IMS Industry Insider

Pete Tong's Essential New Tune

The Darkness That You Fear

The Chemical Brothers

EMI/ Virgin Records

out now

Comment
"This week's Essential New Tune is from The Chemical Brothers. It's their first new music in two years and the single is very much a message of hope for our times as the pandemic continues to dominate daily life around the world. The band are back headlining Creamfields in August and have some massive shows planned for later this year and in 2022. The track is also accompanied by a devastatingly good and original new video."
This week's featured Essential New Tune was featured in last week’s Friday show on BBC Radio 1. Listen again and forward to 24.35 here.

Contact
Label: Sarah Crane, EMI/ Virgin Records
Management: Robert Linney / Nick Dewey / Tony Crean
Publishing: Grace Roberts, BMG
Radio: Christian Nockall, Your Army
Club: Tom Currie, Your Army
TV: Emma Guirao, G Force
Online PR: Anna Meacham & Rohani Coombes, Huxley
Print PR: Robin Turner / Julie Bland
Live: Alex Nightingale

30 Apr 2021

Business

Hasbro announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Entertainment One Music for an aggregate price of $385m in cash. eOne Music will be acquired by entities controlled by Blackstone, which also owns SESAC. (Variety)
Warner Music Group has appointed Anton Partridge as Director of Global Strategy, Electronic Music. (RotD) He has been associated with WMG for the past decade as head of the imprint One More Tune and is also the founder of the ADA Worldwide-distributed, independent house music label, Good Company.
Universal Music Group experienced a 2.2% year-on-year increase in revenue during Q1 2021, as well as a 9.4% boost 'at constant currency and perimeter'. (Variety) Recorded music revenues grew by 10.8%, while physical sales were up 14.8%. Subscriptions and streaming revenues surpassed €1b, a 19.6% rise. Music publishing revenues grew by 6.9%. The cancellation of touring activities had an impact on merchandising and other revenues, which were down 10%.
Sony Music generated about $2.42bn during Q4 of its 2020 fiscal year to 31 March, as heightened streaming revenue offset earnings declines in physical, publishing, and visual media and platform. (Variety) Annual revenue was up 11% to $8.9bn, with operating income up 36% to $1.8bn.
During 2021’s first quarter, Spotify gained 11m monthly active users to reach a total of 356m, including 3m paid subscribers to total 158m. Total revenues were up 16% year-on-year to €2.15bn. It reported an operating profit of €14m for the first quarter of this year, compared to an operating loss of €17m for Q1 2020. The average revenue per premium user was down 7% y-o-y to €4.12. (MusicAlly)

News and Features

Iconic dance imprint FFRR to host weekly ‘Radio 1 Dance Presents…’ show throughout May. (RotD)
VRJAM, Winter Music Conference and EDM.com have joined forces to offer DJs and producers the chance to secure a coveted showcase at the summit's first-ever virtual edition. (EDM)
Live Nation Entertainment has launched a Green Nation Touring initiative to help artists “adopt and scale” sustainable touring practices while developing industry-leading guidance. (AAA)
BLOND:ISH’s Bye Bye Plastic foundation has launched Stay’ge Positive, a sustainability mentorship program to educate artists to use their voice to tackle climate change in the music industry. (XLR8R)
Following a 5,000 person pilot concert in Spain, researchers have found "no sign" of higher levels of infection among people who took part in a large test concert last month and has had no impact on Covid spread. (BBC)

Brand Partnerships

Martin Garrix has signed on as the newest global brand ambassador for fabled audio equipment brand JBL. (EDM)
Monstercat partners with multiplayer arena game Smite for a special edition Battle Pass. (EDM)

Digital

Music analytics and data platform Viberate has teamed up with techno DJ Umek to test the concept of a ‘live event NFT’ by selling the rights to a live performance as a non-fungible token. (IQ)

Live

Pasquale Rotella explains what happened with EDC Las Vegas in AMA. (EDMTunes)
Michigan festival Electric Forest has postponed to 2022. (Billboard)
Nurko, Illenium back-to-back Excision, Subtronics, and more are set to play this year's Bass Canyon festival in Washington. (DA)
London festival GALA has expanded to three days and added Nabihah Iqbal, Cooly G, Joy Orbison and more to the line-up. (RA)
Tomorrowland will host a second virtual festival this July. (Billboard)
Burning Man has cancelled its 2021 event due to the pandemic and plans to return in 2022. (Billboard)
Amnesia to hold an open-air show in partnership with Pyramid and Do Not Sleep, in London at The Drumsheds, on 3 September. The line-up features Ricardo Villalobos, Honey Dijon, Special Request, Mar-T b2b Luca Donzelli, and more. (EDMTunes)

Comment, Opinion and Analysis

A look at how the music industry is dealing with royalties on an increasingly global scale. (Synchtank - Eamonn Forde)
Spotify pushes prices up, but do not expect dramatic effects. (Midia)
Why YouTube is the streaming service to watch. (MusicX - Bas Grasmayer)
Wasserman Music, the Covid diaspora and the changing music agency universe. (Medium - Mark Williamson, Rostr) Using data visualisation to track Covid’s impact on the music talent/booking agency landscape.

Tech

The 10 most influential synths of all time. (Mixmag)
Danish headphone manufacturer AIAIAI has released a limited edition of its TMA-2 headphones made from unsold Ninja Tune vinyl. (RA)
Denon has announced a new DJ media controller, the LC6000 PRIME. (RA)
Focusrite, a maker of music and audio hardware and software products, has acquired Sequential, the American synthesizer manufacturer led by electronic instrument designer Dave Smith. (Sequential)
Native Instruments has teamed up with Timbaland’s sample marketplace Beatclub on a run of custom-designed MIDI keyboards, based on NI’s own M32 controllers. (DJMag)

Beatport

Introducing Beatsource DJ App | Building on the success of Beatport DJ, the advanced music discovery tool will be introduced to the Open Format DJ community. (Beatsource)
Kid Massive discusses the importance of the music production mindset. (Loopcloud)
Introducing Loopcloud 6 – Find the perfect sound faster with AI search technology. (Loopcloud)
DJ Holographic is the Epitome of Detroit Love. (Beatportal)
Beatport x Wave: BEYOND Announcement (Beatport)
Cover Story: FJAAK (Beatportal)
LINK Playlist of the week - Charlotte de Witte (Beatportal)

Clubs

Brighton club Patterns announces reopening party series with Goldie, Martyn, Sicaria Sound and more. (DJMag)
Élia Beach Club, a new Las Vegas dayclub, is scheduled to open in June 2021 under the Virgin Hotels umbrella. (EDM)
Club brand Pacha is taking over the site of the recently-closed Café de Paris in London. The site will host a restaurant, club and cabaret side of the brand, Lío. (DJMag)
Amnesia Ibiza has entered a partnership with Decentral Games nightclub to launch two new virtual dancefloors: Amnesia Hype, a home for livestream events, and Amnesia Experience, a space dedicated to the real-time recreation of Amnesia events. (EDM)

Deals

Mushroom Group’s joint venture with neighbouring rights veteran Susan Cotchin, Good Neighbour Rights, has signed DJ and producer Zedd. (TMN)

Streams & Podcasts

DT740 – BISCITS (DT)
RA.777 Flora Yin-Wong (RA)
Magnetic Mix 146: Patawawa (Magnetic)
Tash LC in The Lab LDN (Mixmag)
Eli & Fur b2b Disciples From LA & London (DJMag)
Jeremy Olander from Vivrant at the Lockdown | Trainyard in Stockholm (DJMag)
Porter Robinson Nurture Live at Secret Sky (PorterRobinson)

Artist and Music Features

The 15 best house tracks of April 2021 (Magnetic)
Renegade Riddims: DJ Cali (DT)
Fresh Kicks 153: Lighght (DJMag)
Breaking Through: Kareem Ali (RA)
Selections: NAAFI (DJMag)
Q&A: Marc Romboy (Attack)
The sound of: Souped Up (DJMag)
Saturday Night Session 048: Chill Out with Armada Music’s CEO Maykel Piron as he discusses his ‘Chill Executive Officer’ series and gives advice to up-and-comers. (DA)
EDC 2021's failure to launch: How a plan to bring 200,000 people to Vegas fell apart. (Billboard)
Sisters With Transistors: inside the fascinating film about electronic music’s forgotten pioneers. (Guardian)
Solid Gold Playaz: The deep house sound of Racine, Wisconsin. (iDJ)
Paul Woolford and the battle against absolutes. (FirstFloor)
What is Jeff Mills up to? (FirstFloor)
17 women shaping African dance and electronic music. (Mixmag)
Porter Robinson: “I felt convinced that I wouldn’t be able to ever make music again” (NME)
Tomorrowland's Austin Kramer on breaking artists worldwide, building community via new radio show. (EDM)
Climate crisis: Huge concerts and nonstop touring mean the music business is in dire need of reform. Performers have begun to lead – but can their industry reshape itself as the world reopens? (Guardian)

Artist News

Chicane has released a new album: Everything We Had To Leave Behind. (DJMag)
Warp Records plans to mark the 25th anniversary of Squarepusher's debut album with a reissue. (RA)
Cheat Codes have announced they are to release their debut album, Hellraiser, Pt.1, on 7 May. (EDM)
A number of rare ‘90s trance tracks will be released on a new compilation from Safe Trip, called 'Planet Love: Early Transmissions 1991-95'. (DJMag)
The KLF’s ‘The White Room’ has been uploaded to streaming services for the first time. (DJMag)
SOPHIE has been remembered in a new tribute by collaborator and friend, A.G. Cook. (DJMag)
Porter Robinson performed tracks from Nurture during his Secret Sky festival set last week. (DJMag)
dBridge and Prequel Tapes join forces for a four-tracker on Midnight Shift. (RA)
Jeff Mills and Developer announce new planetary-themed compilation with Silent Servant, Inigo Kennedy and Benjamin Damage. (RA)
deadmau5 is set to return to Red Rocks this November for Day of the deadmau5. (EDM)
Andy C has announced an all-night headline show at SSE Arena, Wembley on 23 October. (Mixmag)

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