vip-news premium - may 2015

VIPNEWS PREMIUM > VOLUME 179 > MAY 2015

2

9

5

11

4

3

16

6

13

VIPNEWS > MAY 2015

McGowan’s Musings

It was – to say the least – an active weekend

in Brighton! The Brighton Arts Festival is in

full swing, as is the Fringe Festival, and just

to add to the celebration, the congestion

and the clamour, The Great Escape hit town

with a few hundred acts, playing 35 venues,

plus 20,000 or so Festival goers, and a large

swathe of the international business people

that I normally run into at the international

events that we VIP people tend to frequent.

According to the organisers over 3500

delegates attended this tenth edition. Now,

I am going to mention the weather, and yes,

it is relevant! The very first edition was, as I

think I’ve said before, beset by some of the

worst south coast spring seaside conditions

that the weather gods could throw at a new

event, high winds, torrential rain and wintry

temperatures! Since then things haven’t

been so bad, with some particularly fine

conditions for some editions, this one was

a mixture with a couple of chilly, windy and

wet days and nights, but with summery

conditions on the Saturday. However the

cold and wet evenings made conditions in

the long and often very slow moving queues

for the much sought after gigs particularly

unpleasant, like SXSW and other largescale

events The Great Escape is having to deal

with the complaints of punters not being

able to access the shows they really want

to see because there are too many of them

trying to get into venues that reach capacity

in very quick time.

This of course results in frustration, and

often altercations with harassed door

staff – some of which it has to be said,

are not experienced in handling these

situations. It wasn’t just the festival goers

who were denied access, the possession

of a delegate wrist band certainly didn’t

guarantee getting in, and in some cases

artist managers, media representatives and

showcase presenters found themselves out

in the cold. But, what can you do? Getting

there early is of course advisable, but if

you’re trying to cover a few shows, you have

to be on the move. It’s a matter of becoming

overly successful and I, and probably the

organisers don’t see any obvious solutions,

apart from putting on a less attractive bill,

but that’s not something that anybody

would want to see – or in this case – not

see! Great Escape presented an extremely

high standard of acts, ranging from the

secret Paul Weller show at the Old Market

venue, to the Maccabees, The Vaccines and

many others – my own favourite being the

Malian band Songhoy Blues (thanks for the

help in getting in Adam!), Delta Rae from

Carolina and the Dutch act Birth of Joy – but

of course I couldn’t get round, and certainly

couldn’t get in – to see 450 bands!

In this business ten years is quite a long

time for an event to endure and to develop,

but this pales into insignificance when

compared to the duration of the UK’s

Performing Rights Society PRS, yesterday I

attended the Society’s one hundred and first

Annual General Meeting. There were, and I

include myself in this, quite a few somewhat

elderly writers and publishers in attendance,

but nobody, I’m pretty sure, that had

attended all of the meetings! In fact the

history of music writers and publishers goes

back even further than 101 years, as CEO

Robert Ashcroft pointed out in his speech,

in 1905 the Music Publishers’ Association

announced that they would accept no more

music for publication until the law afforded

adequate protection against pirates, who

sold cheap lithographed reproductions

(of sheet music) without permission or

payment. By 2014 the battle against piracy

had largely moved onto the Internet and

now there’s streaming to be dealt with….

Some things seem to always be with us!

Anyway, as ever, Ladies and Gentlemen –

The News!

COLOPHON >

VIP-News is published by:VIP-Booking.com20-22 Wenlock RoadLondon N1 7GUUnited Kingdom+44 870 755 0092

Managing Director:Ronni [email protected]

General Manager:Peter [email protected]

Writer and editorial:Allan [email protected]

Writer:Manfred [email protected]

For advertising enquiries please contact:Peter [email protected]+44 870 755 0092

2

3

VIPNEWS > MAY 2015

The tenth Great Escape came to a close on Saturday May 16 with a hail of confetti concluding

a special midnight show from The Maccabees – who had also appeared at the very first edition.

Emerging artists like Shamir, Sunset Sons, Jack Garrett and Lion Babe all performed alongside

more established acts like The Vaccines, The Cribs and Alabama Shakes. Over the past decade,

Adele, Mumford and Sons, Bastille and Ed Sheeran have all performed before breaking big.

Asked about the way that the bill is put together organiser Kat Morris explained. “It’s pretty

complicated, it takes about a year to get the festival together. There are lots of different

things that we can do, but actually anyone can put themselves forward, there is an open

submission process on the website. The team also travels to different countries all year round

to see new music and out and about in London all the time and there are ideas coming

in from different partnerships of the festival.” She added that the planning for The Great

Escape 2016 has already begun.

Festival Republic has announced the launch of a new ‘Community’

festival in London from November 3 – 6. The intention of the event is

to bring together the music community with the living, working and

visiting communities of musicians and music lovers of Shoreditch, the

increasingly fashionable area of East London.

Confirming the new event,

Festival Republic MD Melvin

Benn told reporters: “This

is an urban, multi-venue

emerging talent event

inspired by our love of

the fact that live music

just never stops getting

better. But we want to

present it in the Community;

in the butchers and bakers and the

basement offices and loft bedrooms as well as some of the more

established venues of Shoreditch. It will represent the energy of our

musical culture and the innovation of one of the most innovative and

vibrant areas in the UK”.

Festival Republic’s Jon Mcildowie, who is set to curate Community,

added: “As promoters but above all music fans we are constantly

looking out for new and emerging talent. Community is an

opportunity for us to share the music that we are all excited about

and to introduce new artists to the public before anyone else. I’m

delighted to be working with the Live Nation team to help bring the

programme together”.

Kat Morris, The Great Escape

The Great Escape Presents its Biggest Line Up for the Tenth AnniversaryAllan McGowan [email protected]

Festival Republic to Launch Community festival in NovemberAllan McGowan [email protected]

Melvin Benn

VIPNEWS > INDEPTH STORY > MAY 2015

It has often occurred to me over the last few

years as Conference and Showcase Festival

events get bigger and bigger that City

Exchanges, ie a two or three day and night

presentation of the music and other arts

in each others cultural centres and venues

could be a good idea. Instead of being up

against over 2000 or more bands at SXSW in

Austin for instance, a few acts from London,

or Glasgow, or Brighton could be up there

with the the main attractions in Hamburg,

Amsterdam or New York etc and vice versa.

With this in mind I was very happy to be

invited on the day before this year’s Great

Escape, and again, right on my doorstep in

Brighton, to the first edition of the Music

Cities Convention.

According to co-founders Martin Elbourne

and Shain Shapiro although it was only on sale

for two months, 50 cities from 20 countries

signed up to be part of the event. The main

thrust of the convention was to consider

the impact a thriving local music industry

can have on a city, in terms of employment,

boosting the economic and social welfare

of an area, adding to tourist attraction and

keeping talented people within the region.

As you can imagine I found this concept very

interesting, and I was not disappointed by the

presentations and the discussions. I’m not

saying that I’m jaded by the content of the

many industry events that I attend and take

part in, but it was interesting to hear new

people talk on topics very closely related, but

looked at from a different perspective, to the

themes addressed at the main events in our

international music industry calendar.

Throughout the day speakers representing

Adelaide and Melbourne, Cape Town,

Berlin, Quebec, Barcelona, Liverpool, Addis

Ababa, Groningen and Montreal, delivered

detailed and positive presentations on how

they were encouraging and capitalizing on

the development of music industries, artists,

production facilities and venues, often in

cooperation with their national and local

authorities.

Topics presented and later discussed included

Live Music Action Plans, the establishment

The First Music Cities ConventionAllan McGowan [email protected]

Martin Elbourne

4

VIPNEWS > INDEPTH STORY > MAY 2015

of Creative Centres and Industry Clusters,

Networking, Innovation, Entrepreneurship

and Collaboration. One good example of

collaboration included discussions between

Mark Davyd of the Music Venues Trust

(see last two issues of VIP News) and the

representatives of the South Australian Music

Development Office about the possible

implementation in the UK of the Agent of

Change law which had been used to good

effect in Adelaide to protect the status of

live music venues threatened by new urban

development.

Music Canada are officially launching their

own report on the impact music can have

on a regional city at Midem this year, and

they gave some highlights of that work at

Music Cities.

The Deputy Mayor of Groningen - the

Netherlands home of Noorderslag Eurosonic

- advised letting the politicians see the

industry developers output. He convinced

all his local politicians to visit the Eurosonic

festival, to see first hand how important it is

to the town, and they’ve never questioned

helping the event since.

Music Cities co-founder Martin Elbourne said,

“Money is always an issue - but there are

other factors too. Small venues closing down

is a problem being faced all over the world.

So my message to the UK government would

be to look at what’s being done in cities

around the world, and then look at the music

communities in our own cities and towns.”

Co-founder Shain Shapiro of Sound

Diplomacy concluded the day’s event by

thanking the sponsors, Music Canada,

Quebec Government in London, City of

Montreal, and stating that in the coming

weeks and months, they would progress the

development of the Develop the Music Cities

Network.

The next edition is a collaboration with the

Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit, held

in Washington, DC on Oct 25/26. We will

provide more information for this very soon.

Shain Shapiro

5

6

VIPNEWS > MAY 2015

Backlash for Ticketmasterin GermanyManfred Tari [email protected]

There are live music industry players that enjoy secondary ticketing

very much, but there are also still industry protagonists out there

who have concerns about this kind of business model, already

legislated against in France and Denmark, being still prepared to

argue that, amongst other things, it contains elements that display

the characteristics of the black or grey markets.

However Live Nation subsidy Ticketmaster’s purchase of the resale-

platform Seatwave again confirmed just how the resale of tickets

has been successfully embedded within the value chain of corporate

companies.

For those promoters inclined to take a clear stand against so

called secondary ticketing found it even more challenging to keep

up their efforts against this extremely profitable business model.

The German concert agency MCT is one of these and following

the integration of Seatwave as an additional sales channel of

Ticketmaster cancelled his deal with the company. MCT has

maintained a strict policy against secondary ticketing for some

years. In 2012 the Company started selling personalized tickets

for certain shows via their associated ticketing shop Tickets.de in

order to identify tickets that had been sold through black market

channels on the internet.

Scumeck Sabottka

7

VIPNEWS > MAY 2015

MCT MD Scumeck Sabottka explains his reasons why he cancelled his

ticket distribution deal with Ticketmaster Germany.

VIP News: Unlike in France where the promoter association

Prodiss successfully lobbied for a strict law against the

unauthorised resale of tickets there still is no similar law in

Germany. Any idea why this should still be the case?

Scumeck Sabottka: I do not believe that politicians are as familiar

with the subject of secondary ticketing as we are within the industry.

I almost assume that even one or the other promoter within the

industry itself is not aware of how secondary ticketing is working. In

particular I mean the, from my point of view, immoral and illegitimate

resale of tickets above the face value.

VIP News: Do you receive support and backing for your efforts

in terms of your restrictive policy against secondary ticketing

from other players within the live music industry?

Scumeck Sabottka: No, I only I receive support for this from those

artists and their managers we are working with. Beyond those people

the interest is actually rather limited. The majority of people within the

live music business apparently consider our efforts to ban secondary

ticketing as something that makes things more complicated. But in

fact this isn’t the case. Nevertheless I have to add, that due to the

increased utilisation of this kind of ticketing on various levels, ranging

from Kraftwerk to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, from Nick Cave to

Rammstein we receive support from the fans of those artists for our

strict policies against secondary ticketing, they appreciate what we

are doing.

VIP News: Are you suffering economic disadvantages due to

cancelling your distribution deal with Ticketmaster?

Sabottka: No, not at all. Ticketmaster has been a complementary

service for us. I as a promoter would like to decide for myself who is

going to sell the tickets for the shows I promote. Ticketmaster was for

the one year long lasting collaboration an interesting partner for us,

but at the end of day it didn’t create more or less ticket sales.

VIP News: Companies such as Google are, so to say, partners

in crime due to the massive online marketing efforts by those

various ticketing resale platforms. On the other hand there

are for many other products or services search engine sites

displaying price listings and rankings for the best available

prices. Are ticket buyers looking for the best ticket prices

available on the internet?

Sabottka: No, unfortunately ticket buyers do not buy there where

tickets are offered for the best price. I wish this would be the case,

but it isn’t. How else could it be explained that tickets are sold on

these secondary ticketing websites, such as Seatwave. We see this

with how many people we have to refuse access on the door, as they

bought tickets on those sites, where those tickets have been re-sold

two or even three times. For instance, at our Kraftwerk concerts at

the Nationalgalerie in Berlin the face value for a ticket was 72 Euro.

But on those ticketing platforms tickets for these concerts has been

sold for 198 Euro.

VIP News: How is your experience regarding the ticket market

in France, where the unauthorized resale of tickets is forbidden

by law and judged with a penalty fee in the first case of 15.000

Euro and in case of recurrence even with 30.000 Euro?

Sabottka: Last year we did eight shows of Kraftwerk at the Louis

Vuitton Museum in Paris and sold personalized tickets therefore. The

shows were promoted by our long term partner Corrida and thanks

to the existing law against unauthorized re-sale of tickets in France

everything went ahead very differently. I would be pleased if this

would be the same over here in Germany or if this law would become

a law on a European level.

Go online - www.vip-booking.com

Need to know who is touring Europe? ®

vip-booking.com

Networking Showcase FestivalTrade FairConferenceFilm ScreeningsAwardsvirtualWOMEX

Budapest, Hungary21 – 25 October 2015www.womex.com

D

E A D L I NE

SM

A

R T R ATE

19 JUNE2015

www.womex.com

9

VIPNEWS > MAY 2015

Dramatic Eurorock 2015From www.side-line.com

It was (not so) surprising that the mainstream

media, which never wanted to report on the

Eurorock Festival before, let alone announce

it, suddenly found the time to act as real

vultures and shred the festival completely

to pieces (including spreading completely

bollocks news) after it faced problems on

Saturday morning. I was on the terrain for

the complete 3 days (14 – 15 – 16 May)

acting as a hired spokesman for Eurorock

and it turned out to be one hell of a job with

a lot of drama.

I was informed early Saturday morning (May

16) that money had been stolen. The money,

which should have been used to pay the

bands, had just arrived and had immediately

been put in a sealed of metal hub. There

were maximum 20 minutes between putting

the money there and it being stolen. When

speaking to Rudi Donckers, the organiser of

the festival, I noticed he became paler and

paler as time progressed after the discovery

of the 45.000 Euro (I was first told 75.000

euro, then 45.000 euro - some medias

reported 80.000) being stolen. Shortly after

he was rushed to hospital and he underwent

successful surgery to his heart 2 days after

the festival ended.

Only a few minutes after the theft I got a

phone call from a newspaper and from

then on the news started circulating pretty

fast and my phone was ringing like mad. I

did a couple of very short interviews with

some newspapers and told them that we

were looking for a solution. Never trust

the press of course, because soon some

newspaper started spreading that Killing

Joke, a headliner, had canceled. Complete

nonsense, but this had an immediate impact

on the ticket sales as I saw people leaving

that were there to buy a ticket.

With Rudi rushed off to hospital, the

organisation was beheaded. In order to

avoid a complete chaos, it was decided

together with the police to go for a fade-out

scenario where volunteers and contracted

people at the festival such as me and several

other people working backstage would step

in as new organisers together with the stage

managers. The idea was to see how many

bands would still be playing live and which

wouldn’t and try and make the festival

running for a limited time. My first work

there now was to inform the public that we

had practical issues that would force us to

halt the festival for an hour, time we needed

to get a new line-up sorted out.

However, after having talked to several

bands (I have never seen such a fast

negotiation round happening), it became

clear that many were willing to play after

all, because they either had been fully paid,

or had already received a partial payment,

or because they just wanted to play for free

(such as Legend). On top Der Klinke, and

many other bands that hadn’t been booked

for the festival even offered to play for free

while Lovelorn Dolls – who hadn’t been

paid either – offered to play again in case

that would be needed. The only thing left

to do was to get the bands lined up so they

would make it back on time to catch their

planes etc.. It took some hard persuasion

to get some bands to agree, but in the end

we succeeded in getting a line-up ready

that would last until 2:00 AM at least.

In between this negotiating I announced

the bands that would play for sure at the

festival.

Anathema and Killing Joke (editor’s note:

thanks to Live Nation which intervened

Belgian Guestwriter Bernard Van Isacker shared his first

hand experiences with us on this year’s Eurorock Festival

where thousands of Euros were stolen which led to some

truely chaotic days.

Bernard Van Isacker was contracted as a spokesman of the Festival.He too still needs to be paid by the organiser: “Despite all the problems, I consider it professional behaviour to do what I was hired for: talking to the press”

Here’s a quick look on how we were shifting lineup all the time at Eurorock.

10

VIPNEWS > MAY 2015

too to make sure they’d play) immediately

suggested they would prolong their set

and bring either more songs (Anathema)

or extended versions (Killing Joke) without

nagging too much about the rest of the

money. Peter Hook from his side offered

his backline to be used so that Anathema

and Therion could play. All together 40 of

the 43 live bands played in the end, not bad

I’d say :)

At the moment of posting this (May 18) I

have over 100 voice messages on my phone

from the press, a few more interviews lined

up and so on. Drama sells, unfortunately.

From my perspective, that of being a

contracted spokesman, this was a unique

experience.

Cheers, Bernard Van Isacker

(This is how I lived the whole thing, it is

no representation of the organisational

structure and / or errors that might or might

not have happened. Further investigations

by the police will have to unravel what really

happened there.)

Spain fell silent on Wednesday, May 20, as

hundreds of artists, promoters, managers

and others in the Spanish music industry

protested against a 21 percent tax on concert

tickets.

Top chart singers, including Alejandro Sanz,

Joan Manuel Serrat and Miguel Bose, and

bands called a ‘day without music’ and

were photographed on the website Día Sin

Música (‘day without music’) with tape over

their mouths. in protest over the VAT hike of

September 2012 which they say has killed off

the arts and entertainment industry in the

country.

According to the Association of Music

Promoters, the tax is responsible for the loss of

more than 40,000 jobs in the entertainment

sector and a 30 percent drop in concert

attendance since it was imposed “Since

the tax was raised…on live music (from 8

percent to 21 percent) we are experiencing

a destructive spiral as far as the possibilities

we have [to remain solvent], whether the

groups are national or international,” says a

petition published on Change.org and aimed

at Spanish President Mariano Rajoy, as well as

the country’s finance and cultural ministers.

The petition has already attracted around a

quarter of a million signatures.

“There are international artists who don’t

include Spain on their tours or only go to one

city,” Neo Sala of Doctor Music, a promoter

who has brought The Rolling Stones, Bruce

Springsteen and other heavy hitters to Spain

told the newspaper El Pais. “It’s not worth it

for them to come.”

According to Billboard, the entertainment

tax in other European countries is: France:

5.5 percent, Portuga: 13 percent, Italy and

Finland: 10 percent, Germany: 7 percent,

Belgium and Holland: 6 percent, and

Switzerland 2.5 percent. In Norway there is

no live music tax.

Spanish Music IndustryProtests Against TaxFrom VIP-Daily News

To read the full version, go to: www.side-line.com/eurorock-2015-the-

industrial-woodstock-a-behind-the-scenes-report

Photo www.undiasinmusica.org

11

VIPNEWS > MAY 2015

Live Nation global touring chief Arthur Fogel

has declared ticket sales for U2’s first arena

tour in 10 years “a home run”.

In an interview with Billboard, he said: “We

made the decision to come out a totally

different way this time - in arenas, not

stadiums, so they could play more shows in

one city,” he said. “And the results - 99%

of tickets have been sold - are absolutely

fantastic.”

According to Musicweek Fogel discussed

the challenges of producing tours by

Madonna and U2 in the same year.

He is promoting Madonna’s Rebel Heart

and U2’s iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE arena

dates later this year, but pointed out it is

not the first time they had crossed on the

touring circuit.

“They`ve overlapped before. It makes for

an interesting year. I suppose some would

look at it as problematic, just in terms of

time and attention, but part of the art form

is managing multiple projects at the same

time.”

Fogel praised Live Nation’s impact, 10 years

on from its spin-off from Clear Channel, and

the work of the company’s president and

CEO Michael Rapino.

“I see a true global company footprint - an

industry leader with a great culture,” he

said. “This all comes from the leadership

and vision of Michael Rapino.”

U2’s First Arena Tour In 10 Years “A Home Run”From VIP-Daily News

Arthur Fogel

U2

www.etep.nl

Jordan Zachary has been named Chief

Strategy Officer of Live Nation Entertain-

ment, reporting to President and CEO Mi-

chael Rapino.

Jordan Zachary joins Live Nation from

Raine Group, a global merchant bank fo-

cused on technology, media and telecom-

munications, Zachary collaborated with

Live Nation`s team on its festival strategy,

and was a key part of recent Live Nation

deals, including the C3 Presents acquisition

and the programming partnership with

VICE, where he also holds board affilia-

tions. Raine had also invested and become

a partner with C3 prior to Live Nation’s

acquisition of a controlling interest in C3

late last year, a deal reportedly worth $125

million.

“As we continue to drive our global market

share, bringing on Jordan, who has deep

expertise in the live music and media indus-

tries, will help us accelerate the growth of

our concerts flywheel and find additional

ways to build our high margin on-site, ad-

vertising and ticketing businesses,” said

Rapino in a statement.

BMG has appointed Frank Ströbele as Vice

President, Continental European Reper-

toire, reporting to Executive Vice Presi-

dent, Continental Euorpean Repertoire

Fred Casimir at the company’s Berlin head

office.

In the newly-created role Ströbele will be

involved in key artist and catalogue cam-

paigns, as well as the strategic develop-

ment of new business models. In addition

Ströbele will support Casimir in overseeing

the Continental European offices of BMG.

Ströbele joins BMG after running his man-

agement company eye sound for over a

decade with clients such as Within Temp-

tation. Prior to that Ströbele held senior

positions at Sony Music Europe in London,

Universal Music Germany as well as head-

ing Sanctuary’s Continental European op-

eration based in Berlin

London venue Roundhouse has announced

the appointment of Jane Beese as its new

head of music. Beese joins after 15 years at

the Southbank Centre, where she is head of

contemporary music. She has been the Melt-

down festival’s lead programmer since 2010,

working with curators including David Bowie,

Patti Smith and Yoko Ono.

She will take on her new role in September

following the conclusion of this year’s Melt-

down, to be curated by David Byrne, from

August 17-30.

“I’m delighted to accept the role of head of

music at such a historic, iconic and important

arts space,” she said. “I’m especially looking

forward to working with the amazing team

at the Roundhouse and to engaging with the

young creatives programme.”

Prior to the Southbank Centre, Beese worked

at booking agencies including 13 Artists, In-

ternational Talent Booking and Asgard.

Nicola Thorold, executive producer of the

Roundhouse, added: “We’re thrilled to have

Jane join us at the Roundhouse. The expe-

rience she brings from the Southbank Cen-

tre is second to none. We look forward to

welcoming Jane at such an exciting time in

Roundhouse’s history.”

Live Nation name Chief Strategy Officer From VIP-Daily News

Frank Ströbele joins BMG in Germany From VIP-Daily News

Jordan Zachary

Frank Ströbele

Jane Beese

Jane Beese:New Headof Music Allan McGowan [email protected]

13

NAMES & JOBSVIPNEWS > MAY 2015

14

VIPNEWS > BUSINESS > MAY 2015 MUSIC IN SHARES

DEAG - Risk-Factor FestivalsUntil now DEAG has not officially released a win warning, however

in the meantime the company has published several warnings in

recent publications that can easily be interpreted as hidden win

warnings. The reasoning for this is the launch of their three new

festivals entitled “Rock Im Revier”, “Rockavaria” in Munich and

“Rock In Vienna” in Austria .

One of these warnings can be found in the annual report for 2014,

published on April 30. There it says: “If the actual sales revenues and

the associated actual inflows from ticket sales for the festivals were

significantly deviating from the forecasts, a shortage of liquidity

might occur and DEAG might have to rely on the use of additional

financing sources (third party or own funds). If this did not succeed

to a sufficient extent, the continued existence of the company and

the group would be at risk”

There are a more examples within the report that describe the risk

potential for DEAG in a similar manner. One with a very serious

meaning is that by the auditors BDO AG for the annual report, who

concluded in reference to the planned festivals “Our audit has not

resulted in any qualification, except for the following restrictions.”

In particular the auditors state: “Due to the lack of sufficient audit

evidence we have not been able to finally and conclusively assess the

amount of expected ticket sales on the basis of advance sales as well

as possible cost reductions in the event of ticket sales significantly

below the budgeted values”.

MusicIn SharesManfred Tari [email protected]

DEAG

15

VIPNEWS > BUSINESS > MAY 2015 MUSIC IN SHARES

Live Nation - Lower Revenue But Higher Loss

SFX Entertainment - Higher Revenue and Lower Loss

The proceedings and developments from the first announcements

until shortly before the events took place, on May 29-31 in

Gelsenkirchen for Rock Im Revier and Rockavria in Munich, were

accompanied by various legal disputes, and caused wide ranging

media coverage that occasionally turned out to be very sceptical

as to the likely success of these festivals. The economic-magazine

Wirtschaftswoche (WiWo) had already reported weak ticket sales

in December 2014.

As early as Summer 2014 the media coverage peaked, reporting

a number of legal confrontations regarding name rights, the

MLK departure of Rock Am Ring from Nürburgring, and the first

announcements for “Der Ring Grüne Hölle Rock” by DEAG. Originally

DEAG intended to promote “Grüne Hölle” as one of its three new

festivals at Nürburgring with the aim to replace Rock Am Ring, which

has been staged on the racing site since its launch in 1985.

The insolvent site Nürburgring appeared to be an extraordinary mine

field for various legal battles, not just for MLK. DEAG also stumbled

into the one or other legal case that later on lead to the Company

converting its original idea for a festival entitled as “Grüne Hölle”

at Nürburgring into “Rock Im Revier” in the arena “Auf Schalke” in

Gelsenkirchen.

CTS Eventim subsidy MLK appeared at the beginning of the festival

battle as the one who could lose its name rights for Rock Am Ring

and the Nürburgring site appears now to be overall winner in

retaining the name. DEAG, among others, has now to cope with

negative press from Germany’s well-known WiWo, as well as the

nationwide daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ).

In its weekend issue on May23 the newspaper wrote a feature

article with the headline “Rock Or Die” about DEAG and its festivals

reporting on discount sales of tickets for Rockavaria and Rock Im

Revier and among others on the correspondence between the

newspaper and a lawyer on behalf of DEAG.

According to media reports DEAG invested heavily into fees for

its festivals headliners such as Metallica, Muse, Kiss, Limp Bizkit,

Faith No More and various other acts. At various times WiWo and

SZ reported on low ticket sales, raising the question as to whether

highly paid headliners are still worth the financial risk. However,

a financial collapse of DEAG would be a worst case scenario for

the German concert industry that could cause significant knock-on

effects.

The answer to the question how seriously DEAG will be affected by

the results for its new festivals will take some time; nevertheless it is

already evident that the share price is heavily under pressure.

On March 3 the DEAG share peaked at 7.49 Euro, on May 25 the

share price has been down to 5.54 Euro.

On April 30 Live Nation reported its results for Q1-2015. The company basically has been able

to maintain its revenue results, reporting a return of $1.20 billion, compared to last year’s result

of $1.27 billion. Nevertheless the company nearly doubled its loss results. From a previous net

loss of $32.4 million in Q1-2014 it went up to $58.2 million. The loss per share increased from

$0.17 up to $0.31 cent.

However, the share price is on the rise again, from $25.97 as reported in the April issue, the

share in the meantime went up to $27.36.

SFX Entertainment managed to increase its revenue in Q1-2015 from $33.3 one year before

to $52.1 million. The net loss decreased from $55.9 to $41.6 million...

Last time the reported share price was $4.47, this time it is $4.11.

VIPNEWS > MISC > MAY 2015

Noel Gallagher`s High Flying BirdsTerritory: EuropePeriod: 2015Agency: Primary Talent InternationalAgent: Ben WinchesterPhone: +44 20 7400 4500E-mail: [email protected]: www.noelgallagher.com

8:58 PAUL HARTNOLL from ORBITALTerritory: World excl USAPeriod: May 2015 onwardsAgency: Value Added TalentAgent: Dan SilverPhone: +44 20 7704 9720E-mail: [email protected]: [email protected]

Chris Thompson (Ex-Manfred Mann¥s Earth Band)Territory: WorldPeriod: Available all year on requestAgency: Live Concept Entertainment GmbHAgent: Michael WidmannPhone: +49 7203 9219180E-mail: [email protected]: www.christhompson-central.com

DIE KRUPPSTerritory: WorldwidePeriod: September 2015Agency: IBDAgent: Sabine WaltzPhone: +49 (0) 8202 9049870E-mail: [email protected]: www.facebook.com/diekruppsofficial?fref=ts

THE ORCHESTRA starring ELO former members Territory: WorldwidePeriod: 2015Agency: World Entertainment Associates of AmericaAgent: John Regna - Artist Agent/ManagerPhone: +1 407 993 4000E-mail: [email protected]: www.THEORCHESTRAonline.com

Peter Doherty Territory: EuropePeriod: 2015Agency: Primary Talent InternationalAgent: Matt BatesPhone: +44 20 7400 4500E-mail: [email protected]: www.albionrooms.com

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

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

ARTIST AVAILS

Noel Gallagher

MEMBER PRESENTATION

About Our CompanyVIP-Booking’s core product is the Internet’s oldest and largest database for the European Live Entertainment Industry www.vip-booking.com developed as a tool for industry professionals . Since it’s launch in the year 2000, we have consist-ently offered our subscribers the very best in database services and now boast subscribers in over 30 countries.

Today VIP-Booking offers a range of tools for the industry – including VIP-News, VIP-Booking, VIP-Book and VIP-Contract.

Please visit vip-booking.com for further information .

Your comments and suggestions are always appreciated .

®

vip-booking.com

The international concert agency “RU-CONCERT”

was founded in 2001 at the time when there were

no promotion companies in Russian Federation

which could provide a full circle management

services to artists and creative companies.

Developing, the company expanded its range of services and the main priorities of

the agency today are creation of infrastructure to support show business industry

in Russian Federation and a strong professional team of art managers who will

become the first and the last competent authority in solution of client’s tasks. Years

of experience has allowed to “RU-CONCERT” company to sign contracts with well-

known stars of Russian and foreign music, to become a representative of many

famous foreign artists. In the past few years we served state corporations’ big oil and

financial companies, city administrations of Russian Federation.

During the active, creative and highly responsible administrative work “RU-CONCERT”

agency has maintained a spotless reputation: since its establishment and up today

has not had a single confusion both by clients and by department authorities, tax

authorities, courts, Prosecutors Office. Thanks to the reliable image “RU-CONCERT”

agency attracts serious customers who would like to get reliable and predictable

results. Talented artists will always find like-minded people in “RU-CONCERT”.

Working with us is comfortable for all. After all we are doing our favorite thing that’s

why we treat artists and partners with love and respect. We are always happy to help

novice artists to promote to the big stage. We organize performances and tours for

artists, music groups in CIS countries and Europe.

Today, “RU-CONCERT” company is a source for event purchase of foreign pop stars

for Russian event market. Catalogue of the agency is constantly updated with new

artists trying to satisfy not only the most discerning tastes of the audience but also to

work in order to stay ahead of demand.

16

vip-news premium - may 2015

Documents