USA recorded music sales up as streaming soars

The USA, the world's largest recorded music market, saw double digit revenue growth in 2016. US recorded music sales last year were up 11.4% to $7.7 billion, fuelled by the streaming boom. The American streaming market grew 68% last year, and streaming services brought in marginally more cash than downloads, CDs and vinyl combined, with subscription streaming driving the growth, as revenues more than doubled year-on-year in 2016, while income from the ad-funded on-demand platforms like YouTube and Spotify Free were up 26%.

Record year for Live Nation

Live Nation stocks soared to an all-time high following the announcement of record revenues for the sixth consecutive year, climbing above US$30 for the first time. For the 12 months ended 31 December 2016, Live Nation Entertainment saw revenue rise 15% to $8.4 billion.

Operating income was up 48% to $195 million, while AOI (income before acquisition and stock expenses, depreciation and loss/gains from the disposal of assets) climbed 12% to $646m. Concert attendance was also up 12%, to 71 million people, while Ticketmaster increased gross transaction value 16% to $28bn on a constant-currency basis, boosted by posting six of its ten best-ever months in 2016. Rapino said the integration of Ticketmaster into new partner sites, including Spotify and Facebook, led to the sale of 10 million more tickets.

http://www.iq-mag.net/2017/02/record-live-nation-entertainment-turnover-sixth-year/#.WLAdwzuLSM9

2016 EUROPEAN FESTIVAL AWARDS - the winners

The 2016 EUROPEAN FESTIVAL AWARDS are done and dusted, with live performances from James TW, Roosevelt and The Children of the Revolution, and those winners are:

Best Small European Festival: SNOWBOMBING (Austria)

Best Line Up: PRIMAVERSA SOUND (Spain)

Brand Activation Award: PUKKLEPOP - Smart Energy Grid (Belgium)

Agent of the Year: NATASHA BENT (Coda Agency, UK)

Best Indoor Festival: REEPERBAHN Festival (Germany)

Best New Festival: MAD COOL (Spain)

Artist’s Favourite Festival: SZIGET (Hungary)

Headliner of the Year: MUSE

Health & Safety Award: SOUTHSIDE Festival (Germany)

Best Medium Sized Festival: PALEO FESTIVAL Nyon (Switzerland)

Green Operation award: SHAMBALA Festival (UK)

Newcomer of the Year: DUA LIPA

Promoter of the Year: AFTER ART (Poland)

Best Major Festival: ROCK WERCHTER (Belgium)

Award for Excellent and Passion: CHRISTOF HUBER

Lifetime Achievement Award: DAN PANAITESCU

A Greener Festival Award Winners Announced at EuroSonic

The European and US  festivals who have won of the prestigious Greener Festival Award 2016 have been announced at the Eurosonic Noorderslag festival and conference in Groningen, the Netherlands.  The winners are a select elite of sustainable events who have entered the Greener Festival Awards scheme,  and submitted their environmental good practice to an external independent assessment. AGF's Teresa Moore made three awards in person, to Body & Soul, Das Fest and the Glastonbury Festival. The Awards ceremony also announced a new initiative from the municipality of Utrecht, A Greener Festival and Green Events Nederland. Utrecht's Hedwih Leijten and Green Events Paul Schurink were on hand to explain that Utrecht would now support festivals to enter the Greener Festival Awards scheme, and that the scheme is likely to spread to other Dutch municipalities.

The Greener Festival Award 2016 winners:

IMPROVING
Arla Food Fest
Body & Soul
La Sema
Metal Days
Nozstock - the Hidden Valley
Paradise City

COMMENDED
Bona Nit BCN
Das Fest
Extrema Outdoors
Greenbelt Festival
Kew the Music
Liberation Festival
Malmofestivalen
Northside Festival
Primavera Sound
Wood Festival

HIGHLY COMMENDED
Cambridge Folk Festival
DGTL
Glastonbury Festival
Green Music Festival
Heart of Glass Heart of Gold
Oya Festival
Welcome to the Future

OUTSTANDING
Boom Festival
We Love Green

Springsteen tops annual worldwide tour table

Pollstar has just released its exclusive chart of the Top 10 Worldwide Concert Tours for 2016.  Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band top the chart, edging out Beyoncé. with Coldplay third - although Coldplay sold the most tickets (2.676 million). In a good year for the Brits, Adele comes in fifth after fourth placed Guns n Roses, And Paul McCartney is seventh behind sixth placed Justin Bieber. Garth Brooks is eighth, the Rolling Stones ninth and Celine Dion tenth.

the Top 10 Tours alone grossed a combined $1.67 billion.  That is significantly better than the $1.5 billion estimated for 2015. Pollstar will release its complete research package of the Top 200 Tours along with venues and promoters rankings on Jan. 6.

http://www.pollstarpro.com/NewsContent.aspx?at=17&com=1&hotstar=0&ArticleID=828714

Artist and Manager Awards - the winners

The fifth edition of the Artist and Manager Awards, jointly presented by the Music Managers Forum (MMF) and Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), saw South London rapper Loyle Carner named best emerging live act at the ceremony held at the Troxy in East London. Carner took home the Dice live award, which recognises the best up-and-coming live act in the UK and Republic of Ireland, chosen by a panel of 100 promoters, venues, journalists and broadcasters. Previous winners include Wolf Alice and Little Simz. Other winners included Peter Rudge (The Who, The Rolling Stones, Duran Duran), who was presented with the Peter Grant award by agent and Isle of Wight Festival promoter John Giddings in recognition of his more than four decades in management; Adele manager Jonathan Dickins, who won the artist award; Zita McHugh, who collected the writer/producer manager of the year gong; Years and Years were named best breakthrough artist, Stormzy’s manager, Tobe Unwuka, was recognised as breakthrough manager and the 1975 won artist of the year. IE Music’s David Enthoven (Tyrannosaurus Rex, King Crimson, Roxy Music and, latterly and most recently Robbie Williams) was posthumously awarded the industry champion prize, while Young Turks founder Caius Pawson was given the entrepreneur award.

Live Nation and Vivendi post strong Q3 results

Live Nation’s Q3 results saw turnover grow to more than $3bn abd president and CEO, Michael Rapino,  hailed the company’s “concerts flywheel” as it celebrated another record-breaking quarter.

Rapino told investors: “Our concerts business is our flywheel” – the persistent, margin-generating heart of the business – “attracting 28 million fans to shows globally in the quarter, which drove record results in our ticketing, advertising and on-site businesses. Our performance demonstrates how Live Nation has created the most unparallelled live platform, leveraging concert scale to drive growth across the full live ecosystem.” adding “Looking at the concerts flywheel in the third quarter, we had 16% more fans attend over 6,000 shows, growing revenue by 27% and AOI [adjusted operating income] by 38% year-on-year at a constant currency. Year to date, we have grown our fan base by 16% to 56 million [and] expect to [see] a record-setting 70 million fans attending Live Nation concerts in 2016.” Operating income from the concerts sector – or earnings before interest and taxes – grew 94% to £86.5 million.

Overall, Live Nation’s turnover grew to a record US$3.2 billion in Q3 2016 – up 21% year on year – outstripping quarters one (10% growth) and two (14%). The company also saw strong growth in ticketing (Ticketmaster) and sponsorship/advertising, which were up 14% and 11%, respectively. Within Ticketmaster, the gross transaction value (GTV) of its secondary-market platforms – such as Ticketmaster Resale, TicketsNow, Seatwave and Get Me In! – grew 33%, to more than $1bn for the three months ending 30 September.


And strong growth from its live and ticketing operations helped Vivendi increase turnover by 5.9% in the three months ending 30 September, its third-quarter (Q3) results reveal. Revenues from Vivendi Village – the subsidiary that includes the French multinational’s ticketing operations (See Tickets and Digitick), live event producer Vivendi Talents&Live and the 1,772-cap. Olympia venue in Paris – grew from €22 million in Q3 2015 to €24m; an increase of 5.8%, or 12.1% on a constant-currency basis (eliminating the effects of exchange-rate fluctuations). Vivendi’s Q3 financial report also reveals its €159m acquisition in April of a 15% stake in French retail group Fnac will serve as the basis for “increased co-operation in live events […] and in ticketing in certain countries by teaming up with Vivendi Ticketing”.  Universal Music Group (UMG) posted impressive 10.8% growth to €1.308 billion.

2016 MOBO AWARDS

Best male act 
Craig David

Best female act
Lady Leshurr

Best newcomer
WSTRN

Best album
Kano ‘Made In The Manor’ 

Best hip-hop act
Section Boyz

Best song
Abra Cadabra ft Krept & Konan ‘Robbery (remix)

Best video
Nadia Rose ‘Skwod’ (Directed by Reece Proctol)

Best R&B/soul
Shakka

Best grime act (in association with BBC Radio 1Xtra)
Chip

Best international act
Drake

Best jazz act
Esperanza Spalding

Best gospel act
Guvna B

Best reggae act
Popcaan

Best African act
Wiz Kid 

Paving the way
Nicola Adams and Ms. Dynamite

Queen cancel remaining 2016 tour dates

Brian May, the lead guitarist and founding member of the rock band Queen, announced that the group was axing the remainder of their scheduled shows for 2016 while May grapples with an persistent medical condition.

"We’re very sad today to announce the indefinite postponement of our ‘candlelight’ concert dates this coming December. This is a decision I’ve agonised over, but in the end it has become inevitable. I managed to complete the recent Queen and Adam Lambert dates in Asia but I have been increasingly battling with a persistent illness which is destroying my energy and my will," May said in a statement posted on his official website. 

And Mariah Carey is cancelling concerts in Brazil, Argentina and Chile on her Latin America tour.  According to E! News, the singer is citing promoter negligence as the reason. 

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)

UK Top of the Pops?

The 'Measuring Music’ report from cross-sector trade group UK Music says that that the UK music industry contributed £4.1 billion to the UK’s economy last year, using the ‘gross value added’ metric. This is slightly up on 2014, though is 11% higher than the first time UK Music calculated a GVA for the sector in 2012. The sector employs 119,000 people in the UK  and says 50% of the worlds's top selling artistes are British.

UK Music CEO Jo Dipple said: “The UK needs to solidify its new post-Brexit place in the world and music will undoubtedly be part of the glue that does this. Our export profile is astounding which is partly why music, like sport, gives the world an understanding of our small country. UK Music’s goal is to work with government to convince them to give us policies as good as the music we produce”.

http://www.ukmusic.org/research/measuring-music-2016/

Calls for inquiry into Fesival No 6 flooding

IQ reports that around 150 cars were still stranded at Festival №6 this morning after becoming stuck following widespread flooding at the Welsh festival. The BBC reported earlier today that many of the remaining vehicles were abandoned by their owners and are expected to be collected later in the week. Gynedd councillor Jason Humphreys has called for an inquiry into why the festival’s park-and-ride car park was allowed to be situated on a known floodplain. “Forecasters gave ample warning of torrential rain on Saturday,” he tells the BBC. “But once again flood management agencies failed in their duty as they seem to be completely unaware of the dangers to people and property.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-37289011

AIM AWARDS 2016 - THE WINNERS!

BEST SMALL LABEL in association with Proper Music Distribution NUMBERS

BEST DIFFICULT SECOND ALBUM in association with Radio X DAUGHTER - NOT TO DISAPPEAR

SPECIAL CATALOGUE RELEASE OF THE YEAR  in association with MODO SLADE – WHEN SLADE ROCKED THE WORLD

HARDEST WORKING BAND OR ARTIST DARREN HAYMAN

GOLDEN WELLY AWARD FOR BEST INDEPENDENT FESTIVAL in association with AIF, voted for by readers of DIY BRAINCHILD FESTIVAL

INDEPENDENT BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR  in association with YouTube CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS

INDIE CHAMPION in association with CI JON TOLLEY - BANQUET RECORDS

INDEPENDENT VIDEO OF THE YEAR in association with Vevo OSCAR - SOMETIMES

INDEPENDENT TRACK OF THE YEAR in association with MCPS ADELE - HELLO

BEST LIVE ACT voted for by visitors to Songkick BABYMETAL

PPL AWARD FOR MOST PLAYED NEW INDEPENDENT ACT SIGALA

INDEPENDENT ALBUM OF THE YEAR in association with The Orchard LITTLE SIMZ - A CURIOUS TALE OF TRIALS + PERSONS

INDEPENDENT LABEL OF THE YEAR in association with Believe Digital EPITAPH / ANTI

INNOVATOR AWARD in association with FUGA STORMZY

PIONEER AWARD RICHARD RUSSELL - XL RECORDINGS

OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO MUSIC in association with Amazon Music RÓISÍN MURPHY

Streaming generates majors $10 million every 24 hours

MBW reports that streaming has become Sony Music's prime source of recorded music revenue abd in its last financial quarter generated around $3.3m a day for the company. Sony Music Entertainment posted 89.71bn Yen ($877m) in recorded music revenues during the three months to end of June - showing very slight growth on the 89.33bn Yen it posted in the same period of 2015. Quarterly streaming revenues grew 39% year-on-year, up to 30.67bn Yen ($300m) - working out to around $25m every week - making streaming Sony's majority earner in the period. Warner and Universal hit the same milestone in the first three months of this year. MBW say that with Warners earning $2m a day from streaming, Sony $3.3m a day and UMG $4m a day - the three majors are now cumulatively turning over just under $10m every 24 hours from streaming platforms.

http://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/streaming-now-makes-sony-25m-a-week-overtaking-physical-and-download/

Lighting strikes Rock am Ring - again

At least 51 people were injured, eight seriously, when lightning struck the Rock am Ring festival in western Germany early on Saturday. Organisers of the festival, headlined by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Black Sabbath, said lightning hit at 00:30 local time. Police told German media two people had to be resuscitated. Central Europe has been hit by severe storms and rain over the past few weeks, leading to 11 deaths in Germany. The festival also suffered lightning strikes last year, when 33 people were taken to hospital.

Music Week Awards 2016 The Winners!

The Music Week Awards 2016 are done and dusted and the Winners are:

Outstanding Contribution to Charity

The BRIT School 

Live Music Promoter 

SJM Concerts

Live Music Agent 

Jon Ollier

Ticketing Company

Dice

Music & Brand Partnership

Google/Abbey Road Studios - Inside Abbey Road Studios

Publisher of the Year - Singles

Sony/ATV 

Publisher of the Year – Albums

Sony/ATV

Publisher of the Year – Independent

Kobalt

A&R Award

Atlantic Records

Manager Of The Year

Paul McDonald & Ryan Lofthouse (Closer Artists)

Retail Brand

HMV

Independent Retailer

Banquet Records

Streaming Music Platform

Spotify

Radio Station

BBC 6 Music

Radio Show

Dermot O’Leary (BBC Radio 2)

Promotions Team

Atlantic Records

Sales Team

Warner Music

Label/Artist Services

ADA

Catalogue Marketing Campaign

Sony Music Commercial Group - Elvis Presley: If I Can Dream

Artist Marketing Campaign

Polydor Records - Communion by Years & Years

PR Campaign

We Care A Lot PR - Purpose by Justin Bieber

Independent Record Company

Bella Union

Record Company

XL Recordings

The Strat

Max Hole

Tommorrowworld 2016 Cancelled

TomorrowWorld's organiwers have announced that the festival will not be taking place in 2016 due to its "current environment." The Chattahoochee Hills, Ga. festival would have entered its fourth year in operation.

A message on the event's website said

Dear Friends,

It’s with a heavy heart that we inform you, TomorrowWorld will not take place in 2016. Unfortunately in the current environment , it is not possible to give you the best and unique experience you deserve.

We will miss seeing each other in September and experiencing the magic of TomorrowWorld as one. You, the People of Tomorrow, the foundation of TomorrowWorld, are our inspiration.

Let’s lock and cherish all the magnificent memories in our hearts, this is not farewell…

TomorrowWorld

http://www.tomorrowworld.com/

Access for people with disabilities - a work in progress

Attitude is Everything, the charity dedicated to improving deaf and disabled people’s access to live music, has released its 2016 report on the state of access in the events industry. The launch of the report, which was attended by venues, organisers and other industry professionals, also featured a panel discussion on best practice accessibility. The report covers onsite and online access information, as well as the challenges deaf and disabled people often face in the immediate environment around a live music venue.

Attitude is Everything chief executive Suzanne Bull MBE told reporters: “Or aim is to highlight areas of good practice and progress” and  “At the same time the report is an opportunity to reflect on the barriers faced by deaf and disabled people” adding “A lack of decent online access information websites has become a constant source of frustration to millions of disabled fans” and “Evidence suggests that many will not risk attending an event if they are unsure about access facilities. We should not be letting these online failures hold back the tide of progress, especially when they are so easy to fix.”

Glastonbury’s Emily Eavis, who wrote the foreword of the report, said: “It is a vital that all festival goers can easily access clear information about how to buy tickets, what facilities are available onsite and how they can arrange for the necessary support in order to be able to attend. We’re very pleased to be continuing our work with Attitude is Everything to ensure this.”

More here http://www.accessaa.co.uk/attitude-is-everything-launches-2016-disability-access-report/

NME Awards 2016 - the winners!

The NME Awards 2016, held at London's O2 Academy Brixton last night (17.02.16) and  hosted by Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens, saw Coldplay receive the Godlike Genius Award, with the band closing the ceremony with a live performance. Yoko Ono, meanwhile, picked up the NME Inspiration Award a day prior to her 83rd birthday.

The Maccabees were crowned Best British Band, while Run The Jewels took the prize for Best International Band. Rat Boy, who also performed on the night, won Best New Artist, Charli XCX won Best British Solo Artist and Wolf Alice took home Best Live Band.

Foals won the award for Best Album  and Wolf Alice picked up another gong for for their song 'Giant Peach'. This is England '90 was voted Best TV Show, Beasts Of No Nation took home Best Film, while Blur: New World Towers won Best Music Film category.

Elsewhere, Glastonbury was voted the Best Festival and The Libertines took two awards home: Music Moment Of The Year for their secret Glastonbury set and Best Fan Community.

http://www.nme.com/news/various-artists/91604