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VIP- News premium ›› Vol. 133 ›› FEBRUARY 2011
McGowan’s Musings: Well perhaps you’ll be glad to know he’s back – yes, Shitty the Seagull, or another airborne rat that looks like him- no it’s him. I can tell from the particularly nasty gleam in his eye. There I am just starting to mull over these Musings and there’s a tapping on the widow, of course I leap down the stairs cursing and yelling, “Get off my roof foul creature!” and what does he do, he just stands his ground and stares! I’m sure he’s about to say something, in Gullese of course, then the phone goes, I leap up the stairs grab the phone and run back down, he’s still there! It’s Chris from ILMC, I tell him I’m eye to eye with Shitty who does one of those “Who’s that?” squints, I say (sanity is now disappearing fast!) – “It’s Chris from ILMC”, and I swear Shitty squawks, “Can I come this time, my cousin was on stage with Michal Eavis last year!” “No!” I yell, and looking disgusted he flaps off, doing a quick detour to shit on a passing cat. Then I have to explain all this to Chris, who confirms my (hopefully) temporary insanity….Sorry I couldn’t help it, I haven’t had a seagull rant for a while. Anyway back to the world of the live music industry and the people and events, which maintain its vibrant nature! We’re now well into 2011 and despite some worrying moments last year everything seems as active as ever. The Conference season kicked off last month with Eu-
for You’ will include The Agency Group founder and CEO Neil Warnock, Paul Latham, COO of Live Nation International Music, and Peter Schwenkow, chairman of Deutsche Entertainment AG.
Allan McGowan
rosonic and Midem, and we refer to outcomes from both events in this News, but there are many major events still to come, SXSW will soon pack the streets and bars of Austin Texas, and prior to that many live industry types will be gearing up for their annual visit to London for the ILMC. This 23rd edition, as usual at The Royal Garden Hotel, March 12-14, will consider the ups and downs of 2010, and has instituted a radical change for the opening session on Friday afternoon, previously so ably and humorously presented by Carl LeightonPope. The new format, presumably inspired by a year which indicated that the live market was not as secure in many areas as we had come to believe, reviews the major stories of the previous year with the help of some of the major players. The cast of the first ‘Have I Got Live News
The Festivals are in full swing with announcements of this year’s bills appearing in inboxes and on line every day. Glastonbury have confirmed Coldplay to play the main Pyramid Stage on Saturday 25 June as one of the three headliners with Beyonce doing the Sunday, and perhaps – U2, do we think to make up the trio? – Exciting isn’t it! The Industry big boys are not holding back in 2011 either, after a more than bumpy year which had many speculating as to whether their next moves may be a little more conservative than previously; Live Nation have been shopping again, seemingly undeterred by being hit with a $22 million bill to settle a lawsuit, and saying goodbye to a founding figure. Also AEG are going head to head with Ticketmaster with their new ticketing venture. All is explained in this issue’s Business News At the other end of the business scale it’s good to see that London’s 100 Club has been extended a life line and will continue to bring live music to London’s Oxford St. (see report) Right - I’m off to calm down, and here is the News...
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New Rates for Concert Royalties in Germany Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com
In a joint press release the German copyright collection society GEMA and the live music trade organisations bdv and VDKD have outlined an agreement on new rates for concert royalties for concerts. While the minimum rates were reduced those for concerts with more than 2.000 visitors have been raised significantly. For the first time GEMA will also charge promoters for income streams such as sponsorship and advertisement fees (from sales for space in concert brochures and festival newspapers for instance,). For shows with less than 2.000 visitors, the 2011 royalty is set at 3.5 percent, but this rate will increase annually, to 4 percent in 2012, 4.5 percent in 2013, before levelling off in 2014 at 5 percent. More drastic hikes will apply to concerts and events ranging from 2.000 to 15.000 persons. In 2011 the rate is 4.20 percent, rising to 5.20 percent in 2012 to settle at 7.20 percent in 2014.
Colophon ›› VIP-News is published by: VIP-Booking 145-157 St John Street London Ec1V 4PW Managing Director: Ronni Didriksen rd@vip-booking.com General Manager: Peter Briggs pb@vip-booking.com Writer and editorial: Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com Writer: Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com For advertising enquiries pls. contact Peter Briggs pb@vip-booking.com or +44 870 755 0092 Lay-out: Pekaye Graphics, Phuket – Thailand info@pekayegraphics.com
Promoters of shows attracting more than 15.000 visitors are facing tough times with escalating fees of 5.65 percent in 2011, 6.65 in 2012 and 7.65 in 2013/2014. The rate is deducted from all income gained from ticket sales including VAT, except for ticket service fees and ticket system fees. The share of promoters sponsoring and advertisement income negotiated by GEMA with the officials from bdv and VDKD is as follows: For concerts with less than 2.000 visitors the rate is set at 0.35 percent on these revenue streams, from 2.000 up to 15.000 visitors per show this rises to 0.38 percent, shows with more than 15.000 visitors will have to pay out 0.42 percent. Promoters presenting more than 31 shows a year will qualify for a discount of 14.5 percent, those staging up to 30 shows 10
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percent, but there will be no concession for smaller promoters doing less than 15 shows. For charity events GEMA will only grant a discount of 10 percent. But to access this concession the promoter will have to fulfil various conditions. These include not paying fees to the artists, and ensuring that all donations will only benefit causes concerned with humans in difficulty, which excludes festivals such as Rheinkultur or organisations like Amnesty International or Greenpeace. These stipulations appear to illustrate the attitude of those in charge at GEMA and perhaps those who benefit from GEMA. Another story that caused something of a media buzz over the holiday season in Germany concerned GEMA’s charges to Kindergartens, on behalf of VG Musikedition, the copyright collection society for sheet music publishers, authors and composers. The Society demanded 56 Euros for the copying of 500 sheets for children’s songs and 168 Euro for 1500 copies. GEMA sent out this payment request to a total of 36.000 German Kindergartens. Well, charging Kindergartens speaks for itself...
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Converse Step in to Save 100 Club Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
Converse, the shoemaker famous for the All-Star basketball boot beloved by musicians and audience alike has confirmed a deal with an ‘absolutely thrilled’ Jeff Horton the owner of London’s 100 Club to become the iconic venue’s new partner. As previously reported in VIP-News it looked as though the Oxford Street music venue was to close down as a result of a massive rise in its running costs. High level protests and support came from stars such as Mick Jagger, Liam Gallagher and Mani from Primal Scream all backing a campaign to save it, with Sir Paul McCartney and present and past Rolling Stones Ronnie Wood and Mick Taylor playing benefit shows at the Club.
However a sponsor was still required and Converse decided to step in. In a statement a representative of the Company said, “We at Converse are very excited about our new partnership with the legendary 100 Club in London. Converse’s commitment to being a catalyst for creativity is at the heart of the brand and we are dedicated to championing and supporting artists, fans, the music scene, venues and the experience. Converse and the 100 Club both share a love for music and this partnership is a great opportunity to reunite the 100 Club with a generation who experienced history inside its walls, as well as introduce it to a new generation with a vow to bring the best in music to its legendary stage.” 100 Club
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tallinnmusicweek.ee
24, 25, 26 March 2011
Tallinn Music Week is a showcase festival and a music industry networking event that started out in 2009, a year that was declared the Year of Innovation in Estonia. Having partnered up with Tallinn, European Capital of Culture in 2011, and the country’s very own brain child Skype, it is a music export platform for Estonian and the neighboring countries’ talent, as well as a tool to encourage professionalism and growth of our region’s music business. Tallinn Music Week welcomes around 100 international delegates to the festival each year, to build professional contacts with local industry and get acquainted with the local artists and music scene.
At the third edition of Tallinn Music Week in 2011 we will present a lineup of around 100 bands and artists, so it is a perfect time to visit early springtime Tallinn during a weekend full of fantastic music in the best venues for the most demanding tastes: from world music, jazz and contemporary classical to punk, electro, metal and anything in between.
“I thought the level of organization and hospitality Tallinn Music Week provided was superb. Tallinn’s concert venues were great. It was one of the most enjoyable conference showcase events I have been to (and I have been to a few!).” Martin Elbourne (Great Escape, Glastonbury):
Come and join us in 2011, when Tallinn will be the European Capital of Culture!
Delegates’ registration is open at tallinnmusicweek.ee Contact us: info@tallinnmusicweek.ee
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Lowe Joins The Agency Group Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
Greg Lowe
Agent Greg Lowe, formerly with the Elastic Artists Agency has joined the London office of The Agency Group, bringing with him his roster of artists, which includes Girl Talk, Crystal Fighters, Fujiya & Miyagi, Neon Indian, The Phenomenal Handclap Band and Zola Jesus, among others.
Conference Results Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
MIDEM:
Danish Dance Music at Midem:
As we reported in the last issue this year’s 45th Midem suffered a 4.9% drop in attendance from 2010 following a 13% on 2009. Organisers Reed- Midem have responded by confirming that they will live up to the challenge and will be around for years to come. They have also launched a new conference, Rethink Music, which is set to take place in Boston, USA between April 25May 7 later this year.
VIP-News: You have been coming to Midem for quite some time - how many editions have you attended? Have you always done good business in Cannes and how have things changed?
However many professionals reported finding it easier to do business in a less crowded environment, and rather hope that things may stay as they are. VIPBooking.com for instance had an extremely good response from their visit and is looking forward to next year. To check out the experiences of another attending Company, VIP-News spoke to Oliver Zähringer of CAOZ Promotion / Danish Dance Music Export, organizers of a Danish Dance Music showcase in Cannes during the event.
Zähringer: Its my 15th or 16th Midem. Cannes has always been, and continues to be a place to meet the key people in the industry, people with checkbooks that can make things happen and sign deals. Though the number of participants has dropped this is still the case and the reason that Midem will keep being of importance for the industry. One comment though, due to high prices, expensive registration, Midem has to be careful not to scare too many potential visitors away, and should work with the participants on their requests instead of outlining how things should be done. Honestly I see no point in having a stand at Midem anymore, they could reduce the whole conference to the Riviera area and
“I’m delighted that Greg has joined us here in the U.K. office,” stated Geoff Meall, director of The Agency Group. “Greg boasts an impressive career, having worked in a variety of areas of the music industry, from journalism to public relations to the agency side. His long-standing passion for the industry and developing artists make him a perfect addition to our U.K. team.” “I’m thrilled to begin a promising career at The Agency Group and look forward to the new challenges ahead of me,” said Greg Lowe. “I’m confident that the company will offer me and my clients many exciting opportunities.”
Oliver Zähringer
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make it a networking area divided in to country zones only. VIP-News: Nothing at Midem is cheap, was this an expensive exercise, who is financing the project and what do you ideally wish to gain from the event? Which venue did you use for this project and what acts did you showcase? Zähringer: The participating labels are financed the project, with a 50% co-funding by the Danish Foreign Ministry’s Export Council. Without the co-funding this would not have been possible. The venue was Le Loft, and we showcased Medina, Infernal, Outlandish, Kato, Jon, Providers. There is more info about the showcase at www.ddme.dk. VIP-News: It’s no secret that as the music business, particularly the recording sectors, and so far, to a lesser extent publishing, has been suffering a decline, Midem which has always relied on these sectors has also suffered a drop off in business.You have I’m sure been aware of this, yet you must still think it worthwhile to attend and to invest in a showcase project. Did you do a lot of preparatory work on the showcase in terms of inviting specific delegates to
Outlandish at Midem Showcase
the event? Do you think that there is still business to be done in Cannes, and to any extent is the reduction in numbers helpful in accessing buyers? Zähringer: The 3 Danish Showcases (2009, 20110 and 2011) have been unique at MIDEM for the genres it represents (electronic/cross over dance) – why it makes sense to host such party at Midem there is no great competition during the evening programme, unlike WMC and ADE for example. It’s a nice way to kick off a new year,
fresh budgets etc… and as mentioned before, Midem has all key players in the industry visiting. VIP-News: Have you had any tangible and confirmed results from this year’s Midem? Zähringer: We have closed a deal with Edina for the US. We also have interest from a few other territories not yet closed and a request for DK artist performances at Musexpo in LA 1-4 may. Plus we are doing a DK music export event in Tokyo 5 - 8 May.
South By Southwest Announces Yoko Ono as Featured Speaker Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
This year marks the 25th edition of SXSW, taking place March 16 - 20, 2011 in Austin, Texas. Having recently announced Bob Geldof as a keynote speaker, SXSW has now also announced Yoko Ono as a very special featured speaker for the 25th Music Conference and Festival. She will sit down with Jody Denberg for a SXSW Interview on Friday, March 18th. Most well known of course from her marriage and collaborations with John Lennon, Yoko Ono’s work dates back to the Fluxus movement of the 1960s. Recent projects have included the Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland and she has had five consecutive dance singles charting at #1 on
the top of the Billboard Dance Chart. In 2009, she received Mojo Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and she assembled a new PLASTIC ONO BAND for her latest album, Between My Head And The Sky, co-produced with son Sean Lennon, on his Chimera Music label. She will also be a special guest performer at a Chimera Music night, Saturday, March 19 at The Elysium. This year’s showcase event will again feature over 1900 acts on stages throughout downtown Austin. For more information on every aspect of SXSW visit: http://sxsw.com Yoko Ono
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Eurosonic Noorderslag – ETEP Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
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Official numbers Eurosonic Noorderslag 2011 Total number of Festival visitors (sold out) 33,000 Including 3,000 Conference visitors (sold out) Nationalities 43 Artists 292 Journalists & Media 187 EBU radio stations 24 ETEP festivals 58 International festivals 431 Number of stages @ Eurosonic 36 Number of stages @ Noorderslag 10
ETEP is an initiative of the Noorderslag Foundation to stimulate the circulation of European repertoire on festivals, radio and media in Europe. Visit the ETEP website for more information.
The first ETEP (European Talent Exchange Program) results for 2011 have been announced: 157 Eurosonic Noorderslag festival acts were mentioned by the ETEP festivals and the EBU radio stations who are interested in booking the acts for this year’s festivals. The Eurosonic Noorderslag acts that were mentioned often are: James Blake, Junip, Kvelertak, LaBrassBanda, Crystal Fighters, De Staat, Dry the River, Ben LÓncle Soul, Claire Maguire, ZAZ and The Black Atlantic. Eurosonic Conference photo by Jack Tillmanns
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Rheinkultur Festival Saved! Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com
Over the last 28 years the Rheinkultur Festival has become Germany’s largest free festival, located on a beautiful site, Bonn’s ‘Rheinaue’ Park on the banks of the Rhein. In previous years the event has attracted on average 170.000 visitors with a high of 200.000 in 2007. But the events of last year’s edition changed everything. Although the festival is run by a large number of volunteers and was one of the first in Germany to adopt a very strict ‘green policy’, it was this event that was almost financially ruined due to extreme weather. VIP-News spoke to Holger Jan Schmidt, Managing Director of the company behind the festival, about his experiences solving serious financial problems and what finally saved the event. VIP-News: What actually caused the financial loss of the previous Rheinkultur edition? Holger Jan Schmidt: Our last edition took place on July 3rd, the day of the heaviest thunderstorms of 2010 in our area and the football quarterfinal final in which Germany played Argentina. After an exhausting week of building up the festival in 38 degree Celsius heat the torrential rain started at midday, the main time at which our audience travels to the festival. In the end this we had an attendance of only a third of what we are used to. Being admission free we are dependent on the beverage and food sales. The result was a loss of 60,000 Euros.
Rheinkultur Festival
VIP-News: So what finally saved Rheinkultur and who are the supporters that you consider helped most to save Rheinkultur?
»That was all very successful, but we had to cancel our charity show due to low demand, which was a quite negative emotional experience« - Holger Jan Schmidt
Schmidt: We organized a huge Rettercampaign (Retter = saviour). We sold shirts, received donations, founded a supporters club, and finally held a big online-competition. That was all very successful, but we had to cancel our charity show due to low demand, which was a quite negative emotional experience. In the end there are so many people who helped us, it’s not possible to name them all here, but I’d like to say thanks to our partners who really helped us, the fans who bought shirts and of course all of our team who worked so hard for the last half year. VIP-News: As you say the charity concert had to been cancelled due to poor ticket sales. Were you disappointed that the
Holger Jan Schmidt
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Rheinkultur ‘fans so obviously let you down? Schmidt: As I mentioned that was a very emotional moment. It was all set up to solve the problem with a big party on one night but it didn’t work out. I learned that this is a problem other ‘public good’ organisations also experience. People tend to take up free offers but when it comes to personal engagement they rely on ‘the others’. Another thing is that the fans awareness of our admission free festival is as a spring event, and so it wasn’t possible to move them to a winter show although the advertising was massive due to our wonderful partners. But on the other hand many people bought shirts and took part in our competition in January - so it worked out in the end. VIP-News: How did local authorities and politicians help to save the event? Schmidt: Actually we did this on our own. The whole campaign was our idea and run by us with our partners. There would have been support from the city for the charity show, but of course this was cancelled in the end. I should mention however that the city will not cut our subsidies from 2011 on as was originally planned in the beginning of 2010. But although grateful for that
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I have to say that our festival is such a massive image-maker for our city, especially for the younger target group that we feel worth every cent of these subsidies. VIP-News: What will be the impact and consequences for the upcoming festival due to last year’s financial loss? What of measures might be necessary to avoid such a financial loss in the future.
Schmidt: Well of course we’ll try to be less affected by the weather. But to be honest 2010 was pretty much the worst case we could imagine and this year there’s no World Cup, is there? We have very good sponsor deals for an event like this, but could use one more main sponsor to help lower the risk for us. That would solve a lot of problems and we are working very hard on all of this.
VIP-News: What are your plans and ideas for Rheinkultur 2011? Schmidt: The festival’s concept is set and has worked well for many years. We will stick to the variety of styles and acts, our environmentally friendly policy and the free entrance. We all look forward to celebrating our 30th edition in 2012!
Pollstar Awards Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
Early this month the US live industry magazine Pollstar presented awards for live music achievements in the States, as well as a couple of international acknowledgements, mostly it seems going to the UK, (in bold) the winners were: - Major Tour Of The Year: Roger Waters - Most Creative Tour Package: James Taylor / Carole King - Most Creative Stage Production: Roger Waters - Best New Touring Artist: Lady Antebellum - Music Festival Of The Year (Non-Touring): Coachella Valley Music Festival (Indio, CA) - International Music Festival Of The Year: Glastonbury Festival (UK) - Nightclub Of The Year: Club Nokia (Los Angeles, CA) - Red Rocks Award For Small Outdoor Venue: Greek Theatre (Los Angeles, CA)
- Theatre Of The Year: Ryman Auditorium (Nashville, TN) - Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue: Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles, CA) - Arena Of The Year: Madison Square Garden Arena (New York, NY) - Best New Major Concert Venue: Consol Energy Center (Pittsburgh, PA) - International Theatre Of The Year: Royal Albert Hall (London, UK) - International Arena Of The Year: The O2 (London, UK) - Bill Graham Award For Promoter Of The Year: Debra Rathwell (AEG Live - Northeast) - Independent Promoter Of The Year: Arny Granat & Jerry Mickelson (Jam Productions) - Nightclub Talent Buyer Of The Year: Johnny Beach (Bowery Ballroom, NY) - Talent Buyer Of The Year: Don Sullivan (Jam Productions) - Independent Booking Agency Of The Year: Monterey International - Bobby Brooks Award For Agent Of The Year: Frank Riley (High Road Touring) - Third Coast Booking Agent Of The Year: John Huie (Creative Artists Agency) - Personal Manager Of The Year: Coran Capshaw (Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Tim Mcgraw) - Facility Executive Of The Year: Rena Wasserman (Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA) - Road Warrior Of The Year: Jake Berry (U2, Walking With Dinosaurs) - UK Booking Agent Of The Year: Emma Banks (Creative Artists Agency) - International Promoter Of The Year: Michael Chugg (Chugg Entertainment) - Lighting Company Of The Year: Upstaging - Sound Company Of The Year: Clair - Staging Or Equipment Company Of The Year: All Access Staging & Productions - Transportation Company Of The Year: Rock-It-Cargo - Video Company Of The Year: Mootv
Emma Banks won best UK agent award
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New UK Ticketing Firm To Launch Next Month Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
A new ticketing company will launch in the UK next month rising from the grave of the Seatem Group, which quietly went into receivership last year. Ingresso has bought various of the assets of the old Seatem Group, including TicketSwitch, Keith Prowse Tickets, Applause and First Call, and is being spearheaded by Seatem’s founder and former CEO Paul Burns. Also playing a key role in the new company is Nick Blackburn, a former Ticketmaster executive and the founder of See Tickets.
They quote Blackburn as saying: “I have sought to bring innovative solutions and high service levels to the market. I believe that, with the increasing importance of electronic sales and distribution in the event ticketing market, TicketSwitch will offer a hugely compelling service to providers and distributors reaching previously unavailable sales channels, which will increase their sales and lower their costs”.
It is thought it is the TicketSwitch system that will be at the heart of the new company, which, according to a statement from Ingresso, “empowers producers, promoters and ticket vendors to increase their sales revenues by facilitating low cost access to a vast array of previously untapped channels and customers”. Whatever that means. According to The Stage, the system allows multiple agents to have live access to one central box office, and would make it easier for third parties, such as travel agents and airlines, to sell tickets to theatre and music shows.
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Looking Into The Future Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
The following two items both deal with looking at the future for the industry; the Ten in Ten project initiated by Music Supported Here, reminded me of a project which I worked on with the Mama event in Paris last year called Muzik 2025 which invited people from various disciplines connected with music to write a scenario of how they thought society and the music industry would operate in 2025. I was particularly taken by academic Simon Frith’s very humorous, but possibly accurate scenario, so this seemed a good time to make it available to a wider audience. I wonder how the Ten in Ten poll responses will compare with Simon’s take on things, I look forward to reading them and urge you all to contribute your ideas to the poll.
Music Supported Here Launches Poll of Industry Future:
He added: “Will illegal downloading become less of a problem? Will recording contracts be fairer? Will there be less new talent emerging? None of us can really be sure of what 2021 holds for the music industry, but we think that the opinions of thousands of people who live and breathe the music industry will produce some pretty accurate predictions”. The ten questions will go online next week at www.musicsupportedhere.com
These things we can be fairly sure of: Music in 2025 - Simon Frith: Simon Frith is Tovey Professor of Music at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is also the Chair of Britain’s Mercury Music Prize and author of many books on the sociology and aesthetics of music, including Sound Effects, Art Into Pop (with Howard Horne) and Performing Rites: On The Value Of Popular Music. In addition to this work Professor Frith has also published a large body of music criticism over the years, some of it anthologized in Music For Pleasure. He is currently working on a project about live music in Britain.
Music Supported
Music community Music Supported Here has announced a poll that will pose ten questions to industry professionals about the future of their sector, asking those who are polled to predict where the business might be in ten years time. Results of the poll will be announced at an event at The Roundhouse on 18 Mar, where a live panel will also discuss the questions posed and the results off the poll. Introducing the concept, Horace Trubridge, Assistant General Secretary of the Musicians’ Union, one of the body’s that backs MSH, said yesterday: “Although we can guess, none of us know what the next ten years will do to the music industry - that’s why Music Supported Here will be launching Ten In Ten. The concept is simple. Ten questions that will be answered by experts from the music industry - musicians, fans, managers, labels etc - to give an overall picture of what we think is going to happen”.
Simon Frith
These things we can be absolutely sure of: People will still express and understand themselves through music. People will still make and listen to music together. People will still dance to music People will still try to make money out of music. Music will still be necessary for public and private entertainment. Music that gave pleasure in the past will still give pleasure in the future. There will be new technological ways of storing, sharing and hearing music that we can’t yet imagine.
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By 2025 there will be no stadium gigs. Economically and aesthetically they will long have been thought pointless. The Rolling Stones, in their eighties, and U2, in their seventies, hung on to the model but even they finally had to give up and stadium rock wasn’t even the object of nostalgia. Uncomfortable, poor sight and sound lines, tedious travel and car park queues— who would go back to that? As people’s willingness to pay high prices (and all the add-ons) for such gigs declined (and state funding cuts meant a lack of resources for stadium maintenance), so Live Nation and Ticket Master went bust.. Meanwhile the London Dome (with a succession of sponsors) and its equivalents in other big cities continued to flourish—smaller, flexible, comfortable spaces, in which bands could settle for a live season and music was only one of many kinds of entertainment. By 2020 AEG had overtaken Sky as the world’s biggest entertainment corporation. By 2025 there will be no record shops, but then there will be no record companies either. There will be tracks and albums but they won’t be funded, published, promoted or distributed in physical form by companies on the model of EMI, Universal, etc. Indeed, by 2015, when Lord Sharkey left UK Music to become Minister of Youth in the new Labour/Liberal Coalition Government, the BPI had become the least significant of the UK’s lobbying bodies while a joint campaign of the Music Mangers Forum and the Feature Artists Coalition had transformed the power structure of the collecting societies. Everybody in the business now had to accept what had long
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been apparent to outsiders: music could no longer be treated as an asset. It was, rather (as it had always been) a service, for which musicians were paid at the point of delivery (the campaign was copyright extension was at last abandoned). A new kind of large music company emerged, based not on the ownership of rights but the packaging of services, whether musicians for weddings or the provision of ever more sophisticated ‘apps’ for the various news sorts of personal computer/communications devices. Such companies, brought together in one place the old roles of artist management, music agency and concert promotion with a new expertise in music placement and worked as brokers between musical supply and demand. A music economy built round services rather than assets did not need musicians to sign long-term contracts and shifted the way consumers thought about music, not as an object (record, song) to be possessed but as an experience (of which music might be only one part) to be enjoyed. This was worth paying for but not as a single sort of transaction (buying a record or a ticket) but as a whole series of different transactions and the result was a fragmented rather than a mass market. The era of the global superstar died with the Rolling Stones. A musical career was now more localised, more erratic, more humble. In the economy of musical services the model for what, in the era of the musical product, were called distribution and promotion turned out to be the radio and, more specifically, BBC Radio. The BBC had established radio services through which a great variety of music (live and recorded) was permanently available on a great variety of digital outlets and devices over which the listener had a great deal of control in terms of how and when they listened. These services were paid for by a license fee, which enabled the musicians involved to be directly rewarded according to how much and often their work was used, and were successful in constructing musical communities, audiences sharing tastes determined by musical rather than commercial judgements. Inspired by the BBC model, a number of successful music providing companies followed the pio-
neering but short-lived service, Spotify (which became over-dependent on its record company support). It was perhaps not coincidental that in Britain the Conservative/Liberal coalition broke up over a Conservative plan (which turned out to have been devised in James Murdoch’s office) to abolish the license fee and make British broadcasting entirely commercial. In the subsequent election (in which the Conservatives lost a significant number of votes) veteran activists from the 2010 campaign to save 6 Radio masterminded a brilliant defence of the BBC in the hallowed name of John Peel and under the leadership of Lauren Laverne By 2025 there were three distinctive musical worlds, which, in business terms, were organised by different kinds of company and entrepreneur. The dance music world, organised around the provision of sounds and spaces for dancers, had not much changed since 2010 although there were now clearly different kinds of club (and club sound) for different age groups with tea and disco dances for pensioners (by now the 75+ age group) the most profitable. The talent music world (as in The World’s Got Talent, still under the autocratic rule of Britain’s only remaining global celebrity, Sir Simon Cowell) was organised around the provision of performers for television entertainment shows and songs for adverts, soundtracks, private pa systems and shopping malls around the world. The art music world was organised around the ideology of music as art— something uplifting and transcendent, a source of national pride and an activity requiring state educational and financial investment. Such ideology was no longer applied only to classical or ‘academic’ music. ‘Art’ music included folk, jazz and rock music and, by now, the album, on the one hand, and the concert programme, on the other, were seen as the forms most appropriate to music as art. State subsidies were directed accordingly, to acts, venues and music service companies alike (a necessary substitute for the now banned alcohol company support). By now the only sector of the market for
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which music meant little (because they were not considered a group of listeners who mattered much) were the young.
VIP- News - Fe b r u a r y 2 0 1 1
Business News Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com
Music in Shares Research Report on CTS Eventim and DEAG Predict Growth:
A recent research report by DZ Bank comes up with new conclusions and findings. According to financial analyst Christoph Bast the live music sector in Germany will experience a new boom year. Bast assumes a correlation between the revenue development of CTS and DEAG and consumer spending. One of his main assumptions is that the German concert industry in 2011 will benefit from a strong growth in consumer spending since 2001. Bast furthermore expects that Internet based ticket sales will continue to grow. In particular he sees that the growth will be driven by consumer demands for ‘print at home’ and mobile ticketing solutions. Nevertheless he does not expect lower ticket service charges to drive tough competition on the German ticket market. Bast rather sees that ticketing portals will also become information sources for live entertainment. But this assumption might not necessarily be the case as more and more festivals and venues institute their own ticketing via their websites, prompting consumers to check their favourite festivals’ or artists’ websites instead of going to ticket portals first. CTS as Take Over Candidate:
so far as to raise his price target for the CTS Eventim share from 47 to 58 Euros. While seeing big corporate media and IT-companies or even the record industry as potential buyers, Bast mentions that a purchase of CTS Eventim will need the approval of CEO Klaus Peter Schulenburg who is the biggest shareholder of the company. For DEAG the report perceives a push for growth in the Company’s revenue results, driven by higher consumer spending and also the collaboration with Sony Music. But the author of the report also expects DEAG to expand its international business into countries like Austria, France and Denmark. With this in mind the price target has been raised from 3.0 to 3.9 Euros. The CTS Eventim share stands at 46.90 Euro with a market capitalisation of 1.131 billion Euros. The DEAG share price is 2.70 Euro with a market capitalisation of 50.11 million Euros. Limited chances for Ticketmaster in Germany: Another interesting topic covered in the report is the assumption that Ticketmaster won’t be able to raise its market share significantly in Germany against CTS Eventim. Some of the reasons for this are based on the findings of the GFK study published by the trade magazine Musikmarkt and the industry association bdv, saying that consumers tend to stick with the ticket portals they trust. Only 14 percent, according to the survey, care about the price of a ticket. Another limiting factor for Ticketmaster’s fortunes is the Live Nation subsidiary’s much smaller network of box offices in Germany. Live Nation – Between Acquisitions and Win Warning
Another topic raised within the report is the potential of CTS Eventim as a target for possible take over bids. The analyst goes
By the end of January Live Nation had already reported that it had to lower its operating income result from $389 down to $362 million due to a lawsuit against
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its subsidiary Ticketmaster and restructuring expenses for its North American concert business. The settlement of the class-action lawsuit cost the company $22.3 million, the restructuring measures cost another $4.9 million while another $6 million additional expenses resulted from currency exchange rates. Also at the end of January Barry Diller, the mastermind and creator of a stock market financed corporate concert company quit his post as board member of Live Nation. At the beginning of February AEG declared that it was to launch its own ticketing system. Following this announcement, Live Nation reported the purchase of Spanish ticketing division ServiCaixa previously owned by the bank La Caixa. Both companies announced a long term agreement that allows Ticketmaster Spain to continue to use the ATM network of the bank for the distribution of tickets. While no figures were revealed regarding this particular deal, Live Nation completed the outright purchase of the Front Line Management group for $116.2 million in cash and shares. The former owners Irving Azoff and Madison Square Garden received $56.5 million and newly issued shares worth about $59.7 million. In a press release Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino stated: “By acquiring full ownership of Front Line, we expect to benefit from substantial savings related to cash taxes, the elimination of the dividend and operating synergies resulting in an increase in our free cash flow in excess of $20 million annually. Front Line is a tremendous asset and a key component of our live entertainment and marketing platform. We look forward to Irving’s ongoing contributions as we continue to focus on increasing the
VIP- News - Fe b r u a r y 2 0 1 1
growth potential of our combined operations.”
artist avails ››
Furthermore Azoff is now instated as chairman of the board at Live Nation, taking over from John Malone who departed from the board, while Greg Maffei, Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Media Corporation joined the board. Shortly before these moves Liberty bought $18.8 million worth of Live Nation shares and intends to invest $57.7 million buying a further 5.5 million shares of the company. The additional purchase has to be approved by the other stockholders of Live Nation at the annual meeting. The Liberty Media Corporation is an American media company that owns via various entities TV-channels such as the shopping channel QVC and the Discovery Channel. The biggest shareholder of this conglomerate
Liberty Media
is John Malone. Liberty Media now owns about 20 percent of the share capital of Live Nation. According to latest media reports within his new role at Live Nation Azoff intends to buy some of these Liberty Media assets. Possible candidates could be QVC, Sirius XM Radio or the cable channel Starz. The share price of Live Nation currently is at $11.48 with market capitalisation of $1.987 billion.
Anthony B Territory: Period: Agency: Agent: Phone: E-mail: Homepage:
Europe 24th of June to 23rd of July 2011 Magicbox Pedro Pontes +31 5 915 378 951 pedropontes@magicbox.pt www.magicbox.pt
EPMD Territory: Period: Agency: Agent: Phone: E-mail: Homepage:
Europe 27.05 - 31.05.2011 Company Entertainment Nawid Company +49 511 562 411 nc@company-entertainment.de www.company-entertainment.de
Within Temptation Territory: Worldwide Period: March 2011 and onwards Agency: X-Ray Touring Agent: Paul Bolton Phone: +44 (0) 20 7749 3500 E-mail: paul@xraytouring.com Homepage: www.xraytouring.com Groove Armada Territory: Europe / Worldwide Period: Worldwide 2011 Agency: WME - William Morris Endeavor Entertainment Agent: Steve Hogan E-mail: SHogan@wmeentertainment.com Homepage: www.groovearmada.com Firehouse Territory: Period: Agency: Agent: Phone: E-mail: Homepage:
Europe 1/5/2012 - 31/5/2012 ARM Entertainment Dana Strutz +1 651 483 8754 ds@armentertainment.com www.firehousemusic.com
Gary Lucas & Gods and Monsters Ex-guitarist Captain Beefheart (r.i.p.) Territory: Europe Period: June - July Agency: Paperclip Agency Agent: Rob Berends Phone: +31 24 323 9322 E-mail: rob@paperclip-agency.com Homepage: www.paperclip-agency.com
More Artist avails on: www.vip-booking.com Post your Artist avails on: www.vip-booking.com Michael Rapino
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Monthly featured Artist ››
FOOLS GARDEN Origin: Style: Tour period: Territory:
When Peter Freudenthaler and Volker Hinkel founded their Fools Garden in the German town Pforzheim in 1991, they did not suspect that their musical plants would be world-famous a few years later. They attained first national attention with their song “Wild Days”, which was used in an advertising spot for “C&A”. But the real wild days began with “Lemon Tree”. The “Lemon Tree from the Black Forest” has fascinated the whole world since 1995. The song was translated into over 40 languages and achieved a sales quota of over six million units. With “Lemon Tree” the band Fools Garden grew up to be one of the “Big Ones” in the world wide music business. Since then
Germany Pop Open Worldwide
Agency: Name: Email: Phone:
Fools Garden has played concerts around the whole world. In May 2005 they played their biggest concert until now in Kalingrad (Russia) in front of over 100.000 spectators. Fools Garden has always made a point of leading their career on their own. All Fools Garden songs are own-written and since 2003 they have also run their own label.
Suonix Group Rainer Froehlich rainer.froehlich@suonix.com +41 61 976 2078
While songs like “Wild Days”, “Suzy”, “It Can Happen”, “Probably” or “Why Did She Go?” jumped into the German charts, tracks like “Closer”, “Dreaming” and “Does Anybody Know?” became popular in Russia. The 7th album “High Times - The Best Of Fools Garden” combines these hits. It also includes the new single “High Time” and a new version of Lemon Tree.
Since 2003 they also have new band members on board. The first album of the new band “(Are You Ready For) The Real Life” was released in 2005. For many fans and critics it is the best Fools Garden album ever.
Fools Garden are: Peter Freudenthaler - vocals Volker Hinkel - guitar Dirk Blümlein - bass Claus Müller - drums
So far Fools Garden published six albums, which contain many international radio hits.
2011 Fools Garden celebrate their 20-year jubilee !
Fools Garden
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VIP- News - Fe b r u a r y 2 0 1 1
Member presentation ›› In In this this section section we we offer offer members members of of VIP-Booking.com VIP-Booking.com some some space space to to present present their their company company to to VIP-News VIP-News readers. readers. If you would also like to present your company please contact Peter Briggs at pb@vip-booking.com If you would also like to present your company please contact Peter Briggs at pb@vip-booking.com
Marc Kirchheim Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG MKE is an internationally-oriented commercial agency for star acts, personalities and high-carat artistes with a focus on the event sector, the advertising and industrial sector Nationally and internationally renowned stars and artistes offer a wide variety of options in event marketing and other sectors of the communications industry for image transfer to products and services as well as effective media presentations of very different kinds. Our direct contacts with celebrities and our know-how in event marketing enable us to offer professional consulting when it comes to the stars and personalities for your special events - perhaps the appearance of an artiste, a patron or a guest of honour at an evening gala, trade fair, product presentation, kick-off function, company anniversary or incentive event.
But our work doesn’t stop with negotiating a celebrity appearance. We also offer professional advice in all legal aspects of the events industry. Examples include contract law, non-performance or deficient performance of contracts, limited tax liability (known as non-resident tax), sales tax, artists’ national insurance contributions, copyright and ancillary copyright / GEMA and GVL [German performing rights and ancillary copyright associations]. We can, on request, see to all the logistical arrangements, such as flight and hotel reservations, transfers, security and other services associated with the usually comprehensive contracts for stars and artistes.
We advise you on what stars fit in with your concept and we offer cost-effective celebrity endorsements according to the type of event, your budget and their availability.
About Our Company VIP-Booking’s core product is the Internet’s oldest and largest database for the European Live Entertainment Industry www.vip-booking.com developed as a tool for industry professionals. Since it’s launch in the year 2000, we have consistently offered our subscribers the very best in database services and now boast subscribers in over 30 countries.
Today VIP-Booking offers a range of tools for the industry – including VIP-News, VIP-Booking, VIP-Book and VIP-Contract. Please visit vip-booking.com for further information. Your comments and suggestions are always appreciated.
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