DEAG posts loss for 2015

Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG)’s financial results for 2015 were heavily impacted by the one-off expenses incurred by the launch of three new music festivals, according to its just-published 2015 annual report. The Berlin-based concert promoter reported an increase of revenue of 16 per cent, up from €172.6 million to €200.4 million. However, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) decreased from €9.1m to a loss of €17.8m. The launch of the three festivals – Rock im Revier in the Ruhr district, Rockavaria in Munich and Rock in Vienna, headlined by Metallica, Muse and Kiss – amounted to around €23m in non-recurring expenditure.

Live Nation posts financial results for 2015

Live Nation Entertainment delivered its fifth consecutive year of record revenue, profitability and free cash flow in 2015, but these overwhelmingly positive earnings figures were released on a “constant currency basis,” an approach which eliminates the volatility of exchange rate fluctuations. On a “generally accepted accounting principles” basis, or GAAP, Live Nation reported revenue of $7.24 billion, “which compares to our $7.08 billion estimate,” says analyst Rich Tullo, director of research at Albert Fried & Company. “Operating income [of] $131 million missed our estimate of $180 million, [which] might be an issue with foreign exchange. The company cites on-site advertising as its prime growth driver for the year, with growth in that division at 17 percent for the year. 

More on billboard here 

Live Nation: 2015 was a "Record year"

Boosted by a strong fourth quarter, Live Nation posted revenues up 11% at $7.6 billion in 2015 and adjusted operating income of $616 million, up 11%, both at constant currency. In the fourth quarter of the year, revenues were up 17% to $1.8 billion, but with an operating loss of $34m.

In a letter to shareholders, CEO Michael Rapino labelled 2015 “a record year” for Live Nation saying "We built on our global leadership position in every part of our business, with more fans in both North America and internationally and across our full portfolio of arenas, amphitheaters, festivals, theaters and clubs" and the company said " We continue to see the tremendous power of live events, with strong global consumer demand.  Live is a truly unique entertainment form - it cannot be duplicated.  It is elevated, not threatened by technology and is borderless.  Fans around the world can now discover, follow, share and embrace artists, creating greater demand for live shows."

http://investors.livenationentertainment.com/news-center/news-center-details/2016/Live-Nation-Entertainment-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-And-Full-Year-2015-Results/default.aspx

European Festival Awards 2015

The 2015 European Festival Awards ceremony at the EuroSonic convention in Groningen in the Netherlands took place last night. A gala dinner, hosted by Ben Challis and Gordon Masson, featured live performances from Dutch band Kovacs, Scotlands White and Carnival Youth from Latvia, and a special performance from the star sudded Natural Peace and Love Orchestra.  With over 800,000 votes cast by fans, the winners are:

Best New European Festival: Untold Festival (Romania)

Best Indoor Festival: Les Transardentes (Belgium)

The Green Opererations Award: Tollwood Festival (Germany)

Agent of the Year: Emma Banks (CAA)

Festival Anthem of the Year: Major Lazer with Lean On

Best Small European Festival: Happiness Festival (Germany)

Artists Favourite European Festival: Rock Werchter (Belgium)

The Health & Safety Innovation Award: Das Fest (Germany)

The Best Medium Sized European Festival: Telekom Volt (Hungary)

Promoter of the Year: Horstmann Unterbehmensgruppe (Germany)

Newcomer of the Year: Hozier

Best European Festival Line Up: Sziget (Hungary)

Best Headliner: The Prodigy

Best Major European Festival: Untold Festival (Romania)

Award for Excellence and Passion: Prof Chris Kemp (YES and MOM)

Lifetime Achievement Award: Jean Louis Brossard and Beatrice Mace

European Festival Awards - the nominees are revealed

The shortlist for the European Festival Awards has been revealed. More than 800,000 votes were cast by fans from 50 different countries for the 7th edition. And those nominees are:


Best Major Festival in association with Charge Candy

Deichbrand Festival (Germany)

Dour Festival (Belgium)

Exit Festival (Serbia)

Graspop Metal Meeting (Belgium)

Mysteryland (Netherlands)

Pinkpop (Netherlands)

Rock Werchter (Belgium)

Sziget Festival (Hungary)

Tomorrowland (Belgium)

Untold Festival (Romania)



Best Medium-Sized Festival in association with Eventbrite

Wish Outdoor (Netherlands)

Telekom Volt Festival (Hungary)

Solar Weekend (Netherlands)

Sea Dance Festival (Montenegro)

Positivus Festival (Latvia)

Open Air St. Gallen (Switzerland)

Main Square Festival (France)

Lovefest (Serbia)

Les Ardentes (Belgium)

Electric Castle Festival (Romania)



Best Small Festival

Amsterdam Woods (Netherlands)

B My Lake (Hungary)

Festival Tauron Nowa Muzyka (Poland)

Happiness Festival (Germany)

Into The Great Wide Open (Netherlands)

Jazz In The Park (Romania)

Mini-Rock Festival (Germany)

Plai (Romania)

Vestrock (Netherlands)

Your'In Festival (Belgium)



Best New Festival

Amsterdam Woods (Netherlands)

Creamfields Ibiza (Spain)

I Love Techno Europe (France)

Krakow Live Festival (Poland)

Lollapalooza Berlin (Germany)

Parookaville (Germany)

Untold Festival (Romania)



Best Indoor Festival

Hideout Festival (Croatia)

Incubate Festival (Netherlands)

Le Printemps De Bourges (France)

Les Heures Ind (Belgium)

Les Transardentes (Belgium)

Lokerse Feesten (Belgium)

Mayday (Germany)

[Pias Nites] (Various Countries)

Progpower Europe (Netherlands)

TIMAF (Romania)



Festival Anthem Of The Year

Alt-J - Let Hand Free

Florence + The Machine - Ship To Wreck

Hozier - Take Me To Church

Major Lazor - Lean On

Pattie Smith - People Got The Power

Rudimental - Never Let You Go

Tame Impala - Let It Happen

The Prodigy - Day Is My Enemy

Wanda - Amore

Years and Years - King



Newcomer Of The Year in association with Eurosonic Noorderslag

Annenmaykantereit

Hozier

Ibeyi

Jack Garratt

James Bay

Kate Tempest

Royal Blood

Run the Jewels

Wolf Alice

Years & Years



Best Headliner

Alt-J

Chemical Brothers

Florence & the Machine

Foo Fighters

Kendrick Lamar

Kylie Minogue

Marteria

Muse

Robbie Williams

The Prodigy



Best Line Up

Best Kept Secret (Netherlands)

Glastonbury (United Kingdom)

Graspop Metal Meeting (Belgium)

La Route Du Rock (France)

Lollapalooza Berlin (Germany)

Oya Festivalen (Norway)

Primavera Sound Festival (Spain)

Rock Werchter (Belgium)

Roskilde (Denmark)

Sziget (Hungary)



Artists’ Favourite Festival

BBK Live (Spain)

Best Kept Secret (Netherlands)

Exit Festival (Serbia)

Highfield (Germany)

Latitude (United Kingdom)

Les Viellies Charues (France)

Lowlands (Netherlands)

Pukkelpop (Belgium)

Rock Werchter (Denmark)

Sziget (Hungary)



Promoter Of The Year in association with Bucks New University

Green Man Team (United Kingdom)

Ejekt (Greece)

Festival Republic (United Kingdom)

FKP Scorpio (Germany)

Hörstmann Unternehmensgruppe (Germany)

ICS (Germany)

From The Fields (United Kingdom)

Live Nation (United Kingdom)

Live Nation (Belgium)

Primavera (Spain)



Agent of the Year

Emma Banks (CAA)

Alex Bruford (ATC Live)

Isla Angus (Earth Agency)

Jason Edwards (Coda)

Mike Greek (CAA)

Natasha Bent (United Artists)

Nick Matthews (Coda)

Rob Challice (Coda)

Solomon Parker (Coda)

Tom Schroeder (Coda)



Green Operations Award in association with Yourope and the GO Group

Leper Hardcore Fest (Belgium)

Off Festival (Poland)

Open Air St. Gallen (Switzerland)

Shambala (United Kingdom)

Tollwood Festival (Germany)



The shortlist of the YES Group Health & Safety Innovation Award will be announced on the night of the award ceremony along with the winners of the Excellence and Passion Award and the Yourope Lifetime Achievement Award (in association with PlayPass and PayPal)

American Music Awards 2015

For the second year in a row, One Direction scooped the prize for artist of the year, at the American Music Awards. The group also won in the favourite pop/rock duo or group category on Sunday night. Other winners at ABC’s annual American Music Awards, voted by the public, included Ariana Grande beating Taylor Swift in the female artist of the year (pop/rock), but Swift, who did not attend the awards, won three of the biggest prizes, including song and album of the year for Bad Blood and 1989. The Weeknd won two awards on Sunday night: favourite male artist and album (soul/R&B). 

Live Nation posts Q3 profit

Live Nation Entertainment  have surprised the market by announcing a Q3 2015 profit. Revenues were up 10% to $2.62 billion and the compay had a net $89 million profit. Concert revenues were up 9% and attendance up 10%, driving growth in advertising and ticketing revenues. Ticketmaster reported a 22% increase in secondary ticketing activities with overall ticketing activities up 18%.

We remember those who died in Paris

PARIS, 13th November 2015

Nick Alexander, the Eagles of Death Metal's Merchandising Manager, has been killed in the Paris terror attacks at the Bataclan. His family said: "It is with huge sorrow that we can confirm that our beloved Nick lost his life at the Bataclan last night. Nick was not just our brother, son and uncle; he was everyone's best friend – generous, funny and fiercely loyal" adding "Nick died doing the job he loved and we take great comfort in knowing how much he was cherished by his friends around the world. Thank you for your thoughts and respect for our family at this difficult time. Peace and light." Africa Express' Robin Aitken posted "Nick had worked with us on Africa Express. I remember a friendly, helpful guy who added his bit of joy to our musical events. I can only begin to imagine the tragedy that his family and close friends must be going through, and I just feel sad for his life being cut short by people who have so badly misunderstood the way to build a better world". Nick's girlfriend of three years, Polina Buckley, distraught and mourning in New York, said on her Facebook  "Three years ago on this day I met you on the corner of East 15th and Irving Pl. I fell in love the moment I laid eyes on you. This was the most loving, passionate and eventful relationship I’ve ever experienced. You were my everything. My lover, my best friend, my soulmate. I am completely crushed and heartbroken right now. I will miss you terribly. Sleep tight, my sweet prince. I will always love you, Nick Alexander."

We also remember

Nathalie Jardin, who ran the house lighting at Le Bataclan and known by her nickname "Natalight"

Thomas Ayad, 34. International Product Manager for Mercury Records France 

Guillaume B. Decherf, 43. Journalist for celebrated French music and culture magazine, Les Inrockuptibles 

Marie Mosser, 24. Digital Marketing executive at Mercury Records France 


Manu Perez. Music industry marketing executive who worked at Universal Music France for over a decade 


UMG boss Pascal Negre tweeted on Saturday (November 14) that "The Universal Music family is in mourning".


These images of the show before the terrorist attack are by Manu Wino who said ""Because life goes on. Because they cannot win. Because it is awful and because no one can get back to it's normal life. Because too many friends (know or unknown) died Friday evening. Because it's only Rock & Roll..."

UK Festival Awards 2015 – The Shortlists

The UK Festival Awards has revealed the shortlists for the vast majority of its categories, which include Best Major, Medium Sized and Small Festivals; Headline Performance of the Year; Best Non-Music Festival; Best Hospitality; The Grass Roots Festival Award; and many more.

The UK Festival Awards will be held on November 26 at The Roundhouse in Camden. Preceding the Awards in the day time will be the UK Festival Conference, whose full listings were curated by Festival Insights and were announced last week. Find them here.

The following categories were decided by the online public vote:

Best Major Festival

Bestival
British Summer Time Hyde Park
Creamfields
Download
Glastonbury
Isle of Wight Festival
Parklife
Reading & Leeds
T In The Park
V Festival
Victorious Festival
Wireless

Best Medium Sized Festival

Beat Herder
Beautiful Days
Bloodstock Open Air
Camp Bestival
End Of The Road Festival
Green Man
Kendal Calling
Latitude
We are FSTVL
Y Not Festival

Best Small Festival

2000trees
Eden Festival
Festival Number 6
Garage Nation Festival
Larmer Tree Festival
Lost Village Festival
Southampton Soundclash Festival
The Secret Festival
The Social Festival
Truck Festival
 
Best New Festival

Breaking Bands Festival
Common People
Forgotten Fields
Garage Nation
Lindisfarne Festival
Lost Village
Robin Hood Folk Festival
Southampton Soundclash Festival
Together The People
Wild Life Festival

Best Dance Festival

Beat Herder
Brownstock Festival
Creamfields
Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) UK
Field Manoeuvres
Lost Village Festival
Parklife
Retro Trax
We are FSTVL
Wild Life Festival

Best Metropolitan Festival

Blackpool Music Festival
Dot to Dot
Live at Leeds
Liverpool Calling
Liverpool Music Week
Liverpool Sound City
Macmillan Fest
MADE Birmingham
Slam Dunk Festival
Tramlines

Best Family Festival

2000trees
Beautiful Days
British Summer Time Hyde Park
Camp Bestival
Eden Festival
Isle of Wight Festival
Kendal Calling
Latitude
Victorious Festival
Y Not Festival
 
The Grass Roots Festival Award

2000trees
ArcTanGent
Barn on the Farm
Beautiful Days
Bloodstock Open Air
Eden Festival
Green Man
Lost Village
The Secret Festival
Y Not Festival

Best Toilets

2000trees
Bestival
Creamfields
Download
Isle of Wight Festival
Kendal Calling
Reading & Leeds
V Festival
Wireless
Y Not Festival

Best Overseas Festival

Annie Mac Presents: Lost & Found Festival (Malta)
Benicassim (Spain)
Creamfields Ibiza (Spain)
Electric Picnic (Ireland)
Hideout Festival (Croatia)
Ibiza Rocks (Spain)
Lollapalooza Berlin (Germany)
Pohoda Festival (Slovakia)
Snowbombing (Austria)
Sziget Festival (Hungary)

Best Headline Performance

Björk at Wilderness Festival
The Flaming Lips at Liverpool Sound City
Fleetwood Mac at Isle of Wight Festival
Florence and the Machine at Glastonbury
Grace Jones at Festival Number 6
Jon Hopkins at Bloc
Jungle at Secret Garden Party
Missy Elliot at Bestival
Muse at Download
Sufjan Stevens at End of the Road Festival
Taylor Swift at British Summer Time Hyde Park
The Libertines at Reading & Leeds
 
Anthem Of The Summer

Bring Me The Horizon – Throne
James Bay – Hold Back the River
Jamie xx – Loud Places
Kendrick Lamar – King Kunta
Lionel Ritchie – Dancing on the Ceiling
Mark Ronson – Uptown Funk
Patti Smith – Gloria
Skepta – Shutdown
Spring King – City
The Weeknd – Can’t Feel My Face

The following categories were decided by panels of industry experts:

Best Line-Up

Bestival
British Summer Time Hyde Park
Common People
Download
Festival Number 6
Field Day
Isle Of Wight Festival
Kendal Calling
Latitude
Liverpool Music Week
Parklife
The Social Festival

The Extra Festival Award

Bearded Theory
Blissfields
Festival Number 6
Grillstock
Latitude
Liverpool International Music Festival
Lost Village
Standon Calling
The Big Feastival
Wild Life Festival

Best Festival For Emerging Talent (NEW)

Barn on the Farm
Bloodstock Open Air
Breakout Festival
Cambridge Folk Festival
Live at Leeds
LIVE in Barnsley
Liverpool International Music Festival
Liverpool Sound City
Mammothfest
Reading & Leeds

Best Use Of New Technology

Belladrum Tartan Heart (for the Rapidscan Box Office app)
Download (for RFID Cashless Dog Tags)
Latitude (for its live digital coverage)
Liverpool Sound City (for the Gigmit live music service)
Port Elliot Festival (for Loowatt)
Glastonbury Festival (for the Arcadia Spectacular biofuel flame system)
Reading Festival (for the CoLocator service)
Snowbombing (for RFID Cashless wristbands)
Wild Life Festival (for The Terminal Stage)

Best Hospitality (NEW)

2000trees
British Summer Time Hyde Park
Camp Bestival
Creamfields
Download
Festival Number 6
Fusion Festival
Glastonbury Festival
Shambala
Wilderness Festival

Best Non-Music Festival (NEW)

Base Camp Festival
Eroica Britannia
Innocent Un-Plugged
Insomnia Gaming Festival
Manchester International Festival
NASS Festival
Saloufest
Taste of London
The Good Life Experience
Wildfire Adventure Camp

Promoter Of The Year

Amust4Music (Bloodstock)
Andy George, Jaymo & Ben Atkins (Lost Village)
Andy Marsh & Ian Evans (Victorious)
Count of Ten (Y-Not, Tramlines, Truck, Brownstock)
Damien Sanders, Big Kev & Team (Fusion)
Fiona Stewart & Team (Green Man)
From the Fields (Kendal Calling, Forgotten Fields)
John Giddings (Isle Of Wight / Solo Agency)
Scott Barton (Creamfields)
SJM Concerts (Wild Life Festival)

Outstanding Contribution Award

Winner: Peter Gabriel

Q the Winners

The Q Awards are out ... at a quiet and alcohol free ceremony - where flying pigs accompanied bears not shitting in the woods. And the winners are

Best New Act: James Bay
Best Track: The Libertines – Gunga Din
Best Album: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds – Chasing Yesterday
Best Video: Florence And The Machine – Ship To Wreck
Best Live Act: Royal Blood
Best Solo Artist: Ed Sheeran
Best Act In The World Today: Foals

Classic Album: Soul II Soul – Club Classics Vol. One
Classic Single: Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Q Hero: Mark Ronson
Q Icon: Duran Duran
Innovation In Sound: Gary Numan
Gibson Les Paul Award: Tony Iommi
Outstanding Contribution To Music: New Order

Live UK Music Business Awards 2015

Glastonbury picked up two awards for Best Large Festival and Best Headline performance at a festival (for Lionel Richie) at the Live UK Music Business Awards at London’s Radisson Blu Portman Hotel on Thursday 15th October. Wembley received the award for Best Venue Teamwork – Stadium, Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham, won the Arena category and the Royal Albert Hall was awarded the Theatre Concert prize. United Talent Agency’s Natasha Bent, who represents acts such as Foals and Chvrches, was named Agent of the Year and Wildlife Entertainment’s Murray Curnow and Ian McAndrew won Artist Manager of the Year for their work with Royal Blood.

And those winners are:

Outstanding Contribution -  Status Quo

Best Venue Teamwork – Stadium: Wembley Stadium

Best Venue Teamwork – Arena: Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham

Best Venue Teamwork – Theatre Concert: Royal Albert Hall, London

Best Venue Teamwork – Arts Centre: The Junction, Cambridge

Best Venue Teamwork – Campus: UEA, Norwich

Best Venue Teamwork – Major Club: The Leadmill, Sheffield

Best Venue Teamwork – Club: The Brudenell Social Club, Leeds

Artist Manager of the Year: Murray Curnow & Ian McAndrew, Wildlife Entertainment

Agent of the Year -  Natasha Bent, United Talent Agency

Best Festival (cap. 40,000+) -  Glastonbury

Best Festival (cap. 15,000-39,999) - Green Man

Best Festival (cap. under 15,000) - Wickham Festival

National Promoter of the Year -  Kilimanjaro Live

Regional Promoter of the Year -  DF Concerts (Scotland)

Indie Promoter of the Year -  Tom Baker, Eat Your Own Ears (London)

Greatest Brand Impact -  Jack Daniel’s

Best Festival Performance - Lionel Richie, Glastonbury

Breakthrough Artist -  Catfish And The Bottlemen

Spectacle of the Year (Best Production) -  Ed Sheeran tour

Tour Manager of the Year -  Ivan Kushlick, Captain Kush Productions (Kings Of Leon)

Best Record Label Partner -  Claire Coster & Nick Long, Atlantic Records

Unsung Hero: Clare Utting - United Talent Agency

Hamburg not hampered by fire

The full programme for Hamburg's Reeperbahn Festival will go ahead as planned later this month, despite one of its outdoor stages burning down earlier this week. The stage on Spielbudenplatz on the Reeperbahn street from which the festival takes its name apparently caught fire in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Performances planned for that stage will now be moved to a neighbouring stage.

Live Music market in the USA up 5.8% in H1 2015

First-half North American ticket sales were up 5.8 percent compared to 2014, according to Pollstar. Top promoter Live Nation's sales, through July, increased 7 percent and AEG Live, the second-biggest promoter, posted box-office gains of 26 percent. In otrher headline news, Lollapalooza drew 300,000 fans, the Rolling Stones grossed $80 million from just 10 shows, Taylor Swift has sold 2 million tickets (so far), the Grateful Dead set an attendance record by drawing more than 70,000 fans to Chicago's Soldier Field and even Ed Sheeran is selling out stadiums internationally. "I can't think of a time in recent history that business has been any better," says Jay Marciano, AEG Live's chairman

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/summer-concert-boom-marks-industry-turnaround-20150904

Another Hop Farm festival sinks as High Definition goes under

In the wake of the failure of live music veteran Vince Power's Hop Farm Festival, and the subsequent failure of the replacement festival at the same farm (after which the promoter called the Kent farm "cursed ground") another event at the same site has failed: It seems the organisers of the dance music festival High Definition set for the 5th of September are the latest to fall out with the owners of the Hop Farm in a dispute over whether or not the promoters had met all their licensing requirements. According to the Kent & Sussex Courier, organisers have sent out a message to ticket-holders that reads: "Due to the actions of The Hop Farm last week it is with great regret that the directors have taken the decision to cancel all future events. The decision is beyond their control due to the action of third parties and the impending insolvency of the company. Professional advice has now been received in this respect and steps to place the company into liquidation have been taken. Notice of the creditors' meeting under Section 98 of the Insolvency Act 1986, to place the company into Creditors Voluntary Liquidation will be shortly issued". Ticketholders have been advised to seek a refund from their bank or credit card company, or they can opt to swap their tickets to the cancelled festival for a ticket to one of three other events taking place in September. 

http://www.thehopfarm.co.uk/events/256/high-definition-festival/

LNE Q2 revenues up, but still posts a loss

Live Nation experienced mixed fortunes in Q2 2015, with revenue rising 12% to $1.86 billion but operating income declining 13% to $48.4m. Concert revenue for the period was $1.34bn, while operating loss was $4.3m. The company says it has sold around three quarters of its projected tickets for the year and is pacing 7% ahead of last year’s sales. Live Nation stages close to 75% of the top 25 global tours, including U2, Imagine Dragons, Lady Antebellum and One Direction. It has also grown per-fan on-site revenue this year by 18% to over $20 per fan, citing sales initiatives, focused on high-end fans for the rise. More on Music Week here.

Bjork cancels festival shows

Björk has cancelled a number of upcoming tour dates, including the Pitchfork Music Festival Paris and Iceland Airwaves, "due to a scheduling conflict beyond our control" - which is a very odd excuse. The Icelandic singer was scheduled to play sets at La Route Du Rock in Saint-Malo, France on August 15, Pitchfork on October 30, and Iceland Airwaves on November 4-7. The statement added "Björk is not going to be able to play the summer and autumn tour as planned" and "Björk had been really been looking forward to the concerts and we will work on rescheduling the cancelled dates as soon as possible." 

And Justic Bieber has cancelled a show at this month's Fusion Fetsival in Birminghams saying in a statement "To all my UK Beliebers, due to an unforeseen issue I will be unable to perform at the Fusion Festival on 28th August. I support the Prince's Trust wholeheartedly and am deeply disappointed I won't be able to perform. I look forward to the opportunity to give my UK Beliebers a great show, and hope to honour my commitment to the Trust at that time".

Slight decrease in CD and download album sales in the US and UK

The BPI says that album sales in the UK fel by 5.25% in in the first half of 2015 (38.1m down to 36.1m). Sales of downloaded LPs actually declined faster than their physical rivals: In the first half of 2015, CD album sales in the UK fell 5.7% from 22.68m to 21.38m. In the same period, sales of digital albums dropped 6.6% to 13.86m. 

Anbd overall album sales in the US – real album sales, not counting ‘track/streaming equivalents’ – were down 4% year-on-year in the first six months of 2015… as streaming continued to soar. According to new data from Nielsen/Billboard, 116.1 million album unit sales were clocked up versus 120.9 million units in H1 2014. The growth of vinyl album sales continued: the format grew 38.4% to 5.6 million in H1 2015, taking a 5% share of CD/digital/vinyl formats in the US. In the UK, vinyl album sales shot up once again in the Jan-June period, up 56.3% to 833,137 sales in H1 2015.

Scarlet Mist returns

Ethical ticket exchange Scarlet Mist is back with a new team. The site, which has an anti-touting philosophy and sets out to enable people who bought a ticket to a show with a genuine intent to attend to sell it on if and when they can no longer make it.

Originally launched in 2003, Scarlet Mist shutterd in 2011 after fraudsters had used the site to scam ticket buyers, but returned for a time in 2014 until further problems with scammers persuaded founder Richard Marks to put it all on hold again last December. Three other people have now come forward to help Marks get the service back online, including business consultant Peter Main, web developer Mark Vick and engineer Niall Barclay. The website is now live again just as the summer festival season really swings into action, with plans to overhaul the platform later in the year.

Ivor Novello Awards

The Ivors Novellos awards have been handed out, honouring the good and the great in the world of music publishing and song writing. The Most Performed Work was "Rather Be"
written by Jack Patterson (Clean Bandit) and James Napier (Published in the UK by Universal Music Publishing/Salli Isaak Songs and Sony/ATV Music Publishing) and the Album Award went to "So Long, See You Tomorrow" Written by Jack Steadman
(Published in the UK by Imagem Music) and recorded by Bombay Bicycle Club. The Best Song Musically And Lyrically was "Take Me To Church" Written by Andrew Hozier-Byrne (Published in the UK by Sony/ATV Music Publishing/The Evolving Music Company) and the Best Original Film Score was '71,Composed by David Holmes (Published in the UK by Universal Music Publishing)

Outstanding Song Collection went to Albert Hammond. The Ivors Classical Music Award: went to Judith Weir. Boy George picked up Outstanding Contribution to British Music and the  Songwriter Of The Year was Ed Sheeran. The Ivors Inspiration Award went to James Dean Bradfield, Sean Moore and Nicky Wire (The Manic Street Preachers) and  the Ivors Special Anniversary Award went to  Bob Geldof and Midge Ure,  The Lifetime Achievement award went to Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward (Black Sabbath), the Special International Award went to Paul Williams and the prestigious BASCA Fellowship was awarded to Annie Lennox.

For the ten funniest speeches from the Ivors see http://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/the-10-funniest-lines-from-the-ivor-novello-awards-2015/

The Arthurs are out!

The International Live Music Awards - or the Arthurs as they are known - have been awarded at a glittering gala dinner at the Savoy Hotel in London. The Arthur awards – which have a voting pool of over 4,000 of the world’s leading concert business professionals – are now in their 19th year. The Awards ceremony, hosted by CAA's Emma Banks, also featured a show from renowned master mentalist Lior Suchard who drew gasps of amazement from a seasoned audience with a series of mind reading, telekinesis and predictions stunts. So who were the live music industry's favourites?

Venue: The Royal Albert Hall

Promoter: Phil Bowdery (Live Nation)

Festival: Rock Werchter

Agent: Geoff Meall (The Agency Group)

Production Services: EPS

Professional Services (the most professional professional)  Martin Goebbels (RTIB)

Assistant: Samantha Henfrey (The Agency Group)

Ticketing: CTS Eventim

Tomorrow's New Boss: Maarten va Vugt (Greenhouse Talent)

The Bottle Award: Marcel Avram (European Concert Agency)