VIP-News Premium Vol. 129 - October 2010 by VIP-Booking.com

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premium ›› Vol. 129 ›› OCTOBER 2010

McGowan’s Musings: No – I’m not going to mention Seagulls this month, but I am going to make reference to another species of bird – the starling. In Brighton you can see that Winter is on the way because, out to sea above the two piers, one intact, another just twisted metal ruins, the starlings are flocking, thousands of the birds all wheeling precisely together in the sky, constantly changing direction as though they were all parts of one organism – it’s an amazing sight. This flock is called a murmuration, and I am informed they fly together like this for several reasons, – safety in numbers, information exchange (if some come back from a good feeding area others may learn of it) and warmth at night through roosting together. The birds may feed up to 20 miles from their winter roost but return each evening. Having just returned from several European conference and showcase events, with more to come, I suddenly realised that this phenomenon and the supposed reasons for it seem to describe the movements of the members of the music industry that attend these events pretty accurately – we’re

have needed access to your own helicopter or private jet (or been a mate of Flying Officer Bruce Dickinson of the Iron Maiden Air Force) to make it to Manchester’s In the City, MaMA in Paris and Iceland Airwaves not to mention CMA in New York for instance.

all at some time or another – me included of course, part of a music business murmuration!

The VIP team attended the Reeperbahn Campus and Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg and the first ever Paris edition of MaMA, and at least one of us – guess who? – also attended ‘You Are In Control’ in Reykjavik, The Summit in London and Musex in Tampere, Finland.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking any of this, for me the great thing is that although we have access to a myriad of wondrous communication technologies, we still seem to need human contact, and we definitely ‘grow’ our own expertise and the business in many ways from coming together like this. This probably explains why, as with punters and festivals, there seems to be an unabated appetite amongst professionals for these events. It has now got to the stage where you have to make your choices as increasingly the dates of various events conflict. In the last few weeks you would

All of these events were as far as we can tell, or as far as we are told, well attended, although it appears to me that different events have very different ways of totting up their attendance figures. In the ‘old days’ when there was Midem, and, ‘er, Midem, and then ILMC and early Popkomm and SXSW and a couple of others, they were all ‘trade only’ bashes, and everyone with a badge was a known or still to be met colleague, or sometimes, rival. Now so many events also have a festival element that the numbers may become confused when reporting results.

Allan McGowan

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In the conference and networking rooms during the day this is still the case, but once we get into ‘wristband’ time, now so many events attract both professionals and punters we should definitely know where to draw the dividing line. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an estimate of how many people work in the European, never mind the worldwide, music industry, it is without doubt a very large number, but I’ve got a feeling that if you added up all the numbers given by all the events of all the ‘delegates’, we may find ourselves with – shall we say – an even bigger murmuration?! Right, I’m just off to catch up with the flock – and I leave you, Ladies and Gentlemen, with the News.

No Glastonbury in 2012 due to Toilet Shortages! Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com

Couldn’t let this story go without a mention, much as it may be practically accurate it does come across as being the basis for a whole raft of jokes. Apparently the huge demand for portable toilets in the summer for sporting events and all the other festivals will be extended beyond supply by the UK staging of the Olympics. According to Portable Sanitation Europe – (it makes sense, but who would have thought that there was a trade association for the portable toilet business – what happens at their conferences?!) – anyway, PSE, have confirmed that demand will definitely outstrip demand in the UK. It appears that we may have to import toilets from Germany, but even this drastic measure will not it seems save Glastonbury, as Michael Eavis and family are taking the opportunity to go off on a touring holiday in a camper van – I hope it’s got all the required facilities!

Colophon ››

Oh – there could also be a shortage of police, what with all these events, and with the recent cuts ordered by our coalition Government. So, will there be enough toilets for the police? If there are incidents and they have to carry out investigations they may not have anything to go on!

VIP-News is published by: VIP-Booking 26 York Street London W1U 6pZ 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

Glastonbury in lack of toilets in 2012

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Conference Round Up Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com

One of the things that I really like about the way that many of these events are developing is their willingness to cooperate with the like minded operators of other events, Eurosonic/Noorderslag in Groningen, The Great Escape, c-o-pop, in Cologne, MaMA in Paris and Reeperbahn, not to forget SXSW. Of course all these events have their own characters, but a sharing of knowledge and ideas between events and countries can only be good for the business, and it’s good to see the representatives of one event appearing as guests at the others. It’s also very obvious that as European Governments profess their support of the creative industries, and in some cases even begin to invest, these established and semi-established events are welcoming and including representatives and collaborators from a wider scope of creativity, all of which, TV, Games, Film, Theatre, use music as essential content. Events such as ‘You are in Control’ in Reykjavik are already aimed at all creative industries. The Nordic countries and events are also developing on-going collaborations as evidenced by a meeting at last weekend’s Music & Media in Tampere, Finland.

Reeperbahn Festival and Campus: I’m afraid it’s a month since the Reeperbahn Festival and Reeperbahn Campus took place – doesn’t time fly when you’re conference hopping! – but it took place just after our last issue so we get round to it now. Also it is definitely worth looking back on, because both events have now confirmed themselves a regular fixtures in the diaries of many international professionals.

Managing director Alexander Schulz summed up, “In 2010 we followed our approach to position Germany‘s biggest club festival as a quality oriented discoverer festival even more thoroughly. This proved to be a big success. Although we had no headliners in 2010, the Reeperbahn Festival attracted about 17.000 guests, exactly as many as in the record setting year 2009. In other words: 190 fascinating newcomers from all over the world, 70 highly informative events during the international industry meetings and an inspiring multimedia Arts-program proved to be as attractive as big names and were great fun for everybody.”

»The Reeperbahn Festival is not just a local event, but one that now has a regional and international impact on the world of music«

400 of them coming from 22 countries from all around the world. Detlef Schwarte, responsible for the international industry meeting of the music and live-entertainment industries: “This year the Reeperbahn Campus transformed itself from a conference into an international business-platform. Especially focussing on the music and live-entertainment-area was very popular. In this regard I would like to say thank you very much to our partners Warner Music and BDV.”

- Bernd Neumann

Bernd Neumann, German Minister of State for Culture and the Media, declared: “The Reeperbahn Festival is not just a local event, but one that now has a regional and international impact on the world of music! The cultural and creative industries have revenues of roughly 15 billion euros a year, which isn’t exactly peanuts, but rather an enormous economic factor.“ Those attending the Reeperbahn Campus apparently numbered 1500 professional visitors and media representatives, about

Panel at Reeperbahn Campus

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I had the pleasure of chairing a few of the panels, which were well attended by people who seemed to want to learn. I myself was surprised to learn on the Festival panel that one of the big problems of 2010 was the aggressive collecting of drinks containers, to the extent of snatching unfinished drinks, in order to claim the deposits on the ‘cups’. Both the Lowlands festival and Roskilde had been disturbed by what are thought to be Eastern European gangs targeting the events. Positive statements of actual follow ups arose at some sessions, Jens Michow of the German association for concert promoters, BDV, had quite a go at the the German publishing collecting society GEMA about moves by the society to get a cut of the live sector’s sponsorship revenues in addition to a slice of ticket, catering and bar sales. He followed this at a session considering the ramifications of the Love parade disaster by publicly offering to assist Chrissie Uerlings and Henrik Bondo Nielsen in their Safety Focus Group, efforts to share crowd management knowledge and experience across Europe within the live entertainment sector and with those in local government who regulate large scale events.

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The music business community

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MaMA 2010 Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com

Organised by the same team that organise the long established Printemps de Bourges Festival this second edition of MaMA on October 15/16 had to contend with certain problems. Number one was that this was the first edition to take place in the French capital, and the first is always the one in which you discover what not to do as well as what to progress! Apparently there were two other conferences in town at the same time, which made hotel booking a bit of a problem when trying to keep all the international guests together, plus there was the omnipresent threat of Le Grève, the strikes and anti Sarkozy protests about pension rights, but to a greater extent all fell into place and this first Paris event achieved what it set out to do, and will I am sure do what it set out to do and bringing a more down to earth approach to the music business in France, and attracting more professional international guests than those that presently attend Midem. It was for me and it seems for all I asked, a very enjoyable event.

20 conferences: 128 speakers & moderators (30% internationals) 60 concerts (20 internationals bands) 14 venues

Panels were all well attended – even those where people learnt to cope with instant translation – how do they do that!

14 international partners : IQ (UK) – VIP -Booking (UK) - Canadian Music Week (Canada) Liverpoool Sound City (UK) - Reeperbahn (Germany) - Womex (Germany) - PopKomm (Germany) - Wallonie Bruxelles Musiques (Belgium) - WAM (Spain) - Catalan Arts (Spain) - Audiocoop (Italy) - Swiss Music Export (Switzerland) - IMMF (UK) - European Music Office (Belgium)

Official numbers were as follows: 1926 delegates (30% internationals representing 39 countries) 752 companies (38% internationals) 120 journalists

Total capacity: 8000 (venues : 6000 - bars : 2000) Tickets sold: a) venues : 2860 (95% soldout): 50% sold to the public the rest reserved for the professionals) b) bars : 2000 sold out’ 5 international festivals partners / network: SXSW (USA) - C/O Pop (Germany) - Eurosonic (Netherlands)- TIMM (Japan) - Spot (Denmark)

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Saving The Golden Goose: Music Tank Review of the Live Industry Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com

MusicTank, is a business development network for the UK music industry, owned and operated by the University of Westminster to engage with industry, innovation and change across the music business. They have given VIP-News permission, thanks to Sam Shentob, to feature the bullet points whuch came out of ‘Saving the Golden Goose’ a recent panel set up to consider the present state of the UK live music industry. A full transcript can be purchased on-line at: www.musictank.co.uk The panel was chaired by MusicTank Chairman Keith Harris / Keith Harris Music Ltd / Director of Performer Affairs, PPL.

Panel: Stuart Galbraith: CEO, Kilimanjaro Live Andy Mcleod: Music Promoter & Director, Club Fandango Malcolm McKenzie: Artist Manager Geoff Meall: Director, The Agency Group Steve Machin: Founder, Stormcrowd

• The industry needs definitive figures but is not convinced on the accuracy of estimates of merchandise and associated takings in the PRS Live Music report, nor the voluntary submission of stats for Pollstar. Chris Jenkins’ aggregated Live Music Study is a step in the right direction, but sharing data is difficult – AEG are a privately owned company and so are most promoters. Most agree it’s a good idea in principle, but each company is reluctant to pool data. • The industry could do a much better job of educating people on scam ticketing sites. It’s not straightforward though, e.g. the Advertising Standard Authority requires that an advert that lists ticket agents cannot be selective. But the space required to list all ticketing agents makes this prohibitively expensive, so none are listed. There’s distrust of a government who discussed regulating ticketing for 18 months just to then do an about-turn. The main conclusion of the panel was:

The main points covered were as follows: • The fan experience at all levels of gigs in the UK has improved, but still has some way to go. • Festivals are a fine science, and there are now all sorts of VIP experiences and hospitality packages for the touring circuit. • Fewer festivals went bust this summer than three summers ago. There were far fewer clueless new entrants attracted by the festival buzz. • Record companies can no longer be relied on to be the source of investment into live they once were. Less investment in the market may lead to fewer stadium acts, but they are not going to stop entirely. • No sector within the live business has a divine right to exist and must add value, e.g. 80% of Sonisphere tickets are sold through the Sonisphere web site. But there’ll always be a need for an artist support business, as artists don’t have the money required to fund a large tour. • Booking fees are most severe in markets operating with nearmonopolies such as LN/Ticketmaster in US, CTS in Germany, and large operators in Holland, Switzerland and Scandinavia. In the UK the CPA has 47 members and there are innumerate ticket agents. • Fans will get bored if an artist over-tours. And if they considerably over-pay for tickets they don’t tend to go on to see that artist again. • Some crazy deals in the US see the artist paid 110% of the gross, with the promoter making money on car parking, popcorn and the secondary ticket sales. Artist fee conversations should first be about which venue is right, and then consider appropriate ticket prices before reaching an agreed fee.

The UK live sector is a vibrant, mostly thriving business. The recession has had an impact and other sectors cannot rely on live as a cash cow, but providing artists don’t over-tour or price themselves out of the market, the UK won’t go the way of the US.

MusicTank Chairman - Keith Harris

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Green Events Germany Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com

The very first industry convention solely dedicated to green issues that concern the music industry: Climate change, quite obviously we suppose, has a much greater affect on the live music business than the rest of the music industry. Green Music Events is the first conference to concentrate specifically on areas in which the sector can become more environmentally friendly. The conference agenda will include panels and workshops dealing with: Sustainability Managment for Beginners: Wastemanagement 1: How to avoid waste: Wastemanagement 2: Handling, Disposal, and Separation: Green Audience: communication and involvement: Mobility Management: public transport stimulation, rewards & sanctions: Festival Camping & sanitary installations: Tech Forum - new and green production tools: Green Marketing: sponsoring, sustainability as USP: Green Law: the legal process, international comparisons, European statutes: Networking – now it’s your turn (find common interests – start green projects together – peer audits): The role of the cultural sector regarding the fight against climate change: Energy efficiency & Compensation – pros and cons:

The organizers have managed to assemble a very solid line up of speakers and panellists. Holger Jan Schmidt - RhEINKULTUR, Ben Challis - agreenerfestival. com, Teresa Moore - Bucks University, Sabine Funk, - RhEINKULTUR, Jan Schönhoff, - Aqualogistiker.org, Paul Schurink – Bredenoord, Alison Tickell - Julie’s Bicycle , Lucile Barras - Green Music Initiative. VIP-News strongly recommends this event as the agenda and its speakers appears to promise a a highly informative conference. Those who have already attended workshops and tutorials by Teresa Moore or listened to speakers such as Ben Challice know that these people deliver very worthwhile and state of the art information that could help to improve the environmental conditions for shows and festivals. The conference will take place in Bonn, Germany on November 3 & 4th 2010. The Registration rate is 200 Euros. Members of the cooperation partner Yourope benefit from a special reduced registration offer of only 150 Euro. For registration and further information: www.green-events-germany.eu

Having the right tools for the job is often the key to success. Through our ongoing communication with key Live Entertainment Industry Professionals, we have developed a range of services to meet the demands of agents, promoters, talent buyers, venue bookers etc. It’s no coincidence that we are now considered to be the No. 1 information provider for this thriving industry.

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VIP-Booking.com VIP-Booking.com is now the most widely used online information service for the European Live Entertainment Industry with subscribers in over 25 countries. Using the latest technology and state of the art tools, the service provides indepth information streamlining the day-to-day operations of industry professionals, saving both time and money.

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The VIP-Book The ultimate print directory for the European Entertainment Industry, packed with contacts and easy to use. An essential reference book for every oﬃce providing basic contact information and a solid overview.

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VIP-News Written by our highly merited journalists, Allan McGowan and Manfred Tari, with over 50 years of experience between them in the Entertainment Industry, VIP-News brings the latest news and views directly to your computer keeping you up to date at all times.

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Roskilde Festival World Music Award to be Presented at WOMEX Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com

Roskilde Festival honours Dhow Countries Music Academy in Zanzibar with its second World Music Award, which will be presented during the WOMEX music convention in Copenhagen on Sunday, 31. October. Peter Hvalkof, world music booker at Roskilde Festival, explained why the Dhow Countries Music Academy had been considered for its award: “Cultural projects are often launched in third world countries with the best of intentions. But it’s difficult to sustain the projects over a longer period in order to achieve the original aims. The Dhow Countries Music Academy attracts attention not only because of its stated purpose and level of ambition, but because it is also a professionally operating organisation that has proven its worth and managed to make a difference in its area.” The Dhow Music Academy provides low cost music lessons in Zanzibar in Tanzania and specialises in domestic roots genres such as Taarab, Beni and Kidumbak. For further information please check www.zanzibarmusic.org Dhow Countries Music Academy in Zanzibar

Music & Media Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com

I was surprised to be reminded on arrival in Tampere that this event has such a long history. This was the 21st edition of Music & Media gathered over 700 Finnish and international delegates under the same roof in Tampere on October 21-24. The festival element, Lost in Music, featured 100 acts over 13 venues, some programmed by venue owners, agents, promoters and record company, Fullsteam, with a series of bands, including the very inpressive Biffy Clyro, presented by Live Nation, Finland.

Musex Director Paulina Ahokas gave Vip News her impressions of this edition: “The 21st Music & Media was certainly a success from the production point of view: the event was sold out, we had received absolutely fantastic feedback from both Finnish and international delegates. Our strategic vision of providing a boutique networking and showcasing bridge between the Northern Dimension (The Nordic countries, Russia and Baltics) and the rest of the world really seems to communicate and bring meaningful working relations. The themes, such as environmental issues, artist branding, changing media map and the keynotes have raised really active response, the video streams of the international panels and keynotes at www.musex.fi/musiikkimedia2010 , (including the one with a certain editor interviewing the veteran agent Barry Dickins of ITB) and www.musiikkimedia. fi have already received over 300 streamings in one day only! It was a true honour for us to present the 1st ever Tampere Award for Exceptional Achievent in Music Business to a most amazing man, Mr. Rein

Mr. Rein Lang presenting the Tampere award in Finland

Lang, currently the Minister of Justice of Estonia. The festival programme was varied with several different genres and styles being presented and for the most part both the Finnish and the international artists enjoyed full houses. I know of several offers for various artist teams. But only the couple next forthcoming weeks will tell what kind of concrete results it will bring to all participants and that will measure the concrete full value of an event like this.”

Barry Dickens and Allan McGowan on stage at Music and Media Finland

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Pop & Politics: French Government receive EU-Commission permission to launch Carte Musique Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com

While the Sarkozy administration in France is still under heavy pressure due to amendments of the entrée age for pensions or its migration policy for Roma, amongst other issues, it now looks that the French Government is able to proceed with one innovative and favourable measure for the digital music business. At a press conference at Midem in January 2010 Frederic Mitterand the French minister for Culture announced the idea for a so called “Carte Musique”. With this card the French government wanted to raise awareness and acceptance among young people to buy music downloads on legal platforms. The card enables young people under the age of 26 to buy digital music worth 50 Euros by paying only 25 Euro for

the card itself. The French ministry for culture will subsidize the balance of 25 Euros. The program will last for about two years and is supposed to be launched by the end of October. The French government expect to sell one million “Cart Musique’s” per year. In order to avoid only big platform operators benefiting from this measure, a cap of five million Euros per operator has been implemented. Due to the cap, operators of smaller and niche download platforms will additionally benefit. As subsidies are also an issue that confront EU-competition laws, the French government sought EU-Commission approval of this campaign. In reference to this Joaquin Almunia, vice-president at the EU-Commission for competition policy said in a

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press release: “We welcome initiatives from Member States to increase the availability of music online at a lower price for consumers and through legal distribution channels. Music online is certainly a driver for the success of the Internet and for economic development. However, we shall ensure that such initiatives are implemented in compliance with the EU state aid rules.” Also Helen Smith, Executive Chair of the music industry trade body IMPALA, said: “The music card is unique and demonstrates the importance of a carrot as well as stick approach. Alongside measures to guarantee market access and diversity, a European music card could be part of a new EC strategy to developing the digital market.”

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Pop & Politics: The Complicated Story of A City Venue Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com

A chronology about a youth centre in Dortmund that turned into a concert venue and has now turned into something else … and will then become…?: It started somewhere in the early eighties when the Freizeit Zentrum West (FZW) in Dortmund became a regular venue for all kind of concerts and music events. While in those days the capacity of the venue located in the western part of the City was about 500 the venue evolved and grew and is now a reasonable concert hall with a capacity of 1.300 plus a small 300 persons club room plus an additional bar area. This story contains political and administrative elements that could lead to a new definition of the term creative industries. Since the beginning in the late sixties, the FZW operated under the administration of the local office for youth welfare. But to make a long story short we will just focus on developments in recent years. In 2007 the city council of Dortmund agreed on a master plan to move the FZW from its former location into a new and bigger building more centrally located in the inner city. At this stage the VUK (Association for independent culture) was still in charge of promoting concerts and music events in the old location. The VUK was founded in 1988/89 and since then became the main organisation for concerts and party events in the FZW. Already in the planning phase opponents complained that the dimensions of the new building created unfair competition with existing commercial venues in the town. In particular the VUK made profits on party events which balanced out losses they made on concerts. The so-called “Ü30 parties” (disco events for people aged over 30 years) became very successful, not only in Dortmund. The very first version of the city council’s master plan poposed that the VUK would look after concert and event manage-

FZW Halle

ment for the still to constructed FZW with the Arbeiterwohlfahrt (Workers’ Welfare Association) taking care of the catering, while the office for youth welfare should oversee the so called youth work. But in 2006 the city of Dortmund found itself short of money. As a result the city council agreed to involve a private investor to finance and construct the new building, and signed a 30 year rental contract with local real estate company, Limberg. In 2008 Limberg started work on the building and the official opening took place in September 2009. Meanwhile a few things had already changed. The office for youth welfare didn’t want to continue with the VUK as the main booking party for the venue as the association appeared to be in financial trouble. In response to this development the office for youth welfare hired Volker May from Energie Musik as the head of booking for the FZW. May worked the venue very efficiently and was able to book very popular acts and artists resulting in a high number of sold out shows. But as the FZW was opening up in September 2009 other political events occurred. In the same month new local elections took place. New elections don’t usually make a lot of difference in Dortmund as the Social Democrats have

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ruled the town since the first free elections following World War II. In this case however, a new mayor was elected, but nevertheless the main post-election event that affected the FZW was, that one day after, it became public knowledge that the City of Dortmund had a funding deficit of about 100 million Euros. The former plan for the FZW foresaw that the office of youth welfare would set up a separate public company to run the venue, but the new mayor, Ulrich Sierau (SPD) withheld his approval. For the first few months May helped out and also took care of the financial management of the FZW. But the success of his work and his team also created more opponents and sharper critics. One of these opponents was the city-subsidised Westfalenhalle, quite surprisingly the management of the Westfalenhalle complained about unfair competition. The Westfalenhalle GmbH is a complete facility of the city of Dortmund and somehow since 2007 managed to incur losses in the boom years for the live music industry. It also begs the question as to where the competitive edge should actually lie between an arena and an ensemble of smaller halls catering for around 2.000 people and a concert hall for 1.300. However this becomes clear immediately when recalling that a manager

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of the Westfalenhalle once answered a question from the author of this article regarding the absence of representatives of the Westfalenhalle at conferences such as the ILMC with the question: “Do you really believe that there is business made at the ILMC?” In addition to the top management of the Westfallenhalle local politicians and other administrative bodies such as local audit office and the local newspaper Ruhr Nachrichten joined the chorus of criticism. Representatives of the political party CDU complained that the office for youth welfare did not fulfil the requirements for youth work at the FZW, the local audit office launched investigations after complaints by third parties regarding the tendering processes for the purchase of the sound and light system and the accounting standards of the venue. In addition, Ruhr Nachrichten regularly reported on the complaints and inquiries. In a non-public council meeting on July 8 before the political summer break, the city council of Dortmund agreed on a resolution for a new call for tenders for a new leaseholder of the venue at the beginning of 2011. In the draft the administrative board of the city asked its council members for permission to enter into talks with ‘surprise, surprise’ the top management of the Westfalenhalle as a preferred partner or other potential partners. As the reason for the new call for tenders the board argued that this

Dendemann

measure would reduce the financial loss of about 600.000 Euro for the FZW in the ongoing business year to 200.000 Euro. But a number of licensing requirements were also made part of the tender. Among other items the new leaseholder must consider a black list of party events such as “Flat Rate”, “Après Ski” or “Bad Taste” parties. Another one is a non-competition clause with a newly created centre for creativity and culture. The so-called “Dortmunder U” is huge former brewery building located just next to the FZW and houses a museum amongst other attractions. The “Dortmunder U” is a prestige object of the city, developed with funding of more than 60 million Euro from

the European Commission, the district government of Northrhine Westphalia and the City of Dortmund as a contribution for the European Capital of Culture “Ruhr2010”. Further compulsory points for the new lease holder foresee that they have to take over fixed deals with the brewery Radeberger Gruppe for beer with a hectolitre price of 199 Euro, and CTS Eventim for Ticketing. On September 30 another non-public council session took place. The council members received a further non-public document reporting on the call for tenders. Over the summer the top management of the Westfalenhalle came to the conclusion that it probably would need too much funding to run the venue and pulled out of the bidding. Of the remaining four bidders the offer by the company PanUrama was the best. The other bidders were Volker May’s Energie Musik, the music magazine Visions based in Dortmund and AWC AG from Cologne. Looking back in the recent history, it is maybe worthwhile mentionng that the new building of the FZW was built as a dedicated concert hall. Looking into the non-public documents by the administrative board of the City of Dortmund reveals that the word “concert” is not mentioned once. Nevertheless, in the documents the administrative board emphasised several times that the new lease holder must continue to cater for “youth culture”.

Blumentopf

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Unfortunately at no point within the documents is the term “youth culture” officially defined. But looking deeper into the details of the deal reveals that the officials of the city council have acquired a deep insightful knowledge about the concert business and in particular what the term “youth culture” entails. Now, to return to the offer by PanUrama; the company offers 135.000 Euro for a lease for 2011 and 150.000 Euro for a further five year lease. For the first three years PanUrama would pay in total the amount of 435.000 Euro. But as mentioned before, the City of Dortmund is itself a leaseholder, as the investor Limberg owns the venue. The deal between Limberg and the city foresees for the next three years payments of 496.300 Euro. Internal city sources even say that the lease payment increases over the duration of the 30-year long leasing contract. In the internal document it is also stated that the administrative board will now supply a draft of the lease contract with PanUrama on November 18 for the approval of the city council. Not mentioned in the internal document is that PanUrama is also the lease holder of two catering locations in the “Dortmunder U”. The managing directors for PanUrama are Till Hoppe from Dortmund and Thomas Pieper from Münster.

Both are experienced gastronomes that have successfully run discotheques, but certainly neither are well known players in the concert business (yet). Bearing in mind that the new leaseholders may receive an official go-ahead on November 18 for the lease contract, it still remains a challenge for them to install a proper program for the first half year of 2011 before the end of the year. Nevertheless on September 30 Volker May received a written notice of the termination of his contract. The same goes for most other staff members who so far worked for the concert department of the venue. For the Westfalenhalle who so far feared the unfair competition and the political coalition of opponents this is probably good news. Not to forget to mention that Dortmund has no other regular commercial concert hall for 1000 people plus. Considering that the new leaseholders are experienced discotheque entrepreneurs and ignoring the time restrictions for booking acts that capable of selling more than 1.000 tickets per show, this means that for the time being Dortmund is probably the very first town worldwide, that ever managed to create a subsidised discotheque. Well, there probably was a hidden agenda but let’s simply not question why they built a concert hall...

Sabaton

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Business News Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com

Report on the German Live Entertainment Market The Bundesverband der Veranstaltungswirtschaft (Association for the German Live Entertainment Business) together with German trade magazine Musikmarkt has released the results of the current market survey for the business year 2009. The study is carried out by the research company GFK (Gesellschaft f端r Konsumforschung) and reveals significantly reduced results. GFK reports a decline within all key figure segments. The visitor figures for events shrunk by 6 percent from 32.7 million visitors in 2008 to 30.7 in 2009. The average spending by consumers at events declined by 6 percent from 110 to 103 Euros, the number of tickets sold also decreased. According to the survey 106.4 million tickets

were sold, compared to 118.7 in 2008 and 127.3 in 2007. The accumulated turnover was calculated as 3.173 billion Euros, down on the 2008 turnover of 3.608 and 3.872 for the business year 2007. The average variant was less dramatic: 29.83 Euros in 2009, 30.39 in 2008 and 29.45 in 2007. The study differentiates between music and non-music events. For music events the turnover was given as 2.266 billion compare to 2.566 billion Euro the year before. The number of tickets sold for music events is 66.6 million compared to 74.5 million in 2008. The complete study could be ordered at www.musikmarkt.de

CTS Eventim On Tour The management of CTS Eventim went on tour in Frankfurt, the undeclared German capital of the German financial industries. The set list for the current road show included bullet points covering the financial prospects and the business agenda of the company. CTS Eventim currently appears to consider that Live Nation does not present any frightening competition in Germany. In regard to the formerly much noted global ticketing service provider partnership with Live Nation, CTS Eventim expects that the arbitral court

could come to a decision at the end of 2011 regarding the premature collapse of this collaboration. CTS Eventim intends to make up the previously forecast turnover growth expected as a result of the ticketing partnership with Live Nation, through international expansion. Looking ahead to 2014 the Company foresees equity turnover growth of 100 to 200 million Euros through acquisitions in other European markets. In particular CTS sees opportunities in France, Ireland, Spain and Belgium.

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In the mid term CTS Eventim furthermore predicts a surprising momentum that could could arise from a collaboration with Anschutz Entertainment, presuming that the Ticketmaster ticketing software may not be the favoured long term solution for the US giant.

currently look like this:

With all this in mind recent price targets projected by various analysts

The share price of CTS Eventim is currently at 38.04 Euro.

Berenberg Bank 49 Euro (buy); Commerzbank 35 Euro (Hold); SES Research 34 Euro (Hold); Cheuvreux 42 Euro (underperform); Macquarie 42 Euro (hold); Nord LB 37.80 Euro (hold); and Deutsche Bank 30 Euro (hold).

Live Nation Unofficial Equity Stories Live Nation is a thoroughly corporate company. In most cases the business outlook for stock market listed companies looks reasonably assured and there is usually nothing too much to worry any potential investors. Considering the size of the global concert player however Live Nation is way off course in line with this corporate assumption. Of late one hears stories not documented in official press releases from the department of corporate communication at Live Nation. One of these is covered by trade paper Billboard who reported that on October 15 Live Nation ticketing division Ticketmaster stopped paying commissions to affiliate partners. Many online stores such as Amazon for instance run affiliate partner programs that offer kick back schemes to third party websites for transactions resulting in a purchase. Affiliate programs are considered as low cost marketing tools that help to gain traffic and sales via external websites. Once unofficial reports are now official regarding the withdrawal of the Live Nation Germany GmbH. The former Live Nation Company once set up as the subsidiary for the German market was transformed into Music Pools Wessels GmbH. In fact as a result Live Nation now only has, apart from its ticketing subsidiaries Ticketmaster Holding GmbH and Ticketmaster GmbH, one company left in Germany. According to the German

trade register this is the Live Nation Germany Holding GmbH in Berlin. On October 13 Live Nation Germany GmbH in Hamburg converted to Music Pool Wessels GmbH and appointed Johannes Wessels, the former head of Live Nation Germany as managing director. With the move the former registered managing directors Niall Dunphy and Allan Ridgeway resigned from the company. Wessels who worked for Live Nation from February until September takes on most of the previous Live Nation staff for his new company. The team now has seven staff and Wessels has already confirmed that he is working on dates for Neil Young. For Live Nation the short-term incursion into the German market at least ended relatively happily. Wessels took his former team with him and therewith saved Live Nation some redemption payments. In return Wessels received a new company and commented: “I am very happy to be my own boss again.” Nevertheless the exit story also reveals that Live Nation has problems making its way into the German concert market. The website livenation. de is already off line and is redirected to livenationinternational.com. Once again the conclusion is that it seems that Live Nation in Germany has limited chances of competing with CTS Eventim as the undisputed German market leader.

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artist avails ›› Bauchklang Territory: Worldwide Period: 2011 Agency: Georg Leitner Productions Agent: Nina Pernica Phone: +43 1 914 8615 E-mail: npernica@glp.at Homepage: www.glp.at 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 Skid Row Territory: Period: Agency: Agent: Phone: E-mail: Homepage:

Europe, Asia 1/6/2011 - 31/8/2011 ARM Entertainment Dana Strutz +1 651 483 8754 ds@armentertainment.com www.skidrow.com

Groove Armada Territory: Europe / Worldwide Period: Europe Winter 2010 Worldwide 2011 Agency: WME - William Morris Endeavor Ent. Agent: Steve Hogan E-mail: shogan@wmeentertainment.com Homepage: www.groovearmada.com Admiral T Territory: Period: Agency: Agent: Phone: E-mail: Homepage:

Worldwide 2010 - 2011 CARAMBA Spectacles Clotaire +33 1 4218 1718 caramba@clotaire.fr www.caramba.fr

Sass Jordan Territory: Period: Agency: Agent: Phone: E-mail: Homepage:

Europe February / March Paperclip Agency Hilde Spille +31 24 323 9322 hilde@paperclip-agency.com www.paperclip-agency.com

More Artist avails on: www.vip-booking.com Post your Artist avails on: www.vip-booking.com

VIP- News VIPNews - A u-g O u sc t 2 t 0o0b5 e r 2 0 1 0

notice board ›› Another new service in the improved and redesigned VIP-News is the Notice-board, which is available for all readers. Reader’s messages will be posted on the Notice-board as a free service, passing on announcements, job postings, buying and selling notices, inquiries or alike. Announcements should be emailed to noticeboard@vip-booking.com

Conference Newsletter ABOUT Taking place on November 26 & 27, Buma Rotterdam Beats is a brand new event focusing on the whole range of urban genres, featuring two-days of music conferences, workshops, seminars and a night time music festival across five venues plus a program for new talent. Combining all these different elements, Buma Rotterdam Beats offers a versatile program which will be a first, modest step toward a future in which the event aims to grow into the main European platform for urban musical styles. www.buma-rotterdam-beats.nl Conference headlines Alongside a nighttime festival featuring hip-hop, soul, dubstep and reggae, the daytime conference program will feature a broad, two-day line-up of match-making initiatives, lectures and debates focused on the current and future music industry, as well as several interactive and online technology workshops. During the conference, key industry figures and artists will be taking part in workshops, panel discussions and interactive presentations in order to deliver a dynamic and informative series of events. Keith Harris, the former manager of Stevie Wonder, will be discussing his work for the iconic soul label Motown. Entertainment Lawyer Hector Baldonado will be talking about his work with independent artists and labels from the American entertainment industry. Baldonado recently brought together two of his own clients, Juelz Santana and Lloyd Banks, resulting in the surprise US hit of the year, Beamer, Benz or Bentley. Booker Rolf Radny (Kingstone), who works with German reggae star Gentleman, will be talking about the European reggae business, as well as giving tips on how to get acts on the bill of the larger European festivals. In the panel discussion ‘7 Billion Rappers, How to Find the Right One’, international A&R managers including Matthew Haynes (Geffen, UK), Walter Harris (Blue Colla Music, UK) and Latoya Lee (Konvict, US), will reveal how they scout for new talent, plus what to look for and what to avoid. Kees de Koning (Top Notch) and Noah’s Ark’s Jiggy Djé will be talking about their respective labels, the business of signing new talent, and how it feels to be working in a rapidly changing music industry.

National highlights include a Q&A with Lange Frans who will talk about his business experiences with labels, managers and artists, plus a Q&A with former Opgezwolle producer Peter ‘Delic’ Blom talking about his influential and innovative productions. Perquisite, who will also be giving a workshop on creating beats, will talk with La Melodia about their shared experiences of the Japanese market and the realities of success there. On top of that, Salah Edin will be giving a talk about the process which led him to success in dozens of countries, and in “My Bio” a presentation from the new Rotterdam ROTTZ label with DuvelDuvel, VSOP, Presto, Midkade and DJ MP will take place. And there are loads more interesting guests discussing a range of topics, including the ins and outs of independent labels, the search for new promotional opportunities in hip hop, r&b, dubstep and reggae, and the state of affairs in the European urban scene. Names include Hef, Tim Beumer (FunX), Bart Suer, GMB and representatives of Puna, State Magazine, Buma, 22Tracks, Diversidad, Stichting Brein, HipHopConnection, NPS, MTV, Top Billin and HipHopHuis. Workshops are given by Tasha’s World, Excellent, Saul van Stapele and I.N.T. Expect even more soon, stay tuned!

festival program complete Being officially kicked off on November 25, by Typhoon and the New Cool Collective, the festival will offer two days packed to the rim with the best music, with performances by: Zwart Licht, Postman, De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, Ntjam Rosie, Pam Feather, VSOP, La Melodia, Kalibwoy, The Others, Sir OJ presenteert ‘Goed Ontmoet’, Smiley, Gomes vs. Brutuzz, Kleine Jay & Cartes, Soul Sinners, Steffen Morrisson, Reverse, Adje & Jayh, Aisha, Nicon, Bluey Robinson, Boom Boom Du Tèrre, Lyrical, Skinto, Seven, Furlan Williams & Shirma Rouse, Ackachar, KC The Funkaholic, FS Green, DJ Jah, Mixturess, Thelonius, Lucky Dubz, Riddim Up DJ’s, Rass Motivated, Git Hyper and Deep Diggin’.

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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

Sziget Festival Sziget festival is the biggest musical and cultural festival in Central Europe–a seven-day multicultural expo offering more than 800 programs on more than 30 venues. Sziget means island in Hungarian and the festival, in addition to being on an island in the heart of Budapest, is an island in the metaphorical sense. Sziget has a unique atmosphere: it is a meeting place, a musical and cultural show, a life-style, an enormous cafe and party place, a place of learning about the world and each other. No matter what style of music you like listening or dancing to, you will find the place of your taste. You can enjoy performances, shows, you can party and dance or just walk around and gaze at the ever-increasing flow of interesting and different people passing by.

The Levellers, Sonic Youth, Therapy?,Galliano, David Bowie, Apollo 440, Motörhead, Toy Dollz, Rollins Band, Chumbawamba, Faith No More, Foo Fighters, New Model Army, Cardigans, DEUS, Boney M, Shane McGowan, Coolio, Trans-global Underground, Rammstein, Mory Kante, Goldie, Patti Smith, Green Day, Brand New Heavies, Kool and the Gang, Suede, Faithless, Guano Apes, Jovanotti, Baaba Maal, Apocalyptica, The Klezmatics, Liquido, Rachid Taha, Paradise Lost, Asian Dub Foundation, Suzanne Vega, Mambo Kurt, The Bloodhound Gang, Lou Reed, HIM, Bad Religion, Oasis, The King, H Blockx, K”s Choice, Bomfunk MC’s, Noir Desir, Run DMC, FunDa-Mental, Morcheeba, Leningrad Cowboys, Frestylers, Incognito, Eagle-Eye Cherry, Ash, Placebo.

From the beginning in 1993 until 2001 Sziget’s capacity has grown from 43,000 to over 360,000 over the seven days of the event presenting stars such as Jethro Tull, Ten Years After, Jefferson Starship, Byrds, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Eric Burdon, Stranglers, Jeff Healey, Clawfinger, Slash, The Bates, Stone Roses, Iggy Pop, The Prodigy,

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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