Comment
BUSY BODIES News fr om live music associations ar ound the world
GWVR wins Music Venues Day to government approval Launch TAMVA The UK’s Music Venues Alliance is set to launch its own trade body next month when it holds its second annual Venues Day in London’s iconic Ministry of Sound club on 20 October. Simply named TAMVA – the Trade Association of the Music Venues Alliance – the new organisation intends to eventually offer member venues favourable rates on a range of products and services. “We’re looking at all kinds of areas, such as insurance, where we might be able to offer member venues beneficial trading terms and support,” explains Music Venues Trust founder Mark Davyd. Despite only forming
the Alliance a year ago, at 2014’s Venues Day, Davyd and his team have been working on a comprehensive review of the entire venues sector to identify the most crucial areas of concern, as well as prioritise the organisation’s goals and agenda for the coming year. “Ultimately we’d like to be in a position where our lobbying efforts can persuade legislators to give venue owners and operators tax incentives,” continues Davyd. “The trade association launch will be one of a series of announcements at this year’s Venues Day which will be a lot more in-depth than the inaugural event in 2014.”
Spanish festivals conference aims for record attendance The city of Bilbao’s world famous Guggenheim Museum is preparing to host Premios Fest (the Spanish Music Festivals Awards) as part of the third annual BIME music conference. An initiative of the Association of Music Promoters and festival portal, Bythefest.com, Premios Fest also collaborates with national radio broadcaster, Radio 3. The awards ceremony made its debut at
BIME last year and attracted 67 accredited festivals, more than 26,000 votes and a dinner attended by the industry’s most prominent professionals. This year, more than 80 festivals are expected to participate in both the awards ceremony and the conference, where one of the major topic discussions will be the relationship between festivals and brands. The theme of this year’s conference, which takes
A new organisation that will allow promoters operating in the European Union to earn royalties from the use of their audio visual content, has been given the green light to proceed. Germany’s Patent and Trademark Office has recognised the Collecting Society for Promoter Rights (GWVR), launched by the nation’s promoters association, BDV, to allow promoters throughout Europe to earn revenues from the broadcast of audio or visual rights from their events. The German Copyright Act stipulates that, promoters can claim a licence fee when a recording of their event is broadcast, or made available in digital form. Before BDV set-up the GWVR, many promoters
didn’t realise the revenues they were entitled to by law. GWVR will collect royalties for its members whenever live recordings are used commercially. “For the first time there is a collecting society in Germany, which collects fees for the commercial usage of live recordings” explains GWVR chief Dr Johannes Ulbricht. “However, the real work has just started, because we have to draw up tariffs and allocation plans in agreement with the German Patent and Trademark Office.” Ulbricht adds that the Society for Musical Performing and Mechanical Reproduction Rights (GEMA) should administrate the collecting activities for the GWVR.
place 28-31 October, is ‘How New Thinking Generates New Incomes’ and will gather experts from across the music and technology sectors to discuss a range of topics, and will include a Spanish Music Festivals Congress. With both a professional and festival side to the programme, BIME is dedicated to exploring new opportunities between the music, tech, sync and gaming industries. In addition, the event hosts Europe’s first Latin and South American Networking
Summit, bringing together top buyers and sellers from the regions across festivals, sync and brands. Last year, more than 450 music festivals took place in Spain, with the biggest ten gatherings attracting more than 2.5million fans, who spent €211million on accommodation and transport alone. Highlighting the economic impact to the Spanish government, Premios Fest aims to recognise and value the work of the professionals behind each festival and celebrate the best events.
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IQ Magazine September 2015