IQ55 by IQ Magazine

LIVE MUSIC INTELLIGENCE

MARKET SPOTLIGHT: GERMANY FESTIVALS VS AGENCY AIR CHARTER SECTOR PROFILE THE SECURITY SPECIALISTS

Issue 55

An ILMC Publication. Sept 2014

Tony

25 years

GOLDRING music

Cover photo: Collisions © Martin Hughes

Contents IQ Magazine Issue 55

News and Developments 6

In Brief The main headlines over the last two months

In Depth Key stories from around the live music world

16 Techno Files Revealing the hottest new technology in live entertainment

Features 18 The New Bosses 2014 Ten future industry leaders in the spotlight

22 The Konzert Powerhaus Chris Austin finds the German market in rude health 34 Stealing the Headliners The evolving relationship between festivals and agents 40 Tony Earns his Spurs Affable agent Tony Goldring marks 25 years in music 56 Flying Sourcers Robert Ashton buckles up with the jet setters 62 Close to the Madding Crowd Eugenia Durante talks to the people who make our events safer

Comments and Columns 12 Managing the Managers Volker May updates us on the IMMF’s vital work 13 Live Support for Venues Music Venue Trust’s Mark Davyd reports on the progress of the organisation 14 Attracting the Digital Natives Tech expert Kevin Williams highlights the apps to attract future audiences 15 Planning for the Future Vladimir Kravchenko calls for more international music industry cooperation

56 62

68 Members’ Noticeboard Keeping you posted on what ILMC members are up to 70 Your Shout On the back of the ice-bucket phenomena, what challenge would you create and who would you nominate? IQ Magazine September 2014

Issue 55

Caveat venditor Gordon Masson looks back across a summer that taught ticketing start-ups some harsh lessons... IT’S BEEN A MIXED summer for the live music industry, with various festival successes and failures around Europe and beyond. Usually at this time of year, the IQ team starts harassing festival organisers for their figures and reports on the season in our annual European Festivals Report, and while those initial emails will start arriving in inboxes soon, this year we’ve decided to extend the research by a few weeks so that we include the various events that close out the summer. One worrying trend, if I can call it that, from this summer appears to be the willingness of fledgling ticketing firms to offer festival promoters either part or full advances of their sales to help with cash flow, in a desperate bid to lure new business. But as you’ll see from our story on page 10, the repercussions of such decisions can well and truly bite everyone involved in the arse when the shit hits the fan, not the least of whom are the consumers who are left high and dry, scrambling around for refunds. Doubtless this will be discussed in detail at ILMC 27 next March, but any young ticketing companies out there considering such risky strategies would do well to reconsider, by noting the alltoo-real bank-busting consequences of such actions. Before I start reeling off the various features filling the pages of this issue, I have yet another sad duty to perform – relaying the news of the sad departure of yet another of the live music industry’s pioneers, Peter Grosslight. Peter was a giant of the business and used his influence not only to fight for the benefits of artists, but also to further such causes as civil rights and highlight international injustice, such as the plight

IQ Magazine September 2014

of the late Nelson Mandela. I only met the man twice, in my former life at Billboard magazine, and there aren’t many people I’ve encountered who instantly left such a positive impression. But I’ll leave it to another of those individuals, Ed Bicknell, to pay proper tribute to Peter (see page 11). From pioneers to the current crop of individuals making waves in the business, this year’s New Bosses (page 18) will definitely be the people to establish relationships with now, before their ascension up the industry ladder, if you’re not already familiar with them. One man that our gang of ten would do well to emulate is Tony Goldring – the subject of our main feature in this issue – who made the switch to or from the dark side, depending on your point of view, when he left his promoter past in the UK to become an uber-agent in the US. Celebrating his 25th anniversary in music, Tony’s story (page 40) is a mustread for one and all. Elsewhere in this issue, Robert Ashton looks at the air charter business (page 56), Gina Durante talks to some of the people improving event safety and security around the world (page 62) and I investigate the evolving relationship between festival organisers and agents (page 34) and the various headline acts who have reaped the benefit of demand outstripping supply this summer. And as if that was not enough, our market spotlight delves into Europe’s biggest music market, Germany (page 22), to discover just how the industry is faring as the country emerges from years of recession and the local population’s apparent growing desire for home-grown headline tours.

LIVE MUSIC INTELLIGENCE THE ILMC JOURNAL, Sept 2014

IQ Magazine 7 Jeffrey’s Place London, NW1 9PP info@iq-mag.net www.iq-mag.net Tel: +44 (0)20 7284 8945 Fax: +44 (0)20 7284 8947

Publisher

ILMC and Suspicious Marketing

Editor

Gordon Masson

Associate Editor Allan McGowan

Mark eting & Advertising Manager Terry McNally

Design

Martin Hughes

Sub Editor

Michael Muldoon

Production Assistant Adam Milton

Editorial Assistant Eugenia Durante

Contributors

Robert Ashton, Chris Austin, Ed Bicknell, Mark Davyd, Vladimir Kravchenko, Emmanuel Legrand, Volker May, Kevin Williams, Adam Woods

Editorial Contact

Gordon Masson, gordon@iq-mag.net Tel: +44 (0)20 7284 8945

Advertising Contact

Terry McNally, terry@iq-mag.net Tel: +44 (0)20 7284 8946

To subscribe to IQ Magazine: michael@iq-mag.net An annual subscription to IQ is £75 (print) or £60 (electronic).

News

In Brief... JULY

The Agency Group opens a new office in Miami, Florida, with the appointment of Jeremy Norkin, who will be director of Latin operations (see page 8). London’s Camden Crawl event goes bust due to poor ticket sales, leaving suppliers and artists unpaid, and prompting an avalanche of criticism on social media. Universal Music Group International revives the EMI China label. The operations will be run by Sunny Chang, head of Universal Music Greater China. Jazz bassist, Charlie Haden, dies in Los Angeles, aged 76, from post-polio syndrome. The last original member of punk band The Ramones, drummer Tommy Ramone, dies of cancer at home in New York. He was 62. Born Erdélyi Tamás in Budapest, Hungary, he played on the first three Ramones albums but left to be replaced by Marc Bell, aka Marky Ramone. Neil Young becomes CEO of Pono Music, which describes itself as a start-up, highfidelity audio player and associated online store that will offer top quality audio files to users. Young replaces experienced technology executive John Hamm. Belgium’s Tomorrowland festival reveals plans to expand into Brazil next year, when the SFX-owned brand confirms rumours of an event in São Paolo, 1-3 May, 2015.

Blues icon Johnny Winter dies, aged 70, at a hotel in Zurich, just days after performing at the Lovely Days Festival in Wiesen, Austria. The Dave Matthews Band becomes the first act to perform on Live Nation’s new channel on Yahoo Screen. The 15 July show took place at Jackson Veterans Memorial Arena in Florida. Exit Festival’s aid programme, designed to help people affected by the devastating floods in Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia earlier this year, holds a special VIP fundraising effort as part of Sea Dance Festival. The Be Human events involve Jamiroquai and Example playing exclusive concerts at Budva’s Dukley Gardens (see page 8). Avril Lavigne initiates legal proceedings against concert streaming company 2VLive, alleging that it has not paid her $375,000 (€291,000) of an agreed $500,000 (€388,000) for a gig it broadcast in September 2013. 2VLive’s Facebook account appeared to be active at the time of the lawsuit, but there have been no updates since July and the company website is no longer live. No doubt aware of the difficulties in pursuing the pirate manufacturers, Beats Electronics, sues a number of Chinese e-tailer websites for selling counterfeit headphones. The Apple-owned company says it has lost billions of dollars because of the fake headphones. Switzerland’s Baloise Session festival

secures international live marketing enterprise MCH Group as a new principal sponsor for the annual event in Basel. The 29th edition of the festival takes place from 24 October to 11 November. Live Nation Entertainment reports a 61% dip in profit for its second quarter of this year, that ended 30 June. Profits for the three-month period were $22.9million (€17.8m), compared to $58.1m (€45.1m) a year earlier, while revenue remained flat at $1.67billion (€1.29bn) ($1.68bn [€1.39bn] for Q2 2103). Irving Azoff’s new performing rights organisation, Global Music Rights, persuades both Pharrell Williams and OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder to sign up to the collection service.

AUGUST

Australia’s Nine Entertainment Co. rebrands its Nine Events business as Nine Live. Established three years ago, the group incorporates Ticketek Australia, Ticketek New Zealand, Eventopia, Softix, Nine Rewards and Sydney Allphones Arena. Four people are killed and at least eight others injured after a flash flood rips through a festival in the town of Refrontolo, Italy. The African state of Guinea observes a week of national mourning after a stampede at a seafront concert in the capital, Conakry, kills 34 people, including 11 children. Four people are arrested: two of the event’s organisers, a public official in charge of managing the beach site and the head of the government agency for public events. Live Nation sells its merchandising operation Musictoday to Delivery Agent. Financial details were not disclosed, but the deal involves such accounts as Bonnaroo, the House of Blues and country superstar Tim McGraw. Delivery Agent plans to expand the Musictoday business through a high-tech system that allows television viewers to purchase goods directly from adverts and TV shows through web, mobile and TV applications. Live Nation Australia & New Zealand inks a partnership deal with Spark New

Frank Turner

IQ Magazine September 2014

Zealand (formerly Telecom New Zealand) allowing members of the telco’s loyalty programme access to exclusive content, experiences and priority ticketing to events in the country. Lander de Meulenaere (33) is killed in an accident with a forklift truck prior to the 500-capacity Surround Festival in Gloucester, UK, which is subsequently cancelled. Belgian national De Meuleunaere was head of Global Domes, a supplier of dome tents. Live Nation is chosen as the winner of the bids to operate Nashville’s new riverfront amphitheatre, scheduled to open in 2015. The corporation has partnered with Red Light Management, Green Light Media & Marketing, New Era Media & Marketing, the Nashville Predators and the Nashville Symphony on the new building’s management team. Reading Festival boss Melvin Benn dismisses reports that revellers will be required to bring their own toilet roll to this year’s event. Although the festival’s sustainability manager thought it would be a good strategy to save paper, Benn tells IQ, “Rest assured, toilet rolls will still be freely available at Reading Festival.” Live Performance Australia reports that the country’s live entertainment sector smashed records in 2013, with nearly AUD$1.5bn (€1.1bn) in revenues – an increase of 22.7% on 2012’s total. The LPA’s Ticket Attendance & Revenue Survey 2013 also reveals that 17.9m tickets were sold in 2013 – a rise of more than 10% on the year before. Live Nation and the Fillmore Silver Spring venue in Maryland are sued by

IQ Magazine September 2014

Avril Lavigne

News

local man Kenneth Miller who claims he broke his back at a Korn concert when a crowd-surfer landed on him. The plaintiff, who was at the gig for his son’s 17th birthday, is seeking $1m (€0.7m). CTS Eventim’s ticketing business enjoys significant growth which leads to a slight rise (up 2.6%) in net income to €65m for the first six months of the year, despite the company’s promoters enduring a difficult summer because of the FIFA World Cup. The Medusa Group, Eventim’s promoting division, nevertheless sees yearon-year revenues rise 6.9% to €213.6m, but net income falls 18.9% to €18.9m. The ticketing business meanwhile experiences a 12.2% revenue increase to €129.9m and net income growth of 20.4% to €33.6m. Overall group revenues increase by 8.7% to €339.5m.

SEPTEMBER

FKP Scorpio partners with Danish promoters Brian Nielsen and Mads Sørensen to launch the Tinderbox Festival in Tusindårsskoven, Odense, on the weekend of 26-28 June 2015. The event will have a capacity of 25,000 and Danish media report that it will have a music budget of about €5.4m. Philippines-based Music Management International Corporation agrees a jointventure deal with Live Nation to promote shows in the country. Financial details are not disclosed. CTS Eventim announces that it has won the business to be the exclusive ticket-seller for the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. In collaboration with the Music Venue Trust, musician Frank Turner launches a petition to protect the UK’s music venues and delivers a strongly worded letter and video demanding culture secretary, Sajid Javid, adopt agent of change principle into law to halt the escalating threats to dedicated live music clubs. Ticketmaster acquires Brussels-based Sherba.be, whose clients include Studio 100, Music Hall Group and Live Nation. As part of the deal, Sherba founder Hubert Laterre becomes chairman of Ticketmaster Belgium, which launched earlier this year.

To subscribe to IQ Magazine: michael@iq-mag.net An annual subscription to IQ is £75 (print) or £60 (electronic).

News

Movers and Shakers The Event Safety Alliance is continuing its international expansion with the appointment of veteran crowd management and event safety consultant Jon (J.C.) Corbishley as chairman of its new Australian affiliate. Corbishley will oversee the operations of ESA Australia and serve as the organisation’s primary delegate within the region.

New Name for New Zealand Venue CHRISTCHURCH’S biggest indoor arena, the former CBS Canterbury Arena in Addington, has been renamed Horncastle Arena following an agreement on naming rights with local home-building company Horncastle Homes and building operator Vbase. Financial details were not disclosed, but the two companies will work together for five years to promote the venue and bring benefit to the city and the Canterbury region. “The values of Horncastle

Homes are a perfect fit with Vbase’s long-term goals and vision for the arena,” says Vbase general manager Darren Burden. “Like Vbase, Horncastle Homes is a company with a focus on the local community and its people.” Horncastle Arena has a capacity of almost 9,000 and among the upcoming events are a major Disney on Ice production, followed by the visit of Bob Dylan and his band, the SkyCity Breakers and The Dire Straits Experience.

Joe Mead is exiting his project ticketing manager role at Kilimanjaro Live in London to relocate to Melbourne, Australia, where he is joining Dainty Group as tour coordinator. UK motion control specialist Kinesys has opened a new American operation and has placed industry veteran David Martin in charge. Kinesys USA Inc. is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, but will be a commercial hub for business in Canada, Central and South America. An automation control expert, Martin’s career has included stints at Rhino Services, Dragone, Cirque du Soleil and Atlanta Rigging. Cheryl Paglierani has left CAA to join The Agency Group. Based in the company’s New York office, her roster includes A$AP Ferg, Asher Roth, Danny Brown, Sir Michael Rocks and Yelawolf. Former Ticket Factory general manager Will Quekett has joined London-based financial services outfit JM Marketing Ltd as business development manager. Rachel Esson has departed her post at LS-Live and Backstage Academy to take on the role of senior account manager at National Schools Partnership.

Kate Webb has been appointed as the new marketing director at The Ticket Factory. Previously she worked at Codemasters, will now be territorial, instead Vision Express and the Volvo Group, but in her new role she of The Agency Group’s stand- will be responsible for driving the sale of tickets through digital ard Responsible-Agent system. marketing and e-commerce solutions, as well as taking the lead The Agency Group’s on the customer journey and CRM strategies. founder, Neil Warnock, says, James Drury is stepping back from the day-to-day operations “Nashville – the home of so of Festival Awards, to take on a new role running online many music legends – it has listings guide Londonist.com. Drury remains a director and always been a central ambi- will continue to be involved, but is handing over daily control tion of The Agency Group to of the Festival Awards UK and Europe to Amy Wright. increase our presence here, and with the Bobby Roberts Company joining us, it will bring even greater strength and purpose going forward.” For his part, Bobby Roberts comments, “We now have THIS YEAR’S EDITION of EXIT Budva and Dukley Gardens the resources, tools and addi- Festival, and its related Sea and with the support of the tional agents to better serve Dance festival in Montene- Government of the Republic and enhance the touring needs gro, raised €140,000 for Flood of Serbia, the Government of of our artists. The possibilities Relief Aid, a fund for flood Montenegro, Budva Tourism are endless for our roster with victims in the Balkans, which organisation and Hipotekarna The Agency Group’s team of saw the worst floods in more Bank. Special DJ sets by the professionals and their various than a century, causing huge artists at the luxurious Dukdepartments, and under the damage, losses and deaths. ley Gardens complex were a combined leadership of Nick As part of the Exit Aid sell-out success and helped Meinema and Lance Roberts, Programme, Jamiroquai to raise more than €80,000 we will have much to offer art- and Example hosted the Be in goods for the Flood Relief ists, managers and the overall Human events in collabora- efforts, in addition to the Nashville music community.” tion with the Municipality of €140,000 in funding.

G rowth for The Agency G roup IT HAS BEEN a big summer for The Agency Group in the United States. In addition to opening a new office in Miami, the company has acquired Nashville booking operation The Bobby Roberts Company, which represents a diverse roster of country music artists. Earlier this year, The Agency Group celebrated the second anniversary of its Nashville office led by Nick Meinema and home to agents Scott Galloway, Justin Bridgewater, Stu Walker and Justin Hill. That operation will now see the addition of newly appointed vice-president Lance Roberts and booking agents Travis James, Josh Garrett, Matt Rizor and Alec Vidmar with their respective rosters. As part of the agreement, Bobby Roberts will be involved as a strategic consultant. Meanwhile, the system of booking dates by agents in the Nashville office

Exit Foundation Boosts Flood Relief

IQ Magazine September 2014

News

R eeperbahn Prepares for International Invasion

GRAFFITI ARTIST Banksy’s iconic painting of the Grim Reaper in Bristol has been removed from the live music venue Thekla, ten years after it first appeared on the side of the ship, to prevent the artwork’s deterioration. Thekla’s owner, DHP Family, decided to remove the painting while the vessel was in dock for general maintenance and the internationally famous

stencilled piece has now been moved to the storage facilities of Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives. DHP’s George Akins says, “It is great that we’ve been able to work with Bristol City Council to display this iconic Bristol artwork. We really wanted to make sure that people could still see it for free and will now get a better view of it.”

ORGANISERS OF this month’s Reeperbahn Festival and Conference in Germany are promising delegates the most extensive programme yet, as the 17-20 September event marks its ninth anniversary. With more than 3,000 professionals travelling to Hamburg from 35 countries, in addition to the conference aspect of the gathering, Reeperbahn will host more than 400 concerts and is expected to attract more than 30,000 fans who will be checking out some of the world’s hottest new acts. Among the event’s keynote speakers will be legendary German artist Herbert Gröne-

meyer, while other panel topics include agency, festivals, digital promotion and a keynote interview by ILMC managing director, Greg Parmley, with former AEG Live executive Rob Hallett. Elsewhere, international showcases will include focuses on talent from the likes of Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Africa and Switzerland, while more than 40 networking events will offer Reeperbahn attendees multiple opportunities to find new business partners and contacts.

Failed Festivals’ Ticket Funding Advances Slammed TICKETING EXPERTS are warning newcomers to the market not to be tempted into giving event organisers cash advances after two UK festivals failed, leaving fans fighting with banks and credit card providers to try to retrieve their money. In August, the Jabberwocky Festival at London’s Excel Centre was cancelled by organisers, All Tomorrow’s Parties (ATP), just days before it was due to take place, with refunds “available to all customers at the point of purchase.” While the event’s ticketers, Dash Tickets, claimed it had forwarded all box office funds to ATP, the organisers refuted this, although it conceded that it had received some advances from Dash, which “went straight into event costs such as various artist fees and venue hire.” ATP added that it is “petitioning Dash and working closely

and restlessly with PayPal to ensure all customers receive their full due amount.” Coincidentally, Alt-Fest, which was scheduled for the same 15-17 August weekend, was also cancelled at the eleventh hour under similar circumstances, with fans left trying to claw back their money through various outlets. Indeed, a long-winded apology on the festival’s website concludes with a number of different email and website contacts for ticket buyers to contact. But the link to at least one of those outlets, ClubTickets, no longer works, among rumours that the company is bust. With such festival failures attracting media interest, not to mention vitriolic complaints going viral on social media, experienced ticketers are warning fledgling operations to avoid the temptation

IQ Magazine September 2014

of risking advances to lure new business. Stressing the measures that responsible ticketers go to, We Got Tickets’ senior marketing executive, Steven Endersby, says, “The law is clear: whoever takes the money has to refund the customers. He continues, “The terms of We Got Tickets’ merchant accounts are clear – all the ticketing money is held in a separate account to what we use for operational costs, so that customers’ money is protected: if every single event we had on sale was cancelled, every customer would still get a refund.” Nevertheless, Endersby says advances to promoters are not uncommon. “Sometimes, advances are agreed to help promoters with cash flow, but for We Got Tickets, those transactions are separate agreements – the money has been built- up over

time and comes from a separate account where customers’ ticketing money is held.” Providing general guidance, Jonathan Brown of the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers, says, “Our recommendation would always be to buy through the authorised channel for an event, which should ideally be a member of STAR, to ensure the highest standards of service and information. Where it is not possible to buy from a STAR member, we would encourage customers to make themselves aware of any potential risks.”

News

Delegates Gather for Parisian Nights (and Days) MUSIC SHOWCASE and trade event, MaMA, marks its fifth anniversary in Paris, France next month with its biggest gathering yet around historic Pigalle and Montmartre, referred to by organisers as “the friendly red-light 18th district” of the capital. MaMA’s programmers are utilising three buildings – Le Trianon, Le Louxor and Le Centre Musical FGO Barbara – to host 50 conference sessions that will concentrate on three main themes: festivals, artists and recorded music. IQ’s own Gordon Masson will moderate a panel entitled Festivals: A New Eldorado for Artists?, where professionals from across Europe will debate the impact the festival circuit has on artists’ careers, and whether this sector enjoys an unfair advantage over other parts of the live music business. In 2013, more than 3,800 delegates from 61 countries travelled to France for MaMA, and it is hoped that contingent will grow again this year. Away from the conference schedule, organisers have set-up more than 100 concerts during MaMA’s 15-17 October gathering, using seven local venues to showcase the talents of acts from 20 territories around the world, including Applause (BE), The Shady Brothers (AN), Nakhane Toure (ZA), Flavia Coelho (BR), Young Kato (UK), Pigeon John (US) and White + (CN).

Shows Start to Return to Israel THE CONFLICT between Israel and Hammas forces in Palestine all but destroyed touring activities this summer, but the good news for those living and working in that part of the world, as IQ went to press, is that a ceasefire is holding and promoters claim the market is beginning to return to normal. Estimating that the most recent hostilities cost the local live music industry more than $20million (€15m) in lost earnings for promoters, suppliers and support services, business partners Hillel Wachs and Carmi Wurtman at 2b Vibes Music endured a typically frustrating summer. “Everyone here took a beating this summer: we had to cancel Cee Lo Green and America,” explains Wachs, “While Shuki Weiss cancelled the likes of Cirque du Soleil and Neil Young, so it has been a bad summer.” However, reporting that governments around the world have now rescinded travel

warnings for those wishing to visit Israel, Wachs says promoters are very much back to business. “We had the Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival running from 9-12 September, while other promoters have the likes of Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga and what’s left of the Beach Boys lined up in the coming weeks,” says Wachs. Explaining that efforts are being made to reschedule Cee Lo Green’s performance, and that America have promised to engage in talks when they return to Europe next year, Wachs claims that no Israeli cancellations had been political, but rather down to safety or technical reasons. “It hasn’t been easy here this year, but the good thing is that the ceasefire is holding.” Other high-profile acts that cancelled shows included Lana Del Rey and Megadeth, but Wachs reveals that despite the cross border fighting, not all events were cancelled. “In the north of the country there

were still concerts and festivals going ahead, but in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv the police were basically saying that you could not have any events with large crowds, because they could become targets, so we could organise nothing with more than 1,000 people in one place.” He adds, “It’s not just us promoters who lose money in these situations, as there are all kinds of expenses that cannot be recouped and suppliers for catering, barriers, security and other support services all lose out.” Despite the difficulties, however, Wachs says 2b Vibes is looking forward to a strong end to the year with artists such as Orchestre Chabab Al Andalous from Morocco, The Klezmatics with Johua Nelson (USA), and Brazilian percussion legend Naná Vasconcelos performing this month, while British jazz act Kairos 4Tet booked for the Zappa Club in Jerusalem in October.

Controversy Dampens Love Parade Prosecution Case MORE THAN four years after the actual tragedy, authorities examining the circumstances of the Love Parade disaster in the German city of Duisburg appear no nearer to a conclusion, as the accident, which claimed the lives of 21 people and injured more than 500 others, remains legally unresolved, amid allegations of political interference. In February this year, the prosecution department of the court in Duisburg completed its investigations, filing cases against ten people. The news caused astonishment in the German media because no high ranking officials within the city’s local authorities were on the list of defendants; neither was the Love Parade promoter, nor anyone from the local police.

The prosecution department said in a statement that the police cannot be made responsible for any of the many reasons that finally caused the tragedy. Explaining that extraordinary decision, it revealed that it was based on the opinion of an “internationally recognised expert” named by media as Professor Doctor G Keith Still. In response, Björn Gercke, a lawyer for one of the accused organisers told media that he had filed a motion against proceedings because he had discovered that one of Still’s assistants, Sabine Funk, worked for the ministry of interior of Northrhine Westphalia.. German newspapers report that Ralf Jäger, Northrhine Westphalia’s minister of the

interior, said shortly after the catastrophe that police did not make any mistakes. However, according to lawyer Gercke, Funk worked closely with Still when he was writing his report, while she was also working for the ministry of the interior. Funk claims she had only supported Still with organisational services. But legal files reveal she was often mentioned as the individual who handled correspondence between Still and the prosecutors. However, she apparently never informed prosecutors that she was also working for the ministry. On the basis of this, Gercke has raised objections about the conflict of interests. No date for the court case has yet been scheduled.

IQ Magazine September 2014

News

PETER GROSSLIGHT 1946-2014 I fIrst met Peter in the mid 1980s, by which time, he and his partner Richard Rosenberg had sold their company, Triad Artists, to the William Morris Agency. Being on the Prince’s Trust Committee, I found myself charged with the task of placing the international TV rights for the Trust concerts and Peter contacted me with a view to taking care of the North American end, which he did very successfully, swelling the charity’s coffers considerably and adding greatly to its exposure. Being an enthusiastic Anglophile he got a special thrill out of being presented to Prince Charles and Princess Diana backstage at one of the Wembley Arena shows. Peter had a well developed and droll sense of humour. When somehow he managed an audience with the Pope he told me it was because the Vatican were looking for a Jewish agent! In 1988, despite huge resistance from the conservative (and white-owned) US networks, he was able to place the first Nelson Mandela Concert, which actually represented something of a personal ‘risk’ to him, given the political climate of the time. Being a great believer in human and civil rights he simply overrode the resistance and was also instrumental in getting Whitney Houston to perform there. We became firm friends and it was especially gratifying that he never tried to use that friendship to poach any of my artists from whichever US agencies I had placed them with. That was very Peter. Unlike his competitors who drove me nuts with their incessant and pointless hassling, he recognised that loyalty was a huge factor for me and that if it happened, it happened... there was no point in sending me hampers at Christmas or gift baskets to my LA hotel or reducing the commission rate to unrealistic levels. Loyalty was something he understood and practiced personally, even if it were to his professional disadvantage. Unusually for his profession, Peter really was a gentleman and a gentle man. In the entire time I knew him, I only saw him lose it on two occasions.

IQ Magazine September 2014

Once was at a social dinner where one of the guests launched into a disgraceful anti-Semitic rant, and the other when he stepped in to prevent bullying of those who were not in a position to defend themselves. As someone who had been heavily involved in the American Civil Rights Movement, that was typical of his personality – always fighting for the underdog. It was during that period he connected with the wonderful Joan Baez who became a long-time client and close friend, and who appeared at the benefit he and Irving Azoff organized for The Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer in January of this year. That event, which also featured the Eagles, raised the staggering sum of $13million dollars in ONE night! Because Peter was so open and courageous about his illness, and gave a very moving speech, the evening inevitably and quite rightly turned into a tribute to him.. I recall with great fondness a trip that he, Peter Grant and I took to the first In The City conference in Manchester in 1992. Bear with me on the names. Peter (Grosslight) turned up at Euston with

an enormous set of golf clubs and what seemed like a ridiculous amount of luggage being wheeled down the platform by not one but two porters. Peter (Grant) who was equally as ‘dry’ as Peter (Grosslight) commented, “Fuck me. If I’d known you were going to bring your house, I’d have brought mine. ‘Ere, are you sure there are golf courses in Lancashire?” Peter (Grosslight) admitted that he wasn’t and was carting all this with him “on spec” such was his enthusiasm for the game. Nor did he have anyone in mind to play with but that was a mere detail. In the event, he did find a course to play on but it chucked down with rain throughout. Not to be outdone he continued to play on British courses over the next 20 years plus and ruefully admitted that he never managed to get one single dry game. Every single one took place in a downpour. Still, better than attending panels on health and safety or Swiss driving regulations. One day in the early 90s, he asked if I’d like to join him for dinner at the Bombay Brasserie in London. When I arrived, I was faintly bemused to find him accompanied by an extremely attractive, personable and funny young lady. This turned out to be the wonderful and quintessentially English Carolyn who in short order became Mrs Grosslight. Together they had two wonderful children, Charlie (recently graduated) and Sammie (currently at university). As most readers will know, in 2006 he called me and asked if I’d set-up and run an international music department out of London. As it turned out, it didn’t work for me, but when I left there were no arguments, no anger, no recriminations. He was gracious and understood exactly why I felt as I did, and we remained exactly as we had been. He fought his disease like a tiger. He never complained, never felt sorry for himself. He was a champion throughout. My wife Pele and I miss him already. It was a privilege to know him. Ed Bicknell

Comment

Managing the Managers Volker May, vice-chairman of the International Music Managers Forum (IMMF) brings us up to date on the increasingly vital work of the organisation…

he IMMF is a global non-governmental umbrella organisation with a membership of artist representatives (including self-managed artists) in more than 20 countries. These members (national organisations such as MMF NL, MMF USA, etc) are comprised of management companies, and artists and their representatives. The IMMF’s core mission is to ensure the safeguarding, respect and protection of the moral and professional interests of the worldwide community of artists represented by us – the music managers. The IMMF works on behalf of its members for fairness and transparency. Simply put, we want to ensure that the artist’s position is always clarified and put forward, as we believe that the music industry is ultimately based on the creativity of the artists. Our present worldwide membership of 1,000 companies and individuals is growing fast. For example, we are currently working on the incorporation of MMF Latin America and earlier this year the regional organisation MMF West Africa was established, which unites managers from Ghana and the Ivory Cost. The last year has seen us take significant steps forward in the professionalism of the organisation. Following the 2013 IMMF Council meeting at Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany, a new IMMF non-profit company was incorporated in 2014 in Luxembourg. The last general assembly appointed the following persons to take care of daily business: Brian Hetherman (Canada) chairman; Volker May (Germany) vice-chairman; Olivier Toth (Luxembourg) executive director; Didier Zerath (France) treasurer; and Daria Wabnitz, administration. In order to properly leverage these dynamic developments we implemented additional IMMF committees in 2014. These will be the heartbeat of the IMMF and offer all the members a chance to get involved, while also increasing the contact points between our organisation and other stakeholders from the music industry and national and regional policy makers. The IMMF Copyright Committee has already proved its relevance in Brussels by getting involved in several EU consultations while the European Committee has submitted statements to policy makers. The IMMF sees the live industry as a key focus area for the next few years, both with regards to our policy and networking interests. When looking at policy and markets there will no doubt be a lot of IQ readers nodding when discussing the frequently rather confused and erratic regulatory situation of the internal market in Europe when we consider such

topics as VAT on concert tickets, withholding tax, or the still contentious secondary ticket market. Our live committee will thus be exploring the harmonisation potential for such market policy areas in the future because there is no doubt that live is one of the key revenue drivers for our members.

“This is not a time for conclusions, but rather one for taking on the many opportunities and threats facing our industry. With hard work I am, however, a firm believer that the international artists and music managers finally have the voice needed to navigate these public and private tides.” When looking at live events and networking opportunities, most of our formal initiatives are centred around conferences and showcase festivals. In the last year, members of the IMMF participated in public panel discussions and private member meetings at festivals such as Eurosonic (NL), Reeperbahn (DE), Tallinn Music Week (EE), SXSW (US), Canadian Music Week (CA) and Primavera (ES). And when it comes to the informal live event-related networking in our daily business, I wouldn’t even know where to start. Our new set-up moreover provides transparent access to know-how and competence sharing. I see this as extremely valuable as this is certainly not always evident and available in many areas of the music industry. In the first six months of 2014, the IMMF has been involved in providing education for its members in a number of countries with the IMMF Education and Training committee working closely with members all over the world with the latest sessions in Spain being particularly oversubscribed. We have just gotten started so this is not a time for conclusions, but rather one for taking on the many opportunities and threats facing our industry. With hard work I am, however, a firm believer that the international artists and music managers finally have the voice needed to navigate these public and private tides.

IQ Magazine September 2014

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Live Support for Venues Mark Davyd, venue operator, and founder and CEO of the Music Venue Trust, reports on the progress of the work of this essential support organisation…

he Music Venue Trust was formed in January of this year to look at a number of issues facing small- to medium-sized venues. These venues are the breeding ground of UK music, and have faced a succession of challenges in recent years. We started the Trust because there were two or three things happening which, put together, were resulting in a tidal wave of potential and actual closures. Rising property values, planning and noise abatement legislation, and rising costs in a climate of falling attendances are all significant challenges to keeping this network alive. Unlike more recognised cultural venues such as arts centres and theatres, the majority of independent music venues operate in isolation with little support from local or national grant-giving bodies or the networks they provide. There have been a number of attempts over the years to create a representative body for these independent venues, and those have met with varying success. We felt the time was right to unite these venues around specific national issues, which they all share, whilst supporting existing informal, regional and local networks. We think the independence and individualism of these venues is a key part of their appeal and success, but it became clear that government and the industry needed to hear about certain issues in a much more forceful way. The Trust’s first campaign was to reach out to audiences across the country and seek to work with them to place venues on the Register of Community Assets. This requires someone who feels passionate about their local venue to volunteer to be a venue champion and lead the process of recruiting a minimum of 20 other local people to sign the nomination form. An asset of community value is “a building or land used to further the social well-being in particular, though not exclusively, the cultural, recreational or sporting interests of the local community” so the Trust believes that the action of nominating an independent music venue will challenge current perceptions of that building and what goes on there. The aim is to bring a large number of music venues into the cultural sector and provoke a rethink by local authorities and the arts sector about where they sit within the cultural fabric of the UK, potentially opening up funding, but also limiting the ability of developers to close down venues without consulting with local communities. The second campaign, launched on 28 May, is centred around a national petition to HM Government that calls for an urgent and thorough review of Noise Abatement legislation. The petition attracted over 10,000 signatures in the first six days of being live, and has lit-up social media with a range of interactive campaigns centred around #SaveLiveVenuesUK.

IQ Magazine September 2014

Our message is simple and all our petition is really demanding is that a bit of common sense be allowed to prevail. The Music Venue Trust believes that venues should be good neighbours, engaging with their local communities and addressing concerns around noise and anti-social behaviour. But we believe that

“The Music Venue Trust believes that venues should be good neighbours, engaging with their local communities and addressing concerns around noise and antisocial behaviour. But we believe that being a good neighbour is a reciprocal process.” being a good neighbour is a reciprocal process, and that people who choose to live near to community spaces are accepting the responsibility to behave as a good neighbour to their adjoining music venue, church or community space; anywhere it is inevitable and should be acceptable that noise will exist. We believe this is a common-sense approach – if you hate sport, why move next to a football stadium? If you hate music, why move next to a live music venue? Patrons of the trust include musicians from all aspects of the live music scene, including established stalwarts such as Andy Dunlop of Travis, David Gedge of the Wedding Present, Jeremy Pritchard of The Times Breakthrough Artist winners Everything Everything, and Kerrang! Award winners Enter Shikari; alongside rising stars such as Moya and Savages. Musicians are joined by cross-party parliamentary political support, MPs Mike Weatherley (Conservative, Hove), Kerry McCarthy (Labour, Bristol) and Lord Tim Clement Jones (Liberal Democrat); and by senior music industry figures such as Barry Dickins (ITB), Geoff Meall (The Agency Group), Paul Buck (Coda) and Scott Thomas (X-Ray). The Trust’s petition has reached more than 15,000 signatures and must now receive a formal response from the Department of the Environment. The Trust is continuing to push for more signatures to reach the goal of 100,000, when it will be called for debate in the House of Commons. You can view and sign the petition by visiting: http://qr.net/sign

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Attracting the Digital Natives Entertainment technology developer Kevin Williams looks at the key apps impacting the future audience that the live industry needs to attract…

he live entertainment and venue sector has been able to watch from the sidelines regarding the impact of technology on businesses in the entertainment sector, but the ability to stay on the periphery has now come to an end. The industry has had to grasp the nettle and deploy the best solution to attract and support a highly sophisticated audience. The term ‘digital native’ has come to define individuals born during a time where social media, the Internet, mobile phones and laptop/tablet computing are as ubiquitous and as influential as radio and television were to the previous generation. Along with new methodologies to gather information and plan their entertainment-spend, this new and evolving audience also has greater draws on their disposable income. And with this wider choice they demand a level of engagement that many events may find bewildering to support. This

“We have to understand that the avalanche of hashtags and pokes that deluge the target audience is such that adding to the general noise, spamming the possible audience, can be counterproductive. Working with live performers’ own social media strategy and looking at broadcast streaming are smarter approaches.” is where technology needs to offer a solution via the latest applications rather than adding to the complexity – and pay their way. I have attempted to break the key trends into three distinctive sectors delineated below. The first sector is attraction – what I have defined in this article as the tools and applications to inform and attract audiences to your event and the benefits of the event space. For many, this is just the attacking of social media. But we have to understand that the avalanche of hashtags and pokes that deluge the target audience is such that adding to the general noise, spamming the possible audience, can be counterproductive. Working with live performers’ own social media strategy and

looking at broadcast streaming are smarter approaches (the sniper rifle approach, rather than the shotgun!). The second sector is engagement – once the audience arrives and is interacting with the event, the venue needs to consider the application of new ticketing entry approaches – e-payment, and online commerce can be supported by the use of ticketless entry and special VIP options linked to marketing and promotion. Applications such as QR-codes to gain entry to the event have also been married to contactless wristbands that can be programmed to offer selective entry into VIP, as well as special public areas of the event space, chill-out and entertainment areas. This tech can also be used as e-payment solutions for purchase of refreshments and merchandising. The use of these e-payment methodologies has seen an increase in purchases as the audience is not hindered by the restrictions of cash or even swipe cards. Engagement is part of the constant drive by modern retail towards the audience being able to customise their experience – the live streaming of images taken during an event and offering special deals to those supporting various hashtags and web portals building a database of interested patrons to engage and interact – many of whom are willing to pay that little extra to get that little bit closer to the experience. And the last sector is retention – rather than having to repeat the same process for each event, the need to know your audience and be able to have them sign-up for exclusive offers and access is vital. Retention is also repeat-business, and benefiting from a loyal customer base wanting more. The use of social media, married to purchasing preferences (mined from guests previous attendance and e-payment usage), all linked to an effective business model can see the same metrics utilised in the retail sector applied towards growing and upscaling the level of engagement the audience have with the venue. In attempting to achieve a more compelling live performance, we see interactive audience participation in video displays through motion capture – we see captured social media images streamed during performances and special post-event showreels – and we have seen smart tracking offering unique performance access to selected audience groups. All these applications are building a more memorable experience, and inspiring the audience to feel a level of engagement with the event unlike any other performance. But we have to understand in the end that all these new applications are providing is a means for the venue to react in a better way to the needs of the people that pay their wages!

IQ Magazine September 2014

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Planning for the Future Vladimir Kravchenko updates us on the efforts of the Colisium conferences to expand international music industry cooperation in a region beset by political problems and confrontation…

n May this year, we gathered friends, partners and participants together in St. Petersburg’s bohemium Helsinkibar. In a relaxed and friendly atmosphere we presented the results of the Colisium International Music and Media conventions that had taken place in St. Petersburg, Minsk, Kiev and Almaty this year. My business partner Sergey Babitch and I were proud to report the achievements of these events. Approximately 2,000 music industry specialists and 126 companies representing 12 countries, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, the UK and Japan took part. Speakers included well-known promoters, producers, music journalists, TV and radio programme directors, as well as representatives from record labels, security and insurance companies, and many other key players from the music industry. We also took the opportunity to discuss future developments for the events and for the music industry in the region in general. A special effort was made to highlight the conferences’ independence from the current political situation. The organisers are convinced that events such as Colisium have

a huge international cultural value in today’s world and serve the purpose of helping participants maintain friendly relations despite the political problems. When the political situation is tearing people apart, our main goal is to stay independent, try to stay close to each other, and build cultural bridges between countries. We are important to each other in all matters. We all felt this very strongly during the March conference in Kiev, and we will continue this spirit of cooperation during the Moscow edition (11-14 September) and for the first time in Siberia (6-8 November). We can improve things by educating future professionals through organising internships for young specialists and students from universities, to help them understand how music business really works. We also intend to extend our international partnerships and activities. Besides the cities already confirmed, negotiations for editions of the conference in Poland and India (Goa) are already taking place. The only way we can make things better during difficult times is by working together. That’s why we will keep developing collaborations and supporting the projects that started at our conferences. These are our principles.

Techno files Gig Gadgetry fr om the Fr ontline... Showguider

DEVELOPED TO BENEFIT the organisers and attendees at trade shows and exhibitions, the Showguider app can also be adapted for concerts and festivals, and, according to CEO Tom Kavanagh, “outdoor is frankly a lot easier than indoor – in fact, it’s a market we are looking at.” Essentially, the technology works by triangulating radio signals (bluetooth, wi-fi, etc), but it’s a lot more complicated than that. Showguider’s backend system allows things like visitor messaging, finding your friends’ locations, targeted ‘location-based’ messaging, and data analytics such as heat maps of traffic flows. There is a customer interface for updating information, while the company is also developing a mesh networking feature whereby the apps’ communication works even with no cellphone or wi-fi connection.

Gig Buddy

HYPING ITSELF AS the first multifunctional live music fan app, Gig Buddy has partnered with PayPal and See Tickets in its effort to provide the perfect companion app for UK concertgoers. Already featuring content from Universal Music acts (more label deals are expected soon), Gig Buddy offers fans several services to enhance the live experience from the initial purchase of tickets, planning travel, connecting with friends going to the same show, to buying tour merchandise and having it delivered in advance. Artists can also release exclusive content to fans and reveal stage times via the app. And, thanks to the deals with See and PayPal, Gig Buddy features a secure and simple payment platform for all transactions and grants access to a huge number of shows all around the UK.

Flex Acoustics

CREATED BY DANISH sound engineer Niels Adelman-Larsen, Flex Acoustics’ patented technology is based on thin, inflated, sound-absorbing plastic membranes that are very active in the bass and midfrequency domain. The technology eliminates the rumbling sound often encountered at amplified gigs and allows venues to improve acoustics for both amplified and orchestral performances. While other acoustic solutions such as banners and drapes are based on porous absorption, the Flex technology is based on membrane absorption. Due to the sound pressure difference between the outside and the inside of the inflated absorber, the membrane vibrates converting undefined bass sound into heat. The products are most powerful when placed close to a surface but can work well in mid-air too. Users so far include the Eurovision Song Contest, Amsterdam Arena, Dubai Opera, and venues in Korea and Denmark.

Seats.io

SEATS.IO IS A PLUG-IN for online registration forms used by event organisers and has been created in order to make assigned seating simple. Seats.io can offer promoters an interactive floor plan for event so that customers can choose a specific seat or seats. Although designing a venue interactive floor plan can take weeks for a programmer, the company solves this with its chart designer online drawing tool. The technology also offers ticket buyers a real-time view of the available seats – as soon as a seat gets sold for an event, all other ticket buyers get an updated floor plan immediately to avoid duplicate bookings. In the longterm, Seats.io intends to build a repository of seating charts for existing venues.

Do you have a new product or technology to contribute to this page? Email gordon@iq-mag.net to be considered for the next issue…

IQ Magazine September 2014

The New Bosses (left to right): Anna Bewers, James Simmons, Lukasz Tracz, John Rugemalira, Stephanie Clive, Teun Heijmans, Inga Esseling, Maarten Van Vugt, Charlotte Spooren and Dave Bradley

2014 MARKS THE SEVENTH YEAR of IQ’s New Bosses spotlights, meaning that among those asked to nominate this year’s candidates were the 60 previous winners, many of whom have gone on to carve out stellar careers in the live entertainment industry. As you will see in the following pages, this year’s crop of rising stars is no less impressive. And the fact that the fairer sex account for 40% of the 2014 New Bosses is also heartening – perhaps next year we’ll have true equality with a 50/50 mix… When it comes to job roles, the agents are slightly outnumbered by the promoters this year. But the entrepreneurial spirit runs throughout your chosen ten, because many of the winners on the 2014 shortlist started their careers by establishing their own fledgling operations. Geographically, we’re also broad in range with winners based in America, Belgium, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

The criteria for the New Bosses remains constant: nominees need to be aged 30 or under and need to be impressing ILMC members with their approach to business. Our tenstrong winners are now in the running for the accolade of Tomorrow’s New Boss which will be awarded at the Arthur Awards ceremony during ILMC 27 next March (voting for which gets under way on the ILMC website later this year). In the meantime, if you’re looking to build relationships with individuals whom your peers predict will be the industry’s main decision makers in the coming years, then you could do worse than add the ten profiled New Bosses winners for 2014 to your contacts.

Anna Bewers (UK)

What are you currently working on?

Age: 29

Agent, The Agency Group

In the summer of 2005, and whilst completing a history degree at university, Anna worked as an intern at The Agency Group. After graduating she started working at the company again, as an assistant just a week later. She became an agent in August 2013. How is the role of an agent changing?

You have to be onto new bands so much earlier. A band may have a few demo songs; no management and no label; and have never played a show when you first come across them. You have to take a risk and sign bands earlier or someone else will. How do you identify new acts for your roster?

The music: it doesn’t matter what genre, if I like it, I’ll look into the band. For the majority of the bands on my roster I also have to see the live show before I sign. You can tell if an artist has the potential even in a terrible venue.

Gordon Masson, editor, IQ Magazine

My day-to-day work varies. Being a relatively new agent I spend a lot of time developing new artists, so getting the band’s name out there and making promoters aware of them is just as important as getting a tour routed. What’s your proudest achievement to date?

I think being the first assistant at The Agency Group’s UK office to be promoted to agent. For my bands, probably Reading Festival this year. My first festival was Reading 14 years ago and I’ve been every year since. To have two bands I’m working with playing the main stage in my first year of being an agent is a highlight for me. Who do you turn to for advice?

Anyone at The Agency Group. I work with a wide range of bands from different genres so I don’t just turn to one person. If you need help and advice, we all have time for each other.

IQ Magazine September 2014

James Simmons (UK)

Age: 26

Agent’s assistant, International Talent Booking

While at university, James started working for independent promoter Melting Vinyl. In 2009, he started as an intern at ITB, and six months later began working with Lucy Dickins. James is now building his own roster, as well as assisting on Adele, Mumford & Sons, Laura Marling, James Blake, Hot Chip, and Jamie T, amongst others. What’s the trickiest part of your job?

Managing artists’ expectations with what’s realistically achievable, but still pulling the impossible out of the bag when it counts. How do you find new acts for your roster?

Keeping on it – listening to new music, spending lots of time watching bands and building good relationships with promoters, A&Rs, managers, lawyers etc. What are you currently working on?

What’s your proudest achievement to date?

Watching James Blake win the Mercury Prize was brilliant. It gave me such a buzz to be part of the journey and it was thoroughly deserved and a long way from the St Pancras Old Church shows where Lucy and I ran the box office! If you could change one thing about the live music business what would it be?

Artists need time to develop rather than being written off after their first record. That way, there would be more care and attention paid to career longevity rather than hyping ‘the next big thing’. It’s not sustainable and that’s why there aren’t enough acts to headline major festivals. No good for the artists, the industry or the fans. Who do you turn to for advice?

Lucy and Barry Dickins. Enough said! I’m also lucky to work with people throughout the industry who I can chat to openly about ideas and issues over a drink or two.

Setting things up for Eaves this autumn; Vance Joy’s European tour early next year; Mumford & Sons have a few ideas; and Jamie T’s return is really exciting.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned at ITB?

Lukasz Tracz (USA)

in 2007 to a 25,000-people festival in 2013 at the Sun Life Stadium (where I grew up watching my favourite sport teams) is just incredible. This year we are turning it into a two-day festival where we are expecting over 55,000 fans.

Age: 29

Chief marketing officer, Life In Color

Lukasz is a co-founder of Life in Color – The World’s Largest Paint Party – where he handles the overall marketing and social media initiatives for the brand. Born in Poland, he relocated to America in 1994, where, along with twin brother Patryk and two college friends, he created and developed a concept that revolutionised dance music. What’s the best thing about your job?

Our team and our fans. I love the people I work with. Through the last five years we built a dream team and it’s what makes my job so special. There have been multiple times I stood on stage and started to tear up looking at the energy of our crowd and seeing thousands of smiles. It’s always been about the fans – we always say, “The real VIP is on the dance floor.” What’s your proudest achievement to date?

Seeing our Miami show grow from a 900-people club show

John Rugemalira (Finland)

Age: 30

Head promoter, RL Concerts

In 2005, John started organising parties with business partner Hardi Loog. Their big break came in 2008, promoting Good Charlotte in Tallinn, Estonia. Ice Cube, Talib Kweli and Sebastian Bach soon followed and RL’s broad range has seen John work with everyone from Wu Tang Clan to Nigel Kennedy, and Rise Against to Paul Anka. Recently the company launched its Weekend Festival and, this year, the sold-out 25,000-capacity Weekend Festival Electro Disco Edition. What are the main challenges in the Finnish market?

With its 5.5 million residents, combined with the short summer period for outdoor shows there’s a lot of competition over summer events. There has been a bit of a struggle selling tickets to these bigger summer shows and, when the artist and production costs remain high due to the fact that Finland is a bit off geographically not every promoter can survive the summer.

IQ Magazine September 2014

Be respectful because it’s a small industry and you never know who you’ll end up working with in the future.

What difference has the SFX takeover made to Life In Color?

SFX has been a blessing in disguise for our company. Aside from helping us financially, they have helped us expand into more than 30 countries, with some shows doing over 15,000 in attendance and receiving amazing feedback – and it’s only the tip of the iceberg. What do you see yourself doing in five years’ time?

I love being on set and directing videos – it’s where I’m in my element. I really see myself making movies and investing some of my own money into some independent films. It’s a dream and goal I’ve always had, and like I always say: set a goal, and don’t stop until you get there. How do you build relationships with professionals in other countries?

It started with just randomly emailing agents and hitting management offices with an occasional phone call, only to realise the agents are always in a meeting. After a while, and a few successful smaller shows, we got some credibility for ourselves and set-up an actual meeting with an agency, so we suited up and tried to look professional. Then we found ILMC, dressed casual, got drunk and meeting different people felt easier. What is the best lesson you have learned so far?

You don’t always need to offer the sum the agent is quoting, and it’s ok to sometimes pass on a possible show. The markets are different, make an offer for your market. Take risks, but don’t be stupid! What one thing would you change about the business?

I’d like to change some city councils’ or politicians’ attitudes and restrictions towards events and music festivals, but that’s a whole different story.

Stephanie Clive (UK)

Age: 29

Agent, Coda Agency

Stephanie began her career as an intern for Festival Republic and soon had a paid position working on the Latitude and Reading/Leeds festivals. She moved to Coda Agency in 2010 as Rob Challice’s assistant. At the same time, she became general manager of the Summer Sundae Weekender festival. In 2012, she started booking acts for Rob, and soon began developing her own roster. What are you currently working on?

I’m currently working with some new acts I’m pretty excited about. Rosie Lowe, All We Are, Denai Moore, Gwilym Gold, Sylvan Esso. Plus booking for more established acts like Blonde Redhead, Erlend Øye and Tune-Yards. What’s the best thing about your job?

Getting to speak to people all around the world, listening to lots of music, and, of course, seeing gigs, especially the ones I’ve been involved in. Seeing all the detail from the computer

Teun Heijmans (Netherlands)

Age: 26

Agent/promoter, Belmont Bookings

Although Teun started going to shows and playing in bands at an early age, he says he never thought about going into the music business. However, he worked as a stage manager at Utrecht music venue EKKO for four years and alongside that started working at Belmont Bookings in 2010. Does being a promoter/agent give you an edge?

Not really, as it’s not about me, but it does keep you sharp. You have to be on it all day every day and seize the right moment in order to pave the way for your artist. Also, don’t be an asshole – it’s about what’s best for the artist. What are the biggest challenges for live music in your market?

screen turned into a truly exciting live show is brilliant. I especially like being a part of Coda as it’s a really open and collaborative environment. What’s your proudest achievement to date?

Adding a new artist that you love to the roster is always a proud moment. Aside from the above, Noah and the Whale and Raury are two acts I was very happy to help bring into Coda, and seeing all the hard work pay off when Bon Iver played Wembley was great. What one thing would you change about the business?

More women around please!

What advice would you give to anyone who wants to become an agent?

Listen and learn as much as you can about all facets of the industry. Find a good mentor. I’ve been really lucky to start working with Rob Challice and the other directors at Coda Try to balance going to shows/networking/listening to music with being organised and attentive to detail. music to the masses. Then there are a thousand festivals without identity that thrive on subsidies. What do you enjoy most about your job?

Working together with amazing and passionate people from all over the world, and seeing the artists you love reach new heights. What are you currently working on?

Expanding our Netherlands network, being friends with everybody, and the 2nd edition of Nordic Delight festival. What’s your proudest achievement to date?

Setting up my first European tour, which was financially stable, had solid routings, a happy band and happy promoters. And also this year’s Beaches Brew festival, a three-day free festival on the beach in Ravenna, Italy.

Expensive tickets, and all those brand-new, vibe-less multimillion venues. We really miss the equivalent of college radio in the US. We have no real platform to bring alternative

What would you change about the business?

Inga Esseling (Germany)

opportunities for newcomers, the classical and most farreaching media – the radio – is still very important to make an act really successful. Germany is not the best country for these opportunities – it’s difficult to convince radio stations to play acts that don’t have a mainstream sound. Online radio, as well as Spotify, will hopefully help in the future.

Age: 27

Promoter, FKP Scorpio

Inga‘s first point of contact with the music business was in 2008 while organising a little festival at the university of Münster. After graduating with a bachelor degree in economics, she joined FKP Scorpio in 2010 as one of the assistants to CEO Folkert Koopmans. Three years later she found herself running his touring division, promoting shows for the likes of the Foo Fighters and Placebo in Germany. What’s your proudest achievement to date?

More communication, tighter collaborations and more artistcentric, long-term thinking. We’re in this together, for the artists. Oh, and be nice!

What are you currently working on?

I have a very busy year handling tours with Blink 182, Avicii, James Blunt, Tame Impala, Ed Sheeran, The Gaslight Anthem and many more.

I have worked on many successful and sold-out tours, especially this year, with Ed Sheeran, James Blunt, etc, but looking back, actually getting into the business is probably my biggest achievement. It’s not easy without having any connections because everyone wants to work in the “cool” music industry. You have to always give 100% to get a foot in the door, but you also need a little luck and I was certainly in the right place at the right time.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your career?

What are live music’s biggest challenges in Germany?

Central European Time should be the daytime all over the world, this would keep my working hours limited...

Apart from the online marketing, with which you gain new

You have to stay in people’s minds. The business is all about relationships and networking. Once people know you and appreciate you’re doing a good job, the chance is high that they will get back to you and work with you again. If you could change one thing about the business, what would it be?

IQ Magazine September 2014

Maarten Van Vugt (Netherlands) Age: 27 Promoter, Greenhouse Talent

Maarten studied International Media and Entertainment Management at University. He became the co-owner and founder of Boogiedown Festival in 2007. In 2011, he started working at Greenhouse Talent, where he works with artists such as Kanye West, Trey Songz, Selena Gomez, Birdy, J. Cole, Nas, Jason Derulo, Kid Ink, Schoolboy Q, Elvis Costello, Lindsey Stirling and Coely. How relevant is technology/social media to what you do?

It’s of major importance. Even though magazines are still great for in-depth info, it all happens online. Social media is the place where I find a lot of new stuff and stay up to date on what’s happening, but also inevitable in the B2C part of my job: creating awareness for events and selling tickets How did you find yourself working in this business?

During my studies in Breda, I founded a hip hop festival in the south of the Netherlands with some classmates and friends.

Charlotte Spooren (Belgium)

Age: 26

Assistant Promoter, Live Nation

Aged 17, Charlotte’s thesis project at school was How to organise a festival. Having completed a bachelor degree in social work, she realised this was not her calling, so embarked on a degree in event and project management. In April 2012, Charlotte landed an intern slot working on Rock Werchter and I Love Techno. A position opened up in Live Nation’s concert division and she grasped her chance. What are you currently working on?

This week I have been working on shows for The Black Keys, Pharrell Williams, Lenny Kravitz, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Oscar & The Wolf and Lady Gaga. What are the biggest challenges in your market?

While I gained experience, it was not financially successful enough to make a decent living. I was working as a chef to pay the rent and got a call from Greenhouse Talent who were looking for a young booker. What are the major changes you’ve noticed in the industry?

Touring is becoming more important and so is the money that needs to come out of it – our job as a promoter is becoming more important for the artist’s income. We’re noticing this when it comes to VIP packages (even on smaller shows), presales and other forms of ticket scaling.. How is your role changing?

Factors such as timing and momentum are more important nowadays. An artist can blow up very quickly because of Soundcloud, Youtube and Spotify and bringing him/her/them over at the right time is of major importance. More important and I’m speaking to agents and managers at an earlier stage now than at the beginning of my career. no knowing what will be next. The key will be to keep the focus on the live aspect of music and to embrace the emerging technologies and use them to our advantage. Who do you turn to for advice?

My promoters, Sarah Schueremans and Kris Verleyen, taught me everything about the business. But what should not be forgotten is our ticketing department and my marketing colleagues. It’s all about team work! What one thing would you change about the business?

Ban ticket resale on the black market.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your career?

Choose a job you love. Take a risk and follow your dreams. Not choosing a safe job was the best decision of my life. What would you like to be doing in five years’ time?

Live music is as popular as ever, people still prefer the atmosphere of a live event over the virtual reality alternatives but new technologies are emerging all the time and there is

In five years it will be about time to start organising the reunion concert for Oasis, I guess…

Dave Bradley (UK)

What the best thing about your job?

Age: 29

Promoter, Live Nation/Download Festival

Dave has been a national promoter at Live Nation for 18 months, in which time he has also become deputy festival promoter for Download Festival. He began his career at Roadrunner Records before moving to Live Nation’s marketing team. He ran his own independent promotions company, putting on rock, metal and punk shows across London. That was the catalyst to joining Live Nation’s promoter team where he works with Skindred, Architects, Bury Tomorrow and Marmozets among others. What’s the biggest challenge the live music industry is facing?

It has to be over-saturation in the festival market. There are only a certain number of headline-sized acts, especially in the rock world, so by stretching the pot too far for short-term gains there is a very real danger of damaging the wider market in the long term. Last year, there were three major rock/metal festivals in the UK during the summer, inevitably affecting attendance across the board.

IQ Magazine September 2014

Booking bands for Download Festival is right up there. After giving Bury Tomorrow their debut Download slot on the 3rd stage in 2013, it was an amazing moment to be able to step them up to the main stage in 2014. As a New Boss, what would you change to make the business healthier?

I’d encourage an environment of collaboration. It’s something I do with the marketing team at Live Nation for my tours. We work in such a fast-paced, adaptable environment, so having a team who are working with you as opposed to for you is definitely the way to go. What is exciting you at the moment?

I’m constantly excited by how far new bands can push the boundaries. The fact that rockier acts like Royal Blood are breaking into the mainstream is also another great sign of the times. I constantly mention how much can change for a band, genre or scene within just a year – there’s always the next big thing around the corner!

Joss Stone at ASS Concerts’ SoulimHafen event in Hamburg © Noel Richter

Germany

The Konzert

POWERHAUS Germany is a live music powerhouse with a vibrant economy sustaining an increasing number of shows and ticket sales despite escalating prices. But has the market reached saturation point? Chris Austin finds out.

he turnover of the German events market enjoyed a 15% year-on-year rise of €500million in 2013 to reach more than €3.8billion. The huge uplift followed a somewhat stagnant 2012 for the industry, but research carried out by GfK on behalf of promoter trade association Bundesverband der Veranstaltungswirtschaft (BDV) and the industry magazine Musikmarkt, illustrates the rude health of the German live industry. In 2013, Germany saw a 9% increase in event attendances, which reached 32.9m, while average ticket prices saw an average increase of 5% from €30.20 to €31.70. Indeed, the robust strength of the German events market contributed in no small part to the nation’s 0.5% rise in GDP last year. Such is the demand for events that stage supplier Megaforce has almost doubled in size in the past few years, prompting a move to bigger premises and a drive to develop new products, including the R-28 aka the ‘fat lady’, one of the world’s biggest festival stages at 28 metres wide. “German event revenues are heading toward €4bn, much more than the recorded music industry, film, video or games market. It is amazing that, despite all the entertainment possibilities German consumers are presented with, live music remains a must,” says BDV president Jens Michow. Like their European neighbours, German artists are increasingly dependent on live music revenue as the recorded music market suffers falling physical sales and a slowly expanding digital business. And as Europe’s biggest music market, German showcase conferences like Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival have taken on greater significance in

IQ Magazine September 2014

recent years as a forum for agents, promoters and the live business in general to meet and talk about the issues of the day. Of Germany’s 81m populace, IFPI research shows that last year, 69m were internet users and 52m had smartphones. But, despite the digital revolution, the country’s music fans still prefer traditional, tangible, music formats. Physical record sales represented 30% of the US market in 2013, 44% in the UK, and 49% in The Netherlands. But in neighbouring Germany, vinyl and CD product still accounted for 73% of the market in 2013 after a year-on-year drop of just 1.5%. Ranked the third-biggest music market in the world by the IFPI, Germany is the largest European market in terms of recorded music revenue and in 2013 was one of six European countries to see a return to growth. Germany’s recorded music trade value grew by 1.1% to €1bn with digital sales up 8.9%. The biggest-selling album in Germany in 2013 was by 29-year-old domestic act, Helene Fischer, who this autumn will tour 27 arenas, while in the summer of 2015, she is scheduled to perform 20 stadium shows for Semmel Concerts. “We have sold nearly 800,000 tickets already and we think it will be the most successful German tour ever,” says Semmel Concerts MD Dieter Semmelmann.

PROMOTERS

uch is the strength of the German concert market that some key players are becoming increasingly concerned that the public’s high purchasing power is being stretched too thinly across too many shows priced too highly.

Feuerschwanz at FKP Scorpio’s M’era Luna Festival. © Jens Arndt

Germany

“We are lucky we have such a healthy and diverse market. Everyone seems to have a chance to survive as long as they work hard and keep their artists happy.”

Stefan Lehmkuhl, Melt! Booking “Promoters are making competition for themselves by having shows on the same night. The number of concerts is growing faster than the available audience, and we have to be careful with pricing. It was frightening in 2012 because people said no to concerts due to the ticket prices,” Michow says. Scumeck Sabottka, CEO of promoter and agent MCT Agentur, observes, “The German market is too crowded, there are too many shows, but if we say no to a tour someone else will pick it up. We are seeing the market become increasingly saturated but there is nothing we can do about it – we are at the bottom of the food chain.” Ben Mitha, the grandson of veteran promoter Karsten Jahnke and a co-MD at Karsten Jahnke Konzertdirektion, points to Prince’s cancelled 3 June show at Tempodrom in Berlin as an example of ticket prices being pushed too far. “The German market is very stable, but there is a limit to how much people are prepared to pay,” Mitha says. “Prince went on sale two weeks before the show with tickets priced €180 and it didn’t work out. There is not unlimited wealth or market growth in Germany; we have to be careful with pricing.” A.S.S. Concerts & Promotion MD Michael Bisping agrees price inflation is a serious issue: “People are not willing to pay that sort of money, there has to be a limit. We have a saying in Germany, ‘don’t cut off the branch of the tree you are sitting on’. We’re in danger of doing that.” Despite the widespread concern, Dieter Bös, co-founder of Koko & DTK Entertainment, believes ticket prices are not likely to fall, due to artists demanding higher fees and production staff getting increased wages as a result of guaranteed wage laws. “There have been some breathtaking ticket prices and hopefully the market will regulate itself to some extent, but I don’t see the upward trend stopping any time soon,” Bös says.

The Melt! Festival is based an hour outside Berlin and its creative director Stefan Lehmkuhl says price presents a problem of a different kind for anyone promoting in the region. “In and around Berlin we have a very low price structure, but we have the same production costs and artists expect to get paid the same as anywhere else,” explains Lehmkuhl. “Local club entry prices are very cheap – around €12 to €15 – and you can’t charge more than €100 for a festival. That makes it hard for us to make money and the sponsorship market is not what it used to be.” Many of the artists that Semmel Concerts are promoting are playing between 50 and 100 shows per year and in total the company is promoting up to 1,800 events this year. Despite that, Semmelmann expects 2015 to be even busier, noting, “There is a real danger that there will be too many shows. We are in a lucky position because we have already sold 75% of the capacity of our biggest 2015 stadium tour, Helene Fischer. It is important to go on sale with big tours very early.” The large number of shows is thanks in part to a vibrant domestic music scene that has seen many German promoters work with an increased number of local acts. Formed in 1998, SSC Group started as a traditional booking agency but has added a number of elements including events like the New Fall Festival and c/o pop Festival; an associate partnership with two fashion magazines; a PR company; and a branding operation which allows artists to work on campaigns with the likes of Levi’s, Becks Beer and Adidas, among others. “We do between 600 and 700 shows per year in Germany, Switzerland and Austria through our offices in Dusseldorf and Zurich,” explains SSC’s Manuel Schottmüller. “As a mid-range agency of a similar size to Melt! or Landstreicher, we deliberately spread out the company and we have a fairly unique roster. But we can offer those artists a full package of services. For instance, we can offer them promotion in the magazines, the PR company can help plan campaigns, we can book them on the festivals and we can arrange work with the brands as well.” Among the gigs that SSC has coming up this year are dates by Flume, Mount Kimbi, Peanut Butter Wolf, Stromae and Talib Kweli. Koko & DTK Entertainment operates primarily in the state of Baden-Württemberg and often works as a local representative for the likes of FKP Scorpio and Marek Lieberberg Konzertagentur (MLK). “There is a huge wave of successful German artists including Dieter Thomas Kuhn, Casper, Marteria, Kraftklub, The BossHoss, Milky Chance and Tim Bendzko,” Bös says. Elsewhere, Karsten Jahnke has around 90 tours booked before year-end, MCT has 25 and A.S.S. counts 30. When it comes to the big players, CTS Eventim’s live entertainment division has a dominant position in the German events market. The stockmarket-listed company has interests in promoters including FKP Scorpio, MLK, Semmel Concerts and local promoters such as Argo Concerts and Dirk Becker Entertainment. The other market leader is fellow listed operation DEAG, which has stakes in A.C.T. Artist Agency, Family Entertainment, Global Concerts, Hanwerker Promotions, Manfred Hertlein Veranstaltungs, River Promotions and Wizard Promotions. Like CTS Eventim, DEAG’s interests extend far beyond promotion into ticketing, with a 10% stake in Ticketmaster Germany; venue ownership, with

IQ Magazine September 2014

Germany Frankfurt’s 4,800-capacity Jahrhunderthalle; and record label DEAG Music, together with Sony Music joint venture Gold Entertainment, which is focused on German Schlager and MOR music. Despite the strength of Germany’s two publicly traded main promoters the territory has a large group of independent promoters including A.S.S. Concerts, Creative Talent, Four Artists, Karsten Jahnke, MCT, Melt!, Moderne Welt, TME and X-Why-Z Konzertagentur. “We are lucky we have such a healthy and diverse market. Everyone seems to have a chance to survive as long as they work hard and keep their artists happy,” Lehmkuhl states.

FESTIVALS

ock Am Ring took place for the last time at Nürburgring racetrack in June this year after MLK failed to agree terms with the site’s new owners Capricorn Automotive to stage the 29th edition of the festival there in 2015. The site was previously operated by Nürburgring GmbH, owned by the German district government of Rhineland-Palatinate. However, the site operator financially collapsed with a loss to tax payers estimated at more than €500m. From 2015, the Nürburgring will be the home of DEAG’s new 5-7 June Grüne Hölle (Green Hell) rock festival following the company’s five-year agreement with Capricorn to stage an 80,000-capacity annual event there. The Koblenz District Court ruled that the Rock Am Ring

Scumeck Sabottka at MCT’s recent Arcade Fire show in Dresden’s Junge Garde Outdoor Theatre © Bernie DeChant

“We are seeing the market become increasingly saturated but there is nothing we can do about it – we are at the bottom of the food chain.”

Scumeck Sabottka, MCT Agentur brand was co-owned by MLK and Nürburgring and could only be used with the agreement of both parties. However, an appeal by MLK to a higher court was successful and means that the company can continue to use the name Rock Am Ring to promote a festival elsewhere. Next year will see DEAG become a major presence

Germany

MLK’s Michael Bublé gig at O2 World Hamburg

Contributors (left to right): Ben Mitha (Karsten Jahnke), Christian Diekmann (DEAG), Dieter Semmelmann (Semmel Concerts), Kai Müller (AEG), Stefan Lehmkuhl (Melt!), Folkert Koopmans (FKP Scorpio), Manuel Schottmüller (SSC Group), Jens Michow (BDV), Rainer Appel (CTS Eventim), Dieter Bös (Koko)

“Operators like Viagogo and StubHub have made many mistakes: they were huge, but today secondary ticketing is not such a big issue, customers do not trust them and prefer to buy from primary operators.”

Christian Deikmann, DEAG in the domestic festival market and beyond. Along with Grüne Hölle, it has plans to launch two new rock festivals in southern Germany. DEAG COO Christian Diekmann says the new festivals will each have a capacity of around 50,000. Following DEAG’s recent acquisition of a controlling stake in British promoter Kilimanjaro Live, it also counts the Sonsiphere rock festivals among its interests and the line-up of all four DEAG festivals will be, to some extent, rotated. “We are focused on creating well structured, professionally run events in beautiful locations,” says Diekmann. Lehmkuhl believes the festival market is becoming overcrowded, but the appetite for hip hop and EDM events could see new festivals spring up. Melt! started as a one-day techno event in 1998 and from 2003 began offering a wider

selection of sounds. This year’s line-up included Portishead, Bombay Bicycle Club and Four Tet. “The German festival market is healthy, the major events are very stable and well run, but it is difficult to establish new events. There is currently a very healthy domestic music market especially in the hip hop world – domestic rap acts can sell more tickets than international rap acts and so it makes sense for a festival to focus on domestic talent,” says Lehmkuhl. A major player in the Germany festival market and beyond is FKP Scorpio, which runs festivals including sister events Hurricane and Southside. Rather than focusing on launching new German festivals, FKP Scorpio CEO Folkert Koopmans is looking to enhance the festival experience and recently saw €400 Hurricane festival packages sell out: “We did 700 and will triple that next year,” he reports. “Previously, promoters promoted the line-up of festivals, now you promote the festival itself with a focus on the various camping facilities, restaurants and location – it is more about the experience than the line-up,” he adds. Okan Tombulca is the director and owner of eps holding, one of the biggest production suppliers in Germany, which this year has been involved with festivals including Wacken Open Air, Rock Am Ring, Hurricane and Southside. He reveals he is also targeting the VIP market with a range of enhanced accommodation offerings ranging from tipi tents to five-star Dream Lodges and Flexotel portable cabins equipped with double beds, wardrobes, sockets, lighting, air conditioning and heating. “Promoters have realised festival audiences spend 65% of their time in the campsite and a regular campsite is no longer good enough. We tested new accommodation at Hurricane and it sold out in a few weeks, next year we will increase it to make a huge boutique campsite,” Tombulca says. There have been a number of stage collapses at outdoor events around the world in recent years, but the biggest festival tragedy in Germany did not involve inclement weather or poor stage construction. In July 2010, 21 people died at Loveparade when thousands attempted to squeeze through a narrow tunnel that served as the entrance to the festival site. Four staff of organiser Lopavent and six members of the administration in the western city of Duisburg were charged with negligent manslaughter and causing bodily harm. Since then German public authorities have devised new health and safety guidelines. Timo Mathes of stage supplier Megaforce says Germany is now at the forefront of event safety, but he believes more can be done. “You have to present a baubuch [structural report] for every major structure, certified by the German TÜV, nevertheless, there is a lot of room to improve,” says Mathes. “In the end it depends on how strict and safety focused event organisers are. Some are not willing to pay for quality, use cheap competitors and ignore safety until there’s a storm blowing up and parts of their stages are falling apart.”

IQ Magazine September 2014

Germany TICKETING

n 2011, CTS Eventim acquired Ticketonline to become Germany’s dominant ticket operator. Ticketmaster Germany, of which DEAG Entertainment Group owns 10%, is CTS’s biggest competitor, while the likes of Ad Ticket, Amiando, Ticketscript and Smart Tickets are all making in-roads. CTS Eventim’s SVP legal and business development, Rainer Appel, says that in an effort to create a unified ticketing platform across Europe the company has converted all Ticketonline customers, including Stage Entertainment, to Eventim technology. The company already has a smartphone app for iOS and Android and this year launched an iPad App. But as the march toward mobile ticketing continues, CTS Eventim has also seen success with its FanTicket initiative, which provides fans with full-colour, high-resolution tickets complete with tour artwork. More than 50% of the tickets it sells over the Internet in Germany are FanTickets. “Many customers still prefer a paper ticket to a barcode on their phone. In events where both options are offered on Eventim.de, more than 90% of the ticket buyers chose the FanTicket. Tickets for events are highly emotional items, and barcodes can’t capture that emotion,” Appel states. The DEAG Entertainment Group’s partnership with Ticketmaster, which commenced in 2005, has become deeply collaborative, not least when it comes to marketing events.

DEAG’s Diekmann says the rise of social media, and the changing methods in which shows are now marketed to fans, could lead to a situation where German promoters sell tickets directly to fans. In 2011, MCT managing director, Scumeck Sabottka, alongside law firm CMS HascheSigle and Smart Tickets, successfully stamped out secondary ticketing at three Take That shows in Germany. Ticket holders had to present ID at the door, which was checked against a buyer database before entry was granted. The move involved the creation of a terms and conditions ticket-reselling template that has been widely adopted and considerably reduced secondary ticketing in the territory. “No one should be prevented from reselling for personal reasons and no commercial benefit. But we can make sure that when someone buys a ticket he signs general conditions that prevent resale for commercial benefit. It took us a long time to get this introduced but now Ticketmaster and CTS Eventim have adopted it,” says Michow. “We personalise tickets for all the hot shows like Arcade Fire and Pearl Jam and that has helped lead to the decline of secondary ticketing platforms,” reveals Sabottka. Diekmann believes bad press and bad experiences have led to a much-reduced appetite for re-sold tickets. “Operators like Viagogo and StubHub have made many mistakes: they were huge, but today secondary ticketing is not such a big issue, customers do not trust them and prefer to buy from primary operators,” Deikmann tells IQ. Meanwhile, Appel insists CTS Eventim’s own secondary ticketing auction platform, Fansale, offers a “fair, secure and transparent market place for genuine fan-to-fan transactions.”

Germany

DEAG’s Böhse Onkelz concert at the Hockenheimring in June. Photo: Klaus Zakowski

“ GEMA fees are double what they were five years ago and when next year the smaller capacities go up we will have a problem promoting concerts with new artists at smaller venues.”

Dieter Semmelmann, Semmel Concerts

VENUES

he health of Germany’s live market depends on a strong framework of venues and its promoters are largely satisfied with the facilities on offer. Among its key venues are the O2 World in Berlin and Hamburg; Dusseldorf’s Mitsubishi Electric Halle, ISS Dome, Castello and Esprit Arena; Stuttgart’s Porsche Arena and Schleyerhalle; the SAP Arena in Mannheim; the Sportstatten in Cologne; and the Festhalle Messe Frankfurt. CTS Eventim has chosen to invest in a select few venues including the 22,000-capacity Waldbühne amphitheatre in Berlin and the Lanxess Arena in Cologne. “We will consider any future offers for comparable landmarks, but we do not plan to make venue management our core business or build a large portfolio in this area,” Appel reports. DEAG has also taken a moderate interest in venues and operates the Jahrhunderthalle arena in Frankfurt. Like its Berlin sister venue, the O2 World Hamburg is operated by AEG and is enjoying a busy year with 142 events booked. “That’s the second highest total in our history,” says senior event manager Kai Müller. “International stars including Robbie Williams, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake and Michael Bublé are guaranteed sell-outs and the same goes for domestic acts including Helene Fischer and Ina Müller.” A flexible curtain system means the O2 World Hamburg can stage shows ranging in capacity from 2,500 up to 16,000. “Hamburg was missing a club that fits 4,000 people. But thanks to our curtain concept we can offer a club variation for rock events of that size. It works very well,” says Müller. Despite the widespread satisfaction with Germany’s venues, many promoters point to a weak spot in Munich where they believe the market would benefit from a new 4,000-capacity venue. An issue affecting all venues and a cost implication trickling

through to promoters is the rising tariffs of copyright society GEMA, which continues to increase its rates for the usage of music at live events. They currently stand as 5% of box office gross (capacity x ticket price) for venues with a capacity up to 2,000. From 2,001 up to 15,000, rates increase to 7.2%, and for shows with an audience of over 15,000 it is 7.65%. “It is a really big problem for us, we must bring in the money to pay GEMA and that means increasing the ticket price,” says Dieter Semmelmann. “GEMA fees are double what they were five years ago and when next year the smaller capacities go up we will have a problem promoting concerts with new artists at smaller venues.”

EXPANSION BEYOND GERMANY

ith the German market now saturated, many operators are looking for growth opportunities elsewhere. In May, DEAG acquired a controlling 51% stake in UK promoter Kilimanjaro for a reported €4m. Set up by Stuart Galbraith in 2008, the company stages around 350 events each year including travelling rock festival Sonisphere. DEAG’s Christian Diekmann reveals that Galbraith will support the booking activity of its three German rock festivals in 2015. “Stuart has run a great, innovative company, he has a huge experience in creating and organising festivals.” FKP Scorpio is also expanding its festival interests beyond Germany and now operates festivals across Sweden, Netherlands and Switzerland, while the company this month announced plans to launch a second event in Denmark. CEO Folkert Koopmans is now 100% focused on international expansion and notes, “It started more or less by accident, but we now have a very solid situation in Germany and last year Stephan Thanscheidt took over as MD of the German business. I am now trying to structure activities abroad.” Additionally, FKP is launching a conference and showcase event in Sweden, alongside its Bravalla festival. Also looking to other territories, CTS Eventim has proved no less internationally ambitious and recent acquisitions include ticketing companies Entradas (Madrid), See Tickets Nederland (Amsterdam) and Top Ticket France (Paris) from Stage Entertainment, which has taken Eventim into the French and Spanish markets for the first time.

IQ Magazine September 2014

The Rolling Stones headlined this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Roskilde Festival in Denmark. ÂŠ Per Lange

Festival Headliners

STEALING THE HEADLINERS!! With certain acts now using the extended festivals season to plan virtual world tours, and key event organisers deciding to book local talent over expensive A-list international stars, Gordon Masson examines the growing importance of festivals and their changing relationship with agents…

The emerging strength of the festivals business in the Americas, north and south, is having a significant impact on the established European sector, as many headline US artists are now choosing to stay ‘domestic’ for the summer season rather than make their way across the Atlantic. The corresponding result of fewer international headliners on the European circuit means the escalating price for booking those available acts shows no sign of abating. But with some of the most influential promoters in the world now looking elsewhere for their line-ups, could the traditional agency landscape be set for some monumental changes? At last year’s Reeperbahn conference in Germany, FKP Scorpio founder Folkert Koopmans and Mojo Concerts promoter Eric Van Eerdenburg disclosed that they were increasingly turning to local talent for some of their bigger festivals. “It’s not a new strategy,” says Koopmans. “There are more and more local acts now who are getting bigger and are capable of selling out arena shows in their home countries – people like Kashmir in Denmark and Seeed in Germany – and that makes them a natural booking for festivals. We had quite a high percentage of local acts across our festivals this year, so it’s a healthy scene.” If the ‘local acts’ evolution genuinely takes off, then who are the promoters approaching when it comes to booking the local acts? “Most domestic acts do not cross borders in Europe, so the local acts we are booking in Germany tend to be represented by local agencies that don’t do any work outside of Germany. There are a few new up-and-coming agencies now – companies like Chimperator in Stuttgart and Landstreicher in Berlin, who we are building good relationships with,” reveals Koopmans. So are the traditional agency powerbases in London, New York and Los Angeles under threat? Or could we see a new flurry of activity among the agency heavyweights acquiring smaller European outfits, or perhaps setting up local offices in key markets? Only time will tell, it seems, but most of the professionals IQ spoke to for this report agree that the relationship between promoters and the major agencies is

IQ Magazine September 2014

becoming more fluid, with smaller agents emerging as a more important source for certain festivals and events. Coda Agency’s Rob Challice says, “The relationship between agents and promoters is always evolving. Four or five years ago an act with a decent name could have their choice of festivals and simply pick up the phone to name their fee. But now a lot of festivals have matured to the point that they do not need bignamed acts to sell tickets. Also, there are certain bands for whom festivals are not the best idea to concentrate on. Their fans would rather see them do a full set on their own headline tour rather than some compromised set at a festival.” Festival Republic managing director Melvin Benn has different views. “I don’t think the relationship between festival promoters and agents has changed one iota, to be honest,” he states. “Most bands, but not all, are represented by two agents – one for North America and the other for Europe and the rest of the world. The European agent is constantly fighting to have their act working in Europe, otherwise they are making no money. So the fight for agents might be getting harder now that there are more American festivals. But for us, the agent/promoter relationship has not changed. It just means the agents are battling as hard as we are to bring the artists to Europe.”

HOME-GROWN ACTS Of course, local language acts have always provided programmers with the talent to fill slots further down the bill, or on smaller festival stages, but it would appear that there has been a significant upgrade lately in the quality of acts that are emerging from local scenes around the continent. “There’s a lot of great local talent coming up in the likes of France, Belgium and Holland now and I know that a lot of international agents are looking to pick up those acts,” notes Koopmans. “Of course, every country has talent that also works internationally, so Kraftwerk, for instance, are booked

IQ Magazine September 2014 35

Festival Headliners

by Emma Banks around the world and the French band Phoenix is booked by Peter Elliott. Paul Bolton is another agent who has a lot of European acts – I think it’s important for agents to look outside of their home markets for talent.” He adds, “On the other side, it’s getting more difficult to persuade acts to come over from the United States when they have so many festival offers in America.” The Agency Group’s Geoff Meall believes casting the net wide to find talent in other countries should be part and parcel of an agent’s job. “I encourage everyone to look elsewhere for talent,” says Meall. “Jules de Lattre has a massive roster of French, Belgian and Austrian acts. And back in the day Mike Greek would get the first call about a lot of Belgian acts.” For his part, Mojo’s Van Eerdenburg comments, “In general, Dutch and Belgian acts have become better quality and more popular with fans. The exclusivity of local acts is not very big because Belgian and Dutch acts play a lot in Holland, but there are a few who are popular enough to pull a headline crowd. I doubt they can sell more tickets than some international acts, but it’s all about balance. The number of Dutch acts who play at Lowlands is not growing, but the acts are doing a lot better so they are pushing some international acts off the bill.” That certainly is not the case for all festivals in the Netherlands. Rense Van Kessel from promoters Friendly Fire tells IQ, “Local acts becoming headliners is something we don’t see in The Netherlands yet – at least not for the A-festivals: Pinkpop, Lowlands, Best Kept Secret and North Sea Jazz. However, local festivals have had domestic headliners for many years as they could never afford or get their hands on international artists. The ‘biggest’ local artists are not really big here though; there are only a few that could sell out arena-level shows. The ones that do are usually not considered for the big festivals or only in minor slots.” Van Kessel lauds smaller agencies such as Belmont Bookings in the Netherlands, Sweden’s Pitch & Smith and the recently formed Earth agency in the UK. Further north, Anders Wahrén, music director for Roskilde

Festival, concurs that local talent is on the rise. Nevertheless, the massive Danish event requires a strong international lineup to remain relevant. “We have always had some of the best and biggest Danish and Scandinavian acts on our stages, but I don’t think this will make us less dependent on international acts,” says Wahrén. “Our guests come to Roskilde for an international line-up and we take pride in delivering that. But not just limited to UK and US acts – we usually have more than 30 nationalities represented in our line-up, and that wide scope helps us, as we don’t need to bring in that many top, mainstream acts to fill our stages.” Wahrén reports that the gaining strength of local talent doesn’t necessarily mean bonds with local agents are improving – “If you ask them, we probably book far too few Danish acts,” he says. However, Denmark’s biggest festival plays its part in helping build the fan base for home-grown bands. “A lot of the very young newcomers play our Rising stage as well as internationally acclaimed acts like Mø and Trentemøller on the biggest stages, [so] we give a good glimpse of what the local scene has to offer and share the spotlight from the big guns with the new ones who really need it. It’s important for us to play a role in breaking the new acts – both local and international.”

OVERSEAS COMPETITION TURNING TO THE PRESSURE OF COMPETITION that the European festival community now faces from events elsewhere, Mojo’s Van Eerdenburg observes, “There certainly are more festivals in Eastern Europe and America now, but the big acts still end up in Europe playing to the big crowds. Where things have changed is that music consumption is no longer tied up with an album release and audiences care less and less about albums – everything is about playlists now rather than albums.” The strengthening festival circuit in the Americas throws open the very real scenario that could result in headline acts, and those slightly lower in the pecking order, playing outdoor events in the different continents on an alternate yearly basis. That’s something Festival Republic boss Benn seems to hint at when addressing the massive growth in the international festival market. Benn tells IQ, “There is a year-round festival circuit now and there are definitely bands that take advantage of that circuit to tour festivals. But I think most of those bands then play the festival circuit less frequently. So a band might do a very large festival tour, but then work the club, arena or stadium circuit, depending on what they are capable of, before returning to the festival circuit again maybe two or three years later.” While acknowledging that headlining slots are a great way to grown an act’s fan base, CAA agent Mike Greek comments, “No artist, who wants a long career should rely on festivals as the primary focus of their touring strategy.” He continues, “Taking the leap from being a strong Festival act to headliner is a major jump and the timing of that move is crucial. A number of artists have tried to make that move too early

The Black Keys headlined more major European festivals than any other act this year

IQ Magazine September 2014

Festival Headliners

Queens of the Stone Age headlined Reading Festival in August

based on one or two successful albums and cannot deliver the sort of show required to take this step up and subsequently find themselves with nowhere to go in the later years.” Getting that timing right has been a long term strategy for Greek and his clients The Black Keys, who had an incredibly successful summer, topping IQ’s chart of the most popular headliners across Europe this year. “The Black Keys have a proven track record in Europe, so 2014 was the time for the band to step up and headline events in the market, having already done this in the US. They have now positioned themselves as a major headline artist for the coming years.” The Agency Group’s Meall urges caution against a cookiecutter approach to the summertime, outdoor circuit. “Festivals are useful at different stages of an act’s career,” opines Meall. “For baby bands, they can create a lot of buzz by playing festivals and getting exposure to a lot of people. But for established or wannabe headliners it’s not wise to overplay the festivals circuit because it makes people think twice about forking out for an expensive ticket if they’ve seen the band at a festival a couple of months previously.” There are obvious exceptions to that rule. “The likes of U2 could do a festival and then also do a sell-out tour. But for bands on the way up – or for some acts who are on the slide – festivals offer a great opportunity to make money in the summer months.” Similarly, Van Eerdenburg is of the impression that not all artists simply want to cash in on the fees that festival appearances can earn them. “There are acts that do really well on festivals. But maybe their value is lower because they get more out of a festival booking than they would with their own tour. That’s why certain acts want to prove they are worth more by staying away from the festival circuit.”

CRISIS, WHAT CRISIS?! NO DISCUSSION ABOUT FESTIVALS would be complete, of course, without what seems to have become one of the most repeated questions in the live music business: where are tomorrow’s headliners coming from? One of the most repeated questions at each year’s ILMC panel sessions, anecdotally people seem to believe that there are only a handful of acts that can truly be seen as A-list headliners. However, just taking a look at some of the festival promo posters around Europe this year seems to debunk those claims. As part of IQ’s investigation into festival headliners, we conducted some research to find out which artists scored the biggest number of bookings across 50 major European

IQ Magazine September 2014

festivals this summer. The results for the top 20 most popular headliners can be seen on page 38, with The Black Keys topping our chart thanks to their appearances at the likes of Paleo, Latitude, Optimus Alive, Bilbao BBK Live, Rock Werchter, Open’er, Down The Rabbit Hole, OpenAir St. Gallen, and Hurricane and Southside Festivals. Celebrating that success, the band’s agent Mike Greek says, “Playing European Festivals in the summer of 2014 to promote a new album release was a strategy myself and [artist managers] QPrime had being working towards since early 2013. The Black Keys had never really played an extensive European Festival tour in the June/July window so this was the ideal time in their career to attempt such an ambitious run on the back of two successful albums. Each major market festival performance was booked with a view to the Arena market that the band will play for the spring tour of 2015. Announcements were planned to run directly after the Festival had taken place to benefit from the profile generated at the event and local promoters were involved every step of the way in the discussions.” Involving the promoters from an early stage is smart business. Roskilde’s Wahrén says, “We have had really good reactions to our headliners this year. We want to have a good mix as they not only serve the purpose of selling tickets, but also should reflect the diversity in the Roskilde line-up and be headliners in different genres or for different moods, if you will. We want a few top names that really have a history and back-catalogue that inspired many of the younger acts on the bill, like the Rolling Stones, OutKast and Stevie Wonder, as well as the sound of 2014 from the likes of Major Lazor, Arctic Monkeys and Jack White.” With such large sums of money involved when it comes to securing headline talent, most festival organisers favour exclusivity clauses that prevent certain acts performing at a rival event in the same territory. A couple of years ago, the growing popularity of budget airline flights prompted Festival Republic’s Melvin Benn to suggest that European exclusivity clauses might become standard. “The exclusivity battle has, by and large, been established within a countrywide boundary for quite a long time now,” says Benn. “It’s not a battle that festival promoters can overcome unless you can buy out your territorial opposition. However, there are virtually no bands who are interested in European exclusivity deals.” Taking up the exclusivity issue, Wahrén says, “It’s interesting to see that we only have half of our headliners represented in the top 20 you have compiled – and that there are three of them we had last year. Hopefully, that means that we are still able to go our own ways and be a little up front as well.” He adds, “We do look at what [other events artists] are playing and talk exclusivity. But we’re realistic; we are not going to have eight headliners that only play a handful of European shows. If we can have a couple of headliners that are more exclusive and unique, we are happy, but what really sets us apart is the rest of the line-up.” Further examination of our headliners chart points to a 50/50 split between North American and European acts as the most popular headliners, albeit with only one non-British act (Röyksopp) featuring in the latter list. And of our top 20, roughly one-third of the headliners might be labelled as heritage acts. But that still means that two thirds of the most popular headliners in Europe in 2014 were contemporary

Festival Headliners Iron Maiden topped the bill at Sonisphere Knebworth © John McMurtrie

FESTIVALS: EUROPE’S TOP HEADLINERS

The following acts are ranked by the number of headline slots they performed at major events in 2014. To compile the data for this chart, we picked 50 major festivals across Europe and analysed their line-ups:

1. The Black Keys (US) 2. The Prodigy 3. Arctic Monkeys (UK) 4. Queens of the Stone Age (US) 5. Iron Maiden (UK) 6. Metallica (US) 7. Arcade Fire (CA) 8. Kings of Leon (US) 9. Blink 182 (US) 10. Skrillex (US) 11. Biffy Clyro (UK) 12. Outkast (US) 13. Royksopp (NO) 14. Damon Albarn (UK) 15. The National 16. Placebo (UK) 17. Portishead (UK) 18. Rolling Stones (UK) 19.The Libertines (UK) 20. Thirty Seconds to Mars (US)

artists, suggesting that the panic over a perceived lack of headliners may be misguided. Collectively, when industry professionals gather together, the paranoia over emerging talent seems to manifest, but when spoken to individually, such fears rarely surfaced during our discussions with the participants in this report. Other issues did polarise opinion, however, not the least of which was Yourope’s terms – a document that Yourope’s festival members routinely send to agents. “There’s not a chance I would ever sign them,” one veteran agent tells IQ.” But Mojo’s Van Eerdenburg says, “The Yourope terms are very similar to the Live Nation terms and conditions that we use. It’s reasonable from a festival’s point of view – and in a grown-up business – to make clear what the promoter and agent should expect from each other.” He adds, “It’s irrational why agents become upset with terms and conditions. As promoters we have to sign terms of business with agents, so it should be the same with agents and the Yourope terms and conditions.” Nonetheless, in an industry where multimillion dollar deals are still routinely agreed verbally or on a handshake, the festival business continues unabated. “The expanding festival season definitely affects every agents’ thought process,” admits Meall. “One big advantage of the number of festivals growing is that it gives artists the opportunity to go to a lot of territories where they might not necessarily have a big fan base. Production costs are a lot lower than they would be on a standalone headline tour and that can be attractive to some acts and their management. On the flip side, for an American act there’s the dilemma of what to do Monday through Thursday if they are playing multiple European festival dates? So that’s why you’ll get a lot of filler dates to make those summer trips worthwhile.” Wahrén agrees, “With the ever-expanding festival circuit, there is a pressure on the live business, but I don’t think festival tours are responsible for less successful arena tours later in the season, per se. Sometimes that may be the case, but in the last few years I have seen at least as many examples of festival shows driving ticket sales for headliner tours. It is individual from act to act how much touring you can do and still be relevant to your fans.” And considering the use of festivals by certain acts to plot global tours, FKP Scorpio founder Koopmans concludes, “In general, I believe the use of festivals is a good thing. Obviously, headline artists can make more money from festivals than they might on their own headline shows. But I also think that festivals help bring more people to live music. At Hurricane festival, for instance, there is a big percentage of people who really are not interested in certain bands when they buy their tickets, but they love the atmosphere of the festival. But when they see an act that surprises them, they are more likely to buy a ticket for that act’s autumn tour, which would never have happened if they had not performed at the festival.”

Contributors (left to right): Anders Wahrén (Roskilde Festival), Melvin Benn (Festival Republic), Eric van Eerdenburg (Mojo Concerts), Geoff Meall (The Agency Group), Mike Greek (CAA), Folkert Koopmans (FKP Scorpio), Ben Challice (Coda Agency), Rense van Kessel (Friendly Fire)

IQ Magazine September 2014

Tony Goldring

IQ Magazine September 2014

Tony Goldring

Tony Earns His Spurs

R elocating to a new continent is always a daunting move, but T ony Goldring’ s emigration to L A 1 4 years ago has seen the L ondon- born former promoter transform into one of the world’ s most respected agents. Adam W oods talks to him as he marks 2 5 years in the business… Whatever else the life of an international booking agent may be about, it’s certainly got a lot to do with time zones. Even as the sun rises in Los Angeles, half the afternoon has gone in London, Paris and Berlin. As for Sydney and Beijing, their office hours won’t start again until well after California has finished its lunch. “You have to start very early – between 6 and 6.30, I guess – and then you try and do all the European stuff in the morning,” says Tony Goldring, WME’s north London-born, Los Angelesbased head of international. “Later in the day you are dealing with South-East Asia and Australia and those markets.” Sometimes, of course, the opportunity can’t wait. Goldring, who plots the international routes of Rihanna, Usher, Justin Timberlake, Drake, Bruno Mars and other globe-straddling WME clients, knows the window of time zone opportunity better than most. He moved to LA 14 years ago, when international, as it related to booking agents, was still a novel notion. Today, it’s fair to say the global touring business always knows what time it is in Los Angeles, and sometimes ruefully so. “Tony’s a great guy, but I am convinced he believes the entire world is housed within the city of LA,” says John Lickrish, CEO of Abu Dhabi’s Flash Entertainment. “I can’t count the number of times I have taken a phone call from Tony at 3am here. ‘Oh, really, it’s 3am? Well I only need a few moments of your time…’” “The good thing about promoters is, they expect you to

IQ Magazine September 2014

call them late,” says the good-natured Goldring. “I always say, ‘look, if you don’t want to take the call, turn your phone off’. But I’m sure I’ve driven some of them crazy.” This may be what WME global head of music Marc Geiger means when he refers to Goldring’s “can-do, positive, noncynical” approach, which somehow, Geiger mischievously notes, survived Goldring’s apprenticeship in the UK concert business. Or maybe, in the years since he first stepped off the plane, a rabid Tottenham Hotspur Football fan with a pregnant wife and no great ambition to move to Los Angeles at all, Tony’s simply thoroughly mastered the LA way of doing things. “I had never been an agent until I was offered the job by Peter Grosslight,” he says, speaking just a week or so before the former WME global head of music Grosslight’s sad death. “I wasn’t going to take it – my wife, Anne, was was four or five months pregnant. I thought, I can’t expect to uproot her and start a new life when she is about to have our first child. But we came out here and met everyone, and when we got back, we just thought, let’s go for it. “If you are going to move from London to anywhere else in the world, this is one of the best cities you can move to. I’d say it is the centre of the business. It is easy doing business here. I think people want to make deals, and they want to get things done as quickly as possible.” In a 25-year career to date, Goldring has now spent the larger part in Beverly Hills. These days, international at

Tony Goldring Jen Rosales, Rihanna, Live Nation’s Shane Bourbonnais, Rihanna’s manager Jay Brown and Tony

WME is a 24-strong team, a crucial engine of the music division that is, in turn, a crucial engine of WME’s business. International staff in LA, New York, Nashville and London convene to thrash out their artists’ global movements every Thursday by conference call. And Goldring is, in Geiger’s words, “an anchor player for us” – an agent with a global view of a business that continues to expand internationally in every direction. “If this was a footy team, he’d be starting centre-half,” says Geiger, who is well aware of Goldring’s Spurs affiliation. “Or starting full-back – one of the two. He is really a backbone for our international operation. He has a unique perspective and understanding of pop and urban music and hip hop globally, and I think the other unique piece is just his spirit – that positive attitude he has.” On Goldring’s plate at interview time are a global autumn jaunt for John Legend, CeeLo Green’s August run through Europe, a 2015 world tour for Rihanna, dates for Yusuf Islam and Tony Bennett and a number of other “50-50” possibilities, Drake among them.

Under his Umbrella Since 2007, when William Morris opened its office in London, the business of booking has become a truly international concern, driving the touring circuit into new and thrilling

markets, with more undoubtedly to come. Agents, meanwhile, have steadily increased in power as record companies have struggled to make their part of the puzzle add up, even as pop – and particularly urban American pop – has spawned a new wave of global superstars. When Goldring arrived at William Morris in October 2000, however, the picture was unrecognisably different, with Latin America the main item on the international department’s fairly short agenda. “The international department, when I joined – I want to say there were two people in it, including myself,” he says. “There certainly weren’t many people. And obviously the difference then was, there were quite a few acts we didn’t

Tony Goldring

Tony with client, Janet Jackson

represent internationally, which is obviously a big, big shift to nowadays. “We opened the London office [in 2007], and that was a big change, but I think, even before that, everyone could see how much the business was expanding. Once I had been here for five years, things had really started to change then.” Goldring recalls a particularly memorable tour of Africa in 2006, with former client Jay-Z, as a suggestion of things to come. A run of seven stops in Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, Angola and South Africa would be bold now, but eight years ago it was all but unheard of. “He went to markets that very

few people had been to, and certainly not many artists of his calibre and stature. It was interesting because everything was different: promoters, venues, the infrastructure. He really wanted to do it; it was a very good experience for him. But I don’t have a lot of hair, and a lot of it is down to that tour.” The African circuit remains one of the great development hopes of the touring business, even if Goldring doubtless remains one of a relatively few agents to have had a proper look around the continent. “My hope, still, is that there is a proper touring market in Africa, because I think the potential is huge, it really is,” he says. “I think, in that part of the world, obviously there’s an incredible fan base of people who love the music and are just desperate to see artists there. But it’s early days, and in the time of the Jay-Z tour, it really was.” The rise of Rihanna, beginning at roughly the same time, has been another game-changer in Goldring’s time at WME, especially given the importance of international touring in her ascent. “She really broke out of the UK and Europe first,” says Goldring. “And the touring has just got bigger and bigger and bigger. I was there last night at her show with Eminem in a massive sold-out stadium; she has become a stadium artist. The first tour we booked her on was supporting the Pussycat Dolls on an arena tour of the UK.” He continues, “When you see that type of development, it’s a really rewarding thing. There are some artists that have specific markets where they are big, and they can go and do well. But [Rihanna] can go pretty much anywhere in the world.”

Tony Goldring

Formative Years

Testimonials

There are agents who focus on instant gratification and there are people who represent an artist and their best interests. Tony is a special man. He represents artists in a careful and powerful way. Janet Jackson

The first time I worked with Tony Goldring was in 2007, on the occasion of the invitation of Whitney Houston to Mawazine festival, Rabat, Morocco. In 2007, Morocco was not yet considered a market for major artists and I appreciated the openness of Tony, who had no bias or preconceived notions against unknown territories. It is primarily this sense of entrepreneurship that I appreciate in him. After Whitney Houston, we worked together several times for many artists such as Rihanna and Justin Timberlake. I’ve always appreciated Tony’s professionalism and sense of serene discussion. With him, the exchange never took a tense turn. He takes the time to explain the problems and is committed to protecting the interests of both parties. He is one of the agents with whom I most appreciate working. His professionalism should be cited as a model for all those who are setting out to be an agent. Aziz Daki – Mawazine festival

Tony has helped take John Legend’s global touring to a new level. We’re happy to have him on our team.

Ty Stiklorius – manager of John Legend

Tony is a great agent and due to the fact that he was also a promoter, he has a good understanding of what it feels like to be on the other side of the fence. Tony is a gentleman and has showed a great deal of patience and respect towards me as a promoter during our many years of negotiations, which have included the Eagles, Jay Z and most recently John Legend. Congratulations to him on his 25th anniversary in the music business – we look forward to working with him again soon.

In another part of the world, in his pre-LA life, Goldring inhabited the other side of the fence, working initially for Derek Block Concert Promotions as a receptionist and gofer. The son of a show business accountant father, Goldring quickly came round to the music industry, having entered it with the modest ambition of working for a few months to earn travelling funds. “When I started off, the first thing Derek got me to do was put me downstairs in the garage to tidy it up, and I came across all these incredible posters of bands they represented: U2, The Police, Eurythmics, The Clash, Ian Dury. I thought, wow, this is fantastic.” On an auspicious first day in the music business, Goldring recalls, he also met his future wife, proving that he had luck on his side from the outset. It wasn’t to be the only useful connection he made, as Derek himself points out. “We represented the William Morris Agency for personal appearances outside the US for the world, which is how Tony first got to know people there,” says Block. “He was a very, very nice guy – always very courteous, no downside at all. And of course, he was in the right place at the right time, and the doors of opportunity opened to him.” Goldring freely admits the value of an education at Block’s stable of companies in Soho’s Richmond Mews. “One of the last things I remember us doing was the greatest hits of the Bolshoi Ballet at the Albert Hall,” says Goldring. “It was excerpts from different ballets: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker. Everyone said he was completely crazy and it would never work, and the whole thing sold-out. “Derek had some very good, creative ideas. He had been around a long time and he had worked very closely with William Morris and represented a lot of acts before acts were booked out of the US. As a promoter, he had a good team around him, and there’s so many people still in the business who worked for him at some point.” After seven years there, working directly under director Jef Hanlon, Goldring followed Hanlon out the door for four more years promoting acts from the reformed Culture Club to Joaquin Cortés to the Everly Brothers. Hanlon, now retired, remains a Goldring fan. “He is a very good negotiator,” says Hanlon. “He was from day one, when he came as a dropout from university. He must have been only about 20 then, if he was that, but he was always great at getting good deals, right from the start. “I remember one of my clients wanted a Mercedes, one of the new models, and they were really hard to get hold of. I sent Tony off wandering the dealerships of Greater London,

Attie van Wyk – Big Concerts International

Tony Goldring’s knowledge of the international touring market, his attention to detail and professionalism, is unsurpassed in the industry. Tony Bennett

Goldring client Justin Timberlake at a recent show in London

IQ Magazine September 2014

Tony Goldring

Tony with his bandmates in his first band in the 1980s

I’m struggling with this: Tony’s redeeming qualities, other than being a Spurs fan? Let me get back to you (but it might take a while). Cheers Tony on our great partnership – may it long continue.

John Reid - LIVE Nation Europe

I very much respect Tony’s global expertise, and he is a very good guy who is still on top of his game after 25 years in the business. Arthur Fogel – Live Nation

and not only did he get hold of one, in the right colour, but he got a discount on it, when people were fighting to buy one.” Working for Hanlon, Goldring encountered Grosslight on several occasions, once agreeing to organise a prospective London show for his Mexican superstar Luis Miguel. “I remember talking to Sadler’s Wells, really wanting to do a good job and getting a really fantastic rental deal,” Goldring recalls. “And Peter said finally, ‘it’s going to happen’ so I booked the venue, and the next day he called and said, ‘it’s not happening’,” he laughs. “So I had to make an embarrassing phone call, but I got to know Peter, and I guess I made a reasonably good impression.” Hanlon, who was moving to scale his own company down 14 years ago, remembers Grosslight’s courteous approach. “Peter and I were very close, and he said to me, ‘I’m looking for somebody really good’,” says Hanlon. “He knew Tony was very

I fear I don’t have any memorable stories to share, but Tony’s definitely one of the best and we did do Janet Jackson at a 1,400-cap theatre together. That was surely memorable to all of us who were there. Erik Uppstrøm – A Comic Soul

I like Tony, he’s a nice guy and a good agent. When I started, I quickly noticed that he represented a whole genre of headliners alone, which is extremely impressive, and although there’s more competition now, I’d say he still holds the throne. Martin Nielsen – Live Nation Norway

I have known him a long time but my wife knows him from when he was a boy: Anthony Goldring. He has always been fair and fun to work with – one of the good guys. We both also serve another mistress: Tottenham Hotspur. Raye Cosbert – Metropolis Music Management

Tony Goldring Tony on his way to work at Derek Block, 25 years ago

A true gentlemen to deal with, Tony is a very straight-shooter when doing business. He does have one major fault, however – he supports Tottenham. Gerry Barad – Live Nation Global Touring

Tony ‘big money’ Goldring always puts his artists first and is relentless in pursuing tour perfection. Please someone buy him a time-zone clock, I’m broke! John Lickrish – Flash Entertainment

In my office, a call from Tony is called a GoldRing – he always expects the big bucks when calling to get my offer! Thomas Ovesen – Done Events

Tony was one of the first agents I started working with when I became a promoter. He’s straight-forward, runs an efficient office and there’s no bullshit. He’s also got a great problemsolving attitude those times when something gets tricky. Oh, and my pockets always seem empty after talking to him. Anna Sjölund – Live Nation Sweden

I have been working with Tony for many years now. Back in the early days, it took a while before I realised he was working out of the US – the finest British accent in the business had me picturing Tony as an old-school English gentleman. And I could only feel safe and secure. A lot of fine and fair deals we have made. And still today I feel very safe and secure working together with Tony. Niels Traeden – Live Nation Denmark

I like Tony a lot, and we have done a lot of business with him: Bruno Mars, Alicia Keys, John Legend, and a lot of others. I think he is a really good guy – I like his sense of humour and he has a nice, relaxed style. In a past life he was a promoter, so he understands our side of things, so we have always got on well with him. Although he does take his pound of flesh on every deal – or more like three-and-a-half pounds of flesh. That goes with the territory, I guess. He seems to be hitting his stride right now – he is working with a lot of heavyweight acts, which I think is great, because very clearly he is rated highly within William Morris. Michael Coppel – Live Nation Australasia

I love Tony, I think he is a great guy and a gentleman. He is always classy and I have had some incredible tours with him. On the two Rihanna tours we have done, we sold over a million tickets. We have done a couple of Drake tours which have been massive, and a couple of great Alicia Keys tours. He is not a yelling-and-screaming, old-school agent – he is a good guy, always with a way to solve every problem. I think it helps that he is English as well, because he understands Europe. He understands that you can’t get from Stockholm to Dublin with a day off. He knows his way around and he has got a great roster. Shane Bourbonnais – Live Nation International Music

Tony has been at the forefront of China’s emergence as a touring market for western artists. His commitment to the region over the last decade has contributed greatly to the market’s overall growth. Adam Wilkes – AEG Live Asia

bright, and he asked how I would feel about him offering Tony a job, and I said I thought it would be a fantastic offer for him to receive. And so he went, and he has been a massive success, and he is very, very good at what he does, and he always has been. Although I must say, we didn’t particularly like agents. We were promoters, and obviously the enemy was always the agents, trying to put us out of business, asking for high fees.”

Crossing Over…

The transition from poaching to gamekeeping wasn’t an immediately natural one, as Goldring freely concedes. “Here I was, an agent, having never been an agent. At the beginning, I had no idea what I was doing. People were coming in and it was, ‘Puerto Rico – can you handle this? Seoul – one for you.’ I talked to a few people who gave me some advice at the beginning. A lot of it was learning as you went along.” In the climate that has evolved since then, an international agent in Goldring’s position can see new possibilities everywhere – new territories, new methods of doing business, new technology – and today he is clearly excited on all counts. “The days of booking gigs, and that being your only job, just don’t exist anymore,” he says with relish. “With WME, we want people to really have knowledge of the territories they book, and that means ticketing, it means media. Especially in international, we are being asked these questions. The artists, the managers, are more reliant on the agent than they ever were in the past. If the label is saying, ‘we should be on that TV show’ – is that the right one? We are going to talk to people, get an opinion on that and report to the management.” Likewise, now that sales figures give a picture of demand that is incomplete at best, agents are as well placed as anyone to interrogate new sources of data, such as social media, for meaningful market information. Goldring states, “You can’t base things on record sales, you know? We have some artists that are not selling that many albums, but have a really, really solid touring base, and can go out and tour every 18 months and do great business.” Asked which managers he holds in high regard, rather than picking some mighty old pro, Goldring plumps for Chris Anokute, manager of new WME act Bebe Rexha, on the grounds of “incredible enthusiasm” and a willingness to work in new ways. “The managers we really like working with are the ones that really understand the collaborative effort. When you can work fully as a team – label, manager, agent – that will

IQ Magazine September 2014

Tony Goldring The Goldrings: Tony, Oliver, Anne and Amy

Tony is the best agent we have worked with since Yusuf/Cat Stevens returned to live performances. We are honestly more friends than work associates and it’s always a joy to finally catch up with him. Tony proudly flies the flag for Great Britain high up in the sunny skies of occupied Los Angeles – something we are so grateful for back in the gloriously grey and regularly rainy homeland of Great Britain. It might be the weight of this success (and the unfortunate amount of sun on his head) that has caused Tony to make one disastrously poor judgment – and that is in his unwavering support of a rival football club, Tottenham Hotspur, underachieving and without a hope. It is why we so dearly wish – for Tony’s sake of course – that his team is relegated to the Championship division, where they might serve a better chance of finally winning a trophy. Better still, we pray he comes to his senses and pledges allegiance to Arsenal Football Club. Congratulations Tony. We love you. Yoriyos – manager of Yusuf Islam

I had a great meeting with Tony Goldring together with Tor Nielsen from Live Nation Sweden some years ago, where Tony spent a good deal of the meeting explaining to us why a $1million offer just sounds so much better to an artist than $750,000 or even $950,000… Tony is a great agent, hardworking on the mail and phone 24-7, and doing a great job for his artists… and with a good sense of humor! Jesper Christensen – Live Nation Denmark

give you the best results. We want to be working with as many promoters as possible – young promoters who are starting off and want to develop their business. And it’s really exciting when you work with a new artist like that,” he adds, referring to Rexha, “because we really believe in her and we really feel she is going to do something. However long you have done this, that doesn’t change.”

Expanding Horizons Where new markets are concerned, Goldring sits on a wellspring of international insight: from the Mawazine festival in Morocco that has, in recent years, welcomed WME acts Rihanna, Justin Timberlake and Alicia Keys; to the expanding South-East Asian

Tony Goldring Tony has been working with Yusuf Islam since his return to live performance

I’ve known Tony for a long long time, from the days when he started with Derek Block and Jef Hanlon. The first show I bought from him was Culture Club (The Reunion!). On a personal level, I’ve met Tony and his wife Anne many times over the years and both were very good to my daughter when she moved out to LA – their support and advice was invaluable at that time and is still very much appreciated. Tony has worked with a huge roster of artists over the years and continues to represent some of the biggest names in the business. But, and with no disrespect to his outstanding career intended, the first thing that still comes to mind when I think of Tony is that superb hat-trick he scored one night in Battersea Park at the ILMC Football Tournament. Peter Aiken – Aiken Promotions

It was about 10-12 years ago, maybe less; my memory fails me in this regard. But it was one of my first visits to Los Angeles. My close friends at Mojo (Robert van Ommen, to be more specific) were carrying me around like a package to shepherd me into the LA agency pastures. I remember being escorted to the Goldring quarters accompanied by anxiety. I had heard so much about the guy – he was legendary – but I didn’t even know he was British (so much for the homework). I was quite taken aback when he started talking with that accent of his. Agents are always a big deal in the promoters’ universe and someone of Tony’s stature is a big deal for any promoter, especially for a rookie like myself. I sat there alongside my friends trying to decipher the dynamics of the relationship. I don’t get impressed easily, but I was instantly impressed by this guy. Naturally he knew what he was doing, but it was evident this wasn’t just work for him. He was into what he was doing; he had an appetite for the future he was trying to create; and despite the stern, strict, no-bullshit business persona he was displaying, I immediately recognised a fun, loving, caring, human being to be discovered. I wasn’t wrong. We’ve done business many times with Tony, but more importantly we’ve become friends. I feel blessed to have made his acquaintance and for this I’m grateful to Robert. Cem Yegül – Pozitif Live

I’ve been working with Tony since he was still in the UK. I’ve met him many times and always had a good and fruitful relationship. Happy to hear that he is doing this now for 25 years! Richard Hoermann – NuCoast Entertainment

Still a season ticket holder, Spurs fan Tony hard at work

circuit – including South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Thailand – where Bruno Mars recently did “incredibly well” on his Moonshine Jungle tour. “A while ago, when China opened up, everyone thought, this is going to be a massive market, and they all tried to tour there and didn’t understand that it was still early days and they wouldn’t get the fees they expected to get elsewhere in the world,” he says. “It’s not a case of going there once, playing in Shanghai and Beijing and expecting the whole market to open up; it’s a question of investing time and going there on a number of occasions. India is another big hope, and we are starting to see more shows, but that’s very much in the early stages.” The time differences, in other words, are only getting more varied and awkward, but that is exactly what an international agent would want. Indeed, there are strong signs that, 25 years in, Goldring may well just be getting to the interesting stuff, and Marc Geiger, for one, is keen to see what happens next. “I think, as globalisation really, really happens, and a lot of businesses benefit from the growth of the emerging markets, Tony has enough skill, experience and understanding of growing markets to get the most out of them over time,’ Geiger says. “It’s a great time to be in music, and Tony is in a crazy part of the business, and he is in a crazy position because of that.”

IQ Magazine September 2014

Air Charter

Flying

Sourcers 56

IQ Magazine September 2014

Air Charter

Sometimes chartering a private jet to get an artist, their entourage and equipment from A to B to C is the only solution. But as Robert Ashton discovers, the private jet lifestyle is more prevalent, and cost effective, than most people might perceive… As recorded music revenues have slumped over the last decade, tours and festivals have become the bread-andbutter money earner for many new and established artists and bands. And with so many musicians (and corporations) now depending on live performance for the mainstay of their income, that’s a lot of acts and equipment that need to get around the world safely and quickly. Commercial flights don’t always do the job: they might not fly to the right place and, if they do, they often don’t takeoff at the antisocial times that artists need to travel – which is often after airport flight curfews are in force. Then there’re all the queues, having to turn up three hours before take-off, security and the inevitable paparazzi to deal with. Charter flights can provide the transport solution. Instruments, equipment and live show backdrops can be shipped and ready for the next day’s gig. Artists can travel in maximum comfort to the same city, relaxed, rested and confident they will walk out on stage that night with all their gear set-up behind them. To make sure that happens – and an artist headlining a Barcelona gig doesn’t have a meltdown because he isn’t

IQ Magazine September 2014

allowed to smoke cigars during a flight or that the cargo isn’t bogged down in a narcotics check on the Colombian border – falls to a raft of highly specialised air charter and freight forwarding companies. Indeed, Rock-it Cargo’s business development manager, Matt Wright, tells IQ that chartering a plane is not always the last resort. “Some shows are booked on a back-to-back basis over the space of a busy festival weekend to maximise the band’s earnings. So this sometimes means that in order to do this, they need to charter aircraft for the cargo and passengers so they can both get to the next show in time. For the passengers, chartering is very occasionally better value than booking group tickets with airlines, and more importantly the band can dictate their flying schedules where they can’t with a commercial airline.” Air charter for passenger jets is straightforward in theory. Aircraft owners, which is nowadays major corporations, will try to claw back some of the high cost of buying and running a private jet by putting it out for charter with an operator, who will maintain the plane and crews to standards set by their country’s civil aviation authority. If the owner only uses the jet

Air Charter Premier Aviation director Adrian Whitmarsh and Hunt & Palmer chairman Jeremy Palmer test the facilities in one of their aircraft

Victor’s Steffen Fries boards one of the company’s private jets

Contributors (left to right): Lisa Ryan (EFM), Martin Corr (Sound Moves), Matt Wright (Rock-it Cargo), Steve Botting (EFM)

“

Mark Knofler will do three months around Europe, with five shows a week on average. You split your production costs per week by five and all of sudden you can make money.” Adrian Whitmarsh, Premier Aviation

for 100 hours each year, that leaves around 500 hours additional flying time the plane could be loaned for charter and earn money. That’s the theory. Into that equation walks a pop artist or rock band, their backing musicians, husbands or wives, girlfriends or boyfriends, family, friends, managers, tour managers, promoters, PR and all the attendant issues and requirements that go along with them. Adrian Whitmarsh, who founded Premier Aviation 20 years ago, knows all about that. He first became involved with artists flying charter in the early 1980s and has subsequently flown every Genesis tour and last year made sure the Rolling Stones flew smoothly. Whitmarsh dismisses the charge that charter flights are simply for fat cats or ego-inflated rock stars. For Whitmarsh, who estimates 80% of his business is with music clients, chartered planes are a necessity in the entertainment industry. “It’s to make it more comfortable for an artist because if you’re travelling all the time it’s very hard work. If you’re flying every day during a two-month tour doing 50 shows, you can’t physically do it (by commercial flight). By the time you’ve been through security you feel like you’ve been through a wringer,” he explains. With a private jet, the musicians can control their environment. They can fly when they want (usually immediately after a late gig), need only turn up 30 minutes or less before departure, can swerve the main airport terminal, possibly have a limo pick them up on the airport tarmac, eat healthy food of their own choice or from their favourite restaurant and have meetings with their band or manager in private. There’s also less chance of picking up a debilitating bug from a fellow passenger – a potentially costly setback for an artist expected to entertain 100,000 fans every night for a month. Comparing the use of chartered aircraft to ten years ago, Rock-it Cargo’s Wright observes, “I think more people are chartering more often around Europe for sure, especially during a packed festival season; which are known to be good earners for the bands. So they like to play as many shows as possible. However some productions are now using multiple equipment rigs so they don’t need to charter aircraft for the cargo.” Senior vice-president of Victor, Steffen Fries, whose company sees around 20% of revenue coming from music, also suggests tour managers crave the attention to detail and peace of mind chartering gives them. “It is not just about money, they want security,” says Fries. “Not just to know that the operator is safe and the region is safe, but also that the flight will definitely work and go on time because a pop star needs to be onstage that night. No promoter will be patted on the back for saving £10,000 on flights, but they’ll be fired if the singer misses the gig.” There’s also a decent economic argument to make for using private jets to ferry around stars because first- or business-class plane seats don’t come cheap. Whitmarsh says if an artist or band are set-up to perform half a dozen shows in a week then charter air travel costs will be slashed: typically a 13-passenger Embraer Legacy jet, which can hold 30 suitcases will cost around £100,000 for a week. “Mark Knofler will do three months around Europe, with five shows a week on average. You split your production costs per week by five and all of sudden you can make money,” Whitmarsh says. Charter has also remained attractive over the last few years

IQ Magazine September 2014

Air Charter Premier Aviation’s aircraft for the Rolling Stones’ recent tour in Asia

because aviation fuel, usually priced in US dollars and which, on average, contributes around 40% of operating costs, has remained relatively stable over the last few years due to the weak performing dollar. Fries also points to the flexibility that can be built into charters so that if an artist is running late or there is a technical hitch with the plane, there will be a plan B. “The personal relationship is so important because my clients want to know that if the shit hits the fan they can call me 24/7, which they can,” he adds. As part of this service, Victor is launching its FlyVictor App in October, which will allow charterers to book flights, add passengers and change departure times. While the band is flying, their equipment is usually moved by trucking companies. However, if intercontinental moves are required or when gear is being shifted in regions with poor infrastructure (like parts of Asia and South America), air cargo charters are necessary. Hunt & Palmer’s senior charter broker Stuart Donaldson estimates 30% of his company’s business is from music organisations and says cargo charters can vary from small 500 kilo loads to shifting over 100 tonnes on a full Boeing 747. Donaldson and brokers like him will source the right plane for a job after being briefed by a freight forwarding company, which will stitch together all the logistics necessary for getting the backline from Rio to Caracas. One such company is Sound Moves, which handled Beyoncé’s tour last year and has just kicked off the Lady Gaga tour with two 747s. Managing director Martin Corr explains that although scheduled flights are cheaper to shift cargo, that doesn’t give the whole cost picture. It might take two or three days to transport hundreds of tonnes of very specialist and tricky to pack gear on a scheduled plane, that a charter could do in one day. And time is money. “You’ve got the crews on per diems waiting, hotels and the rest, and then you can have a gig every night. That’s where charter comes in,” notes Corr. Corr and Donaldson suggest the biggest boosts for charter in recent years has been the upswing in festivals with more diverse programmes, which means one band can play two or three festival shows over one weekend. Bands will typically be moving smaller loads [between 2,000-5,000 kilos] for festivals because a lot of equipment will be provided by the festival organiser and already on site. “A band can headline festivals in Norway, Austria and Poland and back in the UK over a long weekend,” Donaldson says.

Steve Botting, the Californian-based CEO at EFM Event Logistics, observes that another development to save on costs has been artists producing two sets of equipment with a small essential air package to fly commercially. But, while F1 drivers often travel on the same charter jets, a sharing culture is not widespread in the music industry despite bands often appearing on the same bill. This is because they don’t want to, or can’t wait around if the other band sharing the jet is playing at a different time. However, Lisa Ryan, group commercial director at EFM, says the practice is prevalent in Australia and could well spread further afield because it is “common sense.” Ryan and others now see border checks, constant changing regulations and security issues (music tours to once popular Kiev have pretty much dried up following the pro-Russian separatist unrest) as presenting the biggest challenges to charter. However, on the flip side of the coin she sees new markets developing or expansion, particularly in the Middle East, China and India, where EFM has recently helped Guns N’ Roses and Slayer tour. But, she points out one constant when carting around heavy rock gear for clients whose love of incendiary devices and other frightening special effects is legendary. She says, “You’ve always got to be careful with metal bands in transit. The load can be pretty dangerous.”

“

Rock-it Cargo load Robbie Williams’ equipment for a flight from Liege to Lisbon

For the passengers, chartering is very occasionally better value than booking group tickets with airlines, and more importantly the band can dictate their flying schedules where they can’t with a commercial airline.” Matt Wright, Rock-it Cargo

IQ Magazine September 2014

Security

IQ Magazine September 2014

Security

Close to the

Madding Crowd K eeping artists, crew, eq uipment and the paying public safe and secure is the number one priority for all right- minded event organisers. Eugenia Durante investigates how security specialists have grown their businesses while other parts of the industry have struggled…

alking to companies and consultants from around the world, it seems that the crowd management and security sector is one of the few to have somehow benefited from the economic downturn during the last few years. According to many of the professionals interviewed, the crisis turned out to be an incentive to reinvent the concept of security and explore new markets, resulting in long-term growth for the companies involved. With the increase in the size of festivals and shows, in the past few years crowd management experts have had to face several challenges, prompting a continual drive to look for new technologies in order to move with the times and satisfy their clients’ needs – often providing not only security services, but also consulting. “We were lucky with the downturn – it actually helped us make a lot of money!” Morten Therkildsen from ConCom Safety in Denmark tells IQ. “We did fewer shows but much more consulting for smaller clients, who paradoxically are willing to pay more. By offering a high-quality service, we attracted more clients and this turned out to be really profitable for us.” Diversifying the offer was a key strategy also for the Italian operation Around the Show, according to its manager Fabio Marsili. “The crisis affected the live sector so we had to open to other sectors that guarantee more work during the year – for example, offering security services in the retail sector. In the long term, this has brought us more clients.” The downturn affected different countries in different ways, proving harder to manage in more isolated countries

IQ Magazine September 2014

that faced a huge reduction in live show budgets. In Australia, in particular, due to higher travel and freight costs, promoters appear more careful before closing a deal. “Security is always one of the first things to be cut if ticket sales don’t reach targets although the requirement for a safe event never diminishes,” observes Jon Corbishley from The Safety Officer. “But the great thing about our industry is that however bad the economy is, people will still go to a show. Just looking at the amount of acts out on the road, and scheduled to go out next year, we hope it will be a good year for the industry.” On the whole, however, it appears that the security sector responded positively to cuts in budgets, managing to find inventive solutions to the challenges, while laying the groundwork for new kinds of business.

THE EVENT SAFETY GUIDE

hen it comes to agreeing general rules to follow on a global basis, it’s often hard to reach a communal path to take, especially considering the different approaches and legislation governing the industry in many territories. The crowd management and security sector, however, can now refer to the Event Safety Guide (ESG) published by the Event Safety Alliance, a non-profit safety trade association dedicated to promoting the concept of ‘life safety first’ during event production. The guide provides a series of steps that should be

“Our industry has become significantly more professional. The main changes over the past three years have been due to a greater recognition of the part that security plays in the delivery of a safe experience for our customers” Andy Gollings, Red Badge Security

followed when organising a live show in order to guarantee high standards of safety in different situations. Similar in nature to the UK’s Purple Guide, the ESG has been designed mainly for the US market, but can be easily applied to other countries and its adoption is quickly spreading around the world, even if some countries find it hard to use due to issues with local legislation or poor knowledge. “We do use the ESG for reference when trying to improve the safety or function of a particular area of operation. It is also a very good tool for ensuring that we are operating at best practice,” reports Andy Gollings, CEO at Red Badge Security in New Zealand. “The ESG is one of the documents which we incorporate into our full range of training programmes, along with our own detailed research and analysis, and the support of the University of Derby Corporate,” reveals Showsec MD Mark Harding, “The guidance provided by the Event Safety Alliance publication is extremely useful in the delivery of a commercial service, but so too are legislation, knowledge, skills and systems in attaining the highest standards.” In some regions, such as Australasia and Italy, however, the guide is not as well known as it probably should be. “The ESG is not widely used in Australasia due to the fact that it is not widely promoted and the majority of authorities and practitioners in the industry will be using the likes of the Purple Guide as well as the Green Guide,” Secure Events and Assets’ founder Jim Fidler explains. Corbishley adds, “It’s hugely useful, but seriously lacking in many countries.” Corbishley recently took on the chairmanship of the Event Safety Alliance’s Australian

“The industry deeply suffered at the hands of the media based on certain incidents that have occurred.” Jim Fidler, SEAA

affiliate (see page 8), and he points out, “Touring productions are continually frustrated by different regulations in every area they arrive to do effectively the same job. Our objective at the ESA is to achieve truly global standards for safety in the live music industry.”

A LONG AND WINDING ROAD

ccording to the feedback IQ received from professionals around the world, in the last year the three main challenges posed by the security sector were: a lack of licensed staff; the high cost of providing services compared to lower budgets; and the public’s poor perception of security providers. “The industry deeply suffered at the hands of the media based on certain incidents that have occurred,” Fidler comments, without going into specifics. Licensing is a hot topic around the globe, although for a variety of reasons. “The uncertainties surrounding the proposed introduction of business licensing were definitely the hardest challenge in 2013,” says Showsec’s Harding. “We have worked very closely with the Security Industry Authority on the introduction of business licences and are fully supportive of this model, which can’t come soon enough, as far as we are concerned, in the ongoing drive to raise standards throughout the industry.” Meanwhile, Bill Van Oudheusden from the Event Safety Industry in the Netherlands notes, “Licensing authorities and safety advisory groups have set higher standards, creating a huge gap between documents and reality.” Considering the fast pace at which the industry is evolving, finding qualified staff is becoming the number one issue for security providers, meaning that training is another key factor internationally. “In our region, the industry is very reliant on current economic areas of growth,” says Fidler. “One example of this is in Western Australia where the boom in the mining industry has seen a transfer of staff from the events industry into the likes of guarding, due to the money being offered.” According to Corbishley, the industry is partly responsible for the challenges it is now facing. “As an industry we’ve always been our own worst enemy because we continue to attract the type of people who think it’s only about protecting the artists, with little thought for the audience,” he says. “But thankfully, with the introduction of degree qualifications for crowd management, we are starting to see some good ones coming through.”

IQ Magazine September 2014

Security Showsec stewards ensure festival crowds are kept safe

CH-CH-CHANGES

n the last three years, the global financial crisis has raised many new issues that have inevitably led to important changes in the crowd management and security sector. The complexity of training qualified staff and the efforts of professionals to improve standards have led to a deeper acknowledgment of the business by show organisers worldwide, as well as the authorities that license those events. As a result, the security and safety profession has become a lot more than just providing stewards in the eyes of the public, as highlighted by Red Badge’s Gollings. “I have been in the industry for 14 years,” he says. “In that time, our industry has become significantly more professional. The main changes over the past three years have been due to a greater recognition of the part that security plays in the delivery of a safe experience for our customers.” Those inroads into increasing credibility have resulted in demand ramping up for courses and specialised degrees in the security sector. “In the past, we were looked upon as a bunch of uneducated hooligans and a necessary evil to be tolerated,” Corbishley states. “With the introduction of qualifications such as degrees in Crowd & Safety Management, the industry is gaining some credibility. Those of us with qualifications and experience are now invited into the planning process where we can give credible input and assist promoters to make informed decisions about the safety of their tours.” Improved communication has also become a fundamental tool for practitioners, prompting hefty investment in training and equipment across the industry. “The approach to the public during live events has changed deeply,” observes Around The Show’s Marsili. “The security staff is becoming

more and more communicative and this helps a lot.” Danish ConCom’s Therkildsen concurs, noting that investment in crowd safety management and crowd psychology is an inevitable step towards the industry’s evolution. “In the end, it’s all about what you offer to your clients,” Ville Ketonen from Local Crew in Finland concludes. “We are what we give. As we want to be the most valuable safety tool to our customers, we put all our efforts into it. And surely this pays back.”

“The guidance provided by the Event Safety Alliance publication is extremely useful in the delivery of a commercial service, but so too are legislation, knowledge, skills and systems in attaining the highest standards.” Mark Harding, Showsec

Contributors (left to right): Jon Corbishley (The Safety Officer), Morten Therkildsen (ConCom Safety), Fabio Marsili (Around The Show)

IQ Magazine September 2014

Members’ Noticeboard

Marky Ramone catches up backstage at the Kerrang! Awards with Ian Gillan and Ian Paice when the Deep Purple legends received the Icon Award.

Yourope held a board meeting in August during Sziget Festival. Pictured shortly before enjoying a glass of Palinka are Fruzsina Szep (Sziget), Rikke Oxner (Roskilde), Ivan Milivojev (Exit) and Christof Huber (OpenAir St.Gallen).

Tour, Dolly Parton rubs shoulders Celebrating her sold-out Blue Smoke World Guest (Guesty PR), Danny Nozell with Steve Homer (Live Nation), Steve and Neil Warnock (The Agency rds) Reco Dolly of CEO (Dolly’s manager and pool’s Echo Arena. Liver at Group), on the European leg’s first night

Mel and Joe Vesayaporn were mar ried at Court Farm, Standerwick, Somerset on Saturday 19 July. Much mer riment was had by all, accordin g to Music Glue’s squadron leader, Joe.

Spotted by ILMC’s own Greg Parmley in Budapest, we’re having difficulty believing the claims on this marketing poster for a local mobile-phone distributor. Unless of course, it’s just those visiting Sziget Festival who are so clumsy. If so, there should be tens of thousands of handsets lining the sewers around one particular island in the Danube.

After 34 years at Rock-it Cargo, company director Ian Haynes was given a final day to remember, arriving back at his office to find that sympathetic colleagues had already advertised the space for rent “due to retirement… phone, desk, PC and lights (lights last used in 1980)” The company threw a party in Henley near London to honour Ian, to whom we’d all like to wish a happy retirement!

Not to be outdone in the nuptials stakes, friend of IQ and ILMC, James Drury tied the knot with sweetheart Ashleigh at St Dunstan’s Church in Stepney, before a reception at London’s last remaining lighthouse, Trinity Buoy Wharf (hence the slightly elongated Mr and Mrs Drury through the building’s magnified windows).

If you, or any of your ILMC colleagues, have any notices or updates to include on the noticeboard, please contact the club secretary, Gordon Masson, via gordon@iq-mag.net

IQ Magazine September 2014

Your Shout

“On the back of the ice-bucket phenomena, what challenge would you create and who would you nominate?” TOP SHOUT The scalding-hot bucket of water challenge... Nominees [football pundits] Michael Owen, Adrian Chiles and Andy Townsend. G eoff Meall, The Agency G roup

The challenge: Having to stand in line as a fan at an outdoor or stadium and make it to first row in a show with a standard ticket – preferred concerts: One Direction, Depeche Mode. My three Nominees are: Peter Schulenberg, Matthias Hoffmann and Dr. Jens Michow. G uido Karp, photographer

It’s a bit complicated, requires some organisation and might need some refinement for the cameras. Apologies... All the top live music agents line up on the appropriately named Lowlands main stage, while in the fanzone-cummosh pit, there are, let’s say, 50 or so reasonably agile promoters. Part 1: An agent comes to the front of the stage and makes an offer to the promoters.

The eyelid/paper cut challenge. I’d nominate all those delightful individuals who defraud live music fans by selling them bogus tickets.

I challenge Dr Who to invent musical time travel so I can go back and see Led Zeppelin at Bath Festival in 1970. Ed G rossman, MG R

Touring

G ordon Masson, IQ

The music industry conference challenge. Nominees have to attend every single conference around the world AND try to hold down their normal full-time job. Personally, I’d like to see all my business rivals attempt this challenge…

I’d challenge anyone who complains about people playing music out loud on public transport not to be so judgemental and intolerant. Exceptions can of course be made when it comes to certain German electronic pioneers (apologies to Emma Banks).

Anon

Mags Dö norson, Doorman Songs

The non-stop nightmare challenge. I’d nominate all those people who think that listening to awful, loud music on the bus is a good idea, to listen to the same dreadful song again and again for a whole day. I also challenge Gordon Masson to listen to Kraftwerk’s discography – I know he loves the band so much...

I’d like to see the Russian Roulette & Cleaning Challenge and I’d nominate shit people in any industry to do the world a favour and delete themselves but also have to dispose of their own body. I’m not sure this would extend to people who play loud music on buses. Actually no, fuck it. If my taste in music was that bad, I’d keep it quiet.

G ina Durante, IQ Magazine

Mooncat, ILMC

Part 2: The promoters (via a bullish representative) push the price up, maybe to the point that the agent breaks into a sweat, on the edge of a nervous breakdown (the more pushy the agent, the tougher the deal of course). Part 3: The price agreed, the agent dives from the stage and is caught by the promoters; the money agreed goes to charity. In the event that the two parties cannot agree a price, the only way off the stage is to jump, but no promoters will be there to catch the agent. Nick Hobbs, Charmenk o

If you would like to send feedback, comments or suggestions for future Your Shout topics, please email: info@iq-mag.net

IQ Magazine September 2014