CTS closes in on See, EMI up for grabs

Music Week reports that CTS Eventim is seemingly the favourite to buy the UK's See Tickets from current owners, Dutch investment firm Parcom Capital. See Tickets originally span out of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful company, and sells tickets to West End shows as well as a plethora of music and sporting events, including the Glastonbury Festival. an according to Dow Jones, the next round of bidding for EMI is expected to take place next week and owner Citigroup has invited a number of parties to submit second bids after the Labour Day Weekend in the US, initial bids having been made at the start of last month. It is thought that existing music companies Warner Music, Universal Music and BMG are all still in the running. Whilst Citigroup wanted just ‘one’ sale (as does current CEO Roger Faxon), it's thought that bids for both EMI in its entirety and the major's constituent parts are both being considered

US festival accused of unregistered investment sales

The organisers of an Orange County weekend music festival in Irvine may have run foul of state law with an unusual financing scheme by attempting to sign up investors using “boiler-room” style phone calls. Billed as a “new music experience in Orange County”, the two-day Playgound Festival is planned to feature hip-hop and rock acts at Hidden Valley, a grassy area adjacent to Verizon Amphitheater. Rapper the Game and rock bands the Bravery and Panic! are currently billed as headliners according to Orange County Register, However, it seems that sales teams from promoters Elevated Sound Productions having been cold calling local residents offering exceptional returns from investments in the Festival. Steve Blasko, an ESP managing partner, denied that the company made unsolicited calls to investors. He told the Orange County Register that the company only contacted people who had previously expressed interest through the company’s website. If anyone got an unsolicited call to invest, Blasko said, it was because “wires were crossed somewhere.” Investigations by the Register say that one salesman compared the newly established Playground Festival with long-established Coachella Festival and the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas and that another pressuried an undercover reporter to make an immediate investment.



http://www.ocregister.com/news/calls-314780-music-invest.html

Spotify profit due?

Spotify is due to report a profit when it publishes its 2010 results later this year. The online streaming service with 1.9 million paying users and 6 million free users in the US and Europe turned over an estimated E59 million and paid out E45 million to record labels. No details are known about music publisher payments, but with some E10 million spent on marketing and business overheads, a profit of E5 million could be achieved, against a loss of around E20 million last year on turnover of just E13 million in 2009. Spotify is now looking to shift users from the now restricted free service to paid for subscription services.