AUDIENCE_Jan2016_MarketFocus_Austria

For the International contemporary Live Music Industry ISSUE 192 JANUARY 2016 UK £6.25 EUROPE €9.40 ROW $12.25

True affection

Father John Misty goes global

Soundwave debts revealed Performance royalty discounts ‘endemic’ Lieberberg reunited with festivals There is a new breed of promoter who is just in it for the money AL-X’s Alex Nussbaumer on Austria

MARKET FOCUS

Austria

Forum Wien Arena

market focus: austria

It may only have a population of 8.2 million, but its healthy economy and location at the heart of Europe makes it an attractive touring destination, which its promoters and venue operators exploit as much as they can. In fact, the market is so strong that two major German companies have moved in for a piece of the action. Christopher Barrett reports

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ustria is bordered by eight countries, with Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Italy and Slovenia to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west.

Despite its comparatively small size and population, it is ranked the 16th biggest music market in the world by the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and boasts a GDP per capita of $42,597.

Nearly one quarter of the country’s population live in the city of Vienna in the northeast, which is where the majority of the live music by international artistes takes place.

Alongside an increasingly successful number of local acts, Austrian music fans continue to demonstrate a strong interest in overseas artistes and among the top-selling acts of recent years are AC/DC, Ed Sheeran, Pharrell Williams, John Legend and Helene Fischer.

The live music market is predominantly run by experienced promoters and agents, but last year saw two giants of the German live music business take significant stakes in Austria.

Live Nation Entertainment founded Live Nation Concerts Germany (LNCG) by persuading leading German promoter Marek Lieberberg to split from CTS Eventim’s Medusa

AUDIENCE t Issue 192 t January 2016

promoter collective. LNCG was set to begin promoting concerts and festivals in Germany, Austria and Switzerland from 1 January.

Last year German pan-Europe festival organisaer and promoter Folkert Koopmans of FKP Scorpio Konzertproduktionen returned to the Austrian market and took over Vienna-based agency Arcadia, re-branding it Arcadia Live.

Filip Potocki and Bernhard Kaufmann had run Arcadia since 2008 and last year saw Kaufmann take on the role of Arcadia Live MD. It is a joint venture between FKP, Four Artists Booking Agentur, Chimperator Live and KKT, and promotes concerts and tours as well as a handful of festivals.

Arcadia Live recently struck a deal to

acts including Grooverider & Fabio and Black Sun Empire.

Tickets cost €69 ($75.5) for the weekend.

Arcadia Live also took over the handling of the Nuke Festival (35,000) in Ewald Tatar Graz/Styria, previously managed by Music Net and Nova Music, who are among three leading Austrian promoters that have formed an independent powerhouse.

Nova Music MD Ewald Tatar, Musicnet Harry Jenner Entertainment president Harry Jenner and NuCoast Entertainment founder Richard Hoermann are working together as Barracuda “There is a new breed of promoter Music, promoting shows both inside and outside. who is just in it for the money and Barracuda and its associate companies already have more than 150 doesn’t care what happens on the shows on sale this year and have sold second and third tour” approximately 400,000 tickets. They include concerts by Slipknot, Ellie Alex Nussbaumer Goulding, Mumford & Sons, Bryan Adams, Florence + The Machine, exclusively handle all festivals and headline David Gilmour, Justin Bieber and Elton John. shows at the Wiesen Festival site, located in Tatar describes the local music market as Burgenland in the east of Austria. They include strong and healthy but emphasises that much the Nu Forms Festival (8,000), which takes of the action is limited to Vienna. place 30 June-2 July, with approximately 80 “The Austrian live market is, in reality, the www.audience.uk.com

VIENNA

Linz

Austria Graz

Innsbruck

Viennese live market,” says Tatar. “Vienna is by far the biggest city in Austria and is the biggest German-speaking city after Berlin. Vienna has grown fast, lots of students have moved here from all over Europe, which has helped increase ticket sales.”

Tatar says outside Vienna, in cities such as Linz and Graz, artistes should only expect to sell half as many tickets for a show.

B list constraints

Primary location

Among the country’s leading concert venues are the capital’s Wiener Stadthalle and Gasometer (3,000), then the Tips Arena (6,000) in Linz, Stadthalle (11,000) in Graz and Innsbruck’s The Wolfgang Fischer OlympiaWorld (8,000).

A relative newcomer to the Vienese concert landscape is the Marx-Halle (16,000) in the Neu Marx district. A renovated industrial-style building, concerts planned there this year include The Cure and Element of Crime.

The Wiener Stadthalle (16,000) opened in 1958 and is busier than ever.

The site comprises six halls that can be individually or jointly let. The main hall D is a multipurpose venue that offers more than 10 configuration options, from theatre-style (2.000) to club-format (3,600 to 7,600) and the full arena (16.000).

market focus: austria

Manfred Leodolter’s Show Connection has promoted or co-promoted concerts by artistes such as Paul McCartney, Bon Jovi, Miley Cyrus and Ennio Morricone, with forthcoming shows featuring Justin Bieber, Simply Red and Herbert Grönemeyer.

Leodolter says it is tough making shows work outside Vienna with all but the bestknown acts, “You can succeed, but what you need is the right artiste. Our B cities do not have many inhabitants and that is something we have to work with.”

He says it is important to keep ticket prices at a Manfred Leodolter reasonable level with Miley Cyrus in order to sustain the current demand for tickets, “Although Austria’s economic strength is not what it used to be, ticket sales of quality events and artistes are better than expected.”

Hoermann says that it is not just international acts that are doing well, an increasing

number of domestic acts are enjoying considerable success.

“We have major acts such as Parov Stelar, who is touring very successfully all over Europe, while Wanda and Bilderbuch are NuCoast - Pula Arena -David Gilmour breaking the German market and do sell-out arena business there,” says Hoermann.

“We have never seen such a level of success of Austrian live music abroad since the times of Falco. Austria, and Vienna in particular, is the upcoming music market in Europe.”

Local promoters are increasingly looking beyond the more traditional media outlets, such as Hitradio Ö3, Krone Hit Radio and the Kronen Zeitung, to reach fans.

“Facebook is by far the biggest online source of information for fans wanting news about shows,” observes Hoermann.

While, among the shows that Jenner is looking forward to promoting is The Libertines at Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle (16,000) in March.

One frustration Jenner has is the apparent lack of unusual venues. “Its is a really sad situation, we are often asked by the agents to come up with special or original venues for concerts, but there are almost none here, apart from the very few that everyone knows. “

Austria Population: 8.2 million Internet users: 7 million Language: German Currency: Euro Total music revenues per capita: $14 IFPI world ranking: 16

(Source: IFPI)

Salzburg

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... YOUR INDEPENDENT AUSTRIAN PROMOTOR Office Address: Garnisongasse 1/22a, 1090 Vienna, Austria, Ph.: 0043 1 319 21 21 , Fax.: 0043 1 319 21 21 50, office@showconnection.at, www.showconnection.at www.audience.uk.com

AUDIENCE t Issue 192 t January 2016

says Fischer. “We will be closely monitoring how it affects sales.”

Capital advantage

Wiener Stadthalle

market focus: austria

Recent events in the building include the 50th Eurovision Song Contest, and shows by Foo Fighters, Paul Simon and Sting, and Miley Cyrus.

Shows this year include Ellie Goulding’s first show in Austria, Slipknot, Maria Carey, Muse, Justin Bieber and Black Sabbath.

Wiener Stadthalle CEO Wolfgang Fischer says he is particularly happy to have lined-up shows by local newcomers Wanda and Parov Stelar.

He says that despite the increase in the number of venues, promoters and festivals, the market remains robust enough to support all participants.

“Over all the market is still profitable and the purchasing power of consumers remains strong, but in 2016 the VAT on tickets will be raised from 10 per cent to 13 per cent - leaving less margin for everybody, management, bands, local promoters and ticket companies,”

Music and arts space Arena Wien includes three indoor venues and a permanent outdoorstage that means shows can be staged for audiences of 50 up to 3,000.

Venue manager Philipp Gottschall says 2015 saw the venue host around 350 concerts, including The Cinematic Orchestra, Gregor Meyle and Modern Life Is War. Forthcoming shows include The Residents, Gorilla Biscuits and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

“Being located in the largest city is a big advantage, and the latest predictions are that Vienna will exceed a total population of two million by 2030,” says Gottschall. “Considering that and our many neighbouring countries, we are well positioned to attract audiences.”

As well as the rise in sales tax on tickets, Gottschall says the arrival of the two large German promoters in Austria could have a negative impact on the live market this year.

“Two new big players trying to get their share of the cake could result in an unhealthy growth of club shows and festivals in a small, but still pretty wealthy, country like Austria,” he says.

“This could make it harder to promote our club shows and see festival promoters work exclusively with a lot of the big agents’ rosters throughout the year.”

Marketing shows for Arena Wien, the venue’s Milo Bauer markets finds publications such as Vice, Thegap, Slam Zine and Volume to be most effective for promoting live music shows.

“Other key platforms we use are renowned radio station FM4 and Austria’s only music video channel GoTV,” says Bauer.

Alfred Wihalm

Andreas Egger

Success stories

Alfred Wihalm is the head booker at Vienna’s Szene Wien (470), which also stages acoustic shows in its Martin Sobotnik adjacent garden.

For the past 25 years, the venue has been popular with indie, rock, pop, blues and folk artistes. Recent shows featured Pere Ubu and Kinky Friedman.

Wihalm is particularly proud of the venue’s sound system. “We have an awesome PA-system – the sound is magnificent. It’s what

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the venue is famous for,” he says. “When I was young I always loved it when my favourite acts played here, because I knew the sound wouldn’t be disappointing.”

Around one-third of the concerts staged at the venue are by foreign acts, the remainder being locals. Wihalm says after decades of disinterest, the Austrian media is finally starting to support local acts and the past two years have seen a healthy flow of fledgling artistes find their feet.

“The local scene is absolutely booming, with the success of Bilderbuch and Wanda in the German-speaking countries, and since last year we have real pop stars in Austria again, in the form of a duo called Seiler &

Speer, who are breaking all sorts of records at the moment,” he says.

Together with MD Martin Sobotnik, Wihalm also runs the Gasometer and newly-

Driving forward

hours, so we are really flexible,” he says.

Beat The Street has a fleet of more than 100 vehicles including single deckers, super high deckers, double-deckers and star buses featuring the latest entertainment technology and luxury sleeping facilities. It services the high-end touring market and counts Madonna, Coldplay, Jay Z and Metallica among its clients.

Philipp says the Austrian market remains strong, but he has seen a shortening of

The biggest tour bus operation in Europe, Beat The Street, is based near Innsbruck and founder Jöerg Philipp believes it benefits hugely from being headquartered in Austria.

“The combination of having the main office and yard in Austria and a base in the UK is a huge advantage, because it means we can reach anywhere in Europe within 12

in the middle of the Danube river in Vienna, Donauinselfest features around 2,000 artistes on 11 stages over three days in June. The eclectic line-up usually encompasses everything from dance to alternative rock, classical and folk. Among the artistes to play last year were “We have not seen such a level Cornerstone and Middle of of success of Austrian live music the Road.

The festival market is dominatabroad since the times of Falco” ed by Nova Music, which produces Richard Hoermann festivals such as the biggest paidfor events Nova Rock (50,000) and FM4 Frequency (40,000). opened SiMM City (800) in Vienna, as well The company also runs a handful of smaller as overseeing the Radio FM4/Planet.tt stage festivals including Urban Art Forms (36,000) in at Vienna’s Donauinselfest, which attracts Graz and Steel City (21,000) in Linz. around 200,000 visitors.

Nova’s Ewald Tatar says, “The festival An open-air free festival held on an island market has changed with the arrival of more European tours in the past two to three years.

“We had a good 2015, but the market is changing – there are no three-month tours with 15 buses anymore, it is mostly concentrated in the summer months Jöerg Philipp and the average tour is now only about six weeks,” he says.

market focus: austria 17

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AUDIENCE t Issue 192 t January 2016

of other domestic acts such as Wanda, Parov Stelar, Seile & Speer, Bilderbuch and Nazar.

“The local acts have put live music back into the spotlight for Austrian people, but this year will be an interesting one, as sales tax on tickets has been raised,” says Egger.

“However, the tax reform will mean employees will see their net income rise between €1,000 and €2,000 [$1,093 and $2,186] per year.”

Marx -Halle

competitors in Austria, especially from Germany, but our festivals are really solid and Novarock has already sold 100 per cent more tickets than it had at the same time last year.”

market focus: austria

Flexible ticketing

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Founded in 1995 as Ticket Express, Oeticket is the market leader in the market, with German panEuropean ticketing giant CTS Eventim acquiring a majority stake in 1999.

In 2015 alone Oeticket sold 5.5 million tickets in Austria.

Among the key shows were AC/DC at the Red Bull Ring (105,000) in Spielberg and two nights by Helene Fischer at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium (100,000 overall).

Oeticket CEO Andreas Egger says more than 50 per cent of its tickets are sold via the internet, but there remains strong demand for physical outlets and physical tickets.

“Many people prefer to buy at one of our 4,000 outlets and eventim.fanticket is bringing people back to paper as it is a wonderful souvenir,” he says.

Egger says that Austria did not suffer significantly during the global recession and the live market has continued to enjoy growth in recent years, buoyed in part by the success

international acts to Austria during since 1980s, Alex Nussbaumer is MD of Vienna-based concert promoters AL-X, whose recent tours include Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello and Herbert Fechter Fink, with forthcoming shows including long-term client The Cure at the Marx-Halle.

“I was pleased to see Robert Smith select the Marx-Halle.” he says. “It is an old industrial hall that has been refurbished and is now a multi-purpose venue with great production facilities and infrastructure. It is the perfect alternative to the Stadthalle.”

Meanwhile, Nussbaumer believes the festival market has reached saturation point The overview and a number of “cowboy” promoters are Georg Leitner started in the concert business throwing money at artistes in an effort to gain in 1977, promoting shows with Egger. He later a quick win. formed his own company, Johnny Concerts, “Austria is too small to support the avapromoting acts such as Rod Stewart and The lanche of investors, and there are too many Clash and now runs booking operation Georg festivals and shows in the market,” he says.

Leitner Productions.

“There is a new breed of promoter who is just in it for the money and doesn’t care what happens on the second and “Considering … our many third tour, they are not interested in neighbouring countries, we are well artiste development and the longterm view.” positioned to attract audiences” Artiste agency Fechter Management books around 400 Philipp Gottschall shows per year for its artistes such as Randy Newman, Albert Hammond Specialising in funk, soul and R&B, among and Gilbert O`Sullivan, as well as domestic the many acts Leitner says GLP works with acts including Andy Lee Lang, Uwe Kröger , are Chic featuring Nile Rodgers, Kool & The Insieme, Nina Proll and Karina Sarkissova.

Gang, Earth Wind & Fire and Sister Sledge. He Based in Vienna, owner Herbert Fechter says says GLP also has dates on tours by Foreigner, tickets for his shows typically range in price George Clinton/Parliament and Roy Ayers. from €36,00-250 ($29-273) depending on “The venue infrastructure, especially in the act. He says the shows are continuing to Vienna, has improved tremendously,” says sell well, but is concerned that the increased Leitner. “We not only saw the StaddeHalle competition could prove unsustainable. add 2,500 seats a couple of year ago, but we He says, “When you consider the size of have the new Marx -Halle [10,000]. Also there the market there are already too many shows is more competition because we have [FKP being staged. There is also a large number of Scorpio’s] Folkert and Marek Lieberberg openbig festivals – maybe too many. ing subsidiaries here.”

“But, for the moment, things are selling A leading figure in bringing new pretty well.”

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„Even after 35+ years in the business, I still place quality above quantity and favour contents over sheer volumes.

Fortunately, my attitude resulted in a remarkable degree of independence including the chance to work with people that not only are in it for the money.“ Alex Nussbaumer CEO al-x concert promoter GmbH | Arbeitergasse 48 | 1050 Vienna | Bregenzer Straße 71 | 6900 Bregenz | Austria | Tel +43-5574-52012 | alex.nussbaumer@al-x.at