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Adriano Marconetto, VP of content/development at digital distributor Vitaminic, has been elected president of the Brussels-based European Digital Media Assn. (EDiMA), which represents European online services offering copyright works on [...]

THE ALLIANCE AGAINST COUNTERFEITING AND PIRACY (AACP) has revealed that the value of intellectual-property crime throughout Britain's creative industries rose 8.36% in 2000 to almost 9 billion pounds ($12.7 billion). [...]

BOB GELDOF'S London-based TV/radio/events company, 10 Alps Broadcasting Ltd., is preparing a reverse takeover of Alternative Investment Market (AIM)-listed advertising agency Osprey Communications. The deal is subject to the approval [...]

BMG MUSIC PUBLISHING U.K. is acquiring Fiction Songs, the British-based independent publisher that represents the Cure. Following the deal, Fiction founder Chris Parry and GM Ita Martin will concentrate on [...]

UNIVERSAL MUSIC INTERNATIONAL (UMI) is restructuring its London-based music portal project, formerly known as Voxstar. It is understood that the move will lead to more than a dozen staff cuts. [...]

LONDON--The final week in June highlighted a busy schedule in the affairs of Play It Again Sam (PIAS). Executives at the Brussels-based indie group were involved in a headline-grabbing agreement [...]

NAPSTER announced a worldwide licensing agreement June 26 with the U.K's Assn. of Independent Music and Impala, the Brussels-based Independent Music Publishers and Labels Assn. (Billboard Bulletin, June 27). The [...]

U.K. COLLECTING BODY the Performing Right Society (PRS) reports that total distributed income to music composers, songwriters, and music publishers reached 206 million pounds ($288.56 million) in 2000, up 7% [...]

SONY MUSIC EUROPE has set up a London-based new-release department to handle the coordination and scheduling of all artist and strategic releases. Former new-release manager Anne van de Poel has [...]

SEVERAL VETERANS of the U.K. music industry were recognized in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, published June 16. Guitarist Bert Weedon, whose guitar tutor books were required reading for budding [...]

Awards Set For Long Run After Success LONDON--Boosted by positive reaction at retail, the Classical Brit Awards look likely to remain a fixture on the U.K. music industry calendar, after [...]

U.K. MUSIC INDUSTRY bodies and enforcement agencies have signed anew Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cooperate in the fight against infringement of intellectual property rights. Among the groups signing the [...]

LONDON--Europe's struggling independent online music market got a psychological boost June 11, following the launch of a high-level probe into the major labels' proposed joint-venture Internet subscription services. European Commission [...]

LONDON--At the Ivor Novella Awards May 24, Peter Reichardt celebrated the ongoing success of EMI Music Publishing writers. This time around, victory came in the unlikely shape of Paul Joyce, [...]

MUSIC SHIPMENTS IN THE U.K. for the three months that ended March 31 increased 6.8% in value over the same period last year to 239 million pounds ($342 million), according [...]

THE U.K. RECORD INDUSTRY-FUNDED Brit School for Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon, south of London, is looking for a new principal, after current incumbent Roger Durston announced he will [...]

CHRYSALIS GROUP PLC reported a pretax loss of 5.6 million pounds ($7.95 million) in the six months that ended Feb. 28, citing spending on its online interests. The U.K.-based broadcast [...]

THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has unveiled a new search tool aimed at assisting independent labels and artists in tracking copyright works on file-sharing Internet services. The [...]

MTV NETWORKS EUROPE has relaunched its VH1 Export feed, renaming it VH1 European in a move designed to expand the VH1 brand across the continent. The channel, presented in English, [...]

A U.K. GOVERNMENT price survey of 133 internationally available branded products found that consumers pay significantly more for CDs in the U.K. than in other territories. The new study, conducted [...]

CONDUCTOR SIR SIMON RATTLE, tenor Russell Watson, bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, and soprano Lesley Garrett each received two nominations for the Classical Brit Awards 2001, sponsored by car manufacturer Rover. The [...]

ITALY-BASED Online music network Vitaminic has struck a partnership to offer free promotional downloads from BMG on its nine European sites. The campaign, due to roll out over the next [...]

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT unanimously accepted amendments to the Copyright Directive--which is intended to harmonize copyright law across the European Union--April 9 in the final crucial stage before [...]

THE U.K.'S Chart Information Network (CIN) has named European digital distributor OD2 and British music portal PlayLouder as partners in a trial to collate digital music sales and online retail [...]

Management Co. Expands Ahead Of Schedule LONDON--Richard Ogden Management (ROM), the London-based European artist management firm launched six months ago by former Paul McCartney manager Richard Ogden, is expanding into [...]

THE 35TH ANNUAL MIDEM trade fair, held Jan. 21-25 in Cannes, drew 10,640 participants, down from last year's attendance of 12,500, according to organizer Reed Midem. The countries with the [...]

Bannister To Head Dance Music Start-Up LONDON--Matthew Bannister, the former controller of U.K. national top 40 network BBC Radio 1 and CEO of BBC Production, has resurfaced as chairman/CEO of [...]

LONDON -- The man best known to the UK's geberal public for a number of high-profile presenter sackings is, perhaps ironically, launching a company called Trust The DJ. Matthew Bannister, […]

TWO RUSSIAN NATIONALS involved in a counterfeit-CD and credit-card syndicate, described as 'the most sophisticated' case of its kind in Britain, were each sentenced Feb. 2 to four years in [...]

UNIVERSAL MUSIC VP of Europe--and chairman of its Turkish affiliate--Sevket Gozalan will exit the company June 30 to pursue other opportunities. According to Gozalan, 'After a difficult period and some [...]

FRAUNHOFER INSTITUTE for Integrated Circuits, the Erlangen, Germany-based patent owner of the MP3 sound compression standard, unveiled its Bitstream Watermarking technology at MIDEM. The technology 'helps content providers to keep [...]

IM NETWORKS, a Mountain View, Calif.-based technology company formerly known as SonicBox, has formed an alliance with electronics manufacturer Philips to offer streamed broadband radio services. Elliot Solomon, director of [...]

TWO SWEDISH PUBLISHING VETERANS joined forces to unveil during MIDEM a new company based in London and Stockholm. Kobalt Music is half-owned by Torbjorn Sten and Johan Ekelund, chairman and [...]

CANADIAN RIGHTS' BODY SOCAN and the Canadian Recording Industry Assn. are jointly launching the country's first anti-piracy campaign aimed at online music users, it was announced during the MidemNet conference [...]

RUSSIAN LAWYER Igor Pozhitkov has been appointed by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) as its Moscow-based regional director for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. He [...]

MUSICGENOME unveiled Jan. 23 at MIDEM a technology that recognizes patterns in music and offers corresponding recommendations. The Musical Matchmaking software is to he included on the Web site and [...]

CRAIG DAVID HAS ADDED another two categories to his nominations in the U.K. record industry's Brit 2001 Awards, set to take place Feb. 26 at London's Earls Court arena. In [...]

AUDIOSOFT, a French copyright management company, has launched an Internet airplay-tracking service that aims to provide detailed information about music played on the Internet. The service, based on the Audiosoft [...]

HMV MEDIA GROUP PLC, the U.K. retailer, reports total sales growth of 13.2% during the Christmas trading period. Comparable-store sales were up 8.2% in the five weeks that ended Jan. [...]

EUROPEAN RETAIL GROUP Kingfisher, which owns Woolworth, the U.K.'s largest music retailer, is on target to split its general merchandise business from the do-it-yourself and electrical sector in second-quarter 200l. [...]

PAN-EUROPEAN MECHANICAL RIGHTS BODY BIEM and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) have issued updated copyright guidelines to approximately 750 CD production plants worldwide in a document titled [...]

BRITISH MUSIC MAGAZINE MELODY MAKER, which began publishing weekly in 1926, is folding after its Dec. 15 issue. Mike Soutar, managing director of parent group IPC Music & Sport, said [...]

U.K. INTERNET GROUP On Demand Distribution plc (OD2) has linked with edel music to provide digital distribution and online retail services for the German label group's catalog. Under the agreement, [...]

STOCKHOLM--International music and television industries converged Nov. 16 here for the annual MTV Europe Music Awards gala. But despite its Scandinavian setting and a string of performances from British acts, [...]

PLAYLOUDER, an independent U.K. online music company, has inked a strategic alliance for European digital distribution of its catalog through British company On Demand Distribution (OD2). Under the deal, OD2 [...]

NIGEL ELDERTON, European VP of indie publisher peermusic, has been elected deputy chairman of the U.K.'s Performing Right Society (PRS), effective Jan. 1, 2001. Elderton, who has been a PRS [...]

LONDON--U.K. broadcast/public performance collections body Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) revealed plans at its annual general meeting Nov. 9 here to roll out two new online licensing services under the body's [...]

LONDON-International police organization Interpol has passed a resolution recommending action on crimes against intellectual property, particularly in the music field. The body says in a statement that the global $4.1 [...]

Amsterdam Meet Addresses Dance Music's Gains, Challenges AMSTERDAM--Despite the apparent worldwide resurgence of guitar-driven rock, dance music has been making major inroads into the U.S. market, and this year's Amsterdam [...]

LONDON -- European recorded music unit sales improved by 6% in the first half of 2000 compared with the same period last year. Bolstered by strong growth in Germany (5%) […]