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VIP-BOOKING.COM
PreMIuM ›› VOl. 133 ›› FeBruArY 2011
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Well perhaps you’ll be glad to know he’s back – yes, Shitty the Seagull, or another airborne rat that looks like him- no it’s him. I can tell from the particularly nasty gleam in his eye. There I am just starting to mull over these Musings and there’s a tapping on the widow, of course I leap down the stairs cursing and yelling, “Get off my roof foul creature!” and what does he do, he just stands his ground and stares! I’m sure he’s about to say something, in Gullese of course, then the phone goes, I leap up the stairs grab the phone and run back down, he’s still there! It’s Chris from ILMC, I tell him I’m eye to eye with Shitty who does one of those “Who’s that?” squints, I say (sanity is now disappearing fast!) – “It’s Chris from ILMC”, and I swear Shitty squawks, “Can I come this time, my cousin was on stage with Michal Eavis last year!” “No!” I yell, and looking disgusted he flaps off, doing a quick detour to shit on a pass-ing cat. Then I have to explain all this to Chris, who confirms my (hopefully) tem-porary insanity….Sorry I couldn’t help it, I haven’t had a seagull rant for a while.
Anyway back to the world of the live mu-sic industry and the people and events, which maintain its vibrant nature! We’re now well into 2011 and despite some worrying moments last year everything seems as active as ever. The Conference season kicked off last month with Eu-
rosonic and Midem, and we refer to out-comes from both events in this News, but there are many major events still to come, SXSW will soon pack the streets and bars of Austin Texas, and prior to that many live industry types will be gearing up for their annual visit to London for the ILMC. This 23rd edition, as usual at The Royal Garden Hotel, March 12-14, will consider the ups and downs of 2010, and has instituted a radical change for the opening session on Friday afternoon, previously so ably and humorously presented by Carl Leighton-Pope. The new format, presumably in-spired by a year which indicated that the live market was not as secure in many are-as as we had come to believe, reviews the major stories of the previous year with the help of some of the major players. The cast of the first ‘Have I Got Live News
for You’ will include The Agency Group founder and CEO Neil Warnock, Paul Latham, COO of Live Nation International Music, and Peter Schwenkow, chairman of Deutsche Entertainment AG.
The Festivals are in full swing with an-nouncements of this year’s bills appear-ing in inboxes and on line every day. Glas-tonbury have confirmed Coldplay to play the main Pyramid Stage on Saturday 25 June as one of the three headliners with Beyonce doing the Sunday, and perhaps – U2, do we think to make up the trio? – Exciting isn’t it! The Industry big boys are not holding back in 2011 either, after a more than bumpy year which had many speculating as to whether their next moves may be a little more conservative than previously; Live Nation have been shopping again, seemingly undeterred by being hit with a $22 million bill to set-tle a lawsuit, and saying goodbye to a founding figure. Also AEG are going head to head with Ticketmaster with their new ticketing venture. All is explained in this issue’s Business News
At the other end of the business scale it’s good to see that London’s 100 Club has been extended a life line and will con-tinue to bring live music to London’s Ox-ford St. (see report) Right - I’m off to calm down, and here is the News...
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McGowan’s Musings:
Allan McGowan
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VIP- News - Fe b r u a r y 2 0 1 1
New rates for Concert royalties in GermanyManfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com
In a joint press release the German copy-
right collection society GEMA and the live
music trade organisations bdv and VDKD
have outlined an agreement on new rates
for concert royalties for concerts.
While the minimum rates were reduced
those for concerts with more than 2.000
visitors have been raised significantly. For
the first time GEMA will also charge pro-
moters for income streams such as spon-
sorship and advertisement fees (from sales
for space in concert brochures and festival
newspapers for instance,).
For shows with less than 2.000 visitors, the
2011 royalty is set at 3.5 percent, but this
rate will increase annually, to 4 percent in
2012, 4.5 percent in 2013, before levelling
off in 2014 at 5 percent.
More drastic hikes will apply to concerts
and events ranging from 2.000 to 15.000
persons. In 2011 the rate is 4.20 percent,
rising to 5.20 percent in 2012 to settle at
7.20 percent in 2014.
Promoters of shows attracting more than
15.000 visitors are facing tough times with
escalating fees of 5.65 percent in 2011, 6.65
in 2012 and 7.65 in 2013/2014.
The rate is deducted from all income
gained from ticket sales including VAT, ex-
cept for ticket service fees and ticket sys-
tem fees.
The share of promoters sponsoring and ad-
vertisement income negotiated by GEMA
with the officials from bdv and VDKD is as
follows:
For concerts with less than 2.000 visitors
the rate is set at 0.35 percent on these
revenue streams, from 2.000 up to 15.000
visitors per show this rises to 0.38 percent,
shows with more than 15.000 visitors will
have to pay out 0.42 percent.
Promoters presenting more than 31 shows
a year will qualify for a discount of 14.5
percent, those staging up to 30 shows 10
percent, but there will be no concession
for smaller promoters doing less than 15
shows.
For charity events GEMA will only grant a
discount of 10 percent. But to access this
concession the promoter will have to fulfil
various conditions. These include not pay-
ing fees to the artists, and ensuring that
all donations will only benefit causes con-
cerned with humans in difficulty, which
excludes festivals such as Rheinkultur or
organisations like Amnesty International
or Greenpeace.
These stipulations appear to illustrate the
attitude of those in charge at GEMA and
perhaps those who benefit from GEMA.
Another story that caused something of
a media buzz over the holiday season in
Germany concerned GEMA’s charges to
Kindergartens, on behalf of VG Musikedi-
tion, the copyright collection society for
sheet music publishers, authors and com-
posers. The Society demanded 56 Euros
for the copying of 500 sheets for children’s
songs and 168 Euro for 1500 copies. GEMA
sent out this payment request to a total of
36.000 German Kindergartens. Well, charg-
ing Kindergartens speaks for itself...
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VIP- News - Fe b r u a r y 2 0 1 1
Converse, the shoemaker famous for the
All-Star basketball boot beloved by musi-
cians and audience alike has confirmed a
deal with an ‘absolutely thrilled’ Jeff Hor-
ton the owner of London’s 100 Club to be-
come the iconic venue’s new partner.
As previously reported in VIP-News it
looked as though the Oxford Street mu-
sic venue was to close down as a result of
a massive rise in its running costs. High
level protests and support came from
stars such as Mick Jagger, Liam Gallagher
and Mani from Primal Scream all backing
a campaign to save it, with Sir Paul McCa-
rtney and present and past Rolling Stones
Ronnie Wood and Mick Taylor playing
benefit shows at the Club.
However a sponsor was still required and
Converse decided to step in. In a state-
ment a representative of the Company
said, “We at Converse are very excited
about our new partnership with the leg-
endary 100 Club in London. Converse’s
commitment to being a catalyst for crea-
tivity is at the heart of the brand and we
are dedicated to championing and sup-
porting artists, fans, the music scene, ven-
ues and the experience. Converse and the
100 Club both share a love for music and
this partnership is a great opportunity to
reunite the 100 Club with a generation
who experienced history inside its walls,
as well as introduce it to a new generation
with a vow to bring the best in music to its
legendary stage.”
Converse step in to save 100 ClubAllan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
100 Club
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tallinnmusicweek.ee
24, 25, 26 March 2011
Tallinn Music Week is a showcase festival and a music industry networking event that started out in 2009, a year that was declared the Year of Innovation in Estonia. Having partnered up with Tallinn, European Capital of Culture in 2011, and the country’s very own brain child Skype, it is a music export plat-form for Estonian and the neighboring coun-tries’ talent, as well as a tool to encourage professionalism and growth of our region’s music business. Tallinn Music Week welcomes around 100 international delegates to the fes-tival each year, to build professional contacts with local industry and get acquainted with the local artists and music scene.
At the third edition of Tallinn Music Week in 2011 we will present a lineup of around 100 bands and artists, so it is a perfect time to visit early springtime Tallinn during a weekend full of fantastic music in the best venues for the most demanding tastes: from world music, jazz and contemporary classical to punk, elec-tro, metal and anything in between.
Come and join us in 2011, when Tallinn will be the European Capital of Culture!
Delegates’ registration is open at tallinnmusicweek.ee Contact us: info@tallinnmusicweek.ee
“I thought the level of organization and hospitality Tallinn Music Week provided was superb. Tallinn’s concert venues were great. It was one of the most enjoyable conference showcase events I have been to (and I have been to a few!).” Martin Elbourne (Great Escape, Glastonbury):
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VIP- News - Fe b r u a r y 2 0 1 1
MIDEM:
As we reported in the last issue this
year’s 45th Midem suffered a 4.9% drop
in attendance from 2010 following a
13% on 2009. Organisers Reed- Midem
have responded by confirming that
they will live up to the challenge and
will be around for years to come. They
have also launched a new conference,
Rethink Music, which is set to take
place in Boston, USA between April 25-
May 7 later this year.
However many professionals reported
finding it easier to do business in a less
crowded environment, and rather hope
that things may stay as they are. VIP-
Booking.com for instance had an ex-
tremely good response from their visit
and is looking forward to next year.
To check out the experiences of anoth-
er attending Company, VIP-News spoke
to Oliver Zähringer of CAOZ Promotion
/ Danish Dance Music Export, organiz-
ers of a Danish Dance Music showcase
in Cannes during the event.
Danish Dance Music at Midem:
VIP-News: You have been coming to Midem for quite some time - how many editions have you attended? Have you always done good business in Cannes and how have things changed?
Zähringer: Its my 15th or 16th Midem.
Cannes has always been, and continues
to be a place to meet the key people in
the industry, people with checkbooks
that can make things happen and sign
deals. Though the number of partici-
pants has dropped this is still the case
and the reason that Midem will keep
being of importance for the industry.
One comment though, due to high
prices, expensive registration, Midem
has to be careful not to scare too many
potential visitors away, and should
work with the participants on their
requests instead of outlining how
things should be done. Honestly I see
no point in having a stand at Midem
anymore, they could reduce the whole
conference to the Riviera area and
Conference resultsAllan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
Agent Greg Lowe, formerly with the
Elastic Artists Agency has joined the
London office of The Agency Group,
bringing with him his roster of art-
ists, which includes Girl Talk, Crystal
Fighters, Fujiya & Miyagi, Neon Indi-
an, The Phenomenal Handclap Band
and Zola Jesus, among others.
“I’m delighted that Greg has joined
us here in the U.K. office,” stated
Geoff Meall, director of The Agency
Group. “Greg boasts an impressive
career, having worked in a variety
of areas of the music industry, from
journalism to public relations to the
agency side. His long-standing pas-
sion for the industry and develop-
ing artists make him a perfect addi-
tion to our U.K. team.”
“I’m thrilled to begin a promising
career at The Agency Group and
look forward to the new challenges
ahead of me,” said Greg Lowe. “I’m
confident that the company will of-
fer me and my clients many exciting
opportunities.”
lowe Joins The Agency GroupAllan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
Oliver Zähringer
Greg Lowe
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VIP- News - Fe b r u a r y 2 0 1 1
make it a networking area divided in to
country zones only.
VIP-News: Nothing at Midem is cheap, was this an expensive exercise, who is financ-ing the project and what do you ideally wish to gain from the event? Which venue did you use for this project and what acts did you showcase?
Zähringer: The participating labels are
financed the project, with a 50% co-fund-
ing by the Danish Foreign Ministry’s Ex-
port Council. Without the co-funding this
would not have been possible. The venue
was Le Loft, and we showcased Medina,
Infernal, Outlandish, Kato, Jon, Providers.
There is more info about the showcase at
www.ddme.dk.
VIP-News: It’s no secret that as the music business, particularly the recording sec-tors, and so far, to a lesser extent publish-ing, has been suffering a decline, Midem which has always relied on these sectors has also suffered a drop off in business.You have I’m sure been aware of this, yet you must still think it worthwhile to attend and to invest in a showcase project. Did you do a lot of preparatory work on the showcase in terms of inviting specific delegates to
the event? Do you think that there is still business to be done in Cannes, and to any extent is the reduction in numbers helpful in accessing buyers?
Zähringer: The 3 Danish Showcases (2009,
20110 and 2011) have been unique at MI-
DEM for the genres it represents (elec-
tronic/cross over dance) – why it makes
sense to host such party at Midem there is
no great competition during the evening
programme, unlike WMC and ADE for ex-
ample. It’s a nice way to kick off a new year,
fresh budgets etc… and as mentioned
before, Midem has all key players in the
industry visiting.
VIP-News: Have you had any tangible and confirmed results from this year’s Midem?
Zähringer: We have closed a deal with Edi-
na for the US. We also have interest from a
few other territories not yet closed and a
request for DK artist performances at Mu-
sexpo in LA 1-4 may. Plus we are doing a
DK music export event in Tokyo 5 - 8 May.
south By southwest Announces Yoko Onoas Featured speakerAllan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
This year marks the 25th edition of SXSW,
taking place March 16 - 20, 2011 in Austin,
Texas. Having recently announced Bob
Geldof as a keynote speaker, SXSW has
now also announced Yoko Ono as a very
special featured speaker for the 25th Music
Conference and Festival. She will sit down
with Jody Denberg for a SXSW Interview
on Friday, March 18th.
Most well known of course from her mar-
riage and collaborations with John Len-
non, Yoko Ono’s work dates back to the
Fluxus movement of the 1960s. Recent
projects have included the Imagine Peace
Tower in Iceland and she has had five con-
secutive dance singles charting at #1 on
the top of the Billboard Dance Chart. In
2009, she received Mojo Magazine’s Life-
time Achievement Award, and she assem-
bled a new PLASTIC ONO BAND for her lat-
est album, Between My Head And The Sky,
co-produced with son Sean Lennon, on his
Chimera Music label.
She will also be a special guest performer
at a Chimera Music night, Saturday, March
19 at The Elysium.
This year’s showcase event will again fea-
ture over 1900 acts on stages throughout
downtown Austin. For more information
on every aspect of SXSW visit:
http://sxsw.comYoko Ono
Outlandish at Midem Showcase
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VIP- News - Fe b r u a r y 2 0 1 1
- Official numbers Eurosonic Noorderslag 2011
- Total number of Festival visitors (sold out) 33,000
- Including 3,000 Conference visitors (sold out)
- Nationalities 43
- Artists 292
- Journalists & Media 187
- EBU radio stations 24
- ETEP festivals 58
- International festivals 431
- Number of stages @ Eurosonic 36
- Number of stages @ Noorderslag 10
The first ETEP (European Talent Exchange Program) results for 2011
have been announced: 157 Eurosonic Noorderslag festival acts
were mentioned by the ETEP festivals and the EBU radio stations
who are interested in booking the acts for this year’s festivals. The
Eurosonic Noorderslag acts that were mentioned often are:
James Blake, Junip, Kvelertak, LaBrassBanda, Crystal Fighters, De
Staat, Dry the River, Ben LÓncle Soul, Claire Maguire, ZAZ and
The Black Atlantic.
ETEP is an initiative of the Noorderslag Foundation to stimulate
the circulation of European repertoire on festivals, radio and me-
dia in Europe.
Visit the ETEP website for more information.
Eurosonic Conference photo by Jack Tillmanns
eurosonic Noorderslag – eTePAllan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
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Over the last 28 years the Rheinkultur Fes-
tival has become Germany’s largest free
festival, located on a beautiful site, Bonn’s
‘Rheinaue’ Park on the banks of the Rhein.
In previous years the event has attracted
on average 170.000 visitors with a high of
200.000 in 2007. But the events of last year’s
edition changed everything. Although the
festival is run by a large number of volun-
teers and was one of the first in Germany
to adopt a very strict ‘green policy’, it was
this event that was almost financially ru-
ined due to extreme weather.
VIP-News spoke to Holger Jan Schmidt,
Managing Director of the company behind
the festival, about his experiences solving
serious financial problems and what finally
saved the event.
VIP-News: What actually caused the finan-cial loss of the previous Rheinkultur edi-tion?
Holger Jan Schmidt: Our last edition took
place on July 3rd, the day of the heaviest
thunderstorms of 2010 in our area and
the football quarterfinal final in which
Germany played Argentina. After an ex-
hausting week of building up the festival
in 38 degree Celsius heat the torrential rain
started at midday, the main time at which
our audience travels to the festival. In the
end this we had an attendance of only a
third of what we are used to. Being admis-
sion free we are dependent on the bever-
age and food sales. The result was a loss of
60,000 Euros.
VIP-News: So what finally saved Rheinkul-tur and who are the supporters that you consider helped most to save Rheinkultur?
»That was all very successful, but we had to cancel our charity show due to low
demand, which was a quite negative emotional
experience«
- Holger Jan Schmidt
Schmidt: We organized a huge Retter-
campaign (Retter = saviour). We sold shirts,
received donations, founded a supporters
club, and finally held a big online-com-
petition. That was all very successful, but
we had to cancel our charity show due to
low demand, which was a quite negative
emotional experience. In the end there are
so many people who helped us, it’s not
possible to name them all here, but I’d like
to say thanks to our partners who really
helped us, the fans who bought shirts and
of course all of our team who worked so
hard for the last half year.
VIP-News: As you say the charity concert had to been cancelled due to poor ticket sales. Were you disappointed that the
Rheinkultur ‘fans so obviously let you down?
Schmidt: As I mentioned that was a very
emotional moment. It was all set up to solve
the problem with a big party on one night -
but it didn’t work out. I learned that this is a
problem other ‘public good’ organisations
also experience. People tend to take up
free offers but when it comes to personal
engagement they rely on ‘the others’. An-
other thing is that the fans awareness of our
admission free festival is as a spring event,
and so it wasn’t possible to move them to a
winter show although the advertising was
massive due to our wonderful partners. But
on the other hand many people bought
shirts and took part in our competition in
January - so it worked out in the end.
VIP-News: How did local authorities and politicians help to save the event?
Schmidt: Actually we did this on our own.
The whole campaign was our idea and run
by us with our partners. There would have
been support from the city for the charity
show, but of course this was cancelled in
the end. I should mention however that
the city will not cut our subsidies from 2011
on as was originally planned in the begin-
ning of 2010. But although grateful for that
rheinkultur Festival saved!Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com
Rheinkultur Festival
Holger Jan Schmidt
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I have to say that our festival is such a mas-
sive image-maker for our city, especially
for the younger target group that we feel
worth every cent of these subsidies.
VIP-News: What will be the impact and consequences for the upcoming festival due to last year’s financial loss? What of measures might be necessary to avoid such a financial loss in the future.
Schmidt: Well of course we’ll try to be less
affected by the weather. But to be hon-
est 2010 was pretty much the worst case
we could imagine and this year there’s no
World Cup, is there? We have very good
sponsor deals for an event like this, but
could use one more main sponsor to help
lower the risk for us. That would solve a lot
of problems and we are working very hard
on all of this.
VIP-News: What are your plans and ideas for Rheinkultur 2011?
Schmidt: The festival’s concept is set and
has worked well for many years. We will
stick to the variety of styles and acts, our
environmentally friendly policy and the
free entrance. We all look forward to cel-
ebrating our 30th edition in 2012!
Pollstar AwardsAllan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
Early this month the US live industry magazine Pollstar presented
awards for live music achievements in the States, as well as a cou-
ple of international acknowledgements, mostly it seems going to
the UK, (in bold) the winners were:
- Major Tour Of The Year: Roger Waters
- Most Creative Tour Package: James Taylor / Carole King
- Most Creative Stage Production: Roger Waters
- Best New Touring Artist: Lady Antebellum
- Music Festival Of The Year (Non-Touring):
Coachella Valley Music Festival (Indio, CA)
- International Music Festival Of The Year:
Glastonbury Festival (UK)
- Nightclub Of The Year: Club Nokia (Los Angeles, CA)
- Red Rocks Award For Small Outdoor Venue:
Greek Theatre (Los Angeles, CA)
- Theatre Of The Year: Ryman Auditorium (Nashville, TN)
- Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue:
Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles, CA)
- Arena Of The Year:
Madison Square Garden Arena (New York, NY)
- Best New Major Concert Venue:
Consol Energy Center (Pittsburgh, PA)
- International Theatre Of The Year:
Royal Albert Hall (London, UK)
- International Arena Of The Year: The O2 (London, UK)
- Bill Graham Award For Promoter Of The Year:
Debra Rathwell (AEG Live - Northeast)
- Independent Promoter Of The Year:
Arny Granat & Jerry Mickelson (Jam Productions)
- Nightclub Talent Buyer Of The Year:
Johnny Beach (Bowery Ballroom, NY)
- Talent Buyer Of The Year: Don Sullivan (Jam Productions)
- Independent Booking Agency Of The Year:
Monterey International
- Bobby Brooks Award For Agent Of The Year:
Frank Riley (High Road Touring)
- Third Coast Booking Agent Of The Year:
John Huie (Creative Artists Agency)
- Personal Manager Of The Year:
Coran Capshaw (Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Tim Mcgraw)
- Facility Executive Of The Year:
Rena Wasserman (Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA)
- Road Warrior Of The Year:
Jake Berry (U2, Walking With Dinosaurs)
- UK Booking Agent Of The Year:
Emma Banks (Creative Artists Agency)
- International Promoter Of The Year:
Michael Chugg (Chugg Entertainment)
- Lighting Company Of The Year: Upstaging
- Sound Company Of The Year: Clair
- Staging Or Equipment Company Of The Year:
All Access Staging & Productions
- Transportation Company Of The Year: Rock-It-Cargo
- Video Company Of The Year: MootvEmma Banks won best UK agent award
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A new ticketing company will launch in the UK next month ris-
ing from the grave of the Seatem Group, which quietly went into
receivership last year.
Ingresso has bought various of the assets of the old Seatem Group,
including TicketSwitch, Keith Prowse Tickets, Applause and First Call,
and is being spearheaded by Seatem’s founder and former CEO Paul
Burns. Also playing a key role in the new company is Nick Blackburn,
a former Ticketmaster executive and the founder of See Tickets.
It is thought it is the TicketSwitch system that will be at the heart of
the new company, which, according to a statement from Ingresso,
“empowers producers, promoters and ticket vendors to increase
their sales revenues by facilitating low cost access to a vast array
of previously untapped channels and customers”. Whatever that
means.
According to The Stage, the system allows multiple agents to have
live access to one central box office, and would make it easier for
third parties, such as travel agents and airlines, to sell tickets to
theatre and music shows.
They quote Blackburn as saying: “I have sought to bring inno-
vative solutions and high service levels to the market. I believe
that, with the increasing importance of electronic sales and dis-
tribution in the event ticketing market, TicketSwitch will offer a
hugely compelling service to providers and distributors reach-
ing previously unavailable sales channels, which will increase
their sales and lower their costs”.
New uK Ticketing Firm To launch Next MonthAllan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
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The following two items both deal with
looking at the future for the industry; the
Ten in Ten project initiated by Music Sup-
ported Here, reminded me of a project
which I worked on with the Mama event
in Paris last year called Muzik 2025 which
invited people from various disciplines
connected with music to write a scenario
of how they thought society and the mu-
sic industry would operate in 2025. I was
particularly taken by academic Simon
Frith’s very humorous, but possibly accu-
rate scenario, so this seemed a good time
to make it available to a wider audience. I
wonder how the Ten in Ten poll responses
will compare with Simon’s take on things,
I look forward to reading them and urge
you all to contribute your ideas to the poll.
Music supported Here launches Poll of Industry Future:
Music community Music Supported Here
has announced a poll that will pose ten
questions to industry professionals about
the future of their sector, asking those who
are polled to predict where the business
might be in ten years time. Results of the
poll will be announced at an event at The
Roundhouse on 18 Mar, where a live panel
will also discuss the questions posed and
the results off the poll.
Introducing the concept, Horace Trubridge,
Assistant General Secretary of the Musi-
cians’ Union, one of the body’s that backs
MSH, said yesterday: “Although we can
guess, none of us know what the next ten
years will do to the music industry - that’s
why Music Supported Here will be launch-
ing Ten In Ten. The concept is simple. Ten
questions that will be answered by experts
from the music industry - musicians, fans,
managers, labels etc - to give an overall pic-
ture of what we think is going to happen”.
He added: “Will illegal downloading be-
come less of a problem? Will recording
contracts be fairer? Will there be less new
talent emerging? None of us can really be
sure of what 2021 holds for the music in-
dustry, but we think that the opinions of
thousands of people who live and breathe
the music industry will produce some
pretty accurate predictions”.
The ten questions will go online next week
at www.musicsupportedhere.com
Music in 2025 - Simon Frith:
Simon Frith is Tovey Professor of Music at
the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He
is also the Chair of Britain’s Mercury Music
Prize and author of many books on the so-
ciology and aesthetics of music, including
Sound Effects, Art Into Pop (with Howard
Horne) and Performing Rites: On The Value
Of Popular Music. In addition to this work
Professor Frith has also published a large
body of music criticism over the years, some
of it anthologized in Music For Pleasure.
He is currently working on a project about
live music in Britain.
These things we can be absolutely sure of:
People will still express and under-stand themselves through music.
People will still make and listen to music together.
People will still dance to music
People will still try to make money out of music.
Music will still be necessary for pub-lic and private entertainment.
Music that gave pleasure in the past will still give pleasure in the future.
There will be new technological ways of storing, sharing and hearing music that we can’t yet imagine.
These things we can be fairly sure of:
By 2025 there will be no stadium gigs. Eco-
nomically and aesthetically they will long
have been thought pointless. The Rolling
Stones, in their eighties, and U2, in their
seventies, hung on to the model but even
they finally had to give up and stadium
rock wasn’t even the object of nostalgia.
Uncomfortable, poor sight and sound
lines, tedious travel and car park queues—
who would go back to that? As people’s
willingness to pay high prices (and all the
add-ons) for such gigs declined (and state
funding cuts meant a lack of resources for
stadium maintenance), so Live Nation and
Ticket Master went bust.. Meanwhile the
London Dome (with a succession of spon-
sors) and its equivalents in other big cities
continued to flourish—smaller, flexible,
comfortable spaces, in which bands could
settle for a live season and music was only
one of many kinds of entertainment. By
2020 AEG had overtaken Sky as the world’s
biggest entertainment corporation.
By 2025 there will be no record shops, but
then there will be no record companies
either. There will be tracks and albums
but they won’t be funded, published, pro-
moted or distributed in physical form by
companies on the model of EMI, Universal,
etc. Indeed, by 2015, when Lord Sharkey
left UK Music to become Minister of Youth
in the new Labour/Liberal Coalition Gov-
ernment, the BPI had become the least sig-
nificant of the UK’s lobbying bodies while
a joint campaign of the Music Mangers
Forum and the Feature Artists Coalition
had transformed the power structure of
the collecting societies. Everybody in the
business now had to accept what had long
looking Into The FutureAllan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
Simon Frith
Music Supported
14
VIP-BOOKING.COM
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VIP- News - Fe b r u a r y 2 0 1 1
been apparent to outsiders: music could
no longer be treated as an asset. It was,
rather (as it had always been) a service, for
which musicians were paid at the point of
delivery (the campaign was copyright ex-
tension was at last abandoned).
A new kind of large music company
emerged, based not on the ownership
of rights but the packaging of services,
whether musicians for weddings or the
provision of ever more sophisticated ‘apps’
for the various news sorts of personal
computer/communications devices. Such
companies, brought together in one place
the old roles of artist management, music
agency and concert promotion with a new
expertise in music placement and worked
as brokers between musical supply and
demand. A music economy built round
services rather than assets did not need
musicians to sign long-term contracts and
shifted the way consumers thought about
music, not as an object (record, song) to be
possessed but as an experience (of which
music might be only one part) to be en-
joyed. This was worth paying for but not
as a single sort of transaction (buying a
record or a ticket) but as a whole series of
different transactions and the result was
a fragmented rather than a mass market.
The era of the global superstar died with
the Rolling Stones. A musical career was
now more localised, more erratic, more
humble.
In the economy of musical services the
model for what, in the era of the musi-
cal product, were called distribution and
promotion turned out to be the radio and,
more specifically, BBC Radio. The BBC had
established radio services through which
a great variety of music (live and record-
ed) was permanently available on a great
variety of digital outlets and devices over
which the listener had a great deal of con-
trol in terms of how and when they lis-
tened. These services were paid for by a
license fee, which enabled the musicians
involved to be directly rewarded accord-
ing to how much and often their work was
used, and were successful in constructing
musical communities, audiences sharing
tastes determined by musical rather than
commercial judgements. Inspired by the
BBC model, a number of successful music
providing companies followed the pio-
neering but short-lived service, Spotify
(which became over-dependent on its
record company support). It was perhaps
not coincidental that in Britain the Con-
servative/Liberal coalition broke up over
a Conservative plan (which turned out to
have been devised in James Murdoch’s
office) to abolish the license fee and make
British broadcasting entirely commercial.
In the subsequent election (in which the
Conservatives lost a significant number
of votes) veteran activists from the 2010
campaign to save 6 Radio masterminded
a brilliant defence of the BBC in the hal-
lowed name of John Peel and under the
leadership of Lauren Laverne
By 2025 there were three distinctive musi-
cal worlds, which, in business terms, were
organised by different kinds of company
and entrepreneur.
The dance music world, organised around
the provision of sounds and spaces for
dancers, had not much changed since
2010 although there were now clearly dif-
ferent kinds of club (and club sound) for
different age groups with tea and disco
dances for pensioners (by now the 75+
age group) the most profitable.
The talent music world (as in The World’s
Got Talent, still under the autocratic rule of
Britain’s only remaining global celebrity,
Sir Simon Cowell) was organised around
the provision of performers for televi-
sion entertainment shows and songs for
adverts, soundtracks, private pa systems
and shopping malls around the world.
The art music world was organised
around the ideology of music as art—
something uplifting and transcendent, a
source of national pride and an activity
requiring state educational and financial
investment. Such ideology was no lon-
ger applied only to classical or ‘academic’
music. ‘Art’ music included folk, jazz and
rock music and, by now, the album, on the
one hand, and the concert programme,
on the other, were seen as the forms
most appropriate to music as art. State
subsidies were directed accordingly, to
acts, venues and music service compa-
nies alike (a necessary substitute for the
now banned alcohol company support).
By now the only sector of the market for
which music meant little (because they
were not considered a group of listeners
who mattered much) were the young.
15
VIP-BOOKING.COM
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VIP- News - Fe b r u a r y 2 0 1 1
Business NewsManfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com
Music in shares
Research Report on CTS Eventim and
DEAG Predict Growth:
A recent research report by DZ Bank comes
up with new conclusions and findings. Ac-
cording to financial analyst Christoph Bast
the live music sector in Germany will ex-
perience a new boom year. Bast assumes
a correlation between the revenue devel-
opment of CTS and DEAG and consumer
spending. One of his main assumptions is
that the German concert industry in 2011
will benefit from a strong growth in con-
sumer spending since 2001.
Bast furthermore expects that Internet
based ticket sales will continue to grow.
In particular he sees that the growth will
be driven by consumer demands for ‘print
at home’ and mobile ticketing solutions.
Nevertheless he does not expect lower
ticket service charges to drive tough com-
petition on the German ticket market. Bast
rather sees that ticketing portals will also
become information sources for live en-
tertainment. But this assumption might
not necessarily be the case as more and
more festivals and venues institute their
own ticketing via their websites, prompt-
ing consumers to check their favourite fes-
tivals’ or artists’ websites instead of going
to ticket portals first.
CTS as Take Over Candidate:
Another topic raised within the report is
the potential of CTS Eventim as a target for
possible take over bids. The analyst goes
so far as to raise his price target for the CTS
Eventim share from 47 to 58 Euros. While
seeing big corporate media and IT-compa-
nies or even the record industry as poten-
tial buyers, Bast mentions that a purchase
of CTS Eventim will need the approval of
CEO Klaus Peter Schulenburg who is the
biggest shareholder of the company.
For DEAG the report perceives a push for
growth in the Company’s revenue results,
driven by higher consumer spending and
also the collaboration with Sony Music.
But the author of the report also expects
DEAG to expand its international business
into countries like Austria, France and Den-
mark. With this in mind the price target has
been raised from 3.0 to 3.9 Euros.
The CTS Eventim share stands at 46.90
Euro with a market capitalisation of 1.131
billion Euros. The DEAG share price is 2.70
Euro with a market capitalisation of 50.11
million Euros.
Limited chances for Ticketmaster in Ger-
many:
Another interesting topic covered in the
report is the assumption that Ticketmaster
won’t be able to raise its market share sig-
nificantly in Germany against CTS Eventim.
Some of the reasons for this are based on
the findings of the GFK study published by
the trade magazine Musikmarkt and the
industry association bdv, saying that con-
sumers tend to stick with the ticket portals
they trust. Only 14 percent, according to
the survey, care about the price of a ticket.
Another limiting factor for Ticketmaster’s
fortunes is the Live Nation subsidiary’s
much smaller network of box offices in
Germany.
Live Nation – Between Acquisitions and
Win Warning
By the end of January Live Nation had
already reported that it had to lower its
operating income result from $389 down
to $362 million due to a lawsuit against
its subsidiary Ticketmaster and restruc-
turing expenses for its North American
concert business. The settlement of the
class-action lawsuit cost the company
$22.3 million, the restructuring measures
cost another $4.9 million while another $6
million additional expenses resulted from
currency exchange rates. Also at the end
of January Barry Diller, the mastermind
and creator of a stock market financed cor-
porate concert company quit his post as
board member of Live Nation.
At the beginning of February AEG de-
clared that it was to launch its own tick-
eting system. Following this announce-
ment, Live Nation reported the purchase
of Spanish ticketing division ServiCaixa
previously owned by the bank La Caixa.
Both companies announced a long term
agreement that allows Ticketmaster Spain
to continue to use the ATM network of the
bank for the distribution of tickets. While
no figures were revealed regarding this
particular deal, Live Nation completed the
outright purchase of the Front Line Man-
agement group for $116.2 million in cash
and shares.
The former owners Irving Azoff and Madi-
son Square Garden received $56.5 million
and newly issued shares worth about $59.7
million.
In a press release Live Nation CEO Michael
Rapino stated: “By acquiring full ownership
of Front Line, we expect to benefit from
substantial savings related to cash taxes,
the elimination of the dividend and oper-
ating synergies resulting in an increase in
our free cash flow in excess of $20 million
annually. Front Line is a tremendous asset
and a key component of our live entertain-
ment and marketing platform. We look
forward to Irving’s ongoing contributions
as we continue to focus on increasing the
VIP-BOOKING.COM
Anthony B Territory: EuropePeriod: 24th of June to 23rd of July 2011Agency: MagicboxAgent: Pedro PontesPhone: +31 5 915 378 951 E-mail: pedropontes@magicbox.pt Homepage: www.magicbox.pt
ePMdTerritory: EuropePeriod: 27.05 - 31.05.2011Agency: Company EntertainmentAgent: Nawid CompanyPhone: +49 511 562 411E-mail: nc@company-entertainment.deHomepage: www.company-entertainment.de
within TemptationTerritory: WorldwidePeriod: March 2011 and onwardsAgency: X-Ray TouringAgent: Paul BoltonPhone: +44 (0) 20 7749 3500E-mail: paul@xraytouring.comHomepage: www.xraytouring.com
Groove ArmadaTerritory: Europe / Worldwide Period: Worldwide 2011 Agency: WME - William Morris Endeavor Entertainment Agent: Steve Hogan E-mail: SHogan@wmeentertainment.com Homepage: www.groovearmada.com
FirehouseTerritory: EuropePeriod: 1/5/2012 - 31/5/2012Agency: ARM EntertainmentAgent: Dana StrutzPhone: +1 651 483 8754 E-mail: ds@armentertainment.com Homepage: www.firehousemusic.com
Gary lucas & Gods and Monsters ex-guitarist Captain Beefheart (r.i.p.)Territory: EuropePeriod: June - July Agency: Paperclip Agency Agent: Rob Berends Phone: +31 24 323 9322 E-mail: rob@paperclip-agency.com Homepage: www.paperclip-agency.com
16
artist avails ››
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growth potential of our combined
operations.”
Furthermore Azoff is now instated
as chairman of the board at Live Na-
tion, taking over from John Malone
who departed from the board, while
Greg Maffei, Chief Executive Officer
of Liberty Media Corporation joined
the board.
Shortly before these moves Liberty
bought $18.8 million worth of Live
Nation shares and intends to invest
$57.7 million buying a further 5.5
million shares of the company. The
additional purchase has to be ap-
proved by the other stockholders of
Live Nation at the annual meeting.
The Liberty Media Corporation is an
American media company that owns
via various entities TV-channels such
as the shopping channel QVC and
the Discovery Channel. The biggest
shareholder of this conglomerate
is John Malone. Liberty Media now
owns about 20 percent of the share
capital of Live Nation. According to
latest media reports within his new
role at Live Nation Azoff intends to
buy some of these Liberty Media as-
sets. Possible candidates could be
QVC, Sirius XM Radio or the cable
channel Starz.
The share price of Live Nation cur-
rently is at $11.48 with market capi-
talisation of $1.987 billion.
Liberty Media
Michael Rapino
17
VIP-BOOKING.COM
When Peter Freudenthaler and Volker Hin-
kel founded their Fools Garden in the Ger-
man town Pforzheim in 1991, they did not
suspect that their musical plants would
be world-famous a few years later. They
attained first national attention with their
song “Wild Days”, which was used in an ad-
vertising spot for “C&A”.
But the real wild days began with “Lemon
Tree”. The “Lemon Tree from the Black For-
est” has fascinated the whole world since
1995. The song was translated into over 40
languages and achieved a sales quota of
over six million units.
With “Lemon Tree” the band Fools Garden
grew up to be one of the “Big Ones” in the
world wide music business. Since then
Fools Garden has played concerts around
the whole world. In May 2005 they played
their biggest concert until now in Kalingrad
(Russia) in front of over 100.000 spectators.
Fools Garden has always made a point of
leading their career on their own. All Fools
Garden songs are own-written and since
2003 they have also run their own label.
Since 2003 they also have new band mem-
bers on board. The first album of the new
band “(Are You Ready For) The Real Life”
was released in 2005. For many fans and
critics it is the best Fools Garden album
ever.
So far Fools Garden published six albums,
which contain many international radio hits.
While songs like “Wild Days”, “Suzy”, “It Can
Happen”, “Probably” or “Why Did She Go?”
jumped into the German charts, tracks like
“Closer”, “Dreaming” and “Does Anybody
Know?” became popular in Russia.
The 7th album “High Times - The Best Of
Fools Garden” combines these hits. It also
includes the new single “High Time” and a
new version of Lemon Tree.
Fools Garden are:
Peter Freudenthaler - vocals
Volker Hinkel - guitar
Dirk Blümlein - bass
Claus Müller - drums
2011 Fools Garden celebrate their 20-year
jubilee !
Monthly featured artist ››
Origin: GermanyStyle: PopTour period: OpenTerritory: Worldwide
Agency: Suonix GroupName: Rainer FroehlichEmail: rainer.froehlich@suonix.comPhone: +41 61 976 2078
VIP- News - A u g u s t 2 0 0 5
17
VIP- News - Fe b r u a r y 2 0 1 1
FOOls GArdeN
Fools Garden
18
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In this section we offer members of VIP-Booking.com some space to present their company to VIP-News readers. If you would also like to present your company please contact Peter Briggs at pb@vip-booking.com
MeMber presentation ››
In this section we offer members of VIP-Booking.com some space to present their company to VIP-News readers. If you would also like to present your company please contact Peter Briggs at pb@vip-booking.com
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About Our Company
VIP-Booking’s core product is the Internet’s oldest and largest data-base for the European Live Entertainment Industry www.vip-book-ing.com developed as a tool for industry professionals. Since it’s launch in the year 2000, we have consistently offered our subscrib-ers the very best in database services and now boast subscribers in over 30 countries.
Today VIP-Booking offers a range of tools for the industry – inclu-ding VIP-News, VIP-Booking, VIP-Book and VIP-Contract.
Please visit vip-booking.com for further information.
Your comments and suggestions are always appreciated.
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Marc Kirchheim entertainment GmbH & Co. KG
MKE is an internationally-oriented commercial agency for star
acts, personalities and high-carat artistes with a focus on the
event sector, the advertising and industrial sector
Nationally and internationally renowned stars and artistes offer a
wide variety of options in event marketing and other sectors of the
communications industry for image transfer to products and serv-
ices as well as effective media presentations of very different kinds.
Our direct contacts with celebrities and our know-how in event
marketing enable us to offer professional consulting when it
comes to the stars and personalities for your special events - per-
haps the appearance of an artiste, a patron or a guest of honour
at an evening gala, trade fair, product presentation, kick-off func-
tion, company anniversary or incentive event.
We advise you on what stars fit in with your concept and we of-
fer cost-effective celebrity endorsements according to the type of
event, your budget and their availability.
But our work doesn’t stop with negotiating a celebrity appear-
ance. We also offer professional advice in all legal aspects of the
events industry. Examples include contract law, non-performance
or deficient performance of contracts, limited tax liability (known
as non-resident tax), sales tax, artists’ national insurance contribu-
tions, copyright and ancillary copyright / GEMA and GVL [German
performing rights and ancillary copyright associations].
We can, on request, see to all the logistical arrangements, such as
flight and hotel reservations, transfers, security and other services
associated with the usually comprehensive contracts for stars and
artistes.