IQ55_preview 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 7 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 gives the business in Germany a health check 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 finds out that air charter can be cost effective 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

Marketing & 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

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.

Growth for The Agency Group 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

Comment

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

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. 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 This is a preview of some content from the latest issue of stretched too thinly across too many shows priced too highly. IQ Magazine. To get instant access to the magazine’s comprehensive “Promoters arenews, making competition for themselves features, research, analysis and comment, you will needby having shows on sameinformation night. The about numbersubscribing of concerts to subscribe. Forthemore to is growing faster IQ than the available audience, and we have to be Magazine, simply click this box. careful with pricing. It was frightening in 2012 because people

Tony Goldring

IQ Magazine September 2014

Tony Goldring

Tony Earns His Spurs

Relocating to a new continent is always a daunting move, but Tony Goldring’s emigration to LA 14 years ago has seen the London-born former promoter transform into one of the world’s most respected agents. Adam Woods talks to him as he marks 25 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 This is the a preview of the somebusiness. content It from the latest of say it is centre of is easy doingissue business IQ Magazine. To get instant access to the magazine’s comprehensive here. I think people want to make deals, and they want to get features, research, news,asanalysis and comment, you will need things done as quickly possible.” to subscribe. For more information about subscribing to In a 25-yearIQcareer to date, Goldring has now spent the Magazine, simply click this box. larger part in Beverly Hills. These days, international at