IQ53

LIVE MUSIC INTELLIGENCE

Issue 53

An ILMC Publication. May 2014

THE LONG ROAD AHEAD

The Future of Ticketing ILMC 26 REVIEW BARRY DICKINS: 50 YEARS AT THE TOP BACKSTREET BOYS TOUR REPORT ARGENTINA MARKET SPOTLIGHT

Contents IQ Magazine Issue 53

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News 6

In Brief The main headlines over the last two months

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In Depth Key stories from around the live music world

Features 14 ILMC 26 Report Full review of the conference weekend

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28 50 Years at the Top Barry Dickins’ half century in music

46 Ticketing Report 2014 Ian Thomas investigates the digital revolution’s impact on ticketing

58 All In This World Tour Backstreet Boys demonstrate how to leverage valueadded fan packages

66 Argentina Market Report

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How Argentina’s music professionals deal with rollercoaster economics

Comments and Columns 10 Corrupshow Semyon Galperin discusses corruption in the music industry

12 Conserving Energy Jacob Bilabel urges more businesses to go green

13 Worlds collide: live meets broadcast

58 66

Atif Malik reveals how to incorporate filming crews at an already sold-out show

74 Your Shout Your favourite April Fool’s pranks

IQ Magazine May 2014

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Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes Gordon Masson meets the new boss – a wee bit taller than the old boss…

It seems a long time since we packed away the tightropes, boxed the red noses and scooped up the elephant shit at ILMC 26, but it’s been an eventful few weeks. I had a very late-night conversation in the Royal Garden Hotel bar with Rob Hallett on the Sunday regarding whispers that he might not renew his contract with AEG Live.

He was very upbeat about the future, but didn’t give anything away. Lo and behold, the company announces that he has left to pursue other opportunities in live music (see page 9). It’ll be very interesting to see where his career takes him next, and just who AEG Live will call upon to fill his boots.

Talking of reshuffles, ILMC had its own changing of the guard with founder and ringmaster general Martin Hopewell handing over the reins to Greg Parmley.

Rather than being a coup, I like to think of our leadership shift as being a little like St Peters in Rome, where the old Pope has decided he wants to potter around in the Vatican garden a bit more, allowing new blood to deal with the day-to-day conversations with a higher power (the deity being the ILMC membership in this rather pitiful analogy). Anyway, suffice to say that Pope Gregory has some big ideas for both ILMC and IQ and how we serve our members and readership, more of which will become apparent in the months ahead.

When it comes to pleasing the masses, Adam Woods’ probe into the Argentine live music market reveals some optimistic news in a country that is otherwise facing yet another period of economic woes (page 66). The debut of Lollapalooza in Buenos Aires in early April was an astounding success with local promoter Diego Finkelstein reporting crowds of 130,000, which is pretty astonishing given that the festival was held on Tuesday and Wednesday in its first year. With the event

IQ Magazine May 2014

moving to a weekender in 2015, it’ll be fascinating to see how the Lolla partners can grow the brand in year two.

Our annual Ticketing Report (page 46) also looks to the future as Ian Thomas speaks to some of the heavy hitters in the bums-on-seats sector to analyse if the money-collecting part of the business is dealing any better with the digital revolution than the recorded side of the industry did a decade ago.

Elsewhere, in this ILMC 26 review issue of the magazine, I talk to ITB’s Barry Dickins and his family as the great man marks half a century in the agency game (page 28). Having represented some of the greatest artists ever to grace this business of show – many of whom have been clients for decades – Barry can lay claim to one of the most impressive rosters on the planet, and the outpouring of love from around the world to congratulate him on his golden achievement certainly backs that up. The Dickins’ legacy is truly remarkable and our tribute to the family and its paternal head could have filled volumes.

And when it comes to ingenuity, we don’t stop there. No sir. For anyone keen on a lesson in how to properly put together meetand-greets and value-added packages, then Chris Austin’s report on the Backstreet Boys’ All In This World tour (page 58) is a must read, as the way the artists make themselves available to their fans, as well as putting on a spectacularly entertaining show, is nothing short of outstanding.

Right, that’s my supply of superlatives completely exhausted, so I’ll leave you with a recommendation, and that is to take a look at our review of this year’s ILMC on page 14. And for extended coverage and more photos of the panels and various circusrelated shenanigans, check out our online report at ilmc.com. It’s, um, good.

Issue 53 LIVE MUSIC INTELLIGENCE

THE ILMC JOURNAL, May 2014

IQ Magazine 7 Jeffrey’s Place London, NW1 9PP info@iq-mag.net www.iq-mag.net Tel: +44 (0)20 7284 8945 Fax: +44 (0)20 7284 8947

Publisher

ILMC and Suspicious Marketing

Editor

Gordon Masson

Associate Editor Allan McGowan

Marketing & Advertising Manager Terry McNally

Design

Martin Hughes

Sub Editor

Michael Muldoon

Production Assistant Adam Milton

Editorial Assistant Eugenia Durante

Contributors

Christopher Austin, Jacob Bilabel, Semyon Galperin, Atif Malik, Manfred Tari, Ian Thomas, Adam Woods

Editorial Contact

Gordon Masson, gordon@iq-mag.net Tel: +44 (0)20 7284 8945

Advertising Contact

Terry McNally, terry@iq-mag.net Tel: +44 (0)20 7284 8946

To subscribe to IQ Magazine: +44 (0)20 7284 8945 info@iq-mag.net Annual subscription to IQ is £50 (€60) for 6 issues.

5

News Kate Bush

MARCH

Global Citizen Tickets opens a new division in Australia. The company, which was launched in North America last year by Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis and Global Poverty Project CEO Hugh Evans, has already received support from more than 100 Australian acts that have donated concert tickets to reward fans that undertake social change services.

In the UK, Birmingham City Council announces that it is selling the NEC Group, which includes The National Exhibition Centre, LG Arena, National Indoor Arena and The Ticket Factory. The council reportedly needs to raise money to fund historical equal pay settlements with thousands of female employees.

New York-based New Age Media Management says it will start using online currency Bitcoin for transactions such as artist fees, stating that the company could make significant savings on banking costs by dealing in the virtual money.

MTV Australia launches mtvtix.com.au to expand its interests into online ticketing for events and concerts. Digital services company Pinpoint will operate the site, which the broadcaster says will offer fans premium packages of merchandise, hotels, car transfers, MTVhosted after parties and backstage experiences.

Mendip District Council grants Glastonbury Festival a new ten-year licence.

The unopposed application will allow the event to increase the number of staff/performer passes to 63,000 from the current 25,500. However, the number of tickets available to consumers will remain at 135,000.

A drink-driver collides with pedestrians

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In Brief... and other road users during SXSW in Austin, Texas. Four people subsequently die from their injuries, including Steven Craenmehr (35) who was creative director for MassiveMusic in the Netherlands Marek Lieberberg is again named as Germany’s best promoter at the Live Entertainment Awards. The 11 March ceremony in Frankfurt also awards best festival to the Olé Party Sommer in Oberhausen, while other winners include Status Quo/Uriah Heep for best concert hall tour and Die Toten Hosen (best arena tour).

Live Nation Australia and New Zealand launches a family entertainment division, headed by Graham Kennedy, who most recently was senior manager of global touring for The Wiggles.

Concert Productions International cofounder Bill Ballard dies of cancer, aged 67. Alongside Michael Cohl and David Wolinsky, Ballard formed CPI in Toronto in 1973.

Robert Sillerman’s SFX dance empire acquires ticketing platform Flavorus for an undisclosed sum. The company is described as the “go-to ticketing solution” for dance brands such as Electric Daisy Carnival, Hard Events, Pacha NYC and Beta Nightclub.

Kate Bush announces her first headline performances since 1979, with 15 dates at London’s Eventim Apollo starting in August. Despite adding a further seven dates, tickets sell-out within 15 minutes.

CTS Eventim wins a three-year deal to handle ticketing for the prestigious La Scala theatre in Milan, through its Italian business TicketOne.

APRIL

UK ticketing operation See Tickets agrees a deal that will allow consumers to pay for tickets using PayPal. The UK’s Association of Independent Festivals’ ethical ticket exchange, The Ticket Trust, agrees a strategic alliance with Twickets, the free fan-to-fan exchange on Twitter and mobile apps, in a bid to combat profiteering in the secondary market.

Twickets allowed the exchange of more than 100,000 tickets in the past 12 months.

The Agency Group inks a strategic partnership whereby select artists on its roster will access the PledgeMusic platform to create album and touring campaigns.

SFX Entertainment buys TMWRK Management, and The Meta Agency.

TMWRK’s roster includes artists such as Diplo, Flosstradamus and Ariel Rechtshaid, while Meta manages visual and experiential artists.

Legendary production manager Mo Morrison dies in hospital in Los Angeles, where he was receiving treatment for cancer. He was 61. Most recently he was tour director for Lady Gaga, but over the years he worked with the likes of the Grateful Dead, Michael Jackson, Prince and Andrea Bocelli.

Universal Music Group buys UK-based Eagle Rock Entertainment, which specialises in original audio-visual content such as live concert footage, documentaries and films.

Energy giant SSE buys the naming rights for Wembley Arena in a ten-year deal with venue operators AEG. The building will now be known as the SSE Arena, Wembley.

Rockers AC/DC issue a statement to confirm the future of the band after rumours spread about retirement plans.

“After forty years of life dedicated to AC/DC, guitarist and founding member Malcolm Young is taking a break from the band due to ill health.”

Live Nation assumes absolute control of Live Nation Japan by acquiring Japanese promoter Creativeman’s minority stake in the company. Financial details were not disclosed but Frank Takeshita is leaving Creativeman to become the Live Nation Japan managing director.

Ireland’s Oxegen festival is cancelled for 2014 with promoters MCD citing a lack of suitable headline acts and other financial issues.

To subscribe to IQ Magazine: +44 (0)20 7284 8945 info@iq-mag.net Annual subscription to IQ is £50 (€60) for 6 issues.

IQ Magazine May 2014

News

ILmC FOUnDeR Martin Hopewell has handed the reins of the organisation over to long-time conference coconspirator and former IQ Magazine editor, Greg Parmley. The new arrangement was announced during the opening session of ILMC in March, Hopewell’s regular Flight Attendant’s Briefing.

Hopewell, who founded the International Live Music Conference 26 years ago, told delegates that after a quarter century at the helm, he would still be very much involved in the planning of future meetings, but wanted to take more of a back seat.

“I’ve always believed that this should be a young business, and that you should

know when your time is up,” he said. “I also felt it was time for the ILMC to shift gears and maybe move into areas that I’ve not had the energy or time to take on – to be in the hands of someone who still has most of their career in front of them rather than someone like me who has tilted at most of the windmills that he ever wanted to.”

The organisation, which publishes IQ Magazine and also hosts the ILMC Production Meeting, saw over 1,000 delegates attend the 7-9 March event this year and again soldout in advance.

“The live music business has never been so interesting or vibrant as it is currently. As the hub of the international community, ILMC will continue to play a vital role in the future,” Parmley says. “It’s a little too early to talk about plans yet, but with Martin still actively involved and our core team in place, there’s a lot of positive energy and ideas circulating right now. I’m truly excited about what 2015 might bring.”

See page 14 for a review of the ILMC weekend or visit 26.ilmc.com/report for the full rundown.

Success for Wide Days

sCOttIsh COnFeRenCe and showcase event, Wide Days, took significant steps forward in early April, when it recorded increased delegate numbers and strengthened international relations.

The 9-10 April event in Edinburgh cleverly split the conference programme into two tranches with the first ‘Live Is Life’ day concentrating on live music, while day two’s ‘Please Release Me’ schedule looked at the recorded side of the business. That agenda attracted 185 delegates, up 22% on last year’s 150, while the gathering’s artist showcases at venues around the city generated considerable interest, not the least from Flux FM, winner of best radio station worldwide at Musexpo, which broadcasted a one-hour report from Wide Days.

With support from the German consulate, organisers also announced a partnership with Reeperbahn Festival, which will now have a Wide Days-

hosted Scottish showcase during the Hamburg event later this year.

“The partnership with the German consulate played an important role in helping us to develop Wide Days as the event that provides a bridge between Scotland and the international music business,” says Wide Days founder Olaf Furniss.

“I am delighted that it has not only led to interest in our showcasing acts from Scotland, but is also set to lead to booking for Schwefelgelb, our guest act from Berlin. The message is getting out that the calibre of speakers at Wide Days is high, and that it is a place where you can do business.”

Olaf Furniss

Greg Parmley © Guido Karp

New ILMC Head Announced

Eco-minded festival producers descend on We Love Green LaUnCheD wIth an ethos to become ‘an oxygen bubble’ for Paris, award-winning ecological festival We Love Green returns to the French capital this year with an even greater emphasis on sustainability.

The brainchild of agency and promoter We Love Art, and music group because.tv’s promoting division, Corida, the festival this year has also attracted investment from Sony Music, as organisers attempt to boost audience numbers from 8,000 to 10,000 per day over the 31 May-1 June event.

Gaining a reputation as one of the most environmentally

IQ Magazine May 2014

friendly music festivals on the planet, We Love Green was given the Greener Outstanding Award in 2011 and 2012, and last year won the Green Operations Award at the European Festival Awards. As a result, spokesperson Melissa Phulpin tells IQ that festival production people from across the continent will be visiting this year’s gathering to study the latest environmental initiatives in ‘zero impact’ practices.

“We have a lot of discussions about how to make the festival as green as possible and this year the lights on our stages will be powered entirely by solar

energy,” Phulpin says. “Our philosophy involves all of our food and beverage vendors only selling organic products and even concentrating on how to make transport for everyone to and from the park, including production, environmentally friendly – all of our service providers have to sign an ecobehaviour charter, for example.”

Among the solutions implemented to achieve the zero impact goal are: using recycled material for stage sets, furniture and landscaping; biodegradable plates and tableware; food waste composting; only using local vendors and restaurants;

free on-site water fountains; a deposit scheme for glasses; electric transport shuttles; a locker room for bicycles; and even edible flyers!

Held in the Parc de Bagatelle in the heart of the city, the festival also has an enviable line-up for 2014, thanks in no small part to Because Music founder Emmanuel de Buretel’s input and the involvement of Corida. Among the confirmed acts are Foals, Lorde, London Grammar, Cat Power and Little Dragon, while elsewhere, workshops and demonstrations of new eco-responsible practises will run alongside the music programme.

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News

Movers and Shakers

In what seems to be an inhouse joke leaked via Instagram, our blurry photo shows SFX Entertainment founder, Bob Sillerman, disembarking a private jet in a manner more associated with a bad boy rapper than a $1billion company CEO. The timing of the shot going viral was not without its consequences.

SFX shares temporarily plummeted 20% in value following a conference call when Sillerman was asked by analysts (of the Wall Street

variety) “are you still sane?”, before being accused of using accounting adjustments to hide some “shitty deals.” With $170million in revenue and net losses of $119m in 2013, plus SFX‘s continual acquisition strategy, investors will be hoping that Sillerman‘s mind is intact. Indeed, speculation is that the ill-mannered questions put to him on the conference call were made by an opportunist broker successfully trying to manipulate the SFX stock price.

US Sanctions Won’t Affect Hartwall Shows Rumours of Live Nation cancelling planned shows at the Hartwall Areena in Finland following US sanctions against the venue’s Russian owners have been dismissed out of hand.

The Helsinki arena is owned by billionaire Gennady Timchenko and brothers Boris and Arkady Rotenberg, all of whom appeared on a list of 27 individuals drawn up by the US government as being closely tied to President Putin, and subject to sanctions after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March.

The trio’s love of ice hockey reportedly sparked their acquisition of Hartwall, which has a resident team.

That prompted speculation that any concerts at the venue

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involving American artists, including scheduled dates in May for Miley Cyrus and Justin Timberlake, might have to be cancelled because of trading embargoes imposed by US officials.

However, Live Nation president of European concerts, John Reid, played down such fears, stating, “Live Nation shows at the Hartwell Areena will proceed as scheduled.

The Hartwell Areena is not subject to US sanctions.”

Officials in Finland apparently confirmed that sanctions can be applied only to Russian businessmen who own more than 50% of a company, and as the Hartwall owners have smaller stakes, events at the venue are not subject to the US sanctions.

Cashless payment and access control specialist Intellitix has bolstered its team with the appointment of Eric Janssen as chief revenue officer. Based in Toronto, he was previously director of business development at Wrapp.

Former Live Nation Central and Eastern Europe chief Tim Dowdall has established a new company. Dowdall had a oneyear non-compete clause as part of his agreement with Live Nation, but is now working as managing director of Expiali, based in Bulgaria.

Czech Republic-based lighting manufacturer Robe Lighting has appointed Thommy Hall and John McDowell as regional sales managers for the western and central United States, respectively. Las Vegas-based Hall most recently held a similar position at Philips Entertainment, while Austin-based McDowell was western regional sales manager for Creative Stage Lighting.

Italian promoter Aldo Bassi has joined Milan-based promoters Vivo Concerti, bringing to an end his 18-year career at Barley Arts Promotion.

Live Nation Lushington has appointed former tour manager Alan Sullivan to the role of events manager. Sullivan has worked with the likes of Sigur Rós, Moby, The Cure and Depeche Mode, but previously project managed large-scale corporate events.

Katherine Walmsley has left her post as marketing coordinator for the Prolyte Sales UK team.

Finnish music group Fullsteam has promoted chief production manager Heidi Aho to company managing director. Fullsteam’s founder Juha Kyyrö will continue as chairman of the board, while minority stakeholder Johannes Kinnunen will focus on administrative management and public relations in the future. Virpi Immonen will continue as managing director of Fullsteam Management.

Eventbrite Valued at $1billion Eventbrite, which gives event organisers access to self-service ticketing facilities, raised another $60million (€43m) in funding in March.

The new injection of cash – from existing shareholders Tiger Global Management and T. Rowe Price – values the company at more than $1billion (€721m), according to financial publication Fortune.

In a statement, Eventbrite said, “We are fortunate to have such supportive and engaged investors, and after working together and getting more insight into our business and traction, Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price proactively approached us about increasing their investment. As a responsible, global start-up

in hyper-growth, we recognise the importance of having an appropriate level of invested capital to execute our growth strategy and control our destiny. For these reasons, we chose to accept the funding.”

Eventbrite has now raised $200m (€144m) in total over its eight-year history. The company last year sold more than $1bn worth of tickets across 187 countries and claimed to provide ticketing solutions for 60,000 concerts and festivals in 2013. The latest chunk of investment, it says, will be leveraged to help the company’s expansion in Europe, Latin America and Asia, as well as developing new product features for event organisers.

IQ Magazine May 2014

News

In-tents Summer for Veteran Promoters Brighton Gets Proving that the festival scene is not the sole preserve for younger generations, two veteran promoters have chosen to launch their own major events in 2014. Both Marcel Avram and Harvey Goldsmith will debut new events before the end of the summer, defying suggestions that the market is already over saturated.

Goldsmith is promoting a music and food festival, sponsored by retailer John Lewis, entitled On Blackheath, which will see Massive Attack and Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls headline across the 13-14 September weekend on London’s Blackheath Common.

The 15,000-capacity event will also have a second stage, curated on the Saturday by Gilles Peterson, while Heavenly Recordings take over Sunday’s programming duties.

Avram will arguably step a little further from his com-

fort zone, however, when he embarks on the first of a series of electronic music events, following a partnership deal last year with Danny Whittle and Mark Netto of IBZ Entertainment to replicate the spirit of Ibiza, globally. Originally given the project name Ibiza Dreams – The Festival, the concept was mooted to launch in five countries this year. Now carrying the official name Isle of Dreams, festivals have been confirmed in Switzerland, Turkey and Israel, with each three-day event featuring local DJ talent alongside international artists.

Isle of Dreams has confirmed Alesso, Avicii, Axwell, Calvin Harris, Fedde Le Grand, Paul Oakenfold, Paul van Dyk, Pete Tong, Sebastian Ingrosso, Sasha, and Steve Aoki. The dates have been set as 5-7 August

Hallett at ILMC this year

Hallett exits AEG Live

Rob Hallett has ended his decade-long relationship with AEG Live, stepping down from his position as the company’s president of international touring.

Whispers about Hallett’s AEG contract situation began circulating at ILMC in March, but when asked then

by IQ about his tenure as AEG’s head of live events, he remained tight-lipped about

IQ Magazine May 2014

future plans.

Hallett founded AEG’s UK and international touring activities in 2005 when he left the London-based Mean Fiddler Music Group. He was apparently persuaded to join AEG Live by its then president Randy Phillips and speculation is rife that he may now become a partner in Global Entertainment, Phillips’ new venture with radio-station

for Sarisu Beach, Turkey; 7-9 August at the Sea of Galilee, Israel; and 8-10 August in Allmend Gunzgen, Switzerland, meaning that organisers have taken traditional festival twinning to the next level using the electronic music genre.

Whittle says, “The whole idea for Isle of Dreams was to present a festival that really spans all the genres of electronic music, from the bigger sounds on the main stage to the more underground cuttingedge sounds of the other arenas. We aim to top this off with not only spectacular locations but also incredible production values. For us to meet someone like Marcel Avram, who had the same vision, was a dream come true and ultimately we aim to make dreams come true for all the fans of electronic music that will attend the events.” owner Ashley Tabor, although that start-up, involving a record label and management, has not, as yet, confirmed any plans for a live music division.

At AEG, Hallett promoted such headline events as 21 nights of Prince at The O2 arena; tours by Bon Jovi, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bieber, Usher and Black Eyed Peas; and festivals such as British Summer Time at Hyde Park and the Capital FM Summertime Ball, which is an event owned by one of Tabor’s companies.

Hallett is also credited with being the man to persuade Leonard Cohen to return to live performance – a feat he once admitted was his proudest achievement.

At press time, Hallett had not responded to IQ. An AEG statement simply said that Hallett, “now feels the time is right to explore other opportunities within the live music entertainment space.”

Set to Rock

thE british seaside city of Brighton is preparing to host the ninth edition of The Great Escape (TGE) festival. Using more than 35 venues, the 8-10 May event will feature over 400 acts, including Wild Beasts, These New Puritans, Kelis and Jon Hopkins.

New for this year’s edition will be a festival hub in partnership with Brighton Spiegeltent at Old Steine Gardens. The hub will be home to three indoor spaces including the official festival bar, the Spiegelpub, which is for TGE wristbandholders only and promises an eclectic daily music programme. TGE director Kat Morris says, “We’re really excited to relocate and extend the festival hub into the Old Steine – it’s a great part of the city, right in the middle of all the venues, which will become the heart of the festival. We’ll be programming music right into the night and we hope it’ll provide an exciting new dynamic for The Great Escape festival-goers and Brighton residents alike.”

The in-conversation conference element of the event will this year feature such discussions as the 50th anniversary of pirate radio; a one-year review on the progress of Arts Council England’s Momentum Music Fund initiative; and a debate, hosted by War Child, that will investigate how best to exploit partnerships between charities and the music community..

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Comment

Corrupshow Semyon Galperin, promoter of Tele-Club in Ekaterinburg, Russia, expands on the problems of corruption that were touched on at ILMC’s Emerging Markets panel…

T

he Emerging Markets panel at ILMC was beautiful, but we didn’t have time to cover even half of the topics we had planned. Which is pretty much understandable considering that 83% of the world’s population lives in those ‘emerging’ markets and most trouble tends to happen there. So I just want to add a couple of things that might interest those that have already ‘emerged’.

Most folks understand that developing countries have huge problems with corruption, but I find that the definition of this seems to be quite different among the nations. Western people

“It’s definitely not that you run into corruption every day. It just happens from time to time. It’s like the weather: sometimes sunny, sometimes snowy, never much you can do about it.” would usually mean lobbying, sponsoring political parties whose ideas agree with sponsor’s financial interests, ie pretty ‘legal’ means of corruption. Or huge affairs like Enron. A direct bribe to a police officer to avoid a DUI charge seems to be a miniscule misdemeanour in comparison. I’ve actually noticed that people can get really enthusiastic arguing about whose homeland has more corruption than their opponent’s.

It probably makes people believe that if they can still cope with corruption this bad – then just imagine how they could progress without this ‘plague’!

Still, think of a country where everything is built on corruption.

Where wheels don’t turn and nothing happens without a bribe or a kickback. That’s not Russia of course! That’s Ukraine under Yanukovych where, my fellow Ukrainian promoters say, 100% of budgets could be stolen. Russia is limited to 30-50%, well, maybe 70% in the construction business. That’s my idea of a topic. Andrei Makarevich, lead singer of 60s Russian rock band, Time Machine, considers 70% a standard kickback rate nowadays and says he knows for sure a case where it was 95%.

Andrei actually wrote this in an open letter to Vladimir Putin.

The President replied that while we should all combat corruption more, we should ask businesses why they pay this much. He didn’t argue with the numbers though…

Well I can give you a rough idea why businesses pay this much. I heard a story about a Western tobacco company that wanted to sponsor events. There are not many markets left

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for them to do it in, but Russia still has a few options. Their brand manager, responsible for contracting, asked for a 50% kickback on a year’s sponsorship agreement involving venue branding and 15 sponsored gigs. So the venue couldn’t stage better bands, which of course undermined the effectiveness of the tobacco company’s marketing campaign. Perhaps, in a way, being better for the health of Russian people, and maybe the brand manager considered his behaviour beneficial for society! The next year he moved to another position and discounted kickback to 30% as a compensation for securing the deal the year before. A year on, the venue believed it had done a perfect job and should be considered a flagship venue for the tobacco company, so they stopped paying back, which led to an immediate cancellation of the contract.

Now, could the venue refuse? Well sure, and it eventually tried to, but there were other people waiting in line. The venue lost their competitive edge by refusing. It gained some honour but who knows about it? – I can’t even mention its name here.

The venue just wanted to stay in business, to bring in fine bands and make kids happy. And I know that quite a few great bands just wouldn’t come to Russia, if not for that tobacco support, even discounted.

Here’s another story. After a really bad fire in Lame Horse (a dance club in Perm) left many people dead or injured, fire department checks took place in clubs throughout Russia. So the fire department inspects a venue and presents paperwork listing seven problems to be resolved. The venue invests in fire security and requests the firemen to check that everything is okay now. They visit, say ‘hmmm’, and then find another 13 issues for them to deal with. The venue struggles hard with those 13 and eventually asks for another check, at which they’re told that the fire department didn’t really expect the venue to resolve those 13 issues, but since it did – here’re 21 more. Obviously, all they wanted from the very beginning was money. The venue was closed for a couple of months.

It’s definitely not that you run into corruption every day. It just happens from time to time. It’s like the weather: sometimes sunny, sometimes snowy, never much you can do about it. And quite a lot of people view corruption as just a means to make people work, because otherwise they’re just not that interested; or as a great thing, because it helps them solve problems. But they forget that most of those problems wouldn’t exist at all if it wasn’t for corruption.

I believe that only cultural exchange, discussion and transparency will enable us to cure our societies from this evil.

IQ Magazine May 2014

Comment

Conserving Energy Founder of the Green Music Initiative, Jacob Bilabel, reports on the recent launch of EE Music (Energy Efficient Music Culture) and urges the music event industry to sign up…

T

he music event industry is booming and that’s a good thing. But what it brings with it might have some kind of a downside. Like every other industry, the music event sector relies on energy to perform.

The production of festivals, concerts and clubbing events is normally energy intense. As things stand today, due to a lack of information on what promoters, venues, agents, managers or production companies can do to help, the potential to save energy and, therefore, save money has stayed largely untapped. When compared to the recorded music industry, there is almost no comprehensive overview of the music event industry and apart from some pioneering activities such as those of Julie’s Bicycle and the Green Music Initiative, the industry’s sustainability performance was hardly ever tackled. As such, when we talk about low hanging fruits in terms of energy efficiency measures, the music event industry is a garden of Eden.

“As things stand today, due to a lack of information on what promoters, venues, agents, managers or production companies can do to help, the potential to save energy and, therefore, save money has stayed largely untapped.”

Trailblazing projects such as the Greener Arena Network or the Green Club Index, the first German national project analysing and comparing energy consumption in music clubs, identified measures that came with no, or low, cost investments, but nevertheless helped participating clubs to reduce their energy consumption by up to 22%. Sometimes, it’s just as easy as that.

And so it comes as no surprise, that for the first time ever, a pan-European network of leading sustainability and energy experts have joined forces to support the music industry in saving energy and reducing its carbon footprint. During the ILMC that took place at the beginning of March, the members of this network kicked off a unique European endeavour: EE Music – Energy Efficient Music Culture is a project composed of nine project partners from seven European countries who work in the fields of music, communication and energy consultancy. Together they will gather and process the information on energy efficiency for this sector that is already available and produce valuable content on

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solutions that help industry professionals to achieve better energy performances.

As part of the project consortium, Julie’s Bicycle from the UK and the Green Music Initiative from Germany will work together for the very first time to organise a spread of knowledge throughout the industry and across Europe. As the only initiatives that have tackled the issue of sustainability in this particular area so far, they have been the trailblazers responding to the challenge to help the music industry to become more sustainable and future-proof. They have accumulated vast experiences from many pilot projects with festivals like Glastonbury or Melt!, and arenas like Wembley Stadium or the Berlin O2-Arena, and shared their experiences of various events like the Amsterdam Dance Event or Eurosonic Noorderslag. Other types of event becoming part of EE Music include Elevate, the annual music festival with a unique combination of political discourse and contemporary art and music in Austria.

For the next two years, EE Music will offer a set of high-profile networking events for the industry; free-ofcharge seminars for festival and venue staff; and will train energy consultants especially for the needs of the music event industry. They will provide a multilingual interactive knowledge base and web portal with an integrated carbon calculator, the EE Tool. This is an online tool tailor-made for the needs of festivals and venues so that they can track energy consumption, identify energy hotspots and support solutions. Furthermore, the web platform will feature general information on energy use in the sector and the measures that can be undertaken. Also specific information will be available on funding schemes for such actions, explaining when they will pay-off economically and how to approach stakeholders or involve the audience.

The project will offer events in 27 European countries and is open to every festival, club and venue that wants to have a better understanding of their energy use and how to efficiently manage their energy performance. To be part of the EE Music project and to get access to all information and invitations to stakeholder events, it takes just one moment to sign-up at www.ee-music.eu.

EE Music is co-funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme of the European Union. http://ee-music.eu http://www.juliesbicycle.com http://2014.elevate.at/home/ http://www.greenmusicinitiative.de

IQ Magazine May 2014

Comment

Worlds collide: live meets broadcast Atif Malik, event manager at Troxy, London, talks about the opportunities and challenges of pulling off a last-minute filming opportunity with a venue already at capacity…

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he excitement is palpable as the background music fades, the lights dim, and the suspense is finally over as the headline act steps out on stage to a roar from the crowd. As players in the live music industry, we all know and thrive on that buzz, and in this digital age, capturing and translating this to audiences at home is a massive opportunity.

With just two weeks prior to London Grammar’s highly anticipated performance at Troxy, with a sold-out crowd of 3,050, the decision was made to use the venue not only for the official tour DVD, but also the live performance of Sights for the music video.

At this late stage, this brought significant logistical challenges, normally accounted for a long time before putting tickets on sale. Firstly, how to incorporate the necessary equipment without impacting on the audience views? Had filming been factored into the original capacity, we would have reduced seats sold to provide adequate space. The upper ground floor in the Grand Hall is ideal for filming equipment and crew, but subsequently, weight loading becomes a consideration with this area at capacity, particularly with additional truss systems.

We worked around this by making the venue available all day before the gig, providing live audience access to the lower ground floor for select crowd shots. Two spiral staircases connecting the circle to the ground floor were closed off during the gig allowing further bird’s eye view shots of the stage and the original 1930s art deco surrounds.

Additional risk assessments were carried out to account for the impact of the extra equipment on audience movement.

For example, a filming track on the upper ground floor would divide the audience, resulting in congestion on either side.

Production values seemed to triple overnight, with enhanced lighting, special effects and backdrops, added to the existing AV, for that extra element of ‘wow’ factor for the Sights shoot. Also to ensure clear faces during crowd shots, and that the experience would translate to film.

We drew on the expertise of our head of AV to make dramatic adjustments to lighting and rigging to account for this additional lighting. He was able to complete this in a matter of days, ensuring that everything would fit.

Crucially, when a last minute video opportunity arises, everyone involved must be willing to go the extra mile to www.troxy.co.uk make it happen.

here was a feeling of optimism throughout most of the panel discussions at ILMC this year. A sense that, while the live music industry faces challenges from many directions, business as a whole, is good. Our entrepreneurial game is seeing its players react to new technology and different business models, with most eyes wide open and looking toward the future.

Judging by the feedback we’ve received, plenty of meetings were had and deals done, so the ILMC has once again performed its job in bringing together the industry’s top players; being a forum for both business and the exchange of information; whilst adding a healthy dose of fun for good measure.

This positivity was also reflected in the number of delegates who attended, having sold out, once again, a week before the conference opened its doors – with more than 1,000 attendees from over 60 countries. The Gala and Sunday Dinners were also at capacity, and all other events drew very healthy numbers. In fact, if you’d tried to get into the bar on Friday after 11pm, you’d have seen positivity on such a level that the stocks of

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painkillers in nearby pharmacies had plummeted

by Saturday morning.

ILMC 26 was a watershed edition for me, personally, as anyone who attended Martin Hopewell’s Flight Attendant’s Briefing will have heard first-hand. With ILMC’s founder stepping back and handing over to me some very big reins indeed (although Martin will still remain actively involved), I hope that the ILMC team and I will fulfil expectations in the years to come.

For me, what makes ILMC unique is that it’s a family gathering. It’s a little bit like Christmas for many – a chance to catch up with the extended circle of uncles, aunts and cousins; celebrate having survived another year; and to eat, drink and be merry. And provided we keep those family values in the forefront of our minds, ILMC will remain the Xmas party so many members want to attend for years to come.

If you attended, thank you. If you didn’t, please ignore that growing sense of envy as you view the following pages. After all, there’s always next year!

Greg Parmley

ILMC26 Report

The Panels THURSDAY 6 MARCH The ILMC Production Meeting (IPM) cknowledging that demand for previous IPM gatherings had outstripped supply, organisers of this year’s production day increased the capacity by 20% to 180 delegates – which again sold out, as people from 35 countries attended the meeting.

With debates covering such topics as training & education; health & safety guidance; improving communication; and best practice & new technology, the IPM conference room witnessed some passionate appeals for better cooperation, as well as some fascinating insights into how businesses around the world are devising more efficient working practices.

Given IPM’s growing importance to the ILMC there is once again a review of the day’s proceedings in the IPM conference report brochure, which you should find inside this copy of IQ. Alternatively, extended reports on both the IPM and ILMC are available at ilmc.com.

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Friday 7 MARCH

Turning to the future of the ILMC, Hopewell informed members that he had decided to step down from running the conference after ILMC 25, and had spent the last year formulating plans to secure the future of the event. This had resulted in handing over the reins of the event to Greg Parmley, who has now assumed control of the conference.

“I’ve always believed that this should be a young business, and that you should know when your time is up, and after 25 years of carrying this thing on my shoulders I wanted to be able to relax a little bit more.” explained Hopewell. “I also felt it was time for a change – for the ILMC to shift gears and maybe move into areas that I’ve not had the energy or time to take on – to be in the hands of someone who still has their career in front of them.”

However, reassuring delegates that he would still be involved in ILMC for many years to come, he added, “My role in the team is not going to change all that much as far as members are concerned, but the responsibility and overall direction is now in the very safe hands of someone I’ve secretly regarded as a natural successor for some years now.”

The Open Forum: A word from the ringmasters Chair: Greg Parmley, ILMC (UK) Guest speakers: Paul Crockford (PCM Management); Geoff Meall (The Agency Group); Tom Miserendino (AEG Europe); John Reid (Live Nation) & Cem Yegül (Pozitif Live).

Flight Attendant’s Briefing Chair: Martin Hopewell, ILMC (UK) aking a spectacular entrance (by ‘apparently’ falling from a hidden tightrope), ILMC founder Martin Hopewell got proceedings under way at the 26th edition of the conference in appropriate fashion as the circus rolled into the Royal Garden Hotel for a weekend of debate, networking and all the usual fun-related extra curricular events.

Revealing that the 1,000-plus delegates that had registered for this year’s meeting were from 61 countries, Hopewell took time to mention some of the conference regulars who were not present and he particularly marked the passing of ILMC members Fritz Rau, Arne Worsøe, Edwin Shirley and Wally Gore.

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he first major panel of the weekend opened with John Reid saying the festival market was in rude health. “The whole business had a great year and we had a good chunk of it,” he said. “Audience satisfaction was better and the weather was nicer to us.”

Asked if there was tension between AEG and Live Nation in the capital, Reid said, “London is the music capital of the world…There has been tension here for 40 years.” Miserendino added: “When it comes to the festivals in London, it’s perhaps a little bit more competitive than either John or I would like.”

Yegül said political issues in Turkey during 2013 had a negative impact on the live music sector. “The uprising started the day after our Rihanna concert and we had to cancel around 20 concerts,” he said. “We lost millions. It was a rough situation and something we had not experienced before.”

This led to a discussion about the Ukraine, with a Ukrainian delegate reporting the situation in Kiev had calmed down but that Orthodox priests had asked promoters to cancel shows until Easter to mourn the dead.

The conversation turned to funding and what happens now labels are not underwriting tour support to the extent they once did. As a former record company executive, Reid asserted, “This room needs the record companies to thrive and survive.

Any Schadenfreude about live now being the biggest part of the value chain is misplaced.”

Paul Crockford suggested, “No one is investing long-term.

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Delegates enjoy the Open Forum session

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AEG’s Tom Miserendino at The Open Forum

From the record company point of view, Barlow said, “We are not as free and easy with tour support as we were in the past, otherwise it can be a bottomless pit.” But Smith was adamant that labels still provide the majority of investment for new acts. “Every artist we sign has written into their contract the level of tour support they can expect. We get about 15-20% of the net live revenues on the back of that, so we obviously want the band to succeed in its live career.”

Challice stressed that part of his job was to help get the artist out of any loan or advance situation with their labels as quickly as possible by getting the touring side of their business right.

Talking about his relationship with agents, Smith revealed, “It’s often the agent who tips off A&R about an act first.” But when asked by Ingham why Because Music had not set up its own agency, de Buretel retorted, “Agents in England know exactly who the best promoters around the world are and who we can partner with to set up a campaign.”

Asked to justify labels’ claim to live income, Smith said, “Merchandise uses images and branding that we create. The expertise and work that labels put in entitles us to a small slice of the band’s net income from touring.”

The Dance Club: Blowing up the balloon [Reid and Miserendino] are fighting over headline acts and this doesn’t help anyone.” Reid rose to the bait. “I am going to disagree,” he asserted. “What we are doing is writing fucking cheques for new acts for tour support – which promoters never used to do. The artist is absolutely at the centre of what we do.

We give the acts more now than we ever have. New acts are getting more than they ever have.”

Crockford, however, wasn’t done. “John [Reid] was working at Warner when they were signing acts short-term and now he’s on the other side of the fence he is reaping the rewards,” he laughed.

The panel ended with a surprise celebration for Australian promoter Michael Chugg, to mark his 50th year in the business.

He was invited onto the stage by Carl Leighton-Pope to watch a video tribute featuring the likes of Robert Plant, Alice Cooper, Neil Finn and Status Quo, and ending with Robbie Williams asking Chugg where his money was, before the air turned a new shade of blue.

On The Record: Fortune sellers Chair: Tim Ingham, Music Week (UK) Guest speakers: Ruth Barlow (Beggars Group); Emmanuel de Buretel (Because Music); Rob Challice (Coda Agency); Daniel Lloyd-Jones (Sony ATV) & Mike Smith (Virgin EMI). ith interests in record labels, music publishing, promoting and venue ownership, French entrepreneur De Buretel was arguably most qualified to talk about cross-industry cooperation and explaining that extensive portfolio, he said, “It’s very difficult to find a label, a publisher, etc, when you sign a new act. I’ve set things up to develop new acts and that’s why I bought Corida, one of the best promoters in France – I’m more liable to give support when I can control the tours.”

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Chair: Steve Hogan, William Morris Endeavour (UK) Guest speakers: Alvaro Covoes (Everything Is New); Niklas Jonsson (Luger); Sinan Ors (The Agency Group); Tom Schroeder (Coda Agency) & Olivier Toth (Rockhal). hair Steve Hogan started the panel by setting in place the strict rule that anyone caught mentioning the phrase ‘EDM’ would have to put £1 into a swear jar. He went on to open the session by asking: “Who is going to be the new Prodigy, Chemical Brothers and Faithless?”

It was felt that the explosion of dance music in the US was both a blessing and curse, with a line of argument running that the acts are spending too long in the US and dance festivals elsewhere are suffering as they cannot attract (or afford) the big-money talent. Coda’s Schroeder disagreed, pointing out that acts he works with, notably Disclosure, are not saturating one market and so that keeps demand fresh.

“You follow the money more in electronic music,” said Luger’s Jonsson, noting that some acts can do two shows a night, which leads to perhaps 300+ shows a year in Europe.

“You have to be careful not to overexpose,” he cautioned.

Covoes added that, “DJs play maybe three times a month in a city. A rock band comes maybe once a year. We need to have the same with electronic acts.”

Jonsson reported the growing problem that dance acts expect the same fee regardless of the venue they are playing, adding that this is changing as the rise of electronic music in the US is making dance agents work with rock agents to create a new strategy. Schroeder added that managers and agents need to put acts in small venues to work on their live shows and they should not be afraid to lose a bit of money.

Schroeder ended by saying this uncertainty about tomorrow’s dance headliners should be celebrated rather than feared. “It’s not clear who the next big act will be,” he concluded. “That’s exciting!”

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SATURDAY 8 MARCH The Emerging Markets’ Place: Pulling back the curtain Chairs: Barış Başaran, Pozitif (TU) & Michal Kaščák, Pohoda Festival (SK) Guest speakers: Ilan Elkayam (Bluestone Productions); Semyon Galperin (Tele-Club); Tyler Mervyn (Live Nation, Middle East) & Steve Zapp (ITB). major theme at the emerging markets panel involved politics and international acts’ willingness to visit certain countries as a result. With Ukraine dominating the news, Galperin noted, “We will just lose Kiev for a while. I hope it will return. Nobody expected Putin to occupy Crimea.

We don’t know what will come next.”

Russia and Israel were both discussed from the perspective of boycotts. “[Historically] there are some artists who don’t want to come to Russia for political reasons,” said Galperin.

“These include Radiohead and Tom Waits. Now, probably, the list will be more.”

Zapp talked about acts getting conflicting messages from fans in these controversial markets – some asking them to play as a statement of defiance, while others said such appearances underwrite the governments’ activities. “That freaks out the acts,” he said. “If they do play, the backlash tends to be from a minority, but it tends to be very harsh.”

From an Israeli standpoint, Elkayam cited a late Elvis Costello cancellation, but revealed his wife, Diana Krall, played Tel Aviv a fortnight later. And he highlighted the influence artists can have on fellow performers. “Roger Waters is emailing acts willing to play Israel to tell them to cancel their shows,” he reported.

Beyond politics, the issue of artist fees in emerging markets was a hotly debated area. Zapp admitted it was not uncommon for acts to cancel a confirmed show in a market like Slovakia if they got “a better offer” for a big festival in northern Europe, prompting Kaščák to observe, “The fees are not connected with the economic situation in each country.”

Mervyn concluded that acts should regard emerging markets as a way to build long-term fan bases rather than short-term financial gain. “Acts need to know they can’t get $1million a show,” he said. “Promoters can’t sustain the fees they want and so sometimes they will just pass on the market.”

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Reviews of all the ILMC events, and a huge selection of photographs are online at ilmc.com

The Venue’s Venue: Big tops and little tops Chair: Carl A H Martin, cahm.uk (UK) Guest speakers: Mark Davyd (Music Venue Trust); Jim Digby (Event Safety Alliance); Jim Frayling (Wembley Stadium); Aissata Hartmann (O2 World Hamburg) & Gordon Masson (IQ Magazine).

Q‘s Masson started proceedings with a report encompassing the magazine’s European Arena Report survey results alongside those of the UK’s National Arenas Association (NAA) and the European Arenas Association (EAA), all of which pointed to a stellar time in 2013, with increased audiences, and live music’s importance to the venue business stronger than ever. Elsewhere, Meagan Walker from the Rod Laver Arena in Australia reported that it was a similarly strong environment Down Under during 2013, but that they expected a slower year in 2014 before a return to growth next year.

EAA’s Nuria Goytre said Continental Europe is a bit behind the UK because of lagging economies. She noted, “There is no comedy in southern Europe – that’s a UK and northern Europe thing, so if a specific comedian is not touring one year that can significantly impact the [EAA results] in terms of comedy.”

Hartmann detailed AEG’s environmental work at both O2 World venues in Berlin and Hamburg, and disclosed those programmes had been initiated as cost saving exercises rather than as part of any green agenda. For his part, Digby said that client Linkin Park might be more inclined to include specific venues on their routing, as well as highlighting what those venues are doing to help the environment.

Davyd unveiled plans for the Music Venue Trust in the UK to protect grass-roots music venues in an effort to prevent them disappearing from the circuit – a move applauded by chairman Martin, as well as accountant Ed Grossman who was particularly impressed by the Trust’s agreement with government for a way of avoiding capital gains tax and business rates.

The panel ended late as Robert Fitzpatrick from the Odyssey Arena highlighted an incident around an EDM show where dozens of youngsters were refused entry because they were intoxicated. “The parental care of duty is being forced on to the venue and this is a situation that will have an impact elsewhere in the UK and probably overseas as well,” said Fitzpatrick.

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Ticketing: The futures market Chair: Serge Grimaux, Intellitix (CZ) Guest speakers: Rainer Appel (CTS Eventim); Dean DeWulf (AXS Europe); Andrew Dreskin (Ticketfly); Ian Hogarth (Songkick); Simon Presswell (Ticketmaster UK); Jean Willem Van der Meer (Paylogic) & Renaud Visage (Eventbrite). eWulf opened the panel by saying, “Our mobile traffic is what is really growing. Between 15-30% of our sales are via mobile devices.” With new ways to reach the audience and with so many links in the chain, he said that the customer owns all of us. “They are the ones who decide to go to the show and they can decide to go and eat at somewhere outside the venue,” he said.

Songkick’s Hogarth spoke of the need to make discovery and purchasing on mobile easier. “We have done a lot of work

D Başaran makes a point during The Emerging Markets panel

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to make discovery easier, but not enough work to make the transaction easier,” he said, adding that Songkick is the third largest player in the referral of ticket sales to Ticketmaster after Google and Facebook.

With technology opening the market, concern was raised about how consumers will react to service fees in the longterm. Chairman Grimaux called them “a necessary evil” while Dreskin drew on the example of the US and suggested the deals here are upside down.

Dreskin said, “Leveraging the fan as a sales and marketing channel for the promoter is probably the most important thing a ticketing provider can do.” He also noted that ticketing companies in the music sector need to better understand who these social influencers are and reward them accordingly.

Hogarth ended by saying, “The way we see it at Songkick is that there will be three music apps on your phone: there will be an on-demand streaming app like Spotify; there will be a radio app to suggest music, like Pandora; and the really exciting bit for this industry is there will be a third app – and that will be a concert app.” Dreskin jokingly concluded, “Ian forgot to say that the third app is called Songkick – and that we’ll all be in the background!”

Sponsorship: Working with the big cats Chairs: Simon Lewis, Live Nation (UK) & Paul Samuels, AEG Live (UK) Guest speakers: Nuala Donnelly (O2); Sean Kerry (Heineken UK); Matthew Lazarus-Hall (Chugg Entertainment); Noel McHale (MCD); Jeremy Patterson (IF Media Consultancy) & Denzil Thomas (Phar Partnerships). homas underlined the opportunities to grow live music’s share of the sponsorship pot by revealing that sport makes six times the money from brands that music makes. “Everybody likes music, so we have to be smarter about tapping into that,” he said.

According to Heineken’s Kerry, having your brand in people’s hands while they are having a good time is an important priority for sponsors. Patterson said that brands wanted to identify opportunities where they have the ability to engage with fans outside of the event itself; while Donnelly said that, for O2, the question was whether it was responding to a need when it became involved in sponsorship. Kerry also said that times had changed for beer companies and inferior product at events was no longer acceptable, meaning continual investment is required.

Chugg Entertainment’s Lazarus-Hall observed that an increasing trend involved artists having sponsored tours, such as Beyoncé and Pepsi. From the brand’s point of view, Donnelly said the relationship was now a lot more than simply signing a cheque. “We can offer huge value as part of the communication and marketing for a tour. There are many ways for us to add value as a brand rather than a sponsor.”

Co-chair Lewis said there had been a significant increase in fans’ acceptance of sponsors, but Patterson noted this was also because brands had activated experiential initiatives as part of their deals. Fellow chair Samuels warned that finding sponsors cannot be just about a promoter filling budget gaps, and Lewis agreed, adding that “come-and-go” sponsors can

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be extremely damaging.

Thomas added that brand activation evaluation is becoming increasingly important. “We want to know how people felt about a brand before and after an event.” Lewis concluded that artist development and sponsorship will come, “Hand in hand in the next few years. And fans will appreciate the brand that supports their favourite act.”

Festival Forum: Come rain or shine Chair: John Probyn, Live Nation (UK) Guest speakers: John Giddings (Solo Agency); Jim King (AEG Live); Girts Majors (Positivus Festival) & Herman Schueremans (Rock Werchter). ased on questions submitted in advance by delegates, the panel covered a wide range of topics – from crime and policing through to exclusive headliners. Chairman Probyn opened by saying, “Mobile phone crime is becoming a massive problem for us.” This led into a discussion about crime tourism, where organised gangs are targeting the major festivals on mainland Europe, but it was felt they are finding it harder to get to the UK, so its festivals are not quite at their mercy – yet.

This fed into a debate about policing. It was felt smaller festivals are not brave enough to question the rates they have to pay the police and this is compromising their financial survival.

Probyn said, “In the UK we have a problem of consistency in the police force. Especially in the smaller parts of the UK it’s a nightmare.”

RFID technology had a mixed reception on the panel.

“Nobody has proven to me that it works brilliantly,” Giddings said. Probyn added, “The first time I saw RFID, I thought it was great. Then I was told it would cost me half a million quid.

Where’s the return?”

On the issue of headliners, Giddings said boutique festivals can be profitable as they do not have to pay excessive fees for their top-of-the-bill talent. “It’s a real problem when you get to critical mass and are relying on the acts to make it sell out,” said King, of the bigger festivals. “[Artists] want far too much money to play in festivals.”

Social media was something the organisers felt has enormous pros and equally large cons. “It’s not just people who go on Twitter all day to have a go at people,” Giddings said, While Probyn added, “The great thing about social media is that people tell you exactly what they want. And the worst thing about social media is that they tell you exactly what they want.”

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The Festival Forum panel enjoy audience feedback during their session

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Scannell, Lucas and Dabbs at the New Tech panel

Insurance: Honestly, it’s the best policy 2 Chair: Ian Thomas, MGR Weston Kay (UK) Guest speakers: James Dodds (Doodson Broking Group) & Martin Goebbels (Robertson Taylor W&P Longreach). he global insurance market is more competitive than ever, as promoters, venues and agents continuously have to confront bad weather, uprisings and unpredictable accidents. Show cancellation is a big concern to all music professionals, but artists’ contracts are so complex that understanding who has to pay for what has become a real nightmare.

Expert Goebbels pointed out that because nobody wants to take responsibility, the most important thing is to be clear and proactive, especially when it comes to force majeure. “There is no insurance term for force majeure,” he said, “Every contract has its own specifics and it is difficult to understand where the responsibility lies.”

Doodson’s Dodds also insisted on the importance of clarity in contracts, saying, “If the agents understood the benefits that would come from clarity, bands would be more protected and also make more money.”

Both Dodds and Goebbels agreed there is a huge problem of communication between agents, artist management and the artists themselves. “Sometimes brokers have to act as agents but it is not our role,” said Goebbels, “We should try to make agents understand that investing in insurance is as important as investing in advertising.”

Public liability turned out to be an area that is a growing concern among promoters and agents. “Lots of big festivals don’t even have public liability insurance,” Goebbels revealed.

“Until something big happens, no one seems to care. However, box offices won’t release the money until they’re sure that promoters are covered by insurance,” Dodds added.

The panel closed with a reflection on what kind of situations would be considered as a ‘major incident’ and how a broker could help his client to deal with such a difficult situation. “It is fundamental to define what can or can’t be negotiated [from the insurance point of view], but I think we are finally moving towards some kind of resolution,” Dodds said.

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New Technology: The kabinet of wonders Chair: Steve Machin, Stormcrowd (UK) Guest speakers: Denzil Thomas (Phar Partnerships); Andy Cleary (Eskimo); Gene Myers (Fezzee); Serge Grimaux (Intellitix); Brandon Lucas (Carbonhouse); Jim Griffiths (Aermonix); Donal Scannell (Gigstarter) & Chris Dabbs (Streaming Tank). achin raised eyebrows early on by talking about how every tent in a festival field would shortly have its own IP address. “Everything is getting more connected with wearable technology,” Machin said, before showing off his Google Glasses and screening footage shot by a member of Bon Jovi to highlight the video quality.

Thomas spoke about the development of the Samsung Smart Ticket. As part of the software integrated into the ticket, Eskimo founder Cleary said the UK Festival Awards put a social login button on its voting page last year, and 99,000 people signed in with Facebook, which gave them the ability to ‘scrape’ 17.5million profiles.

Myers spoke about the festival apps Fezzee is building, combining real-time line-ups with social sharing and recommendation, augmented reality, and social communication.

“It’s an instant messaging app on steroids,” he said.

Next up, Serge Grimaux from Intellitix talked about the Intellipay cashless payment system. “We’ve done ten cashless events since June last year,” he said. “The minimum increase in uplift we saw was 15% by people using the system to buy food and beverages.”

Lucas from Carbonhouse presented the company’s digital marketing solutions for venues and outlined an app that allows people to order F&B from the comfort of their concert seat.

Next, Griffiths presented his Aermonix app, which allows audiences to listen to the audio from the mixing desk live at a show. He revealed that the technology has been used already at UK festivals Wireless and Barclaycard British Summer Time.

Scannell claimed Gigstarter, “allows your fans to become sales agents for your artists”. He used the example of a David Gray campaign in Ireland, which generated considerable media interest and social media activity as well as defining his tour.

The final presentation came from Dabbs who outlined how Streaming Tank is streaming shows directly into social media. “It used to be that live streaming was just about the quality of the production and the video. Now it is so much more, it is about what is happening before, during, and after the live stream,” he said.

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Thomas, Goebbels and Dodds debate coverage during the insurance session

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Cirque d'ILMC Events

n addition to the serious side of ILMC’s conference agenda, the various social and networking events during our annual gathering allow delegates to get to know each other in more informal settings.

Clockwise from top left: ‘The Hoff’ corners ITB’s Barry Dickins for a special Arthurs Award momento; everyone’s favourite bar team, led by Louis, keep things flowing at Bertie’s Bar; Australian venue gurus Don Elford and Paul Sergeant get the party started at the Montreux Jazz Festival’s Opening Drinks; Adolfo Galli and Pino Saggliocco share some candy floss at Feld’s Ice Cream break; Terry McNally tests the acoustics at SSE Hydro’s Karaoke Freak Show; Chris Prosser congratulates Jeremy Goldsmith on his vicotry (again) at the Texas Hold ‘Em Poker Tournament, hosted by Wembley Stadium.

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Clockwise from right: Bradley Ross, Georg Bucher and Robert Fowler show ILMC stamina by making it to the Grand Finale Closing Drinks reception; Kate Hopewell and Gary Smith flanked by puppeteer and giant puppet at The Big Top Gala Dinner; Embla, the glamour clown, reveals some of the donated goodies at the Nikos Fund Grand Prize Draw; Everything Is New’s Nuno Sousa Pinto and Alvaro Ramos show off the winners’ spoils from the Coupe du Monde table football tournament, in a miniature Wembley Stadium; Aiken Promotions took the Match of the Year Football to Battersea Park where the Rest of the World defeated the UK in a penalty shoot out; ESP Afrika, Hilltop Live Promotions and Gearhouse In2Structures hosted the Wild South African Safari Sunday Dinner, where our intrepid hunters played lion versus zebra game ‘Mbube Mbube’.

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Peter Smidt talks about his role in artist development

SUNDAY 9 MARCH The Breakfast Meeting with Emma Banks Host: Ed Bicknell, Damage Management (US) unday morning got off to a strong start with Ed Bicknell facing Emma Banks during the Breakfast Meeting. With a roster of almost 100 big acts including Arcade Fire, Kraftwerk and Red Hot Chili Peppers, Banks is considered one of the most successful booking agents worldwide.

In two hours of witty tit-for-tat, Banks recounted how she became experienced in the music business, starting from her university background – a degree in food science at Reading University. Surprisingly, it was during that period that she first had connections with the business, organising concerts for a charitable organisation. “We started with little concerts and ended up organising a Stone Roses gig, which sold out,” she recalled.

After a work placement at retailer Marks and Spencer, Banks said she realised that she loved the gigs she was doing more than food. “Looking at the past, I am very proud of my background as a promoter. I know how frustrating relating with agents can be and I have an exact idea of what I don’t want to be as an agent,” she said.

Remembering that it was 1990 when she started sending her CV to record companies, publishers and agencies, she agreed with Bicknell that it hadn’t been easy for a woman to enter a male-oriented industry, but finally she was hired by Wasted Talent’s Ian Flooks, as a booker. “I wanted to be in charge,” she said, “I thought that I could learn from anything, so I did everything that was asked of me.”

This was the start of a brilliant career that transformed her into a key figure at Creative Artists Agency and a reference for bands and promoters in the UK and abroad. “I am never going after an artist for the sake of it,” she said, “I love my job. I never considered being a woman as an obstacle. I just did what I wanted. Eventually, it worked.”

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Artist Development: Games within frontiers Chairs: Juha Kyyrö, Fullsteam (FI) & Rense van Kessel, Friendly Fires (NL) Guest speakers: Paul Crockford (PCM Management); Ellie Gould (Jigsaw Management); Claire Horseman (Coda Agency); Jules de Lattre (The Agency Group); Hannah Overton (Secretly Label Group) & Peter Smidt (Buma Cultuur). his panel looked at the role of the live music business in artist development and where funding – from management, labels and export offices – can get the best results.

A single solution here is not possible, nor is it desirable, delegates heard. Instead, artists need to slowly build a solid team around them, carefully adding new partners as their careers grow. “It depends on the personality of the act and what they need,” said Overton. “Beyond an agent and a manager, the rest comes with time. Sometimes it’s useful to have a publisher involved early to inject some cash and help with sync deals.”

The Agency Group’s De Lattre lauded online PR as a costeffective way to generate interest. “Online PR has come in early in terms of media spend,” he noted. “It could be the first extra member of the team early on.”

Underlining the importance of live performance, Gould suggested acts need to cut their teeth touring, then think about releasing a few online-only singles before even approaching radio. But she cautioned, “You need to be aware how extortionate it is to go out touring. It’s bloody expensive.”

Export offices such as Finland, Australia, Canada and Norway were praised for helping introduce acts to new markets – something the British market could learn from.

“In the UK, we’re missing good funding to help bands work internationally,” observed Gould.

Timing should define when and where money is spent said Crockford, adding, “If you can get your act on early doors at an international festival, it can force your label to do stuff.” Overton, however, argued that festivals are far from a marketing panacea. “If you are an unsigned act and you are going to SXSW, there’s no point,” she stated. “If your timing is right, it will work. Otherwise, it is money down the toilet.”

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The Booking Ring: Juggling acts Chairs: Tom Taaffe, The Agency Group (UK) & Stuart Galbraith, Kilimanjaro Live (UK) Guest speakers: Nathalie Blue (Primary Talent Agency); Matthew Lazarus-Hall (Chugg Entertainment); Jake LeightonPope (CAA); Anna Sjölund (Live Nation Sweden) & Sebastien Vuignier (Takk Productions). aaffe started the panel with the prickly question: “Are there too many agents in the industry?” The answer was unanimously negative, with Primary’s Blue commenting, “The times have changed and today an agent has a lot more to do than in the past. There are more bands and the audience has grown more demanding, so the industry definitely needs more agents.”

Both promoters and agents agreed that loyalty is still a key factor in the relationship between the two categories and in the development of an artist. “As a promoter, I prefer working with a loyal agent because I know we can work well together and achieve more,” said Vuignier. Carl Leighton-Pope intervened, pointing out the importance of finding the right partners and always looking for new ones. “The industry needs new blood;

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Ed Bicknell swaps rock & roll stories with Emma Banks

that’s a key point which we must never forget” he added.

Time was considered a crucial factor in defining how the promoter and agent figures have changed. “Time has become a real trap. We should strive to be entrepreneurial all the time and act much quicker than in the past,” said CAA’s Jake LeightonPope. “Promoting is always a gamble,” added Lazarus-Hall, “Today there is more pressure on agencies and promoters; it all has to happen on the first record. New acts also go international earlier than before.”

When asked what they would change in their job, all the guest speakers agreed that they wouldn’t change much. “This business is fantastic and this is a great time to be involved: there are so many bands and opportunities, it is really exciting,” said Live Nation’s Sjölund.

The panel closed with Galbraith stressing the importance of a more open dialogue between agents and record companies.

“We should collaborate more and do much better. If we didn’t isolate ourselves and try to increase communication, we could definitely achieve more,” he concluded.

The Show Room: The show must go on Chair: Gordon Masson, IQ (UK) Guest speakers: Steven Armstrong (Feld Entertainment); Dörte Griechen (Stage Entertainment Touring Productions); David Pitman (Cirque du Soleil); Bradley Ross (Disneyworld) & Jonathan St-Onge (Cirque Éloize). rmstrong talked about Feld’s Marvel Universe, in which the company is investing $28million, but revealed that the show, as it is designed now, will only fit in the biggest arenas. “It will be like a rock & roll show – 45 trucks, 65 people loading in.” Quizzed by delegates, he admitted, “[The producer] wants it only playing the biggest venues and the biggest cities. It’s his company and his legacy and he wants to go out with a bang.”

Griechen said family show producers have agreements with venues that preclude similar shows from visiting the same arena. “The competition clause is usually two to three months before your run of shows and two to three months after, depending on what the venue agrees,” she said. “There’s lot of competition for discretionary dollars,” Pitman commented.

“The money isn’t necessarily going to another show – it could be an experience like a vacation, for example.”

Revealing Disney’s strategy to keep guests on site, Ross stated, “We now have a Magical Express that picks up people from the airport to take them to their Disney hotel for free – we want you to buy the meal packages, etc, so that you don’t

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leave our property, so we do things to try to keep guests on the property.”

St-Onge highlighted the importance of finding the right partners, as more investment is needed to get the Cirque Éloize name known in new markets. “We also need to be flexible enough to play different kinds of venue, so right now we have a production that we are making bigger so that we can take it on an arena tour, but we need to do that without compromising the quality of the show, so it is a challenge.”

The panellists agreed that slashing prices during the economic downturn was not an option as they did not want to devalue their brands. And explaining yield management’s pivotal role for Cirque du Soleil, Pitman said, “We are not going to put a show on with half a house – there’s got to be a vibe to it in order to enhance the customer experience.”

The Sunday Review: The view from the high wire Chair: Allan McGowan, ILMC (UK) Guest speakers: Chris Carey (Universal Music); Wayne Forte (Entourage Talent); Carel Hoffman (Oppikoppi Festival); John Langford (SSE Hydro); Carl A H Martin (cahm.uk) & Dougie Souness (No Half Measures). alking through the highlights, and lowlights, of this year’s conference, McGowan asked delegates to pinpoint any areas where organisers could improve on the ILMC experience. Most people in the room applauded the conference agenda, with the technology session and ticketing panels singled out as the most interesting for attendees.

Souness suggested the technology panel should move to a bigger room, while the workshops on both social media and CRM & big data, could also be expanded upon next year.

Indeed, Hoffman said a technology room across all three days of the conference might be a good idea, incorporating panel sessions, product demonstrations and workshops.

Wide Days organiser Olaf Furniss congratulated ILMC for attracting such record label hierarchy as Emmanuel de Buretel and Mike Smith, but said efforts to keep those executives at the event to participate in other panels should become a priority.

Eastern European promoter Nick Hobbs observed that some of the panels were perhaps a bit too UK-centric and identifying chairmen and guest speakers from a greater spread of countries would be helpful to prevent debates from drifting toward such narrow discussions.

Overall, however, delegates agreed that the ILMC agenda team had covered most issues in the international industry through the programme of discussions, while the social events, dinners and other activities were also enjoyed by attendees, although the issue of other organisations arranging dinners and events around the ILMC weekend was a source of irritation for some individuals who complained that it meant the chance of randomly bumping into certain contacts was not as likely.

Taking over the final session for his annual ILMC Autopsy, Martin Hopewell again explained the changes at the top of the ILMC organisation, with Greg Parmley stepping forward to take the reins of the event, but stressed to delegates that he was not disappearing and would continue to attend for many years to come.

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ArtHur award winners Liggers’ Favourite Festival:

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Alia Dann Swift, Peter Maloney

Glastonbury

Ben Challis: “Glastonbury 2013 was a truly fabulous festival: The Arctic Monkeys, Mumford and Sons and, of course, the Rolling Stones gave us a Pyramid Stage that will never be forgotten.

And we had so many outstanding performances: Chic with Nile Rogers, Chase & Status, Rudimental, Portishead, Kenny Rogers, the XX… and the Arthur for the Liggers’ Favourite Festival is the icing on the cake. It was an honour to be nominated and an even bigger honour to win – and a personal treat to pick up the award for Michael, Emily and the entire team.”

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The Promoters’ Promoter

Herman Schueremans, Live Nation Belgium “Very pleased and honoured to win the Promoters’ Promoter Award after we won Best Festival with Rock Werchter Festival last year, as it is recognition from colleagues all across the world for the dedicated job we do as passionate promoters. It’s an award for our complete Belgian LN team, which is made up of driven, passionate and creative people. We work as a structured ‘guerrilla’. It makes me realise what lucky people we are in our business as we contribute not only to a young and still-growing music industry, but also to the happiness of millions of people all over the world. Contrary to religion and politics, music unites people all over the globe and we are grateful to be able to contribute to this unique thing every day.”

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Tomorrow’s New Boss

Roel Coppen, Friendly Fire “It’s an honour to win the Tomorrow’s New Boss Arthur Award – it’s great recognition for what we’ve established with our young company in the past years. Here’s to many more years to come, thanks to everyone who voted!”

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The People’s Assistant

Clare Utting, The Agency Group “It was such a surprise to win an Arthur this year – I can only think that 20 years of working with Geoff [Meall] and learning how to be duplicitous and who to be nice to, has finally paid off.”

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Most Professional Professional

Tina Richard, T&S Immigration Services “I was honoured to be nominated and was totally shocked to win the award (did anyone see my chin hit the floor?). I would like to thank everyone that took the time to vote. We’ve got some fantastic clients and it’s a pleasure to work with them.”

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ILMC Medal of Honour

Alia Dann Swift: “It was a great honour to be the co-recipient of the first ever ILMC Medal of Honour, especially in the incomparable company of Peter Maloney who is simply the best colleague I could ever have been blessed with for all these years. The acknowledgment is even more significant coming from the team that I have worked with for so long, and in whose capable hands I am leaving the ILMC. When everyone can manage to keep a secret like that so as not to spoil the surprise, you know they are definitely ready to take the lead.

Onwards and upwards” Peter Maloney: “I was extremely surprised but delighted to receive this medal of honour, particularly in front of such a distinguished audience of live music luminaries. Thanks to Martin for the opportunity and the enormous support over the past 24 years and to Alia for making my job so much easier.

Finally, I wish Greg every success for the future.”

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The ILMC Bottle Award

Barry Dickins, ITB

“I thought that the Bottle Award would go to Chuggi, but when I heard the speech about the winner, it started to sound a bit familiar. And then I realised that it was me. It’s a bit like getting that honourary Oscar at the end of your career, so I guess I have to thank everyone I’ve ever worked with, as well as my family, especially my wife Gill for putting up with me for all these years.”

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Services Above and Beyond

Beat the Street

Ian Massey and Garry Lewis: “It’s always a great honour to receive an award from your industry peers, but to win this Arthur against such strong competition makes this particularly special. So a very big thank you to everyone who voted for us. Thank you all!”

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The Golden Ticket

Ticketmaster

Mark Yovich: “Ticketmaster is very pleased to have again won The Golden Ticket Arthur Award at this year’s Cirque d’ILMC. With the award being chosen by ILMC delegates, it’s a great honour to be recognised among our peers and we thank them for voting for us. Arthur is sitting proudly in our trophy cabinet.”

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First Venue to Come Into Your Head

The O2, London

Second Least Offensive Agent

Rob Challice, Coda Agency

“Very chuffed to have won this award, especially as it was voted for by the live industry. I’m always thankful to have found a career in this business, from hanging around bands to becoming one of the directors at Coda, where I work alongside some very talented individuals. I hope to be able to live up to my new title and not offend too many people over the coming year!”

Emma Bownes (arena programming director): “We are thrilled to win this award and would like to say a huge thank you to all of the promoters, agents and managers for working with us and bringing their shows to The O2. They helped us to achieve another record-breaking year with 195 events in 2013 and we look forward to working with them on securing some great shows for the arena in 2014, and beyond.”

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The Big Top Gala Dinner or the second year running, ILMC held it’s lavish Saturday night gala and award ceremony at The Savoy, and London’s most prestigious hotel did not disappoint. With The Chinese National Circus, Ticketmaster and Karsten Jahnkeb Konzertdirektion hosting, on arrival guests were met by a giant puppet and puppeteer from Aircraft Circus – directing them to the champagne reception.

Once inside the Ballroom, boxes of props and red noses awaited each table, adding to the atmosphere. Dressed in their finery, the great and the good of the live music world enjoyed a five-star, three-course dinner with wine, followed by petit fours given a circus twist, coffees and chocolate.

With Aircraft Circus hula hoop artists both performing and leading an impromptu competition with willing delegates, a lion and lion tamer battling throughout the pop quiz and an amazing acrobalance act (again courtesy of Aircraft Circus), this was no mundane industry dinner. And the Arthur Awards which followed proved the point even further.

ILMC’s regular award host Ben Challis emerged to kick off the awards dressed as a circus ringmaster, but a surprise appearance of a second host – dressed as a fortune teller – proved to be none other than CAA’s Emma Banks. The hilarious Challis and Banks double act presented eight of the awards, until the Promoter’s Promoter gong when the theme tune to Baywatch saw the arrival of seven men on stage, each wearing a David Hasselhoff mask. As Banks removed each mask in turn, the presenter for the award was revealed to be none other than Hasselhoff himself.

“Jesus Christ!” exclaimed Herman Schueremans who picked up the award, and similar shock was registered by ILMC producer Alia Dann Swift and financial guru Peter Maloney. As both stalwarts retire from the organisation, they were honoured with the inaugural ILMC Medals of Honour in recognition for their hard work.

Finally, ILMC founder Martin Hopewell presented the Bottle Award – for outstanding services to the live music world – to ITB’s Barry Dickins, before the majority of guests either made their way back to the Royal Garden Hotel to continue the party, or queued up for a photo with The Hoff.

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Clockwise from top: ‘The Hoff’ makes a surprise appearance at the Arthurs; guests find the props boxes on their tables; Tom ‘The Hips’ Hopewell puts some hula into his hoop; Ben Challis photobombs Alia Dann Swift and Emma Banks; Martin Hopewell sets the questions for the gala dinner music quiz; the beast is finally tamed, allowing guests to eat in safety; the Aircraft Circus puppeteer and puppet welcome guests to The Savoy.

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May 2013 2014 IQ Magazine November

Barry Dickins’ 50th

Talkin’ ‘Bout My

GENERATIONS As a founding partner in International Talent Booking, Barry Dickins is one of the most revered agents in the business. Celebrating his 50th anniversary in the industry, Barry talks to Gordon Masson about his career, the artists he has worked with and the remarkable impact his family has had on music…

In writing tributes to industry legends, one of the joys is discovering untold trivia. Two minutes in Barry Dickins’ office at ITB and I can tell anyone searching for a gift for the great man they could do no better than find him a rare autograph. His phone rings and it’s obvious that wife, Gill, is on the other end.

“You’ve found Elvis? Great, where was he?” he asks. It turns out his signed photo of ‘The King’ was hiding in a drawer with Christmas decorations.

Mr Presley has been rediscovered as the couple pack their belongings to move to a new house, within walking distance of offspring Lucy and Jonathan and the toddler grandchildren in the western suburbs of London. In the subsequent conversation, it turns out Barry has an enviable autograph collection – Fred Astaire, Groucho Marx and Muhammad Ali are among the prized possessions. But it’s the signature of one of his clients that’s most surprising. “Bob Dylan doesn’t sign anything, but Lucy managed to get him to dedicate a photo for me,” he reveals. “She knew it was something I’d never ask for myself – it was amazing he agreed to do it.”

As one of the classiest – and most likeable – people in the business, Barry Dickins celebrates his 50th anniversary in the music industry this month. At least he thinks it’s this month.

“I can’t actually remember when I started: I always say it was May, but it might have been September. Or July.” Dates aside, half a century is no mean achievement, but where Barry differs from his peers is that those have been 50 years at the top, representing a roster of acts that is simply staggering.

The list is an impressive who’s who of entertainment: The

Doors, The Kinks, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Diana Ross, Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, Tracy Chapman, Billy Idol, John Fogerty, Randy Newman, Seal, Jamiroquai, Neil Young, ZZ Top and the Small Faces, to name but a few.

When it comes to music, Barry’s taste is eclectic, but veers toward singer-songwriters and lyricists such as Carole King, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Neil Young and Bob Dylan. “I missed out on Tom Waits as a client, but I’ve always loved his music,” he says. When it comes to his hero, however, there’s another surprise. “Harry Houdini,” he says, pointing to an original Houdini poster on his office wall. “Whenever we have a show that’s on the floor and we manage to get out of jail, I joke that we are going to change the company name to Houdini Promotions.”

Thankfully, he doesn’t make that suggestion too often.

GROWING UP WITH MUSIC The Dickins legacy in the music industry now spans three generations: Barry’s father, Percy, was a co-founder of the New Musical Express and was the man who created the UK singles chart; brother Rob, was one of the most powerful executives in the world with stints at both Warner Chappell Publishing and later as chairman of the conglomerate’s record labels, Warner Music; son Jonathan runs September Management, where he guides the careers of artists such as Adele, Jamie T and Richard Russell; and daughter Lucy’s agency roster at ITB includes the

Barry Dickins receives The Bottle Award at this year’s Arthurs

IQ Magazine May 2014

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likes of Adele, Mumford & Sons and James Blake.

Links with live entertainment go back a further generation, however. “Grandad – Percy Charles Dickins – was in Fossett’s Wild West Show; his stage name was Pedro the Knife-thrower and his act was known as The Redskin Gang,” says Barry’s brother, Rob. “He was the black sheep of the family. He’d run away to join the circus. When he died, Dad and I cleared out the house and that’s how I became the keeper of the family photos.”

“I had no idea about the knife-throwing until recently,” admits Barry. “Grandad was an engineer or something, so I’m guessing he only did the Wild West thing for a little while.”

Father Percy’s impact on the UK has been more permanent.

Family historian, Rob, reveals, “Dad left school at 14 and was a sax player, but he did an apprenticeship in printing and got a job at Melody Maker doing the layout and advertising. That company bought the Music and Accordion Express, which was renamed the New Musical Express to try to make it more relevant, but it still didn’t make any money.”

Percy was instrumental in making the NME the biggest selling music paper in the UK, while also giving the music industry something to aspire to. “They printed the Cashbox charts – basically the American top 10 – and Percy realised if he could compile a British chart, the record companies might advertise,” continues Rob. “So he persuaded about 20 shops to give him their sales numbers and in return each shop got an NME-branded lightbox to display the top 20.”

As Percy’s fame within the industry rose, so did the calibre of musicians who would hang out with the chart’s founder.

“I remember meeting Michael Holliday when I was 10, and we went on holiday to Cornwall with Matt Monroe. And Don Black was Percy’s office boy. Dad was always immaculate – he got his suits tailor-made in the East End [of London]. I guess that’s where Barry gets his great dress sense from.”

GETTING INTO THE BUSINESS

Saxophonist Percy Dickins (front right) pictured in 1937, aged 15

With their father bringing home briefcases of ‘A’ labels, Barry and Rob were among the first people in the country to hear the latest hits. So, although it may have been inevitable that they would seek jobs in music, eldest brother Barry endured some difficult months in a very different environment.

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Barry & Rob 1951

Barry Dickins’ 50th

Barry recalls, “I failed my economics exam at school by 1% and they wouldn’t let me re-sit the test. That really pissed me off because it was the only subject I liked, so I left school before I was 16.” A job in the London Stock Exchange beckoned, but Barry hated it, so he pleaded with his father to find him something, anything, to do with music. And at some point in 1964, he turned up to work for Roy Tempest in Denmark Street. “I went from getting paid £8 a week in a job I hated to £10 a week working with music and artists – I couldn’t believe my luck,” Barry says.

Eager to learn, he switched workplace to Blackburn Willis where he was tasked with looking after some of the agency’s developing acts and, developing his own tastes, would spend his free time going to concerts. “The first band I remember going to see was Joe Brown and The Brothers, with Bee Bumble and The Stingers as support. Around the same time I went to see a band called The Beatles, and they were just the best thing I’d ever seen. The Beatles got me into American soul and R&B.” When it comes to favourite live acts, however, Barry references one of his first clients. “The Who in the early days with Keith Moon, were just incredible,” he states.

Rob remembers well his older brother looking after The Who, having moved to the Malcolm Rose Agency to further his fledgling career. “Barry took me to Shepherd’s Bush to see a band called The High Numbers. I was 15 and Barry was 18, when he became their agent and they changed their name to The Who,” he tells IQ. “I’d hide my school blazer in my duffel bag and Barry would sneak me in the back door of The Marquee Club. I remember being there when Kit Lambert was pleading with Pete Townshend not to smash his guitars because they couldn’t afford it.”

Still just a teenager, Barry would lie about his age to persuade people he was more experienced. But when the inevitable happened, it floored him. “I lost The Who at the age of 18, but I knew they were way bigger than I was. It’s horrible when you lose an act. You get over it, but I was absolutely gutted.” Indeed, losing acts still has an impact on the 50-year veteran. “I just lost Diana Ross after 32 years. That’s a bit of a blow, but I don’t take it as badly as I once did,” he says. “The same goes for losing agents to rivals. I used to take that really badly, but someone once pointed out to me that I had to leave places to get to where I am, so I’m a bit more mild about these things nowadays.”

May 2014 IQ Magazine

Barry & Gill 1971

Barry Dickens’ 50th

LIFE LESSONS Despite losing The Who (to Robert Stigwood’s Headline Agency), Barry’s star was rising and through booking such acts as P.P. Arnold, and The Nice, he was making a name for himself. As a result, musician friend Chas Chandler called upon Barry to help clear the paperwork and get bookings for an emerging American star to make his debut in the UK. “Barry and I were still sharing a bedroom and he got home one night at 2am very excited, telling me he’d just seen the greatest guitarist in the world. I was a massive fan of Cream, but Barry told me this guy, Jimi Hendrix, was even better than Eric Clapton,” says Rob. “On Boxing Day 1966, I went to the Upper Cut Club. The venue could hold about 2,000, but there were only 125 people there. But Hendrix played the full Monterey set – setting his guitar on fire, the whole lot. It was the most extraordinary thing we’d ever seen. The promoter made no money, but wanted Hendrix back. Then Hey Joe was released and became huge, so the second show was rammed and the promoter only paid about £25. Shortly after that, Barry got fired by Jimi.”

That’s not quite true, and the real story taught the young agent a valuable lesson. “I was 20 when I lost Hendrix to Dick Katz, who was my boss. It really pissed me off,” Barry remembers. “That was fairly common in those days – people within the same companies stealing acts from each other. But it’s just totally counteractive, so it’s not something that has ever happened at ITB.” Recalling just one of his Hendrix stories, he says, “JeanMichel Boris at Paris Olympia called me to the venue because there was a problem – the whole width of the stage was taken up by Jimi’s amplifiers and they’d never seen anything like it.

But Hendrix thought everything out. Musically he was very clever, but he had those theatrics too.”

Barry’s next step on the career ladder was working for

Harold Davidson, who then sold his company to MAM, where Barry spent the next decade honing his craft alongside industry luminaries such as John Giddings, Martin Nelson, Rod Smallwood, Ian Wright, and David Apps, who “used to shout at me all the time. I can’t thank him enough for that,” says Barry.

“Back then, most senior agents wouldn’t give you the time of day. That’s why I work the way I do: the agency business is much more demanding now and people need guidance. My door is always open. I never had that, so I know how important it is to help out the younger agents.”

Nonetheless, Barry’s impact at MAM was immediate and by 1970, aged just 23, he was made a company director and set about assembling a roster that would become the envy of his peers worldwide. Such success was not without drawbacks, however, as he could get some unwelcome approaches. “I had The Osmonds, and Stan Flashman – the king of ticket touts – called me. He was the person who could get you tickets for the FA Cup final, or even into the Queen’s Garden Party. Osmonds tickets were on sale for about 10 shillings (50 pence) each and he told me he wanted 1,000 tickets per night, for which he’d pay £1 per ticket. It was more money than I made in a year, but I never wanted to become known for being dodgy so I said ‘no’.

As it turned out, he’d nobbled someone else in the office and got his tickets anyway. I’ve been offered more bribes than I care to think about. But I’ve never done it and I can sleep at night.”

The upsides have been memorable too. “I remember saying I’d buy Mum a mink coat by the time I was 21,” says Barry. “I never did, but I flew her and Dad to New York and Florida as a

Barry & Neil Sedaka

Barry Dickins’ 50th

TESTIMONIALS 2010. After several years’ vain negotiations we finally succeeded in getting ZZ Top to play at Lakeside PuistoBlues festival in Finland. It was sold-out in advance and the show itself was one of our greatest moments in our life. Long live Barry!

Lenny Lindfors, Live Nation Finland The artist shall not be named but Barry was the agent! He came to see the show in Holland, but he’d seen the show many times before. So we wished the act a good show and as soon as the concert started, we rushed off to the best restaurant in town: Barry loves good food and a good bottle of wine. We were back at the venue just as the act came off stage. Just in time to say: “great show!”

Leon Ramakers, Mojo Concerts surprise, which was just great. They gave up a lot for Rob and I, so it was good that we could both spoil them a bit when we made it.”

And recalling one of his favourite artist moments, he adds, “I had Dolly Parton on tour and we were staying in a little village pub near Ipswich (UK). They kept the bar open for us and the local priest came in and had a drink, then took us up the church tower to see the view and the village policeman turned up wondering what was going on. When we introduced him to Dolly, he went off and came back with his guitar, so he ended up playing while Dolly sang in this village pub, accompanied by an old man on spoons.”

THE DICKINS LEGACY While Barry was making strides in his career, Rob became the first in the Dickins family to go to university. Discovering that students’ unions put on live music, he quickly became social secretary at Loughborough University and used his big brother’s expertise to book all his acts. “I had Mott The Hoople, Free, Rod Stewart – I’d book everyone through Barry, which really pissed off the local agents,” says Rob, who upon leaving university also called upon his father to help find employment.

“I got a degree in politics and Russian to impress the girls. It still does,” he laughs. “I wrote to all the record companies. I got a rejection letter from Warners, which I still have! Percy ended up getting me a job at IPC where I worked on titles like Honey, Petticoat and 19 – girls’ magazines.”

Not long into his journalism career, Warner Music Publishing invited Rob to an interview. “They’d just got Bob Dylan’s catalogue, but all the songs were just listed by the first line of lyrics. I was able to tell them what each song was and they were impressed enough to offer me a job. Dad had to explain to me what music publishing was. I was 21, but a week before my 24th birthday I was made managing director.”

While their careers flourished in parallel, the brothers drifted.

“The whole period of my rise through Warners, Barry and I did not have a lot to do with each other. To be honest, we didn’t always get along – I was the annoying little brother. But when I was a kid, there were a couple of occasions when me and my mates were threatened. Barry and his mates would appear and he’d be there for me.” Rob also recalls how his brother

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What do you call a man who is a true rock & roll agent? What do you call a man who has made such a huge difference to the world of live music? What do you call a man whose artist roster is the envy of his peers worldwide? What do you call a man that formed his own company and has risen to the top of his field in spite of varied changes to musical styles and genres over the years? Let me tell you, you call that man…

Neil Warnock! Joking apart, Barry is a true legend. He always has time to spend exchanging anecdotes and stories whilst negotiating a deal. Barry has not lost sight of this being the entertainment business and is always up for a laugh. He’s hard and he’s tough (like an old boot!), but is always a pleasure to do business with. To me, he is a friend, a mentor, and a great, great agent. Is it really 50 years? I thought it was more like 80?! Barry Dickins will live forever!

P.S. Barry, I think I have finally recovered from that Doobie Brothers tour you sold me!

Andy Copping, Live Nation You can tell Barry Dickins that he is too young for a tribute feature. Why, just yesterday he was working at the MAM agency (and probably representing the same artists as he does today.) In those days, he would send a car bigger than my VW van to the airport to pick me up; now it’s a sandwich in the office. I love Barry, we can go for years between calls, and still pick up where the last conversation ended.

Dan Weiner, Paradigm Agency Back in the 70s, Barry had a show at what is now the Apollo Victoria. I was his boss at MAM and I got word that the venue was going bankrupt. I called Barry and told him that whatever happened he was to make sure he got the money that night. The next day, upon entering Barry’s office I couldn’t believe my eyes – floor to ceiling with cans of beer, spirits, all sorts! “I couldn’t get any money; but I cleared out the bar!” he told me. I knew then that Barry would go far in this business.

Congratulations Barry – Here’s to the next 50!

Barry Clayman, Live Nation I simply love Barry so much. He is a man of utmost sincerity, a truly rare and special figure in our industry. A true English gentleman.

Mr Udo, Udo Artists

May 2014 IQ Magazine

Barry & Rob with Michael McDonald & his manager Craig Fruin

Barry Dickins’ 50th

It has been a pleasure dealing with Barry over the last 23 years and booking many of his top artists such as Diana Ross, Foreigner, Jamiroquai, Savage Garden, John Fogerty, Alanis Morissette, ZZ Top and Simply Red. Barry, congratulations with your achievement of 50 years in the live music industry… you’re a legend and I am honoured to be your South African colleague and friend!

Attie van Wyk, Big Concerts International

Fossett’s Wild West show, London theatre bill - admission price 1 shilling

Back in the early 70s, I worked at MAM, trying to learn a bit to go into management. Barry was my boss, and in fact the only boss I ever had (till l got married anyway!) I have to say he was very good to work for and gave me a fair bit of responsibility very early on, involving me in The Kinks, Mott the Hoople, Golden Earring, Queen and others. It was a good time as we all got on pretty well as a team and The Marquee and Speakeasy still existed. l persuaded Barry to take me on one of his trips to New York – my first time in America – and the penalty was getting my hair cut. Yes, he was a conservative bugger even then!! But cut it I did, and it was indeed worth it. And it was then in New York that Barry somehow developed a very strange fascination with digital watches. Just ask him!

I know he has never forgiven me for not taking Iron Maiden to him, especially as they are considered West Ham and called the Irons, but then again Barry could hardly be called a Headbanger! Barry, congratulations and thanks again for the early education and hair cut!! You will always be my favourite boss!

Rod Smallwood, Phantom Music Management

IQ Magazine May 2014

would look after him musically before he got into the business himself. “Barry started going to America and I’d give him a list of the records I’d want him to bring back and he always did.”

Barry’s first recollection of New York is not as positive.

“Everyone showed me the city, but on Friday night they all disappeared and nobody was around. I was only 20-years-old and shitting myself. The only time I left my hotel over the weekend was to take a walk around the block when they came to tidy my room.”

Rob, meanwhile, was already pondering a different path. “I became obsessed with the making of records. To be honest, live music was kind of over for me by the time I was 16 or 17 because I’d been so spoiled. Our mum, Sylvia, saw how she lost her husband and eldest son to the music business, so she was pretty happy when I went to university… until I started at Warners. Now, of course, Gill has become the new Sylvia, with Jonathan and Lucy in the business too.”

As his career developed, Barry admits that learning MAM bosses Barry Clayman and Harold Davidson drove Rolls Royces had him considering setting up his own agency.

However, that’s not quite how things turned out. “At MAM, I interviewed Rod MacSween for a job. The problem was, he asked for more money than I was on, the cheeky bastard.”

MacSween went on to establish ITB and two years later, Barry joined him. “The company has existed since 1976, but we always measure anniversaries and stuff since 78 when we became partners,” Barry explains.

“Rod is my second wife,” he continues. “ITB works because we are so different in every way. The only thing we have in common is our aim in business, which is to get the best for the client. But the way we dress, the cars we drive, the people we know – everything is polar opposites.” Unlike rivals, ITB also acts as a promoter for some of its artists in the UK. “I like both the promoting and the agency side of things,” Barry says.

“At the end of the day, I work for the artist, so knowing how a promoter thinks is useful.”

That duality also attracted the attention of Live Nation, which has been a stakeholder in the business for a number of years. “The relationship with Live Nation has been very good.

Michael Rapino is a very bright guy. I can’t complain – we have arguments sometimes, but then I do that with Rod [MacSween].

So it’s been a great relationship with Live Nation.”

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Barry Dickins’ 50th

THE NEXT GENERATION Although Jonathan Dickins admits growing up surrounded by music meant his career destiny was all but sealed, sister Lucy reported zero interest in the music industry during her teenage years. “Being related to someone in the industry is a gift and a curse,” Jonathan notes. “Of course, I got started because I had family in the business, but the perks stopped there. After that point you’re always compared to your family.”

Lucy comments, “I became obsessed with film at college, so maybe I could have gone into film distribution – someone would give me a movie and I would market it.” She continues, “Dad was breathing down my neck when I got out of college. So I went for certain job interviews and in between Dad invited me to come into ITB so I could be doing something and learning, rather than sitting around and waiting. But I got fed up getting paid so little – what Dad was paying me was probably illegal – it was a shit wage and boring work, so I decided to move on.”

While Jonathan worked indirectly for his uncle Rob at MCA, Lucy also found herself landing a job at a Warner imprint (Coalition) albeit through an employment agency, so it took people a while to work out the family connection. “I went into Coalition as a junior product manager, but I did well and left as international product manager. I was there for about five years, I had fun and learned a lot.”

Jonathan also enjoyed his fair share of success at Warner, but is brutally honest about his time there. “I remember reading some shit newspaper piece about the Dickins family, which referred to me as an underachieving A&R guy. I used to find that kind of stuff hard, but at a certain point I just stopped giving a fuck,” he tells IQ. “In hindsight, going to Warners was not the best move. John Reid arrived and one of the first things he did was fire me – it’s the best thing anyone could have done for me. I have the greatest respect in the world for my uncle.

But it might have been better for both of us if I hadn’t worked in his company.”

Having been made redundant by Coalition, Lucy again found herself in ITB. “I sat next to the photocopier. It was awful. One day a pigeon became caught in the ceiling and ended up shitting all over my desk. It summed things up. Dad thought he’d have his daughter helping him out and all he got was this gobby cow abusing people down the phone – although

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I started working with Barry in the late 60s, and we were old men already. One of the first bands we worked on was Poco, who had a big hit with Rose of Cimarron. They were playing a gig at Stockholm University and we forgot that they needed a grand piano. There was one elsewhere in the university, so I remember Barry and I and a couple of guys from the band pushing this piano up a steep set of stairs to get it into the venue…

Barry later promoted Abba for me in London, for a week in 1979, which was the last time they performed in the UK. He’s always been a good friend and I remember having dinner with him, his wife, Gill, and his parents in the late 70s – Jonathan and Lucy were just kids and it’s amazing to see what they’ve achieved now.

Thomas Johansson, Live Nation Sweden Barry is a shrewd operator. He once slipped a five-pound note into my jacket pocket and said: “This is just so you can’t ever say you never earned anything working with me.”

I still treasure that fiver.

Tim Dowdall, Expiali Barry & Dolly Parton

Percy Dickins at ‘NME’ - early 60s

Before I actually dealt with Barry, we were working with a group called Little Angels, but getting railroaded out by bigger promoters. I thought that was unfair so I spoke to Paul Adam who was at ITB at the time. He spoke to Barry, who had a word with Rod MacSween and we were kept in.

Barry did not know me at the time, so what he did really stuck in my mind.

I’ve probably worked with Barry directly for getting on 20 years now and he has always been a gentleman – he’s hard, but fair. It’s an absolute pleasure dealing with him and it’s good that you can have a laugh with him as well.

Simon Moran, SJM

May 2014 IQ Magazine

Jonathan Dickins with his uncle Rob in the 1980s

I only really did that once, to someone who was being really rude to me. And I wasn’t getting paid enough to allow people to speak to me like that.”

Nevertheless, Lucy soon found her feet. “Dad gave me a map and a bunch of emails and asked me to put a tour together for him. He must have been impressed because Dad never says anything is really good, but he told me what I’d done was ‘not bad’. So next I helped him out with Alanis Morissette. My agency career has been funny: I started at the top and worked my way down. I booked arenas to start with, but when I started booking my own acts, I had to create baby tours and work up from there and make new relationships with the grass-roots people too.”

Meanwhile, Jonathan found his calling. “Actually, management found me. I was always interested in putting out records,” he says. “Ross Orton was producing an M.I.A. record that we put out on my label. She wanted to be managed by Chris Morrison, but they didn’t have the time to take her on, so Chris suggested I do it. I’d already done work experience in America working for Irving Azoff and I knew I could also learn a lot through Chris. I’m lucky that I found a haven in management, away from what Dad and Rob had done.”

Indeed, it was a gift from a former generation that allowed Jonathan to set up September Management in 2006. “Percy left me some money when he died; enough to give me a small salary for a year. At the time, I had Tom Vek and Jamie T was bubbling under so I decided to take the chance and set up my own operation,” says Jonathan. Next on the September roster was Jack Peñate, before XL Recordings A&R exec Nick Huggett suggested Jonathan check out the MySpace site for an artist called Adele. “I contacted her and she came around to my house for a cup of tea. There was an instant connection and I just knew she was going to be a star.”

Rob recalls, “Jonathan called to say he thought he’d found a superstar. When he told her he wanted to manage her, she agreed but said she’d already decided on who she wanted her agent to be – a girl called Lucy Dickins...” Lucy confirms the tale. “Me and Adele had a real laugh at a Hot Chip gig and she gave me her demo CD. It was a no-brainer – she had obvious talent and an attitude that meant she was going to be a star. So I met her at around the same time as Jonathan, before she’d signed a deal.

I know he’s my brother, but Jonathan is a fucking outstanding manager – the way he has guided Adele’s career is genius.”

Sharing the love, Jonathan says of his sister, “Lucy has Adele and Mumford & Sons – arguably the two biggest British

Barry with daughter, Lucy

Barry Dickins’ 50th

I‘ve known and been working with Barry Dickins since, I think, 2003. Barry is the kind of agent you wouldn‘t mind calling at the end of a very hectic day, as most of the time, he is in a good mood and full of delicate British humour.

What I also love about Barry is that he’s got the cheerful, workaholic and sexy Prue!

Giedrius Klimašauskas, Makroconcert It’s an honour and a joy to work with a great and legendary agent such as Barry. He always has a funny and wise comment for you, and I always feel very welcome and accommodated in his company. Not to mention all the fantastic artists and great shows we have done with him over the years! I can only say many thanks, and I really hope that we all can inspire him to be in the business for many years to come.

Jesper Christensen, Live Nation Denmark I’ve been working with Barry for over 30 years and I have to admit that he is one of the very few real gentlemen in the music business. So, hats off to Mr Barry Dickins!

Nana Trandou, DidiMusic It is always a pleasure to work with Barry, he is a true gentleman, open to discuss any issues and always focused on what is best for the show and all parties involved.

Olivier Toth, Rockhal Barry is a big friend of ours. He contributed to the music business growth in Latin America since the very beginning and we are so grateful to him.

Fernando Moya, T4F Argentina

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May 2014 IQ Magazine

exports of the last five years. She also has James Blake who is one of the most visionary exports in recent years. I use Lucy as a sounding board. She understands strategy and not every agent does, although many pretend to.”

However, while having the coolest parents in school can be great, Lucy says there were some minor disappointments that other kids didn’t have to deal with. “When I was about six, I had posters of George Michael all over my wall and I told my dad I was going to marry him. Let’s just say Dad didn’t leave me in any doubts about why that would not happen…”

GENETICS

Barry is known for being ‘careful’ with his money. Many years ago, he was in Germany covering a date with Fleetwood Mac. After the show, he ended up in the hotel lounge having a drink with the German promoter. After a while, the band walked in to have some drinks. A bit later Jeff Beck shows up. And sometime after that, Mick Jagger came in too – they were all staying at the same hotel.

Barry turned to the German promoter and said “Let’s get out of here before we get stuck with their bar bill.” And so they said goodbye and left. The next day they found out that Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, Peter Green, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood had all got up on the lounge stage and jammed until the wee hours.

Barry is unquestionably one of the good guys in our business and I consider him a true friend.

Phil Rodriguez, Evenpro I have worked with Barry Dickins many times through the years and it still gives me chills down my spine whenever somebody says “Hey, Barry Dickins is coming to Buenos Aires.” For me, there is no difference between the person going onstage and Barry, he is a star in his own right in the live music industry worldwide, but most important, he is a good man...

We do love him very much and when thinking of Barry Dickins, we see a unique, gorgeous gentleman who has a built a fantastic career and has an adorable family.

Betina, Popart Music Barry & Rob Dickins

Barry on tour with The Osmonds

Barry Dickins’ 50th

Having such musical success running throughout the family, Rob Dickins believes there could be something to the mythical ‘Dickins’ Ear’ some industry admirers refer to. “Is there a genetic code? I didn’t used to think so until Lucy did Mumford & Sons. But the fact is that we’ve all found acts that have become hugely successful, so there might just be something to having a Dickins’ ear.”

Jonathan dismisses such talk, but he does admit to similarities with the older generation. “I have a very considered way when it comes to building my business – it has to be quality over quantity.

I get that from Dad.” September Management’s nondescript premises, where staff tell intrigued callers they are accountants, also points to an inherited sense of humour. “Jonathan must get that from me,” Barry claims. “When I sit next to someone I don’t know on a plane and they ask what I do, I always say that I’m in insurance. The conversation ends there.”

IQ Magazine May 2014

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Barry Dickins’ 50th

“Grandad Percy was a bit like Dad – he was very humble and not a name-dropper,” says Lucy. “Rob always advised me to take on stuff that I personally loved – that’s what he did with Enya and I’ve followed that stuff with my artists. But there’s no doubt Dad’s taste in music influenced us and it’s probably no coincidence there’s a Dylan track on Adele’s album. So Dad gave us our good ears. But Rob is a super intelligent guy, so I’d like to think I got a little bit of that DNA too.”

Observing how they operate professionally, Rob says of his niece and nephew, “Jonathan and Lucy are very familyoriented with their artists. That’s not necessarily from the older generation, as Barry and I were not like that. But maybe because their family have all been in the music business, they think of music as a family business.”

THE FUTURE

Barry with Diana Ross & Princess Anne

Celebrating 50 years in music – and with the Dickins legacy in safe hands – what’s left for Barry to achieve? “I’ve never got to where I want to be,” he confesses. “There’s still so much to do and probably not enough time to do it.

I’d still like to grow the company. But there are different ways that we could grow ITB, so it depends how we agree to do it.” He continues, “I always want to try to get the best people in. We try to bring people through, but that takes a long time. The best we’ve brought through was Maria Hutt.

And then there’s Lucy, who I have to say is probably the best agent who has come up through the ranks here.” Of his son, he comments, “I’m quite impressed by Jonathan these days, but when I see him I try my best not to talk too much business with him.”

Indeed, when it comes to gauging where they lie in the scheme of things, the Dickins clan share a common bond.

“People used to tell me that they loved my Dad,” Rob says.

“People used to refer to me as Percy’s son and Barry’s brother.

Then Barry rang me one day to tell me that I’d arrived because someone had asked him if he was Rob’s brother?” Jonathan

has a similar tale. “Dad said to me, ‘You’re doing all right now, aren’t you?!’ Apparently, it was because someone had asked him if he was Jonathan’s Dad.” Barry reveals, “There were lots of people at [The Brit Awards] this year who knew Jonathan and Lucy. I used to know everyone, but my age group does not exist in the music business any more in this country. It’s a strange distinction, but in America, the older generation are revered. In the UK, they are sneered.”

Although he admits to thoughts of retirement, Barry’s plans for ITB, and the fact that he’s still taking on new acts, will surely delay that decision for a few years yet. “I’ve just taken on The Ben Miller Band, which features electric spoons. Billy Gibbons turned me on to them. They’re never going to sell stadiums, but I like them,” he says. “I once said in an interview that I never wanted to be that old fart, but I guess that’s what I’ve become. But when someone plays me a new record that I like, I love those moments. I never thought I’d last this long. I remember saying to someone that this could be your company one day, because I’m going to retire when I’m 62.” He adds, “Thankfully, I have a very understanding wife.”

Lucy states, “I’ve had 16 years at ITB and I never thought I’d achieve that, so it’s an incredible feat that Dad has reached 50. He’s definitely slowed down, but he loves coming into the office and speaking to the young guys – he still has that passion for music.” And Jonathan adds, “Dad’s hobby is his work. He loves dealing with artists and being at the sharp end of doing deals. My old man loves doing what he’s doing, and he gets paid well for it – he’s not down a coal mine. He genuinely loves his work and he’d be bored shitless if he stopped.”

Barry concludes, “Sure, there are lots of things I regret, but I make a very nice living doing something I love. When you’re around youthfulness, it keeps you young too. I love dealing with people who have high energy. But the proudest thing I’ve done is have two kids who are successful. The fact that they have been successful in music is a bonus, but they are the greatest things that I’ve got.”

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May 2014 IQ Magazine

As anyone who attended the ticketing panel at ILMC 26 will attest, the sector attracts more interest than almost anywhere else. Ian Thomas talks to the world’s major operators to find out where the ‘bums on seats’ business is heading…

Ticketing remains a hugely buoyant part of the music industry, but, like the recorded music arm of the business, it is in the middle of a complex digital transition as online and mobile grow and as new data tools help companies understand their audiences better and retool their offerings accordingly.

Anecdotally, ticketing companies around the world reported generally healthy figures for 2013. Of the major companies, Germany-based CTS Eventim saw revenues grow by more than 16.5% to €269.7million, compared to 2012’s €231.5m. Those results also helped Evenim’s profits leap, with earnings before tax rising 12.4% year-on-year to €104.3m. In its annual report, Eventim said the ticketing division’s increases were, “Driven by strong growth in the core European markets, in particular in Germany, Italy, Great Britain and Austria. Revenue increased due to an internet ticket volume growth. In the 2013 financial year, 23.8 million tickets were sold via the Internet portals operated by the Group (prior year: 20.6 million). Revenue growth was generated both nationally and internationally; the share of revenue generated by foreign subsidiaries increased to 40.7% (prior year: 38.9%).”

Ticketmaster had slightly slower growth, but parent company Live Nation reported that Ticketmaster revenues had crept up 2% to $1.4billion (€1.01bn) from $1.3bn (€942m) in 2012, while profits nudged ahead 1% to $298.1m (€216m).

Live Nation as a group sold nearly 149m tickets during 2013, 76.5m – or 51% of overall sales – were for concerts, proving that live music is still the most important part of the business.

While AXS remains privately held and does not report

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financials, the company also reported a productive 2013.

“From a ticketing perspective, it is incredibly healthy because ticketing has gone beyond the transaction and is now something that is connected to the entire event lifecycle,” says Dean DeWulf of AXS Europe about the UK market, before warning that this year could sag a little compared to last year and next year. “While 2013 was off the charts, 2014 is a little bit quieter – but still relatively healthy. I think 2015 will be epic. The 2014 autumn on-sale should be amazing as a lot of big acts and cool artists are [planning] to go out next year.”

In mainland Europe, the picture is somewhat similar according to Andreas Egger of OE Ticket in Austria, who suggests growth is still happening, just not at the rate it was a few years ago. “We have not seen any decline in ticket sales for the past 20 years,” he says. “We do not have double-digit growth rates any more – just single-digit growth rates.”

Rob Wilmshurst of See Tickets is not quite as optimistic in his reading of the trends, suggesting that it depends on what tier of the UK’s live business you choose to take the temperature of. “Is it as healthy as it was five years ago?” he asks, rhetorically. “On the festival level it is less healthy, but on the 1,000-3,000-capacity venues, it is very buoyant and strong.”

A lot of the growth in the ticketing sector can be attributed to online and how this has changed the shape and focus of ticketing companies. “It has revolutionised it, but in other ways it hasn’t, and nothing has really changed,” is how Ticketmaster’s Mark Yovich sums it up, although he notes that the ubiquity of companies like Amazon have dramatically

March 2014 IQ Magazine

raised the bar for consumers’ online retail experiences.

“There is an expectation from consumers that the services you provide are seamless and frictionless.”

See Tickets reports that up to 97% of its ticket sales now happen online, noting that those who invested early on in online solutions, even though it was of niche interest two decades ago, are still standing while others that didn’t invest quickly enough (if at all) hit the wall when online really took off this side of the millennium. “You have to take a long view,” says Wilmshurst. “We sold our first ticket online in 1998. Our computer in the corner used to go ‘Ping!’ every time we sold one. It was very exciting. It only used to happen every three or four days.”

For Dieter Froehlich of Ticketportal in Switzerland, online is steadily doing away with the need for box offices as consumers increasingly treat ticket buying as an online-only experience. “The importance of physical [points of sale] is shrinking,” he says. “More and more people buy their tickets in an electronic way.”

Tim Banfield of ACC Liverpool, which runs the Echo Arena in the city, disagrees and says the box office in big cities remains important. “Our over-the-counter sales have pretty much stayed static since we opened,” Banfield says. “[But online] has helped to sell tickets more quickly and therefore create demand. Making it easier to buy a ticket has helped increase the demand for tickets.”

One company making massive inroads into the international market, courtesy of developments in technology, is Eventbrite which in 2013 sold more than $1billion (€725m) worth of tickets in 187 countries around the world.

The company allows event organisers to take control of their own ticketing, and promote concerts and shows using the likes of Facebook, Twitter and other social-networking tools directly from the Eventbrite online interface. The company says that more than two-thirds of all events that use its facilities for ticketing are free-of-charge, meaning it does not make any

revenue from those tickets. A small fee is made for those events that issue paid-for tickets - organisers are charged 2.5% plus £0.65 (€0.75) for every ticket they sell (not including 3.5% credit card processing fees), which the organiser can choose to absorb in the ticket price, or pass along to the customer.

Founded in 2006, Eventbrite has grown massively in the past few years and reports that last year 1million events used its services. Although only 30% of events on Eventbrite are paid, the 70% of free event attendees are the company’s biggest driver of new paid organisers. Such innovative growth strategies have captured the imagination of investors and the company recently secured another round of funding (see page 8) to take its total funding to $200m (€145m).

GOING MOBILE The next evolutionary stage for ticketing is away from the desktop and into other connected devices like smartphones and tablets. This, however, comes with growing pains as the purchasing experience is, for now, not as seamless and as elegant on a mobile as it is on a computer. “It is taking us longer than I wanted, but we are certainly getting there now,” says Yovich, of where Ticketmaster is currently. “All our channels are optimised for mobile in the 15 countries that we operate in.”

He adds that the Ticketmaster app – which scans a user’s music collection on their phone to make concert recommendations, as well as availing of geolocation technology to alert users to shows that are happening nearby – has been downloaded over one million times in the UK. “There are less security barriers [on the app] that you have to jump through as we can identity you easier as a human rather than a bot,” he notes.

Banfield says his company sees almost 54% of online sales

The O2 arena - the world’s most popular venue with more than 2 million ticket sales in 2013

IQ Magazine May 2014

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“The German Promoter Association (BDV) has recently launched a scheme to prevent the resale of tickets. Eventim is supporting this initiative and has implemented on our system an option for promoters to employ the necessary terms and conditions and other needed elements.”

Rainer Appel, CTS Eventim

via mobile (other companies say they are seeing 20-25%) and argues that it is an area that ticketing companies need to plough time, technology and money into in order to effectively catch the wave when it goes truly mainstream. “If you don’t have a competent mobile version of your ticketing system,” he warns, “you will lose ticket sales going forward.”

Rainer Appel of Eventim Germany suggests there are still some obstacles on a usage and functionality level for purchasing needs to be addressed before mobile can really fly. “Mobile traffic to our ticketing platforms keeps going up quickly, while conversion rates are still lagging behind,” he says.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks here is in regard to turning the phone into a means to purchase tickets. The size of the screen means the mobile experience lags behind that on the desktop, especially in regard to how many hoops a consumer has to jump through to buy a ticket. Wilmshurst states that See Tickets have just addressed this through a partnership with one of the biggest online and mobile payment platforms.

“We are now working with PayPal on a partnership to pull all that together and make the whole sales process much more elegant,” he explains.

Despite new rulings that make booking and handling fees transparent, this is still a consumer-centric PR war to be won for ticketing companies. Wilmshurst outlines the problems and challenges the sector faces with regards to this issue. “Ticketing is – when booking and transaction fees are involved – the only retail business where you see the retailer’s margin,” he says. “So customers get offended when they find out how much money we make. If you toddle into a normal high street store you are not going to know they are picking up 40% on the purchase price of the product they just pushed over the counter.”

That ‘rip-off’ perception has undoubtedly been one of the drivers behind Eventbrite being embraced by event organisers.

And with 60,000 concerts and festivals using the company’s self-service ticketing platform last year, the company last month launched a reserved seating solution that it is now being rolled out on localised sites around the world. “We are focused on democratising the massive ticketing industry, and addressing the biggest problems organisers and attendees face: lack of innovation, customer support, and high ticketing fees,” says Eventbrite founder, Kevin Hartz. “Reserved seating technology has been broken for years, and it shows in the experience organisers and attendees face today. [Eventbrite’s new solution] is our first step in eliminating the pain of outdated and expensive reserved seating tools and replacing them with simple, yet robust technology.” That technology utilises Eventbrite’s Seat Designer interface, which provides organisers with easy-to-use seat planning, streamlined event flow and inventory management.

RESALE REMAINS CONTROVERSIAL In the UK, the most divisive issue remains secondary ticketing – a whole new sub-economy that has only been made possible because of the online marketplace. A recent All-Party Parliamentary Group enquiry into secondary ticketing has thrown this issue into sharp relief once again.

Viagogo is one of the companies blazing a trail, or spoiling the business depending on your particular viewpoint, and its UK managing director, Ed Parkinson, predictably sees it as a natural consequence of a free market. He illustrates this by saying Viagogo, after launching in Australia in September, is now in 50 markets and catering to a growing demand. “This notion of ‘sold out’ doesn’t exist on our website,” he says.

“The reason we have a successful business is that people want the ability to get access to tickets on a secure platform and not have to take their chances with people outside the venue or sketchy sellers on online listing sites.”

When asked if artists or managers should get a cut of this new parallel economy, he compares it to other sectors where this does not happen, arguing it is wrong to assume secondary ticketing companies adhere to a different set of norms. “When Honda sells a new car they get a certain price and when they get sold on they don’t get a cut of the resale price.” Parkinson does, however, note that the company does have partnerships in music and sport to be the official secondary ticketing channel as those partners see a financial benefit. “We have partnered with music festivals and have successful partnerships in sport where we do a marketing deal with the rightsholders and they endorse us as the official secondary marketplace and they are able to have some financial participation in the secondary market,” he says.

“The idea that they are locked out just isn’t true.”

AXS chief DeWulf says the resale sector has pros and cons and the industry as a whole has to ensure it tilts more heavily towards the pros where the issue of fraud within secondary ticketing is comprehensively eliminated. “Someone selling fake tickets is absolutely terrible to our industry as it is widespread and they prey upon the super-fan who didn’t get tickets,” he says. “Equally toxic is the mass buying of legitimate tickets from the primary market, where people use bots to get as many

Bon Jovi recorded the biggest selling tour of 2013

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IQ Magazine May 2014

“I don’t think that it is inherently wrong when you have a fan buying a ticket from another fan. But… if someone has illegally bought all the tickets and created a huge mark up in the secondary market – then that is inherently bad.”

Dean DeWulf, AXS

tickets as possible in violation of the ticketing limit so they can artificially create scarcity in the primary market and benefit from the profits in the secondary market.”

On the pro side, however, DeWulf notes, “I don’t think that it is inherently wrong when you have a fan buying a ticket from another fan. But if that [ticket value] has been artificially inflated – if someone has illegally bought all the tickets and created a huge mark up in the secondary market – then that is inherently bad.”

Banfield says the Echo Arena does not itself engage in secondary ticketing but, even so, feels there is a place for it in the modern ticketing sector. “We are a council-run building and my view has always been that we should only deal in the primary sector. But I do believe that the secondary market is finding a fair value for a ticket – whether it’s above or below face value. The general public are much more grown-up about this than we think.”

Wilmshurst, however, says See Tickets is “sat on the fence about it”, noting how it works with events like Glastonbury and The Ryder Cup where photo ID is required for ticket registration.

The company’s new app also allows users to register their photo using their smartphone to streamline the whole process and simultaneously cauterise fraud. “If we wanted to be ticket touts,

we would have been ticket touts,” he says of his company’s stance. “We are seeing Ticketmaster do it with GetMeIn – without sanction. I don’t think their business has gone backwards because they started working on GetMeIn. The market is well serviced anyway with StubHub, Viagogo and Seatwave. These guys aren’t really going [away] from what I can tell. For us, we are in a holding position. Let’s see where it goes.”

Yovich is adamant that the debate is now over and that, as secondary ticketing is part and parcel of the modern ticketing business, everyone needs to work with it or work around it. “For everyone here [at Ticketmaster], we really think it has moved on,” he says. “Fans want it [and] it is happening everywhere. We need to ensure it happens in a safe and secure way so we don’t see fans turning up at an event without a ticket they thought they had bought.” He adds, “We are talking to the government and advising them on how the industry really works, helping them to understand that they don’t need to get involved.” He feels, however, that direct government intervention is unworkable. “We don’t believe in regulation at all. We have seen this fail in other countries and push the business offshore and underground – and the content owners and fans lose out on that. We don’t believe that should happen.”

For now, secondary ticketing remains mainly a UK phenomenon, although it could impact mainland Europe soon.

“It’s a luxury problem you have there [in the UK]!” is Egger’s blunt summation. “Every promoter you talk to in Austria or Eastern European countries would love to have this problem,” he laughs. “Here we don’t have a fast on-sale market and tickets for most of the shows are available even up until the day of the show – even for the more sought-after shows.”

Froehlich adds, “It is not impacting yet [in Switzerland] but we are carefully watching what is going on.” And Eventim’s Appel points out that the German ticketing sector is taking proactive steps to nip any potential problems in the bud. “Fortunately,

2013 Year End Worldwide Ticket Sales: Top 20 Arenas 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

ARENA

LOCATION

The O2 Arena Phones 4u Arena Barclays Center Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy Staples Center Rod Laver Arena Wells Fargo Center Sportpalais Antwerpen The O2 Dublin Lanxess Arena Allphones Arena Arena Ciudad Air Canada Centre LG Arena Ziggo Dome Hallenstadion Philips Arena Motorpoint Arena Verizon Center Brisbane Entertainment Centre

London, UK Manchester, UK New York, USA Paris, France Los Angeles, USA Melbourne, Australia Philadelphia, USA Antwerp, Belgium Dublin, Ireland Cologne, Germany Sydney, Australia Mexico City, Mexico Toronto, Canada Birmingham, UK Amsterdam, Netherlands Zürich, Switzerland Atlanta, USA Sheffield, UK Washington DC, USA Brisbane, Australia

TICKETS SOLD

2,123,646 1,186,557 991,752 900,289 898,469 894,629 778,788 741,319 673,577 661,469 640,328 619,864 612,179 605,109 563,699 541,511 535,028 500,213 494,115 493,601 Figures courtesy of ‘Pollstar’

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IQ Magazine May 2014

2013 Year End Worldwide Tour: Top 10 Artists ARTISTS

BOX OFFICE GROSS (millions of dollars)

TOTAL TICKETS

1 Bon Jovi 259.5 2 Beyoncé 188.6 3 Pink 170.6 4 Justin Bieber 169.0 5 Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band 145.4 6 Rihanna 141.9 7 Cirque du Soleil Michael Jackson – The Immortal 133.4 8 Taylor Swift 131.0 9 Depeche Mode 119.6 10 One Direction 114.0

2,657,502 1,698,188 1,824,013 1,868,022 1,364,140 1,675,522 1,180,113 1,481,900 1,605,131 1,801,319

Figures courtesy of ‘Pollstar’

secondary ticketing never got much traction in Germany,” he says. “However, the German Promoter Association (BDV) has recently launched a scheme to prevent the resale of tickets.

Eventim is supporting this initiative and has implemented on our system an option for promoters to employ the necessary terms and conditions and other needed elements.”

MINING DATA Another consequence of online – and certainly there is more of a consensus about its beneficial impact – has been the generation and swift dissection of rich consumer data, allowing ticketing companies to anticipate demand, better understand their consumers and reward them.

“Big data is absolutely fascinating as you can start to look in detail at trends and compare what is happening in other sectors,” says Christopher Goodhart of Blackbaud. “You are starting to see a situation where you are getting an audience profile that is very different. Most of the ticketing software companies are all about personalisation. That is absolutely the way it needs to go.”

Nevertheless, data can only tell the industry so much about a consumer and must be approached with informed caveats in mind. “The biggest difficulty with this – and it is a fundamental issue – is that, yes, we know one customer,” cautions Wilmshurst. “Our average number of tickets per transaction is 2.5, but we only know one customer in that basket – and we don’t necessarily know if that is the person going to the gig.” He adds, “In every event, our data can be fuzzy. So we use our data in a fuzzy way and try and make “We have seen [government regulation] fail in other countries and push the [secondary] business offshore and underground – and the content owners and fans lose out on that. We don’t believe that should happen.”

Mark Yovich, Ticketmaster

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best matches between events we have got on sale and historical customer data. You have to be careful how you use [data] and you have to be careful not to overuse it.” Or, as Banfield puts it, “We feel that by doing too much [audience] segmentation we might be cutting our nose off to spite our face.”

Providing an insight into future trends, Wilmshurst feels realtime data can have a hugely positive impact on how inventory is sold, thus moving away from the idea of a fixed allocation of tickets. “We are [in London] seeing an interesting trend in the West End theatre space [where there is] a lot of opening up of inventory pools electronically,” he explains. “What the market is now doing there – which is a good thing – is allowing agents like ourselves to connect natively to those systems to sell tickets dynamically so that we don’t rely on a fixed allocation, which has logistical issues and selection and choice issues for the customer, as well as overheads that nobody needs.”

Wilmshurst continues, “What we now have is the situation where if a customer comes to our website and chooses one of those connected theatres, they are getting real-time inventory presented to them on a best available basis – and not just what we’ve got. If you look at the live music space – and certainly in arenas – we are working to fixed allocations. It would be interesting to see if that sort of West End-type model of connectivity and open inventory translates or moves across into the live music sector.”

Data is also feeding into customer relationship management (CRM) and this appears to be the next area the sector is keen to focus on – identifying and then rewarding its most loyal customers, thereby taking a leaf out of how other businesses treat their customers.

“Leading up to the show, we can upsell fans ways to personalise their evening,” DeWulf says. “Then, when they are in the venue, we are investing heavily into invenue recognition so when they scan their tickets we can automatically trigger recognition of how many times they have been to the venue and offer them a free drink, for example, to reward their loyalty. It is much more akin to hotel or airline loyalty schemes and it is coming.”

Banfield believes rewards are absolutely the way to go to help win over new customers and retain existing ones. “I would like to link the ticket with loyalty and discounts in the venue – upgrades,” he concludes. “I can see the technology coming together to be able to do that. That is a real opportunity for us going forward.”

March 2014 IQ Magazine

Austria

Major ticketing companies: CTS Eventim, Wien-Ticket CTS Eventim is the market leader, followed by Wien-Ticket, the in-house system of the Stadthalle arena in Vienna. Third ranked company in Austria is Ticketmaster, according to local promoters, after the company set up operations in Vienna in 2013. Most sales are made online (up to 80%). However, booking fees in Austria are high, with an average of about 15%.

Average ticket for an arena show: €58

Baltic States

Majors: Kassir.ru, Tiketa, Bilietai (Lithuania); Kassir.ru, Biļešu Paradīze (Latvia); Kassir.ru, Ticketpro (Estonia) Russian ticket operation Kassir.ru has emerged as the market leader after buying the region’s biggest operators – Piletilevi in Estonia, Bilesu Serviss in Latvia and Biletu Pasaulis in Lithuania, last year. The trio of nations has been slow to recover from recession, but sales are growing steadily.

Ticketpro entered Lithuania a couple of years ago and has been growing its market share thanks to more A-list shows visiting the region. Average ticket: €25

Belgium

Majors: TTS, Sherpa, Ticketmaster, Proximus Go For Music, Yetix The established operators remain TTS and Sherpa, however, Ticketmaster’s purchase of Ticketnet is having an impact. In Belgium, venues mostly have an exclusivity arrangement with ticket agencies. Forest National, Stadsschouwburg Antwerp, Capitole Gent and Kursaal Oostende are with Sherpa; while Sportpaleis and Ethias Hasselt are with TTS, for example.

The new P12 in Brussels has started to use its in-house system Yetix. Live Nation’s partner, the telecom operator Belgacom, is using the platform Proximusgoformusic and linking it to the different ticket agencies. New for 2014, is that credit card commission is now permitted on top of the ticket price instead of being included in it. Average ticket: €55

Denmark

Majors: Billetnet, Billetlugen There are two main ticket suppliers: Ticketmaster-owned Billetnet, and Billetlugen, which is part of the Venuepoint Group. The two companies have a roughly equal share of a relatively small market, although there are a few smaller players, run directly from theatres. Advertising a ticket above face value is illegal, so there is little secondary market. Online transactions account for over 90% of sales.

Average ticket: DKK500 ( €67)

Finland

Majors: Lippupalvelu, Lippupiste, Tiketti The market is dominated by three major operators, Lippupalvelu (Ticketmaster), Lippupiste (CTS Eventim) and Tiketti, which promoters speculate may sell most festival tickets. Online accounts for the majority of sales, while secondary sales are restricted due to ticket limitations. Average ticket: €65

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France

Majors: Fnac, Ticketnet Retailer Fnac continues to dominate the French market, selling more tickets than all its competitors combined. Online sales account for up to 40% of tickets. Live Nation purchased Ticketnet in 2010, giving it a strong foothold in the market, while Universal Music’s parent company Vivendi has a majority stake in online outlet Digitick (as well as the UK’s See Tickets). In 2012, the French government passed legislation making it illegal for tickets to be resold without the permission of the event owner, usually the promoter or venue.

Average ticket: €50

Germany

Majors: CTS Eventim, Reservix, Ticketmaster Germany is a fragmented market, both regionally and in terms of content. CTS Eventim is the outright leading ticketer, but in recent years, Reservix has started building market share. A raft of regional players or online-only companies also feature in the marketplace, such as Ticketscript, München Ticket and, of course, Ticketmaster. Average ticket: €75

Greece

Majors: Ticket House, Ticketpro The leading ticket company in Greece is Ticket House, but the economic crisis in the country has been taking its toll, as the outlet closed for a period, but has now reopened. Online outlets include ticketarena.gr and ticketnet.gr, but eleventickets.gr is no longer functioning. E-ticketing is growing in popularity, but the majority of tickets are still sold through outlets such as Ticket House and the Public retail chain. Record store Metropolis, which used to be a significant ticketing retailer, has gone out of business. Average ticket: €37.50

Box Of

Hungary

Majors: Ticketpro, Ticket Express Hungary, Interticket Market shares are heavily disputed, but while Eventimowned Ticket Express was acknowledged as market leaders last year, the general consensus now is that Ticketpro is dominant with about 35-40% of the market, with Interticket being the third major operator. Other players include Jegymester and Ticket Portal. Although online sales are making inroads, box office remains popular and still accounts for about 50% of transactions.

Average ticket: HUF 13,500 (€43.80)

Ireland

Major: Ticketmaster Ticketmaster enjoys a virtual monopoly in Ireland with about 70% of the market, with the rest being sold in-house at venues. As in a number of territories, promoters are increasingly reporting that customers are purchasing tickets closer to the day of the event, probably because of ongoing economic uncertainty. Online sales account for more than 50% of the market. Average ticket: €40

IQ Magazine May 2014

Italy

Major: TicketOne The dominant ticket company is TicketOne, which sells 8090% of all tickets. Additionally, there are a number of smaller ticket companies, mainly distributed in the north and central Italy. Tickets sold in outlets are often sold for less than online, and while over-the-counter sales still account for the majority of sales (around 60%), online sales are growing.

Average ticket: €57.50

The Netherlands

Majors: Ticket Service Nederland, See Tickets Live Nation is selling its tickets exclusively through Ticket Service Nederland (a subsidiary of Ticketmaster). CTS Eventim is relatively new to the Dutch market, but with clients like Friendly Fire it has a decent footprint. Greenhouse Talent, however, has switched its allegiances from Eventim to Ticketmaster. Average ticket: €52.50

Norway

Majors: Billettservice, Billettluka One of Europe’s most expensive countries unsurprisingly has a high average ticket price. Billettservice, owned by Ticketmaster, is by far the dominant ticket provider, while Billettluka provides services for lots of sporting events. Many venues run small in-house systems, but tend to use Billettservice for shows with major promoters. The vast majority of tickets (79%) are sold online. Secondary ticketing is illegal.

Average ticket: €70

Office

Poland

Majors: CTS Eventim, eBilet, Ticketpro Poland has had a strong start to 2014 with big names such as Metallica, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, Justin Timberlake, Soundgarden and Eric Clapton having visited. With Live Nation’s new Eastern Europe chief, Steven Todd, based in Poland, he is understood to be recommending Ticketmaster expansion in the country, where ticket distribution is very fragmented, despite the presence of major players such as Eventim, eBilet and Ticketpro. The vast majority of ticketing transactions are made online or via mobile.

Average ticket: €60

Portugal

Majors: Ticketline, Blueticket Internet sales represent only 15-20% while the biggest share of ticket sales are made through the venues’ box offices and outlets like Fnac, Worten, El Corte Inglés and post offices.

Average ticket: €37.50

Spain

Majors: Ticketmaster, El Corte Inglés, Entradas.com Tickets are predominantly distributed via internet and outlets at music shops and department stores. Live Nation has, with Ticketmaster Spain (Tick Tack Ticket), similar market share

IQ Magazine May 2014

to El Corte Inglés. Booking fees are low, compared to similar markets in Europe, and print-at-home is becoming very popular, as even some small venues have the facilities to accept e-tickets. Average ticket: €42

Sweden

Majors: Ticnet, CTS Eventim, Tickster The majority of ticket allocation goes to venues, meaning sales are pretty much wholly conducted through whatever ticketing operator each venue has its exclusive deal with. Ticnet has a majority market share, and the traditional reservation system has been all but phased out by online sales, with print-at-home proving particularly popular. Average ticket: SEK500 (€60)

Switzerland

Majors: TicketCorner, Ticketportal, Starticket The most established ticket seller in the Swiss market is CTS Eventim-owned TicketCorner, which has a network of distribution points in train stations and post offices across the country. Ticketportal claims to be number two in the Swiss market with close to 7 million annual sales (and 37m globally), while independent operation Starticket is growing in stature.

Indie clubs use their own ticketing system, Petzi, while the 200,000-capacity Paléo Festival also handles its own system.

One newbie to the Swiss market is tixtec, which has been setup by former TicketCorner CEO George Egloff.

Average ticket: CHF75 (€62)

Turkey

Majors: Biletix, Sosyotix, MyBilet, TicketTurk Ticketmaster-owned Biletix has a near monopoly on concert ticket sales, but has seen its rights for the country’s largest football clubs taken away after the Turkish Football Federation allowed the clubs to sell their own tickets. A number of smaller operations are springing up in the hope that they can secure decent business by offering online sales for the likes of nightclubs and the party scene. Rumours that promoter Pozitif is looking to buy Biletix as part of a pact with Live Nation are as yet unsubstantiated, but smaller promoters are reportedly already looking at ticketing alternatives, should this deal come to fruition. Average ticket: €30

UK

Majors: Ticketmaster, See Tickets Ticketmaster holds the top slot in the UK, followed by See Tickets, although the market has many other sellers vying for market share, including The Ticket Factory, Ticketweb, WeGotTickets and Eventim UK, the latter of which has naming rights for the iconic Hammersmith Apollo. The emergence of AEG’s ticketing service AXS, is stirring up the market, with the parent company’s ownership of the likes of The O2 arena and deals to operate Wembley Arena, amongst others. More than 90% of UK ticket sales are now conducted online.

Average ticket: £37 (€44.50)

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Backstreet Boys

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May 2014 IQ Magazine

Backstreet Boys

In A World Tour Like This There can’t be many better ways to celebrate your 20th anniversary than selling out a world tour. But with tireless energy, Backstreet Boys are once again entertaining legions of fans and setting the standard when it comes to getting up close and personal. Chris Austin reports.

I

n A World Like This turned out to be the dream tour for both promoters and staff. For a band that’s been on stage since 1993, the Backstreet Boys are still enjoying incredible success, selling out shows in nearly all the countries included in the European tour.

“The Backstreet Boys are going to be the boy band Rolling Stones, still out there when they are 50,” enthuses AEG Live president of international touring Rob Hallett. Such praise for the Florida-formed, hit-making quintet is far from unique.

Every promoter interviewed about the band’s current In A World Like This 20th anniversary tour speaks of the band’s incredible work ethic both on stage and off. Hallett has been involved in the Backstreet Boys’ live career since the outset and says, “They are one of the finest, most professional groups I have worked with in my entire career.”

One of the key elements of this success is undoubtedly the strong fan base the band has built around the world in their 20-plus years. Moreover, Kevin Scott Richardson’s comeback after eight years of absence has made the return of the Fab Five even more fabulous.

“At first we were a bit hesitant because the show we organised in Milan in 2009 for the This is Us tour didn’t go very well,” admits Italian promoter Adolfo Galli of D’Alessandro e Galli, who put on the sold-out show in Milan on 22 February. “But this time we were really amazed at the public’s response. The Forum was full and everybody was singing and screaming; it was like we were back in the 90s. I think Kevin’s return has deeply changed the way the fans are looking at the band.”

Spanish promoter Robert De Niento of Doctor Music agrees. Backstreet Boys sold out in Barcelona with 4,500 tickets sold, while in Madrid, more than 7,000 tickets were sold. “We have been working with Backstreet Boys since their first tour in Spain in 1998. The band has always retained

a huge fan base in our country and the gigs were as awesome as expected. Kevin’s comeback also gave a special flavour to the shows,” De Niento says.

The BSB reunion was also the main focus of the whole marketing strategy of the current tour. “We knew we had to make the fans understand that this tour was different and more similar to the first ones,” Galli reveals, “For the In a World Like This tour, we did a strong promotion before releasing the dates. Backstreet Boys came to Italy two weeks before the [on-sale], they did a lot of promotion with radio and TV shows and this probably helped a lot. The pre-sale sold out swiftly and the gig sold out quickly, too.”

Historic Trailblazers

F

ormed in 1993, the band has sold more than 130 million albums worldwide and toured in far flung corners that are considered unfeasible for many artists. The band’s agent, Brian Cohen at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, recalls that Backstreet played the biggest ever show by a Western act in Vietnam, when they performed in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in 2011.

“In the 90s, when the band was huge, it was the first time people in Vietnam had the freedom to chose what they listened to on the radio. People were telling us that the Backstreet Boys were one of the first Western artists they had ever heard and many of them even learned to speak English from them,” Cohen says.

That ability to break away from the well-trodden international touring circuit has enabled Cohen and the team at the band’s management company, Prospect Park, to route a remarkable tour that commenced on 25 May 2013, in Beijing and took in another five Chinese cities, including Chengdu

Backstreet Boys make their spectacular entrance at the Sportpaleis Antwerp in Belgium (photo © Rudy De Doncker)

IQ Magazine May 2014

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Backstreet Boys

and Guangzhou, before they flew home to commence the initial North American leg. Cohen says the decision to start the tour in China was based on the timing of the In A World Like This album release on 30 July. “In China, it wasn’t focused on the release of the new album, as record sales are not an issue there.”

It was the band’s biggest tour of China to date and Cohen is pleased to report that nearly every show sold out. “Few Western acts do shows beyond Beijing and Shanghai.

Backstreet Boys have done several tours of China before, but this time we decided to be more aggressive. It is still challenging touring through China, especially outside Shanghai and Beijing, but in these regional markets people are not used to seeing Western artists come through and business was great. There is already talk of going back to China to do at least the same number of dates again before the end of this tour,” Cohen says.

Once the Chinese leg was over, the tour took to the US for 31 nights before heading back east for 11 dates across the Japanese archipelago. “Japan is one of the band’s biggest markets, so we went to a lot of cities. It was very important that we went and toured there immediately to promote the new album,” Cohen says. The plan is to run the tour well into 2015 and plans for dates in Australia and South America are currently being drawn up.

European Triumph

T

he widespread appeal of the Backstreet Boys, not just in different countries but beyond the biggest cities within them, was starkly demonstrated by their ability to play four successful shows in Norway, despite a population of only 5 million people. As well as the obligatory Oslo, the band played Bergen, Trondheim and Stavanger.

There is no doubt that the Backstreet Boys know how to engage with their fans. Now more than ever, they understand that having a fan base is not enough: those fans need to feel special. Norwegian promoter Peer Osmundsvaag of Atomic Soul, tells IQ he was surprised by the band’s ability

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to transform their shows into live experiences for their fans.

“We had them in Norway before and we knew they would sell well, but we didn’t expect such a success,” he states.

“That’s why we decided to add three other regional dates.

It was a very pleasant surprise.” Osmundsvaag continues, “We have been working with the Backstreet Boys for almost seven years now and with In A World Like This they have reached an unprecedented level of maturity. Their shows are not just performance now; I would say they have reached the status of fine arts.”

In neighbouring Sweden, the band played the Scandinavium in Gothenburg as well as the Forum in Stockholm. Responsible for promoting the shows at both venues was David Maloney of Maloney Concerts, who observes that although the band had not played Gothenburg in 15 years, the shows sold out: “You can never expect a show to sell out these days, it is a tough market. But the band selling that amount of tickets in Gothenburg proves how broad their appeal is. It was amazing to see what kind of audience they attracted, we had everyone from 15 to 50 year olds.”

The breadth of the Backstreet Boy’s appeal, both geographically and demographically, created a challenge when drawing up the marketing strategy. With Sweden being the home of Spotify, Maloney says that many new young Backstreet Boys fans have used the platform to discover their music, but the challenge is persuading them to come to the shows.

“Bands have to do more PR, TV and radio to reach out to the audience and that is exactly what we did,” Maloney says.

“Because the Backstreet Boys have such a wide audience you have to promote via online sites and social media channels alongside old-fashioned media like print and posters. It’s important to make sure you reach out beyond the city centres to the families in the suburbs, because many of the band’s fans now have kids themselves.”

The Swedish promoter was impressed by the energy the band put into their responsibilities before, during and after the performances. The creation of tiered VIP packages has meant that the band members are often engaging with their fans during pre-show meet-and-greets as well as soundcheck Q&As right up to stage-time, and then again later at after-show parties.

May 2014 IQ Magazine

Backstreet Boys

“The band are generating more income, but they also provide great value for money,” Maloney says. “At the soundcheck there was a limited amount of people so everyone could ask a question. They performed a couple of songs acoustically and fans got to be close to the act. The after-party had limited tickets so it became really exclusive.”

Backstreet Boys’ manager Peter Katsis says that the VIP packages were created to meet demand from fans for greater contact with the band. “People are looking for an enhanced entertainment experience – they may not be going to as many concerts as in the past, but when they do go out they are prepared to pay extra for a more memorable experience.”

The packages were devised on a territory-by-territory basis to suit each market, while the varying lifestyles of the fans were also taken into account. “The options have been created out of necessity, people have different commitments, some are able to make the soundcheck, but are not able to stay late for the after-show,” explains Katsis.

The manager says the community spirit of the band’s fans has driven demand for VIP packages: “A lot of the fans like to have a shared experience with the band, but also each other. We have noticed this in the ticket sales patterns, usually between four and six tickets are sold at one time, the shows have become considered a great girls’ night out.

That concept has been building and fed by social media communication between fans enjoying the experience.

That has played a big part in the success of the tour and the band’s resurgence in popularity.”

Turning to the after-shows, Doctor Music’s De Niento tells IQ, “I attended the one in Barcelona. Not only were there a lot of people there; it was just amazing the way the Backstreet Boys behave with the fans. You could see why they are so huge after all these years.” The Oslo after-show was sold out, too. “I was amazed to see how deeply they communicate with their fans and it is always great to see you made so many people happy,” Osmundsvaag concurs.

Indeed, the In A World Like This formula worked so well that some promoters are thinking about going for seconds.

IQ Magazine May 2014

“Considering the success we had in Milan in February, we are now thinking about setting up new dates this summer – maybe during festivals in Lucca and Rome,” Galli states.

Setting Sail for Sales

T

he Backstreet Boys VIP experience reaches a peak on the band’s SS Backstreet cruise, which runs out of Florida every year in October. But Katsis is now looking for opportunities to operate Backstreet Boys cruises in other territories and is currently negotiating a deal to operate one from a European port.

The European leg of the In A World Like This tour kicked off on 18 February in Portugal before making its way east through Spain and Italy to Poland where a 23 February show was promoted by Adik Chezron at Bomond Management.

Chezron says that the full Backsteet Boys line-up of A.J. McLean, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, Howie Dorough and Brian Littrell had not performed together in Poland before and all 6,900 tickets for the gig at the Torwar venue were sold out three weeks before the show. “In Eastern Europe, in the 90s, there were not many concerts by Western acts and that generation are still hungry for the music of the era. If Backstreet Boys play another show in Poland on this tour it will definitely sell out,” Adik says.

The following night the band performed in Belarus for the first time ever. The show, at the Palace of the Republic in Minsk, was promoted by Berin Art Management who spent two months marketing the event via TV, radio, print and outdoor, to a market largely unfamiliar with the band’s new album.

Berin event manager Olga Kuptsova says tickets sales were a little less than expected, but the show was a huge success and a “dream come true” not just for fans but for many of her team, who worked hard on the technical rider. “From the technical perspective it was a 100% local production show.

The most important demand was for LED panels, but there was nothing we couldn’t do,” Kuptsova says.

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Aboard the SS Backstreet with fans in Florida

Backstreet Boys

A Tight Schedule

T

hree months, 33 shows, and 18 countries: the only major challenge faced while setting up the shows was the tight European schedule. Especially in the Scandinavian area, where distances are huge and the weather is not always favourable, so moving from one city to another on a daily basis presented several problems.

“The only problem we had was the one we always face when we are doing a tour in Norway: the geography. It is hard to organise everything and make sure that both people and acts reach the venues,” Osmundsvaag says.

Ollie Kite of transport providers Edwin Shirley Trucks, explains that the decision by the band to fly from several cities instead of driving required some special arrangements.

“The band did not ask for anything strange; the only thing was that for long distances they preferred to fly to the shows, especially in Scandinavia,” reveals Kite. “For example, we didn’t provide trucking services from Bergen to Trondheim, which was a bit unusual.”

The same was true for bussing services, provided by Beat the Street. “During long journeys, they generally prefer to fly, so we did not cover all the dates – we did 24 shows out of 33,” says Hannes Hauser of Beat the Street, which had two band buses and two crew buses on the tour, plus an additional catering bus for some shows in the UK. Kite also notes the importance of advanced planning in order to make sure that everything was done properly.

“Backstreet Boys had a very tight schedule in Europe and we had to make sure that we respected the law of each country.

The EU law is very strict regarding drivers, so we needed extra drivers for some dates,” he says. “For the whole tour we used 7 trucks. We had double drivers in cities like Berlin, Helsinki, Amsterdam and Dublin and had to hire relief drivers in other cities, for example in Antwerp. The weather was not kind to us in Norway, but we managed to cope with it,” he adds.

Andy Mitchinson, Craig Hancock and Andy Brown at Production Resource Group UK Ltd provided lighting services for the seven-week European leg of the tour with senior account manager Scottie Sanderson working alongside production manager, Jerry Gilleland, and lighting designer, Alex Grierson, to deliver the desired lighting rig on time and within budget. Sanderson says the dates went without a hitch and for consistency PRG is sending its UK crew chief to lead the North American leg that begins on 3 May.

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Among the state-of-the-art equipment supplied by PRG for the European leg, was a BAT truss, which speeds up loading times, reduces the labour required, and truck space footprint. “We also produced some custom soft ladders to allow desecrate drop on a number of upstage fixtures,” Sanderson says.

Aside from the visual impact of the slickly choreographed energetic dance routines, sharp suits and giant LED screens, a stand-out moment of the show comes when band members begin plucking acoustic guitars and showcasing their songwriting abilities. “During the acoustics section they all play instruments. Back in 2002, did you think they would be playing instruments? The band is continually growing – they are not just great singers and dancers, they are great musicians and performers,” Katsis says.

Hallett, who promoted five shows in the UK and Ireland, and will handle their four UK shows in June, says the production is secondary to the performance. “The production is not too flash: the show is all about their personalities, performance and songs. As five characters they are riveting, you can see they are having fun and they sound great,” Hallett says.

Pascal Van De Velde of Greenhouse Talent promoted the 22 March show in the Sportpaleis in Antwerp and two Dutch shows at Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam and Amsterdam’s Heineken Music Hall. He was impressed by the intimacy the band created with the audience. “Their enthusiasm is amazing and one of the reasons they are one of the leading boy bands is their hunger to perform and be out there with their fans. The video and the lighting design was great and the catwalk into the audience was a really nice touch – it enabled them to really connect with the audiences,” says Van De Velde. Some 30,000 tickets were sold for the three Benelux shows and looking back on 20 years of working with the Backstreet Boys, Van De Velde says the band are selling tickets faster than ever.

In Denmark, Kim Worsøe of ICO promoted the 15 March Copenhagen show. He recalls promoting the band when they performed at 1,500-capacity club venues in the city back in the 90s. He was extremely pleased to see fans snap-up tickets for the Forum gig. “We sold out 10,000 tickets in one day,” he says.

Elsewhere, the tour visited Moscow’s Crocus Hall and the A2 in St Petersburg in February. It was only the group’s second visit to Russia having played Olympiysky Sports Complex in Moscow and Ledovy Sports Arena in St. Petersburg in 2008.

But promoter Maria Axenova was happy the band was able to play more comfortable venues this time around.

Responsible for promoting the band’s nine German shows and 15 July Vienna gig was Music Pool’s Johannes Wessels.

“The demand has been very high. Twenty years is a long time and now is a good time to celebrate, particularly with Kevin back in the band; his return has generated a lot of hype,” Wessels says.

Katsis insists the Backstreet Boys’ ongoing success is not down to mere nostalgia: “That is enough for one tour, but to stay in the game you must put out new music, continue to go to new places, remain consistently good and attract new fans.

The boys are all very conscious of that, and work very hard every day to achieve it.”

Van De Velde observes, “They say cats have nine lives but I think the Backstreet Boys have more. They have stamina and never back down, and that’s because they still love what they do.”

Additional reporting by Eugenia Durante

May 2014 IQ Magazine

Argentina

Argentina The economic rollercoaster that seems to perennially affect Argentina looks set to careen downward again in 2014, but that isn’t preventing the country’s live music entrepreneurs from risking some big shows with big acts.

Adam Woods reports…

Lollapalooza rolled into Argentina for the very first time in early April, filling the Hipódromo de San Isidro, a 1930s racecourse 22km from Buenos Aires, with more than 130,000 fans over two nights. On the bill were Arcade Fire, Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers and 30 other international acts, as well as plenty of local and regional talent; on the sponsors’ list were Santander Río, Adidas and Miller.

It was the kind of face Argentina wants to show the world: a destination for major touring festivals; a serious market with money to spend; a solid platform for global brands. And it was all the more welcome in a year that has dealt a beautiful,

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sophisticated, unlucky country another bad hand. “I think it surprised the country,” says promoter Diego Finkelstein of Fenix. “If you read the reviews, the summary of what all the media say was that this changed the concept of what a festival means in Argentina. Everything that came before has nothing to do with what Lollapalooza brought to the audience: the quality of acts, the venue, all the activations. We are very happy and I know that our partners, Perry Farrell, Mark Geiger at William Morris and C3 Presents, were super surprised and happy too.

The festival was on a Tuesday and Wednesday, but next year it will be over a weekend, so we will be expanding the capacity!”

May 2014 IQ Magazine

Argentina

Promoters Fenix brought Lollapalooza Festival to Argentina in April

From the live schedules, there is no very obvious evidence that anything much has gone wrong. South American giant Time For Fun (T4F), the local partner of Live Nation, has brought Metallica, Bon Jovi and Black Sabbath through in recent months, with One Direction, Demi Lovato and Avril Lavigne on their way. Lollapalooza promoters Fenix, meanwhile, have welcomed Bruce Springsteen, Alicia Keys, Justin Bieber and Iron Maiden in the past year.

But as readers of the financial pages will have observed, Argentina penned the latest chapter in a century of singular economic ups and downs when it was forced into its latest major currency devaluation in January. Where a dollar previously sold for six pesos, it now costs eight.

Coupled with inflation estimated at around 25%, strict controls on bank transfers out of the country and a World Cup summer in neighbouring Brazil, promoters face tough challenges in selling tickets, bureaucratic headaches in paying international fees and stiff competition for sponsorship dollars. Welcome to Argentina, which, for reasons no one seems entirely able to grasp, has oscillated for 100 years between enviable prosperity and temporary but painful economic collapse.

This year, it seems fair to say, will not be a banner year

IQ Magazine May 2014

for the live music industry, though promoters have sufficient experience of navigating the hard times, that the show will continue to roll on, at a cautious pace. The stars keep coming, and the arrival of an international festival name such as Lollapalooza represents an interesting shift from the brandsubsidised festivals that have been the traditional standard.

The Latin market, meanwhile, which routinely produces stadium-filling superstars and penetrates the Argentinian provinces in a way most international acts never could, is easily ignored by the English-speaking world, but is perhaps the Latin American industry’s true powerhouse.

Taken as a package with the healthy markets of Brazil and Chile, Buenos Aires still represents a very solid date for in-demand acts, and in the second city of Córdoba and the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo, just across the estuary of the Río de la Plata, there are appealing secondary markets within easy reach.

“Argentina is a strong market for live entertainment,” says Phil Rodriguez of Evenpro, which works across Latin America and partners with Fenix in Argentina. “Pound per pound, no other market in Latin America sells the amount of tickets sold in Argentina. Unfortunately, the economic situation – which has impacted the access to hard currency by government-imposed

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Argentina

“All my life, the story of the Argentinian economy has been the same... We know that the market will come back in two or three years, and in the meantime, we will still keep doing things.”

Daniel Grinbank, DG Medios controls on bank transfers out of the country, plus a reduction in disposable income due to the soft economic scenario of the country – has put a damper on things.

“In the short-term, this means promoters have to be careful with their offers and more lead-time is now required with the confirmations of shows in order to be able to comply with the stricter guidelines for bank transfers. If these points are well addressed, Argentina is still a very viable and important market.”

In a relatively quiet year for international tours, however, we can expect Argentinian promoters only to put their money where they have reasonable expectations of seeing it again.

Next year, with presidential elections due, is expected to be a turning point, one way or the other.

“Depending on how business-friendly the new president is, Argentina can very well return to its full potential, as it has in the past,” says Rodriguez. “The bottom line is that Argentina cannot be written off from the South American touring cycle.”

Promoters

DG Medios promoted Violetta Live in Estadio Luna Park

From market leaders Fenix and T4F to stalwarts such as Pop Art, Evenpro and family entertainment specialist Ozono, Argentina has its fair share of veteran promoters capable of staging major shows, and last summer saw the return of perhaps the biggest of all. Forty-year live music veteran Daniel Grinbank, of DG Medios, was behind numerous superstar shows in Argentina throughout the 80s, 90s and noughties, as well as the biggest South American

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show of them all: the Rolling Stones’ free concert on Rio’s Copacabana Beach in 2006.

Grinbank’s influence on the market was such that when Live Nation struck its Latin American partnership deal with Time For Fun in 2008, it was considered prudent to sign up Grinbank as a consultant, five-year, non-compete clause and all. In the event, he reflects, he did very little consulting, but plenty of non-competing. “It didn’t really happen,” he laughs. “They put me in the freezer to stay out of the market.”

DG has continued to operate in Chile and elsewhere, but the five years expired last August, so Grinbank has been quietly putting his Argentine business back together, with the aim of competing at the top level once again.

The Stones’ faithful promoter in the region, he has lately been negotiating to secure the South American leg of their ongoing world tour. Press time found Grinbank deliberating over a pair of festival launches, pending a decision on sponsorship conditions in this turbulent year. “This crisis is nothing new,” Grinbank says. “All my life, the story of the Argentinian economy has been the same. It’s a little crazy, but we know something like this happens every ten years. We know that the market will come back in two or three years, and in the meantime, we will still keep doing things.”

While giving due respect to Grinbank’s pedigree, Fenix’s Diego Finkelstein says today’s market is not easily recaptured. “He might be trying to come back, but if you see what is happening nowadays, Fenix and Time For Fun are the ones that are promoting the biggest things, and there are some advantages we have as companies.” One of these, as far as Fenix is concerned, is a diverse programme of events across music, entertainment and sport. Last November, for instance, Fenix staged an exhibition match between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic at a purpose-built tennis stadium at La Rural. “That’s a world-class event, and it is superpowerful,” he says. “The combination of sport and concerts means we have platforms for sponsors, where we work with them on an annual basis, offering them all kinds of events.”

Another advantage, in Fenix’s case, is the exclusive rights to Buenos Aires’ 60,000-capacity Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti, colloquially known as the River Plate Stadium, host of the 1978 FIFA World Cup final and site of dozens of major shows. “You know how important that is to our country and for the live business, and having that exclusive right for us is also very important,” says Finkelstein, who notes that exclusivity doesn’t preclude renting the stadium out when Fenix isn’t using it.

T4F Argentina also spreads its bets amongst pop, rock and other diversions, notably theatre, and for Fernando Moya, another veteran promoter and T4F’s director of music and theatre, the market is well capable of withstanding the harsh economic winds. “The market is in a good place, with a permanent growth of 5% and 6% in sales of tickets annually,” says Moya. “Classic shows have a very good audience, the teen line – Demi Lovato, Justin Timberlake, One Direction – is well established and electronic music has good positioning.”

Moya adds, “We are doing Metallica regional, One Direction regional, Demi Lovato and Avril Lavigne; we had Big Time Rush in February. This year we have Cirque du Soleil, which we will present for a whole month in Córdoba in May, and then June and July in Buenos Aires – which is the largest season of Cirque in Argentina for the last eight years.”

Evenpro, meanwhile, working with Fenix, has recently

May 2014 IQ Magazine

Argentina

“Argentina is a strong market for live entertainment. Pound per pound, no other market in Latin America sells the amount of tickets sold in Argentina.”

Phil Rodriguez, Evenpro

Festivals Argentina has had its share of festivals with international profile, from Quilmes Rock and Pepsi Music to Cosquin Folk Festival and the electronic Ultra and Creamfields events.

But as far as Diego Finkelstein is concerned, Lollapalooza is something new in Argentina. “There have been a lot of sponsored festivals, or festivals with the content Lollapalooza brought to Brazil or Chile, but this was the official festival, the official brand, and it was a much bigger proposition,” he says.

“With the other festivals, the best scenario was ten international acts, and they didn’t have this kind of attendance.

This was 33 international acts, and even acts down the bill like Lorde had grown since the line-up was finalised,” says Finkelstein, who also promotes Personal Fest at Gimnasia y Esgrima de Buenos Aires (GEBA), which last year boasted a line-up including Aerosmith and Muse.

Sponsored festivals, which are often one-day events with a single headliner, have long been the standard in Argentina.

Many have a mixture of competition and paid-for tickets, or

Roger Waters’ ‘The Wall Live’ at River Plate stadium in 2012

co-promoted John Mayer, Avenged Sevenfold, Paramore, Alice in Chains and Iron Maiden in Argentina, with success.

“In May, we have a date with Thirty Seconds to Mars at Luna Park that is tracking to be a sell-out,” states Rodriguez.

Clearly, the devaluation of the Peso has narrowed the margin for promoters, who can’t pass on the full difference in international fees to straitened consumers. Nonetheless, demand for big events appears to be holding up, within reason, and organised promoters are finding ways of completing their deals.

“Devaluation was 27% and the increase in ticket prices so far is between 7% and 8%,” Moya says. “If devaluation doesn’t accelerate, we will continue at the same level. The transfers abroad are regulated, but it works and we can complete payments.”

Not all promoters are chancing their arm too often in the commercial market at this stage. Pop Art Music, which as recently as 2012 was putting on Argentina’s biggest ever run of shows, selling out nine nights and 400,000 tickets at the River Plate Stadium with Roger Waters, is pursuing a more circumspect strategy now. “It is challenging for us to find ways to do shows,” says Pop Art’s Matias Loizaga. “We just did Jack Johnson in the context of a sustainability festival. It was the biggest show of his South American tour – 25,000 tickets. That was a free event, sponsored by Movistar, one of our biggest clients, where you had to win the ticket. That is the sort of event we have been doing.”

Jack Johnson was part of a loose series that has also

brought Franz Ferdinand, Of Monsters and Men and MIA to Buenos Aires. Since Roger Waters, Pop Art has also staged The Cure, again at River Plate, and a Pepsi Music festival a year ago, featuring Pearl Jam and others from the line-up of that year’s Lollapalooza tour. “[Roger Waters] was perfect timing, but after that it became a little bit tougher to sell that amount of tickets,” Loizaga says.

No one disputes that these are tricky times, calling for good judgment. “The important thing is to choose the right acts,” Finkelstein says. “If you want to promote plenty of things, it is just not going to work. You need to choose where you are going to put the focus: to have that show, with the right marketing campaigns, with the right press campaign, with sponsors on board – because you can’t have sponsors for everything.”

IQ Magazine May 2014

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Argentina

“You need to choose where you are going to put the focus: to have that show, with the right marketing campaigns, with the right press campaign, with sponsors on board – because you can’t have sponsors for everything.”

Diego Finkelstein, Fenix offer exclusive access to sponsors’ customers for a period before the general sale.

Creamfields and Ultra have been the most prominent international brands to date, but there are rumours of an Argentinian edition of Sónar too. Meanwhile, names such as Quilmes and Pepsi Music have become well established, and are expected to see out the current crisis. In November, Pop Art brought Blur to Argentina as headliner of the international day of its 12-year-old Quilmes Rock festival, and sold nearly 30,000 tickets.

Since 2007, T4F has operated its Planeta Terra festival, which took place at the Tecnópolis exhibition centre last November, with Beck, Lana Del Rey, Travis and others.

Another T4F festival brand, Summer Break, was an umbrella for a Dave Matthews Band and Incubus show at Anfiteatro de la Costa.

Venues “River Plate is like the crown jewels of the live business in Argentina,” says Matias Loizaga, and with its combination of music and football – this is where Club Atlético River Plate play, and where Daniel Passarella lifted Argentina’s first World Cup in 1978 – the national stadium exerts a mythical significance.

As far as Argentina is concerned, it is the pinnacle of live music too, making the Fenix exclusivity deal a real advantage. However, there are other options for mega-shows.

La Plata, a short drive down the coast from Buenos Aires, is the provincial capital with a population of around 900,000.

Its Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, open for ten years and generally regarded as one of the foremost stadiums in Latin America, hosted three shows on U2’s 360˚ tour in 2011, as well as shows by Aerosmith, Pearl Jam, Britney Spears and, most recently, Metallica on their By Request jaunt.

In Buenos Aires, Luna Park, a storied boxing arena in El Centro, has hosted hundreds of shows over the years, and was the site of the first meeting between Juan Péron and his future wife Eva Duarte, no less. With its capacity of 8,000 or so, Luna Park is still a major venue, though its age (80 years) and its limited size are a frustration to some. “In the best scenario, it’s 8,000 standing at Luna Park,” says Finkelstein.

“A city like this needs 20,000 standing or 15,000 seated, to be able to do big shows in the winter season.”

When the nights are warm, the Estadio GEBA, in central Buenos Aires, is a useful step down from River Plate, with space for 25,000 standing or 18,000 seated. The nights, of

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course, are only warm for half the year, leaving an arenasized gap for the other six months.

Various parties would love to fill that gap, including Grinbank, who covets a venue in the mould of Chile’s 15,000-capacity Movistar Arena. He is in negotiations over sites for a similar venue in Buenos Aires, though there is no construction timetable at this stage.

Of a similar vintage to Luna Park is the art-deco Gran Teatro, which has 3,300 seats and was due to host Alan Parsons and Rick Astley in April. Further down the ladder are plenty of clubs, including Pop Art’s 700-capacity La Trastienda, which has another branch in Montevideo and has staged international acts including Mogwai, Jarvis Cocker and James Blake.

Local talent The export of Argentine cultural talent has taken off in modest but significant style in the past decade, notably with the global success of Fuerzabruta, the brainchild of Fernando Moya’s Ozono Producciones. “We have had a permanent company in Buenos Aires for two years and in New York for the past seven years,” Moya says. “We had a season in Seoul at the beginning of this year, and we will have another in Tokyo in May. We signed a three-year deal with China, and we will have performances in Chile in April with DG Medios and São Paolo in August.”

As well as Fuerzabruta and shows such as Mayumana and the Fuerzabruta spin-off Wayra, Moya has also developed another successful international production, Violetta Live, through a deal with Disney, and that property continues to tour Latin America and Europe, with recent shows in France and Italy as well as Spain.

Not all Latin talent plays well outside the Latin market, but that doesn’t make the Latin market any less enormous.

In Argentina, artists such as Luis Miguel, Romeo Santos and Ricardo Arjona are stadium-fillers, and their tours illuminate Argentinian cities where non-Latin artists seldom travel.

“It is hard for you to understand how big these acts are,” Finkelstein says. “When we promote Arjona, we can do 20 stadium shows. We are doing Romeo now, and we are doing five shows at GEBA and two at Superdomo Orfeo in Córdoba. When you put those acts all together and ask: how many tickets do you sell in total?...it’s a bunch.”

“The market is in a good place, with a permanent growth of 5% and 6% in sales of tickets annually. Classic shows have a very good audience, the teen line – Demi Lovato, Justin Timberlake, One Direction – is well established and electronic music has good positioning.”

Fernando Moya, T4F Argentina

May 2014 IQ Magazine

Your Shout

“What are your favourite April Fool’s pranks?” the UK, Paul Buck, who took a very confusing call.

Geoff Meall, The Agency Group

Digital Music News played a pretty good prank this year, when they claimed that Spotify founder and CEO, Daniel Ek, had told them in an ‘exclusive’ interview that Spotify would be changing their per-play streaming rate so that all future plays on Spotify would earn musicians $1 per stream.

Gordon Masson, IQ Magazine

TOP SHOUT With Sonisphere festival we seem to spend as much time working on our April Fool’s joke as we do every other announcement. We like silly things.

However, we seem to have done a particularly good job this year. We suggested that we were going to ban mobile phones as a way of encouraging fans to “live in the moment.” Five days later, I was being interviewed for a local newspaper and the question they had obviously saved up for last was about this “controversial decision”. I asked the reporter if I could add her to our ‘gotcha’ list and she sheepishly agreed I could.

Zac Fox, Kilimanjaro Live

Back in the early 90s, Neil O’Brien duped a London hotel into holding a number of floors for a Michael Jackson party…chimps ‘n’ all. And further duped them into confirming the reservation with his representative in

A few years ago, we created a ‘band’ called Baltimore PDQ (PDQ because there is this legendary ‘unknown’ son of Johann Sebastian Bach named P.D.Q. Bach; and Baltimore, because I was travelling through Baltimore when I had the idea.) We put the band’s page on our website, with album reviews in the style of Musikexpress, Intro, Spex and the like, touting them as the new indie sensation from the US blah blah blah; and we published a tour with proper dates around the standard indie clubs one would expect such a band to play. The tour was starting on 1 April, and we published the band page on 1 April, and put it in our monthly newsletter. We not only got emails from ‘fans’ wanting to know more about Baltimore PDQ, but also from promoters.

Our beloved promoter in Zürich was angry with us: “Why didn’t you offer this band to us?” he wrote. Whilst our Frankfurt promoter sent a rather desperate mail, “I must have completely overlooked this date. Do we have a deal?”

The best April Fool’s prank pulled on me (and don’t I deserve it?!), was by my dad, almost 20 years ago. In those days, it was only in Scandinavia that a lot of people had mobile phones. My brother, Ruud, (back then my partner at Paperclip Agency) was considering having one. I was not. One evening, while I was at home, the phone rang (a home phone... remember those?). It was my dad. “I’ve got one, I’ve got one!” he shouted. “What do you mean?” I replied. “A mobile phone. Get up quick and look out of the window. I’m across the street!” So I did... no dad in sight.

It took me many years before I dared to play April Fool’s jokes on anyone again, and I used to love it and be really good at it.

Rob Berends, Paperclip Agency

This year, King’s College, Cambridge (UK), released a YouTube video detailing their decision to discontinue the use of boy sopranos and instead use grown men who have inhaled helium gas.

Eugenia Durante, IQ Magazine

Berthold Seliger, Konzertagentur Berthold Seliger

If you would like to send feedback, comments or suggestions for future Your Shout topics, please email: info@iq-mag.net

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March 2014 IQ Magazine