VIP-Magazine #06 2010 by VIP-Booking.com

EDITION #06 SEPTEMBER 2010

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IGGY POP

ONE OF THE HEADLINERS AT PAL ÉO FESTIVAL NYON THIS SUMMER MARKET FEATURE: PAGE 24# THE STATE OF THE SWISS LIVE MUSIC BUSINESS

YOUROPE TAKES A LEAD ON EVENT HEALTHREAD AND SAFETY MORE ON PAGE 5# 06#SPOT

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INTERVIEW:

Jens Michow - IDKV ®

This year IDKV celebrates its 25th anniversary. VIP-Magazine has spoken with President and CEO Jens Michow about the association READ MORE ON PAGE 22#

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E N I Z A G A M P I TO THE V news provided to give you a taste of the VIP-Magazine is designed ewsletter VIP-News. nthly basis through our eN by our company on a mo er services provided learn more about the oth to and ws -Ne VIP to up n To sig www.vip-booking.com please visit our website at

market will be a recurring series of gazine we introduce what -Ma VIP of tion ls that edi tiva 6th For this able number of fes all country with a remark sm a d, rlan itze Sw is out eral key players in the features. First Gowan, has interviewed sev Mc n Alla , tor edi s new all seem to survive. Our market. on the current state of the country to get their views any particular countries you you can give us, if there are ck dba fee any iate rec like us to investigate As always we app any other issues you would or es issu ure fut in d ere would like to see cov glad to hear from you. or report then we would be , MM, Reeperbahn Campus y will be attending POPKO pan com our m fro es se ativ of the Represent If you will be attending any over the coming months. MaMA Event and WOMEX glad to meet you. events then we would be tion.

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All the best

THE VIP TEAM vip-booking.com

#3 VIP-MAGAZINE 06/2010 WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

# CONTENTS

CONTENTS: VIP-MAGAZINE 06#2010

05 Yourope Takes A Lead on Event Health and Safety

07 ETEP Announce 2010 Results 08 Bergenfest - The First of the Festival Twins 10 MMF Announces New Board 11 Westfallen Dortmund reports Losses 12 20 Years of Live Music Hall in Cologne

14 Popkomm showcase festival 2010 19 GEMA – Legal Issues 20 AIF Survey: UK Festival Market Still Strong 22 IDKV celebrates it’s 25th anniversary 24 Market Feature: Switzerland 31 Artist avails

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# NEWS

By: Allan McGowan · am@vip-booking.com

NEWS #

D A E L A S E K A T E YOUROP H T L A E H T N E V E ON AND SAFETY The European Festival Association YOUROPE has taken the lead in health and safety issues and has delivered seminars throughout Europe over the past ten years. Now integrated with the ILMC Safety Focus Group, the YOUROPE Event Safety group (YES) will continue this mission and act as a catalyst in the context of event safety, crowd management and associated disciplines. The non-profit group will facilitate partners across Europe to engage in dialogue and activities, which support the development of best practice at events. The group has a vision to enhance the knowledge of, and enable participation in, the support of initiatives, which continually strive to create safer event environments in Europe.

The focus of the group is on the following areas; • Crowd Management • Health & Safety • Event Security • Risk Assessment, Analysis and Management • Systems and Procedures • Business Continuity • Disaster Management

Through an active approach to the subject and support from agencies and event businesses, the Group intends to support the development of a generic safety culture through the following aims and objectives: • To encourage dialogue related to health and safety, crowd management and associated disciplines at events through conferences, projects and other forms

• To encourage knowledge exchange/transfer and the dissemination of best practice from existing events to others • To make Governmental Organisations aware where conflicting practices or confusing legislation have been identified • To seek funding for individual projects through the network of industrial partners and organisations • To create original data in an available format accessible easily by those working in events across Europe • To identify and discuss issues pertinent to the event environment Over the last ten years the group has delivered seminars throughout Europe focusing on the real issues on health and safety at concerts. The group in partnership with industry and education received funding from the European Council for Health and Safety to create a health and safety database for those working at events to enable them to use good practice to help them develop and deliver risk assessment, safety procedures and view and utilise a range of tools including job descriptions and guidance from across Europe. Presently the group is working on a range of activities and focusing on show stop procedures, new configurations of event venues and topics such as weather and unusual conditions at events. Whenever issues occur the group makes it possible for those at events to discuss these in detail, learn and then apply good practice to their own events. Headed up by Chris Kemp from Bucks New University the seminars and workshops have already had a big impact on YOUROPE and have taken place across Europe in Groningen, Berlin and Great Missenden. There are two seminars a year. The first

• To create a forum through which existing knowledge can be shared by the widest possible audience • To create new knowledge through projects based in the live event environment and through academic approaches

#5 VIP-MAGAZINE 06/2010 WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

YOUROPE TAKES A LEAD ON EVENT HEALTH AND SAFETY exclusively for YOUROPE members and the second is opened up to a wider audience from a range of disciplines working at events and festivals.

Representation contact: Sabine Trunzer agentin@kultopolis.com www.kultopolis.com

One of the main focuses of the group is to make as much progress as possible in stopping deaths and injury at events. The use of Roskilde as a model has been very useful for this and in conjunction with Bucks New University a series of research projects have been carried out trialled firstly at Roskilde and then pushed out into a range of festivals around Europe. The pressure barrier study, questionnaires on health and safety and most recently the pressure suit project have all followed this pattern. A new education course for those at events is currently being developed and will be available to YOUROPE members in September. The next seminar on September 23/24, 2010 during the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg/Germany promises an exciting and progressive programme and we hope to attract as many members as possible to share ideas and knowledge in the development of practical health and safety cultures across the festival arena.

Representation contact: Markus Sollner booking@kultopolis.com

info@kultopolis.com Phone: + 49 (0) 6861.939980 Fax: + 49 (0) 6861.9399828

WOODSTOCK REUNITE

About YOURUROPE: YOUROPE was founded in November 1998. The association currently has over 60 members which are among the most well established festivals in Europe. All YOUROPEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s members are dedicated to improving the European festival scene in terms of working conditions, health and safety music talent. The overall aim of the association is to collaborate and share best practice, and to pinpoint areas that would benefit from a joint approach. YOUROPE is founding partner of the European Talent Exchange Program www.etep.nl and the live music lobby European Live Music Forum www.elmf.eu Contacts: For more information about The Yourope Event Safety Group - The YES Group, please contact Professor Chris Kemp Executive Dean, The Faculty of Design, Media & Management Buckinghamshire New University Chris.Kemp@ bucks.ac.uk

Representation contact: Sabine Trunzer agentin@kultopolis.com

#6 VIP-MAGAZINE 06/2010 WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

# NEWS

NEWS #

By: Allan McGowan · am@vip-booking.com

ETEP Announce 2010 Results The European Talent Exchange Programme an Initiative set up by the organisers of the annual Eurosonic/Noorderslag event in Groningen, Netherlands, brings together the leading European festivals, radio and other media and invites them to ‘exchange’ a selection of artists. In previous years this has led to the appearance of artists from many countries appearing in other territories and creating fan bases crucial to the success of their future international touring. Acts including; Franz Ferdinand, Kaizers Orchestra, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Moneybrother, Within Temptation, Wir Sind Helden, Beatsteaks, Disco Ensemble, Infadels, Goose, Gabriel Rios, Seeed, Digitalism, Loney, Dear, zZz, Blood Red Shoes,

Lykke Li, The Do, Surkin, The Ting Tings, Yelle, Baddies, White Lies, Yuksek, Sophie Hunger and Charlie Winston have benefited from the programme. As of June 2010 ETEP has resulted in 147 shows by 62 European artists from 20 countries and counting… So who were the winners? The artist with the most bookings from ETEP festivals after their performance at EuroSonic was The xx with 11 shows, with Iceland’s FM Belfast close behind with 9 confirmed shows. More information at: www.etep.nl

The top 20 most bo

oked acts were:

The xx: FM Belfast: Charlie Winston: Ellie Goulding: Marina & The Diamo nds: Band of Skulls: Jamaica: Isbells: Schlachthofbronx: Serena Maneesh: Sophie Hunger: Stornoway: Admiral Freebee: Crystal Fighters: Everything Everythin g: Joensuu 1685: Lucy Love: Seabear: And So I Watch You From Afar: Chapel Club: C-Mon & Kypski:

ICELAND FM BELFAST FROM

UK 11 IS 9 UK 7 UK 7 UK 7 UK 6 FR 5 BE 4 DE 4 NO 4 CH 4 UK 4 BE 3 ES 3 UK 3 FI 3 DK 3 IS 3 IR 2 UK 2 NL 2

JOINED ETEP 2010

#7 VIP-MAGAZINE 06/2010 WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

# NEWS

By: Allan McGowan · am@vip-booking.com

T S E F N E G BER L TWINS

A V I T S E F E H T F O - THE FIRST Visiting Bergenfest for the festival’s first edition as the ‘twin’ of Leicester’s Summer Sundae event, we journalists could not have received better hospitality from the organisers or from the Norwegian City. Leicester will have to look to its laurels when returning the favour to a Bergen delegation! But how does a city in the midlands of the UK find activities to compare with lunch on a mountain top accessed by cable car with – when the clouds cleared – a more than spectacular view, and another lunch at a restaurant accessible only by boat, which cultivates its own seafood? Coda’s Rob Challice and his Summer Sundae team, and the Leicester City Council are, I’m sure, working on it! If the Association of Independent Festivals idea of twinning international festivals is to work then the local authorities must offer support, after all the tourism opportunities are obvious, and who knows what other cooperation’s may evolve. After years of initial disapproval, followed by grudging tolerance, followed by a realisation of just how much in both economic and cultural terms, a festival

brought to various locations, national, city and regional authorities have in many cases come to realise that festivals are quantifiable assets, and that they should work with, rather than restrict, the organisers. The report on The Great Escape elsewhere in this issue includes a message of support from a city Council representative. Some realised the worth of these events earlier than others. Frode Aasheim, Manager of the Bergen Convention Bureau, part of the Bergen Tourist Board, told VIP-News, “Bergenfest

started in 1993, and is now one of the leading music festivals in Norway. The festival has during the years made the city of Bergen highly visible on the musical scene, both nationally and internationally. The festival received the Prize of Honour from Bergen Tourist Board in 2001 for ‘Excellent Marketing of Bergen’, and I am sure that the twinning of Bergenfest and Summer Sundae, not only will strengthen both festivals in the years to come, but also further contribute to promote our city as an exciting and popular destination for cultural events. We highly appreciate it and are looking forward to working even closer with Bergenfest in the future.”

Frank Nes

#8 VIP-MAGAZINE 06/2010 WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

Bergenfest promoter Frank Nes was equally as hospitable as the City, and concerned himself with all aspects of our promotional visit. VIP-News spoke to him about the event, his relationship with the City, and his year round business: Frank Nes: We do all year round promotions through a company called Bergen Live www.bergenlive.no, a company with six employees which promotes shows in Bergen. This company also has a management agreement with the foundation that promotes Bergenfest. Bergen Live promotes some 45-50 shows a year. Over the last few years we have sold between 135.000 – 145.000 tickets per year for the Bergen Live promoted shows. In addition Bergenfest attracts about 35.000 punters yearly (the festival is presented over 5 days – this year April 27 – May 2.). Bergen’s population is approximately 250.000, thus a large chuck of the city’s population attend shows. VIP-News: When and how did you start promoting, and what acts have you have worked with over the years?

NEWS #

Nes: I started with concert promotions as a student in the early nineties at a club then called Maxime. Then, for ten years I worked with Bergenfest as a part time employee along with being head of the western Norwegian branch office for Norway’s fiction writers. In 2001 I joined Stageway, then the largest artist management and agency in Norway, and worked with concert promotions and artist management. From 2003 onwards I have worked full time with Bergen Live and Bergenfest. Acts I have worked with are as diverse as they can be, I guess. With Bergenfest we present just about any type of musical genre you can think of. (This is true, on this visit to Bergenfest I saw Randy Newman, The Residents (very strange!) The New York Dolls, Femi Kuti and various rock acts – very eclectic! – Ed.) This is also the strength of the festival. Acts include everything from Robert Plant, Neil Young and Nick Cave to seminal world music and folk acts.

moter is basically being able to supply the goods all the way through the supply chain, and you must acknowledge that everyone is important to make a show a success.

With Bergen Live we have promoted acts such as The Rolling Stones, Metallica, Bruce Springsteen and Foo Fighters at the main open air venue Bergenhus Festning – a 22.000 capacity medieval fortress in the middle of the city - but we also do small club shows with artists like Jackie Leven and The Handsome Family, to name a few. We pride ourselves in treating the artists and our audience in such a manner that they leave our show and Bergen wanting to come back. It’s as easy as that, really. Being a local pro-

As for Live Nation, we do a lot of shows with them, most of our big shows are copromotions with Live Nation in Oslo and without Rune Lem and his team we would never have made it this far with Bergen Live. The Norwegian market is pretty transparent and even though Live Nation is the biggest player in our country it is my impression that the market works pretty well and there is a place for everyone. We work with all the agencies that can bring talent to Bergen.

VIP-News: Has the City always been as supportive as it now appears to be? How’s the competition - is Live Nation a worry to you? Nes: The City’s support has grown along with our own development as a promoter, i.e. bringing bigger artists to Bergen has opened the City’s eyes to the importance of having a local promoter such as Bergen Live and Bergenfest. The Bergen people pride themselves in standing out from the rest of our countrymen and our relative success with bringing big name acts to Bergen and making Bergenfest into one of Norway’s best festivals certainly adds to the pride of being from Bergen.

Summer Sundae: Bergenfest and Leicester’s Summer Sundae are similar in as much as they present a range of genres and are staged in the centre of the city, the Norwegian event uses 10 indoor venues of varying size and the Leicester festival takes place in the De Montfort Hall and on outdoor stages in the surrounding gardens. Organiser Rob Challice of Coda Agency took a distinctly hands on approach to promotion on the Bergen trip! – (See photo) This year’s tenth edition of Summer Sundae includes, Seasick Steve, Tinchy Stryder and Mumford & Sons, over three days, August 13-15. Not to be outdone by Bergen’s comments on supporting the festival Tess Booth of One Leicester Marketing told us, “When I heard that Leicester’s Summer Sundae Weekender was to be twinned with Bergenfest - I thought what a great idea! Leicester is well known for its many festivals throughout the year - with Summer Sundae Weekender now in it’s tenth year it is recognised as a key event in the calendar both locally and nationally. I really believe twinning with Bergenfest will encourage continued friendship, understanding and mutual benefit between people across Europe. Leicester is a very continental city, so we encourage visitors who have just visited Bergenfest to come over and experience the delights of our Summer Sundae Weekender at Leicester’s De Montfort Hall - we know they’ll be impressed!”

Bergen . Norway

#9 VIP-MAGAZINE 06/2010 WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

# NEWS

By: Allan McGowan · am@vip-booking.com

MMF ANNOUNCE NEW BOARD The UK office of The Music Managers Forum, MMF has announced the make-up of their new Board to succeed the interim Board appointed last year after the organisation’s revamp.

hope will further add to the development of our trade association for managers by providing opportunities and education for our members.”

Joining CEO Jon Webster and CFO Charlie Carne will be:

»Membership numbers have almost doubled and I would recommend all managers get on board to help shape the way forward« - Carol Crabtree

Paul Burger - Soho Artists: Tim Clark – ie Music (Robbie Williams): Carol Crabtree – Solar Management: Ian McAndrew – Wildlife Entertainment (Arctic Monkeys): Gary McLarnan – Sparklestreet: Brian Message – Courtyard Management (Radiohead etc): Erik Nielsen – Wingnut Music: Scott Rodger – Quest Management (Bjork): Adam Tudhope – Adam Tudhope Management (Keane) Brian Message was elected Chairman at the first meeting of the new Board and said “At our regular open meetings we have held since the organisation was relaunched we promised we would deliver a new Board in April and we are pleased to have done that. The Board brings a breadth of experience, which we

Meet our GerMan Partners like BDV, Vut, associa-

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New board member Carol Crabtree commented: “It’s a really important time for managers to come together, share experience and make a difference for our artists’ careers. The MMF has been revamped and revitalised and now offers more for young and more experienced managers via their website, events and services. We are currently tackling some vital issues and really making headway. Membership numbers have almost doubled and I would recommend all managers get on board to help

shape the way forward.”

# NEWS

NEWS #

By: Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com

WESTFALLEN DORTMUND REPORTS LOSSES As in 2008, the Westfalenhalle Dortmund again reported a net loss for the business year 2009. The revenue decreased from 43.7 to 42.3 million Euros; the net loss increased by 1.9 to 2.0 million Euros. The company is a 100 percent subsidiary of the city of Dortmund but according to a spokesman of the company is still able to compensate the loss through ongoing business activities. Nevertheless the managing director Ludwig Jörder once again complained in a speech at a press conference on the current business year about the distortion of competition due to subsidies received by competitors.

Jörder didn’t mention names but in the recent past he pointed out that he regards the concert venue FZW newly built last year with a capacity of 1.300 visitors as one of these subsidized competitors. FZW once used to be a public youth centre with a capacity of 500 people that ran an ambitious concert program since the 80’ies. In 2009 the youth office of Dortmund relocated the venue in a new building. Well, besides this local conflict it can rather be seen that the more serious competitors are properly the Lanxess Arena in Cologne and the Koenigs Pilsener Arena in Oberhausen. Both arenas

managed to attract more international top artists concerts in the past five years than the FZW would ever be able to accommodate. In his speech Jörder furthermore predicted that the business results outlook for 2010 would be similar to the results in 2009. It is notable that the supervisory board of the Westfalenhalle mainly consists of local politicians. The question remains how long it would take before a supervisory board such as AEG for instance will ask one of their arena directors about the correlation of a negative business result and unfair competition…

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# NEWS

By: Manfred Tari · mt@vip-booking.com

c i s u M e v i 20 Years of L A few mounth ago Micki Pick and business partners Daniel Czichopad and Georg Schmitz-Behrenz celebrated the 20th anniversary of their venue, Live Music Hall. The 1.800 capacity venue is located in Cologne Ehrenfeld and is equally well known nationally. In 2004 the business partners of Live Music Hall also took over the concert club The Underground, a smaller concert club with two rooms, one for 400 and one 200 persons. Micki Pick (53) is well known in the concert business. He started in the music business as an agent, working for acts such as the Phantom Band with Jaki Liebezeit, the bass player of Can, and Helmut Zerlett the keyboard player, who later became popular as the band leader for the late night show of Harald Schmidt, a German adaptation of the Jay Leno TV show in the US. Over the years Pick continued to work as an agent. Currently he is setting up a worldwide tour with Swiss Electro pioneers Yello. VIP-News talked with Pick about the difficulties for local promoters, offers from abroad and the level of today’s ticket prices. VIP-News: How were these 20 years for the Live Music Hall in Cologne?

Micki Pick: Up and downs. The beginning was amazing, a lot of surprises. During the 20 years we saw a lot of shows, parties and I suppose after a while we just found our way.

whatever. There are more and more people coming. That is good because everybody is doing his or her thing and this is really positive. The more clubs there are the better it is.

VIP-News: Did you need to invest a lot in refurnishing the location and improving PA and Lights?

VIP-News: So you benefit from the competition in your neighbourhood?

Pick: Every five years we changed things like the backstage facilities and decoration in the venue we use for our party and disco events. We changed a lot of things especially regarding the sound and lighting system. We don’t have an option of not doing it because after a while you simply have to do it. It is not a question of if we want, we simply have to do it. So we changed the sound company and right now I guess we have a really nice sound.

VIP-News: When it comes to ticketing, what kind of changes have you seen within the last couple of years in the market?

Pick: Actually it’s both. You get a good vibe and good feedback from the audience and the artists. They come in and say “Wow what’s happened here? You changed things and the sound is much better”.

Pick: Well, a lot of promoters hire the Live Music Hall. So I can’t tell you really much about their situation. When we are doing our own shows I would say nothing has changed a lot because the settings have been in place for so long. We are selling our tickets through Köln Ticket, and in this case we haven’t found anything new or changed.

VIP-News: When it comes to the business for local promoters in the Cologne area what has changed in the last, let’s say one and a half or two years? Did you see any major changes?

VIP-News: Isn’t there a development in terms of the consumer behaviour? It is still the case that most shows sell out in advance or is there something like a return of the box office walk-up to be seen?

VIP-News: Is it the artists or the audience who really require and demand this?

Micki Pick, Georg Schmiz-Behrenz and Daniel Czichopad

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Pick: It is good that we have competition. I wish we would even have ten clubs next to us. It is good because in this case Live Musik Hall and our affiliate venue The Underground benefit from so much going on in the neighbourhood. We are very happy with the results due to this development.

Pick: Oh yes. Things changed because we have more clubs, particularly in the area of Cologne-Ehrenfeld. In the early days we started here almost alone and nothing else was happening around our venue. But right now there are six, seven clubs if it’s rock or electronic or

»Selling tickets in advance is the main thing and selling tickets at the door seems to belong to a long time ago...« - Micki Pick Pick: No. Selling tickets in advance is the main thing and selling tickets at the door seems to belong to a long time ago, even for Reggae and Electronic Music events.

IN-DEPTH #

c Hall Even these types of audience now buy their a tickets long time in advance. VIP-News: Today there are ticket operators such as Smartticket or Ticketskript, which offer their services to venues to sell tickets directly. Would that also be a solution for the Live Music Hall or do you prefer that tickets are available via the big networks like CTS Eventim or Ticketmaster? Pick: There are still companies that make us offers to sell tickets for the Live Music Hall but we don’t want to do it. We are still handling the ticketing with Köln Ticket because it is much easier for us. VIP-News: In the past, correct me if I’m wrong, you also promoted many more shows yourself. Doesn’t this make more sense for you? Pick: No, we don’t want to do more ourselves. Of course we promote shows but we rather prefer to promote parties and disco events, which are linked with a far lower risk. The fees and production costs for concerts went up and I believe it occasionally doesn’t make sense to pay so much money. Other colleagues should do so if they want to do. I’m already happy when we supply them with the venue and I very much hope that they’re happy with the venue too. VIP-News: What’s your view on increased fees and production expenses then? Pick: My experience is that the fee and the whole production costs are much too high. But it wouldn’t change anything because you have always somebody, an agent or promoter who is willing to pay the requested fee. Because even if nine promoters say we don’t agree to pay so much money you will find one, the tenth, who will say “Yes, I’ll pay it”. So, the agent is in a very nice position when he approaches local promoters and says “make me an offer with a ‘like whatever’ guarantee fee and if a local promoter says ‘No’ they will go to the next one, to the third,

Live Music Hall – Cologne

fourth or whoever. Someone will say yes and is going to pay it. VIP-News: Do you also get offers for artists or shows from agents outside of Germany for instance? Pick: Yes, we get offer from offers from UK agencies, not only once or twice, but indeed very often, even for arena shows. We tell them, “No way, we don’t agree to pay a one hundred or two hundred or three hundred thousand fee”. It does not make sense for us to bear such big risks. VIP-News: Did something like this already take place in the past? Pick: Yes, of course, it’s happened. VIP-News: Is there an increase or is it pretty much the same number of agents that come to you with direct offers for shows concerts? Pick: It is more less the same. I mean actually I’m convinced they tried before somewhere else. Because somebody says no way, they come to us and to sell their act to us. But I’m sure that I wasn’t the first one they approached. VIP-News: What’s your impression of the level of prices for tickets? Pick: I guess for club shows they’re ok, but outside the club circuit in particular on the arena level it is too much, too high. But you see the result. I mean club shows are very often sold out. If you take a look on shows with a capacity of ten thou-

sand and more they’re very often not sold out and I suspect they’re even losing the money. VIP-News: Do you expect that what is happening on the top level in this industry may also sooner or later affect the club business? Pick: No, I guess the club business will always be like twenty years ago because this is where the concert business begins. If it’s a club for 100 people or for 1000 people it doesn’t matter, this is the first step to coming to see a live show and this is what the people like, small venues and I expect nothing will change on this level. It was twenty years ago the same, ten years ago, it is still the same today and in ten years it’ll be the same. VIP-News: So what are the plans for the Live Music Hall in the near future? Pick: Well, to do as many shows as we can and of course parties and disco events. This is the basis of or our business and this how we are earn our money, so nothing will change a lot. Sometimes we have a month with more shows and a month later with fewer shows. But on the weekend on Fridays, Saturdays when we have party events it is always the same; we always have a full house. VIP-News: Well done and good luck for the next 20 years. Pick: Thank you very much.

#13 VIP-MAGAZINE 06/2010 WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

# NEWS

By: Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com

E S A C W O H S POPKOMM 0 1 0 2 L A V I T S FE Having been absent from the international music market calendar last year, Popkomm returns to Berlin in September under the umbrella of Berlin Music Week. The Popkomm Showcase Festival will take place in the Berlin suburb of Kreuzberg on 8 and 9 September 2010. 60 artists and bands will be featured over the two days at 14 locations on the site at the legendary Tempelhof Airport in Berlin as well as in the adjoining neighbourhood. This year a number of bands that are appearing at the Showcase Festival can also be seen on the main festival stage: Cast of Cheers, De Staat, Jesse, Rich Aucoin, Spleen United, The Megaphonic Thrift, Therese Aune and Yes Cadets will also be on stage on 10 September at Tempelhof Airport during the Berlin Festival. The rest of the showcase line-up features bands from Scandinavia such as Familjen, I Got You On Tape and Murmansk, as well as Iiris from Estonia, Film from Greece, and Budam and The Ghost from the Faroe Islands. The Showcase gigs will be available to Popkomm delegates and tickets Festival are available to the public for ten euros. Tickets for the Berlin Festival on 10 and 11 September also entitle holders to admission to Popkomm on 10 September.

VIP-News: What, briefly, is your background in the business, I know you’ve worked in various territories for some time now, was it always your intention to move around, or did it just work out that way? Paul Cheetham: I’ve been involved in the business for almost 20 years as a promoter, agent and artist manager. I worked in London for the Mean Fiddler before moving to Scandinavia 11 years ago and working for the EMA Telstar group that eventually became Clear Channel. When it was bought by Live Nation I left to set up my own management consultancy and worked as an advisor for several Finnish artists, including The Rasmus and The Crash. In summer 2009 I relocated fulltime to Berlin. After a decade of Nordic darkness I was ready for a change and Berlin is a city I have always felt at home in. It’s a great place to be based for geographical, economic and social reasons so the move made a lot of sense. VIP-News: Popkomm has a long, varied and illustrious history but particularly following last year’s cancellation this edition is in many ways an entirely new event. Although I know you have attended many previous editions as a delegate, this Popkomm is certainly new for you in your role as part of the team. What exactly is your role and how did you come to take it on?

More information: www.berlinfestival.de Everything is new at Popkomm 2010, new location, new partnerships, new aspirations, and a new team. Paul Cheetham has been appointed to head up the management of the Showcase Festival. VIP-News talked to him about this new challenge in his varied career.

Paul Cheetham: I was recommended to Popkomm by the guys behind Berlin Festival, which is one of Popkomm’s partners under the new Berlin Music Week umbrella. I saw the offer to work on the event as an opportunity to try to make a positive contribution. The job involves all the aspects I enjoy – live music, promoting, artist development, and communicating with people all over the world. Although I was aware there would be obvious difficulties in bringing the event back, I accepted this as the kind of challenge I thrive on. Initially I took the role of Festival Coordinator on a one-off basis to help organise the music segment of Popkomm 2010. As things progressed, I got more involved, and was able to introduce a clearer, more defined direction for the festival to take, and became Festival Manager with a view to overseeing the overall organisation and development of the festival into the near future. VIP-News: Have you adopted a particular booking policy for acts appearing at Popkomm, and as far as you know is this very different to the way things were arranged for past editions?

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Paul Cheetham: Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve taken a quite radical approach to the music programme this year in order to break the perception of what Popkomm was in the past and to introduce a concept of what it can be in the future. As a visitor to previous Popkomm events, I personally felt it was a sprawling jumble of parties, gigs, fairs, conferences and events all over the city which was always great fun but ultimately difficult to achieve anything from a business perspective. So now I want to give the programme a definite epicentre of usefulness and significance for the visiting delegates, in order for them to do business effectively and immediately. First, the number of slots for Popkomm artists is drastically reduced to only 60 places. This gives us the possibility to introduce firm criteria to raise the quality of artists, as well as the opportunity to promote each artist effectively. Second, these are all showcasing artists who are in the position of wanting to be seen and heard in order to find partners and opportunities to get to the next level in this, and surrounding, markets. Third, we are building a festival location around Tempelhof airport and the vibrant Kreuzberg neighbourhood of Mehringdamm and BergmannstraĂ&#x;e that is new, intriguing, and with endless room for development. We have some untested venues and it will be a challenge to fill them, but Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m confident that over the next couple of years these venues and this lo-

Paul Cheetham

cation will give Popkomm the strong new identity it needs to have. Other major differences this year are that Popkomm is tied closely with Berlin Festival as our live music partner, incorporating some of our artists on to the Berlin Festival programme, as well as everything being promoted under the umbrella of Berlin Music Week, which aims to bring together the diverse energies within Berlin and is a very positive direction. VIP-News: Are you dealing mainly with agencies, managements, artists or export offices, or is it a mixture? - Are Sonicbids involved at all? How are the acts selected?

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Paul Cheetham: There is lots of talk with the music export offices and similar organisations, as they are particularly important to the structure of Popkomm. But overall it has been a complete mixture. Sonicbids is an official partner this year and we also selected artists through the Sonicbids system, as practically all events do. I have involved the local showcase partners in selecting the final line-up for their events, so VISIONS magazine, Karrera Klub, Nordic By Nature, for example, were all given a shortlist of appropriate acts for them to choose their final line-ups from. That helps in terms of promoting each event. VIP-News: Will the festival be aiming at attracting punters as well as professionals, and if so are you booking established acts as attractions, alongside newer ‘export ready’ talent? Paul Cheetham: The showcases will start at the airport venues in the afternoon and extend into the evening using some of the other venues in the area and will be targeted at both delegates and members of the public. Delegates are, of course, able to access any showcase event and we are allowing anyone who has purchased a Berlin Festival ticket to get into the Popkomm showcases for no additional charge, otherwise there will be a 2-day combi-ticket available for an advance price of only 10 euros, all subject to venue capacity. We want to help people discover these new artists in this new location and have created an easy environment in which to do that.

Essentially, though, we want the showcase festival to be about generating business for all those participating. Ideally, every artist will go away with real results to show for their efforts and we need to involve the delegates as much as possible to be able to achieve that. When it comes to bigger, more established acts then it made sense for us to let Berlin Festival take the lead and not get in the way of them building the strongest line-up available and for us to benefit by becoming a sort of feeder event for their festival. We arranged an excellent situation where we are able to include eight Popkomm artists on the Berlin Festival lineup, which has received very positive feedback. Working with Berlin Festival has been a highlight and I’m looking forward to continuing that relationship in future as I see a lot of possibilities to grow Popkomm alongside it in the way people would appreciate. VIP-News: Are you finding this work very different to your previous experience? Paul Cheetham: The job perhaps involves more lines of communication than anything I’ve done before so information has been flying at all angles. Popkomm is a big name and attracts massive interest from all over the world so getting on top of all that has been overwhelming at times and I must develop an effective system to handle the increased workload. Otherwise, the work involves all the things I have experience in.

NOT JUST ANOTHER ARENA »You don’t get anything like this anywhere else. It’s nice to see something so different and unique.« Editors »I imagine it’s what the inside of Marilyn Manson’s head looks like.« Noel Gallagher Home of Melt! Festival, past headline-shows include: Metallica, Die Toten Hosen, Linkin Park Capacity 25,000 Open-air and indoor facilities Excellent production conditions, parking- and camping-facilities In the heart of East Germany, close to Berlin/Dresden/Leipzig Please contact us for further information and enquiries: finja.goetz@gemeinsame-sache.net | Phone: +49 (0)30 403936211 | www.ferropolis.de

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VIP-News: What do you think a successful appearance at this event can do for the career of a new, or even established, act, and do you think Popkomm and other showcase events are now an established and useful part of the live industry? Paul Cheetham: The aim with the shaowcase festival is definitely to create a platform for artists to benefit from their appearances. It is essential that they achieve their goals and Popkomm can develop its own success stories from that. These kinds of events have become increasingly crucial to the business. The perfect showcase event should be a combination of a high concentration of talented acts and a dense presence of effective decision-makers from the business, all taking place in a compact, user-friendly environment. VIP-News: Are there any parts of the programme that you are particularly looking forward to, and is there anything else you’d like to mention? Paul Cheetham: I am particularly pleased to be able to involve some strong local partners in the programme, such as Four Artists - one of Berlin’s premier booking agencies, and Karrera Klub – the Kreuzberg kings of indie-disco club promoting. Canadian Blast is always sensational. I’m delighted with the inclusion of The Great Escape and ways we can cooperate at each other’s events in future, and we have a very impressive load of Scandinavian acts that I am a big fan of already. But my time will be spent meeting as many people as possible and showing them around the location, explaining the plans we have to develop things next year and getting their feedback.

POPKOMM SHOWCASE FESTIVAL 2010 Between now and Popkomm 2011 we will continue to build personal relationships with all those we wish to cooperate with on a local, national, and international level and work on ways to continuously freshen the Popkomm brand in the eyes of the industry and audience. For example, we are planning a monthly Popkomm club night in Berlin for some of the new artists we hope to bring in next year, as well as taking this concept to partnering showcase events around the world in future. This year of transition is a perfect opportunity to try new ideas and put well thought-out plans into action.

#17 VIP-MAGAZINE 06/2010 WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

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# NEWS

By: Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com

NEWS #

GEMA

– LEGAL ISSUES CONCERN THE GERMAN COPYRIGHT COLLECTION SOCIETY Legal issues are part of the daily business of every copyright collection society, but the German organisation GEMA currently has to cope with legal cases that go beyond day-to-day copyright issues: GEMA Petition Commission Hearing at the German Bundestag: More than one year ago concert promoter Monika Bestle from Sonthofen in South Germany filed a so-called EPetition at the petition-commission at the German Bundestag. German citizens have the right to appeal to the German parliament when they file a petition and the petition archives a minimum of about 50.000 signings. The Bestle filed petition archived 106.000 signings. According to the number of signings, a petition-commission scheduled a hearing on May 17. The committee discussed the subject of the particular petition, which is nothing less than a demand for a “Request for a fundamental reform of GEMA”.

the overall number of more than 60.000 GEMA members. GEMA commented in a press release that it has already acted on some of the requests such as more transparency and that it increased the number of delegates from 32 to 45 delegates. The trade paper Musikmarkt however reported that some of the supervisory board members and high ranking decision takers of GEMA didn’t looked very pleased when they left the hearing. Bestle who submitted the petition meanwhile announced the founding of an initiative entitled “Kultur In Deutschland”. The entire case itself is not closed yet. Dedicated reporters of the petition commission will now report internally to the commission on their findings on how to proceed with this petition. The commission is able to choose between options, such as to close the file or even to go so far as to apply to the German parliament to create a law that forces GEMA to change some of its statutes. Latest information says that the Petition Committee will pass the case on the Committee for Legal Issues.

In on official press release by the German government regarding the hearing it says, that the distribution of royalties isn’t fair and that the voting rights within the internal chambers of GEMA are unfair and not well balanced. Members of the Social Democrats and Die Linke complain that the German Patent office has not enough staff to control GEMA thoroughly enough. Max Stadler, the state secretary of the Ministry of Justice, has refused this complaint. However, Stadler furthermore agreed with the complaint regarding GEMA flat rate payout schemes but also mentioned that these are in line with a ruling made by the Federal Supreme Court. Within the hearing concerns it was also mentioned that GEMA still didn’t follow up on recommendations made in 2005 by the committee of enquiries for culture by the German Bundestag. The members of the committee furthermore criticized the fact that the number of delegates able to approve decisions is not appropriate to

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# NEWS

By: Allan McGowan · am@vip-booking.com

y e v r u S F I A l 2nd Annua t e k r a M l a v i t s e F K U s e t a c Indi Still Strong Despite the worst recession in decades and worries about overpriced headliners, as highlighted in the previous story, the UK Festival market has shown itself to be remarkably buoyant as the love of festivals shows little sign of diminishing. The sector’s continued and vital contribution to the British economy has been demonstrated once again by this survey of more than 4,700 festival goers. 44.4% of those surveyed said that the recession has affected how much they spend on festivals, which compares favourably to the 59.4% who say it has affected how much they spend on all other types of entertainment. The 24 AIF members range from boutique festivals such as Standon Calling through to world famous events such as Creamfields and Bestival. It is predicted that around 350,000 people will attend these festivals this year, 10,000 or so up 2009. In all estimates state that they will inject more than £130M into the UK economy with over £12M directly funnelled to local businesses. This year over 69% of those attending festivals will spend 3 or more days in the local area of the festival, up from 60% last year. Those attending WOMAD will stay the longest with 48.8% prepared to spend 4 or more days in the local area. The total spend of a festivalgoer this year totals £346 including ticket, with those attending Camp Bestival the biggest spenders with an average of £532 average per person. Once again the survey indicates that festivals are not just a big outside gig, with over 50% of respondents stating that it is the “General atmosphere and overall vibe,

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quality and character of the event” which is the main draw. “Music generally” was the second deciding factor in picking a festival with 28.3%, whilst the choice of headliners only polled 11.9%. Once at the festival 43% of respondents will spend 60 – 79% of time watching music. Reflecting the wide range of entertainment on offer, those attending Secret Garden Party and Camp Bestival spend the least time watching bands with 73.8% and 67.2% of audience spending less than half their time doing so. The survey also looked at the mode of transportation festival goers use to get to the festival of their choice and once again, ‘By Car’ remains the most popular choice, with 44.5% driving with 3 or more people. Importantly for those looking to reduce the festival market’s carbon footprint 50.1% said that “a discount on public transport ticket” would encourage them to travel this way. Claire O’Neill, AIF General Manager said, “It is good to see that for another year despite an overall economic downturn independent festivals continue to make a great contribution both nationally and locally. Of course, this survey further cements the knowledge that festivals offer many entertainments and attractions aside from music, and that is the experience as a whole that so many people love. It is a shame that most people are still driving to festivals, however it was interesting to read many suggestions that a ‘fast track’ queue for coach ticket holders would be an incentive to leave the car at home.” Lucy Wood, Field day, “Being a one day event in the city, most people coming to

Field Day don’t need to spend much money on accommodation or travel, so it’s still proving a popular option as ever during these financially straightened times.” 4783 festivalgoers completed this years survey across over 13 festivals compared with last year’s 3300 responses. There is a capacity of 350,000 across the AIF festivals. Travel: 30.1% of respondents traveled from South East England. This year the travel questions were slightly extended and included the option of walking to the festival. 44.5% travel by car with 3 or more people. 21.1% travel by car with 2 or less people and 3% fly. 5.3% of the audience walk and just 4.1% travel by coach. When asked whether cost is an important factor in choices of transport 9.7% said highly, whilst 34% do not rank this highly at all in their decision. Interestingly despite this 50.1% said that “a discount on public transport ticket” would encourage them to travel this way. The second most popular incentive for traveling by public transport was “Vouchers for goods to be redeemed at the festival (e.g. meals / t-shirts)” with 26.7%. Only 6.1% selected charge for car parking as an incentive to leave the car at home. It was suggested by respondents that a “queue jump” for people arriving by coach would be a good incentive. 50.2% of audience check the festival website for travel options. Why go to festivals? Once again “General atmosphere and overall vibe, quality and character of the event” was the main reason for people choosing

NEWS #

which festival to attend with 50.2%. Second came “music generally” with 28.3%, and third was headliners with 11.9%. When asked, “what do you enjoy most from your festival experience” again “General atmosphere and overall vibe, quality and character of the event” came top with 45% ranking this as number 1. This year over 69% spend 3 or more days in the local area of the festival. Last year this was 60%. Glade festival and WOMAD have people staying the longest with 48.9% and 48.8% staying 4 or more days respectively. 43% of respondents spend 60 – 79% of time watching music while at festivals. Secret Garden Party and Camp Bestival go against this trend with 73.8% and 67.2% of audience spending 50% or less time watching music at the event. Accommodation: 70.2% of audience camp on-site in tents. This was highest for Glade festival with almost 100% of the audience stay on site either in tent or camper van. Overall 14.5% stay at home and 6.5% stay in campervans on-site. Big Session and Field Day had the highest number of hotel visitors with 11.6% and 11% respectively. These are both city-based festivals. Endorse it in Dorset had by far the highest number of campervan campers with 24.2%, compared with a 6.5% average.

family aspect of the event. WOMAD audiences are the biggest market stall spenders with an average £56 compared to a £32 average.

beries; 34% of crimes took place on day 2 and 38% on day 3. This may reflect when they were discovered as opposed to when they happened.

Festivalgoers spent an average of £35 in the local area.

Demographics: 56% of respondents were female. 32% were aged 25 – 34. 24% were 17 – 24 and 24% were 35 – 44.

Marketing: 64.5% find out about the festival via the official website. 52.6% by word of mouth and 48.5% via festival community websites. Secret Garden Party have highest word of mouth with 70.9%, closely followed by Glade and Endorse it in Dorset with 69.9% and 69.7% respectively. WOMAD and Bestival have the most popular websites with 73% and 71.2% sourcing their info here. Crime: 15% of audience members have been victims of crime at festivals. 9% of these were tent thefts (having items stolen from inside tents). 4% other rob-

Spending: 44.4% said that the recession affected how much they spend on festivals, whilst 59.4% say that the recession has affected how much they spend on other types of entertainment. So it would appear that festivals are more recession proof than other entertainment options in what audiences sacrifice first. The cancelled Glade Festival seem to have the most committed crowd with 63.1% saying the recession has not affected their spending on festivals, followed by Glasgowbury, Ireland with 62%. The average total spend of a festival goer is £346 including ticket. Camp Bestival has the biggest spenders with £532 average per person. This may be due to the

ral Manager

Gene Claire O’Neill, AIF

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# NEWS

By: Ronni Didriksen · rd@vip-booking.com

IDKV 25 YEARS ANNIVERSARY This year IDKV celebrates its 25th anniversary. VIP-Magazine has spoken with President and CEO Jens Michow about the association.

How did the IDKV start? First of all please allow me to correct you regarding our brand: our association is about to enter into the next 25 years with the new abbreviation: ‘bdv’. This finally takes into account the fact that correctly this stands for ‘Bundesverband der Veranstaltungswirtschaft’. The old abbreviation ‘idkv’ results from the 80’s, when the association was founded to represent agents. When in the beginning of the 90’s more and more promoters joined the association, we changed its name to ‘Federal Association for the Promotion Business’, however without changing the abbreviation too. So it’s now high time to bring the abbreviation into accordance with the name. Ok, so the ‘bdv’ started as an association of agents? That’s correct. It was started in 1985 as a bastion against the German Federal Employment Office. At that time, the work of agents and managers was considered to be an illegal employment service. Punishment and banning from the profession of many colleagues was the consequence. Lots of companies gave up. When they started proceedings against my agency Michow Concerts, I initiated the idkv as an alliance against this practice. In response, we started proceedings against the Employment Office and in 1989 we finally secured a ruling by the Federal Social Court stating that

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the work of agents and managers was not all a breach of law. By winning this extraordinary victory, the idkv had virtually achieved its aim, but as by that time more and more promoters had joined the association, we decided, to let the idkv become the professional trade association and representation of all German promoters, agents and managers. I know, that a common association of these three branches would be totally unimaginable in the UK or the US. However, it worked fantastically over here, as the main issues of all three branches are very similar. What is the AIM for bdv? The general aim, or let me better say target, is to exert constant influence on an appropriate legal framework for our industry. We feel responsible for all our members’ professional issues. We have developed an influential network to connect with political Berlin and we are lobbying on all relevant legal issues affecting the branch. The German Parliament hears us whenever industry-related laws such as ‘withholding tax’, ‘artist social security’ or VAT- issues are to be changed. bdv’s yearly branch meetings and international conferences, especially on tax matters, are legendary. How many members do bdv have and what types of members? Today the bdv represents more then 330 companies within the industry.

The greatest numbers of them are promoters, followed by agents and managers. The level of members ranks from small one man companies to the big stock listed companies of the industry, be it the promoters of the CTS Eventim Group, DEAG or the musical company Stage Entertainment AG, besides one to three single promoters. bdv now counts nearly every promoter in the pop and rock field as its members. What is the most important issues that IDKV has dealt with since it’s beginning in 1985? We are proud that we were able to provide professional education of the young generation through the establishment of an official apprenticeship. More then 8.000 (!) young people were approved as “Event Managers” since 2001. We had decisive influence in the German tax legislation, mainly the withholding taxation in the beginning of this century and the later transfer of the ruling of the European Court into German Law as well as the artist

NEWS #

social security fund legislation, which we constantly try to keep as practicable as possible. We started in the 80’s to develop standard form contracts for promoters, agents and managers, which are used today by almost all companies. Since 1995 we have been releasing constant statistical data on the German concert and event market providing the only statistic information available to the branch. Just now we are working on the foundation of a bdv-collecting society in the interest of more efficient recognition of the ancillary copyright of the

promoter. This will be unique in Europe. Our members are paying the monthly artist social fund contribution via an association ruled organisation. This is a unique relief on administration. And finally we succeeded in establishing, with LEA - The German Live Entertain¬ment Award, a highly renowned media event, which inimitably gathers every participant of the branch for one night in one location. By this, LEA has become ‘the’ yearly German meeting point for the whole industry and a most helpful voice for all issues of our business.

What is the biggest challenge for bdv in the years to come? Every year brings new challenges. If you had asked me five years ago, I wouldn’t have dreamt of what we have to deal with today. One of my personal aims is that the withholding taxation system gets totally abolished as in the Netherlands for example. I can’t see any reason, why at least European artists and production companies shouldn’t be taxed in their country of residence as is common procedure for all other companies. I am personally most involved as a lecturer in business education - be it in business schools or universities like the Pop-Academy Mannheim or the high school in Munique. Also the 2 ½ year apprenticeship of the event manager must become a more highly recognised qualification in the school system responsible for the theoretical part as well as by the companies responsible for the practical part of the education. The time of learning by doing has long expired. The industry needs real professionals, mainly with serious mercantile knowledge. Last but not least: although an association can’t do much about it: the industry has to make strong efforts in order to maintain control over artist fees and in consequence ticket prices. In Germany for two years in a row we have been faced with a substantial downturn in the turnover of the concert and event market. So far, it might not have led to severe consequences for many promoters, as sometimes less may even mean more, however: the writing is on the wall!

Jens Michow is the President and CEO of the Bundesverband der Veranstaltungswirtschaft (idkv) (German Association of the Promotions Industry)

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# MARKET FEATURE

By: Allan McGowan · am@vip-booking.com

D N A L R SWITZE With a population of approximately 7.8 million people, Switzerland is one of the richest countries in the world. The main cities Zürich and Geneva have respectively been ranked as the cities with the second and third highest quality of life in the world. Switzerland has a somewhat unique make up, comprising three main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, and Italian, plus the Romanshspeaking valleys, and is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. As such the Swiss people do not form a nation in the usual sense of a common ethnic or linguistic identity, but there is a long history of cooperation, the establishment of the Swiss Confederation is traditionally dated to 1 August 1291.

between the Romands (French speaking Swiss) and the German speaking Swiss.

In music terms then Switzerland displays quite a unique picture, with artists from the French speaking area rather tending to seek their audiences in neighbouring France, whilst acts in the German language area address their efforts to the German market. This seems to be quite typical for Switzerland and is also mirrored in something known as the ‘Röstigraben’, a language divide

A Land of Festivals: However, as in most other European markets, it’s the live music industry that still generally appears to be in good shape, buoyed up mainly by the festival market. Switzerland is light heartedly referred to as a land of mountains, cheese and cuckoo clocks, but in live music industry terms we may just as well de-

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In the last couple of years the downsizing of the local subsidiaries of major record companies has lead to an erosion of opportunities for domestic repertoire causing major concerns within the Swiss Music Community. These fears are especially prevalent in the French language part of Switzerland, more so than in the German speaking area of the country, following the closure of both the EMI and Warner Music offices in Geneva. Sony Music still retains an office in Lausanne as does Universal in Geneva, but effectively these are now just smaller promotion units. All main branches of the record companies are based in Zurich.

scribe it as a land of festivals. Christof Huber, organiser of Open Air St. Gallen and also Secretary General of Yourope, the pan European festivals association, told me that he would put the number of festivals staged in Switzerland at around 300, this includes the eleven major events (see box) but does not include a substantial number of locally organised City and town events.

Avo Session Basel, Basel Blue Balls Festival, Lucerne Caribana Festival, Crans / Nyon Greenfield Festival, Interlaken Gurtenfestival, Bern Nox Illuminata, Basel Open-Air St.Gallen Open Air Frauenfeld Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux Paléo Festival, Nyon Verbier Festival, Verbier

Audiences tend to stick to the events in their own sectors, which could provide some explanation for the large number of events across the whole country. Antonin Rousseau from Festi Concept, organisers of

MARKET FEATURE #

the Festineuch Festival in Neuchatel in the French sector, comments, “ Swiss cultural life has to deal with a complex geographical situation. What could been seen as a constraint is actually an advantage: a stunning variety of musical productions are coming to life in a small but so diversified country.”

good weather, but we were up against other events like Sonisphere, which was only a week before, and the World Cup had some effect. Also we had been instructed to introduce a new limit on the amount of drink that people could bring on site and that led to a certain group of people trying to veto the festival! Our other smaller 2 day event, Summer Days at Arbon by the Lake of Constance, August 27-29, will sell out, 10,000 people will attend each day.” Andy Locher »All 3 of our festivals again sold out in advance in 2010« - Andy Locher

Antoni Rousseau

Being located in a land of mountains lends some spectacular backdrop to the festivals; one of the smaller events, Caprices, for instance, is a four-day event presenting all styles of music, artists as diverse as Robert Plant, Texas, Morcheeba and Deep Purple have played the event, located in the French sector in the ski resort of Crans Montana in the Swiss Alps. More than 80 artists play on three live stages and two clubs with DJs playing all night. The main club at the top of the slopes is 2,200 meters high with a view of the highest mountains of Europe. St. Gallen (in the German sector) was down on last year’s attendance this year, but still averaged 24,000 people on each of the four days. Christof Huber says, “We had

The Open Air Frauenfeld Hip-Hop event did particularly well this year. Andy Locher of Frauenfeld organisers Pleasure Productions says, “We were always very much focused on festivals and with the Openair Frauenfeld becoming the biggest Swiss festival seen from the capacity of 50,000 visitors, and also becoming the biggest European Hiphop-festival, we are more than happy. We are also more than satisfied with our 2 other festivals, Heitere Openair Zofingen and Openair Lumnezia– all 3 of our festivals again sold out in advance in 2010.” The Paleo-Festival in Nyon on Lake Geneva is regarded as one of the best festivals in Europe. The festival sells the majority of its tickets in Switzerland and France. About 4400 volunteers, mainly from Nyon and neighbouring towns, work within the production of the event. The managing director of this very exceptional festival, Daniel Rossellat even became the mayor of Nyon. This year’s event took place on 20 - 25 July, and yields some interesting facts and figures: Budget: CHF 22,200,000, 230,000 spectators, 1532 artists and technicians, 6 stag-

es, 195 concerts and shows attended by 525 accreditated press representatives. The Paleo team combined to answer some VIP questions about the current state of the market: “There are perhaps too many festivals in Switzerland, however things went very well this year for us, selling out months before doors open (150,000 tickets sold in 20 minutes on April 21st 2010, 230,000 spectators in total). Some other festivals, big, middle or small sized had some problems selling tickets. Paléo has a strong identity and it’s very well rooted in its region. The average price for one night at the Festival is CHF 55. - That is 35% less than the average ticket price.” So, the festival market generally appears buoyant, although there are those urging caution and warning against complacency. Andy Locher says, “Most of the festivals still do very well, specially those who have a strong fan base and who do not rely only on the lineup but also take care about the punter. Of course there are a lot of festivals in our small country and I am also pretty sure that only those who are ready and capable to build their festival up from year to year will have success – there is no “fast money” in our business. The State of the Market: The single, one-headliner, open air shows and the indoor shows are perhaps not doing as well, it seems that there’s too much activity in

#25 VIP-MAGAZINE 06/2010 WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

# MARKET FEATURE

By: Allan McGowan · am@vip-booking.com

the market. As we all know the live industry is currently facing problems in certain sectors and particularly in certain territories; the US and some European territories are suffering due to the economic downturn. We asked a few professionals for their view of the overall state of the market in Switzerland at the moment: Francois Biollay of Metropop Festival and Sold Out Productions comments, “Clearly there are too many events, festivals, etc. The first cancellations and bankruptcies are coming. The festivalgoers’ agenda is as full as their bank account is empty. Thus, some promoters still pay too high fees to get the band from their competitors. This increases the ticket prices and empties the venues. We also have to face cancelled events (Eros Ramazotti in Vevey, Prince in Geneva) because of poor selling. I think it’s mainly due to too many events combined with too high ticket prices rather than economic downturn effects.”

»Clearly there are too many vents, festivals, etc. The first cancellations and bankruptcies are coming. The festivalgoers’ agenda is as full as their bank account is empty« - Francois Biollay

#26 VIP-MAGAZINE 06/2010 WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

Antonin Rousseau is somewhat more upbeat about the situation, “It is indeed a fact that the current economic situation has had some challenging effects on many industry sectors. However, in Switzerland, the artistic production branch has managed to maintain itself to a good level. We had some fears in 2009 that, due to the bad economy, the spend per festival visitor would decrease in 2010 but it didn’t happen. We tend to believe that the households are rather limiting their spending on more important purchases, vacations, cars etc, but are not willing to save on local culture.” The members of the Paleo Team are cautious: “The Swiss market is probably facing the same economic problems as elsewhere. CD sales are weaker every year. Regarding shows, this year, some major events, in particular single shows, didn’t sell as well as they used to. The prices are quite high: average price for a single show went from an average of CHF 64.to CHF 85.- in the past five years. Being more concerned with local acts and the local market, booker Stefan Schurter of Deep Dive Music sees obvious changes in record sales, but thinks that the live sector remains reasonably steady: “It is still possible to book many shows with a Swiss artist and sell lots

Francois Biollay

of tickets; the only change I see, is that it got harder to start with a newcomer band. It needs much more effort, as the international concurrence is much bigger than it was a few years ago. And that’s exactly what changed the most: there are many more international artists looking for shows in Switzerland, I think. The quality level of these artists is also much higher than it was in the past. Some of these artists now perform at much smaller venues than they probably did in the past.” Andy Locher says: “You mostly see some influence in headline shows/indoor-shows. The visitor will maybe not

MARKET FEATURE #

Club Circuit: While local communities and cantons seem to get behind popular music activities there seems to be a lack of support on a federal level. Sponsorship still appears to be available for the club and middle-sized venue circuit. The Paleo People report: “A lot of clubs get subsidies from the state, mostly from the cities and the local authorities.

see the same act 2-3 times in a couple of years, so promoters should take care while booking the same act yearly. And you have to be very focused on the potential of your artists, as not all the bigger headliners still work as they did for many years. While young visitors are still buying tickets, I am pretty sure that older visitors think twice.” Francis Biol-

lay agrees with Andy regarding major acts overplaying the country, “There’s certainly enough headliners coming to Switzerland. The problem is that some of them begin to be ‘residents’. I cannot remember how many gigs Pink! played in Switzerland over the last 12 months. The audience is tired of seeing the same artists so often.”

Sponsorship is still available in Switzerland, but we notice some decrease in their outlay.” Stefan Schurter thinks the clubs are still doing well, although as he says, “There are too many good bands on the road, so it’s harder for people to chose what they want to see and where they want to spend the money. There is still lots of money from the state involved; I don’t know about the sponsors though as I am not a club-owner. But I see from the bands view, that there IS sponsorship at the venues.”

#27 VIP-MAGAZINE 06/2010 WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

# MARKET FEATURE

By: Allan McGowan · am@vip-booking.com

There are numerous live music clubs in Switzerland, we name check only a few interesting venues – see box.

X-Tra, Zürich Kaufleuten, Zürich Abart, Zürich Bierhübeli, Bern Reitschule, Bern Kaserne Basel Fri-Son, Fribourg Les Docks, Lausanne Mascotte Zürich Labor Bar Zürich Schüür Lausanne Kofmehl Solothurn Salzhaus Winterthur Grabenhalle St.Gallen Usine Genève

Andy Locher observes that sponsorship is still available for bigger venues and festivals but smaller clubs have major

problems in finding funds, as he says, “Local media will support them, but not with cash. Additionally in my opinion the clubs suffer from several and increasing showcases with free entrance, supported by sponsors, media and labels: we all, including artist managements, should take care that particularly smaller concerts do not become ‘goods with no value’ as happened in the last years to the record industry.” Francois Biollay is upbeat about this sector, “This is probably the healthiest part of the business, even if subsidies are far less than in France and sponsorship decreased during the crisis. Young people still go out at least once a week in main cities, Zurich obviously, but also Lausanne, Bern, etc. Developing Local Talent: As far as the local market and new talent is concerned local communities and cantons seem to get behind popular music activities, although it’s still difficult for acts to cross over into the different

language areas. However there seems to be a lack of support on a federal level. Also there aren’t that many music magazines in Switzerland, apart from Rockstar and Daily-Rock.ch, so it is mainly the radio stations like DRS3, DRS Virus, Radio Rumantsch, Rete Tre and Couleur3 that promote Swiss talents. All these stations combine to run MX3.ch an online portal with streams and online libraries for bands, venues and festivals. Antonin Rousseau says: “ Current musical trends are not widely represented in festivals compared to other territories. Switzerland has definitely taken more time than other countries to understand the importance of support to export and artists’ management. Since 2003, Swiss Music Export (www.swiss-music-export. com) has gathered several music support organizations and is striving to promote Swiss music outside of Switzerland. This is starting to pay off and we can now see Swiss artists such as Sophie Hunger get-

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#28 VIP-MAGAZINE 06/2010 WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

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MARKET FEATURE #

ting a name at a European level.” However, as far as we understand The Swiss Music Export office currently only has a budget of about 400.000 Swiss Francs and have two offices, one in Nyon for the French speaking community and one in Zurich for the German language community. Our Paleo People are optimistic about the local market: “It’s growing and growing. We have probably more than ever ‘exportready’ artists. Sophie Hunger is doing very well in Europe, France, Germany and elsewhere; she played at Glastonbury this year. The Young Gods are still touring all over Europe and some French Chanson artists are doing quite well in France. The market is still very small in Switzerland, but Europe is big enough! The scene in general is very dynamic, in every region and on every level. A lot of smaller bands could make it in the international market, My Heart Belongs To Cecilia Winter, for example. This year’s Swiss Music Awards held in March recognises international and national successes; the national top album awards went to Lovebugs, Stefanie Heinzmann and Yello (not exactly new talent, having been around for 30 years or more!). The Best Newcomers Awards went to: Bucher & Schmid – Isziit Liricas Analas – Analectrica Pegasus – Heroes & Champions, and the Jury Prize went to: Big Zis, Filewile and Heidi Happy.

»They are definitely export-ready when it comes to the quality - we never had so many brilliant and young Swiss artists before« - Andy Locher

Andy Locher comments: “In every small country it is very difficult for a local act to live out of music – specially if they are only playing within Switzerland or in their language-part of Switzerland. But there are some Swiss acts who are not only focusing on the Swiss market and have a certain success and many shows abroad. They are definitely export-ready when it comes to the quality – we never had so many brilliant and young Swiss artists before.” Stefan Schurter agrees, “I

really think we have lots of great artists that should discover the world. But it’s not easy to get out of the market, being surrounded by big markets like Germany and France for example, nobody is sitting there waiting for the Swiss bands unfortunately, but I have the impression that there are more bands exported than a few years ago.” Francois Biollay has a slightly different opinion, “There’s very few Swiss artists ‘export-ready’, because they often have to play music as a hobby and not as a job. However alternative clubs with capacity around 300-400p can work well with local artists. I think it’s almost half of their booking. For bigger clubs, you need international artists, even if it’s a newcomer.” Present and Future: To conclude this relatively brief overview of the Swiss market we asked our commentators to give us an idea of how business is for them today, and how they think things may be in the near future: The Paléo People: “Things went very well this year, as they did in the past ten years. Business was much the same, but still, we are aware that the economic crisis could hurt us as well. Our low price policy makes us one of the cheapest open-air events in Switzerland. We work very hard to welcome our audience in a comfortable and nice looking site. We also try to innovate with new projects every year. That is part of what makes us what we are. We can feel around us that a crisis has occurred. Unemployment in Switzerland is around 4%, which is high for Switzerland, but quite low compared to other European countries. We can sense that sponsors had budget cuts, but the situation is not drama tic. We will work hard on keeping our low prices in order to offer our spectators a nice cultural and social moment in a beautiful atmosphere. In general, some events may disappear, some other will probably emerge.” Stefan Schurter: “Things have got much faster I think. I get more and more emails with the request to answer within only a few hours, it gets more and more shortterm on making decisions, and on the other hand, instead of booking shows only 2-3 months in advance, I am actually

Stefan Schurter

booking them up to a year in advance. There’s too many artists touring in all markets at the moment, trying to make up for the shortfall in record sales, they’re not selling enough tickets to continue financing the touring. I think the market will shrink and with less on the road then each one will gain value and will sell more tickets again.” Francis Biollay: “My business as booker for Soldout Productions and Metropop Festival is doing well: For some time now I have been able to let a band pass if the fees goes too high because of local competition: our policy is to keep a low ticket price for our young audience. This was a long term policy, and it begins to pay now so that all will be well in the future! Andy Locher: “Business has been even better from year to year in the past 7 years – we could never have expected that.” Andy expresses an attitude to his future business which seems to also apply to the country, “As long as we remain focused on that what we can do, as long as we know the market and punter, as long as we don’t want to do everything and as long as we love our job and the music, I personally see a bright future for us! Antonin Rousseau concludes in a similarly positive vein, “Even though Swiss music is not a key player on the international market, it has a lot to offer and is eager to let itself be widely known. Switzerland is not a country with a big export tradition yet but it is exciting to think that it could become one...

#29 VIP-MAGAZINE 06/2010 WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

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ARTIST AVAILS #

ARTIST AVAILS

See/Add more Artist Avails at VIP-Booking.com DEADMAU5 Territory: UK / Europe Period: UK Winter 2010 / Europe Spring ñ Summer 2011 Agency: WME - William Morris Endeavor Entertainment Agent: Steve Hogan Email: SHogan@wmeentertainment.com Homepage: www.deadmau5.com 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 ADLER’S APPETITE Territory: Europe Period: 1/2/2011-1/3/2011 Agency: ARM Entertainment Agent: Dana Strutz Phone: 1-651-483-8754 E-mail: ds@armentertainment.com Homepage: www.adlersappetiteonline.com GROOVE ARMADA Territory: Europe / Worldwide Period: Europe Winter 2010 / Worldwide 2011 Agency: WME - William Morris Endeavor Entertainment Agent: Steve Hogan Email: SHogan@wmeentertainment.com Homepage: www.groovearmada.com

GROOVE ARMADA

ADMIRAL T Territory: World Period: 2010-2011 Agency: CARAMBA Spectacles Agent: Clotaire Phone: 00 33 1 42 18 17 18 E-mail: caramba@clotaire.fr Homepage: www.caramba.fr CHICANE Territory: Europe Period: Winter 2010 ñ Summer 2011 Agency: WME - William Morris Endeavor Entertainment Agent: Steve Hogan Email: SHogan@wmeentertainment.com Homepage: www.chicanemusic.com

SASS JORDAN

SASS JORDAN Territory: Europe Period: February / March Agency: Paperclip Agency Agent: Hilde Spille Phone: +31 24 323 9322 E-mail: hilde@paperclip-agency.com Homepage: www.paperclip-agency.com

Briganti di Terra d’Otranto Territory: worldwide Period: generally available Agency: Maffucci Music Agent: Canio Rosario Maffucci Phone: +39.339.4858107 E-mail: i nfo@italianworldmusic.com Homepage: www.italianworldmusic.com

ROGER SANCHEZ Territory: Europe / Worldwide (Spring 2011) Period: Europe Spring 2011 / Worldwide rest of 2011 Agency: WME - William Morris Endeavor Entertainment Agent: S teve Hogan Email: SHogan@wmeentertainment.com Homepage: www.myspace.com/rogersanchez

DARKO RUMDEK Territory: Europe Period: autumn 2010 - summer 2011 Agency: Menart Agent: Maja Valjak Phone: +385 91 2333 507 E-mail: maja.valjak@menart.hr Homepage: www.menart.hr

SKID ROW Territory: Europe Period: 6/12/2010-31/12/2010 Agency: ARM Entertainment Agent: Dana Strutz Phone: 1-651-483-8754 E-mail: ds@armentertainment.com Homepage: www.skidrow.com

ALESHA DIXON Territory: UK & Europe Period: Winter 2010 ñ Summer 2011 Agency: WME - William Morris Endeavor Entertainment Agent: Steve Hogan Email: SHogan@wmeentertainment.com Homepage: www.aleshadixon.net

SWEET Territory: Worldwide Period: Generally available Agency: ABS Agency Agent: Nigel Kerr Phone: +44 208 399 3474 E-mail: absagency@btconnect.com Homepage: www.thesweet-now.com

FISCHER-Z Territory: Europe Period: 01/07/2010 - 31/12/2010 Agency: Artist Agency Agent: Bart Quintens Phone: +32 16777670 E-mail: bart@artistagency.be Homepage: www.artistagency.be

ZANE LOWE Territory: UK & Europe Period: Spring ñ Summer 2011 Agency: WME - William Morris Endeavor Entertainment Agent: Steve Hogan Email: SHogan@wmeentertainment.com Homepage: www.zanelowe.com

#31 VIP-MAGAZINE 06/2010 WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

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