Posted: 16 Dec 2010 06:24 PM PST

Esther Bintliff, 2:24, Friday 17 December 2010

Royalties from the release of remastered Beatles albums helped lift full-year revenues at Chrysalis (Berlin: 5CY.BE - news) , the UK music publisher that is due to be acquired by BMG, its German rival.

However, in its last full year as an independent publisher, Chrysalis remained in the red due to amortisation and restructuring costs.

Last month, BMG, the fast-growing joint venture between Bertelsmann, the German media company, and KKR (Frankfurt: A1C10P - news) , the US private equity group, said it planned to buy Chrysalis for £107m ($167m).

Chrysalis said it would publish its recommendation to shareholders to approve the cash offer "shortly".

"Since the announcement on November (Berlin: NBXB.BE - news) 26 that Chrysalis is to be acquired by BMG, I have been filled with conflicting emotions," said Chris Wright, founder and chairman of Chrysalis. "But, above all, it is with great excitement that Chrysalis will form part of BMG's vision."

In the year to September 30, group revenue rose 11 per cent to £69.8m, up from £62.9m in 2009.

The rise was mainly due to Chrysalis' £11m acquisition of First State Media in April, which generated revenue of £5.3m, and a 28 per cent rise in non-publishing revenue to £4.1m, thanks to strong sales of the digitally remastered Beatles studio albums. Chrysalis owns George Martin's producer royalties for The Beatles catalogue.

Consolidated (Berlin: YO3.BE - news) net publisher's share - an industry measure of revenues that represents the royalties a publisher receives after payments to artists and writers - rose 24.6 per cent to £16.7m, from £13.4m in 2009.

Chrysalis Music's top earners in its publishing business included Blondie and David Bowie, as well as the catalogue of US singer-songwriter Richard Marx, which the company acquired in June 2009.

Adjusted operating profit was £5.3m, up from £3.3m in 2009. However, exceptional costs of £5m - including £2.4m relating to the acquisition of First State Media and £1.5m in amortisation costs - brought statutory operating profit to £305,000.

After net finance costs of £3.9m, Chrysalis recorded a pre-tax loss of £3.7m, narrowed from the £3.8m deficit in 2009.

Net (Berlin: NETK.BE - news) debt rose from £15.8m to £20.4m.

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McCartney thrilled with Beatles iTunes deal

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 05:26 AM PST

Sir Paul McCartney is glad the Beatles' back catalogue is finally available online - because a "whole new generation" can now find inspiration in their music. Skip related content

The Fab Four's albums and singles were made available on the iTunes internet store last month after years of negotiations between bosses at record label EMI and computer giant Apple.

McCartney has always been eager for the material to be available digitally so younger music fans can have access to the songs - and he's delighted with the deal.

He tells the Liverpool Echo newspaper, "I think people thought it was us holding it up, but that was just the record companies. We've always wanted it to go onto iTunes. If that's the way people are listening now, then that's great.

"That's the amazing thing about the Beatles' stuff. When we were in the Beatles we thought our popularity might last 10 years, if that. It lasted even longer than that, and now it's just gone mad. There's a whole new generation out there listening to those songs.

"The other day I was trying to think what it must be like to be a teenager now who likes the Beatles. I suppose it's like me listening to Nat King Cole when I was a kid."

BlueBeat Violated Copyrights by Selling Beatles Tunes

Posted: 14 Dec 2010 06:53 AM PST

A Web site that brazenly sold digital copies of Beatles songs last year has been found guilty of copyright infringement. A California district judge also found BlueBeat guilty of misappropriation, unfair competition, and conversion.

No matter how you try to explain it, "BlueBeat's Web site offered for download, without authorization, the copyrighted recordings, albeit through 'audio-visual displays and simulations,' and ... users downloaded the copyrighted recordings," Judge Josephine Station Tucker wrote in her Wednesday decision.

The case dates back to 2009 when EMI sued BlueBeat after it was discovered that the site was streaming and selling its content, including the Beatles collection, as well as artists like the Beastie Boys, Coldplay, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, and Smashing Pumpkins. At that time, the Beatles collection had not yet been released in a digital format, making the move all the more surprising.

In November 2009, a judge issued a preliminary injunction against BlueBeat, which banned it from directly or indirectly infringing on any content owned by EMI or its record labels pending trial. Wednesday decision from Judge Tucker addressed the larger issues, particularly copyright infringement.

In an objection last year, BlueBeat founder Hank Risan argued last year that he had developed a "psychoacoustic process" that creates sounds that simulate but are different from EMI's copyrighted sound recordings. Essentially, Risan said that the recordings on BlueBeat were his own, even if they sounded exactly like the Beatles.

Judge Tucker didn't buy it. "BlueBeat fails to provide any evidence, however, showing how or why its purported 'simulations' are anything but illicit copies of the copyrighted recordings," she wrote. "Risan's obscure and undefined pseudo-scientific language appears to be a long-winded way of describing 'sampling,' i.e. copying, and fails to provide any concrete evidence of independent creation."

She pointed to testimony from Risan in which he "confirmed that BlueBeat's simulations can only be made using the original songs from the CDs."

The ruling comes about a month after Apple announced that it would finally make the Beatles collection available on iTunes after a lengthy battle with Apple Corps, which owns the rights to the Beatles collection in conjunction with EMI.

The Beatles

Friday, December 17, 2010

“Remastered Beatles royalties aid Chrysalis” plus 2

“Remastered Beatles royalties aid Chrysalis” plus 2

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