Production Live! Coverage 2020: Emerging Markets

There aren’t just more artists on tour than ever before. There are also more markets being toured than ever before. Naturally, one panel during Production Live addressed the world’s emerging markets and what to keep in mind when breaking into new territories.

The panelists made it clear that building a new touring destination was down to creating a local infrastructure that international tours could trust in terms of safety and security, ticketing and production support.

Magnus Danielsson, VP international motorsports & new business development at Feld Entertainment Inc., pointed out that there was no one-size-fits-all solution, since every market was at different stages of development.

He emphasized that if you wanted to establish a new brand in a new territory, you had to be in it for the long haul. He added, that there was usually a long, and in many cases never-ending, list to work through in order to creating operations and procedures people are used to, and raise the standard of professionalism and safety. 

Arriving in a new market was a learning experience for both sides, said Brendan Hoffman, director of touring at TMWRK Management. Hoffan works with Diplo, who “likes to go everywhere all the time.”

This invariably takes him into territories, where live entertainment infrastructure is scarce. Still, Hoffman tries to source everything locally, and use as much of the local infrastructure as possible. 

“If there is none, we try and help create it,” he explained, pointing out that future tours would profit from that initial ground work.

One of biggest obstacles to becoming a touring destination on par with North America or Western Europe is the lack of venues. Without dedicated live entertainment buildings of various sizes, it was hard to create a proper circuit.

This was the main reason, territories like Sri Lanka, Malaysa or Indonesia aren’t part of international tour routings in 2020, BookMyShow’s David Goldberg explained. 

Goldberg shared his experience from India, another country that lacks what “we’d consider traditional venues.” (Cricket stadiums aren’t used, as most Indians wouldn’t approve of destroying the grass on the pitch.)

BookMyShow has made great strides in establishing a trusted ticketing system in the country, and has also slipped into the role of local promoter no multiple occasions, building trust with international partners. 

The company intends to tackle venues next. Ashish Hemrajani, founder of India’s entertainment giant and BookMyShow mother company Big Tree Entertainment, confirmed as much when he told Pollstar last year that he was looking into fitting buildings with state-of-the-art technology. 

Definitely in it for the long haul is Flash Entertainment, which has been operating in the UAE for the past ten years. Company CEO John Lickrish has invested a lot of effort into creating relationships with local partners and authorities, bringing down security and production costs and providing the best possible environment for fans, artists and promoters alike.

The result: superstars like Madonna, Coldplay or Beyoncé have performed in the market multiple times over the past ten year.

It would now be important to see whether the region as a whole would follow through in terms of creating content in and specifically for the region, Likrish emphasized.

If other cities in the region followed Abu Dhabi or Dubai in building state-of-the-art entertainment venues, places like Bahrain or Qatar, but also neighbouring Saudia Arabia or nearby India could all become part of one tour routing.

And the more territories can be include in one run, the more affordable it becomes even for mid-size artists.

UTA’s Latin America expert Jeremy Norkin confirmed that “picking the right partners” in any given territory was crucial. Latin America wan by no means a cohesive territory, despite the majority of people speaking Spanish. “You need to look at each country as a separate world,” Norkin said.

Most territories have their own local media infrastructure that takes some time working out. A label or publicist on site could help. 

Mexico City and Sao Paolo may have huge populations, which translate into  big streaming numbers for certain U.S. artists in those territories. However, those numbers don’t necessarily translate into ticketing business.

But since the venue infrastructure was much more established in Latin America, even mid-tier artist could now think about doing a Latin American tour. Norkin said there were smaller club circuits with trustworthy bookers that allowed for club tours through these territories.

He also emphasized that language barriers didn’t really exist any longer.

In the end, whether one decides to tap into a new market or not depends on the artist. Some are scared of the unknown. For others, the prospect of performing in the world’s murder capital is a lure.

Exploring new markets isn’t just a thing for musicians in 2020. Lisa Ryan of EFM Global also represents clients in sports, entertainment and corporate. She said that everyone was interested in going into emerging markets.

Hoffman concluded that any market could become an emerging market these days, it all depended on whether you had the guts to go there.