vip-news premium vol. 129 - october 2010

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PreMIuM ›› VOl. 129 ›› OCTOBer 2010

www.VIP-BOOKING.COM

No – I’m not going to mention Seagulls this

month, but I am going to make reference

to another species of bird – the starling.

In Brighton you can see that Winter is on

the way because, out to sea above the two

piers, one intact, another just twisted metal

ruins, the starlings are flocking, thousands

of the birds all wheeling precisely together

in the sky, constantly changing direction as

though they were all parts of one organism

– it’s an amazing sight.

This flock is called a murmuration, and I

am informed they fly together like this for

several reasons, – safety in numbers, infor-

mation exchange (if some come back from

a good feeding area others may learn of it)

and warmth at night through roosting to-

gether. The birds may feed up to 20 miles

from their winter roost but return each

evening.

Having just returned from several Europe-

an conference and showcase events, with

more to come, I suddenly realised that this

phenomenon and the supposed reasons

for it seem to describe the movements of

the members of the music industry that at-

tend these events pretty accurately – we’re

all at some time or another – me included

of course, part of a music business murmu-

ration!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking any of

this, for me the great thing is that although

we have access to a myriad of wondrous

communication technologies, we still seem

to need human contact, and we definitely

‘grow’ our own expertise and the business

in many ways from coming together like

this. This probably explains why, as with

punters and festivals, there seems to be an

unabated appetite amongst profession-

als for these events. It has now got to the

stage where you have to make your choices

as increasingly the dates of various events

conflict. In the last few weeks you would

have needed access to your own helicopter

or private jet (or been a mate of Flying Of-

ficer Bruce Dickinson of the Iron Maiden Air

Force) to make it to Manchester’s In the City,

MaMA in Paris and Iceland Airwaves not to

mention CMA in New York for instance.

The VIP team attended the Reeperbahn

Campus and Reeperbahn Festival in Ham-

burg and the first ever Paris edition of

MaMA, and at least one of us – guess who?

– also attended ‘You Are In Control’ in Rey-

kjavik, The Summit in London and Musex in

Tampere, Finland.

All of these events were as far as we can

tell, or as far as we are told, well attended,

although it appears to me that different

events have very different ways of totting

up their attendance figures. In the ‘old days’

when there was Midem, and, ‘er, Midem,

and then ILMC and early Popkomm and

SXSW and a couple of others, they were all

‘trade only’ bashes, and everyone with a

badge was a known or still to be met col-

league, or sometimes, rival. Now so many

events also have a festival element that the

numbers may become confused when re-

porting results.

1

McGowan’s Musings:

Allan McGowan

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In the conference and networking rooms

during the day this is still the case, but

once we get into ‘wristband’ time, now so

many events attract both professionals

and punters we should definitely know

where to draw the dividing line. I don’t

think I’ve ever seen an estimate of how

many people work in the European, nev-

er mind the worldwide, music industry,

it is without doubt a very large number,

but I’ve got a feeling that if you added up

all the numbers given by all the events of

all the ‘delegates’, we may find ourselves

with – shall we say – an even bigger mur-

muration?!

Right, I’m just off to catch up with the

flock – and I leave you, Ladies and Gen-

tlemen, with the News.

No Glastonbury in 2012 due to Toilet shortages!Allan McGowan [email protected]

Couldn’t let this story go without a

mention, much as it may be practically

accurate it does come across as being

the basis for a whole raft of jokes. Ap-

parently the huge demand for port-

able toilets in the summer for sporting

events and all the other festivals will

be extended beyond supply by the UK

staging of the Olympics.

According to Portable Sanitation Eu-

rope – (it makes sense, but who would

have thought that there was a trade

association for the portable toilet busi-

ness – what happens at their confer-

ences?!) – anyway, PSE, have confirmed

that demand will definitely outstrip de-

mand in the UK. It appears that we may

have to import toilets from Germany,

but even this drastic measure will not

it seems save Glastonbury, as Michael

Eavis and family are taking the oppor-

tunity to go off on a touring holiday in

a camper van – I hope it’s got all the re-

quired facilities!

Oh – there could also be a shortage of

police, what with all these events, and

with the recent cuts ordered by our

coalition Government. So, will there be

enough toilets for the police? If there

are incidents and they have to carry out

investigations they may not have any-

thing to go on!

Glastonbury in lack of toilets in 2012

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One of the things that I really like about the

way that many of these events are develop-

ing is their willingness to cooperate with

the like minded operators of other events,

Eurosonic/Noorderslag in Groningen, The

Great Escape, c-o-pop, in Cologne, MaMA in

Paris and Reeperbahn, not to forget SXSW.

Of course all these events have their own

characters, but a sharing of knowledge

and ideas between events and countries

can only be good for the business, and

it’s good to see the representatives of one

event appearing as guests at the others. It’s

also very obvious that as European Govern-

ments profess their support of the creative

industries, and in some cases even begin to

invest, these established and semi-estab-

lished events are welcoming and including

representatives and collaborators from a

wider scope of creativity, all of which, TV,

Games, Film, Theatre, use music as essential

content. Events such as ‘You are in Control’

in Reykjavik are already aimed at all creative

industries. The Nordic countries and events

are also developing on-going collaborations

as evidenced by a meeting at last weekend’s

Music & Media in Tampere, Finland.

Reeperbahn Festival and Campus:

I’m afraid it’s a month since the Reeperbahn

Festival and Reeperbahn Campus took

place – doesn’t time fly when you’re confer-

ence hopping! – but it took place just after

our last issue so we get round to it now.

Also it is definitely worth looking back on,

because both events have now confirmed

themselves a regular fixtures in the diaries

of many international professionals.

Managing director Alexander Schulz

summed up, “In 2010 we followed our

approach to position Germany‘s biggest

club festival as a quality oriented discov-

erer festival even more thoroughly. This

proved to be a big success. Although we

had no headliners in 2010, the Reeperbahn

Festival attracted about 17.000 guests, ex-

actly as many as in the record setting year

2009. In other words: 190 fascinating new-

comers from all over the world, 70 highly

informative events during the interna-

tional industry meetings and an inspiring

multimedia Arts-program proved to be as

attractive as big names and were great fun

for everybody.”

»The Reeperbahn Festival is not just a local event, but one that now has a regional and international impact on

the world of music«

- Bernd Neumann

Bernd Neumann, German Minister of State

for Culture and the Media, declared: “The

Reeperbahn Festival is not just a local

event, but one that now has a regional and

international impact on the world of music!

The cultural and creative industries have

revenues of roughly 15 billion euros a year,

which isn’t exactly peanuts, but rather an

enormous economic factor.“

Those attending the Reeperbahn Campus

apparently numbered 1500 professional

visitors and media representatives, about

400 of them coming from 22 countries

from all around the world. Detlef Schwarte,

responsible for the international industry

meeting of the music and live-entertain-

ment industries: “This year the Reeperbahn

Campus transformed itself from a confer-

ence into an international business-plat-

form. Especially focussing on the music and

live-entertainment-area was very popular.

In this regard I would like to say thank you

very much to our partners Warner Music

and BDV.”

I had the pleasure of chairing a few of the

panels, which were well attended by peo-

ple who seemed to want to learn. I myself

was surprised to learn on the Festival panel

that one of the big problems of 2010 was

the aggressive collecting of drinks contain-

ers, to the extent of snatching unfinished

drinks, in order to claim the deposits on

the ‘cups’. Both the Lowlands festival and

Roskilde had been disturbed by what are

thought to be Eastern European gangs tar-

geting the events.

Positive statements of actual follow ups

arose at some sessions, Jens Michow of the

German association for concert promot-

ers, BDV, had quite a go at the the German

publishing collecting society GEMA about

moves by the society to get a cut of the live

sector’s sponsorship revenues in addition

to a slice of ticket, catering and bar sales.

He followed this at a session considering

the ramifications of the Love parade dis-

aster by publicly offering to assist Chrissie

Uerlings and Henrik Bondo Nielsen in their

Safety Focus Group, efforts to share crowd

management knowledge and experience

across Europe within the live entertainment

sector and with those in local government

who regulate large scale events.

Conference round upAllan McGowan [email protected]

Panel at Reeperbahn Campus

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The music business community

vip_booking_198x272.indd 1 30/08/10 12:37

http://www.midem.com/save

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Organised by the same team that organise the long established

Printemps de Bourges Festival this second edition of MaMA on

October 15/16 had to contend with certain problems. Number

one was that this was the first edition to take place in the French

capital, and the first is always the one in which you discover what

not to do as well as what to progress! Apparently there were two

other conferences in town at the same time, which made hotel

booking a bit of a problem when trying to keep all the internation-

al guests together, plus there was the omnipresent threat of Le

Grève, the strikes and anti Sarkozy protests about pension rights,

but to a greater extent all fell into place and this first Paris event

achieved what it set out to do, and will I am sure do what it set out

to do and bringing a more down to earth approach to the music

business in France, and attracting more professional international

guests than those that presently attend Midem. It was for me and

it seems for all I asked, a very enjoyable event.

Panels were all well attended – even those where people learnt to

cope with instant translation – how do they do that!

Official numbers were as follows: 1926 delegates (30% internationals representing 39 countries)

752 companies (38% internationals)

120 journalists

20 conferences:

128 speakers & moderators (30% internationals)

60 concerts (20 internationals bands)

14 venues

Total capacity:

8000 (venues : 6000 - bars : 2000)

Tickets sold:

a) venues : 2860 (95% soldout): 50% sold to the public the rest re-

served for the professionals)

b) bars : 2000 sold out’

5 international festivals partners / network:

SXSW (USA) - C/O Pop (Germany) - Eurosonic (Netherlands)- TIMM

(Japan) - Spot (Denmark)

14 international partners :

IQ (UK) – VIP -Booking (UK) - Canadian Music Week (Canada) -

Liverpoool Sound City (UK) - Reeperbahn (Germany) - Womex

(Germany) - PopKomm (Germany) - Wallonie Bruxelles Musiques

(Belgium) - WAM (Spain) - Catalan Arts (Spain) - Audiocoop (Italy)

- Swiss Music Export (Switzerland) - IMMF (UK) - European Music

Office (Belgium)

MaMA 2010 Allan McGowan [email protected]

http://www.hallenduo.de

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MusicTank, is a business development network for the UK music

industry, owned and operated by the University of Westminster

to engage with industry, innovation and change across the music

business. They have given VIP-News permission, thanks to Sam

Shentob, to feature the bullet points whuch came out of ‘Saving

the Golden Goose’ a recent panel set up to consider the present

state of the UK live music industry. A full transcript can be pur-

chased on-line at: www.musictank.co.uk

The panel was chaired by MusicTank Chairman Keith Harris / Keith

Harris Music Ltd / Director of Performer Affairs, PPL.

Panel:

Stuart Galbraith: CEO, Kilimanjaro Live

Andy Mcleod: Music Promoter & Director, Club Fandango

Malcolm McKenzie: Artist Manager

Geoff Meall: Director, The Agency Group

Steve Machin: Founder, Stormcrowd

The main points covered were as follows:

The fan experience at all levels of gigs in the UK has improved,

but still has some way to go.

Festivals are a fine science, and there are now all sorts of VIP

experiences and hospitality packages for the touring circuit.

Fewer festivals went bust this summer than three summers ago.

There were far fewer clueless new entrants attracted by the fes-

tival buzz.

Record companies can no longer be relied on to be the source

of investment into live they once were. Less investment in the

market may lead to fewer stadium acts, but they are not going

to stop entirely.

No sector within the live business has a divine right to exist and

must add value, e.g. 80% of Sonisphere tickets are sold through

the Sonisphere web site. But there’ll always be a need for an art-

ist support business, as artists don’t have the money required

to fund a large tour.

Booking fees are most severe in markets operating with near-

monopolies such as LN/Ticketmaster in US, CTS in Germany,

and large operators in Holland, Switzerland and Scandinavia.

In the UK the CPA has 47 members and there are innumerate

ticket agents.

Fans will get bored if an artist over-tours. And if they consider-

ably over-pay for tickets they don’t tend to go on to see that

artist again.

Some crazy deals in the US see the artist paid 110% of the gross,

with the promoter making money on car parking, popcorn and

the secondary ticket sales. Artist fee conversations should first

be about which venue is right, and then consider appropriate

ticket prices before reaching an agreed fee.

The industry needs definitive figures but is not convinced on

the accuracy of estimates of merchandise and associated tak-

ings in the PRS Live Music report, nor the voluntary submission

of stats for Pollstar. Chris Jenkins’ aggregated Live Music Study

is a step in the right direction, but sharing data is difficult – AEG

are a privately owned company and so are most promoters.

Most agree it’s a good idea in principle, but each company is

reluctant to pool data.

The industry could do a much better job of educating people

on scam ticketing sites. It’s not straightforward though, e.g. the

Advertising Standard Authority requires that an advert that lists

ticket agents cannot be selective. But the space required to list

all ticketing agents makes this prohibitively expensive, so none

are listed. There’s distrust of a government who discussed regu-

lating ticketing for 18 months just to then do an about-turn.

The main conclusion of the panel was:

The UK live sector is a vibrant, mostly thriving business. The reces-

sion has had an impact and other sectors cannot rely on live as a

cash cow, but providing artists don’t over-tour or price themselves

out of the market, the UK won’t go the way of the US.

saving The Golden Goose:Music Tank review of the live IndustryAllan McGowan [email protected]

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MusicTank Chairman - Keith Harris

http://www.musictank.co.uk

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The very first industry convention solely dedicated to green issues

that concern the music industry:

Climate change, quite obviously we suppose, has a much greater

affect on the live music business than the rest of the music indus-

try. Green Music Events is the first conference to concentrate spe-

cifically on areas in which the sector can become more environ-

mentally friendly.

The conference agenda will include panels and workshops deal-

ing with:

Sustainability Managment for Beginners:

Wastemanagement 1: How to avoid waste:

Wastemanagement 2: Handling, Disposal, and Separation:

Green Audience: communication and involvement:

Mobility Management: public transport stimulation, rewards &

sanctions:

Festival Camping & sanitary installations:

Tech Forum - new and green production tools:

Green Marketing: sponsoring, sustainability as USP:

Green Law: the legal process, international comparisons, Euro-

pean statutes:

Networking – now it’s your turn (find common interests – start

green projects together – peer audits):

The role of the cultural sector regarding the fight against climate

change:

Energy efficiency & Compensation – pros and cons:

The organizers have managed to assemble a very solid line up of

speakers and panellists.

Holger Jan Schmidt - RhEINKULTUR, Ben Challis - agreenerfestival.

com, Teresa Moore - Bucks University, Sabine Funk, - RhEINKUL-

TUR, Jan Schönhoff, - Aqualogistiker.org, Paul Schurink – Brede-

noord, Alison Tickell - Julie’s Bicycle , Lucile Barras - Green Music

Initiative.

VIP-News strongly recommends this event as the agenda and its

speakers appears to promise a a highly informative conference.

Those who have already attended workshops and tutorials by Ter-

esa Moore or listened to speakers such as Ben Challice know that

these people deliver very worthwhile and state of the art informa-

tion that could help to improve the environmental conditions for

shows and festivals.

The conference will take place in Bonn, Germany on November

3 & 4th 2010. The Registration rate is 200 Euros. Members of the

cooperation partner Yourope benefit from a special reduced reg-

istration offer of only 150 Euro. For registration and further infor-

mation: www.green-events-germany.eu

Green events GermanyManfred Tari [email protected]

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The VIP-BookThe ultimate print directory for the Eu-ropean Entertainment Industry, packedwith contacts and easy to use. An es-sential reference book for every offi ceproviding basic contact informationand a solid overview.

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I was surprised to be reminded on arrival

in Tampere that this event has such a long

history. This was the 21st edition of Music

& Media gathered over 700 Finnish and in-

ternational delegates under the same roof

in Tampere on October 21-24. The festi-

val element, Lost in Music, featured 100

acts over 13 venues, some programmed

by venue owners, agents, promoters and

record company, Fullsteam, with a series of

bands, including the very inpressive Biffy

Clyro, presented by Live Nation, Finland.

Musex Director Paulina Ahokas gave Vip

News her impressions of this edition: “The

21st Music & Media was certainly a suc-

cess from the production point of view:

the event was sold out, we had received

absolutely fantastic feedback from both

Finnish and international delegates. Our

strategic vision of providing a boutique

networking and showcasing bridge be-

tween the Northern Dimension (The

Nordic countries, Russia and Baltics) and

the rest of the world really seems to com-

municate and bring meaningful working

relations. The themes, such as environ-

mental issues, artist branding, changing

media map and the keynotes have raised

really active response, the video streams

of the international panels and keynotes

at www.musex.fi/musiikkimedia2010 ,

(including the one with a certain edi-

tor interviewing the veteran agent Barry

Dickins of ITB) and www.musiikkimedia.

fi have already received over 300 stream-

ings in one day only! It was a true honour

for us to present the 1st ever Tampere

Award for Exceptional Achievent in Music

Business to a most amazing man, Mr. Rein

Lang, currently the Minister of Justice

of Estonia. The festival programme was

varied with several different genres and

styles being presented and for the most

part both the Finnish and the interna-

tional artists enjoyed full houses. I know

of several offers for various artist teams.

But only the couple next forthcoming

weeks will tell what kind of concrete re-

sults it will bring to all participants and

that will measure the concrete full value

of an event like this.”

Music & MediaAllan McGowan [email protected]

Mr. Rein Lang presenting the Tampere award in Finland

Barry Dickens and Allan McGowan on stage at Music and Media Finland

Roskilde Festival honours Dhow Countries Music Academy in Zan-

zibar with its second World Music Award, which will be presented

during the WOMEX music convention in Copenhagen on Sunday,

31. October.

Peter Hvalkof, world music booker at Roskilde Festival, explained

why the Dhow Countries Music Academy had been considered

for its award: “Cultural projects are often launched in third world

countries with the best of intentions. But it’s difficult to sustain the

projects over a longer period in order to achieve the original aims.

The Dhow Countries Music Academy attracts attention not only

because of its stated purpose and level of ambition, but because it

is also a professionally operating organisation that has proven its

worth and managed to make a difference in its area.”

The Dhow Music Academy provides low cost music lessons in Zan-

zibar in Tanzania and specialises in domestic roots genres such as

Taarab, Beni and Kidumbak. For further information please check

www.zanzibarmusic.org

roskilde Festival world Music Awardto be Presented at wOMeXManfred Tari [email protected]

Dhow Countries Music Academy in Zanzibar

http://www.zanzibarmusic.org

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While the Sarkozy administration in France

is still under heavy pressure due to amend-

ments of the entrée age for pensions or

its migration policy for Roma, amongst

other issues, it now looks that the French

Government is able to proceed with one

innovative and favourable measure for the

digital music business.

At a press conference at Midem in January

2010 Frederic Mitterand the French min-

ister for Culture announced the idea for a

so called “Carte Musique”. With this card

the French government wanted to raise

awareness and acceptance among young

people to buy music downloads on legal

platforms. The card enables young people

under the age of 26 to buy digital music

worth 50 Euros by paying only 25 Euro for

the card itself. The French ministry for cul-

ture will subsidize the balance of 25 Euros.

The program will last for about two years

and is supposed to be launched by the

end of October. The French government

expect to sell one million “Cart Musique’s”

per year. In order to avoid only big platform

operators benefiting from this measure, a

cap of five million Euros per operator has

been implemented. Due to the cap, opera-

tors of smaller and niche download plat-

forms will additionally benefit.

As subsidies are also an issue that confront

EU-competition laws, the French govern-

ment sought EU-Commission approval of

this campaign. In reference to this Joaquin

Almunia, vice-president at the EU-Com-

mission for competition policy said in a

press release: “We welcome initiatives

from Member States to increase the avail-

ability of music online at a lower price for

consumers and through legal distribution

channels. Music online is certainly a driver

for the success of the Internet and for eco-

nomic development. However, we shall en-

sure that such initiatives are implemented

in compliance with the EU state aid rules.”

Also Helen Smith, Executive Chair of the

music industry trade body IMPALA, said:

“The music card is unique and demon-

strates the importance of a carrot as well

as stick approach. Alongside measures to

guarantee market access and diversity,

a European music card could be part of a

new EC strategy to developing the digital

market.”

Pop & Politics:French Government receive eu-Commission permission to launch Carte MusiqueManfred Tari [email protected]

http://www.musikwoche.de/VIP

11

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A chronology about a youth centre in

Dortmund that turned into a concert ven-

ue and has now turned into something

else … and will then become…?:

It started somewhere in the early eighties

when the Freizeit Zentrum West (FZW) in

Dortmund became a regular venue for all

kind of concerts and music events. While

in those days the capacity of the venue

located in the western part of the City

was about 500 the venue evolved and

grew and is now a reasonable concert

hall with a capacity of 1.300 plus a small

300 persons club room plus an additional

bar area.

This story contains political and adminis-

trative elements that could lead to a new

definition of the term creative industries.

Since the beginning in the late sixties, the

FZW operated under the administration

of the local office for youth welfare. But to

make a long story short we will just focus

on developments in recent years.

In 2007 the city council of Dortmund

agreed on a master plan to move the FZW

from its former location into a new and

bigger building more centrally located in

the inner city. At this stage the VUK (As-

sociation for independent culture) was

still in charge of promoting concerts and

music events in the old location.

The VUK was founded in 1988/89 and

since then became the main organisation

for concerts and party events in the FZW.

Already in the planning phase opponents

complained that the dimensions of the

new building created unfair competition

with existing commercial venues in the

town. In particular the VUK made profits

on party events which balanced out loss-

es they made on concerts. The so-called

“Ü30 parties” (disco events for people

aged over 30 years) became very success-

ful, not only in Dortmund.

The very first version of the city council’s

master plan poposed that the VUK would

look after concert and event manage-

ment for the still to constructed FZW with

the Arbeiterwohlfahrt (Workers’ Welfare

Association) taking care of the catering,

while the office for youth welfare should

oversee the so called youth work.

But in 2006 the city of Dortmund found

itself short of money. As a result the city

council agreed to involve a private in-

vestor to finance and construct the new

building, and signed a 30 year rental

contract with local real estate company,

Limberg.

In 2008 Limberg started work on the build-

ing and the official opening took place in

September 2009. Meanwhile a few things

had already changed. The office for youth

welfare didn’t want to continue with the

VUK as the main booking party for the

venue as the association appeared to be

in financial trouble. In response to this

development the office for youth welfare

hired Volker May from Energie Musik as

the head of booking for the FZW.

May worked the venue very efficiently

and was able to book very popular acts

and artists resulting in a high number of

sold out shows. But as the FZW was open-

ing up in September 2009 other political

events occurred. In the same month new

local elections took place. New elections

don’t usually make a lot of difference in

Dortmund as the Social Democrats have

ruled the town since the first free elec-

tions following World War II. In this case

however, a new mayor was elected, but

nevertheless the main post-election event

that affected the FZW was, that one day

after, it became public knowledge that

the City of Dortmund had a funding defi-

cit of about 100 million Euros. The former

plan for the FZW foresaw that the office

of youth welfare would set up a separate

public company to run the venue, but the

new mayor, Ulrich Sierau (SPD) withheld

his approval.

For the first few months May helped out

and also took care of the financial man-

agement of the FZW. But the success of

his work and his team also created more

opponents and sharper critics. One of

these opponents was the city-subsidised

Westfalenhalle, quite surprisingly the

management of the Westfalenhalle com-

plained about unfair competition.

The Westfalenhalle GmbH is a complete

facility of the city of Dortmund and

somehow since 2007 managed to incur

losses in the boom years for the live mu-

sic industry. It also begs the question as

to where the competitive edge should

actually lie between an arena and an

ensemble of smaller halls catering for

around 2.000 people and a concert hall

for 1.300. However this becomes clear im-

mediately when recalling that a manager

Pop & Politics:The Complicated story of A City VenueManfred Tari [email protected]

FZW Halle

12

VIP-BOOKING.COM

12


of the Westfalenhalle once answered a

question from the author of this article

regarding the absence of representatives

of the Westfalenhalle at conferences such

as the ILMC with the question: “Do you re-

ally believe that there is business made at

the ILMC?”

In addition to the top management of

the Westfallenhalle local politicians and

other administrative bodies such as lo-

cal audit office and the local newspaper

Ruhr Nachrichten joined the chorus of

criticism. Representatives of the political

party CDU complained that the office for

youth welfare did not fulfil the require-

ments for youth work at the FZW, the local

audit office launched investigations after

complaints by third parties regarding the

tendering processes for the purchase of

the sound and light system and the ac-

counting standards of the venue. In addi-

tion, Ruhr Nachrichten regularly reported

on the complaints and inquiries.

In a non-public council meeting on July

8 before the political summer break, the

city council of Dortmund agreed on a

resolution for a new call for tenders for

a new leaseholder of the venue at the

beginning of 2011. In the draft the ad-

ministrative board of the city asked its

council members for permission to en-

ter into talks with ‘surprise, surprise’ the

top management of the Westfalenhalle

as a preferred partner or other potential

partners. As the reason for the new call

for tenders the board argued that this

measure would reduce the financial loss

of about 600.000 Euro for the FZW in the

ongoing business year to 200.000 Euro.

But a number of licensing requirements

were also made part of the tender. Among

other items the new leaseholder must

consider a black list of party events such

as “Flat Rate”, “Après Ski” or “Bad Taste”

parties. Another one is a non-competi-

tion clause with a newly created centre

for creativity and culture. The so-called

“Dortmunder U” is huge former brewery

building located just next to the FZW and

houses a museum amongst other attrac-

tions. The “Dortmunder U” is a prestige

object of the city, developed with fund-

ing of more than 60 million Euro from

the European Commission, the district

government of Northrhine Westphalia

and the City of Dortmund as a contribu-

tion for the European Capital of Culture

“Ruhr2010”. Further compulsory points

for the new lease holder foresee that

they have to take over fixed deals with

the brewery Radeberger Gruppe for beer

with a hectolitre price of 199 Euro, and

CTS Eventim for Ticketing.

On September 30 another non-public

council session took place. The council

members received a further non-public

document reporting on the call for ten-

ders. Over the summer the top manage-

ment of the Westfalenhalle came to the

conclusion that it probably would need

too much funding to run the venue and

pulled out of the bidding. Of the remain-

ing four bidders the offer by the company

PanUrama was the best. The other bid-

ders were Volker May’s Energie Musik, the

music magazine Visions based in Dort-

mund and AWC AG from Cologne.

Looking back in the recent history, it is

maybe worthwhile mentionng that the

new building of the FZW was built as a

dedicated concert hall. Looking into the

non-public documents by the administra-

tive board of the City of Dortmund reveals

that the word “concert” is not mentioned

once. Nevertheless, in the documents the

administrative board emphasised several

times that the new lease holder must con-

tinue to cater for “youth culture”.

Dendemann

Blumentopf

13

VIP-BOOKING.COM

13


Unfortunately at no point within the

documents is the term “youth culture”

officially defined. But looking deeper

into the details of the deal reveals that

the officials of the city council have ac-

quired a deep insightful knowledge

about the concert business and in par-

ticular what the term “youth culture”

entails.

Now, to return to the offer by PanUra-

ma; the company offers 135.000 Euro

for a lease for 2011 and 150.000 Euro

for a further five year lease. For the first

three years PanUrama would pay in to-

tal the amount of 435.000 Euro.

But as mentioned before, the City of

Dortmund is itself a leaseholder, as the

investor Limberg owns the venue. The

deal between Limberg and the city

foresees for the next three years pay-

ments of 496.300 Euro. Internal city

sources even say that the lease pay-

ment increases over the duration of

the 30-year long leasing contract. In

the internal document it is also stated

that the administrative board will now

supply a draft of the lease contract with

PanUrama on November 18 for the ap-

proval of the city council.

Not mentioned in the internal document

is that PanUrama is also the lease holder

of two catering locations in the “Dort-

munder U”. The managing directors for

PanUrama are Till Hoppe from Dort-

mund and Thomas Pieper from Münster.

Both are experienced gastronomes that

have successfully run discotheques, but

certainly neither are well known players

in the concert business (yet).

Bearing in mind that the new leasehold-

ers may receive an official go-ahead on

November 18 for the lease contract, it

still remains a challenge for them to in-

stall a proper program for the first half

year of 2011 before the end of the year.

Nevertheless on September 30 Volker

May received a written notice of the ter-

mination of his contract. The same goes

for most other staff members who so

far worked for the concert department

of the venue.

For the Westfalenhalle who so far

feared the unfair competition and the

political coalition of opponents this is

probably good news. Not to forget to

mention that Dortmund has no other

regular commercial concert hall for

1000 people plus.

Considering that the new leaseholders

are experienced discotheque entre-

preneurs and ignoring the time restric-

tions for booking acts that capable

of selling more than 1.000 tickets per

show, this means that for the time be-

ing Dortmund is probably the very first

town worldwide, that ever managed to

create a subsidised discotheque. Well,

there probably was a hidden agenda

but let’s simply not question why they

built a concert hall...

Sabaton

http://www.recordoftheday.co.uk/

http://www.pop1000.com/

14

VIP-BOOKING.COM

14

The Bundesverband der Veranstaltungswirtschaft (Association for

the German Live Entertainment Business) together with German

trade magazine Musikmarkt has released the results of the current

market survey for the business year 2009. The study is carried out by

the research company GFK (Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung) and

reveals significantly reduced results.

GFK reports a decline within all key figure segments. The visitor

figures for events shrunk by 6 percent from 32.7 million visitors in

2008 to 30.7 in 2009. The average spending by consumers at events

declined by 6 percent from 110 to 103 Euros, the number of tickets

sold also decreased. According to the survey 106.4 million tickets

were sold, compared to 118.7 in 2008 and 127.3 in 2007. The accu-

mulated turnover was calculated as 3.173 billion Euros, down on the

2008 turnover of 3.608 and 3.872 for the business year 2007. The

average variant was less dramatic: 29.83 Euros in 2009, 30.39 in 2008

and 29.45 in 2007.

The study differentiates between music and non-music events. For

music events the turnover was given as 2.266 billion compare to

2.566 billion Euro the year before. The number of tickets sold for

music events is 66.6 million compared to 74.5 million in 2008.

The complete study could be ordered at www.musikmarkt.de

The management of CTS Eventim went on tour in Frankfurt, the un-

declared German capital of the German financial industries. The set

list for the current road show included bullet points covering the

financial prospects and the business agenda of the company.

CTS Eventim currently appears to consider that Live Nation does

not present any frightening competition in Germany. In regard to

the formerly much noted global ticketing service provider partner-

ship with Live Nation, CTS Eventim expects that the arbitral court

could come to a decision at the end of 2011 regarding the prema-

ture collapse of this collaboration.

CTS Eventim intends to make up the previously forecast turnover

growth expected as a result of the ticketing partnership with Live

Nation, through international expansion. Looking ahead to 2014

the Company foresees equity turnover growth of 100 to 200 million

Euros through acquisitions in other European markets. In particular

CTS sees opportunities in France, Ireland, Spain and Belgium.


Business NewsManfred Tari [email protected]

Report on the German Live Entertainment Market

CTS Eventim On Tour

http://www.musikmarkt.de

http://www.sxsw.com

VIP-BOOKING.COM

BauchklangTerritory: WorldwidePeriod: 2011 Agency: Georg Leitner Productions Agent: Nina Pernica Phone: +43 1 914 8615 E-mail: [email protected] Homepage: www.glp.at

within TemptationTerritory: WorldwidePeriod: March 2011 and onwardsAgency: X-Ray TouringAgent: Paul BoltonPhone: +44 (0) 20 7749 3500E-mail: [email protected]: www.xraytouring.com

skid rowTerritory: Europe, Asia Period: 1/6/2011 - 31/8/2011 Agency: ARM Entertainment Agent: Dana Strutz Phone: +1 651 483 8754 E-mail: [email protected] Homepage: www.skidrow.com

Groove ArmadaTerritory: Europe / WorldwidePeriod: Europe Winter 2010 Worldwide 2011Agency: WME - William Morris Endeavor Ent.Agent: Steve HoganE-mail: [email protected]: www.groovearmada.com

Admiral TTerritory: WorldwidePeriod: 2010 - 2011Agency: CARAMBA SpectaclesAgent: ClotairePhone: +33 1 4218 1718E-mail: [email protected]: www.caramba.fr

sass JordanTerritory: EuropePeriod: February / MarchAgency: Paperclip AgencyAgent: Hilde SpillePhone: +31 24 323 9322E-mail: [email protected]: www.paperclip-agency.com

15

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Live Nation is a thoroughly corporate

company. In most cases the business

outlook for stock market listed com-

panies looks reasonably assured and

there is usually nothing too much to

worry any potential investors.

Considering the size of the global

concert player however Live Nation

is way off course in line with this cor-

porate assumption. Of late one hears

stories not documented in official

press releases from the department

of corporate communication at Live

Nation.

One of these is covered by trade

paper Billboard who reported that

on October 15 Live Nation ticketing

division Ticketmaster stopped pay-

ing commissions to affiliate partners.

Many online stores such as Amazon

for instance run affiliate partner pro-

grams that offer kick back schemes

to third party websites for transac-

tions resulting in a purchase. Affiliate

programs are considered as low cost

marketing tools that help to gain traf-

fic and sales via external websites.

Once unofficial reports are now of-

ficial regarding the withdrawal of

the Live Nation Germany GmbH. The

former Live Nation Company once set

up as the subsidiary for the German

market was transformed into Music

Pools Wessels GmbH. In fact as a re-

sult Live Nation now only has, apart

from its ticketing subsidiaries Tick-

etmaster Holding GmbH and Ticket-

master GmbH, one company left in

Germany. According to the German

trade register this is the Live Nation

Germany Holding GmbH in Berlin.

On October 13 Live Nation Germany

GmbH in Hamburg converted to Mu-

sic Pool Wessels GmbH and appointed

Johannes Wessels, the former head

of Live Nation Germany as managing

director. With the move the former

registered managing directors Niall

Dunphy and Allan Ridgeway resigned

from the company.

Wessels who worked for Live Nation

from February until September takes

on most of the previous Live Nation

staff for his new company. The team

now has seven staff and Wessels has

already confirmed that he is working

on dates for Neil Young.

For Live Nation the short-term incur-

sion into the German market at least

ended relatively happily. Wessels

took his former team with him and

therewith saved Live Nation some

redemption payments. In return

Wessels received a new company and

commented: “I am very happy to be

my own boss again.”

Nevertheless the exit story also re-

veals that Live Nation has problems

making its way into the German con-

cert market. The website livenation.

de is already off line and is redirected

to livenationinternational.com. Once

again the conclusion is that it seems

that Live Nation in Germany has lim-

ited chances of competing with CTS

Eventim as the undisputed German

market leader.

In the mid term CTS Eventim fur-

thermore predicts a surprising mo-

mentum that could could arise from

a collaboration with Anschutz Enter-

tainment, presuming that the Ticket-

master ticketing software may not be

the favoured long term solution for

the US giant.

With all this in mind recent price tar-

gets projected by various analysts

currently look like this:

Berenberg Bank 49 Euro (buy); Com-

merzbank 35 Euro (Hold); SES Re-

search 34 Euro (Hold); Cheuvreux 42

Euro (underperform); Macquarie 42

Euro (hold); Nord LB 37.80 Euro (hold);

and Deutsche Bank 30 Euro (hold).

The share price of CTS Eventim is cur-

rently at 38.04 Euro.

Live nation unofficial Equity Stories

http://www.glp.at

http://www.xraytouring.com

http://www.xraytouring.com

http://www.skidrow.com

http://www.groovearmada.com

http://www.caramba.fr

http://www.paperclip-agency.com

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AbOuT

Taking place on November 26 & 27, Buma Rotterdam Beats is a brand

new event focusing on the whole range of urban genres, featuring

two-days of music conferences, workshops, seminars and a night

time music festival across five venues plus a program for new talent.

Combining all these different elements, Buma Rotterdam Beats of-

fers a versatile program which will be a first, modest step toward a

future in which the event aims to grow into the main European plat-

form for urban musical styles. www.buma-rotterdam-beats.nl

COnFEREnCE hEAdLinES

Alongside a nighttime festival featuring hip-hop, soul, dubstep

and reggae, the daytime conference program will feature a

broad, two-day line-up of match-making initiatives, lectures and

debates focused on the current and future music industry, as well

as several interactive and online technology workshops.

During the conference, key industry figures and artists will be tak-

ing part in workshops, panel discussions and interactive presenta-

tions in order to deliver a dynamic and informative series of events.

Keith Harris, the former manager of Stevie Wonder, will be discuss-

ing his work for the iconic soul label Motown. Entertainment Law-

yer Hector Baldonado will be talking about his work with independ-

ent artists and labels from the American entertainment industry.

Baldonado recently brought together two of his own clients, Juelz

Santana and Lloyd Banks, resulting in the surprise US hit of the year,

Beamer, Benz or Bentley. Booker Rolf Radny (Kingstone), who works

with German reggae star Gentleman, will be talking about the Eu-

ropean reggae business, as well as giving tips on how to get acts on

the bill of the larger European festivals.

In the panel discussion ‘7 Billion Rappers, How to Find the Right

One’, international A&R managers including Matthew Haynes (Gef-

fen, UK), Walter Harris (Blue Colla Music, UK) and Latoya Lee (Kon-

vict, US), will reveal how they scout for new talent, plus what to look

for and what to avoid. Kees de Koning (Top Notch) and Noah’s Ark’s

Jiggy Djé will be talking about their respective labels, the business

of signing new talent, and how it feels to be working in a rapidly

changing music industry.

National highlights include a Q&A with Lange Frans who will talk

about his business experiences with labels, managers and artists,

plus a Q&A with former Opgezwolle producer Peter ‘Delic’ Blom

talking about his influential and innovative productions. Perquisite,

who will also be giving a workshop on creating beats, will talk with

La Melodia about their shared experiences of the Japanese market

and the realities of success there. On top of that, Salah Edin will be

giving a talk about the process which led him to success in dozens

of countries, and in “My Bio” a presentation from the new Rotter-

dam ROTTZ label with DuvelDuvel, VSOP, Presto, Midkade and DJ

MP will take place.

And there are loads more interesting guests discussing a range of

topics, including the ins and outs of independent labels, the search

for new promotional opportunities in hip hop, r&b, dubstep and

reggae, and the state of affairs in the European urban scene. Names

include Hef, Tim Beumer (FunX), Bart Suer, GMB and representa-

tives of Puna, State Magazine, Buma, 22Tracks, Diversidad, Stichting

Brein, HipHopConnection, NPS, MTV, Top Billin and HipHopHuis.

Workshops are given by Tasha’s World, Excellent, Saul van Stapele

and I.N.T.

Expect even more soon, stay tuned!

FESTivAL PROGRAM COMPLETE

Being officially kicked off on November 25, by Typhoon

and the New Cool Collective, the festival will offer two days

packed to the rim with the best music, with performances

by: Zwart Licht, Postman, De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, Nt-

jam Rosie, Pam Feather, VSOP, La Melodia, Kalibwoy, The

Others, Sir OJ presenteert ‘Goed Ontmoet’, Smiley, Gomes

vs. Brutuzz, Kleine Jay & Cartes, Soul Sinners, Steffen Mor-

risson, Reverse, Adje & Jayh, Aisha, Nicon, Bluey Robinson,

Boom Boom Du Tèrre, Lyrical, Skinto, Seven, Furlan Williams

& Shirma Rouse, Ackachar, KC The Funkaholic, FS Green, DJ

Jah, Mixturess, Thelonius, Lucky Dubz, Riddim Up DJ’s, Rass

Motivated, Git Hyper and Deep Diggin’.

notiCe board ››

Another new service in the improved and redesigned viP-news is the notice-board, which is available for all readers. Reader’s messages will be posted on the notice-board as a free service, passing on announcements, job postings, buy-ing and selling notices, inquiries or alike. Announcements should be emailed to [email protected]

VIP- News - A u g u s t 2 0 0 5

16


Conference Newsletter

http://www.buma-rotterdam-beats.nl

17

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in this section we offer members of viP-booking.com some space to present their company to viP-news readers. if you would also like to present your company please contact Peter briggs at [email protected]

MeMber presentation ››

in this section we offer members of viP-booking.com some space to present their company to viP-news readers. if you would also like to present your company please contact Peter briggs at [email protected]

®

vip-booking.com

VIP-BOOKING.COMVIP-BOOKING.COM | 26 York Street | UK - London W1U 6pZ | Phone +44 870 755 0092 | Fax +44 870 622 1953 | e-mail: [email protected]

17

About Our Company

VIP-Booking’s core product is the Internet’s oldest and largest data-base for the European Live Entertainment Industry www.vip-book-ing.com developed as a tool for industry professionals. Since it’s launch in the year 2000, we have consistently offered our subscrib-ers 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 – inclu-ding VIP-News, VIP-Booking, VIP-Book and VIP-Contract.

Please visit vip-booking.com for further information.

Your comments and suggestions are always appreciated.


sziget FestivalSziget festival is the biggest musical and cultural festival in Central

Europe–a seven-day multicultural expo offering more than 800

programs on more than 30 venues. Sziget means island in Hungar-

ian and the festival, in addition to being on an island in the heart of

Budapest, is an island in the metaphorical sense.

Sziget has a unique atmosphere: it is a meeting place, a musical and

cultural show, a life-style, an enormous cafe and party place, a place

of learning about the world and each other. No matter what style of

music you like listening or dancing to, you will find the place of your

taste. You can enjoy performances, shows, you can party and dance

or just walk around and gaze at the ever-increasing flow of interest-

ing and different people passing by.

From the beginning in 1993 until 2001 Sziget’s capacity has grown

from 43,000 to over 360,000 over the seven days of the event pre-

senting stars such as Jethro Tull, Ten Years After, Jefferson Starship,

Byrds, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Eric Burdon, Stranglers, Jeff Healey,

Clawfinger, Slash, The Bates, Stone Roses, Iggy Pop, The Prodigy,

The Levellers, Sonic Youth, Therapy?,Galliano, David Bowie, Apollo

440, Motörhead, Toy Dollz, Rollins Band, Chumbawamba, Faith No

More, Foo Fighters, New Model Army, Cardigans, DEUS, Boney M,

Shane McGowan, Coolio, Trans-global Underground, Rammstein,

Mory Kante, Goldie, Patti Smith, Green Day, Brand New Heavies,

Kool and the Gang, Suede, Faithless, Guano Apes, Jovanotti, Baaba

Maal, Apocalyptica, The Klezmatics, Liquido, Rachid Taha, Para-

dise Lost, Asian Dub Foundation, Suzanne Vega, Mambo Kurt, The

Bloodhound Gang, Lou Reed, HIM, Bad Religion, Oasis, The King,

H Blockx, K”s Choice, Bomfunk MC’s, Noir Desir, Run DMC, Fun-

Da-Mental, Morcheeba, Leningrad Cowboys, Frestylers, Incognito,

Eagle-Eye Cherry, Ash, Placebo.


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