I Eat Music

This week it’s been hard to move for news and comment about the BBC’s Strategy Review, and, in particular, the plans to close digital radio station 6music.

And there have been a lot of emotionally charged calls for the BBC to save 6music. But I am a cold and unemotional creature. I was quite happy for Abbey Road to be turned into a kebab shop and I don’t think any band should reform ever. If something’s done with and served its purpose, it should be allowed to die. But 6music is not done with, and it’s still very much in the process of serving its purpose. So, for that matter, is the Asian Network, which is also earmarked for closure.

The BBC tell us that it wants to make cuts in order to focus more on “high quality programming”. Which sounds nice, but actually says very little. You might as well say you want to make programmes that feel more sticky. Plus, you could just as easily find money for more high quality programming by cutting the budgets and number of staff on things like Chris Moyles’ Radio 1 show, which have far too much of both. It makes no sense to completely cut services that are both high quality and incredibly important to their listeners, who are underserved elsewhere in broadcast media.

Also, we’re told that the BBC needs to give its commercial rivals a chance. If that’s the case, why aren’t they closing down Radio 1? And since when is competition a bad thing? Yes, the BBC receives its funds in an unusual way, but that doesn’t mean commercial services can’t produce better material than they can. If the entire BBC shut down tomorrow, would Sky suddenly start making programmes that were actually watchable? Somehow, I don’t think the BBC’s existence is what’s holding Sky back in that area.

And who exactly are these rivals who would thrive if 6music closes? Xfm and NME Radio are cited by some, but these stations do not serve the same audience. Because they’re funded by advertising, they have to go for the more lucrative youth market, with 6music’s listeners more likely to be in the thirty-something bracket. In fact, even Xfm’s Eddy Temple-Morris has called for 6 to be saved (see here).

While it’s true that the BBC could make significant savings in a variety of areas, and use the licence fee more efficiently, the cuts put forward just do not, er, cut it. But all is not lost, the BBC Trust still have to approve these proposals. You should tell them why they shouldn’t, and you can do that right here.

Okay, lengthy rant over, sorry. You can follow CMU’s coverage of this story as it develops here.

This is my editorial from this week’s CMU Weekly, which you can read here. I wrote something similar for the Remix Update, which you can see here.

It’s all been about the iPad this week, hasn’t it? Well, not all of it, but certainly some of it. And, in some small part, that has been my fault.

First off, tech blog Pocket-lint asked me to contribute to a feature called How The Apple iPad Will Change The World. I gave my thoughts on what effect it might have on the music industry both before and after the launch.

Then, not content with filling other people’s publications with my words, I went and dedicated my editorial in CMU Weekly to the iPad, as well. Here’s what that looked like:

I do so love an Apple product launch. The hype that always precedes them can only ever mean that the new thing Steve Jobs trots out with will be a big disappointment by comparison.

I suspect that this might be part of the plan, though. People always flock to point out that the latest Apple gadget is pointless, unoriginal and over-priced. And then what happens? Once the products are actually released – with our expectations reduced a little – those devices seem rather cool. And so you have the iPod, the iTunes Store, the iPhone and all the rest. The impact all those things have had is undeniable, despite all the initial naysaying.

Will that be the case with the iPad? Only time will tell. So far its main contribution to the world is to fill Twitter with jokes about “Dom Joly’s new iPhone” and iTampons. It’s certainly not the home computer replacement I was hoping for, and nor am I going to start carrying one around in my bag instead of my iPhone (I’ll still need that for phonecalls, if nothing else). However, if, as I suspect, the iPad turns out to really be the uber-terminal for accessing online content, at home or on the move, it becomes more attractive.

Following their purchase of digital music platform Lala.com late last year, it’s been rumoured Apple might launch a service that would let you store your entire iTunes library online, ready to be accessed from anywhere. If that included films as well as music, and assuming WiFi and mobile internet connections can handle it, you’ve suddenly got a fast, friendly and lightweight way to access all your entertainment content from anywhere.

I’m not entirely sure if that’s something worth having in addition to a laptop. Possibly not. But if you only really use your laptop as an online entertainment centre, well, then why have a laptop at all? And you should never underestimate Apple’s ability to sell something people didn’t think they wanted by the millions. As with all these things, it’s the content that really makes it what it is. All you need is one truly great app to make the iPad a must-have.

Read this edition of CMU Weekly in full here.

[Taken from this morning's CMU Daily]

Hey there people, welcome to the CMU Daily for this lovely sunny Monday morning (feel free to cross out ’sunny’ and ‘morning’ if neither of these are true wherever it is that you’re situated, though we can’t be held liable for any Tipp-Ex or permanent marker applied to PC screens). There’s a note here at the top of the CMU Daily to let you know about two big developments happened around these parts this week.

First, CMU has a brand new editor. Well, not ‘brand new’, in that it’s Andy Malt, who has been working on CMU for eighteen months now. But it’s as of today that he does so with the editor hat on. Which is a very fetching hat to wear. If you like mauve. Yes, Andy, who already edits both of CMU’s weekly bulletins – the CMU Weekly and Remix Update – will now be heading up all of our editorial operations, including this here Daily bulletin, the most read daily news bulletin in the UK music business.

In case you’re wondering what this means for me and my fellow former editor Caro – well, we’ll still be here, as co-Publishers of all things CMU and co-directors of all things UnLimited Media. I will also continue to have a daily involvement in CMU editorial as Business Editor, continuing to oversee all of our music and media business coverage, including this week’s launch of Sky Songs and the latest shenanigans in The Pirate Bay saga. I’ve also written today’s Courtney Love story, though this is a blatant step outside my new remit, and may as yet prove controversial. Caro, by the way, is not giving up her editorial ways; she will be editing a brand new UnLimited service of which we will talk more in a future Daily.

A lot has happened here at CMU in the last twelve months, and even more is going to be happening in the next year. Andy has played a key role in these developments, and we’re all excited about him expanding his editorial role as we head towards 2010. Andy shares mine and Caro’s passion for great new music, our fascination with the way the modern music business works, and our slightly irreverent outlook on the world. Basically, your daily dose of all things music is in safe hands.

Talking about more happenings in the next year, that brings us to development number two. We are in the process of ‘refreshing’ theCMUwebsite.com, and the refreshed site will slowly emerge this week before going properly live next Monday. Part of that refreshed website is the CMU NewsBlog, which will present all the stories that appear in the CMU Daily in an easy-to-navigate fashion for those who prefer their music news on a website rather than in a daily e-bulletin. The NewsBlog will also make it easier to link directly to CMU stories, and means that for the first time you can subscribe to CMU, or sections of CMU, via RSS. Check the blog at newsblog.theCMUwebsite.com. And watch the new site materialise at www.theCMUwebsite.com.

And here ends the big developments. For now. Expect more soon. Meanwhile, let’s get on with the CMU Daily. Right now.

Chris Cooke
Co-Publisher, CMU Daily

		New tapes of an interview with John Lennon from 1970 reveal his anger at his former bandmates over their treatment of his wife Yoko Ono: "They despised her. It seemed I had to be happily married to them or Yoko – and I chose Yoko. George insulted her right to her face and I didn’t hit him, I don’t know why. Ringo was alright but the other two really gave it to us. I’ll never forgive ‘em"
		Little Boots tells Sky News that people should stop talking about women in the music industry as one group (they went ahead and wrote an article that did that anyway): "It’s kind of bad – a girl isn’t some kind of genre you know. The exciting thing is that everyone’s really different and people should embrace that"
		Motley Crue frontman Nicky Sixx says Axl Rose let his fans down with Guns N Roses’ recent album, ‘Chinese Democracy’: "For it to fail was pretty crazy after so many years of being recorded. Then the tour got cancelled. A buddy of mine went to go play guitar for him. They rehearsed for three months and Axl never once turned up. Finally I think the fans just went, ‘Fuck it – can’t do this anymore’"
		Bono makes the Spiderman music written by him and The Edge sound rubbish (also, the story of Spiderman is not a "myth"): "It’s not a straight take on the myth. We’ve taken it to a much more dizzy place than you’d expect. We’ve got big tunes. We’re very proud of it. Our Peter Parker is much more… not Kurt Cobain, but a kind of slacker, a more kind of shy sort of guy"
		Patrick Wolf apologises for this on-stage rant: "Major mis-communications backstage x lack of sleep due to very busy schedule x singing many songs about battling x an intense education from the extreme parts of London nightlife/wildlife/streetlife as a teenager x Steve Strange going on very late x a full day of cameras flashing and questions x being 26 years old and should have known better = bad wolf"
		Liam Gallagher reveals that he and his brother Noel haven’t spoken since last year: "He doesn’t like me and I don’t like him, that’s it. He hasn’t told me what he thinks of anything this year. We’ve got nothing to say to each other at the moment. We don’t travel together, so I never really see him. The only time I see him is on stage and we’re a little bit busy that time to be fucking scratching each other"

These quotes all come from the 21 Aug 09 edition of CMU Weekly. Check it out to find out the kind of stupid stuff that keeps me awake at night, here.

So, the big media news today is that London freesheet thelondonpaper will close next month, meaning early evening trips to the Tube will be made slightly easier.

Owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News International and launched in 2006, the free paper has made losses year on year since then, with a pre-tax loss of £12.9 million in the year leading up to June 2008. The paper’s finances are the main reason for the closure, although Murdoch’s plan to make people pay to access his newspaper’s websites may also have influenced the decision – it wouldn’t exactly be easy to make people pay for something they get free on the street. Especially with content as dull as thelondonpaper’s.

Murdoch’s son, James, who is also chairman and CEO of News Corp in Europe and Asia, brought in Boston Consulting Group to assess News International’s businesses last year. The consultation has already led to 65 editorial job cuts across The Sunday Times, The Times, The Sun and News Of The World, as well as the sale of some operations not core to the business. However, this is the first part of the business to be completely shut down.

James Murdoch said in a statement: “The strategy at News International over the past 18 months has been to streamline our operations and focus investment on our core titles. The team at thelondonpaper has made great strides in a short space of time with innovative design and a fresh approach but the performance of the business in a difficult free evening newspaper sector has fallen short of expectations. We have taken a tough decision that reflects our priorities as a business”.

He added that a month-long consultation had begun with the 60 staff (including 40 journalists) at NI Free Newspapers, which publishes thelondonpaper, and that they will continue to publish the paper until this is completed. It’s currently not clear what this means for the londonpaper-sponsored HEADLINERS festival, which is due to take place around venues in Soho in London on 16 and 17 Sep, with the paper expected to close on 18 Sep.

Though some are hailing this as a win for rival freesheet London Lite, things are not all rosy over there either. That paper, owned by Associated Newspapers, was launched to counter News International’s entry into the London evening paper market in 2006, a market it had previously dominated with the paid-for Evening Standard (and it’s ‘lite’ free edition). Although Associated have since sold the Standard to Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev, they still own the Lite, as well as the more successful and more popular morning freebie, Metro.

But with London Lite also losing money, it remains to be seen if Associated Papers remain committed to it – especially given they no longer have a huge interest in protecting the Standard (though they do still own a minority stake in it). A spokesperson for Associated Papers’ parent company The Daily Mail & General Trust said: “We are watching developments with interest”.