IQ62

LIVE MUSIC INTELLIGENCE

Tale Issue 62

An ILMC Publication. Nov 2015

25 Years of FKP Scorpio

Iris Gold

@ iff2015

U2 iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour Report • IFF 2015 • Blockchain & Live • Market Focus Ireland • Touring Exhibitions

Cover photo: Iris Gold performs at the X-ray Touring showcase during the International Festival Forum. © Martin Hughes

Contents IQ Magazine Issue 62

News and Developments 6 In Tweets The main headlines over the last two months 8 In Depth Key stories from around the live music world 12 International Festival Forum Photos from the inaugural IFF in London 14 Busy Bodies Industry associations share business concerns and news 15 New Signings A round-up of the latest acts that have been added to the rosters of international agents 20 Techno Files Revealing the hottest new technology in live entertainment

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Features

22 Chain Reaction Eamonn Forde examines what the latest industry buzz word means, and whether it can impact the live business 26 Scorpio’s Tale FKP Scorpio celebrates its 25th anniversary 38 The Exhibitionists An annual look at the health of touring exhibitions 46 When Live Comes to Town U2’s spectacular iNNOCENCE and eXPERIENCE arena tour 56 Ireland Our resident market specialist, Adam Woods, visits the Emerald Isle

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Comments and Columns 16 Troubled Times East Nick Hobbs highlights business realities in Europe’s most eastern territories 17 How I Learned to Stop Worrying Tour manager George Davison recalls his unplanned path into the business 18 Putting Musicians in the Picture Hilde Spille explains how empowerment can help musicians who feel screwed by the music business 19 Be Prepared!

Ville Leppanen underscores the importance of nailing a good performance at showcase festivals 64 Members’ Noticeboard Keeping you posted on what ILMC members are up to 66 Your Shout

What’s the one idea that you’d like to see adopted across the industry to improve things for the fans?

IQ Magazine November 2015

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Issue 62 LIVE MUSIC INTELLIGENCE THE ILMC JOURNAL, Nov 2015

Time to learn from the mistakes of others Gordon Masson laments the senseless loss of life at the Colectiv club in Romania.

In one of my first issues as IQ’s editor, I wrote about the fact that the industry had, mercifully, gone a long time without suffering a tragedy. So it was with a heavy heart that, like many IQ readers, I learned of the horrific inferno that claimed so many young lives in the Romanian capital of Bucharest (see page 11) on 30 October and the many more who have been terribly injured in the fire.

Accidents happen in all walks of life, but people going to see a band and paying with their lives is just wholly unacceptable in this day and age.

Without knowing the full details of the Colectiv club fire, initial reports (backed by photographic evidence) state that pyrotechnics ignited acoustic foam insulation, allowing the fire to quickly spread. That is identical to the pattern of the deadly Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island in 2003, which claimed 100 lives.

Flammable materials and pyrotechnics also played a part in the 2004 República Cromañón fire in Buenos Aires (194 dead); the Wuwang Club fire (43 dead) in Shenzhen, China in 2008; the Lame Horse fire (156 dead) in Russia in 2009; and the Kiss nightclub fire (242 dead) in Brazil in 2013.

People can blame lax fire regulations – and the issue in the Bucharest blaze, repeated by a number of those other horrific events was exacerbated by a lack of emergency exits – but surely in 2015 there can be no more excuses for club owners to use flammable materials

IQ Magazine November 2015

in a place of entertainment. Banning the use of pyro might be a logical step, but there are many other ways for fire to break out in a building, so let’s hope venue proprietors around the world finally learn a lesson from Romania’s pain. And if there’s any way that an additional clause in a band’s rider can help prevent such anguish, then maybe there’s a role for managers and agents to play in this as well.

Onward with this issue of IQ, which otherwise celebrates some of the good news stories in the business: U2’s spectacular arena tour (see page 46) being one of them, while the 25th anniversary of FKP Scorpio (page 26) is certainly another.

Eamonn Forde investigates the blockchain phenomena (page 22) to discover exactly what this technological breakthrough involves, and whether it might have any applications in the live music industry.

Elsewhere, Gina Durante interviews those executives and producers who are developing the touring exhibitions sector (page 38) and learns that consumer demand is driving the business to incorporate more and more sophisticated, interactive elements.

And finally, Adam Woods visits both sides of the border for a market report on the island of Ireland (page 56), where the economies are now emerging from recession and the legendary enthusiasm for live entertainment appears to show no signs of diminishing.

IQ Magazine Unit 31 Tileyard Road London, N7 9AH info@iq-mag.net www.iq-mag.net Tel: +44 (0)20 3743 0300 Twitter: @iq_mag

Publisher

ILMC and Suspicious Marketing

Editor

Gordon Masson

Associate Editor Allan McGowan

Marketing & Advertising Director Terry McNally

Design

Martin Hughes

Sub Editor

Michael Muldoon

Editorial Assistant Ben Delger

Contributors

George Davison, Eugenia Durante, Eamonn Forde, Nick Hobbs, Ville Leppanen, Hilde Spille, Manfred Tari, Adam Woods

Editorial Contact

Gordon Masson, gordon@iq-mag.net Tel: +44 (0)20 3743 0303

Advertising Contact

Terry McNally, terry@iq-mag.net Tel: +44 (0)20 3743 0304

To subscribe to IQ Magazine: michael@ilmc.com An annual subscription to IQ is £75 (print) or £60 (electronic).

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News

In Tweets...

@iq_mag Lionel Richie

SEPTEMBER

CTS Eventim moves into German cinema ticketing after acquiring a major stake in cinema ticket site Kinoheld.

Live Nation NZ and MHC Investments are cleared by the Overseas Investment Office to buy the 12,000-capacity Arena (see page 8).

Restaurant chain Nando’s and London’s Roundhouse venue announce a two-year partnership, focusing on supp -orting young musicians.

DEAG net sales increase 23% for Q1&2 2015, as the company’s strategic focus turns to digital distribution platform MyTicket.

UK’s Ambassador Theatre Group acquires five US venues including New York’s restored Kings Theatre.

Live Nation GSA begins operations in Berlin.

Secondary ticketing site StubHub announces a U-turn on its all-in pricing structure after suffering a major sales hit.

AEG partners with upgrade app Pogoseat to provide fans with seat upgrade opportunities at AEG-owned facilities.

Burning Man clamps down on plugand-play camps following claims they violate festival principles.

Tennessee lawmakers file a bill to ban guns at events in parks and major sports facilities, including live music concerts.

Coachella is declared the most successful music festival in the world, generating $84million (€76m) and half a million attendees in 2015.

Authorities in China cancel Bon Jovi concerts after allegedly discovering the band supports the Dalai Lama.

Astral People joins forces with veteran Australian touring company, Handsome Tours.

Britney Spears extends her Vegas residency through 2017.

A Whitney Houston hologram concert is coming to a major US venue in 2016, according to the managers of her estate.

Bon Jovi adds second Taiwan show and Bangkok concert following abrupt Chinese tour cancellation.

Concert streaming start-up Living Indie relaunches as a B2B service to help brands

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and labels generate value from gigs.

Live Nation partners with National Australia Bank to provide a benefits scheme including VIP packages for the bank’s customers.

Clothing brand Farah and London’s Roundhouse venue launch Farah Presents residencies for young artists.

Lionel Richie announces a Las Vegas residency starting April 2016 at The AXIS, Planet Hollywood.

Budweiser launches Budweiser Live Project, a free music tour that will take British acts across the UK. SFX announces $90m (€82m) financing from new and existing investors, giving the troubled promoter some breathing room.

U2’s Stockholm concert is evacuated and rescheduled after a ‘gun-related security breach’ at the venue.

The Who postpones 50th anniversary tour until 2016 as Roger Daltrey contracts virus.

Ebay-owned secondary ticketing platform StubHub launches in Germany.

DEAG-owned MyTicket opens up its sales to third-party concert organisers for the first time.

Organisers of EDC in Las Vegas encourage fans to buy 2016 tickets now to avoid new 9% live entertainment tax.

The rise of mobile is positioning Facebook for a move into concert ticketing, admits its product manager, Aditya Koolwal.

Madonna is confirmed as the first international music star to play at the new Macau Studio City venue.

One Direction smash The O2 arena’s social media records during the first date of a six-night sold-out residency.

Man accused of murder over fatal SXSW car crash in 2014 pleads not guilty as trial approaches.

TomorrowWorld organiser offers refunds as bad weather makes the site in Georgia, USA, inaccessible to dayticket holders.

SFX shares fall 12.5% as analysts predict TomorrowWorld refunds will damage promoter’s Q3 earnings.

OCTOBER

More than 400 delegates, 8 partner agencies, 4 partner associations and 32 bands make for a sell-out first edition of the International Festival Forum.

Glastonbury Festival 2016 tickets sellout in 30 minutes, narrowly behind last year’s record sale time.

The German music business generated $12billion (€11bn) in 2014, with live music accounting for 27% of that sum.

Budget airline Ryanair includes concert

IQ Magazine November 2015

News

tickets in plans to expand services over next two years.

A K-Pop concert series live-streamed to China for free is watched by more than 1.5m people.

Ibiza/LA-based music summit IMS launches in China alongside Budweiser STORM Dance Festival.

Pandora completes a $450m (€409m) takeover of specialist ticketing agency Ticketfly (see page 10).

Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour grosses $20m (€18m) from first 10 shows with 132k tickets sold.

Budweiser owner Anheuser Busch inks deal to become the leading sponsor of SXSW. 20,000-capacity arena, Paris Bercy, is renamed the AccorHotels Arena in France’s first naming-rights agreement for a venue.

Live Nation strikes a deal with cloudbased point-of-sale app provider Appetize at 38 North American venues.

Struggling SFX sees stocks soar by almost 11% after analyst describes shares as undervalued.

Glastonbury Festival accounts reveal it made a 50 pence profit per ticket last year, while £2m (€2.8m) was donated to charity.

Live Nation signs a strategic multi-year brand partnership deal with Telstra in Australasia.

Digital publisher and festival organiser Pitchfork is acquired by Wired owner Condé Nast.

UTA accuses CAA of slander campaign in latest lawsuit acrimony.

Aussie hip hop and R&B festival SoulFest is cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

Taylor Swift’s 1989 world tour hits the $173m (€157m) mark in grosses from 59 concerts.

Moshtix unveils new hard tickets portal Streetix, combining social marketing and competitive sales tools.

An Edinburgh University report reveals 44% of the city’s musicians have had problems with strict noise restrictions.

Deezer partners with BandPage to help fans get deals for special events directly from artists.

Veteran promoter and ILMC member Paul King passes away following a battle with cancer (see page 10).

Eventbrite acquires RFID company Scintilla Technologies in a bid to streamline entry management operations for large events.

SFX CEO Robert Sillerman submits a new, lower offer to buy-back the company (see page 11).

After 20 years in New Orleans, Essence Festival expands into South Africa.

France’s live music business grows for the second year running, with revenues up 3% and attendance up 8%.

Enrique Iglesias and Alejandro Sanz are named in a Panamanian tax evasion investigation over concert fees.

The Mayor of London’s task force makes six recommendations to save grass-roots venues and encourage new ones.

UK consumer watchdog Which? claims ticket resale websites “are misleading customers” and breaking the Consumer Rights Act.

Universal Music chairman Max Hole steps down from the role with immediate effect due to illness (see page 8).

Online entertainment guide Ents24 launches new GigAlert app offering gig guide and access to tickets and presales.

TomorrowWorld issues refund policy and public apology for festival-goers stranded by storms on the USA event’s third day.

Elton John announces 2016 Million Dollar Piano Las Vegas dates.

Report by Entertainment Assist claims Australian concert professionals are three times more likely to consider suicide.

William Morris Endeavor and IMG form a joint venture with big data analytics experts AGT International.

Record industry veteran Jimmy Iovine argues that a lack of worldwide superstars is the reason records have taken a back seat to touring.

Members of UK ticketing trade body STAR vote in favour of developing code of practice for secondary ticketing websites (see page 14).

Several preliminary bids are reportedly submitted for EDM promoter SFX in addition to the one by CEO Robert Sillerman.

Petition calls for scalper bot ban on ticketing sites, amid claims that 60% of tickets in North America are bought by bots.

WME reportedly pitch Apple on a massive $30m (€27m) sponsorship for Adele return tour.

To subscribe to IQ Magazine: michael@ilmc.com An annual subscription to IQ is £75 (print) or £60 (electronic).

Want to share your views on breaking industry news? Then get involved in the discussion on Twitter: @iq_mag

IQ Magazine November 2015

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News

Six of the Best for MaMA The organisers of MaMA Event in Paris have declared the latest edition of the gathering the best yet, with thousands attending the 14-16 October conference and showcase festival.

This year’s edition was the sixth time the Pigalle and Montmartre districts had hosted MaMA, which can now truly boast international credentials with visitors from 58 nations participating in more than 70 debates, presentations and workshops.

A total of 4,625 professionals attended MaMA 2015, representing 1,820 companies and taking advantage of 24 networking sessions to expand their business contacts. And with 450 accredited journalists also in Paris for the event, its organisers said in a statement, “Once again, MaMA has established itself as a major and essential international event for the music industry and has confirmed its position amongst innovative festivals federating a public that continues to grow.”

Movers and Shakers Lisa Brown has left her post as senior ticketing manager at AXS to take on the role of client services director at The Ticket Factory.

Ticketscript has appointed Charlie Sefi as country director for the UK and Ireland. Sefi was one of the founders of YPlan.

Randy Phillips has stepped down as CEO of Global Entertainment. The former AEG Live chief took on the role in February this year, but Phillips will reportedly now focus on a specific project within the Global group, while Ashley Tabor becomes interim CEO. HSL has appointed Harrison Cooke as technical operations manager, giving him responsibility for the design, sourcing and building of the company’s new expandable visual control platforms.

He was previously a freelance lighting technician.

Live Nation has hired Carrie Davis as its new chief communications officer. She was previously VP of communications at Disney Interactive.

Experienced artist manager Brian Lane has joined Sweden’s biggest booking agency, United Stage Artists, in an international role. London-based Lane has managed acts including Katherine Jenkins, Asia, YES, A-ha, Rick Wakeman, Vangelis and Heather Small.

The Association of German Concert Promoters, VDKD, has named Pascal Funke as its new president. He is the CEO of Funke Media, a business established by his father in the 1950s.

Sydney’s Allphones Arena has appointed veteran exec Steve Hevern as its new general manager. He succeeds Guy Ngata, who has been appointed CEO at Eden Park in his hometown of Auckland, New Zealand. Hevern was GM at the Qantas Credit Union Arena.

Dave Kaplan has joined Paradigm Talent Agency, ending his 13 year career at The Agency Group (now United Talent Agency), where he was senior vice-president. New York-based Kaplan’s roster includes The Black Keys, Father John Misty, Nikki Land and The Kills.

Universal Music Group International chairman and CEO, Max Hole, has left the company.

In January, Hole contracted encephalitis, as a result of which he suffered some memory loss.

The company said that while Hole is recovering, a full resumption of his responsibilities is not possible at this time.

Cara Lewis has departed CAA for an as yet unknown destination, she joined the company in late 2013 after a 23-year stint at William Morris. The New York-based agent’s roster includes Eminem, Chance The Rapper, Travis Scott, Hoodie Allen, Iggy Azalea and Rita Ora.

Live Nation Cleared to Buy Vector Arena Live Nation NZ and MHC Investments have been cleared by the Overseas Investment Office to acquire the 12,000-seat Vector Arena in Auckland, New Zealand.

Financial details were not disclosed, but the partners have bought out Evenz, which is the beneficiary of the QPAM trust that owns and operates the venue. Under the terms of a development agreement with Auckland Councilcontrolled Regional Facilities Auckland, the arena must be returned to

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the council after 40 years.

Live Nation NZ is 70% owned by New York Stock Exchange-listed Live Nation Entertainment, while the remaining 30% is owned by MHC, an investment vehicle of concert promoter Michael Coppel. The purchasers argued that by owning Vector Arena they could bring previously marginal or uneconomic shows to New Zealand to help create jobs.

Under the terms of the deal, Vector Arena will continue to be run by promoter Stuart Clumpas,

who owned Evenz before the Overseas Investment Office green light. Clumpas has reportedly reduced his stake to 30.17% (of an enlarged

business), while Live Nation NZ has taken 50.83% and MHC Investments has taken 19.01% (on top of its 30% interest in Live Nation NZ).

IQ Magazine November 2015

News

Live Nation Reports Positive Financials

Live Nation Entertainment has reported a record third quarter, with revenues up by 10% and claims that its concerts are delivering record attendance. The financials provide an optimistic hint that the global live music business is enjoying a healthy year and that the international economic crises could finally be at an end.

Releasing details for the three months that ended 30

September, 2015, the conglomerate says the encouraging results keep the company “on track to deliver its planned growth and record performance in 2015.”

Live Nation revenues increased 10% to $2.8billion (€2.54bn) for the quarter, thanks in no small part, it would seem, to a 10% increase in fans attending the promoter’s concerts, in turn driving strong growth in the company’s advertising and ticketing divisions.

“These results demonstrate that Live Nation has created an unparalleled live platform, bringing over 500 million fans in nearly 40 countries to those unrivalled two-hour events each year,” said the company in its earnings statement. “Con-

certs are continuing to show the power of our flywheel for our high-margin, on-site, advertising and ticketing businesses.”

More than 24 million fans attended Live Nation shows in the third quarter alone, bringing the total to over 48 million visitors to LN events during the first nine months of 2015 – an increase of almost 3 million from the same period in 2014.

Even more impressive for analysts and shareholders is the company’s sponsorship and advertising returns, which for the first nine months of this year, saw revenues climb by 19%. “Coming off very strong growth in online advertising during the first half, in the third quarter we complemented this with

39% growth in our festival sponsorships, at constant currency,” adds the company.

The corporation’s Ticketmaster business recorded an 8% growth in global site visits, driving an 18% increase in combined primary and secondary Gross Transaction Value (GTV) during the third quarter. Interestingly, GTV in its secondary business was up 22% in the third quarter.

“As we look forward, we see tremendous opportunities to continue consolidating concerts and ticketing on a global basis, with further growth in our advertising and ticketing businesses from the concerts flywheel,” comments company president and CEO, Michael Rapino.

Mercedes Benz Arena in Berlin recently hosted the 2015 World Championships for League of Legends (LoL). That’s a video game to you and me. As the photo shows, the event attracted a huge audience – 15,000 according to organisers.

Meanwhile, the quarterfinals of the tournament were held in the SSE Arena Wembley, and the semi-

finals used Brussels Expo, and also live-streamed the action to cinemas around the world. For the record, South Korean team SKT1 were crowned the 2015 world champions, sharing a prize of $1m (€911,000) between them. Statistics from Riot Games, which makes LoL, claim that more than 67 million people play the game every month.

Sick Day Issues Highlighted

by Insurer’s Survey One quarter of workers in the UK entertainment sector perceive their workplace as one that assumes they are not taking their careers seriously if they take time off sick, according to a new study.

The study, commissioned by insurance company, There, researched the sick day habits of 25 different industries.

Only 23% of entertainment workers surveyed stated that they would receive full sick pay if they had to take time off work because of sickness or injury – the lowest out of all the industries interviewed.

That’s in sharp contrast to the actual sick day rates of the industry, with 22% of entertainment workers questioned, reporting that they had been off work for a month or more during their career. Further analysis showed that those who had been off for over a month averaged 3.59 months, which is significantly higher than the UK average of 3.18.

Despite this, the insurance company says that only 16% of those working in the entertainment industry have some form of personal financial protection, covering loss of income against injury and only 13% against illness.

The study revealed that 45% of workers admit to putting on a ‘sick’ voice when they had to call in ill. Whilst 48% felt that they had been too ill to work, but couldn’t take the day off, because they thought their boss would not understand.

Philippa McLaglen, There’s marketing manager, says, “The fact that so many workers in the entertainment industry feel guilty about being ill and feel it necessary to put on a ‘sick’ voice to speak to their boss, when off ill, paints a detailed picture. Being off work as a result of an injury or illness can have a very real financial impact on people, especially if an income isn’t coming in.”

IQ Magazine November 2015

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News

Paul King: (1952-2015) Long-time ILMC member Paul King has died following a battle with cancer. He was 63.

As promoter and artist manager, King worked with acts such as Dire Straits, Julian Cope, Level 42 and Tears For Fears through his Outlaw Artists firm.

He began his music career

promoting gigs while he was a student at Brunel University in London in 1970. He went on to co-promote Live At Knebworth in 1990, a concert that featured the likes of Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton and Elton John and attracted a crowd of 120,000, raising more than £6million for Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy. He was also responsible for the first tours by The Stranglers, Dire Straits and The Police, and also staged a record 14 consecutive nights with Dire Straits at Wembley Arena.

However, King was convicted of fraud and sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison in 2004 after marketing a purported cure for drunk-

Arcadia Live Inks Deal for Wiesen Venue Arcadia Live, a partnership involving FKP Scorpio, has closed a five-year deal with Bogner Veranstaltungs GmbH giving the company exclusive use of their festival site, Ottakringer Arena Wiesen in Austria (see page 26).

Next year, the location will celebrate its 40th anniversary and the Arcadia Live partners are keen to exploit the use of the land to organise a series of annual events. And with that partnership, which includes Scorpio, Chimperator Live, the Vienna-based concert agency Arcadia, and the management of some of Germany’s biggest acts – Four Artists (Die Fantastischen Vier, Seeed, Marteria, and Clueso) and KKT (Die Toten Hosen, Die Ärzte, Beatsteaks, and Fettes Brot) – there is certainly plenty of scope for sell-out concerts at the 8,000-capacity site.

“Wiesen is the most beauti-

ful location for events in Austria. I am very glad that we will become part of its musical history and at the same time add a highlight to the still very young history of Arcadia Live,” says FKP Scorpio CEO Folkert Koopmans.

The Wiesen site features well-equipped camping grounds with shower and toilet facilities, making it ideal for events of several days’ duration. In a statement, the Bogner family who own the land say, “In its 40th year we want to revive Wiesen as a location for extraordinary, outstanding and innovative events. Thus, we are very happy about the cooperation with Arcadia Live.”

As a first highlight for the Ottakringer Arena Wiesen, Arcadia Live has announced a June concert

by German rapper Cro as part of his MTV Unplugged Tour 2016.

enness. That sentence also banned him from being a company director for ten years.

Pragmatic about his downfall, King studied Neuro Linguistic Programming and acquired diplomas in personal and corporate coaching. He used that knowledge, coupled with his own experiences, to help a number of high profile artists and executives deal with highly delicate personal issues caused by alcohol and/or drug abuse.

During the last five years, King built up a concert management business, organising major concerts at stately homes and football stadiums, including Rod Stewart at Inverness Caledonian Football Club and

Westlife at Cawdor Castle.

A press release announcing his death states, “Despite a moment of madness, a time where, by his own admission the rock and roll lifestyle had sent him ‘completely off the rails’ and brought about a most spectacular fall from the heights he had scaled, he came back, and clawed his way right back to the top of the industry.

He beat alcoholism. Then cancer. He fought it for the last four years or so. He beat it once, and it popped up somewhere else, so the fight started over. Four years of surgeries and on/off chemo and radiotherapy that would flatten most of us. But he had stuff to do and he was damn well going to get on with it.”

Pandora Acquires Ticketfly Music-streaming service Pandora has closed a deal worth $450million (€411m) in cash and stock to purchase ticketing business Ticketfly. The acquisition strengthens Pandora against rivals Apple Music and Spotify, while the company says Ticketfly’s service will allow its listeners to more easily find live music events.

“This is a game changer” says Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews. “With Ticketfly, we will thrill music lovers and lift ticket sales for artists as the most effective marketplace for connecting music makers and fans.”

Founded in 2008, Ticketfly works with 1,200 venues and event promoters across North America. The service focuses on live music although it has also made efforts to break into the sports sector.

It’s assumed that Pandora will exploit its own in-house data from a reported 250 million registered users to push ticket deals to its listeners.

Although the price paid for Ticketfly seems high, analysts

believe it provides Pandora with an impressive arsenal in the streaming arms race. Digital experts TechCrunch note that consumers do not like having their streamed music interrupted by adverts, but Pandora has enjoyed success with adverts that promote ticket sales for the artists that are being played by listeners. Indeed, Pandora chief strategy officer Tim Westergren recently said that the tickets it promotes in its ads often sell-out instantly.

That synergy means the acquisition makes sense for both parties – Pandora gains ticketing fee revenues, while Ticketfly’s marketing costs can be slashed by tapping into its new parent company’s advertising power.

With such potential muscle power, other players in the market may seek similar pacts, with observers suggesting that Spotify and Songkick could be next, while speculation about Apple’s ticketing ambitions has been circulating for what seems like years.

Have you got a viewpoint on any of these articles? Then get involved in the discussion on our Twitter account @iq_mag

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IQ Magazine November 2015

News

Romania Club Fire Deaths Set to Rise?

The death toll for a nightclub fire that claimed the lives of 30 people in the Romanian capital of Bucharest could still rise “significantly” according to doctors treating more than 100 people who were injured in the inferno.

At IQ’s press time the country’s Prime Minister resigned and the country’s medical authorities were warning of more deaths because of the severity of burns that many victims had sustained. The tragedy has chilling similarities to The Station nightclub blaze in Rhode Island in 2003, which claimed 100 lives.

The Romanian government decreed three days of national mourning following the fire at the Colectiv nighclub on 30 October, which apparently contained

400 gig-goers at the time. In addition to the deaths, about 140 people remained hospitalised three days after the incident, 90 of whom were said to be in a serious condition. Raed Arafat, an emergency situations official told local media that the death toll could double.

Witnesses said the fire started when a pyrotechnics show for a band called Goodbye to Gravity ignited soundproofing foam, which led to a stampede to the club’s exit – reportedly just a single door.

Footage from inside the venue appears to show sparks igniting sound-proofing foam on a pillar, which quickly allowed flames to travel to the ceiling of the club. The deadly fire at The Station started in similar circumstances.

Arafat said that treating victims from the Colectiv fire is more complicated than treating someone for a localised burn. “Many sustained burns to their trachea and lungs, aggravated by the kind of noxious gasses you find in foam and furniture, which give off toxic substances such as cyanide,” he told press. “Also many people were trampled on.

From this point of view, the prognostic and chances [of survival] are reduced.”

That stark warning was backed by Ioan Lascar, a doctor at the Floreasca Emergency Hospital who warned the death toll could double.

“Treatment for burns is the most complex and costly treatment imaginable,” he said. “We are talking about

long-term hospitalisation: a month, two, sometimes even more.” Lascar added that the hospital had performed 11 tracheotomies over the weekend to help victims of the accident breathe because they had suffered burns to their lungs.

The initial death toll of 27 rose to 30 two days after the fire. Early forensic results on the deceased reportedly point to carbon monoxide poisoning, smoke and toxic gas as the main causes of death among the victims.

The tragedy has prompted a number of memorial marches and demonstrations in Bucharest, with widespread anger that the club had only one exit. Criticism has also been raised against Romania’s fire regulations.

A Rough Ride For SFX Shareholders SFX Entertainment’s equity story reads like a corporate drama, with the list of current failed corporate investment opportunities (Sanctuary, Mama Group and Festivals PLC) looking like they may soon be enriched by the experience of SFX at the NASDAQ stock exchange.

In mid-October, the company received a written notification from the stock exchange warning that SFX faced being delisted because the share price had dropped below $1 for 30 consecutive days. Under Rule 5810, NASDAQ states that company shares “as a result of the Company’s failure to comply with the continued listing requirements” can be suspended from trading at the stock exchange. According to SFX, NASDAQ pro-

vided them with a deadline of 12 April 2016, in order “to regain compliance with the minimum closing-bid price requirement.”

SFX shares have been officially trading as a “penny stock” for a number of weeks.

Within the last year, stocks traded as low as $0.40, while the highest share price on 3 November, 2014 was a giddy $5.39. But this is but one chapter within the entire SFX Entertainment saga, which launched with an initial share price of $13 on its NASDAQ debut in October 2013.

After annual reports continuously reported significant losses such as $117million (€106m) in 2013 and $131m (€119m) in 2014, despite increased revenues of $170m (€154m) in 2013 and $354m (€321m) in 2014, the share price melted,

IQ Magazine November 2015

like an iceberg, in the Sahara.

For the record, the half-year report for 2015, published on 10 August, reported revenue of $173m (€157m) versus a net loss of $89m (€81m).

On 26 May this year, company founder and CEO Robert F.X. Sillerman declared his desire to convert SFX into a privately held company, buying outstanding shares back for $5.25. Two months later, the company revealed that Sillerman’s offer was “no longer effective.” However, in mid-October, Sillerman renewed his offer, this time adjusting the offer price to $3.25 per share. The proposed non-binding deal includes an upfront payment of $1.75 and an interesting “100% of the amount Mr Sillerman receives, up to $50m [€45m] in the aggregate applied pro

rata to all shareholders, for the credit and other support he has provided to the company.” Currently, Sillerman owns about 39% of SFX Entertainment, making him, arguably, the biggest potential loser as a shareholder.

Complicating company dealings, in August the ratings agency Moody’s downgraded outstanding credits by the company of about $325m (€295m). There are also currently eight law firms advertising that they are investigating “potential violations of federal securities laws and breaches of the Board’s fiduciary duties,” while at least one class action lawsuit has been filed against the company. At IQ’s press time, the share price of SFX Entertainment was $0.93, giving the company a market capitalisation of $90m (€82m).

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The first edition of the International Festival Forum (IFF) drew over 400 festival bookers and booking agents to London last month, for two days of agency showcases and Q&As, panels and workshops.. For the full report, including panel summaries and all photos, please see the website: iff.rocks.

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IQ Magazine November 2015

IQ Magazine November 2015

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Comment

BUSY BODIES News fr om live music associations ar ound the world

Poll Reveals Venues Revenue Plight Pan European venues network, Live DMA, has released the results of a questionnaire highlighting the precarious state of the continent’s grass-roots circuit.

The survey saw 301 clubs across six countries divulge data pertinent to small venues throughout Europe, with some worrying results.

Live DMA’s remit is to defend the importance of live music venues as a major contributor to the dynamic of artistic renewal on local, regional, national and international scales. As such, data was collected in 2013

by affiliate organisations in Belgium (Club Circuit and Club Plasma), Denmark (Dansk Live), France (FEDELIMA), the Netherlands (VNPF), Norway (Norske Konsertarrangører) and Spain (ACCES), to monitor venue activities and visits, employment and finances.

Analysis of the data reveals that venues put on around 200 shows each in 2013, with total audience figures averaging out at 22,998 per club. Live DMA reports that 75% of those visitors paid for tickets, while the remaining quarter were split

between 15% at free events and 10% free entry to paid events (press, guest list, etc).

The survey also provides information about the percentage of revenues as subsidies, with members of France’s FEDELIMA coming out top with 60% of subsidies, compared to Netherlands (28%), Denmark (24%), Norway (12%), and Spain just 3%. Intriguingly, Belgian venues get different subsidy support depending on whether they are members of Wallonia’s Club Plasma (45%) or Flanders’ Club Circuit (42%).

And highlighting the precarious nature of venue management, Live DMA revealed that most venues spent more money on programme costs than they earned from ticket sales. On average the cost of putting on live music was 134% of ticketing revenue meaning that bar income and subsidies are essential for the survival of Europe’s grass-roots circuit, with the smallest venues (up to 400-capacity) in particular, reliant on those revenue streams, as ticket sales only accounted for 41% of programme costs.

Danish Festivals Get STAR To Create Resale Rules S of code of practice for primary High Marks from Fans TTicket UK’ Agents and Retail- ticketers and the resale code he

Danish live music association Dansk Live has published encouraging results following an audience survey taken by festival-goers.

According to the data, the country’s promoters and event organisers get a thumbs up with a whopping 94.8% of the audience stating that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their overall festival experiences.

In addition to the music on offer, 82.8% of the fans who participated in the poll said that they attend shows to socialise with family and friends, while more than a quarter (25.6%) say they have met new friends at concerts.

Interestingly, more than half (56%) of the fans surveyed said that it means something to them if some

of the festival profits go to charity, while slightly more (58.7%) disclosed that it also has a significant impact if their festival is staffed mainly by volunteers.

Underlining the benefits that festivals can deliver to local communities, the survey also revealed that events don’t just have an economic impact, as 54% of festival-goers state that they have returned home with a more positive view of the city or area in which the event took place.

Finally, there was optimistic news for the festival community in general, with one in four (25.4%) of the survey’s participants being first-time visitors, and 50% responding that they planned to attend other festivals in the same year.

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ociety

ers (STAR) is developing a code of practice for online ticket resale marketplaces.

Making the distinction between reputable secondary platforms and fraudsters who target fans, STAR chief exec Jonathan Brown says, “The UK ticketing industry has rapidly changed in recent years and today’s consumers expect greater levels of choice and protection.

They need to know how and where they can buy tickets safely, whether they choose to buy them from the primary or secondary sectors.

To increase clarity for ticket buyers, STAR will therefore develop standards of best practice to which we hope resale businesses that take consumer protection seriously will subscribe.”

STAR already operates a

will demand similar high standards of service as well as requirements regarding consumer rights, particularly around the security of customer payments and guaranteed refunds if tickets are not supplied.

It is expected that the code will be presented to STAR members for consideration in early 2016. If approved, resale operators that can meet the demands of the code would then be able to apply for STAR membership.

Brown adds, “This is not about whether tickets should or shouldn’t be offered for resale or for how much they are sold. It is about pragmatically working to fill a gap in consumer protection by ensuring that customers are able to feel confident whenever they buy tickets.”

Does your association have any news or issues to share? Email gordon@iq-mag.net to be considered for the next edition of IQ...

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IQ Magazine November 2015

The latest trades and handshakes from the agency world

JOSÉ JAMES (US)

Agents: Clementine Bunel and Cecile Communal, ATC Live

Singer-songwriter José James has always been on the quest for new musical horizons; constantly blurring the lines between genres in the process.

Now, on the heels of his critically acclaimed Blue Note Records debut No Beginning No End, the Minneapolis native returns with fifth album While You Were Sleeping.

After joining Blue Note in 2013 José made TV appearances on Conan, Late Show With David Letterman, and Tonight Show With Jay Leno. While You Were Sleeping is another milestone along his creative path.

Adesse Versions (UK) Ben Coghill, Elastic Artists Ash Koosha (IR) Nick Holroyd, Primary Talent A-Minor (UK) Craig D’Souza, Primary Talent Anna B Savage (UK) Clemence Renaut, Elastic Artists Big Miz (UK) Rebecca Lander, Elastic Artists Agency Matt Bates, Primary Talent Bird Dog (US) Alice Gilfillan, Elastic Artists Black Milk (US) Blaenavon (UK) Matt Bates, Primary Talent Canedo (CR) Rebecca Lander, Elastic Artists Agency CFCF (CA) Ollie Seaman, Elastic Artists Charlie Hilton (US) Clemence Renaut, Elastic Artists Chartreuse (UK) Matthew Cooper, 13 Artists Chastity (CA) Matthew Cooper, 13 Artists Cheap Meat (UK) Mike Dewdney, ITB Claude VonStroke (US) Laetitia Descouens, Primary Talent Coco (UK) Craig D’Souza, Primary Talent Cosmicide (US) Angus Baskerville, 13 Artists Creepoid (US) Olivia Sime, ITB Declan McKenna (CO/UK) Matthew Cooper, 13 Artists Will Church, ATC Live Delorean (ES) DJ Bone (US) Alasdair Howie, Elastic Artists Drones Club (UK) Matt Bates, Primary Talent Escort (US) Alberto Mombelli, Elastic Artists Agency Evvol (DE) Jodie Fischer, Elastic Artists Fink (UK) Alex Bruford, ATC Live Finn (UK) Jodie Fischer, Elastic Artists Flawes (UK) Sally Dunstone, X-ray Touring Francis Lung (UK) Ed Thompson, UTA Frankie & the Heartstrings (UK) Sally Dunstone, X-ray Touring Frankie Cosmos (US) Clemence Renaut, Elastic Artists Glass (UK) Jack Cox, X-ray Touring Grace Lightman (UK) Clementine Bunel & Cecile Communal, ATC Live Grumble Bee (UK) Mike Dewdney, ITB Homeshake (CA) Ollie Seaman, Elastic Artists JAKL (UK) Jack Cox, X-ray Touring J Hus (UK) Craig D’Souza, Primary Talent Jodie Abacus (UK) Angus Baskerville, 13 Artists John Barera and Will Martin (US) Alasdair Howie, Elastic Artists Jordan Klassen (CA) Dave Jennings, Art & Industry JTC (US) Ben Coghill, Elastic Artists Clementine Bunel & Cecile Communal, ATC Live Junun (IN/UK) Kate Jackson & the Wrong Moves (UK) Phyllis Belezos, ITB KSI (UK) Craig D’Souza, Primary Talent James Simmons, ITB Kudu Blue (UK) Lewis Del Mar (US) Matt Bates, Primary Talent London O’Connor (US) Nick Holroyd, Primary Talent

THE AMERICANOS (US) We Are Your Friends, but it Agents: Mel Young & Steve Strange, X-ray Touring

Legendary DJ Felli Fel, has used his creative genius to form The Americanos, a new group that includes Lex Larson and Louie Rubio from Doc Hollywood who had a no.1 hit with We Run LA. Their first production, Blackout, is an energetic party jam featuring rap superstars Lil Jon, Juicy J, and Tyga. The party anthem has already garnered much success. Not only is it featured in the summer film,

is also being regularly used by broadcaster ESPN in the United States for its coverage of college Amercian football every weekend. Landing at #17 on the Spotify US Viral chart and at #20 on Shazam’s worldwide trending chart, Blackout is quickly becoming the last hit of the summer.

Lurka (UK) Rebecca Lander, Elastic Artists Agency Mabel (UK) Lucy Dickins, ITB Maduk (NL) Francesco Caccamo, Primary Talent Martha Ffion (UK) Steve Backman, Primary Talent Matt Epp (CA) Hilde Spille, Paperclip Agency Michael Christmas (US) Jodie Fischer, Elastic Artists MNDSGN (US) Jodie Fischer, Elastic Artists Monarks (UK) Mel Young & Steve Strange, X-ray Touring Mr Bongo Soundsystem (UK) Rebecca Lander, Elastic Artists Agency New Pharaohs (LB/UK) Paul Bolton, X-ray Touring Nick Anthony Simoncino (IT) Ben Start, Elastic Artists Ben Start, Elastic Artists NO ZU (AU) Open Mike Eagle (US) Alice Gilfillan, Elastic Artists Palehound (US) Clemence Renaut, Elastic Artists Paxton Fettel (DK) Alasdair Howie, Elastic Artists Public Service Broadcasting (UK) Steve Zapp, ITB Rocky NTI (UK) Ed Thompson, UTA Shades (BE/UK/US) Nick Reddick, Primary Talent Shakey Graves (US) Colin Keenan, ATC Live Skinny Living (UK) Jack Cox, X-ray Touring Slutface (Norway) Jamie Wade, X-ray Touring Soom T (UK) Clementine Bunel & Cecile Communal, ATC Live Splurgeboys (UK) Francesco Caccamo, Primary Talent Star.One (UK) Francesco Caccamo, Primary Talent Swmrs (US) Anna Bewers & Mark Bennett, UTA Tall Ships (UK) Matthew Cooper, 13 Artists Tangerines (UK) Sally Dunstone, X-ray Touring Teki Latex (FR) Max Lee, Earth Agency The Answer (UK) Phyllis Belezos, ITB The Boxer Rebellion (UK) Colin Keenan, ATC Live The Golden Gilter (US/AU) Ollie Seaman, Elastic Artists Ed Sellers, Primary Talent The Mahones (IE) Throwing Shade (UK) Rebecca Lander, Elastic Artists Agency Ben Start, Elastic Artists Timothy Blake (IE) Tonstartssbandht (US) Clemence Renaut, Elastic Artists Total Freedom (US) Jodie Fischer, Elastic Artists TRAAMS (UK) Steve Zapp, ITB Tzusing (CN) Rebecca Lander, Elastic Artists Agency Wen (UK) Max Lee, Earth Agency White Room (UK) Mel Young & Steve Strange, X-ray Touring Wild Palms (UK) Andy Duggan, Primary Talent WSTRN (UK) Craig D’Souza, Primary Talent Yonaka (UK) Matthew Cooper, 13 Artists

Has your agency signed the year’s hottest new act? Email gordon@iq-mag.net to be considered for the next issue…

IQ Magazine November 2015

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Comment

Troubled Times East Nick Hobbs, MD of promoters and bookers Charmenko, delivers an expert report on the disastrous realities of the continuing unsettled situation in many of the Eastern territories and the continuing consequences for live touring.

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ears ago, unplanned, I found myself specialising in Eastern Europe. That led to marrying a Russian popsinger and much else besides. Until 2010 it was a bumpy, but mostly upward, journey for the region (and me), fostered by a common culture – we all like pretty much the same music.

The former Iron Curtain countries had some peculiar holes in their knowledge of rock and pop pre 1989 – eg: Led Zeppelin or The Who; some acts percolated through the Curtain and some didn’t – but broadly everyone was on the same cultural page. Then the European economy soured and stagnated and the political scene shifted with nationalists (who’d seemed a dying breed) on the rise and no easy solutions on the horizon.

“Maybe it’s a good time for making careful investments in building new events. Maybe. But for me, and most of my peers, it’s a time for caution and low-risk projects – all far from easy to come by.”

Most of the Eastern countries (and here I add Greece, Turkey, and, on the periphery, The Middle East) muddled along, but in some places nasty crises exploded with little warning – Greece’s near meltdown, Russia’s undeclared war in Ukraine, Turkey’s descent into authoritarianism, and obviously the Arab Spring turned Winter, and its shameful humanitarian consequences. Less dramatically, there’s also been Hungary and Macedonia’s shifts to authoritarian models.

It seems petty to moan about the business consequences when millions of refugees are looking to rebuild – and save – their lives, and innocent people are being killed by the cynicism of ‘leaders’. But business consequences there are.

From the south, countries like Egypt and Jordan, never even secondary markets – squeezed between Syria and Israel and with a higher burden of refugees pro capita than even Turkey, there’s Lebanon which international artists still play but less so than a few years ago. In Israel concert life continues, though affected by the fragile security situation and boycotts.

My adoptive home, Turkey, has a much reduced

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international concert scene compared with a few years back. This year there were hardly any arena shows and no big festivals. And it’s fair to say that no promoter’s making money. Sponsors have cut back because of the messy political situation and fragile economy, the weakening Lira means punters are not as ready to buy tickets as they once were. 2016 doesn’t look like it will be an improvement.

Greece, all things considered, is quite robust, but with promoters unable to wire money out of the country, running an international business is almost impossible. This year probably no promoter made money: next year should be somewhat better, but only somewhat.

Ukraine is a big mess. Life outside the war zone is normal enough except the country’s economy is so bad that most people are struggling to survive, rather than spending on inessentials. One international stadium show is confirmed for summer ‘16 and I know of a couple of other stadium offers – but very little below that.

International acts fees are priced in euros or dollars while the Russian rouble has devalued by half compared to a year ago; and promoters have only been able to make modest increases in ticket prices as punters are feeling the pinch big time. So, 2015 was a bad year for promoters – I don’t think there’s anyone who didn’t lose money. For next year, promoters are aware of the new economic reality but it means fewer, generally lower offers than before. Events are in trouble as municipal and regional sponsorship has dried up while commercial sponsorship is down.

And to conclude this tale of woe, even in the non-crisis countries of the region, as far as I know, all the established festivals (Sziget excepted) sold less than last year. I’m not sure anyone understands why, but saturated markets coupled with little future optimism may be the main reasons. The generational shift of listening to streams rather than buying albums may have something to do with it.

From this independent promoter and booker’s point of view, it’s good that Live Nation have pulled out of the former Yugoslavia and Russia (I think). And maybe it’s a good time for making careful investments in building new events.

Maybe. But for me, and most of my peers, it’s a time for caution and low-risk projects – all far from easy to come by.

I hope agents understand that these circumstances are the context in which promoters in the region have to work, and can be softer on guarantees rather than pushing promoters into repeated losses which may be impossible to recover. Loyalty to historical promoters counts for more when times are hard.

IQ Magazine November 2015

Comment

How I learned to stop worrying Tour manager George Davison talks about his career path and discloses some of his on-the-road experiences.

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have no idea what the traditional route into this job is to be honest, but after speaking to a few colleagues we all have similar stories of how we fell into being tour managers. I had no aspirations for any particular job when I was growing up, which is why when I look back at where I came from and where I am now, I always think: how the hell did this happen again?

Back in the late 90s, some of my friends were in a band called Earthtone9 and I helped them out. ‘Helping out’ evolved into driving the van, setting up the backline, selling merch and other general duties. All for the princely sum of a bag of crisps and a Ginsters Cornish pasty, no money involved! I did it because I liked doing it and I had absolutely no idea that this could actually be a proper full-time job. I did it for fun and to hang out with my mates. When they could afford to pay me, I think it was £25 a day – and that felt like quite a sum, considering that I started on nothing.

“I basically spent from 20002003 being very stressed and worrying about every little thing.

I worried that at some point someone would call me out for the guy who was just winging it day by day, which is how it sometimes felt. It’s hard to put it into words when you ride a wave like that, with no real experience of how to deal with it.”

I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing and generally made it up as I went along, based on what I thought was the right thing to do. Along the way I met my first real TM and that’s when I realized that I had a lot to learn. Thankfully, that guy was very generous with his time and advice, and it certainly set me on a better path.

There came a moment when I was offered a job working

IQ Magazine November 2015

for another band called Lostprophets who where just about to take off. We didn’t really know that at the time, but it happened for them. So within a year we had gone from playing 500-capacity rooms to selling out Brixton Academy.

This was to be a turning point in my life for so many reasons, back then and in recent times as well. The band signed to a big record label with a huge management company and I personally thought that that was it for me and that they would bring someone else in with more experience to take over.

To this day, I need to thank the people at that management company for being so very patient with me. Especially HM Wollman and Tony DiCioccio from Q Prime. Mistakes on my part (there where quite a few) were met with not a raised voice, but with a stern reproach. It felt like being told off by my old headmaster, but was always followed up with good advice and the unspoken knowledge that I wouldn’t make that same mistake again – damn right I didn’t.

I didn’t want to let band, management or myself down, so I basically spent from 2000-2003 being very stressed and worrying about every little thing. I worried that at some point someone would call me out for the guy who was just winging it day by day, which is how it sometimes felt. It’s hard to put it into words when you ride a wave like that, with no real experience of how to deal with it.

Once the cycle was finished I took some time for myself.

For some reason I decided to go travelling around the world because clearly spending the last few years zipping across the world wasn’t enough. Talk about stretching my soul too thin.

I should have just stayed at home and enjoyed being still for a while – something that I appreciate more than ever these days once a tour has finished.

After a few months of relentless travelling, I had a moment of clarity in Sydney. I stayed still for two weeks and tried to put it all into perspective. That was a major turning point for me and when I came back home I knew that this was going to be my life. Since then, I have gone on to work for quite well known rock/metal bands: Funeral for a Friend, Bullet for my Valentine, Mastodon and Of Mice & Men, and I’m currently the tour manager for the Swedish band Ghost, who I’ve been with since 2013.

My route into the business is such a unique experience, I think, as it doesn’t happen like that for a lot of people. It’s also something that I will carry with me and that has helped shape the TM that I am today. It wasn’t planned by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m so glad it happened the way it did.

Fifteen years later and I still love my job and certainly do not worry about things as much as I used to.

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Comment

Putting Musicians in the Picture Hilde Spille of Paperclip Agency in Holland explains how empowerment can help musicians who feel screwed by the music business.

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gain and again you hear from musicians that they feel they have been screwed by the music business – much like Sinead O’Connor published on Facebook in August. If you listen to all the complaints you might think that everyone working in the music business is a crook. That’s of course far from the truth. Whilst all those people who make up the business team of a musician (manager, agent, A&R manager) have their own financial interests in the success of the musicia, who is defending the interests of the musician?

The only independent adviser for a musician is his or her lawyer. In some countries you have musicians’ unions that offer similar services but in general, the music business doesn’t meet the needs of musicians needing non-legal, independent advice. Three years ago I started a blog Compass for Creatives to fill this gap. This blog provides free empowerment advice to musicians in order to help them strengthen their position.

The blog has received more than 150,000 views so far.

When musicians feel screwed by the business, it’s either because they really have been, or ibecause they wrongly believe they have been. The latter is often caused by a lack of understanding of how the music business works. In both cases, empowerment offers a solution.

“The music business has a long tradition of preventing musicians from understanding how the industry works.”

Even if most of us aren’t crooks, there are ‘sharks’ operating in the music business. We have all heard the stories about promoters selling a band to a venue and keeping 50% of the fee for him or herself, or when the band doesn’t get paid because they accepted drugs from the promoter that were allegedly worth the amount of the fee.

Empowerment can help musicians in two ways. Firstly, empowering musicians makes them more aware of what power they have and that helps them develop the strength of personality needed to deal with people. Secondly, they become more alert of everything that’s going on around them. Therefore, they will hopefully realise that they are getting screwed by a business partner quite early, maybe even in time to prevent it. Empowered musicians are also better equipped to defend their own interests when they were unable to prevent getting screwed in the first place.

When musicians wrongly feel they’ve been screwed, it’s

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often because they don’t understand how the music business works. And the music business has a long tradition of preventing musicians from understanding how the industry works. Two years ago, I participated in a panel at Go-North in Inverness, Scotland, that explained how the international music business works. One of my co-panelists, that worked at a major record company, mentioned openly that she prefers young musicians, aged 20 or less, because they don’t yet have their own opinion and don’t know how the business works.

There are also musicians who don’t want to be informed.

Sinead O’Connor admits in the Facebook discussion mentioned above, that she wants to make music and leave the business side to others. But empowered musicians are able to lead their business team. Musicians need to know that the fee is dependent on the ticket sales. They don’t have to know all the details, but they do need to know the basics in order to set out the direction the whole team is heading. It’s not only about their career, it’s about their life too!

As a European agent I prefer to work with informed musicians. In September 2001, I celebrated my 20th anniversary at Paperclip Agency. I work as the European agent and Dutch promoter for bands from all over the world.

Acts on my roster include(d) John Watts (from Fischer-Z), I Muvrini, Balkan Beat Box, Chloe Charles, and many others.

In Compass for Creatives, I combine my experience in the live music business with my master’s degree in cultural psychology and my interest in personal management. As part of my blog, I offer online workshops as well as individual coaching. I’m regularly invited to guest lecturer at universities and colleges on the topic of music management.

Everything at Compass for Creatives is about the empowerment of artists. Inspired by research from the McKinsey Institute into the ‘secret’ of the successful women who made it to the Fortunes500, I developed five empowerment tools for musicians. These five tools have proven very useful in coaching both male and female musicians. Right now, the second edition of the ‘Online Workshop 5 Empowerment Tools For Musicians - Learn in 6 weeks how to move from insecurity to an upward spiral towards success’ is running. The first edition attracted plenty of enthusiastic feedback, including: “This workshop engages the ‘higher’ forms of business. It’s more a personal development rather than a ‘how to’ workshop yet it connects directly to business. Would I recommend it?

Definitely!” The third workshop starts 16 November.

More information about the workshop: www.compassforcreatives.com/empowerment

IQ Magazine November 2015

Comment

Be Prepared!

Ville Leppanen, co-founder of artist management and recording company The Animal Farm, encourages artists to be at the very top of their game when they perform in front of the international business during major showcase festivals.

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eeperbahn Festival is a poignant annual reminder of just how narrow the window of opportunity for a band to find success is. My advice to bands is to try to experience a showcase event like Reeperbahn from the vantage point of the people who might want to do business with their music. They should walk into a roomful of music people all of whom have many fine artists to be passionate about. So much passion, so little time; so many pitches, not many home-runs.

The point I repeatedly make to artists is that the only worthwhile cause is to improve the quality of the art. Exposure and opportunities can be capitalised on, only once the actual art kicks ass.

Killer songs and recordings that sound like they might plausibly be successful are the starting point, an entry requirement, without which nobody’s going anywhere.

Friends and family support a band (and come to gigs) for

reasons unrelated to music, but for the rest of humanity the first point of contact with an artist will almost always be online, listening to a recording someone has recommended.

When was the last time anyone went to a club on the offchance that there might be a good band playing? In the 90s?

The recommendation can come from a mate, a work colleague, a blogger, an artist manager, etc. The reaction to the recording can be either positive, negative, or vigorously indifferent. But punters and tastemakers alike will beat a path to your door once your product is good enough to reel them in. You’ll know it’s good enough when you hear the sound of their footsteps beating that path to your door. The inescapable logic of this becomes obvious once you see the footfall at a showcase conference like Reeperbahn.

Give yourself a chance. Invest in your art. It involves not only money, but - much more importantly – time, focus and dedication. A bit of TLC.

Gig Gadgetry from the Frontline...

FanTeamz High Power LED Munich-based Osram Opto Semiconductors has introduced a new range of LED chips, primarily for use in stage spotlights, that can generate double the brightness of existing products.

Technically speaking, the Osram Ostar Stage high-power chips use the latest thinfilm and UX:3 technology and the 1mm² chips can be operated, for the first time, at up to 2.5 ampere (A) providing an output of 30 watts (W), which is twice as high as the existing version.

The new chips cover outputs between 15 and 60 watts: “The higher current, which is necessary for a higher output, requires the thermal management of the Osram Ostar Stage to be adapted so that the heat generated in the chip can be removed as effectively as possible,” says the company’s Wolfgang Schnabel.

Apart from stage lighting, the new LEDs are ideal for use in mood and architectural lighting. The high-power LEDs will be available from Q1, 2016 in high volumes. And for those of you who aren’t technically minded, here’s a nice photo of them in use.

Launched in April 2014, FanTeamz is a web platform that specialises in fan-to-fan (or “word-of-mouth”) marketing. The concept allows the live entertainment sector to harness the dedication of fans to spread messages to friends and peers both online as well as out in the real world.

Businesses can set up a team on the Fanteamz.co website and invite followers to join and become fans. They are then encouraged to set a number of tasks for fans to carry out online, promoting their event, brand or products. This activity can be monitored and rewards given to the hardest-working fans.

Whether users are looking to increase

sales online, create brand awareness, increase their fanbase on social networks, or simply connect better with fans, FanTeamz claims to have tasks that are adapted to those needs.

However, it’s worth noting that FanTeamz does not offer ready set teams of fans: the concept is for users to recruit existing followers and use them to build their fanbase organically.

Among those who have benefitted from using FanTeamz are Sonisphere Festival, AEG Live, Bloodstock Open Air, Dreambeach Festival, V Festival, Raw Power Management, Cruïlla Barcelona, Hospitality Records, Fabric Nightclub and RAM Records.

Exponential-e The very 21st century problem of providing fans with Wi-Fi connectivity has become something of a headache for venue operators and event organisers. And while there’s no end in sight to the connectivity issues for large-scale audiences, the technical engineers at Exponential-e have at least developed a high density solution that can allow multiple users to get fast broadband access.

The company is using wireless technology in conjunction with its own Internet solution to create a 10Gb capacity for guests staying at London’s Montcalm Hotel – a building it is now using to showcase its Wi-Fi capabilities. “The best analogy I have is that when you switch on a lightbulb, the light spreads out and fills the room.

But if you put that same bulb in a torch, you can beam the light with much more intensity – and that’s the way our clever antennas work for Wi-Fi use,” explains Barry Daniels, Exponentiale’s strategic alliances manager. “That

beam can search out who needs to talk to it and that allows us to deliver a targeted and denser solution to give throughput to that person as required.”

With a company history that includes delivering broadcasts for the London 2012 Olympics to America, Exponential-e is already looking at work in the live events sector, with the Montcalm being marketed to host live events and conferences offering all guests super fast Wi-Fi connectivity.

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…

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IQ Magazine November 2015

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IQ Magazine November 2015

CHAIN REACTION

The advent of a technology known as blockchain is causing waves in certain parts of the music business, such as publishing. But what is it all about and can it impact the live industry? Eamonn Forde hears arguments on the pros and cons.

The publication in July this year of Fair Music: Transparency & Payment Flows In The Music Industry, a report by Berklee Institute For Creative Entrepreneurship’s Rethink Music group, jabbed an accusatory finger at labels and digital services, demanding they make digital music payments far clearer than they have been in the past.

Musician David Byrne called it “much needed” and “a thing of beauty”, with many other artists and managers applauding its calls for greater transparency in an industry that has long run on obfuscation. One of the proposals within the report that was really picked up was an implementation of blockchain technology to bring laser precision to what has often been foggy reporting around digital income and, in the streaming age, an explosion in micropayments of a fraction of a penny per stream.

It called for “the investigation of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies [such as Bitcoin] to manage and track online payments through the value chain directly from fans to music creators.” Digitally savvy artists like Byrne, Imogen Heap and Zoë Keating pounced on it, hailing it as the solution they have been requesting for years. To date, the debate and hypothetical pondering has focused almost exclusively on recorded music and micropayments made to artists, record companies and music publishers. How, though, could it be applied to the live music industry? Is this a workable solution to imminent reporting issues for live, as digital becomes a bigger part of its business?

Blockchain (see sidebar on page 24 for a brief definition) itself is more at the theoretical stage than the practical application stage and, as such, there is huge debate around not only what it is, but also what it could be.

IQ has spoken to people right at the heart of the debate – some enormously enthused by blockchain’s potential and others somewhat more cynical – to ask them where it could work in the live business. While micropayments do not impact on concerts and touring as they do in recorded music, there are other areas, especially around consumer security and ticketing, where it could apply and help solve a number of growing problems for the live industry.

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Blockchain

WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN? Blockchain is a technological solution most commonly linked with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Blockchain has been described as the “backbone” of the currency and generates an evolving chain of cryptographic data that is, it is claimed, impossible to replicate.

It works as a public ledger of any and all Bitcoin transactions that have ever happened and the chain, collectively, grows as more ‘blocks’ of transactions are added to it (hence the name).

Each block is added in chronological order so that all transactions are recorded in the sequence in which they happened.

When a ‘block’ is completed, a whole new block is generated, so it effectively works like a time-specific filing cabinet that can only be accessed by certain (approved) parties.

Investopedia provides a succinct summary of how it all works: Each node (computer connected to the Bitcoin network using a client that performs the task of validating and relaying transactions) gets a copy of the blockchain, which gets downloaded automatically upon joining the Bitcoin network. The blockchain has complete information about the addresses and their balances right from the genesis block to the most recently completed block.

The transactions themselves are embedded into the blockchain and any transactions within that chain must be approved through a private ‘key’ or ‘seed’. It is estimated that a new block is appended to the blockchain every 10 minutes. This is the bit that its advocates are most excited about – in that it offers privacy and security on an unprecedented level. It is no coincidence that chatter about blockchain has grown in the wake of major data breaches at powerful companies and organisations (notably government agencies and financial institutions).

Blockchain’s critics argue that its drawbacks are, because it is creating a new block every 10 minutes, that it will incrementally require more and more storage space and this could compromise just how quickly and completely it synchronises data around each activity within it. The real selling points of this system, however, are that it is both transparent and considerably more secure against hacks than other online data and financial systems. The fact that its ledgers are spread across (potentially) thousands of computers means that a hack is deemed to be “near impossible.”

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CONSUMER SAFEGUARDS AND FRAUD PREVENTION IN TICKETING Ticketing is undoubtedly the part of the live industry that has been most affected by digital and, so it follows, it is the division where blockchain could, in 2015, most immediately apply.

Online ticketing, mobile ticketing, the secondary market: they all run on the diesel of digital and have brought convenience to both the industry and the consumer. They have also created new problems for both sides in the exchange.

Alongside being the founder and president of PledgeMusic, the D2F platform for artists, Benji Rogers is an advocate for blockchain. He feels that it offers the music industry, across the board, a series of solutions for long-standing and growing problems. It is in ticketing, he feels, that blockchain can most swiftly come into its own. “The thing I find fascinating is the idea that you can have a verified transaction and you can verify identities; this is extremely appealing to me,” he says. “In one sense, a Bitcoin transaction is digital cash, so my initial thought in terms of the live industry is if you were to send a ticket which referenced a blockchain transaction it would be very hard to replicate that ticket as it is anchored across a whole network.

There is safety in that. There is also an identity to it as you can only send it to the person who receives it and [as a result] there is a seamless transfer of information.”

A huge area of concern for the live industry is the unofficial online selling of tickets, with many examples of unscrupulous individuals punting multiple snide versions of the same digital ticket, meaning only one person can gain entry and everyone else who subsequently shows up with a ticket they bought in good faith is locked out. “Because of the way blockchain works, you couldn’t have a second transaction,” says Rogers of the security possibilities here. “It just wouldn’t verify in the network. Once [the ticket] is used, there is no going back.

You can reference it at every point of source it came through.

It could be used for ticket verification in a way that would mean that no machine would print another one.”

This is a powerful solution to a real problem that economist Chris Carey, founder of Media Insight Consulting (and former global insight director at both Universal and EMI), also feels could function incredibly well for the live sector. “It could work for the reselling of tickets, enabling the legitimate resale of tickets by having a clear chain,” he suggests. “So you have events that take place and they are monitored, regulated and transparent, [which means that] you can have that sort of activity taking place. Or you could use it to disable that and tighten security if you have a one-off, immutable event.”

Carey also proposes that this could dramatically alter the economics of the secondary market, tracking every sale of a ticket through multiple purchasers and delivering a cut of the margin in each transaction back to the artists. “Say a ticket has been sold seven times, could an artist get paid on each sale rather than just the final sale?” he asks. “So tracking [the ticket] through its journey could actually create revenue at different steps. There is an argument to say that if you can monitor transactions through technology, the artist could get a share of the upside at every step of the way.”

How does he see that working in practice? “If a ticket sells

IQ Magazine November 2015

Blockchain

twice – once for £30 and then for £200 – it pays them [the artist] twice. If it sells [in a series of transactions] for £30, £40, £50, £90, £150 and £200, it pays more than twice,” Carey explains.

“The people who currently benefit from that set-up are the ticket exchanges – which take a percentage of the fee every time a ticket sells. At the moment, the exchanges are making profit based on how many times a ticket sells. They are a volumebased business, not necessarily a maximising-value business.

They’d rather a ticket that eventually sells for £200 sells several times rather than once. The artist doesn’t see any of that either from a data collection point of view, which is less interesting, or from a revenue base, which is much more interesting.”

This is not pie-in-the-sky thinking, as the underpinning idea is already being used in other businesses, according to Rogers. “There are companies already doing this in the proof-of-ownership space,” he says. “If you create a digital piece of art and do 30 copies, you can buy one of those 30 and no one else can get one, as it doesn’t copy in the same way.” The live business can look to other sectors and bring the philosophy and the technology of blockchain to bear on a significant problem that it is currently facing down.

Aiding the artists (and benefitting them financially) is what could push blockchain properly into the live business, according to Gregor Pryor, a partner at legal firm Reed Smith, who is somewhat sceptical of the deafening cheerleading rising from some parts of the technology sector with regards to blockchain as a panacea.

“The reason why this has caught hype and why people are excited about blockchain is not because of blockchain – it is because there is a greater sense of enfranchisement and empowerment among the artist community,” Pryor argues. “The artists are saying they are fed up of the old system and fed up of being ripped off.

You can see many examples of that: Tidal; Taylor Swift and Spotify; the Featured Artists’ Coalition.”

That said, it would require the artist community as one to really push for this to become a reality and, at the moment, only outliers on the periphery are embracing it. For it to really catch fire, mega-acts on the scale of U2, Katy Perry, Beyoncé or Coldplay would need to lend their weight to the debate. So, for now, it is perhaps best categorised as a nice idea in theory, but a long way from being put into practice on the scale it needs to be, in order to make a real and lasting difference.

SMALL TRANSACTIONS RATHER THAN MICROPAYMENTS As noted above, blockchain makes most immediate sense financially for the micropayments that result from streams on services like Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. While ticket purchases are the most costly part of live from a consumer perspective, there are other areas where smaller payments are made when attending shows. Rogers is fired up by the possibilities here that could benefit both consumers and vendors.

“If you were settling ticket accounts at the end of the night, you would know in real time who has come in, claimed their

IQ Magazine November 2015

ticket and what they used it for,” says Rogers. “You could also attach a balance to the ticket in Bitcoin that could be used to pay for things across a festival site and within that you could offer discounts.”

While Pryor still approaches the whole idea of blockchain with a quizzically raised eyebrow, he does accept that live streaming of shows is another area where it could, potentially, be put to work. “You can see there is a move towards pay-per-view for live,” he says. “If you are attending the event, you don’t need micropayments for that as you just turn up and pay. But for online broadcast there is a place for it.”

He adds, “Where blockchain gets really interesting is if you think about the sharing economy – if you could track usage and payments using blockchain and then apply the sharing economy to it. So, if I become a tastemaker and start introducing other people to music, could I then be rewarded?

That is really interesting. The idea of combining blockchain and social is interesting, as well as maybe the application of blockchain on a user basis.”

SEPARATING THE HYPE FROM THE REALITY Because the live industry has not been as disrupted by digital as the record industry has, it follows that any need to look to blockchain to solve its problems becomes less pressing.

“The music industry is interesting as it changes at the very last minute,” says Rogers. “It has to get so painful before it does.” That said, he does believe that blockchain is a destination that many business sectors are either being willingly drawn into, or inevitably shunted towards.

“To me, all transactions are going to take place in this way soon,” Rogers proposes. “All the major banks are getting involved. If you look at an industry that is as fraught with issues – like people cancelling at the last minute or trying to buy in advance but not being able to – any form of transparency is going to be helpful.”

That said, Pryor feels live does not have the same impetus to properly explore blockchain as its recorded music counterpart and may be one of the last to move here. “Live has probably been the place that artists have been running to when their digital revenues have been dropping,” he observes. “The live industry has been nowhere near as disrupted by digital as the record industry has. In fact, it has probably benefited. There has to be a reason for them to adopt it. At the moment it is difficult to see one.”

Pryor adds, In the world of streaming royalty payments and collection societies, it is obviously broken and there is much more of an incentive and impetus to adopt change.

There is not any driving force behind change in live.”

Carey concludes by suggesting that live remains open to the possibilities of blockchain but warns against rushing in simply because it is new and shiny. “The hype around it risks its possible future at this stage,” he cautions. “Blockchain as a technology is new, so is, therefore, relatively unproven.

There is an argument to sit back, let someone else try it to see if it works and then use it.”

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FKP Scorpio

FKP Scorpio’s staff outside the company HQ in Hamburg

Scorpio’s Tale From its base in Hamburg, Germany, FKP Scorpio has become one of Europe’s most prominent promoters. As the company celebrates its 25th anniversary, Gordon Masson talks to its principals about FKP’s past, present and future.

Although the first thing that springs to many people’s minds when they think of FKP Scorpio is festivals, the company’s traditional touring activities far outweigh the number of festival tickets it sells each year. But as FKP looks for further ways to expand its activities, it’s something of a surprise to learn that its establishment was far from a strategic move. “I set it up because nobody would give me a job,” reveals founder and CEO Folkert Koopmans.

Was that because he was a Dutchman working in Germany?

Or perhaps some employers could not perceive the quietly spoken Koopmans as obvious promoter material? Whatever the reasons, those early career frustrations have turned into triumph, but it wasn’t exactly an overnight success story as it took the best part of a decade for Scorpio to truly establish a foothold in Germany, and a further ten years to make its mark internationally.

Recounting his personal development, Koopmans tells IQ that his career began as a talent buyer for a company that owned clubs. “I did that for four years, working across five venues – two in Hamburg, one in Kiel and two in the countryside

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up north,” he says. With his pay packet somewhat light, the fact that he worked around the clock for an unappreciative operator was demoralising. “I was in the office from 10 to 6 and then had to drive around the clubs to go to the shows. So at the weekend, I could be working up until 4 or 5am. I was in my 20s, so I could do it, but it was really hard.”

Disenchanted, he found a job with more receptive venue owners. “They were more interested in selling beers rather than the music, so I was kind of on my own as they trusted me to book the acts,” says Koopmans. And he used that situation to his advantage. “I got to know a lot of people and we did some fantastic shows – we had Prince and David Bowie, for instance.”

With that greater autonomy, Koopmans realised he could become more influential if he promoted shows himself. Therefore, Scorpio Concert Productions was born. “Initially, I booked lots of reggae and blues tours because those were the only acts I could get – Mama Concerts, Fritz Rau, MCT, etc had everything else sewn up. So I was doing reggae and blues nationally, as well as being a local promoter for some of the bigger German promoters.”

IQ Magazine November 2015

FKP Scorpio

Making Ends Meet Koopmans’ decision to concentrate on those niche genres helped carve out a reputation for Scorpio, but his first big break owed much to loyalty. “Most of the acts I worked with pulled 500-1,000 people. Inner Circle, on the other hand, only pulled about 200. But then they had a massive hit – Sweat (A La La La La Long) – and their audience instantly went to 3,000-4,000 people. They trusted me, so I offered them a 250,000 Deutsch Mark advance for some summer festivals and on the back of that they gave me their whole European tour to book.” He smiles, “It was an extremely good summer – sometimes they were doing two shows a day with me driving them between venues. I bought my first house on the back of that tour.”

Such success was the exception, rather than the rule in Scorpio’s early days, and Koopmans admits, “The first six or seven years were just about keeping myself alive.”

A major turning point came in 1997 with the launch of the Hurricane Festival. “There was only Rock Am Ring and Park and the Bizarre festivals and they were all in the south of Germany,” states Koopmans. But he was in for an early economics lesson. “My calculations were based on 12,000 tickets. We sold 12,000 in advance and a further 8,000 during the weekend. But I did not make a penny.” Nevertheless, Koopmans caught festival fever and, within the next year, Scorpio organised a goth festival and Highfield. Year two

IQ Magazine November 2015

saw Hurricane’s capacity double to 40,000, and the following year, Southside was launched to twin with Hurricane.

One of Koopmans’ key skills has been in partnering with the right people to achieve success and he admits that with Hurricane Southside, long-time friend Scumeck Sabottka was instrumental. “Scumeck booked the first acts because at that time agents wouldn’t pick up the phone to me – so he got the likes of INXS and Rammstein. That was a catalyst for the company,” Koopmans states.

Indeed, always one to look for strategic ways to minimise risk, Koopmans approached more than one person with partnership proposals. “He asked me whether I would like to invest money in growing events,” recalls U-Need CEO Michael Molt, the choice being a Backstreet Boys stadium show or Hurricane. Molt, who handles a lot of FKP’s festival production, adds, “I told him, that I would certainly help at the BSB show, but would never put money into a wacky idea. Rock & roll in the middle of nowhere on a motorcycle racetrack? No way! People seemed to like that idea more than me – they came in flocks and of course we ran out of parking space, camping ground, etc.”

In an effort to cope with heavy rain at the first Hurricane Festival, Molt called a production office meeting, but Koopmans could not be found. “I got on my scooter and tried to find him in the cold, rainy night. [Finally] I recognised a little person in a yellow raincoat, trying to send cars into a soaked field. By the time I arrived, a guest opened his

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Koopmans in Scorpio’s first office in 1990

FKP Scorpio

car window and yelled ‘who is responsible for this chaotic organisation? I want to speak to the promoter immediately!’

Folkert replied in a complete calm voice, ‘Yes, how can I help you? I am the promoter.’ The guy was totally thunderstruck, closed his window and drove on.”

That hands-on attitude has served Scorpio well, but Koopmans is quick to credit some of the agents who believed in him. “Jeff Craft gave me proper acts from the beginning, so did Paul Boswell, Emma Banks and a few others. They trusted us and gave us their big acts for our festivals and for that, I’m always grateful. It was the same with the likes of Russell Warby and Charlie Myatt. These are the agents that I still mainly work with, while the younger people in our team work with the younger agents.”

As the old music industry saying goes, where there’s a hit there’s a writ, and in 2000, Scorpio Concert Productions’ rising star prompted the German band Scorpions to initiate speculative court proceedings over the company name. The parties settled out of court and Koopmans renamed the company FKP Scorpio: FKP stands for Folkert Koopmans Presents. “I’m pretty sure I could have won the case, but if I had lost they could have forced me to pay a licence for my turnover for the previous ten years, so it wasn’t worth the risk,” he says. There are no hard feelings though. “It was their lawyer, not the band,” he sighs. “I’ve booked Scorpions since, and my wife’s best friend is married to Rudolf Schenker’s son, so we run into each other sometimes. He always apologises about his lawyer.”

New Investment Despite such legal setbacks, FKP’s fortunes turned for the better in 2000, thanks to one of its founder’s most timely decisions – selling half of the company. “Having a family and kids, I wanted to have some security,” he explains. “I was doing extremely well – the company was solid and making money, so I decided it was a good time to sell 50% to Eventim, which secured my personal life, as well as the company.”

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CTS Eventim’s involvement has been crucial. “I’m still my own boss, but Eventim’s financial partnership allows me to take more risks, more comfortably. The disadvantage of being in business with Eventim is that it can take time to make decisions. However, I can always call Klaus-Peter Schulenberg and ask him for a decision directly if I need to.” Koopmans adds, “Planning and risk assessment in this business is complicated, so it’s also great to have someone like Klaus to give his opinions.”

Eventim CEO Schulenberg is equally happy with the arrangement. “We have been invested in Scorpio for 15 years now, having acquired a stake when the company was just ten years old. Now we are celebrating its 25th anniversary, which is testimony to Scorpio’s continuing success,” says Schulenberg. “With its strong position in the festival market, Scorpio perfectly complements our services portfolio. The partnership works well for both sides and I am looking forward to many more years of mutual success.”

Those 15 years since Eventim bought its Scorpio stake have seen huge company growth, but the majority of the international expansion has actually been in the past five years, thanks in no small part to the staff Koopmans has hired and the partnerships he’s brokered.

Crossing Borders Scorpio’s first major moves outside of Germany happened in 2005 when Koopmans agreed deals to enter Austria and Switzerland. “There was no big plan behind it – they were just opportunities that arose,” he confesses, recalling that Harry Jenner was looking for help with Austria’s Frequency Festival. “At that time is was a 10,000 people event, but we got Metallica and turned that into 40,000.” With Switzerland, Koopman explains, “Dieter Boes showed me this amazing site and I like it so much we started up Greenfield Festival.”

He continues, “In 2010, we went into Denmark and a year later into Sweden. At that point it became a strategy and there was more of a plan behind it. Before that it was simply seeing a gap in the market.”

Koopmans border-crossing ambitions prompted a managerial shake up two years ago when he promoted Stephan Thanscheidt to the position of managing director.

The duo first crossed paths when Thanscheidt was working in marketing at Visions magazine, which had an events department organising 300 shows per year. “Visions had a couple of tours that we co-promoted with Scorpio, while the magazine was also the presenting partner for Scorpio’s festivals, so I knew Folkert fairly well,” says Thanscheidt.

Explaining how FKP’s hierarchy has changed, Koopmans says, “Before, I was booking all the festivals and Andreas Sengebusch was heading up the festival department. So he was in charge of booking and production, with me overseeing the booking side. But in 2009, Andreas moved to the United States and we decided to split the booking and production side of things because I wanted to concentrate on company strategy and growth.”

Part of that strategy was finding an impartial booker. “If our promoters had their own way it would only be FKP Scorpio bands on a festival bill. So my idea was to find a talent buyer who was not into booking acts for tours and Stephan fitted that perfectly.”

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FKP Scorpio

However, Thanscheidt reveals that the booking agent job nearly didn’t happen. “The first time I was supposed to meet Folkert about the job, I had to cancel three times. It was at the time of the swine flu, so it became a bit of a running joke.

When I did eventually make it to his office, he started telling me about a vacancy for a promoter in Hamburg working in the local department. I told him I wasn’t interested and then he said he also needed someone to book all of these festivals…”

Thanscheidt also now runs Scorpio’s German business, leaving Koopmans to look after the interests in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland – a major reason why Scorpio’s founder finds himself travelling for about 200 days a year. “I want Scorpio to have strong operations in all of our countries and touring is a big part of our other operations – not just festivals,” states Koopmans.

“Switzerland is lacking that touring aspect, but that’s because there are hundreds of promoters there. But we’re now doing a lot of shows in Sweden, Denmark and Finland.”

However, Scorpio’s growth isn’t just about acquisitions and partnerships. One major manoeuvre has been this year’s decision to take over food and beverage responsibilities across Scorpio’s German festivals. But with typical modesty, Thanscheidt mentions this as an aside, rather than the huge organisational and logistical concern that it is. “We sold the festivals contract to a catering company who paid us a per visitor fee,” explains Thanscheidt. “It was a five-year deal, but their philosophy seemed to be maximising profit with minimum investment.”

Koopmans adds, “Going to a German festival used to be all about the line-up and nothing about the food, so we want to change that. From this year, there is no more junk food at our festivals. Instead we’re setting up restaurants and bringing in known chefs to make the food an important part of the event.

For Hurricane, for example, we announced the food line-up the same way we announce the bands. People really liked that.”

International Expansion The seemingly constant expansion is complicated by FKP Scorpio’s continual internal evolution. “We’re always reviewing and reorganising to see what can be done better,” explains Thanscheidt. Part of that process involves tough decisions on unsuccessful bets – a matter Koopmans is pragmatic about.

“If you have 150 tours and 20-plus festivals every year, not everything is going to work,” he notes. “For instance, we had the Area 4 festival a few years ago. After five years we were getting stuck because the actual site wasn’t big enough for big acts. So after losing money for five years, we decided to stop.”

Indeed, FKP’s founder is bluntly honest about the wrong turns he’s taken over the years. “Hultsfred was one of my biggest mistakes,” he confesses. “The brand was so burned that we just were not able to re-establish it.” However, he maintains that the exercise was not entirely wasted. “On the back of Hultsfred we started Bråvalla and opened an office in Stockholm. And through that we got into Finland and

Koopmans with his managing directors, Stephan Thanscheidt and Michaela Töpfer

FKP Scorpio

Thanscheidt considers that small event, held each November in the northern German resort of Weissenhäuser Strand, as one of the jewels in the crown. “Ed Sheeran did his first show there in front of 150 people. But the 4,000 people who go to the weekender come from all over Germany, so when they’ve seen a great new act, they head home and spread the news about who they’ve seen. For a young act it’s great – playing in front of a music-loving audience where all the rooms are filled.”

What Next?

Palazzo: in-tents

entertainment

A wholly owned subsidiary of FKP Scorpio, Palazzo has become a hugely successful enterprise in its own right.

The concept involves luxurious tents where audiences are entertained both by top-notch variety acts and gourmet food.

“I came to Palazzo by accident,” admits Koopmans. “The owner was bankrupt and I gave him a loan. But he was the creative partner, so he spent the money really quickly and went over budget. So in 2007 I bought him out. Then in 2008 the financial crisis hit and the corporations stopped coming to Palazzo.”

Despite those issues, the business has prospered, thanks in no small part to Michaela Töpfer, who Koopmans placed in charge of the company. “Palazzo has five tents up and running: we own two and rent three,” says Koopmans.

“Year by year the idea is that we build one more tent. The company is doing really well, but I don’t have much to do with it in daily life.

“In 2012, we restructured the business and it’s since become very successful. Michaela has been the managing director for two years now – she became MD at the same time as Stephan, but like him, she’d been running the company for a number of years.”

Denmark. I don’t think Bråvalla or our Swedish operations would have happened if it wasn’t for Hultsfred.”

Koopmans reveals FKP’s Austrian presence is set to grow in the coming year. “We’re taking over the Wiesen festival site in Austria,” he tells IQ. Elsewhere, in Austria, the Nuke Festival launched this year and sold 23,000 tickets. “On the Wiesen site we’ll probably do three or four events next year – festivals, one-day shows, etc,” Koopmans continues. “So we’ve probably got to the 25 festivals mark as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the company.”

Thanscheidt interjects, “It’s not about the number of festivals we do, it’s about how good they are. But festivals come and go – look at Area 4: events aren’t always going to make it; sometimes you have to know when to give up. At the same time, you have to take a long-term view, so you never give up on a new event too early.”

Scorpio’s policy is to give it 3-5 years to make a festival successful and profitable. “The Rolling Stone Weekender took three years before it was profitable,” Koopmans reports.

“We sell about 4,000 tickets for that event and about 50% are sold before any announcement of acts.”

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When it comes to further growth, FKP’s hierarchy is in no rush. “Norway is maybe the next logical move, but it’s not a must. We already do some shows there from our Swedish office – we did Green Day that way, for instance,” says Koopmans. Thanscheidt agrees: “If we don’t go into a new country next year, it’s because we have so much work with what we’ve already got. It’s been a huge challenge for us to go from a German operation to a pan-European company.”

Koopmans notes, “Austria came together really fast because we found good partners – it was the right set-up and the right people. It may take longer to repeat that elsewhere, but we’d rather wait than make a mistake. The challenge for me is always about finding better people. Stephan was one of them. And I’d been speaking to Juha [Kyyrö] in Finland for two years before that all came together.”

Acknowledging Scorpio’s incredible festivals reputation, Koopmans is keen to highlight that the company’s day-today business is more reliant on tours. There are 20 people working in Scorpio’s touring department, which last year did 1,500 tour shows, while the company’s local department in Hamburg does another 300 shows a year in the north of Germany. Put into perspective, Scorpio’s festivals sold about 500,000 tickets in 2015, while at the end of September (before the lucrative autumn touring cycle started), the company had sold 1,050,419 concert tickets.

Those numbers prompt an interesting fact about Scorpio: despite being half owned by a ticketing company, FKP’s festival sales remain an in-house operation. “Yes, for our festivals, Scorpio does its own tickets,” confirms Koopmans.

“We want to touch base with the fans and the best way to do that is to have the ticketing connection. Ten or 15 years ago people would order their tickets by phone and that would allow them to tell you what they thought at the same time, so we developed our own ticketing system years ago.

When people want a festival ticket they will go to the festival website. When they want to go see a concert, they visit the Eventim website.”

Silver Linings Looking back over the last 25 years, Koopmans says his finest hour was a Smashing Pumpkins gig on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn in 1997 – photos of which adorn his office walls.

“We only got permission five days before the show, but it was the first warm day of the summer, so although we were licensed for 5,000 people, we had an estimated 35-40,000 that day,” says Koopmans, adding that health and safety restrictions had gone out the window. “It was outstanding – one of the best

IQ Magazine November 2015

FKP Scorpio Koopmans’ all-time favourite gig: Smashing Pumpkins on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn in 1997. © Reiner Pfisterer

IQ Magazine November 2015

lot of changes going to happen in the next ten years with the big corporate companies looking at the festivals business.

Germany is going through a lot of changes now with Marek joining Live Nation, for instance. So maybe there will be opportunities to do something on another continent one day.

Who the hell knows?”

Folkert and Robbie Williams’ promoter Scumeck Sabottka during the singer’s 2006 visit to Hamburg, for which FKP sold 160,000 tickets

shows I’ve ever seen.” His reply is characteristically concise when asked if there are any other A-list wishes he wish he could work with: “I want to work with new acts rather than old acts,” he says.

Another benefit of building one of Europe’s most admired live music operations is that Koopmans is invited to other events where he can discover such emerging talent and rub shoulders with rivals. “I tell my wife that work is my hobby, so I really enjoy it,” he says. “I consider myself a friend of Melvin Benn – we get on really well, so we sometimes have dinner.”

For his part, Festival Republic managing director Benn comments, “I obviously take my hat off to Folkert for what he has built and achieved even though there are territories we compete in and he blocks acts we are chasing. However, that’s just business and for me he is more a friend than anything. I like him and I think he is good guy with good values and in our industry, being able to enjoy a beer or dinner with a competitor as a friend as I do with Folkert is a rare thing and very valued.”

Closer to home, one of the developments during 2015 has seen a new generation of Koopmans beginning their career, with son Daniel now working in the FKP offices. And with quarter of a century of Scorpio history behind him (and 34 years since his first show as a promoter), Koopmans is realistic about his future. “At a certain point I’ll maybe think about stepping back a bit, but I don’t think I’ll ever give up. I’m not doing it for the money. But I’d like to think it will keep paying the bills for the next 25 years. I’m happy that Stephan took over the festival booking and I’m very pleased that he gets to deal with awkward artist managers now,” he smiles.

As for international ambitions, he isn’t ruling anything out. “Outside Europe? It’s not on the radar, but there are a

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FKP Scorpio

Testimonials I’ve worked with Folkert for a number of years, especially with Placebo, and always found him to be honest and consistently reliable. His festivals are well run and we all enjoy working with him and his team.

Rod MacSween, ITB

Folkert is a modest and brilliant man.

One of the greatest promoters and finest humans beings ever.

Charlie Myatt, 13 Artists

I wish Folkert and all of the team at FKP Scorpio massive congratulations on their quarter of a century! We have had the pleasure of working together on some fantastic projects and as a company they are an absolute pleasure to do business with. On a personal note, Folkert truly is a forward-thinker and definitely one of the good guys.

Jon Ollier, CAA

We are proud to say that together we have created and produced the EFA-awarded NorthSide Festival, Tinderbox, and our successful joint venture in Beatbox Entertainment. Thanks for all your help and your continued support. Congratulations!

Brian Nielsen, Down The Drain Production

Folkert is ‘a pearl before swine’.

A wonderful example of how to be yourself and succeed. Congratulations and long may you set an example to other aspiring promoters.

Paul Boswell, Free Trade Agency I think it was 1999, I was working at ABS Agency and Folkert decided we should go to the source and find the new Buena Vista Social Club. So we arrive in Havana and the government agency took us to showcases of what they regarded as the next generation of Cuban stars.

Unfortunately, all we saw was sub LasVegas-style show bands, it was like the Cuban party scene from The Godfather 2. So, we sneaked out of the hotel and paid a cab driver to take us to where the music action was. He took us to see the same bands we’d just endured for the past two days! At least the mojitos took the pain away.

Barry Campbell, Jaba Music Management

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After ten years of booking Reeperbahn Festival, it’s still a pleasure for me to work and deal with Folkert and all the bookers from FKP. Bjørn Pfarr, Reeperbahn Festival Whenever I think that a concert or an event was absolutely, unbelievably brilliant, Folkert simply says: ‘It was OK.’ At first I was a bit worried but today I admire his modest and relaxed character, as well as his integrity. Over all these years, Folkert and his team became very reliable business partners and friends.

Alex Richter, Four Artists For such an unassuming character, Folkert doesn’t half like to take the world on. It’s been great watching him build up a portfolio of festivals across the continent, bringing more choices and making the market place for acts more competitive.

Geoff Meall, United Talent Agency You know that you are on a high-class level of working together, when your biggest problem regarding concerts is when you will get the next chance to shoot each other with confetti cannons.

Steffen Posner, Chimperator Productions Dear Folkert, about 12 years ago you told me during dinner that hopefully, at the age of 50, you wouldn’t have to deal with concerts anymore. FKP Scorpio was then about 13 years old and did far fewer festivals. Looking at where you are today, I don’t want to know about how much we will have to celebrate on the next anniversary of FKP Scorpio.

I am wishing you, your company and your team the best of luck with all your future activities and blue skies during your festivals. With highest respect and best regards.

Andreas Walser, ExtraTours Konzertbüro

Our first show with FKP Scorpio was in 2002 (only a few days after we opened) with James Last and it was pretty exciting for all of us. A new venue, still under construction, with changes to the seating plan but Folkert and his team always remained calm and supported us in every manner.

We have a very good and trustful relationship with Folkert and his team and we are looking forward to the next 25 years!

Uwe Frommhold, AEG Facilities Germany

Folkert is undeniably one of the most influential and innovative promoters in Europe. He always considers new paths that lead to unforgettable events. We at Bravado are proud to have a relationship with FKP. Michael Hahn, Bravado Merchandise

Behind the quiet exterior is an empire builder! When I first started working with Folkert he was a Dutchman forging his way in Germany. The company was called Scorpio and he did a great job with the acts that I worked on with him. In Folkert has been instrumental in building some of the most important festivals in Europe. Long may he continue helping both new and established artists to achieve their dreams across Europe.

Emma Banks, CAA

From the very start of our co-operation with Folkert we have had nothing but great experiences. He is a warm-hearted, intuitive businessman with a very strong sense of the direction of the business.

Robert Swarts, Friendly Fire

It’s been impressive to watch FKP Scorpio expand in size and across borders yet maintain a boutique feel whereby the whole team seems to not only love music, but enjoy a rare camaraderie.

Here’s to another successful 25 years.

Steve Zapp, ITB

Folkert has successfully achieved dynamic growth in contemporary continental festivals with sensitive programming to boot. For this he must be applauded. I just wish he called me sometimes.

What Folkert has done is incredible and I am full of admiration for him. He has taken on the behemoths and succeeded. I compare him to Simon Moran in that he is all about the artist and has developed a business based upon looking after the artists.

Ian Huffam, X-ray Touring

Neil Warnock, United Talent Agency

IQ Magazine November 2015

Touring Exhibitions

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IQ Magazine November 2015

Touring Exhibitions

The

Exhibitionists With many countries now emerging from recession, Eugenia Durante conducts IQ’s annual health check of the touring exhibitions sector and discovers that ticket buyers’ expectations are driving innovation to help create evermore sophisticated expos.

Last year, IQ’s report on the touring exhibitions’ sector mainly focused on the slow but steady recovery from the global recession. According to the participating professionals, people were just beginning to have more money to spend on leisure, and exhibitions were starting to regain their audiences.

This year’s exploration of the scene shows that the market is now buzzing with new opportunities, paradoxically also thanks to the period of enforced austerity experienced over the past few years: now that the money is flowing again, the public has grown more demanding, creating new and exciting challenges for the industry.

According to Morris Hargreaves McIntyre, a strategic research consultancy working within the culture, heritage, leisure, media and charities sectors, exhibitions are now an enormously important part of a city’s events programme.

According to the company’s research, a successful exhibition at a large venue can often attract 300,000-900,000 visitors, one third from overseas and another third that are domestic visitors from out of town. This, of course, has a huge impact on host cities, with visitors spending their money not only on tickets for the exhibitions themselves, but on accommodation, transport, restaurants and other facilities.

Christoph Scholz, director of SC Exhibitions and producer of the Touring Exhibitions Meeting (TEM), believes that exhibitions are cultural magnets, so much so that tourism boards often build campaigns around major shows in galleries and museums. But how has the recession changed the sector?

THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGING Gerri Morris, co-founder of Morris Hargreaves McIntyre, has worked at a management, advisory and consultancy level for more than 30 years, using strategic insight to focus on the audience. According to her, although exhibitions have always been popular, it is only in recent years that they have

developed into a cultural phenomenon.

“In an age of austerity and rejection of consumerism, exhibitions appeal to those seeking authenticity and access to expert voices amidst the babble of the Internet,” Morris states. “They provide perfectly packaged, multidimensional experiences that put the visitor in charge. They deliver social, intellectual, emotional and transcendental experiences, and often for less than the price of a meal out and a great deal cheaper than a theatre ticket – so they deliver great value for time, as well as money.”

José Araujo, promoter at the Italian operator Barley Arts, agrees that edutainment is becoming more and more central to the touring exhibition sector: “This is the new trend of family entertainment,” he says. “By merging the idea of education with that of entertainment, with lower ticket prices than established events like Disney on Ice, the public is quite satisfied and feel that they are getting good value for their money because they have fun and learn something in the process.”

This also explains why content is generally shifting to a more interactive approach in the touring world. According to Heidi Pinchal of Brand Image Group, a strategic consultant based in the United States, “Venues outside the museum community want entertainment, but most of the touring exhibitions in the past came out of the museum community. Now I see more exhibitions being developed with entertainment in mind, although I hope we don’t lose too much of the education in the process.”

One of the dangers of this shift is the possibility of exhibition organisers devoting too much space to interactivity, whilst losing focus on the original concept.

“We all understand that technology is a language that needs to be implemented in exhibitions. As new generations have grown and become visitors to our museums and exhibits, the demand for interactivity has increased,” observes Luis Ferreiro, director of Spain-based Musealia. “However, I think that its use needs to make sense, be justified and follow the

Photo opposite page: Musealia’s ‘Human Bodies The Exhibition’ is proving to be a hit wherever it visits

IQ Magazine November 2015

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Touring Exhibitions “ In an age of austerity and rejection of consumerism, exhibitions appeal to those seeking authenticity and access to expert voices amidst the babble of the Internet.”

Man’s fascination with the extra terrestrial has delivered Barley Arts’ ‘Gateway to Space’ exhibit out of this world results

Gerri Morris, Morris Hargreaves McIntyre narrative of the exhibition and its goals. Sometimes I have the impression that we might be using screens and hands-on devices without any particular goal other than saying this or that exhibit is very interactive. We believe that intellectual or emotional interactivity is much more interesting and rather more difficult to produce than the technological one. And, once achieved, I believe this one makes a deeper impact on the visitor.”

COPYCATS ON ICE When asked about the biggest challenges presented by the touring exhibitions sector, Christopher Owen from Germany’s AWC has no hesitation in naming content as the industry’s main source of difficulty. “The market is reaching a point of saturation and finding the topic for the next blockbuster is becoming increasingly difficult,” he tells IQ. It’s impossible to talk about saturation in the touring exhibitions sector without mentioning the widespread problem of copycat productions. “There are definitely too many people producing similar things,” says World Concert Artists’ Corrado Canonici.“Since you need only one to spoil the market, the challenge is constantly showing that our productions are of the highest standards,” he adds.

Once more, quality is key, as well as the ability to develop new ideas, perhaps exploring and merging different sectors such as music. The huge success of exhibitions like David Bowie is curated by London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, confirms this trend. Therefore, an increasing number of promoters, such as Hysteria Live’s Darren Henderson, are focusing on blending exhibitions with classical forms of entertainment. “We’re busy working on music-centric concepts that will entertain in new and unusual ways – it is a massive opportunity. We’ll focus on raising the investment for an exciting new project about electronic music due for launch in June 2017, and we can’t wait for it,” Hendersen says.

Of course, exploring new areas of the market is easier if partnerships are established during the process. According to Neil McConnon, head of international enterprises at the Barbican in London, building solid partnerships is a great antidote to funding problems. “It’s something we have been successful with in recent years: conceiving and developing major exhibitions, curated by us but working in partnership with co-producers, sharing costs and allowing for a more ambitious and impactful show,” he says. “I think this is one solution to the cuts in the arts, both in the UK and internationally, and a creative way to amplify content.”

Musealia’s Ferreiro shares McConnon’s opinion, stressing the importance of establishing long-term relationships with local promoters in order to overcome issues related to product placement. According to him, the local promoter plays a key role in the success of an exhibition, and mutually identifying and implementing beneficial agreements is essential for the longevity of any exhibition and company.

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TEM WORK Fortunately, there is already a place where promoters, producers, museum representatives, science centres, tourism offices and other organisations (ranging from culture to marketing) can meet – the Touring Exhibitions Meeting (TEM).

The fourth edition of TEM, which is the only international conference focusing solely on bringing together people who develop touring exhibitions and those who present them, took place in Istanbul from 10-12 September 2015, in partnership with IEG. Scholz reveals that about 150 people working in the touring world attended this year’s event, confirming the need for networking and the circulation of new ideas. Indeed, all the professionals interviewed for this report who had attended the meeting were very enthusiastic about TEM. “The TEM has become a very important institution in the sector for streamlining business, facilitating handshake deals, knowing what the rest [of the business] is up to – especially this year when it has become clear that there is a lot of similar content out there – and, of course, for basic self-help reasons,” Christopher Owen notes. According to Pinchal, the TEM is the only conference where touring exhibitions are the primary business, and not the secondary customer. It helps professionals to build confidence and also consolidate the still-weak relationships between producers, promoters and, especially, venues.

A main speaker at the conference, Gerri Morris has been studying exhibition audiences for the past 25 years, and has consistently found that the potential market is huge but also very underdeveloped. This is because both venues and producers often underestimate the number of people who might be interested in an exhibition. “They are often too risk averse,” Morris says. “They are constraining marketing budgets, restricting access through limited opening times that don’t meet changing social needs, and they can underestimate the audience in the way they present the proposition and communicate what is on offer.”

It is no wonder that Scholz’s goal for 2017 (the TEM will take a creative break in 2016) is to establish much stronger ties with venues and venue associations. Although convention centres are doing new venue rental deals to host touring exhibitions,

IQ Magazine November 2015

Touring Exhibitions Barbican International Enterprises’ ‘Designing 007’ expo has been a huge draw for lovers of the James Bond franchise

“ Sometimes I have the impression that we might be using screens and hands-on devices without any particular goal other than saying this or that exhibit is very interactive.”

Luis Ferreiro, Musealia as highlighted by Araujo, many promoters and producers complain about the lack of suitable venues or the high hosting prices. According to Opus One’s Vincent Sager, finding venues remains one of the main challenges for the sector, as well as dealing with high rental costs and scarce availability. Bruce Peterson, managing director of the Australia-based Grande Exhibitions, echoes those concerns, as does South African promoter Charlotte Damgaard from Great World Exhibitions, showing that the issues truly are global.

On the other hand, venues complain about the fees

demanded by promoters, risking a short circuit. Udo Michel from Olympiapark München, Germany, says, “With 170,000300,000 visitors each year, the market segment of blockbuster exhibitions is a fixed part of the event mix at the Olympic Park Munich. As a public company and a public park we always need to present high quality entertainment/edutainment for our residents. Sometimes promoters’ requests are excessive: at the Olympic Park all promoters benefit from the park’s 4 million plus registered visitors (this figure includes tickets buyers only – many more people simply walk through the park). They also benefit from the media network the venue has established over the past four decades. And last but not least, from the image of Olympic Park. They should keep this in mind.”

The solution, as suggested by Pinchal, could be more dialogue between venues and producers. “I would like to hear honest feedback on what venues are missing from exhibition

Contributors

Top (left to right): Bruce Peterson (Grande Exhibitions), Charlotte Damgaard (Great World Exhibitions), Christopher Owen (AWC), Corrado Canonici (World Concert Artists) Bottom (left to right): Darren Henderson (Hysteria Live), Gerri Morris (Morris Hargreaves McIntyre), Luis Ferreiro (Musealia), Neil McConnon (Barbican), Udo Michel (Olympiapark München)

IQ Magazine November 2015

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Touring Exhibitions Artifacts from the doomed ship help attract visitors to Musealia’s ‘Titanic The Exhibition’

“ The market is reaching a point of saturation and finding the topic for the next blockbuster is becoming increasingly difficult.”

Christopher Owen, AWC owners. What aren’t we providing for them? How could we improve the exhibitions we have to offer? That would definitely be useful.”

NEXT, PLEASE Overall the the industry’s attitude is positive. Producers in particular are very excited at the idea of exploring new markets, with Asia and South America being the favourite choices for new investments. Mexico, for example, was 2014’s priority location for Musealia, which closed its first exhibition with more than 250,000 visitors. “Working with the management team at the Parque Guanajuato Bicentenario and with a complete new audience was extremely interesting and empowering for us,” Ferreiro states. “I believe Mexico is a

great market for exhibitions and we will see more and more companies displaying there and collaborating with the local institutions.”

From a content point of view, some blockbusters remain solid, meaning that when the quality is high the audience continues to show interest. For example, SC’s King Tut exhibition – Tutankhamun – His Tomb and His Treasures, a show that has already been seen by 6 million visitors across the globe, from Paris to Seoul – will be opening in New York in 2016; while Grande’s Da Vinci Alive with its new gallery format using Sensory4 technology, was recently completed with success. Also, Opus One’s Titanic, in Geneva from October 2014 to January 2015, went remarkably well, despite the many existing exhibitions on the theme, and WCA’s Living With Dinosaurs sold over 100,000 tickets in Russia in three months. But the figures also show an increasing interest in new concepts. For example, Barbican International Enterprises’ James Bond show, Designing 007, was hugely successful at Kunsthal Rotterdam in the Netherlands, receiving 160,000 visitors in three months and great media coverage.

COMING SOON Must-sees of the new season, according to Scholz, include Cosmonauts at the Science Museum in London, which tracks the birth of space travel in Russia; and the film costumes show Dressed by Angels at the Old Truman Brewery, also in London. Moreover, with iEC’s recently announced Exhibitionism, an exclusive retrospective on the Rolling Stones at the Saatchi Gallery in London, to AWC’s Shaun the Sheep: A healthier You, a large and highly interactive exhibition on wellbeing in collaboration with the Aardman Studios and National Museums of Liverpool, 2016 is expected to continue to up the game in this dynamic and fast-changing entertainment field.

Grande Exhibitions took its ‘Van Gogh Alive’ multi-sensory experience to La Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan, Italy, on its tour

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IQ Magazine November 2015

IQ Magazine November 2015

wHEN LIVE cOMES 2 tOWN The world’s biggest band is back on the road with a tour that is conquering continents through its initial seven-month, 76-date stint. Eamonn Forde talks to the road warriors who are using all of their experience to exploit the iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour…

h

ow do you top the biggest concert tour in history?

That was the challenge facing U2 after they completed the 110-date 360° tour, which played to 7.2m people between 2009 and 2011, grossing a startling $736million (€648m). The decision was actually relatively simple – dial things down and take the shows back indoors.

For the current 76-date iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour, the band’s long-standing creative director Willie Williams explains it was intentionally “the polar opposite” of 360°. “This is only to be expected as the only way to avoid repeating yourself from tour to tour is to change the canvas so completely that the issue becomes moot,” he says.

Arthur Fogel, president of Live Nation Global Touring and chairman of Live Nation Global Music, has been the band’s worldwide promoter and producer since 1997. He said discussions about the current tour began as 360° was coming to a close four years ago. “Since the end of 360°, we have had off and on conversations about what exactly we would do and over what period of time,” he explains.

“Ultimately, we settled on a plan and this year is basically the start of that cycle.”

Jake Berry, production director, adds that the band also wanted to take things down several levels and find a new way to connect with their audience on a smaller (albeit arena) scale. “360° was so huge that it would be impossible to top it,” he says. “I think the band, after being in stadiums for so long, really wanted to get the feel of being back indoors and engaging their audience again.”

Despite the lowered venue capacities, there was no putting the brakes on the technological and staging innovation that has been as much a trademark of their shows since the 1990s as the blockbusting attendance figures. Each tour has raised the bar for arena and stadium shows, often pioneering new technologies on the road for the first time.

Williams explains that the show is divided into two parts: the first section – iNNOCENCE – is about the band growing up in 1970s Dublin and “looking out of the window at a violent world outside,” where music became an escape route.

The second is “about looking at the world through adult eyes.”

He says that the show took two years to develop and the first year was spent nailing down the narrative before moving onto the staging.

“We realised that there were many ways to tell this story, many of which we sketched up and researched in great detail,” he says. “The staging itself is very under-designed.

‘Innocence’ or the ‘house’ is represented by a square stage identical to that used on the Joshua Tree tour in 1987; ‘Experience’ or the ‘world’ is represented by a round stage with a simple runway in between.” Williams adds, “Above the runway hangs a hybrid object: a gantry, screen, stage and walkway, through which much of the storytelling is done using graphics that interact with the performers. The scale of iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE and its inherent spectacle is deliberately reduced, though some of the interactive sequences actually surpass the level of visual complexity of the 360° tour.”

U2 in Turin’s Pala Alpitour in September. © Danny North

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U2 - Tour Report PRG Nocturne’s V-Thru screens dominate the show’s visual aesthetic. © Danny North

sTARING aT tHE sUN

t

he screen has been, from the opening show, the focal point for both fans and media reporting on the tour.

Berry explains just how innovative it is. “It’s a new product called a V-Thru from PRG Nocturne,” he says. “You can see straight through it when nothing is going on, then it becomes a video screen when we show video on it. Instead of putting the processing behind the screen on each individual panel they run it through a header, which contains all the processing. That is a new thing for video.”

Tim Murch, VP of business development at Production Resource Group, explains in more detail precisely what the screen is capable of and why it is pushing the envelope for tours on this level. “Light can act as a screen as well to stop your eyes going any further than where that light is,” he says. “Or, if you switch it off and can see through it, then your backdrop becomes whatever is on the other side of that light. It gives you different depths and different looks. It is just a very, very good use of video – enhancing the story.”

Murch parallels it with a wider movement in the arts towards immersion. “Secret Cinema is a classic example of what is going on with immersive theatre where they get people involved in the movies,” he says. “This is the concertgoers’ version of that. They are closer to the artists.”

To bring this all to life, Sam Pattinson of Third Company Ltd, who also worked on the band’s 360° and Vertigo tours, says of the creative process, “Willie will give us an overall brief of the feel and culture of the show. We will suggest filmmakers and animators that might fit within that aesthetic.” He says they went to around 50 different visual creatives, a mix of people they had

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worked with before and new talent, to work through ideas before settling on what now appears in the show. “It’s quite an organic process,” he explains. “The band and the creative team have these incredible ideas and we try to explore all of them.”

Even though the main visuals were decided before the tour started, there was also scope to make them adaptable and unique to the different cities and countries the tour is going through. “When you change territories you have to adapt some of the content to the new countries that you are visiting,” reveals Pattinson. “In the show, there are certain political points and observations [being made] and some might be less relevant in certain parts of the world. They are just subtle changes about reaching the audience in the best possible way.”

For this show, they are breaking new ground with the use of video technology. “We are using new software and technology all the time,” says Pattinson. “That is the goal. If it is not an original show then we have failed. That is really the brief. We are using Demolition [on this tour], which is a real-time rendering software that can access camera feeds and generate animation. We used it already with Ed Sheeran and Kasabian. By the time we got round to U2, we really understood the software and knew how to use it.”

“ We are using new software and technology all the time. That is the goal. If it is not an original show then we have failed. That is really the brief.”

Sam Pattinson, Third Company Ltd

IQ Magazine November 2015

U2 - Tour Report The V-Thru links the show’s two stages. © Stufish

eLECTRICAL sTORM

w

hile the band’s shows are famous for technological innovation, it is never allowed to dominate. It has to enhance the show, not drown it out. “U2 is a unique challenge,” says Adam Davis, chief creative officer at Tait Towers. “Not only is there a spectacular arms race [with the technology], they are such artists – and Willie is really the fifth member of the band and represents their true artistic vision – so it is about weaving all of that together. The show is not using technology for technology’s sake. It really has a much deeper meaning. Great design takes time. The end result of the show is the execution of that. It is a world-class talented team working on something for a long period of time and putting their heart and soul into it.”

The fact that the show’s screen and lighting weighs 172 tonnes and has to be hung from the venue ceiling meant that the tour plot could only go to certain arenas able to physically handle such a huge production. John Giddings, the band’s European promoter, says that the production, in many ways, determined the route the tour took. “It was a definite discussion [to take the tour to stadiums] but with this production, when you see it, it is impossible to do it outside.

It has hundreds of tonnes hanging from the ceiling and in a stadium there is no ceiling. We are definitely limited by the weight as to the arenas we can play on the European tour.”

Whilst a huge production, it is still a fraction of what was on the road for the previous tour. “360° was a three-day steel build,” explains Berry. “We had to load in on the day before the show. This is exactly the same except we don’t have the three-day steel build as we don’t have an outdoor stage. We load in at 9am the morning before the show and it really takes us 12 hours to get it into show mode.” While 360° required 54 trucks, this tour has a comparatively modest 28 trucks.

“Touring indoors is a different scenario to touring outdoors,” adds Giddings. “With outdoors you have two or three stages criss-crossing each other throughout Europe. This is the same show everywhere. It’s a completely different experience for the production team. But without someone of the calibre of Jake Berry, it would just never happen.”

That said, there was one venue on the entire tour that faced infrastructure problems – somewhat ironically in the band’s hometown of Dublin. John Johnson, deputy general manager of the 3Arena, explains what the staging issues were and how they got around them. “Because of the layout of the show it was always going to be a bit trickier in our venue,”

CONTRIBUTORS

IQ Magazine November 2015

he says. “Our venue is a little out of the ordinary. A lot of these tours are built around the American ice hockey arenatype layout. Our venue is like an old amphitheatre. We are much wider than we are long. The difficulties they had were around getting the full production into Dublin. At the end of the catwalk is the B-stage. If it ended up in [its standard] position in our venue, a lot of people in the balcony wouldn’t be able to see it. They pulled the B-stage halfway back so it’s almost in the middle of the runway and then the rest of the runway continues on.”

He adds of the efforts of U2’s team: “They were very keen to not leave anything out. Hats off to them – they came over a number of times and they didn’t want to hold back on anything. They pulled out all the stops.”

Berry says that technical compromises for any show, not just a hometown gig, were never on the cards as fans everywhere in the world should be able to experience the full show. “We have rearranged,” he says of the moves to make the show work in Dublin. “We don’t do ‘compromise’ very well.”

Neil Walker, GM of the SSE Arena in Belfast, says his venue was closed for two months this summer for renovations, in part to be able to accommodate the U2 shows in November.

“From what I have seen of the plans, it is certainly one of the most technically challenging [tours],” he says. “We want to see the show coming in, in its full glory. It’s our way of being able to push the venue and the flexibility of it. We will work with whatever is thrown at us. We have a flexible venue and a flexible team here. We’ll do whatever it takes to make it work for everybody.”

Contributors (left to right): Arthur Fogel (Live Nation), John Johnston (3Arena), John Giddings (Solo Agency), Neil Walker (SSE Arena), Adam Davis (Tait Towers), Jake Berry (production director)

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U2 - Tour Report Given it is U2, the demand for tickets was phenomenal and they could have played many multiples of the shows they are doing in many cities on the tour. According to Fogel, “It was trying to find the balance between limiting the shows and not ridiculously under-playing.” Depending on the city, they are doing groups of two, four or six nights in each venue and this was agreed right from the start, with no residencies being longer than half a dozen nights.

“We always talked about four shows,” says Neo Sala, founder of Doctor Music, who promoted the Barcelona shows in partnership with Live Nation Spain. “It was more sensible to go on sale with two shows and see what happened – and if the demand was there, to go with two more. It didn’t make sense to push it if the demand wasn’t there. I always felt there were four shows there, but I always agree with the principle of not putting too many tickets in the market without being sure you can sell them. These days you can never be conscious enough.”

vERTIGO

b

ecause of the scale of the production and the size of the venues being played, ticket prices were – at the top end – significantly higher than a standard arena tour.

“We are always sensitive to what people are prepared to pay for a ticket,” says Giddings, but the fact that most shows sold out in a matter of minutes is proof that pricing for most fans was not a barrier.

Alfred Jitta, sales manager at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, says, “It was €170 for the top ticket and the average price was about €100. That is reasonably high compared to other shows. The average here is between €45 and €65. But then they [other acts] are not bringing in 28 trucks with production. It’s a big difference.”

Jan Van Esbroeck, head of Sportpaleis Group in Antwerp,

says, “For regular artists, crossing €100, including all the fees, is a psychological barrier that you don’t want to pass.

U2 are one of the few artists that can cross this spectacular border. Since [all shows] sold out in one hour, obviously the market was ready to pay that amount of money. So they were right to do so.”

oVER tHE eDGE

t

he level of planning on this tour would put many military operations to shame, but events on the road can take on a life of their own as U2 and their team have most certainly found out this time round. Even before the tour started, singer Bono broke his arm and shattered his shoulder after a cycling accident in New York in November last year. Then on the tour’s opening night in Vancouver on 14 May, guitarist The Edge fell off the walkway during the performance at the Rogers Arena.

He was unharmed, but everyone’s heart was in their mouth for a few minutes immediately after. “It all happened so fast I am not sure there was much thinking about anything other than concern for him,” says Fogel. “He obviously bounced back quite quickly and tragedy was averted.”

Then, ahead of their third night in Stockholm on 20 September, the police cancelled the show at the last minute after a member of the audience had gained entry with a firearm. The band’s team did a search of the venue, hoping the show could go ahead. “We really wanted to play the show,” Berry says, “but in the end we were stopped by the

“ I suppose that is why we get the big bucks. We have to sometimes jump in, roll up sleeves and deal with things that hit you from nowhere.”

Arthur Fogel, Live Nation

Bono walks through the V-Thru hanging video wall. © Stufish

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IQ Magazine November 2015

The band will take the production to more indoor arenas next year. © Danny North

U2 - Tour Report “ Somebody said to me once, ‘We come to see U2 shows to see what the future will look like’, which is about as high-pressure a compliment as I can imagine.”

Willie Williams, Creative Director

police.” They were able to slot in a rescheduled night on the Tuesday, with the road crew working through the night, without compromising the run of shows in Berlin that opened on 24 September.

“The Stockholm situation was particularly unique and somewhat challenging,” says Fogel of what unfolded that evening. “I suppose that is why we get the big bucks. We have to sometimes jump in, roll up sleeves and deal with things that hit you from nowhere. Fortunately, it all worked out and we were able to shift the show. It goes to show that just when you think you’ve seen it all, you haven’t.”

The first phase of the tour symbolically ends in Dublin on 28 November, but that is far from the end of iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE. “We have essentially done multiple nights in a limited number of markets in North America and Europe,” says Fogel. “I think it’s safe to say we are going to look at that continuing next year. We will probably be in a position to announce those details in a few months.”

Fogel reveals that the next phase of shows will also be indoors and focus on countries not played in the first phase.

“For the most part it will not be repeating any of the markets that we are doing this year,” he says.

Could this include outdoor and stadium shows? “I don’t think we know that answer right now,” says Berry. “No one has discussed if this [the current staging] is the outdoor version. We know it’s the indoor version.”

Williams is more forthright. “I don’t see how we could stage the current show outdoors,” he says.

John Langford, director of live entertainment at the SECC in Glasgow, who previously worked as a promoter on 360° in South Africa, says the success of this tour is down to the well-oiled machine behind it and the fact that everyone wants to exceed what they have done in the past. “The one thing I have learned working closely with the band over the years is that they have a very clear idea of how they want things to roll out strategically,” he says. “In my experience, it’s a really

IQ Magazine November 2015

good combination of the way Live Nation Global Touring thinks, the way John Giddings thinks, and the way the band thinks. They all work together very well and they all know exactly what they want.”

For Fogel, what it all comes down to is a constant war on creative inertia. “From the time I started working with the band on this level – and I had been their promoter in Canada prior to PopMart – for me it has always been about thinking ahead,” he says. “What I mean is that each tour and the strategy of how that plays out is always about thinking about what is next. Ultimately that guides your thought processes and contributes to the success and longevity of an act, particularly one like U2 that has enjoyed being at such a high level for so long.”

Williams adds, “Somebody said to me once, ‘We come to see U2 shows to see what the future will look like’, which is about as high-pressure a compliment as I can imagine. I think the thing that saves the situation is that we’re never chasing technology for its own sake. The technological breakthroughs always follow the conceptual needs. We didn’t build The Claw [the centerpiece of 360°] just to show off; it was what we needed in order to play stadiums in the round. Similarly, all the audiovisual technology developed for this tour was in service of the storytelling.”

He concludes by saying that U2 tours should be understood and appreciated not as standalone events, but as part of a creative continuum. “Every U2 tour feels, to some extent, like it incorporates everything we have learned from all previous tours,” he says. “On this occasion, there’s a fearlessness and a confidence in the staging approach that comes from decades of working together. Clearly the way the performance progresses around the building is highly unusual, but it’s the backbone of the narrative and the accompanying intellectual rigour that I think is so rare in the current climate. There’s a depth to the ideas that we haven’t seen this completely since Zoo TV.”

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Ireland MAP KEY Promoter Venue Festival

15 NAVAN

The Stables

16 OLDCASTLE

Le Chéile Slane Castle

17 SLIGO 1 BALLYSHANNON

Ballyshannon Folk Festival

2 BELFAST Aiken Promotions RCW Live Events Wonderland Promotions Belsonic Tennent’s Vital Empire Music Hall Limelight Mandela Hall SSE Arena The Kings Hall The Ulster Hall Waterfront Hall

Sligo Jazz Festival

18 STRADBALLY

Electric Picnic

19 TRIM

GFD Promotions

20 TULLAMORE Castlepalooza

21 WATERFORD

Day Tripper Sonic Dreams Spraoi Festival

6 DERRY 7 DRAPERSTOWN

3 BLESSINGTON LAKES KnockanStockan

2 BELFAST

4 CASTLEBAR

LISBURN

BALLYSHANNON 1

Royal Theatre

13

5 CORK Indiependence Cyprus Avenue The Opera House

17

SLIGO

6 DERRY Celtronic Nerve Centre

DUNDALK

7 DRAPERSTOWN Glasgowbury

4 CASTLEBAR

OLDCASTLE

8 DUBLIN Aiken Promotions KCP Entertainments MCD Pat Egan Sound Pod Concerts 12 Points Longitude Mayo Alive 3Arena Aviva Stadium Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Crawdaddy Grand Canal Theatre Harcourt Hotel Phoenix Park The Academy The Brazen Head The Button Factory The Grand Social The National Concert Hall The Olympia Theatre The RDS The Sugar Club The Temple Bar The Unitarian Church of St Stephens Green, Dublin The Village The Workmans Club Vicar Street Whelan’s

9 GALWAY

Roisin Dubh

10 KILKENNY

14

16

NAVAN TRIM 19

9 GALWAY

TULLAMORE

20

DUBLIN 8 BLESSINGTON 3 LAKES

STRADBALLY

12

LIMERICK

KILKENNY

18

10

WATERFORD 11

15

21

KILARNEY CORK 5

Set Theatre

11 KILLARNEY INEC

12 LIMERICK Dolan’s

13 LISBURN

Sunflower Fest

14 DUNDALK

The Spirit Store

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Ireland

Irish Ayes Economic turmoil may have played havoc with the spending power of music fans in Ireland, but demand for live entertainment remained buoyant. And now that the island is emerging from recession, the industry is very much back in the (emerald) green. Adam Woods reports.

Opinions vary on whether the wider Irish live business is genuinely on its way back to good health. The macroeconomic signals are good: the Republic of Ireland is being discussed as a remarkable survivor, back from the brink five years ago to become, once again, one of the success stories of Europe; and Northern Ireland, too, appears to have weathered the worst.

The hopeful language of politicians and economic data doesn’t always translate to money in pockets or an easy spending spirit, of course. Some question whether those things have yet returned, but whether they have or not, there is no doubting that this is a market that has seen remarkably tough times and learned how to survive them.

“It ran a full five years, it really did, no question,” says Kieran Cavanagh of Dublin-based promoter KCP Concerts, lately manager of Irish superstar Daniel O’Donnell. “We really had to keep our heads down for a while. One: you were ticket-price super-sensitive; and two: you really couldn’t gauge a concert’s performance on the advance sales. The normal rules of the road were that advance sales would tell you how you were doing, but they all but disappeared.

“People didn’t want to put their money down six months out or three months out, because people didn’t know if they were going to have a job, if they were going to have the disposable income. So you had to keep your nerve right up until the day of the show.”

In a market where live music is a way of life, from the ever more modern arenas down to the pubs, it takes a lot for the bottom to fall out.

“All you could do was not be too ambitious, not put your head above the parapet,” says Cavanagh. “Do what you had to do to keep your business running, keep your office open.

Don’t be a hero.”

Tentatively, the balance of opinion has it that things are on the up again.

“We seem to be on a good steady gain rather than a surge,” says Dave Allen, booking manager at legendary Dublin venue Whelan’s, who notes that the traditionally busy Christmas period looks to be spilling over into November this year, after an equally thronging October. “It’s picking up, anyway, and from a booking point of view as well.”

Joe Dougan of Shine Productions, co-owner of Belfast’s Belsonic festival and the city’s key Limelight venue, says business feels robust in the Northern Irish capital, with certain traditional caveats: difficult sales at the sub-300-cap end of the market, stronger in the mid-range.

“People are willing to spend money on the tickets for a

IQ Magazine November 2015

hot event,” says Dougan. “We’ve found that acts returning too soon to the territory, or playing at too high a capacity or on a difficult date, are factors much more likely to negatively affect a concert than a slightly high ticket price.”

Cavanagh, too, reports a marked improvement in the response to KCP’s tours. “We’re starting to get a good feeling again. There’s that little bit of disposable income available now that I think wasn’t there before.”

However, Peter Aiken of Aiken Promotions, for decades one of the two leading promoters in Ireland alongside the Live Nationaffiliated MCD, is a little more guarded. “It’s okay,” he says.

“Things are okay. There seems to be a bit of a pick-up – maybe not as much as the commentators say there is, but there is a bit of a pick-up. We’re coming to a general election here. A lot of times there is a bit of spin put on how much things are improving. I don’t feel they are improving as much as they say they are.”

According to a report released this year by IMRO (Irish Music Rights Organisation), live music in its various forms accounts for €87million of the core €291m music industry in the Republic of Ireland and creates 2,980 jobs [all figures: Deloitte Analysis]. Performances in clubs, pubs and other small venues account for 1,780 of those jobs and €35.5m of that revenue, while mainstream pop shows (including touring and festivals) bring €46.1m of the revenue and 1,070 of the jobs.

In Northern Ireland, according to 2010 figures, which are the most recent available, 3,050 people work in the music business as a whole, which is said to contribute around £70m (€95m) in Gross Value Added to the Northern Irish economy [source: Creative & Cultural Skills].

Promoters Already the biggest promoter in Ireland, MCD Productions’ Denis Desmond got a bit bigger in September when he became Live Nation’s non executive chairman of promotions, UK and Ireland. MCD remains a distinct entity, though its links with Live Nation are profound. Its parent company Gaiety operates the Live Nation-Gaiety joint venture with Live Nation, sharing control of Festival Republic and venue and festival operator MAMA Group.

MCD continues to promote a remarkable number of shows in its own right. It increased its ticket sales by 12.5% in 2014, from 1.32m to 1.49m, driven in part by three sold-out One Direction gigs at Dublin’s Croke Park that drew 235,008 fans and grossed €14.7m.

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Ireland

Contributors (left to right): Neil Walker (SSE Arena Belfast), Kieran Cavanagh (KCP Concerts), Dave Allen (Whelan’s), Peter Aiken (Aiken Promotions), Denis Desmond (MCD)

he thing with the music business is, sometimes “ Tgreat acts just don’t sell tickets, and okay acts can sell a phenomenal amount. ”

Peter Aiken – Aiken Promotions

The promoter also owns venues including The Olympia, The Gaiety, The Academy and The Ambassador, as well as the currently retired Oxegen festival. Electric Picnic has now moved under the LN-Gaiety banner, though the new Longitude Festival is still an MCD concern. The promoter also holds a stake in Belfast’s Belsonic, alongside Shine Productions, with whom it also jointly owns Belfast’s Limelight venue.

Speaking to Pollstar earlier this year, Desmond painted a picture of an Irish market that is offering rewards, but not easy ones. “We are working harder for less pay,” he said. “The volume is up but the gross is down. Ticket prices have dropped.

With the size of the market in Ireland and where we are, we are very happy with the business. Irish people like their music.”

Aiken Promotions, founded in Belfast half a century ago but these days with offices in both Irish capitals, has been bringing artists to Ireland since the 1960s under founder Jim Aiken. Having weathered The Troubles (the common name for the conflict that took place between 1968-1998), Ireland continues to consistently deliver major shows. However, Peter Aiken, son of the late Jim, made unwanted headlines last

year when two planned Garth Brooks shows at Croke Park were refused a licence by Dublin City Council, resulting in the star’s decision to scrap three further shows, with 400,000 tickets already sold.

Aiken – whose concerns also include the management of Dublin’s Vicar Street venue, the Live at the Marquee season in Cork, outdoor shows at Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens and numerous one-offs, among them One Direction’s three recent shows in Belfast – campaigned hard against the licensing laws, with no success. He doesn’t hold high hopes for an imminent relaxation, either.

“Not much has changed since then,” he says, with regard to Dublin’s intractable licensing conditions for outdoor events.

“I don’t expect anything to change for a while. I would hope over the next couple of years they will look at it again.”

On the subject of a possible return for Brooks, whose popularity in Ireland was certainly demonstrated by the unfortunate situation, Aiken simply says: “you never know”.

Ask him whether these are challenging times for promoters, and he says the challenges have never stopped. “It was challenging back in 1968, and it’s still challenging now,” he laughs, before considering, “The thing with the music business is, sometimes great acts just don’t sell tickets, and okay acts can sell a phenomenal amount.”

Aiken’s rule of thumb is that Ireland gets pretty well every substantial international show that’s passing through the general neighbourhood, as well as plenty by popular homegrown artists.

An aerial view of the Belsonic Festival in Belfast city centre’s Custom House Square

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Ireland starting to get a good feeling again. There’s “ Wthate’relittle bit of disposable income available now that I think wasn’t there before. ”

Kieran Cavanagh – KCP Promotions

“It’s all the shows you get in the UK, near enough,” he says.

“If it doesn’t come over here, there needs to be a good reason why it doesn’t. Plus, we have all our own artists. The Coronas sold 10,000 tickets in Cork last year. Kodaline will be the same.

Then we have acts like [comedian] Tommy Tiernan and Christy Moore. Dylan Moran has just done exceptionally well.”

Festivals The IMRO report states that Irish festivals mushroomed from around 60 in 2007 to more than 100 by 2012, taking in events as far-flung as the Sea Sessions in Bundoran, Body & Soul at Ballinlough Castle, Co. Westmeath and Indiependence in Mitchelstown, Cork.

At the same time, ticket prices are said to have fallen on average, aided in their downward trajectory by a reduction in the VAT rate to 9% on tourism-related activities. Data from Failte Ireland suggests the cut is working – nearly a million tourists attended contemporary or traditional music festivals between 2009 and 2012.

Festival Republic’s Electric Picnic, at Stradbally, Co Laois, is the giant of Irish festivals and sold-out ten weeks in advance this year, compared to just four weeks in 2014.

Desmond, whose Gaiety Investments has a 49.9% share in Festival Republic, with Live Nation taking the balance, called it “a great turnaround. It has great acts and is a great event.”

The on-off Oxegen festival in Stradbally was cancelled last year, due to a lack of suitable headline acts and “financial demands by local agencies”. Desmond had raised the possibility of a return in 2015, although he noted that, “there is no point putting on something just for the sake of it. If we

can identify a good line-up for next year, we will run it.”

Smaller, niche festivals appear to be the order of the day, and Ireland has dozens of those scattered far and wide, from Co. Louth’s family-friendly Vantastival (9,500-capacity) to the Kilkenny Rhythm & Roots Festival (held across 30 venues in the city); Belfast’s electronic AVA Festival; Dublin’s Forbidden Fruit (5,000-cap) and Dublin City Soul Festival (20,000-cap); Galway Arts Festival (help over two weeks in the city) and Dingle Tradfest.

Of the more mainstream events, MCD’s Longtide (16,500cap), a sister festival to the UK’s Latitude, celebrated its third year at Marlay Park in Dublin in July. Belsonic (5,000cap), , meanwhile, notched up its eighth annual instalment at Belfast’s historic Custom House Square. “It is a fantastic setting for an outdoor event, and it’s something people from Northern Ireland and further afield have responded very positively to,” says Dougan. Headline acts over the years have included Florence & The Machine, Tom Jones, Nine Inch Nails, Hozier, Queens of the Stone Age, David Guetta, Chic, and The Flaming Lips.

Venues The bad times aren’t far behind, but there is no shortage of shows in Ireland once more. Scan the listings in Dublin or Belfast any night of the week, and it’s clear you’re looking at two world-class music cities.

“Dublin most certainly has the edge,” says Joe Dougan.

“It would sit on a par with some of the larger UK cities, like Manchester and Glasgow, in terms of the live music market. It also boasts almost twice the population of Belfast.

“Belfast, in relative terms, does extremely well for a city its size,” he adds. “When artists make the trip to Dublin, they’re often looking for a second show on the island, which, nine times out of ten, would be in Belfast.

For some years, Dougan recalls, Belfast punched far above its weight because of the Odyssey Arena, which opened in 2001, and was unmatched in Ireland at that time. However, since Live Nation’s 14,500-capacity 3Arena opened in 2008, initially as

Dublin’s 3Arena continues to attract A-list international stars

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IQ Magazine November 2015

Ireland The O2, Dublin tends to be the first stop for shows at that level.

The 11,000-capacity Odyssey has this autumn become the SSE Arena, Belfast, and general manager Neil Walker says the benefits of the rebrand and its accompanying corporate partnership are already being felt.

“Certainly, the early signs of how the partnership is working are very promising on both sides,” he says. “We had been the only UK and Ireland venue of our size that hasn’t had a naming rights deal, but we are making up for lost time. For us and for promoters, it is helping us get the shows out there. “[SSE] have got access to priority ticketing, and that helps publicise the events in the process. It is early days – we have only had three shows so far where we have had priority ticketing on sale. They are growing their database and we are growing ours, but certainly the signs already are very good.”

At a club and theatre level, Dublin is hard to beat for venues, with the Olympia (1,240-cap), the Academy (850), Vicar Street (1,500), the Workman’s Club (300), Whelan’s (450) and the Grand Social (350) among the busier names.

Whelan’s celebrated its 25th birthday last year, and in January, stadium star Ed Sheeran played for 400, claiming a show by Damien Rice in the same room changed his life when he was a young boy. Dave Allen says the good times never quite stopped at the Wexford Street venue, even during the recession.

“We were lucky enough that because we have such a strong brand in Dublin, we didn’t suffer that much,” says Allen. “Ed Sheeran gave us a big push early in the year, but generally our core business will be international indie and local acts, and they are all doing really well just now.”

In Belfast, Voodoo (200), the Belfast Empire (230) and Mandella Hall (1,000) all keep busy, though the Limelight, an institution since the 1980s, stands particularly tall, with its Limelight 1 club (750) and storied main room, Limelight 2 (475).

“The main challenge is always keeping the venue diary as

elfast, in relative terms, does extremely “ Bwell for a city its size. ”

Joe Dougan – Shine Productions busy as possible,” says Dougan. “There are certainly periods during the year when that’s not a problem and availability is an issue – particularly September to December. However, we make sure that we are pushing as hard as possible all year round for artists to make the trip across the Irish Sea as part of their tour, and we try to stay locked in with UK touring schedules where possible.”

Music maintains its appeal right across Ireland, from Cork, where Aiken has staged its Live at the Marquee series for 11 years; to Limerick, where Dolan’s Warehouse (380) and its Big Top tent (1,500) keep the 100,000-population city punching above its weight; to Killarney, where the INEC recently bagged Cliff Richard for a show and some rehearsal time ahead of his UK arena shows.

“A sell-out show on a Saturday night in September is no bad thing,” says Sean Mulchinock, INEC Killarney operations manager. “His crew came here and used our facilities for rehearsal space for the UK tour. That’s something we are really trying to explore with other artists.”

INEC, a venue and hotel complex out in the Co. Kerry countryside on the edge of the Killarney National Park, has a different proposition than some – a destination venue serving up shows to travelling groups of fans.

“It is really about getting the acts right for people to travel,” says Mulchinock, noting recent weekends of shows by Daniel O’Donnell and Irish country singer Nathan Carter. “With Nathan we had two sold-out shows [in the 3,000-capacity theatre] and then a smaller event on the Sunday afternoon.

Daniel O’Donnell sang our praises onstage and referred to us as a cruise-ship on land.”

Kodaline played at the INEC Killarney in March 2014 and will return to the venue in December this year

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Members’ Noticeboard

Global Infusion Group’s Tony Laurenson (centre) and Bonnie May celebrate with their Event Caterer of the Year award at the Foodservice Cateys 2015, flanked by comedian Adam Buxton (left), Janie Manzoori-Stamford, The Caterer’s foodservice editor, and Darren Lockley, head of Electrolux Professional (right) who sponsored the award category.

CAA agent Andy Cook donned the tartan of The Black Watch regiment when he tied the knot with Chloe at a ceremony in Crear, Scotland, on 10 October.

Wembley Stadium’s Danielle Russell and Jim Frayling collected the Best Venue Teamwork: Stadium prize at the recent Live UK Music Business Awards.

Germany’s promoters association (BDV) voted in a new board. Pictured left to right are Klaus Wollny (Hanseatische Konzertdirektion), Christian Doll (C2-Concerts), Stephan Thanscheidt (FKP Scorpio), president Jens Michow, Ulrike Schirrmacher (Berliner Kabarett-Theater Die Wühlmäuse), Daniel Rothammer (DEAG) and Felix Hansen (Landstreicher Booking).

United Talen t Agency’s N atasha Bent Agent of the Ye was crowned ar at the Live U K Music Busin ess Awards.

SJM promoter Simon Moran witnesses One Direction receiving the keys to The O2 arena from marketing director Jules Arnott in recognition of their record-equalling 23 performances at the venue.

The PRG team celebrate victory at the Live Design Interna tional show in Las Vegas, where they won the Best Debut ing Product Award for the PRG GroundControl Followspot System .

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

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IQ Magazine November 2015

Your Shout

“What’s the one idea that you’d like to see adopted across the industry to improve things for the fans?”

TOP SHOUT Just one? How about three?!

1. It would be good if promoters would measure the time it takes them to pee and do all the other things nature dictates in the toilet. Then it is simple, just use your mathematical skills so that you can provide the required number of toilet facilities for your visitors.

2. The same goes for food – forcing your guests to spend 40 minutes queuing to get a hot dog, just to survive, when you have three great bands on stage at the same time, doesn’t help anybody.

3. And please, do not ask for exclusivity for everything. Don’t compete where it is not necessary – we have enough stress in normal life, don’t we?

Michal Kaščák, Pohoda Festival

Fair and transparent prices for live events, so that fans feel good, are treated well and stay with us.

Ruud Berends, Networking Music

One idea that I wish would be adopted by our industry is for all venues and ticketing agents to stop fighting for inventory and running closed-user group access systems, but instead all talk to each other and start using the technology that has existed for many years and agree shared barcode/access information. Until this happens our industry is continuing to fail to provide a universal electronic ticketing/venue access solution that our customers should have had for a long time already.

Stuart Galbraith, Kilimanjaro Live

Transport to and from shows: I think The O2 arena fits well into this category.

I propose that the venues/promoters supply buses to collect fans from various pick up points in London and perhaps further out, take them to the venue and back again. Those with cars can drive to the pickup point leave the cars there and get them on the way back. Those without cars will need to make their own way and perhaps get a cab from the drop off point which is much, much cheaper than a cab from The 02. No more worries about missing the last train and missing the end of a show. Forget about night trains, no one in their right minds will use them. I think a big red bus with O2 or Wembley in big letters will be very popular. Who pays? Dunno!

Ed Grossman, Brackman Chopra LLP

There’s not enough being done to engage the most loyal and committed live music fans. If we can incentivise those fans to become ambassadors for live music through affiliate marketing schemes, then not only will the audience benefit, but by extension so will the music industry at large.

Stephen Budd, Stephen Budd Music

A wacky idea – how about selling tickets at face value?

Martin Goebbels, Robertson Taylor

I would like to see something like an InterFestival pass, similar to the InterRail pass that the railways have in Europe.

Where all festivals participate and offer special entrance rates and deals for those music fans who want to spend their summer visiting festivals.

Ivan Milovojev, EXIT Festival

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

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