher, Harry Styles, Kings Of Leon and Pulp are all among the artists rumoured to potentially make surprise appearances on stages around the festival site throughout the weekend.

Bombay Bicycle Club are among the music acts kicking off the first full day of the festival, which will be headlined by Dua Lipa.

Squeeze opened the show early on Friday, with K-pop act Seventeen, Olivia Dean and The Snuts also among the early performers.

Elsewhere, just days after the birth of his fourth child, Joe Wicks led a fitness session – and set his sights on taking his workouts to the Pyramid Stage.

“You don’t often think about a fitness workout being at a music festival but yesterday I did a workout and about 2,000 people turned up and it was amazing,” he told Sky News, ahead of a second session on Friday.

Wicks says people still want to look after themselves at festivals.

“It’s hard sleeping in a tent so if they’re awake, I’ve said, come and join me, start the day right.”

Coldplay will headline tomorrow, while Shania Twain fills the Sunday afternoon “legends slot” and SZA closes the weekend.

Entertainment

Holly Willoughby kidnap plot trial: Gavin Plumb says TV presenter was his ‘celebrity crush’

Published

20 hours ago

June 28, 2024

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Holly Willoughby kidnap plot trial: Gavin Plumb says TV presenter was his 'celebrity crush'

A security guard accused of planning to kidnap, rape and murder Holly Willoughby has told a jury the television presenter was “my celebrity crush”.

An undercover US police officer on Thursday told Chelmsford Crown Court he believed 37-year-old Gavin Plumb posed an “imminent threat” to the former This Morning Host.

Plumb shared a video of his “abduction kit” with the officer, referred to as David Nelson, and said he would use chloroform to snatch Willoughby, 43, from her home to sexually assault her before slitting her throat, the jury has heard.

He alerted UK police who found two bottles of liquid, alongside items including handcuffs, rope, shackles and cable ties, at Plumb’s home in Harlow, Essex – but they were found not to contain the substance.

Plumb denies three charges of soliciting murder and encouraging kidnap and rape between 21 December 2021 and 5 October last year.

Giving evidence for the first time on Friday, he told the jury he spent his life online engaging in “wholesome chat” but also fantasising about having sex with celebrities, including Willoughby, who he had seen on daytime TV after he became housebound, having gained weight and reaching 35.5 stone.

“She was my celebrity crush,” said Plumb, who sat down in a chair to give his evidence, wearing a light grey sweater and dark trousers, after telling the judge he would not be able to stand.

Asked how many times he thought about her a day, Plumb said: “It would depend how many times I would chat about her. Sometimes it would be once, other times it would be four, five, six times.”

But the chats became “darker” from 2021, he said, being questioned by his barrister Sasha Wass KC.

He admitted he found the conversations “exciting” at the time but added: “Looking back at it now it’s massively regrettable because it’s not the sort of chat I would normally participate in.”

Plumb added: “It was kind of like gratification. It was something I knew was never going to happen.”

He told the jury he had bought most of the items in what has been described as an “abduction kit” following a four-month sexual relationship in which he was introduced to “BDSM and rough sex”.

“The whole kit is meant for someone who is consenting,” he said.

Plumb told jurors his weight started to fluctuate from the age of 13, which “really affected my mental health” because he could not play sport and was often put “in the friend zone” with girls.

Plumb said he has only had one serious relationship, which he described as “extremely toxic”, and lasted four-and-a-half years, during which there were “constant arguments” and he was “constantly put down”.

“I don’t want to be in a relationship anymore,” he said.

The court has heard he has two convictions for attempted kidnap from 2006, after trying to abduct two women off the Stansted Express train, later claiming they were members of cabin crew. He had rope and an imitation firearm when he was arrested.

Plumb said he was travelling between car parks where he worked handing out tickets and although he admitted he “had a stewardess fantasy back then” he said he did it “to get out of the relationship”.

He was handed a suspended sentence and in 2008 said he used a box cutter to hold two “shouting and screaming and crying” 16-year-old girls in a warehouse where he worked, taping one of their hands behind her back.

Plumb said he committed the offences to “get away from the relationship”, which ended while he was in jail after he was sentenced to 32 months in prison, serving half, after admitting two charges of false imprisonment.

He told jurors once released he spent 99.9% of his life online, communicating with others about gaming, football and “normal fantasy chat” about having sex with various celebrities, including “briefly” Willoughby, but it was “completely different” to the “dark” material he later shared.

Willoughby, who is not attending the trial and is not a witness, announced in October last year that she was stepping down from This Morning after 14 years on the ITV show, but has since hosted Dancing On Ice 2024, and is due to present a Netflix show.