First, the big questions of the week. How did it get to be Friday so quickly? How can it possibly be May tomorrow? Why was there no thunder last night when it really looked like a big storm was brewing? Answers on a postcard, if you would be so kind. May is CMU's busiest month, not least because we host panels and Q&As at the City Showcase in London, The Great Escape in Brighton and Liverpool Sound City in, well, Liverpool. More on all that on Tuesday (no Daily on Monday, of course, though if you send him good vibes over the internet Andy might do you a Five Day Forecast on the News-Blog). In the meantime, here are the five biggest news stories from the last week in the music business.
 
01: UK record sale stats good, global record sale stats bad. Or at least that's what we learned this week; though that's not really news, the UK's record industry decline has always been modest compared to nearly all other territories. A BPI report revealed Britain's record industry actually experienced a little growth in 2009, as booming digital revenues finally started to offset sliding CD sales. A subsequent global report from IFPI revealed five other markets also saw record sales rise last year, though worldwide sales were down overall, mainly because of poor performance in the all important US and Japanese markets. CMU report | IFPI press release:
 
02: All-new Spotify launched. The big story in the digital music domain was an update of the popular streaming music service, which added a bunch of new functionality to the player. Most people focused on the new social networking facilities, which make it easier to recommend songs and playlists to friends, and to link a Spotify account with a Facebook profile. But probably more important was the new library function that lets you play your MP3 collection through the Spotify player, alongside tracks from the Spotify library, basically rendering the iTunes player redundant.  CMU report | TechDigest on what new Spotify means for iTunes:
 
03: Beyond Oblivion got quite a lot of coverage. This is a new start-up which is proposing a different digital music model whereby a widget scans a user's entire MP3 collection and charges a nominal royalty fee every time a track is played. The fee would be paid by a hardware manufacturer or ISP, who would in turn charge a fixed levy to the actual user. It was newsworthy because of it securing financial backing from News Corp. The idea is this system monetises tracks in a user's MP3 collection which were obtained illegally; but it's flawed because no royalty would be due on any legitimately obtained MP3s, plus it's not clear how the widget would know who to pass a royalty on to. CMU report | FT report
 
04: LiveMaster Competition Commission ruling might be upcoming. Live Nation and Ticketmaster have already merged, of course, after getting the green light from US competition authorities. But the UK Competition Commission was forced to reconsider its original positive decision regards the deal. Quite what would happen if the Commission know blocked the merger isn't clear. That's not likely to happen, but it was speculated this week a final ruling could be released next week. CMU report | Bloomberg report
 
05: Music industry types got political. Billy Bragg had a run in with a BNP candidate in east London, while KT Tunstall announced she would have no further contact with her step father, who is standing as a candidate for the tedious racists. Behind the scenes, various music business entrepreneurs put their name to a letter to The Times warning that a hung parliament that delivered a combined Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition government would be a disaster for entrepreneurialism in the UK. Meanwhile, UK Music and New Deal Of The Mind said they didn't care who formed the next government providing they committed to better support grass roots creative talent. CMU reports | Times report and letter
 
And there you have it. By the next time I do one of these round ups the Big Vote will have happened. Don't forget to exercise your right to vote or, if like me, you will be exercising your right not to vote, make sure you do so by drawing a silly picture on your ballot paper rather than avoiding your polling station altogether and looking like you just don't care. See you on the other side.

Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU