AC/DC first concert for London's Olympic Stadium

AC/DC will be the first band to perform a major concert at the former Olympic Stadium in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The concert, scheduled for the 4th June, will be the first major event in the Stadium after the transformation works are finished. The Stadium has been undergoing work since 2013 to turn it into a year-round, multi-use venue. The work includes installing the largest roof of its kind in the world, a community track, innovative retractable seating, spectator and hospitality facilities and external landscaping.

http://www.accessaa.co.uk/acdc-to-perform-first-major-concert-at-former-olympic-stadium/

Spotify revenues - and losses - up

Spotify has doubled its revenues in 2012, but losses also rose as the streaming music platform seeks to expand in an increasingly competitive market. The Financial Times reports that the latest financial filing from the digital firm in Luxembourg shows that revenues in 2012 went up from 190.4 million euros to 434.7 million euros, with the number of 'active users' rising to 20 million worldwide, over a quarter of which are paying premium service users. However, overall losses widened to 58.7 million euros, up from 45.4 million euros the previous year.

PPL income up 11% on 2011

The UK record industry's collecting society PPL has issued its financial results for 2012, confirming that its earnings increased by 11% year-on-year to £170.8 million. 

Public performance income was up 17% to £64.8 million and international income rose 13% to £36.6 million; broadcasting and online income was up 5% to £69.4 million. The report also revealed a small decrease in cost-to-income ratio, from 14.4%, compared to 14.9% in 2011.

PRS 2012 collections up overall, but live music slips

UK collection society PRS for Music have announced a record £641.8m collected for songwriter, composer and music publisher members in 2012, equating to a 1.7% rise on 2011. A focus on efficiency resulted in a £3.6m reduction in overall costs, equivalent to 4.6%, meaning a total of £571.9m was paid to members (up 2.6% on 2011).

Royalties from online and digital services topped £51m for the first time, up 32.2% on 2011. Royalties from online services now provide a larger income stream for music creators than radio, live or the pub sector, but perhaps unsurprisingly, royalties collected from live music fell by 14.2% to £19.3m as fewer live events occurred in 2012. Collections from CD sales were also down, but overall PRS's 'recorded media' income was up slightly.

International revenue, which has seen considerable growth in the last decade, was down 4% in 2012, a result, in part, of exchange rate losses. However, this income stream is still the biggest single revenue generator for PRS members, bringing in £180.1 million.

2011 figures here: http://www.prsformusic.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PressPacks/March%202012%20-%20Financial%20results%20briefing%20paper.pdf

Live Nation losses widen

Live Nation year end financial results show that losses for the year were up, from $83 million to $163.2 million. Declines in the European market and from artist management related revenues contributed to the widening losses - as well as costs related to the departure of Frontline founder Irving Azoff - with $5.5 million in costs directly relating to his exiting and another $62.7 million in write-downs on the talent division he led. CEO Michael Rapino remained upbeat, saying an overhaul of the company's Ticketmaster platform, an expanded festivals business and new ventures in Asia and Latin America provided great opportunities for future growth.

Warners post positive digital results

Warner Music saw revenues rise in the quarter to 30 September 2012, while losses were down both in the quarter and over the year. Revenue for the quarter was up 2% year-on-year to $731 million, while losses were down to $18 million. For the year, revenues were down slightly, $2.78 billion compared to $2.87 billion the previous year, but losses were also down, from $205 million to $112 million - and digital revenues continue to grow. 

UK Festival Award winners

Best Major Festival: Bestival
Best Medium-Sized Festival: Bloodstock Open Air Festival
Best Small Festival: Y Not Festival
Best New Festival: Festival No 6
Best Dance Event: GlobalGathering
Best Metropolitan Festival: Camden Crawl
Best Family Festival: Latitude

The Grass Roots Festival Award: Green Man
Best Overseas Festival: Benicassim (Spain)

The Greener Festival Award: Croissant Neuf Summer Party

Best Line-Up: Download
The Extra-Festival Activity Award: Live From Jodrell Bank
Best Toilets: Lodestar

Agency Of The Year: William Morris
Promoter Of The Year: Gareth Cooper (Festival No 6, Beach Break, Lollibop)
Concession Of The Year: Paelleria
Best Brand Activation: Southern Comfort Juke Joint

Headline Performance Of The Year: New Order at Festival No 6
Best Breakthrough Act: Jake Bugg
Anthem Of The Summer: Django Django - Default

Lifetime Achievement Award: John Probyn

Bieber tops AMAs

Justin Bieber has triumphed at the The American Music Awards taking three of the gongs on offer, including overall Artist Of The Year. The genre themed winners in full are:

Artist Of The Year: Justin Bieber
New Artist Of The Year: Carly Rae Jepsen

Pop/Rock
Favourite Male Artist: Justin Bieber
Favourite Female Artist: Katy Perry
Favourite Band, Duo Or Group: Maroon 5
Favourite Album: Justin Bieber - Believe

Country
Favourite Male Artist: Luke Bryan
Favourite Female Artist: Taylor Swift
Favourite Band, Duo Or Group: Lady Antebellum
Favourite Album: Carrie Underwood - Blown Away

Rap/Hip Hop
Favourite Artist: Nicki Minaj
Favourite Album: Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded

SoulR&B
Favourite Male Artist: Usher
Favourite Female Artist: Beyonce
Favourite Album: Rihanna - Talk That Talk

Favourite Alternative Rock Artist: Linkin Park
Favourite Adult Contemporary Artist: Adele
Favourite Latin Artist: Shakira
Favourite Contemporary Inspirational Artist: Tobymac
Favourite EDM Artist: David Guetta

Which is Europe's greenest festival?

The GO Group have announced the final nominations for the new Green Operations Award which will be handed over at the 2013  European Festival Awards.

The Award is the European Festival Award for Green Excellence and is annual award presented by Yourope and the GO Group, targeting festivals that have made a significant contribution to or achievement towards developing more sustainable events. It replaces the prestigious Green n Clean award, handed over at the last three EFAs. The winner of the Award is decided by a panel made up of experts who are not directly linked to any specific festival,  with the exception that the previous year's winner who will be invited to cast a vote for the following year's award only. For 2013 the judges panel comprised representatives from Bucks New University (UK), Green Events Europe (GER), The Green Music Initiative (GER), A Greener Festival (UK), Greener Event Foundation (NOR) and 2012 Green n Clean winners Melt! Festival (GER)

The short list for the Green Operations Award 2012:

Boom Festival (POR) - Awareness, creativity and overall approach to sustainability at the highest level. Boom is a true leader on green issues.

Maifeld Derby (GER) - A great debut from a young group of people with Greener Maifeld Derby. Our "Rookie of the year".

Open Air St.Gallen (CH) - For their continued contribution to leadership in general, and for their work in developing greener festivals over a number of years.

Way Out West (SE) - Great sustainability approach on a triple bottom line. Absolutely remarkable: this major event went 100% vegetarian.

We Love Green (FRA) - The second year of We Love Green sees the festival already as a shining example. Exceptional work on various topics.

Jacob Bilabel (Go Group, GMI) said: “Green trailblazers of the European festival industry will be awarded with the new EFA Green Operations Award. They are the smart operators, who have shown innovative and outstanding approaches in the field of green operations as integral part of their activities.”

The winners will be announced and presented with their accolades at the European Festival Awards gala ceremony, which crowns the opening night of the Eurosonic Noorderslag conference and showcase in Groningen, Holland on Wednesday 9th January 2013. The event features a three course gourmet dinner, live performances drinks reception and after show party and is a unique opportunity to celebrate with the leaders of Europe's festival industry.

Tickets to the event are available here

MTV Europe Awards out

The MTV Europe Music Awards are out with UK boy boyband One Direction and Carly Rae Jepson both picking up two awards and the recently dumped Justin Bieber,  and  the lovely pizza selling Taylor Swift each grabbing three in Frankfurt.

Best Female: Taylor Swift
Best Male: Justin Bieber
Best New Act: One Direction

Best Rock: Linkin Park
Best Pop: Justin Beiber
Best Hip Hop: Nicki Minaj
Best Live: Taylor Swift
Best Alternative: Lana Del Rey
Best World Stage: Justin Bieber

Best Song: Carly Rae Jepson - Call Me Maybe
Best Video: Psy - Gangnam Style

Best Look: Taylor Swift
Biggest Fans: One Direction
Best PUSH: Carly Rae Jepson

Global Icon: Whitney Houston

Sandé triumphs at MOBOs, Alt-J for Mercury

The MOBOs are out, with Emeli Sandé walking away with awards for Best Female, Best Album and Best R&B/Soul. Plan B took Best Male Act and Best Hip Hop/Grime. TLC were awarded Outstanding Contribution to Music, with Dionne Warwick receiving the MOBO Lifetime Achievement Award. Other winners on the night were Sean Paul (best reggae), D'Banj (Best African Act), Labrinth (Best Song), Rita Ora (Best Newcomer), Nicki Minaj (Best International), Tinie Tempah (Best Video for Earthquake), Rachel Kerr (Best Gospel) and Zoe Rahman (Best Jazz). Live performances at the star studded event in Liverpool included  Trey Songz, Conor Maynard, Emeli Sandé, Misha B, JLS, Stooshe, Labrinth and Wiley.

And the bookies favourite Alt-J won the Mercury Music Prize. The four piece indie rockers, who met at Leeds University and have been dubbed 'boffin rock', took home £20,000 having beaten off the likes of Plan B, Jessie Ware, Field Music, Lianne La Havas, and Pulp guitarist Richard Hawley. Past winners include Dizzee Rascal, Pulp and Klaxons plus PJ Harvey, who has lifted the award twice.

AIM awards out!

The Association of Independent Music has celebrated the very best that independent music has to offer at the second annual AIM Independent Music Awards. Hosted by BBC Radio broadcasters Huw Stephens and Steve Lamacq, with live performances from Frankie and the Heartstrings, Big Deal and Land Observations, the Awards, held at the Brewery in Clerkenwell, has established itself as the event of the year for independent music talent.

The Prodigy proved their enduring popularity with the masses, receiving the Best Live Act Award as voted for by visitors to the-fly.co.uk. New mum, Adele, was also among those honoured at the event, winning the PPL Award for Most Played Independent Act, capping what has been a momentous year for her. Rising stars Alt-J took home Independent Breakthrough of the Year recognising their huge success in the past 12 months, which has seen them become one of the UK’s most popular bands. Enter Shikari, who led the nominations, landed the coveted Independent Album of the Year accolade, beating off stiff competition from Alabama Shakes and Liars. First Aid Kit’s ‘The Lion’s Roar’ was awarded Best ‘Difficult’ Second Album.  60 Days of Static won the hardest working band award and Leefest won the Golden Welly Award for best festival. 

It wasn’t just the artists having all the fun, with a wealth of the Independent sector’s behind the scenes movers and shakers also tasting glory. Black Butter Records, who scored a number 1 hit with Rudimental’s ‘Feel The Love’ earlier this year, claimed Best Small Label, Bella Union’s Simon Raymonde won Independent Entrepreneur of the Year and Ian Evans, IME Music accepted the prestigious Indie Champion Award.  The Independent Label of the Year trophy went to 4AD in recognition of their consistently strong A&R, with releases this year from Grimes, Twin Shadow, Purity Ring and Mark Lanegan Band.  

As previously announced, Edwyn Collins received the Outstanding Contribution To Music award, which was presented on the night by Edwyn’s long term friend Vic Godard of Subway Sect fame and Frankie & The Heartstrings, whose debut album was produced by Edwyn. Mute Boss, Daniel Miller accepted the Pioneer Award, recognising his huge influence on the independent sector and electronic music in a career spanning three decades.

Stones for O2

After massive hints from both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones have announced a number of 50th anniversary shows - two at London's O2 Arena and two at the Prudential Center near New York. Tickets for the UK shows will officially go on sale on Friday 19th October, though are available now to American Express customers. Tickets will be priced between £106 and £406 face value. The tickets were already being resold on Seatwave for up to £11,000. The shows are the first project for new global touring enterprise Virgin Live, a joint venture between the Virgin Group and the Dainty Group. It is thought the band will tour in 2013.

AIM Music Awards nominations out

The nominations are out for this year's Independent Music Awards, organised by the Association Of Independent Music are out and it was confirmed that Edwyn Collins will take the Outstanding Contribution trophy while Mute's Daniel Miller will take home the Pioneer Award. Other nominations include Hardest Working Band Or Artist: 65daysofstatic, Cancer Bats, Enter Shikari, Frank Turner, Skinny Lister; Best Live Act: The Cribs, Dub Pistols, Enter Shikari, The Prodigy, Frank Turner: The PPL Award For Most Played Independent Act: Adele, Arctic Monkeys, Caro Emerald, Madness, Travis; Independent Album Of The Year: Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls, Enter Shikari - A Flash Flood Of Colour, Liars - Wixiw, Future Of The Left - The Plot Against Common Sense, Rustie - Glass Swords; and Best Independent Festival (The Golden Welly): In The Woods Festival, Truck Festival, Y Not Festival, Leefest, Bearded Theory.

http://www.musicindie.com/awards/theceremony2012

Glastonbury cool at 7

The Glastonbury Festival has risen to No 7 in the chart of 'cool brands' in the UK - based on a survey of 3,000 consumers and a panel  of 39 designers, style magazine editors and other experts. Judges are asked to rate brands based on their uniqueness, originality, style, innovation, authenticity and desirability and include Bestival promoter Rob da Bank, musician Carl Barat, DJ Gemma Cairney,  fashion writer Susanna Lau, Rizzle Kicks and singer and film director Plan B

YouTube, in at No 2, and The BBC's iPlayer in at No 6 pipped Glastonbury to the honour of the highest new entrant to the chart, and another new entrant, Virgin Atlantic, came in at No 8. 

The Coolbrands 2012 top 20
1. Apple
2. YouTube
3. Aston Martin
4. Twitter
5. Google
6. BBC iPlayer
7. Glastonbury
8. Virgin Atlantic
9. Bang & Olufsen
10. Liberty
11. Sony
12. Bose
13. Haagen-Dazs
14. Selfridges
15. Ben & Jerry's
16. Mercedes-Benz
17. Vogue
18. Skype
19. Nike
20. Nikon

Image: Coldplay at Glastonbury 2011 (Denis O'Regan)

Green Events Europe shapes up

The program for the 3rd GreenEvents Europe Conference in Bonn on Nov 5th and 6th 2012 is shaping up nicely, with some outstanding speakers at the leading pan-Europe's conference on sustainability in the live music and events industry. Speakers include leading lights from the Green Music Initiative, A Greener Festival, Bucks New University, The Green Festival Alliance, De Montfort University and Blauer Engel and panellists from major events like Roskilde Festival, Boom, Öya Festival, Republic Of Kazantip, Tollwood Festival and Open Air St.Gallen.  http://www.green-events-germany.eu/The_Program_2012.47.0.html?&L=1

Are UK festivals in decline this year? eFestivals statistics tend to disagree

Our friends at eFestivals have been looking at whether or not the UK festival market is in decline, with some surprising results. After the wettest summer on records, the recession and with the unanticipated fall-out from the Olympics for the festival market, as well as some high profile cancellations including Sonisphere UK, WowFest, The Last Jubilee, The Big Chill and the Bloc Weekender, eFestivals decided to have a look at the figures, and see whether 2012 was as bad as many pundits are declaring. EFestivals say that whilst it is true that more festivals have been cancelled in 2012 than ever before, with 19 more festivals cancelled this year than the average (38 festivals a year) over the last five years, as a percentage of the overall number of festivals that were planned in the UK (excluding Northern Ireland) the figures look slightly different over the last six years - with no significant increase in cancellations as a percentage of shows that actually took place.

More at http://www.efestivals.co.uk/news/12/120907c.shtml#oYp4jGdxC8ps4T0H.99

London basked in yet another weekend of amazing sport and amazing entertainment as the Africa Express reached London on Saturday as part of the London 2012 Festival and the Paralympics closed on Sunday.  The Africa Express train based tour ended with Led Zepplin's John Paul Jones and Sir Paul McCartney joining the likes of Baaba Maal, Damon Albarn,  Jupiter & Okwess International, Kano,  Fatoumata Diawara , Rizzle Kicks , The Noisettes and the amazing Rokia Traoré in a five hour sold out marathon live set in Granary Square in London's King's Cross -  in front of 5000 delirious London 2012 Festival goers, on what must of been one of the hottest sunniest days of the year. And what a night!

And then on Sunday on to the closing ceremony for the Paralympic Games in the Olympic Stadium in Stratford. The Festival of The Flame kicked off with a parade of weird and wonderful cannibalised and recycled vehicles from Joe Rush's Mutoid Waste Company and was followed by an extraordinary show that  featured a set from Coldplay and special guests Candoco Dance Company,  the seventeen piece British ParaOrchestra - and my old friend from Canterbury, Mat Fraser, as a guest drummer with Coldplay! Congratulations to show director Kim Gavin - for once the show actually involved people with disabilities -  Candoco and from Rio's Corpo em Movimento both mix able-bodied and disabled dancers, and the Paraorchestra  features disabled musicians. In the Rio section, visually impaired ballet dancers performed a samba na ponta - actress and model Viktoria Modesta played the snow queen with a beautiful prosthetic leg on show (there was sort of a four seasons theme), Lissa Hermans, who is blind and autistic, sang the National Anthem and narrrator Rory Mackenzie from South African was serving as a medic with the British Army when he was blow up and lost a leg . 

Joining in the fun, Prince Edward and IPC President Sir Philip Craven enter the stadium in a specially made 'Mad Max' vehicle driven by Captain Tony Harris. Captain Harris is also an amputee after being injured in Afghanistan. There were disabled aerialists, climbers, child performers and Mat has phocomelia, shortened arms - and he one is heck of a drummer! Captain Luke Sinnott who lost his legs and an arm in a blast on the battlefields of Helmand tonight helped close the Paralympic Games - by climbing a flagpole and proudly flying the Union Flag. Oh, and and there were some lovely fireworks - and on top of all of that special guest appearances from Rihanna and Jay-Z - both of whom had kicked off the summer of fun headlining at the BBC Radio 1 Hackney Weekender ! 

Teenage swimming star - and face of the games - Ellie Simmonds, 17, was joined by sprinting sensation Jonnie Peacock, 19, to play a part in the final moments of the Games to extinguish the flame but before it died  they used torches to pass on the flame to  light hundreds of torches held by members of the cast throughout the field of play. It’s been an amazing few weeks in London, some of the best of times!

One Direction top VMAs

Rihanna, Chris Brown and Drake were all winners at the VMAs,  but Brit boy band One Direction stole their thunder winning  best new artist, best pop video and most share-worthy video. Rihanna’s “We Found Love” (featuring Calvin Harris) was video of the year; Brown’s “Turn Up the Music” was best male video; Drake’s “HYFR” (featuring Lil Wayne) was best hip-hop video. Drake’s labelmate Nicki Minaj won best female video for “Starships.” Coldplay picked up best rOck video for "Paradise". The MTV event was held at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles but suffered fierce competition for TV viewers from the Democrat's National Convention 2012.

Creamfields makes refunds

Organisers of this year's ill-fated Creamfields festival, which finished a day early after severe flooding, have confirmed that day ticket holders for the Sunday of the two-day dance weekender will be given a full refund while those who had tickets for the full weekend will receive half of the original sums paid.