Pollstar Live! World, Meet Oyster: Solving The Global Touring Puzzle

Gideon Gottfried – Pollstar Live! 2018:
Lobl, Hoermann, Mair, Noble, Strange and Reid and Zedeck talk global touring

In one of the last sessions of day one of Pollstar Live!, Sophie Lobl (C3 Presents), Richard Hoermann (Barracuda Music), Sebastian Mair (Creativeman), Peter Noble (Bluesfest), Steve Strange (X-Ray Touring), John Reid (Live Nation) and David Zedeck (UTA) talked about the state of the global touring business.

“How important is it to have a global career?“ was Lobl’s first question. “Infinitely important” was Zedeck’s reply. “It’s what every artist strives to have.“ This is, of course, mostly true for english-speaking artists. Things are different for Japanese acts, as Mair was able to confirm. “In Japan it’s completely the other way round,“ he said. Any shows Japanese acts were able to secure outside their home country was considered “the icing on the cake.“

Reid talked about how the attacks on Manchester and Las Vegas shifted the focus. Up until then, promoters were mainly concerned with the safety and security inside the building. Now they took into consideration the health and safety of people outside the venue.

Steve Strange is the Eagles of Death Metal’s agent. He remembered the Nov. 13 attacks on Le Bataclan in Paris, and receiving the call from the local promoter Solomon Hazot, who told him what had happened. “It was one of the hardest evenings I ever had to endure. And I hope to never have to again. You just never know how to prepare for something like this. All you can do is make the best security advancements you can. But if people come running through the front door with Uzis, what do you do?“

Shifting the conversation, Lobl wanted to know whether artists should be prepared to lose money the first time they play a new territory. Noble admitted that, as a promoter, he might have a different opinion about the question than the agents on the panel.

But even Strange said he always encouraged artists to open up to other markets and invest in themselves by playing markets where they won’t immediately be able to make money.

Reid explained how, while labels still supported artists financially, it was now the live companies that put up money for the acts to help them get their feet off the ground. He said Live Nation promoted around 30,000 club shows per year that didn’t make any money, and emphasized that “we’re not really losing the money, we’re all investing in the future.“

He added: “It’s harder to get to some markets than others. It harder to put an Asian run together until you do have some real traction. What you find out is, that as the acts get bigger you play fewer markets because you can play the biggest grossing markets.“

Zedeck thought there were more places to play than ever. One wasn’t bound to clubs in order to break acts, given the countless festivals all over the world. He admitted that there were some markets that were tougher than others for economic reasons. Routing Asia wasn’t cost effective, a six show run might take three weeks, which is not efficient.

Other places, like India for example, would be great touring territories if they didn’t lack vital infrastructure. Panelists were in agreement, however, that it was just a matter of time until such markets got up to speed.

As far as the most export-friendly genres were concerned, the panel settled on pop, emphasizing, however, that hip-hop was pop. Zedeck said all genres have a chance to go globally, even K-Pop.“

Noble remembered having Kendrick Lamar at Bluesfest in Australia two years ago, which he compared to the moment Jay-Z played Glastonbury in the UK. He recalls the flak he had to take for this booking, which turned out to be a great success. “You have to also evolve as a festival, you can’t just be doing the same thing year in year out. The biggest discovery we’ve had as a festival is the whole hip-hop world. We’ve had Mary J [Blige] and Nas and we’ve got Lauryn Hill this year, I could go on and on.“

Lobl asked Reid where festivals fit into tour deals, and how he handled the conflicts that ensued if a global deal tied an artist to certain events? „”ou can do them together or not. We view them as complimentary. It’s nice to stich together a plan with the agent and manager for two years,“ he answered. “It gives you a competitive advantage as a business, but for the act it’s great.“

While Zedeck agreed that it’s nice to plan out a 18- to 36-month touring plan, the most important thing was to give the artist choices and not force them to play certain events.

Strange said he tended not to do global deals or festival deals. “I like to have that individual approach.I just like to have the freedom to not box myself off into one particular area. I do a lot with Live Nation and also AEG, I like to have the freedom to work with everyone.“

At which point Reid joked: “At what point did the question become Live Nation bashing?“

Noble was careful not rub salt into the wound, and said: “When you get to be in the business as long as I have you obviously have people knocking at your door seeing if you’re going to check out at some point, and the one that knocks the most is Live Nation. And I get them for doing that. I had decided not to sell – that doesn’t mean I won’t review that in the future – because I am enjoying myself too much.

“I think that at this point in time I wouldn’t be saying anything to negative about [Live Nation’s growth strategy]. Let’s just say there’s a whole lot of people who are not in Live Nation. But, in the future, let’s see where it goes. If it gets too big a monopoly it may have to be looked at.“

All panelists were in agreement that it was an advantage to have offices in the respective markets they wanted to operate in. Having boots on the ground in multiple territories is, of course, one of Live Nation’s big selling points.

Questioned about censorship, Zedeck explained: “It is a little bit difficult to get all artists into China. They look at history on the internet. If you ever posted anything about the Dalai Lama or Tibet they’ll stop your permits.“

Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia will censor lyrics, as do Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the Middle East.