First 2016 Greener Festival Award Winners Announced at ADE Green

The first winners of the Greener Festival Award 2016 have been announced at ADE Green, part of the massive Amsterdam Dance Event.

Welcome to the Future, DGTL, Liberation Festival and Extrema Outdoors were all winning Dutch events who participated in the Award scheme in 2016, and the awards ceremony was organised with Green Events Nederland.

The one day ADE Green took place yesterday (October 19th 2016): ADE Green is a pioneering conference on sustainability, innovation, and social change looking at meaningful solutions for the future. This year, panels and workshops included a focus on sustainable management at major festivals, and series of in-depth workshops where initiatives such as the reusable festival cup and sustainable event management were explored, Green Events Nederland offered tips and tricks for a waste free festival, and other workshops included sanitation - and whether human waste is the the "new gold", and how to make the right choice of food - whether biological, local and vegetarian, as well as the impact this choice has on the environment. ADE Green returns to ADE in 2017.

To enter the award scheme, led by A Greener Festival, events submit a self assessment which is followed by an on site independent inspection, post event data gathering and a detailed report by the environmental assessor. The assessment forms the basis for the events Environmental Impact Assessment and is a important tool to help events to identify where improvements can be made, as well as celebrating the positive and successful existing actions.

Organiser of Extrema Outdoors, Marcel Mingers’ said: “We are delighted to win this award, which is a great reward for our efforts. Extrema is looking forward to an even greener future.”

A Greener Festival has assessed over 300 festivals over the last 10 years, and re-launched the Awards criteria in 2016 raising the bar and increasing the feedback and reporting available to events. This year's winners have also already added another 25 trees to AGF's Festival Wood in Scotland, a decidious re-forestation project managed by Trees for Life.

Ben Eddie, the AGF Awards Co-ordinator said "I am thrilled to have represented A Greener Festival at the sold out 4th edition of ADE Green at De Brakke Grond, the perfect platform and a new partnership. I was even more pleased  to have opportunity to meet familiar names from coordinating our UK & Europe awards for the first time this year. It was a real pleasure to present the Dutch awards to Liberation and Extrema Outdoor NL (both Commended), and DGTL and Welcome to the Future (both Highly Commended). It was an inspiring program and what better way to finish a packed day of workshops, presentations, and panels than by celebrating the successes of our first Award winners of 2016. It was also awesome too see such a mix of industry professionals, suppliers, and the next generation of festival and live event organisers and students in the same space. The future is now!”

The first results:

Welcome to the Future (HIGHLY COMMENDED)

DGTL Festival (HIGHLY COMMENDED)

Liberation Festival (COMMENDED)

Extrema Outdoors (COMMENDED)

THE REVOLVING DOOR

Toby Leighton Pope and Steve Homer have been appointed as co-CEOs of AEG Live UK. The pair will be based at AEG’s London office, reporting directly to AEG Europe president and CEO Tom Miserendino. Pope and Homer previously spent over 15 years with rival firm Live Nation UK as senior vice presidents.

Michael “Mickey” Curbishley has joined their TAIT as the Senior Vice President of Live Event. Curbishley joins TAIT with over 30 years of entertainment experience having most recently served as Global CEO of PRG Music. He is an entertainment executive who has managed multi-million dollar projects across concerts, touring, television, and a variety of special events. As SVP of Live Event, Curbishley will focus his efforts on customer service, generating new business, and continuing to grow TAIT’s position as a global market leader in live experience.

Michael Lynton, CEO of Sony Entertainment, today announced that Sony Music Entertainment CEO Doug Morris will move from the operational management of Sony Music Entertainment and assume the role of Chairman in April 2017.  Rob Stringer, currently Chairman and CEO of Columbia Records, will become CEO of Sony Music Entertainment.  He will have overall operational responsibility for Sony Music Entertainment globally. He will report directly to Lynton.

Jordan Weissman has joined UTA Music’s Private/Corporate Bookings division. Weissman will be based in UTA’s NYC offices. For the past four years, Weissman worked in the Music Partnerships group at Platinum Rye Entertainment, where he booked private and corporate performances and negotiated brand partnerships deals.

DHP Family has hired Ed Lilo, former head of venues and events at Vice UK, to deliver programming across its three London venues. As DHP’s new head of venue programming, London, Lilo will work with external and in-house promoters across Oslo in Hackney, The Garage in Highbury and The Borderline in Soho.


Jamie Snelgrove has joined TopTix UK as business development director. Snelgrove was most recently head of theatre revenue management at See Tickets UK, and previously worked as head of box office at Nimax Theatres and, prior to that, head of ticketing at Hub Tickets.

Eddie Barcan, the long-time festival director of the UK’s Cambridge Folk Festival, has announced his resignation from event promoter Cambridge Live. Barcan – who also programmes the Avalon stage at Glastonbury Festival – said he “put [his] heart and soul into Cambridge Folk Festival” and that leaving “has been a very difficult decision. However, due to strategic developments within Cambridge Live, the time is right for me to move on to new opportunities.” Barcan will continue his work with Glastonbury and says he’s “keen to get involved in new events and opportunities”.

ie:music, the London based artist management company, which counts Robbie Williams, Passenger, Will Young, Lily Allen, Lemar, Ladyhawke and others among its clients, has announced a number of key internal promotions. Company co-founder Tim Clark will assume the role of Chairman, following the death in August of David Enthoven. Two longtime staff members, Dan Medland and Michael Loney, have been promoted to the positions of joint Managing Director.

Digital media exec Jon Gisby has been named Vevo's Head of Europe. Based in London, he's tasked with delivering ambitious plans in content, technology and monetisation.

Well-respected music producer Chloe Pearson, a key player in the creation of Radio 1's playlists and Sound Of... poll, has left the BBC. 

Colorado booking agency Madison House has expanded into Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Nashville with the hiring of two new agents. Adam Bauer and Jordan Burger – both of whom join from Ann Arbor-based Fleming Artists – will head up the new Ann Arbor and Nashville offices, respectively, and bring with them a roster of 44 artists, including Mike + The Mechanics, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Carbon Leaf and Everyone Orchestra.

Eric Mackay has been promoted to VP of Digital for EMEA and Asia-Pacific at Warner/Chappell Music, reporting into Jon Platt

Online music video platform Vevo is on the hunt for a new Chief Revenue Officer after AustralianNic Jones,  who joined the company in 2011 as SVP, International under then-CEO Rio Caraeff, decides to relinquish the role and return home to be closer to his family.

Downtown Music Publishing has appointed Alan Goodstadt as Chief Financial Officer. In his new role based in New York, Goodstadt will oversee Downtown’s global finance and accounting operations. He will report to Downtown’s CEO, Justin Kalifowitz.

Pandora has appointed Nick Bartle as Chief Marketing Officer, effective October 3. Bartle comes to Pandora from LinkedIn, where he served as Vice President of Member Marketing and Communications for the last year.

Lyor Cohen is joining YouTube. The former Def Jam exec has been named YouTube's new Global Head of Music.


The co-founder of Spotify, Martin Lorentzon, is stepping down as Chairman of the firm, but staying on its board. Daniel Ek will become CEO & Chairman. The news comes just over a month after we learned that both Spotify's Chief Revenue Officer, Jeff Levick, and top global sales exec Jonathan Forster were also departing.

Bob Shennan, currently Controller of Radio 2, Asian Network and 6 Music and Director of BBC Music, has been promoted to Director Of Radio at the BBC. As a result, he will have daily oversight of BBC Radios 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 live as well as digital-only stations 1Xtra, 6Music, BBC Radio 4 Extra, 5 live sports extra and Asian Network, as well as the BBC Performing Groups, the BBC Proms, BBC Music and radio production. He will report to James Purnell, Director of Radio & Education. 

Kobalt has hired former BMG exec Laurent Hubert to run its newly formed B2B rights management platform division. In his new role as President, Platform and Investments, Hubert will oversee the roll-out of Kobalt’s white label technology offering to other content owners.

And Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) has appointed Jake Simon as Director of Creative. Reporting to David Gray, UMPG EVP/Head of West Coast A&R, Simon joins UMPG from Atlas Music Publishing, where he served as Director, Creative and handled talent development and acquisitions.

Live Music Business Awards 2016

Winners at the Live Music Business Awards 2016 last night at Radisson Blu Portman Hotel in London, included Glastonbury's Sarah Sheppard (pictured), who won the 'Unsung hero' award,  ITB's Steve Zapp who won 'agent of the year' and SJM who won national promoter of the year

Glen Rowe (Muse) won tour manager of the year, Coldplay at Glastonbury won 'best festival performance', Muse's Drones show at Glastonbury won 'spectacle of the year', Blossoms won 'breakthrough artist', Dot to Dot won best small festival, Splendour in Nottingham won best medium sized festival, the Isle of Wight festival won best large festival - and John Giddings picked up the Outstanding Contribution award.

Full list of winners here http://www.livemusicawards.co.uk/winners-2016/

New visa costs will hot Australian live sector

The introduction of a new online visa processing system in Australia will act as a “major disincentive” to international acts touring the country, live industry body Live Performance Australia (LPA) has said. LPA’s chief executive, Evelyn Richardson, says the new visa application process – which will do away with the long-standing group discount for touring bands – will “hit the financial viability of international tours, leading to fewer tours, reduced job opportunities for Australian performers and workers in the live performance industry and higher ticket prices”. “Visa processing fees are being increased by up to 600%,” she explains, “which could stop touring artists from coming to Australia altogether.”

More on IQ magazine here

RIP

David Enthoven

The global music business has been paying its respects to ie:music co-founder David Enthoven, who died on August 11 following a short illness. Tributes came from business colleague and stars, led by artists such as Robbie Williams and Enthoven's friend and business partner at ie:music, Tim Clark.  Best known for managing Williams, earlier in his career he managed King Crimson, Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, Emerson lake & Palmer and T Rex amongst others. At his packed funeral Robbie Williams sang 'Moon River' with Guy Chambers on guitar and Lucy Pullin sang 'Angels' with a choir.

James (Jimmy) Morton Nederlander, the long-serving chairman of the Nederlander Organization, one the last major family-run live entertainment promoters and venue owners in the United States, has died aged 94.

Leonard Haze has passed away. "Leonard was a friend, a very sweet guy and one of the best drummers who ever lived"

Fiona Haycock, one of the British music industry’s most highly regarded events executives, has passed away at the age of 51. Haycock died on Wednesday, August 31 following a battle with cancer. Fiona was executive producer of the annual MITS Award, and had been working on the 2016 event until shortly before her death.

Record producer Sandy Pearlman has died. Well known for producing rock bands such as the Blue Oyster Cult, he produced the second Clash album, Give Em enough Rope which surpised fans and was not well received by many true believers. In a recent filmed interview, Topper Headon, Mick Jones and Paul Simenon were very appreciative of Pearlman.

Elliot Tiber, the artist, screenplay writer and designer best known as the businessman who helped enable the staging of the landmark 1969 Woodstock music festival, has died. He was 81. Tiber died  in a hospice in Boca Raton, Florida, after suffering a stroke, according to his art agent, Elisa Ball.

Tribute have been paid to Gary Watson, the frontman of highly regarded Scottish indie-rock band The Lapelles, after it was revealed that the talented musician had lost his life. Watson would have been 22 on the day after his death, 14 August. The young singer and guitarist suffered serious injuries after falling into the River Clyde. Franz Ferdinand posted a message on their Twitter account saying “We’re so sad to hear of the tragic passing of The Lapelles Gary Watson, a lovely, talented man. Thoughts are with his family, friends & band.”

Former Nine Inch Nails keyboard player James Woolley has died at the age of 50. Woolley played with Nine Inch Nails from 1991 to 1994 and toured with the band during their most successful period following the release of 1994 album The Downward Spiral. His death was confirmed in a Facebook post by his ex wife Kate Van Buren.

Rod Temperton, one of the most successful British pop songwriters of all time, has died following a short battle with cancer. He was 66. The hugely talented composer wrote numerous Michael Jackson classics, including "Off the Wall", "Rock With You", "Thriller", "Baby Be Mine", "Burn This Disco Out" and "The Lady in My Life". Temperton also wrote for Anita Baker, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones — whose breakthrough solo album, "The Dude", Temperton co-wrote.

Global expands UK festival footprint

Global has expanded its UK festival footprint with the acquisition of South West Four, Field Day, Boardmasters, Rewind, Y Not and Truck festivals and the purchase of a further stake in Snowbombing/Festival №6 promoter Broadwick Live. Global includes Global Radio (Heart, Capital, Smooth, Classic FM), Global Television (Capital TV, Heart TV) and Global Entertainment, which includes music publishing, management and live and touring divisions.