VIPNEWS PREMIUM > VOLUME 168 > MAY 2014

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VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

McGowan’s Musings

I haven’t mentioned seagulls for a while have

I? My nemesis, Shitty, has kept himself to

himself for a some time, preferring to send

his squawking offspring to continue the

annoyance factor, but it could have been

him that I saw swoop upon an unsuspecting

Spanish student in the centre of Brighton,

snatching his lunch out of his hand without

so much as a “Gracias Senor!” Those of you

that were here for The Great Escape may have

had your own encounters, if so, please let me

know. For the first time I wasn’t here for the

event, which brings so many international

music people into the City, and though I

hear the weather wasn’t great, I must admit

I missed it and the particular energy that it

generates in the City. Our report on what

many seem to think was the best edition yet

is of course somewhat short due to my non-

attendance , but next year is the tenth, so I

won’t miss that!

My reason for being away from home was a

trip to Berlin and Dresden as part of my music

publishing duties, in fact I have seen a lot of

Germany recently, what with a press trip to

Hamburg to see how the City is developing

and getting behind its creative population. In

fact the support of music and other creative

industries by City authorities has taken up a

lot of my attention recently. Brighton backs

The Great Escape, Berlin supports Berlin Music

Week, Hamburg highlights Creative Industries

and Aarhus in Denmark, which I attended

for The Spot Festival (see report in this issue),

becomes City of Culture in 2017.

There are though areas in which the live music

business could well do with help from other

departments of the City authorities. Clubs

throughout Europe, and no doubt elsewhere ,

are suffering from the effects of urban

development ; as previously industrial areas

are ‘gentrified’ and new apartment blocks are

built, many existing venues are receiving noise

complaints from new neighbours, and even

though in many cases the clubs have been op-

erating for years, they can be forced to either

undertake extensive and expensive sound-

proofing, or shut down completely. We report

on a recent case in Brighton in this issue , and

whilst in Hamburg I was told of incidences of

this throughout Germany where the club as-

sociation Livekomm are attempting to raise

public awareness to help club and venue

owners and operators.

Please let us know if anything like this is

happening in your area.

Right, as I’ve been writing this whilst suffering

from a terrible cold, I’ll wind up, I’d hate to

think I was spreading germs on-line. Off to

Inverness in a couple of weeks for Go North,

the Scottish Highland air will either kill or cure!

As ever I’ll report back.

In the meantime, Ladies and Gentlemen – The

News!

COLOPHON >

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VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

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VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

Survey Reveals Problems of Tent Dumping at Music FestivalsAllan McGowan am@vip-booking.com

The Love Your Tent campaign and

Buckinghamshire New University have

published the results of a survey of festival-

goers about the waste left by punters on

festival sites, an increasingly big issue for

the festival sector with logistical, environ-

mental and commercial ramifications, and

something previously highlighted by the A

Greener Festival organisation.

Juliet Ross-Kelly has set up the Love Your

Tent initiative on the back of environmen-

tal work she has done with the Isle Of

Wight Festival, and aims to discourage an

increasingly common practice amongst

festival-goers in the UK and beyond, buy-

ing a dirt cheap tent for attending a festi-

val, with the intention of just leaving it in

the camping field at the end of the event.

So that someone else has to dispose of it.

Isle of Wight Festival organiser John Gid-

dings has talked about the tent problem

at various festival industry events over the

past years.

In the survey of 1200 festival-goers from

multiple countries, 60% admitted to dis-

carding tents at the end of festivals, with a

third then saying they intended to continue

doing so, and another third unable to say

for certain they wouldn’t do it again in the

future. This despite the fact 86% of those

surveyed recognised waste was a major en-

vironmental factor at festivals.

According to Bucks New University’s Tere-

sa Moore the research confirms a growing

problem not just confined to the UK. As

tent prices get cheaper, more are discard-

ed at festivals. She called for retailers to

take their share of their responsibility and

work with event organisers to tackle this

problem.

Ross-Kelly’s work at the Isle Of Wight Fes-

tival has included inviting festival-goers to

sign up to a commitment regarding tak-

ing responsibility for their waste, and their

tents, pointing out that by camping along-

side similarly committed people festival-

goers will be able to stay in a much more

pleasant campsite for the duration of the

event. She is encouraging other festivals

to introduce similar measures, with a bid

to reducing campsite waste at festivals by

10% year on year. She said, “Thanks to the

great support and work by Bucks we can

see how much work still needs to be done

to encourage a change in audience behav-

iour. By targeting festivals to reduce their

campsite waste by 10% year on year we are

leading a change that will help to protect

festival culture for future generations and

from the work that we’ve done with the Isle

of Wight Festival, we know it’s achievable”.

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

As usual SPOT was formally opened by the Mayor of Aarhus, Jacob

Bundsgaard. As well as being one of the youngest looking Mayors I

have ever met, he appears to know his music business, and he is obvi-

ously genuinely enthusiastic about the event . and its importance to

the City. The success of the event over the last 20 years has obviously

helped in the securing of the appointment of Aarhus as City of Cul-

ture in 2017. In fact Mayor Bundsgaard had so much to say that SPOT

founder and organiser Gunnar Madson of ROSA, was able to cut down

his following speech as so many points had already been covered.

Over the 1st-4th of May, more than 6000 music fans, industry peo-

ple, guests, musicians, volunteers, etc. made Aarhus a hotspot for

music, film and interactive. Also thousands of Aarhus citizens joined

the free SPOT party outside the gates at the new, big outdoor SPOT

Royal Stage as well as at the free SPOT Film Festival. The Agenda

included 165 concerts, approximately 40 films and the same number

of seminars.

More than 1100 Danish music industry people met 350 international

colleagues at networking sessions, which were in great demand.

Both those which had been arranged by the Danish music business

and those where the international parties used SPOT as a launching

pad for their messages: Believe Digital, the MaMA Festival and Berlin

Music Week – just like SPOT has collaborated with the M’era Luna-

festival and FKP Scorpio.

The highest number of English record labels attended, alongside the

biggest delegation from France in SPOT history, and once again the

German industry with more than 150 delegates boasts the biggest

international delegation by a mile.

Gunnar Madsen, head of SPOT Festival, commented, “It has been

the most comprehensive festival programme so far and with great

turn-up - and everything has run smoothly. If we have lived up to the

expectations or exceeded them, we are happy. If we have made mis-

takes, we are determined to correct them for next year. We are all ex-

tremely grateful for the serious interest in Danish and Nordic music.”

Some of the international delegates had the following to say:

“It’s been very exciting. Well-organised, Good stages, and everything

on schedule – that makes it easy to be at a festival. Byrta was excel-

lent. Sekuoia would be great on the Primavera Festival stage at three

o’clock in the morning. Kill J are so ready to be exported.”

(Dario Manrique, Rolling Stone Magazine, Spain)

SPOT 201420th Anniversary Edition Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com

Gunnar Madsen

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VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

“The essence of SPOT Festival lies in it’s name: SPOT. It is a fantastic

opportunity to spot new talent and meet Danish and international

people in the music business. SPOT is the perfect mix of business,

networking and enjoying music.”

(Frank Lenggenhager - Lautstark, Switzerland)

“I really like the new big, free outdoor venue at SPOT – now the fes-

tival seems less hidden. It’s up front. It’s in your face. It’s happening.

This year you have put on a wider range of styles. The quirkier bands

have become quirkier than before. Byrta were outrageous, Penny

Police and the choir was special, Elin Kåven... People are stretching

themselves. I like that.”

(Kieron Tyler, Mojo/The Arts Desk, UK)

“People are happy. There’s a good feel. I have seen many fine shows.

The concert in the Rainbow at ARoS, Spillemændene, and the Go

Go Berlin frontman – that man needs a stadium! I can’t see him in a

small club…”

(Helgi Sigurdsson, Morgunbladid, Iceland)

“It’s my third or fourth time here and I always enjoy it. Here I know

that I’ll always find some acts to bring back to Hungary. I really love

the festival. It’s a really well organized, very eclectic bill. It’s also really

nice to meet the colleagues too. I’ve met a lot of my German col-

leagues this year. And Aarhus is a really nice city!”

(Fruzsina Szep, Sziget Festival, Hungary)

“Amazing Festival. It’s my first time here. People are beautiful and the

weather is beautiful. There’s a very relaxed atmosphere compared to

other festival like this, and that’s really great.”

(Natalie Judge, Matador Records, UK)

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

The Great Escape, again took place in Brighton on the South Coast of

England, and these were the results of this 9th edition:

TGE 2015 will be mark the event’s 10th birthday and will take place

on 14th-16th May 2015. Super Early Bird delegate passes will go on

sale in early June.

Festival

- 2014 was the 2nd sell out in a row

- Over 400 artists performed over the weekend

- 15,000 festivalgoers attended over 3 days

- 35+ venues were used

- Over 300 bands performed in over 30 venues as part of The

Alternative Escape.

Convention

- 3,000 industry professionals attended from 41 different countries

- 14 official delegate parties were hosted

- 14 targeted speed networking events took place

Convention activity was staged over 8 walkable venues

Highlights included a surprise set from Kaiser Chiefs thanks to Ama-

zon Live Lounge, and a record number of secret shows – Peace, Chloe

Howl and Klaxons amongst others - around the city, to a pure celebra-

tion of 50 years of pirate radio at the TGE convention, to a set from

Jon Hopkins.

WATCH THE OFFICIAL TGE14 FILM:

http://youtu.be/55gwtIXOIl8”http://youtu.be/55gwtIXOIl8

I asked founder Martin Elbourne for his overview of this 9th edition,

his reply was short and to the point,” Clearly the best ever!” Kat Mor-

ris, festival director commented, “What a brilliant year, truly the best

yet. We are proud to have presented more artists and more secret

shows than ever before, produced another industry leading conven-

tion programme, and the festival sold out for the second year run-

ning. TGE14 was the perfect foundation for next year’s 10th anniver-

sary. Whilst we can’t quite believe it ourselves after three, wonderful

days, we’ve already started work on making the 10th birthday very

special. We can’t wait to see everyone there.”

The Great Escape ’14 Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com

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Founder Martin Elbourne

The DomePhoto by Tori Clarkson

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

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The Yearly Music Convention Awards 2014 took place on the final day of The Great Escape, celebrating the showcase festival and music con-

vention season just gone, with hosts - Great Escape co-founder Martin Elbourne and Louder Than War’s John Robb - donning Abba costumes

for the event (Abba’s Eurovision win 40 years ago having occurred in TGE’s flagship venue Brighton Dome, just in case you wondered).

Sponsored this year by Brighton’s own ACUMEN MEDIA LAW, new talent and music business events from all over the world took home YMCA

trophies, while a new annual prize - the Brighton Legend award - went to Charlie Myatt from 13 Artists, the leading booking agency based

in the city.

And here is the full list of YMCA winners.

Best Networking Event Or Service: Wide Days Edinburgh bus tour (UK)

Best Delegates Bag: BigSound (Australia)

Best Delegates Bar: M&M Finland

Best Convention Centre: Eurosonic (The Netherlands)

Best App: Reeperbahn (Germany)

Best New Showcase Festival: Nouvelle Prague (Czech Republic)

Best Showcase Or Party: Aussie BBQ at Canadian Music Week

Best Export Office: New Zealand Export Office

Best City Champion: Tallinn Music Week (Estonia)

Convention Junkie: Michael Chugg

Brighton Legend in association with ACUMEN MEDIA LAW: Charlie Myatt, 13 Artists

Major Press Quotes included:

“The perfect ending to a festival that just kept on giving.” – 4*, Daily

Telegraph

“The festival is fast becoming a haven for real-life fans searching for

the festival vibe without having to do battle with a tent.” – 4*, The

Independent

“The Great Escape is not about big moments, but chance discover-

ies” – 4*, The Times

“The UK’s most comprehensive new music festival.” – Digital Spy

“The Great Escape is fantastic on the ears, but goddamn we need to

rest for a week now” – CLASH

Yearly Music Convention Awards Presented

Brighton Pier

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

Recently the European ticketing company, launched a new ticket-

ing innovation in the UK market called “ticketscript box office” and

”the #sellmore reporting suite”. Since the company was established in

2006, ticketscript has grown at a rapid rate - and now has offices in

London, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona and Berlin. The last year has

seen ticketscript sell around 11 million tickets for its clients and provide

ticketing services to 70,000 events.

VIP News spoke to Jason Thomas, Chief Commercial Officer at

ticketscript.

Can you give us a short description of ticketscript?

Ticketscript is one of Europe’s biggest self-service digital ticketing

company and we provide event organizers with solutions, tools and

technology that enable the industry to sell more tickets directly to

their audiences and communities. ticketscript works with a range of

music events, festivals, trade fairs, exhibitions and sport events includ-

ing Awakenings, Dance Valley, i-Motion, Secret Cinema, Hed Kandi,

Waterstones and Truckfest.

What are, according to you, the reasons for your success?

I believe the reason why we have grown in such a rapid rate is because

we enable our clients to produce successful and profitable events

by returning the power and independence to them. Our business is

to grow their business. We have also instilled the ‘sell more’ culture

throughout our business and this drives us to deliver the latest, innova-

tive ticketing technology. An example on this is our recently launched

2 industry firsts.

There’s ticketbox, Europe’s 1st on-the-door box office sales app. It is

a simple, portable, high tech, no investment solution for on-the-door

ticket sales.

The other one is the #sellmore reporting suite, enabling event promot-

ers to understand their sales patterns, customer demographics and

analyze their online marketing through to point of sale via Analytics

Connect.

How do you see the development of the European Ticketing

Market in the future?

I’m sure the emergence of smaller, technology led companies will con-

tinue as an increasing number of event organizers realize that they do

not need the large outdated traditional ticketing companies anymore.

However within this new ticketing model I’m sure there will be larger

players hopefully such as ourselves.

It remains to be seen though how many remain fiercely independent

like ourselves, or succumb to merging with larger, more traditional

and often non-European companies wanting to gatecrash the market.

Do you have any messages to the other sectors of the European

Live Music Industry on how to change in order to improve tick-

eting?

They should become less reliant on the outdated distribution of physi-

cal tickets - all statistics point to the fact that customers are not willing

to wait or pay for this service anymore - neither online or instore.

They should come to understand the importance of owning their own

data & not allowing agents to send details of rival events to YOUR

customers.

Finally, I would like to say: Do not underestimate the importance of

a slick and professional entrance management solution at the event.

You can kill your brand by a bad customer experience on the day of the

event - and with instant social media they can spread their dissatisfac-

tion whilst still in a long queue!

Read more at http://company.ticketscript.com/uk”ticketscript

Jason Thomas,Ticketscript

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Ticketscript continue to march through Europe Anne Frank Alsted aa@vip-booking.com

14 -17 januarY 2015

groningen, nl

The

platform

Europeanmusic

The

platform

Europeanmusic

The

platform

Europeanmusic

The

platform

Europeanmusic

EUROSONIC NOORDERSLAG WORDT GEORGANISEERD DOOR SPONSORENEUROSONIC NOORDERSLAG WORDT GEORGANISEERD DOOR SPONSORENEUROSONIC NOORDERSLAG WORDT GEORGANISEERD DOOR SPONSORENEUROSONIC NOORDERSLAG WORDT GEORGANISEERD DOOR SPONSORENThank you for attending

Eurosonic Noorderslag 2014

See you next year

Early bird registration and

act submission open May 1, 2014

Act submission closes September 1, 2014

Previous edition in numbersTotal amount of visitors (sold out) . . . . 38,500Conference visitors (sold out) . . . . . . . . 3,275Nationalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Acts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337Number of stages @ Eurosonic . . . . . . 36Number of stages @ Noorderslag . . . . 11Media & journalisten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307EBU radio stations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30ETEP festivals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89International festivals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

FKP Scorpio Announce New Addition to the Conference Showcase Calendar Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com

Whilst interviewing Folkert Koopmans at

SPOT I was already aware that this outwardly

calm and even reserved man always appears

to have some new project on the go. Not

satisfied with upcoming tour dates with the

100 or so artists and 16 festivals in 4 coun-

tries that his Hamburg based Company is re-

sponsible for, he already had plans in place

for a new conference and showcase event in

Sweden.

FKP Scorpio is joining the showcase confer-

ence circuit by creating a Swedish event in

Norrköping during its Bravalla Festival. He

told Billboard, “We’re speaking to 18 venues

in Norrköping and we can use several that

are within walking distance of each other,

just as Reeperbahn does in Hamburg and Eu-

rosonic does in Groningen.”

Things are already looking good for FKP

Scoroio’s outdoor festival business, with

its major twinned German festivals, the

73,000-capacity Hurricane and 60,000-ca-

pacity Southside, having already sold out

with a couple of months to spare. Folkert

also expects to sell out the second edition

of Bravalla, which kicked off last year with

a 52,000-capacity sellout. Sell outs are also

expected for Denmark’s 30,000 capacity

Northside, started in 2010, and the 27,000

Greenfield started in Switzerland in 2005.

The new event is to be called, Where’s the

Music? FKP Scorpio say that this title is their

way to describe what state the music busi-

ness is currently at and where it is heading.

Their press release goes on to explain:

This is best done live and through discussion.

The platform is a combined showcase festival

and music industry conference, focusing on

new music, new collaborations and new so-

lutions. Where’s the Music? is a festival with

two purposes, one obviously being the music

where we aim at having new artists in focus

and presented to a curious and excited indus-

try ready to get into new projects. The other

being a comprehensive conference program

processing and exploring subjects related to

the industry. The festival will include artists

performances as well as lectures held by peo-

ple in the music industry, sharing their stories

and experiences. The combination will make

a platform for networking, where national

and international music industry will ex-

change experiences and ideas, explore new

artists and find new collaborations, through

lectures and personal meetings.

Folkert Koopmans, CEO of FKP Scorpio is

excitedly looking forward to launch his new

festival in Norrköping. “We have found a

great and trustworthy partner in Upplev

Norrköping while promoting Bråvalla Festi-

val in 2013. It feels great to come back to

Norrköping with the new concept, Where’s

the Music?, so that we can show interna-

Folkert Koopman

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VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

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tional professionals in the music industry

what Sweden is well known for in Europe –

to find and bring up interesting new artists

and innovative technical solutions.”

”It feels great to develop the collaboration

with FKP by creating a new festival togeth-

er, says Stefan Papangelis, CEO, Experience

Norrköping. “Where’s the Music?” is going

to improve the image of Norrköping as a mu-

sic city and bring us even closer to its vision to

become the Music Capital of Sweden”.

FKP Scorpio will, in collaboration with Upplev

Norrköping, create an annual festival that

will be held in various public locations in the

unique area called Industrilandskapet in the

central of Norrköping. This location adds to

the experience of the festival as being more

intimate and the visitors will be able to walk

from one stage to another in just a few min-

utes. Our ambition is to make this festival the

best one in the Nordic countries and attract

thousands of visitors to Norrköping.

Where’s the Music? is scheduled for 12-14

February 2015. This is about a month after

Eurosonic, a couple of weeks after Midem,

and pretty close to By Larm – a lot of profes-

sionals could be very busy early next year!

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VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

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Brighton is to lose one of its mainstay live music venues with the closure

of the popular Blind Tiger. The venue has been forced to close as the

result of a dispute over noise complaints from a resident who moved into

the same building as the pub about a year ago. The complaints have led

to the issue of a noise abatement order from the local council.

In https://client.ukfastexchange.co.uk a post on their official website, the

venue’s management describe trying to resolve the situation with their

neighbour following complaints on several occasions about noise levels.

These efforts failed resulting in the neighbour complaining to the local

police, followed by the issue of a ‘notice to abate a statutory nuisance’.

Breaching this order, which the staging of a gig would automatically do,

would result in court action and a possible fine of £20,000.

The venue’s attempts to deal with the problem by imposing stricter noise

controls in the venue failed, as even drums with no mics were enough

to cause problems upstairs. The installation of soundproofing was not an

option due to the substantial expense involved. The venue, like so many

others, admitted that as a business it was not in good financial shape.

Apparently attempts to find a new home for the neighbour, and for the

club to take over the residential part of the building failed.

A petition against the council’s order had accumulated 9000 signatures

(there may be more by now). One petitioner commented, “Only an idiot

would move into a flat above a live venue and then complain about the

noise. Brighton & Hove Council, don’t pander to idiots, please”.

Understandably councils have a duty to deal with residents noise com-

plaints, nobody wants to endure all night parties going on in the house

Brighton’s Blind Tiger Venue Forced to Close Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com

The Blind Tiger Club

next door for instance. But in cases like The Blind Tiger, where the site on

Brighton’s Grand Parade has hosted live music since the 1850’s and oper-

ated as a fully equipped gig for the last thirty years, it is reasonable to say

that the venue and the gigs were there first. Brighton has already lost The

Free Butt in a very similar case 4 years ago and The Night and Day venue

in Manchester faced the same situation earlier this year.

The Fleece Bristol Threatened with Closure:

Just before going to press with this issue of The News the BBC published

this report of yet another club threatened by residential development:

The owners of Bristol music venue The Fleece say it may have to close if

a plan for new flats is approved, as they would be too close to the stage.

The flats, planned for an old office block on Victoria Street, would place

bedrooms within 20m (65ft) of bands playing at the venue.

In www.change.org online petition calling for the council to turn down

the plans gained 17,000 signatures in 12 hours.The firm behind the plans

said it wanted to “satisfy a gap” for flats.The Fleece has hosted many

famous acts since it opened in 1982 including Oasis, Radiohead, Amy

Winehouse, the Manic Street Preachers, The Killers and the White Stripes.

Owner Chris Sharp said: “The Fleece has thrived as a venue for 32 years.

One of the key factors in its success is its location. “The lack of residents

in the surrounding streets has meant the venue has been able to offer

live music seven nights per week and club nights until 4am at weekends

without disturbing anyone. “During its entire history The Fleece has not

had any issues with noise complaints. “If the huge office block located

right next door is given the green light to be converted into approx 80

privately-owned flats we would anticipate a deluge of complaints as

soon as people move in.”

Developer Edenlaw Ltd was granted a change of use from offices to

residential last November but the council was unable to take noise into

account during the process.A noise survey carried out on behalf of the

developer said the Fleece had been “identified as a source of noise af-

fecting the proposed development” but claimed glazed windows would

insulate most of the sound from the venue.Council planners are due to

vote on proposed external alterations to the plans, including changes to

the facade and the addition of balconies, at the end of the month.

There are a growing number of these cases in which established venues

cannot defend their right to continue business as there appear to be no

statutory rights, no matter how long they have operated. Organisations

like Livekomm and DMA in Europe are investigating the situation and

Mark Davyd of The Forum in Tunbridge Wells in the UK has also set up an

organisation which aims to gain some form of ‘listing’ to give established

venues some form of protection.

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

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VIPNEWS > MAY 2014 > INDEPTH STORY

No there isn’t a revolution going on but it seems a sort of a progressive

evolution is under way as ticketing benefits from new technologies and

consumer trends.

VIP News spoke with Jan Willem van der Meer, COO at the ticketing

service provider Paylogic, a company that belong to the stock market

listed EDM-Imperium SFX Entertainment...

Which trends are you currently seeing within the ticketing busi-

ness?

– There are a lot of them, I think the most important one is that for

years people have been talking about consumer information and

‘knowing your customers’, but it was more about using the instruction

when you don’t really know what it means. Now, the years of 2013

and 2014 are the years where the event organizers are really begin-

ning to understand the values of their own relationship to their visitors;

they’re doing everything to build the strongest relationship possible.

That didn’t just come about through selling a ticket or having a new

headliner on the event, it’s about knowing the people that like your

brands and knowing how to interact with them. By knowing them and

how to involve them with new ways of contact, I think the companies

that are doing this now are going to be more successful, and I think

that will be the difference for the future. That is one of the most inter-

esting trends, it’s nothing new, but the change is that the companies

really understand it now.

In which part of the event genres is Paylogic most successful?

– As we started in the Netherlands there was a very big electronic music

culture for years. This market is pretty revolutionary and very progres-

sive, so when we started, this was one of the easiest growing markets

that we could enter. That is why we are selling the mostly these tickets

worldwide. I guess that half of the tickets sold by Paylogic could be con-

nected to electronic music. Sure, we ticket other kinds of events, tours

and venues, but that is not our focus market at this point.

In the German market mobile ticketing is less important in terms

of the overall share of tickets sold for concerts. When do you

expect mobile ticketing to also speed up in Germany?

– I think most of the buying of tickets is done trough the desktop internet

or laptop internet. Especially in the USA, the UK and also in the Nether-

The Socialisation of Ticketing Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014 > INDEPTH STORY

15

lands you see that nearly eighty percent of the event discovering happens

on mobile, through social media or discovering with several apps or the

mobile internet. In the US the conversion rates of mobile payment are

growing incredibly, so they are just one step ahead of Europe. I’m not

sure, but I guess the most important reason that not so many tickets are

sold by mobile right now, is that the solutions that are offered are not

very user-friendly. That is one reason, on the other hand the main players

that are well known for ticketing in the German market do not focus on

it and push it at all. They don’t inform their customers, if they did they

might sell a lot more tickets with better solutions on mobile. For example,

a few years ago as the e-commerce started on the European market, the

Netherlands were already selling eighty percent of the tickets online, in

Germany still over forty percent of the tickets are sold by retail. I think it

might be the case that although the technology does not lag behind in

Germany, the consumer behaviour does if you compare it to the Neth-

erlands or the US. So, I think it will be a normal way of buying tickets in

Germany in 2015.

“Big Data” is a buzzword in terms of the exportation of con-

sumer and consumer behaviour data. What kind of data is really

useful and how do you evaluate it, or how does the promoter

evaluate it?

– I think the most important thing is, if you are in a direct relationship

with the consumer, with the fan, then you can get more and more in-

formation on how they investigate and how they make decisions, how

they are buying their tickets. If you see that a consumer is always buying

tickets on the first day you’re on sale, then you know what kind of con-

sumer that is. So, if you can also connect to his social environment and

you see that he is engaging with your event or even alerting others to

your event, then you can call him an ambassador or an influencer. Every

brand, especially event brands are being pushed a lot by these influences.

Now, if you get contact to these people and give them some extra poten-

tial, some exclusive information and you connect them more strongly to

your brand or your event that is what we call customer ownership. If you

give them some extras and they can share it, then they actually sell the

tickets for you. Like everything in the world, if people who are paying for

something themselves promote something, it has a much stronger effect

than being promoted by someone selling something.

About eighty percent of the people who are going to an event are

going there because someone else is going too. So, who is the first

one who makes the decision? If you find out who these people are

and how they make the decision, if you can connect these people and

then connect them to your brand, this is very important. You can have

statistical data about how many women, how many men, how many

people are coming by public transport, that’s also interesting and I’m

sure you can use that. But that is more interesting for the planning

of an event; if you want to know how to boost the event, how to

sell more tickets and get sold out earlier, then you need to know the

influencers and connect to them.

How much is social ticketing only a buzzword or already reality?

– Well, social ticketing is a buzzword, that doesn’t mean that it is not

something that I think of. I don’t think that social ticketing is only on

Facebook, I think Facebook is a tool like many other social networks are

tools. You should connect those in your entire strategy to get a relation-

ship to your visitors. What I call social ticketing is to make sure that peo-

ple could take their relations, their friends, into the same event. You can

help this in a digital way, so that could be social ticketing, it could be a

group buying process. If people buy a ticket and they have the possibility

to tell their friends ,”Hey, I bought a ticket for this event, would you come

with me?”, that is social ticketing. But you should not concentrate on

one platform, because a user on Facebook in the first way is a Facebook-

user, not a user of your brand.

Do you remember the first big social network from the US? It was Mys-

pace, and after Myspace collapsed, there were about thirty or forty

bands that completely went out of business, because the only access to

their fans was through Myspace. So they lost their fan base completely

because they didn’t realize that they were so dependent on Myspace. I

think, it is sure important that you use Facebook but it should not be the

only destination to connect your visitor.

Jan Willem van der Meer, COO Paylogic

16

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

What kind of plans and innovations do you have in mind, techni-

cal or strategically, for Paylogic in 2014?

– I think the main focus for us is to be able to create strategies to get

access to more people, using a lot of different technologies in order to

connect. But it’s just what we discussed about social ticketing, we want

to connect and understand our consumer. Together with our customer

we make a strategy plan in which we point out a list of dates and mo-

ments in which we make the right contact points with the visitors to get

them connected with the brand. That’s going to be well before the ticket

sell starts, for pre-registration, for different kinds of contacts. Everybody

wants a special product and everybody wants special conditions for it. I

think, by letting our customers understand that within the tools of Pay-

logic you can have so many more contact moments, so many more ways

to be connected to the event, you can do so much more than just putting

the ticket on sale. We did this from the start, but now we feel that our

customers are really getting it and they like it. As I said at the ILMC, it’s

much more important to become a strategic partner to your customer

than just an online cash register.

Another thing that we going to do, we have now connected many ways

to RFID (Radio-frequency identification) because I think it is very impor-

tant not only to know what the customer is doing at home, behind the

PC or the laptop, it’s also very important to know what the customer’s

doing at the event. When you know what the customers are doing at

the event you can be much more successful, it can bring much more

feedback and it can influence the entire event, this is very important for

us. I think mobile becomes more and more critical, we talk a lot about

“mobile first”, which means that whatever you think about in your strat-

egy, you think about how it could be visible on mobile.

We want to assure our customers that it is possible and important that

the people are able to buy different products on one website, it can be

music, it can be a ticket or something else. Right now it still looks like you

promote an event on your website and you divert people to the website

of, let’s say, CTS Eventim or Ticketmaster and the people have to buy their

tickets there. This is a little bit old fashioned, because buying a ticket is a

very simple process and there is no reason to buy it on a separate plat-

form. So, actually it has to be available everywhere. The role that Paylogic

plays in there is something like “Intel inside”, it’s not about us. You should

just be able to sell and to buy the ticket on every platform.

Okay, but the reality in these days seems that if you have tickets

available on various platforms, promoters end up having a couple

of terminals or printed data-lists at the door, trying to figure out

where the visitor bought the ticket.

– I think what we do, is exactly what it needs to solve this problem. What

happens right now is that you work with one consumer brand ticket-

ing platform like Ticketmaster, Ticketonline, CTS Eventim or anyone else.

This brand has the goal to find audiences for you as an event organizer.

So you sell seventy percent of the tickets there, but then you decide to

sell tickets on Facebook or on Songkick or wherever. So, what we try to

explain is, that we are not a destination platform or a consumer plat-

form, you don’t buy tickets by Paylogic.com or on our mobile app, we

don’t have that. We are the technology in between the consumer, the

event organizer and any platform that they want to partner up with. We

give them access in one standardized technological way, to make sure

that everybody has the best service, the consumer, the event organizer

and the promoting platform. And they would be able to make a deal

together.

Let’s say, Songkick gets one euro of every sold ticket or Songkick gets

fifty percent of every ticket that’s sold in the last week before the event.

You know, we are compared to CTS Eventim or Ticketmaster because

people think that we have the same goal as they have. But we don’t. We

don’t want to have our own relationship with the consumer; we don’t

want to be the promoting party. We are the technology facilitator; we

want to make sure that in the entire e-commerce system these three

different roles can work perfectly together. No problems at the door, no

problems with being sold out on one platform but not sold out at the

other, because we make sure that the technology works. And also we

make sure that everybody gets paid. When we collect the money from

the visitor for the event, also the platform like Songkick will get paid

immediately and not have to involve the event organizer. We distribute

that money with our technology. With this B2B market place that we are

creating, the ticketing platforms as we know them will change. It will

take a little while, but we think that’s what the market wants.

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

17

Tales of the City – A Trip to HamburgAllan McGowan am@vip-booking.com

My invitation from the Media Relations Dept

of Hamburg’s Marketing Dept to join a Press

Trip to become better informed about Crea-

tive Hamburg was somewhat last minute; in

fact I was in Dresden when I agreed to take

part, then in Berlin. However the sensible

routing was not for me – as usual! Rather

than staying in Berlin for an extra day then

taking a leisurely train ride, I returned to

Brighton, had a day at home, then flew to

Hamburg at an hour normally associated

with going to bed at the many music trade

events that I’ve still not learned to be sensi-

ble at! Things weren’t looking good when

the Hotel’s brand new Wi-Fi system clearly

didn’t want to have anything to do with the

rooms, I complained of course, it’s in my ag-

ing nature…. However, stay with me – things

definitely got better!

This trip around a fast developing City, with

a great trading and docklands tradition,

which I’d already become quite fond of from

my distantly remembered days of booking

bands into still operating venues like the

Markthalle, and several visits to the Reeper-

bahn Festival, was not in any way exclusively

to do with music.

Basically this visit aimed to give us an intro-

duction to the creative scene of Germany’s

second largest city,covering not just Music,

but Design, Media, Games and Fashion The

other journalists on the jaunt, an interesting

group of people easy to get on with, were

concerned with these sectors and Archi-

tecture, Travel and Lifestyle. So we were to

cover a wide field of Creativity. However my

first impression that only a few stops on the

tour would be relevant to my area of experi-

ence, and hopefully, expertise, were wrong,

and this trip has reinforced my observation

and contention that music, and all the music

Elbphilharmonie

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

18

industry’s multiple methods of production

and development of its product are connect-

ed with pretty much all areas of creativity,

and even more so in this digital age that on

the one hand has caused so many problems,

but on the other has forced all areas of the

industry to embrace change..

Of course Berlin is Germany’s largest city,

and the competition between the two is

more than easily detectable. However, Ham-

burg is recognised as Germany’s design

capital with more than 14,000 designers

living and working there. According to Ed-

gar Ruhe, CEO of Hamburg Creative Gmbh,

80,000 people work in the Creative Indus-

tries in Hamburg, 8% of the total work

force, producing a turnover of €10.5 billion.

Hamburg is also financially better off than

Berlin, and apparently has 42,000 million-

aire inhabitants, whereas the once divided

City has only 10,000. However Berlin is way

ahead on business ‘start-ups’, though Ham-

burg is fast catching up and determines to

use ‘old money’ to finance ‘new start-ups.

Our first guided tour was around the spec-

tacular and still under construction Hafen

City Hamburg – Europe’s largest inner-city

development project. The city is currently

turning old harbour warehouses into atel-

iers and event venues especially for the city’s

creatives. There is also a brand new Univer-

sity which we visited, where I was struck by

the image of a young student concentrat-

ing on the construction of an architectural

model somehow seemingly not distracted by

a spectacular view through the huge floor

to ceiling window of large ships entering the

harbour.

Hafen City also gave us our first view of a de-

velopment specifically concerned with mu-

sic. The nearly completed and very beautiful

new concert hall - the Elbphilharmonie,

situated right on the waterfront of the river

Elbe, on the western tip of the Hafen-City.

The glass structure is built upon the massive

red brick construction of the former ware-

house known as the Kaispeicher A and rises

up to a height of 110 metres. The Hall con-

tains a world-class concert hall with a seat-

ing capacity for 2,100 guests and a height

of 50 metres, plus two smaller concert halls,

along with a hotel, a restaurant, 45 residen-

tial flats and a plaza with a 360° panorama

view which is open to the public. The project

is currently guaranteed completion of the

whole building on 31.10.2016. The opening

will probably take place in Spring 2017. The

Elbphilharmonie and the prestigious hun-

dred year old Laeiszhalle in the city centre

are under one management. The concert se-

ries ‘Elbphilharmonie Konzerte’ will present

a multifaceted, modern and cosmopolitan

programme of classic, jazz and world music

in about 100 concerts each season.

Further visits included the very impressive

IF Design Exhibition, and the still under

construction offices of designxport. The

25 Hours Hotel, is described as a maritime

design Hotel, but could definitely qualify

as a Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel with its highly im-

aginative design, much of it explained to

us by the English designer, Stephen Wil-

liams. I wish we’d been staying there!

www.25hourshotels.com

Visits to buzzing and attractive areas of the

City like Schanzenviertel reminded me a lot

of The Laines in Brighton and parts of East

London like Dalston. The energies shown

by the new businesses, assisted in terms of

start –up advice and support through ac-

cess to funding, including crowd funding,

and provision of affordable work, and re-

hearsal, space reminded me of the ways

that the music industry in the UK is finally

beginning to receive support from parts of

regional and national government.

We met with Hamburg Startups at cowork-

ing space Betahaus Hamburg, and were told

about Eifflewerk, a new centre for cowork-

ers specialising in digital media startups.

Hamburg by Night

Go online - www.vip-booking.com

Need to know who is touring Europe?

®

vip-booking.com

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

19

I asked how many applicants referred to

themselves as operating, or intending to, in

the music business. No actual figures were

available, but the sector is well represented,

though currently it lags behind games.

I was surprised by the number of references

to SXSW, although we at VIP generally think

of the Austin event as specifically a music

and artist showcase, (which of course it was

till a few years ago) Kreativegesellschaft,

HYPERLINK “http://www.kreativegesells-

chaft.org/” www.kreativegesellschaft.org

the funding and advisory body operated by

Hamburg Creative, saw it as an event of-

fering export opportunities to a wider raft

of creative companies. They had in fact fi-

nanced attendance in Austin, using a varie-

ty of means including EC social and cultural

funds, for a Hamburg delegation including

the Reeperbahn Conference and Festival.

They were also working with the Reeper-

bahn Festival Conference to integrate non-

music companies to the exhibition areas of

the event. Co-founder and organiser Detlef

Schwarte, well known to VIP, explained

the history of the event to the journalists.

(We will catch up on plans for this year’s

September edition in the next issue.) The

staging of the Festival, started by promoter

Karsten Jahnke, in the red light Reeperbahn

district was quite an initiative in changing

the reputation of the area, and it could be

said, helped give the green light to take

over properties in the area to develop spac-

es for creative use alongside the facilities

originally provided to attract needy sailors

and now curious tourists.

It seems that as the ever growing number

of music conference and showcase events

develop they are attracting more delegates

and exhibitors, from gaming and other

digital media companies, including the new

companies and individuals, the sort of start-

ups being backed by the City of Hamburg.

It appears that music which has always

provided content for all forms of media,

marketing and entertainment, now also

provides promotional outlets and vehicles!

Our full on tour took in visits to the ADC

Festival which celebrates and awards best

practice in German Advertising, Product

Design and Creative Communications, and

Jung and Matt, one of Germany’s most suc-

cessful advertising agencies.

Other music related stops were at a brand

new and impressive recording studio run by

Micky Berg of The German Wahnsinn Team,

Micky explained that they had located this

state of the art facility close to the Reeper-

bahn to benefit from the music activities,

and the access to the growing number of

local musicians.

We also met with Karsten Scholerman of

Clubkombinat and Livekomm, who I had

sat with on a panel that I moderated at last

year’s Reeperbahn. He explained some of

the work his organisation was undertak-

ing to help live clubs in Hamburg and be-

yond, there was some good news, but still

problems, including the loss of Hamburg’s

long established Molotov Club due to the

rebuilding in the area of Spielbudenplatz

(many of you who attend Reeperbahn

regularly will know about this.) The clubs

are having their problems but fighting back

using initiatives like Die Nacht der Clubs,

The Club Night will take place on Septem-

ber 5th, with shows in 25 clubs all available

for entrance with one ticket. HYPERLINK

“http://www.dienachtderclubs.de/” www.

dienachtderclubs.de

I haven’t told you all; Fancy dancing in one

of the biggest clubs I’ve ever seen – once

a fish market? Need a stuffed camel or a

huge portrait of Elvis, or the prow of a gal-

leon perhaps? Just visit Hanseatische Mate-

rialverwaltung for whatever props you may

need for your creative project – another

successful startup…As I say, it was a very

full three days!

My thanks to Lu Yen Roloff and Matthias

Beer of Hamburg Marketing for arrang-

ing the trip, and for feeding, watering and

looking after us all. I suggest you all book

a weekend in Hamburg, or I’ll see you at

Reeperbahn – just ask me anything about

Creative Hamburg…!

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

Latest ETEP Results Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com

The third set of results of the European Talent Exchange Programme

2014, the initiative of Eurosonic Noorderslag to stimulate the circulation

of European repertoire on festivals, radio and media in Europe.

www.bumacultuur.mailotron.com

www.eurosonic-noorderslag.nl have been announced:

ETEP: 234 confirmed shows by 88 artists from 19 different European

countries.

Also the Orange Blossom Festival (DE) has been announced as a new ETEP

member! www.orangeblossomspecial.de

For more information about ETEP:

www.etep.nl (How it works and All ETEP festivals)

Download your ETEP and CEETEP logo’s here:

www.bumacultuur.mailotron.com (and check out the website> maps,

ETEP scores per year, sort on country, festival or act).

Top-scoring countries / top scoring act:

1. UK, 16 artists, Royal Blood

2. The Netherlands, 15 artists, Birth of Joy

3. Ireland, 7 artists, Kodaline

4. Sweden, 7 artists, Elliphant

5. Germany, 6 artists, Milky Chance

20Royal Blood, UK

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

21

Royal Blood UK 13

Jungle UK 12

MØ DK 8

George Ezra UK 7

Milky Chance DE 7

Kodaline IE 6

Wild Beasts UK 6

Mighty Oaks DE 6

Birth of Joy NL 6

Pional ES 6

Circa Waves UK 5

Ballet School DE 5

Hozier IE 5

Jaakko Eino Kalevi FI 5

Larry Gus GR 5

Benjamin Clementine FR 4

Emilie Nicolas NO 4

Lulu James UK 4

The Strypes IE 4

Baby in Vain DK 4

The Animen CH 4

Elliphant SE 4

Kadebostany CH 4

Alice Boman SE 3

Claire DE 3

Coely BE 3

East India Youth UK 3

Sam Smith UK 3

Hudson Taylor IE 3

La Pegatina ES 3

I Am Legion UK/NL 3

Girl Band IE 3

Kate Boy SE 2

Lonely the Brave UK 2

Mariam the Believer SE 2

Nadine Shaw UK 2

Thomas Azier NL 2

Truckfighters SE 2

Bondax UK 2

Denai Moore UK 2

Farao NO 2

Kid Karate IE 2

Linkoban DK 2

N’toko SI 2

Russkaja AT 2

The Mispers UK 2

NoNoNo SE 2

Jenny Wilson SE 1

Afterpartees NL 1

Baskerville NL 1

Brother & Bones UK 1

C + C = Maxigross IT 1

Cairo Liberation Front NL 1

Charity Children DE 1

DJ Pravda IT 1

Electric Eye NO 1

Gudrun von Laxenburg AT 1

Ja Panik AT 1

Afterpartees NL 1

Kensington NL 1

KiT NL 1

La Femme FR 1

Le Galaxie IE 1

Luca Sapio IT 1

Melanie DE Biasio BE 1

Pablo Nouvelle CH 1

Repetitor RS 1

Scarlett O’Hanna BE 1

Slick Shoota NO 1

Taymir NL 1

Tensnake DE 1

The Opposites NL 1

The Wands DK 1

traumahelikopter NL 1

Hermigervill IS 1

Noah Kin FI 1

Djaikovski MK 1

Drenge UK 1

Rhodes UK 1

Manu Delago Handmade AT 1

Seward ES 1

Mozes and the Firstborn NL 1

Mister and Mississippi NL 1

Reverend Shine Snake Oil DK 1

Ásgeir IS 1

Bo Saris NL 1

This is the complete list of ETEP artists and bookings at this point.

Next ETEP and CEETEP press release will follow 25 june 2014:

22

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

IMMF Moves to Strengthen the International Voice of Managers & ArtistsAllan McGowan am@vip-booking.com

2014 sees the International Music Manag-

ers Forum (IMMF) taking big steps on the

way towards strengthening the international

voice of music managers and artists. With

a new seat in Luxembourg, strengthened

secretariat, new international committee

structure and several new members the

IMMF umbrella now represents the interests

of national associations from more than 20

countries, with an organizational infrastruc-

ture able to leverage this ever growing rep-

resentational weight.

Kari Karjalainen, lawyer and chairman of the

IMMF Copyright Committee explains one of

the core drivers for strengthening the IMMF:

“…People need music, and in order to sup-

port music making, music creators seek au-

diences for, and income from their creations.

For some time the market for music has not

functioned either fairly or efficiently, imbal-

ances affect the creation of new music, one

of the core problems is that the marketplace

for music rights does not work. The grow-

ing ambition of IMMF is thus no coincidence,

but a necessity...”

THE NEW ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

The new IMMF has been registered as a non

profit organization in Luxembourg. The daily

operations will be coordinated and admin-

istered by Daria Wabnitz, while the agency

FACTORY 92 will be taking over the inter-

national press relations. Committees are the

cornerstone of IMMF’s new structure work-

ing as labs in order to draft ideas, enhance

international cooperation and strengthen

policy work, within the following areas:

– European Committee

– Live Committee

– Copyright Committee

– Marketing and promotion Committee

– Funding Committee

– Training and Education Committee

IMMF is moreover experiencing growing in-

ternational membership demand. In March

2014 the IMMF thus welcomed MMF Esto-

nia as its newest national member. MMF

Latin America is furthermore being estab-

lished and welcomed into the IMMF. MMF

Latin America will unite managers from Ar-

gentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay,

Uruguay, Panamá, Costa Rica, Guatemala,

Mexico, Perú and Venezuela.

CURRENT POLICY & REPRESENTATION

ACTIVITIES

The IMMF Copyright Committee took part in

the EU Copyright Consultation at the begin-

ning of March 2014, presenting its position

paper on the issue. The position paper stat-

ed the importance of copyright legislation

harmonization across the EU in order to give

a legal answer and a framework for the mass

usage of content. The position paper also

underlined the necessity of an international

song database in order to build a global and

efficient monitoring tool.

In March 2014 IMMF also attended the Music

Biz Association summit 2014 at Musikmesse

Frankfurt in Germany where executives from

several major stakeholder organizations pre-

sented their concerns and opinions on recent

worldwide evolutions within copyright, EU

matters and international collecting rights.

Representatives from pan-European and

international umbrella organization within

music industry areas such as entertainment

law, music publishing and concert venues at-

tended the event alongside IMMF.

Karl karjalainen, lawer and chairman of the IMMF Copyright Committee.

23

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

23

In general 2014 has thus far seen IMMF be-

ing represented and featured across a wide

range of international music stakeholder

events from Sun Breathe Music Conference

in Cape Town (South Africa) over SXSW in

Austin (US) to Tallinn Music Week in Tallinn

(Estonia).

ABOUT IMMF

The International Music Managers Forum

(IMMF) represents music managers and

through them the artists (performers and

authors) they manage. The core mission of

the IMMF is to defend the economic and

legal interests of artists on an international

scale. The IMMF’s vision is to create better

international trade conditions for all artists

across the world. The IMMF today repre-

sents National MMF Organizations from 21

countries.

CONTACT:

General inquiries:

Daria Wabnitz: daria@immf.com

Press:

Christian Hald Buhl: buhl@factory92.eu

Links:

www.immf.com

immf.us3.list-manage.com:

(IMMF digital licensing position paper,

Musicbiz Association Summit,

FACTORY 92).

The Council at the General Assembly at Midem 2014.First row: Brian Hetherman (IMMF Chair), Volker May (IMMF Vice-Chair). Second row: Daria Wabnitz (IMMF Project Manager), Nathan Brenner (MMF Australia), Natalia Talayero (MMF Spain), Patricia Hermida (MMF Spain), Christoph Storbeck (MMF Italy). Third row: Stephen Bond Garvan (MMF US), Olivier Toth (IMMF Executive Director), Kari Karjalainen (MMF Finland), Didier Zerath (MMF France), Toomas Olljum (MMF Estonia). Last row: Jake Beaumont-Nesbitt (IMMF Policy Flow), Nuno Saraiva (MMF Portugal), Keith Harris (MMF UK).

VIPNEWS > BUSINESS > MAY 2014 MUSIC IN SHARES

Music in SharesManfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com

CTS Eventim – The Growth Story Continues:Again in the first quarter of 2014 CTS Eventim is able to maintain

reasonable growth rates within all relevant key figures. In the busi-

ness report for Q1/2014, CTS Eventim reports an increased revenue

result of 24 percent, from 121.1 million Euro in Q1/2013 up to 150.4

million Euro.

The Earnings before Interests, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation

(EBITDA) went up from 28.7 to 32.3 million Euro. Interestingly the

Live Entertainment Division of the company grows stronger than its

Ticketing leg. The declared revenue for the Live Entertainment seg-

ment moves up 37.9 percent from 60.3 to 83.2 million Euro. The

results for the Ticketing unit are 69.4 compare to 62.3 million Euros

in the same period one year ago.

In the last issue VIP News reported a CTS Eventim share price of 45.91

Euro. The time share price on the day this report went to press is

41.71 Euro.

DEAG – Growths By Take Over:The UK concert company Kilimanjaro Live now belongs to DEAG. On

May 9 DEAG reported that for 4 million Euro it bought 51 percent

of the company behind the Sonisphere festivals. Another 2 million

Euro will eventually have to be paid by DEAG according to a success-

related bonus scheme that goes along with the take over.

DEAG furthermore filed an interim injunction against the Senate of

Berlin regarding the renewal of the lease deal for the open air arena

Waldbühne in Berlin by CTS Eventim.In 2008 CTS Eventim won a call

for the management of the location. The Berlin Senate intends now

to renew the deal with the arch rival of DEAG without announcing

a new call for bids. The injunction filed by DEAG is opposed by the

Senate and will now lead to a court ruling on June 12.

Shortly before this issue of VIP News went to press, the trade paper

Musikmarkt reported that the currently not existing call for bids has

prompted a consortium of the Berlin based concert companies Four

Artists, KKT, Loft Concerts and New Berlin Konzerte announced to

join forces to submit a joint bid for the Waldbühne Berlin, too.

The previous reported share price was 5.65 Euro, this time it is 5.66

Euro.

Live Nation – A Bit of a Different Growth Story:Like CTS Eventim Live Nation also reported impressive growth rates

for the Q1-2014 but as usual produced a net loss even though it cut

its losses by half. The revenue rose about 22 percent from $923.7

million up to $1.127.3 billion. The revenue gained by the Concert

24

25

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

25

VIPNEWS > BUSINESS > MAY 2014

division even went up by 29 percent, from $513.5 to $662.5 million.

The Ticketing unit gained a plus of 9 percent, from $325.1 up to

$354.5 million.

The Artist Nation department was able to increase its revenue result

by 44 percent up to $72.6 million, Sponsorship & Advertising went up

from $40.1 to 45.4 million.

The net loss went down $64 to $30 million, the loss per share re-

sult from $0.33 to $0.16. The net long-term debt on March 31 was

$2.836, compare to $2.255 billion in the same period one year ago.

From the previous reported share price of $21.17 until May 23 it nev-

ertheless went up to $24.01.

SFX Entertainment – A Totally Differently Growth Story:SFX Entertainment also reported its Q1-2014 results. In the first three

months the company gained revenue of $33.3 million and produced a

net loss of $63.6 million, resulting in loss per share of $0.73.

In the period SFX Entertainment completed 14 events of this year’s

total scheduled number of 76 festivals. In the report SFX-CEO Robert

F.X. Sillerman is quoted ,as saying: “Throughout the first quarter we

made continued progress toward creating what is now the largest

global producer of world-class live events and leading digital enter-

tainment content focused exclusively on EMC. While it is the season-

ally slowest period of the year, the first quarter served as a microcosm

of our approach. Total festival attendance more than doubled

year over year, on a pro forma basis, with half of the growth coming

from new festivals, while repeat festivals saw attendance growth of

9% year over year and revenue growth of approximately 10%. Our

festivals will grow by approximately 30% in 2014 to more than 70,

compared to the 54 held in 2013. Much of this growth will be in

North America, as we bring highly popular festivals like Mysteryland

to the U.S. for the first time and bring Electric Zoo to Mexico. We are

also introducing entirely new festivals, such as Don’t Let Daddy Know

in the Netherlands and the Hudson Project in Saugerties, New York.

Additionally, we see opportunities for further festival schedule expan-

sion in North America, South America and Asia in 2015 and beyond.”

Since the last issue from $7.33 the share price this time is down to

$7.02.

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26

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

MU to Remain Neutral on Scottish Independence IssueAllan McGowan am@vip-booking.com

With just over three months to go until the

Scottish independence referendum, the Mu-

sicians’ Union (MU) has announced its de-

cision to remain neutral in the debate. The

decision follows the MU’s forum on ‘The

Future of Music in Scotland,’ which was held

on 11 April 2014 at Glasgow City Halls.

MU General Secretary John Smith says:

“The debates that were had in Glasgow

were extremely informative and our Scottish

members were able to express their differ-

ing views, whilst also having the opportu-

nity to question industry specialists on what

independence might mean for music and

musicians in Scotland. “The variety of views

expressed means that the MU Executive

Committee has decided to take a position of

neutrality on the question of Scottish inde-

pendence in order to respect the positions

of our 2,200 members in Scotland.

MU General Secretary John Smith

Chloe Charles Territory: EuropePeriod: September/OctoberAgency: Paperclip Agency / Agent: Hilde SpillePhone: +31 243239322E-mail: hilde@paperclip-agency.comHomepage: www.paperclip-agency.com

ORBITAL ñ 25th year anniversary tour in 2014 Territory: The World excluding USAPeriod: May onwardsAgency: Value Added Talent / Agent: Dan SilverPhone: +44 207 704 97 20E-mail: dan@vathq.co.ukHomepage: www.vathq.co.uk

Alan Parsons Live Project Territory: WorldwidePeriod: 2014Agency: World Entertainment Associates of AmericaAgent: John Regna - Artist Agent/ManagerPhone: +1 407-993-4000E-mail: JPR@JohnRegna.comHomepage: www.AlanParsonsTourPromo.com

GlasvegasTerritory: EuropePeriod: 2014Agency: Primary Talent InternationalAgent: Ben WinchesterPhone: +44 20 7400 4500E-mail: ben@primarytalent.comHomepage: www.glasvegas.net

THE ORCHESTRA starring ELO former membersTerritory: WorldwidePeriod: 2014-2015Agency: World Entertainment Associates of AmericaAgent: John Regna - Artist Agent/ManagerPhone: +1 407-993-4000E-mail: jpr@johnregna.comHomepage: www.THEORCHESTRAonline.com

Afro Cuban All Stars Territory: East Europe, Middle EastPeriod: JulyAgency: GreensmithAgent: Dragan GreensmithE-mail: dragan@greensmithltd.comHomepage: greensmithltd.com/artistprofile/afro-cuban-all-stars/

MORE ARTIST AVAILS ON:WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

POST YOUR ARTIST AVAILS ON:WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM

ARTIST AVAILS

Orbital

VIPNEWS > MISC > MAY 2014 MEMBER PRESENTATION

TRAINTRAIN is a privately owned live venue and nightclub placed in the central of Aarhus,

the second largest city in Denmark.

TRAIN is appointed as a regional live venue by the Municipality of Aarhus and The

Danish Agency for Culture.

TRAIN is a fully professional venue and has been running succesfully since 1. april

1998.

TRAIN is one of Denmarks largest regional venues and nightclubs. The concert ca-

pacity is 850 guests for live concerts and 1700 guest for nightclubbing. There’s no

agelimit for live concerts at Train.

TRAIN presents a broad program of music, covering many different genres and styles.

Throughout the years a lot of international and national artists have been perfoming

on the stage. Artists like Snoop Dogg, Iggy Pop, Suede, Bryan Ferry, Motörhead, The

National, The The, N*E*R*D, Patti Smith, Kaiser Chiefs, Babyshambles, Black Rebel

Motorcycle Club and many many others.

The clubscene has been honoured by perfomances by artists like Major Lazer, DJ

Shadow, 2ManyDJs, Modeselektor, Benga & Skream, Andy Fletcher, Simian Mobile

Disco, Peaches, Kele Okereke, Moderat, Cassius, Zombie Nation and many many

more.

27

28

VIPNEWS > MAY 2014

MyMusicMailer.com enables artists to MAIL their music

to more than 6.000 venues and agencies worldwide…

Mail your music to the Live Music Industry…

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About Our CompanyVIP-Booking’s core product is the Internet’s oldest and

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Today VIP-Booking offers a range of tools for the

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Please visit vip-booking.com for further information.

Your comments and suggestions are always appreciated.

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