The Competition and Markets Authority, or CMA for short, noted that in the last decade, the music industry had evolved “almost beyond recognition”, not just in the way that listening habits have changed, but also in terms of how profits are now diced up. A report from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport estimates that streaming services take up to 34% of revenues from a stream, the label recouping 55%, and the rest being split between the artist, songwriter, and publisher, as per the Guardian.

This lack of equity for artists is worrisome as they may feel as if they are losing out on their fair share of profits. To quell these worries, the CMA states that  “market study will help us to understand these radical changes and build a view as to whether competition in this sector is working well or whether further action needs to be taken”. It will eventually decide whether or not the government should legislate the UK music market, whether the industry is capable of regulating itself, or whether legal action should be taken against firms who are exploiting artists.

With the livelihoods of British musicians being threatened, 44 Conservative MPs have written a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling for the industry to be legislated, with calls to “fix streaming”. It is in light of these calls that the CMA is investigating streaming services, falling in line with the Conservatives plan to “build back better” from the pandemic and ensure British workers recover from the loss of revenue over 2020.

In a separate investigation, the CMA is looking into Sony’s takeover of AWAL, an artist services company, in a bid worth £312m ($430m), according to Music Business Worldwide. The CMA noted that if the deal had not gone ahead, that AWAL would have grown to be a competitor of Sony, implying that swallowing up competition in lucrative takeover bids is an anti-competitive business practice. Additionally, AWAL provided higher revenues for streams than Sony, as well as allowing greater ownership of artists over their music. It is thus concerning to see music industry giants block like Spotify and Sony to close paths to smaller artists, and only allowing the biggest superstars to see considerable profits.

The band first recorded the cover back in 2016 as a tribute to Jo Cox, the Batley and Spen MP who was tragically killed. The song served as an “honour of her tireless campaigning in support of refugees”. At the time they released a monochrome video featuring singer Beth Gibbons. The clip ends with Cox’s quote from her speech in Parliament: “We have far more in common than which divides us”. You can watch the video below. 
Yesterday, on the 8th of June, Portishead released the track for the first time for streaming in aid of mental health charity, Mind. Revenue from the stream will be generated through Soundcloud new fan-powered royalty program, launched in March.

“When we heard that SoundCloud switched to a fairer user-centric payment system of streaming music, we were happy to make it the only place to stream our unreleased version of ABBA’s ‘SOS’,” said the band’s Geoff Barrow in a statement.  “After recording it years ago for Ben Wheatley’s film High-Rise, we are excited to finally share it with the world, and we are even more excited that all streaming profits are going to a great cause” he added.

Portishead’s version of “S.O.S” became one of the high-profile releases on Soundcloud. “Portishead’s timeless sound has inspired countless artists and given rise to many emerging genres on SoundCloud. We are honored Portishead chose SoundCloud, the only platform where the artist to fan connection is directly rewarded, as the first place to exclusively release their cover of this iconic song” commented Michael Pelczynski, SoundCloud’s head of content and rights holder strategy. 

Hello.https://t.co/GyaCkEXzLj
@SoundCloud @MindCharity pic.twitter.com/T0ixGhdLW4

— Official (@Portisheadinfo) July 8, 2021

The new royalty concept introduced by Soundcloud came at the right time when artists started demanding more clarity and change from streaming companies like Spotify or Apple Music. Typically individual stream royalties don’t always go directly to the artist but to a bigger “pool which is then divvied up based on who has the most listens”. That option works well with major superstars but not with smaller artists. SoundCloud alternative model is set to help Independent artists. 

You can listen to Portishead “S.O.S” and contribute to Mind via SoundCloud here. Portishead and SoundCloud will also donate to Mind to mark the release.

The DJs from Liverpool are expected to launch the label in the summer of 2021, and all that artists have to do is send a SoundCloud link to the email address promoted on Camelphat’s social media. The peculiarity of this label stands in the two artists listening to every demo themselves, without hiring A&Rs or other personnel. It is surely challenging, as they are already experiencing a high volume of entries ‘[…] about 600 so far’ Dave explains to Radio 1 Newsbeat.

The question is: Does it actually work? Has someone been contacted by Camelphat to actually record something together? The answer seems to be yes: ‘We’re working with a few now, one of the singers we ended up using on the album, he’s called Max, his vocals are unbelievable’ Dave continues, ‘And that all came from the email address. So it does work, but you’ve got to have patience.’ All the duo is looking for is a hit, a track that can go big, potentially even bigger than their first hit.

Formed in Liverpool around 2004, the House duo is now based in London. In 2017, they released their iconic track ‘Cola’, placing them in the higher levels of electronic music and giving them the opportunity to hold a hugely popular residency in Ibiza alongside names of the calibre of Fisher and Solardo.  It is still unsure on whether this label will be solely focused on house and techno music, but what is certain is that producers and emerging artists are encouraged to send their tracks because they will surely be heard by the two Liverpool producers.

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A post shared by CAMELPHAT (@camelphatmusic)

Puma Blue – also known as Jacob Allen – is a name you’ll want to get to know in time for the release of his debut album. In Praise of Shadows comes out on January 29^th 2021, by London-based the record label Blue Flowers. The singer-songwriter gained a following on Soundcloud in 2014, and his long-time fans are being rewarded now with an album entirely made up of new music.

In addition to the album announcement, Puma Blue has released its first lead single, ‘Velvet Leaves’. It comes with a video directed by Harvey Pearson, comprised of home movies and snapshots of daily life before an almost-tragedy. It is inspired by Jean Cocteau’s 1950 adaptation of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. For Allen, this bears particular significance; ‘Velvet Leaves’ also functions as the evidence of his experience of processing the near loss of his sister, five years ago. Watch it below.

In a press release, Puma Blue wrote the following, “On the summer of 2015, my sister attempted suicide. It was a lot to process personally and for us as a family. I always wanted to deal with it in song but I never had the language, lyrically or musically, to grapple with such a complex issue. Then last year, I realised I finally had a way of dealing with that.

“I’d like to think it ended up being a hopeful song, about the beauty of the way she got through it, and we all got through it. But there are definitely elements of the song which are just about how dark that veil is”.

In Praise of Shadows follows two previous EPs, Swum Baby and Blood Loss, and 2019’s live album on his own. This includes a curated selection of his previous work, including his really melancholy take on the Disney classic, ‘A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes’ from Cinderella. Puma Blue’s clear talent comes forth, interspersed with moments of intimate chat with the audience; from the recording, you would assume he was playing to a small handful of close friends.

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new song, ‘Velvet Leaves’ out Wednesday pre-save link in bio photography by my angel @olivkh

A post shared by Puma Blue (@pumablue) on Sep 11, 2020 at 9:03am PDT

However you come across him – a bedroom producer, a musician for the digital, voicemail age, or right now, as an established artist with a debut album incoming – what you can really tell about Puma Blue is just how hard he works. Everything is perfectly crafted. Despite being careful to thank the teams around him, Puma Blue is clearly at the helm of his creation. Over the course of his career (so far), he has been the singer, the songwriter and the producer; he has sold out shows in cities all over the world and his current Spotify releases have millions of streams.

Puma Blue’s previous work is chilled and “gritty lo-fi” – and plagued with insomnia. Shore Fire reports that Allen’s early EPs were informed by the fact that “for literally a decade, I just couldn’t sleep.”  This has produced what they went on to call his “hazy, late-night ‘voicemail ballads’.”

In Praise of Shadows, likewise, is shaping up to be a complex album with complicated themes. ‘Velvet Leaves’ offers a sense of how honest the singer is prepared to be. ‘Sheets’, the album’s sixth track, samples the film score of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind by Michael Gondry, which Allen has rewritten as “like a really personal note that you’d leave in the house to be found when you’ve got to head out early.” It feels like the relationship that Allen constructed with a crowd in a single night during on his own. is a mere glimpse of the intimacy that Puma Blue finds in sharing music.

In Praise of Shadows tracklist:

1. Sweet Dreams
2. Cherish (furs)
3. Velvet Leaves
4. Snowflower
5. Already Falling
6. Sheets
7. Olive / Letter To ATL
8. Oil Slick
9. Silk Print
10. Is It Because
11. Opiate
12. Sleeping
13. Bath House
14. Super Soft

Alongside a number of previously unheard cuts, Four Tet (real name Kieran Hebden) unveiled a 127 bpm reworking of fan favourite “Angel Echoes” – the opener from his 2010 album There Is Love In You – as well as “KH my money’s gone”, which features a sample from Erykah Badu’s “On & On”. Each of the tracks is accompanied with artwork created by frequent Four Tet collaborator Jason Evans.

Hebden had also released “LMB KH version”, an edit of the Destiny’s Child song “Lose My Breath”, though the track has since been taken down. “LMB KH version” debuted back in 2018 during Hebden’s BBC 1 Essential Mix, though according to Resident Advisor, an official release was postponed indefinitely due to issues with sample clearance. It’s likely that those same issues have caused the track to be removed.

Hebden has made all the songs available as free downloads. Listen to them via his SoundCloud below:

Earlier this year, Soundcloud were forced to close down two of their offices, and lay off a reported 40% of their entire staff, cutting the workforce from 420 to 250, prompting many to fear for the streaming service’s future in a major way. Soundcloud has been responsible for some of music’s biggest breakthrough acts in recent years, with the likes of Kehlani and Bryson Tiller starting their rise to success on the website.

Now, however, Bloomberg reports that the company is close to selling off huge stakes to stay in business. The investment comes from the New York-based Raine Group, a boutique bank, who have previously had ties to the likes of Vice Media and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings. If all goes well, it is though that it could be a matter of days, rather than weeks, before a deal is announced.

Although no official figure has been mentioned yet, it is thought that it is substantially more than was expected, with Soundcloud reportedly willing to settle for a substantially low offer earlier in the year. It’s remarkable to think that the streaming service was valued at $750 million dollars at it’s peak in 2014, and are looking for a figure of between $100 million (£76 million) and $250 million (£188 million) in order to stay afloat.

Despite it’s often-disastrous financial situation, big companies clearly still see value in Soundcloud, best exemplified in 2016, when Spotify were willing to drop £535 million to take the company over, before talks fell apart.

Soundcloud was launched in Sweden in 2007, and has gone on to attract 175 million users a month. An average of 12 hours of music is uploaded to the site by artists every minute. Twitter is the largest investor in the service. Based in Germany, SoundCloud built its business by allowing artists to upload their music and share it on social media and blogs. The service was last valued at $700 million.

According to BBC News, however, the firm is yet to make a profit as of yet. Meanwhile, Spotify remains the most-used streaming service, but has faced competition from Apple Music and Tidal recently. Spotify has 40 million subscribers, compared to 17 million for Apple Music. Spotify has, however, seen its revenues reach £1.5bn over the past year, but still has failed to make a profit. The platform offers music over the internet for nothing, with advertisements or ad-free for a fixed monthly rate.

The deal would add a large amount of music, including some exclusive content, which is what streaming services are after at the moment to gain new users, Apple Music for example has exclusive deals with Drake and Frank Ocean.

Analyst Mark Mulligan, founder of Midea Research has said in his blog

“Soundcloud has been shopping itself around for some time, while Spotify needs to continue outpacing Apple as it heads towards an initial public offering.”

SoundCloud would add mostly DJ sets and dance music to Spotify, which is what it’s tried to sell to potential subscribers with a SoundCloud Go service. The service remains one of the most recognised sites for new musicians to be able to get their music heard.