LA looks at EDM safety

In the wake of the deaths of two teenagers at the Live Nation promoted HARD Summer festival last month, the Los Angeles County Board Of Supervisors has formed an Electronic Music Task Force to "provide recommendations on ways to make electronic music festivals safer for attendees". 

Teenagers Tracy Nguyen and Katie Dix both died at the Hard Summer festival at the county-owned Fairplex on 1st August, and their deaths were seemingly drugs related. Dozens more festival-goers reportedly required hospital treatment. A subsequent event planned at the site owned by the County of Los Angeles was cancelled by Live Nation. With LA County considering a ban on EDM events at any venue it owns, Live Nation also cut back the capacity of another event scheduled for Halloween and committed to add free water stations, increase security and medical services, and distribute drug education literature at that two-day show.

The motion put forward to propose the new task force states that a ban on EDM events at LA Country owned facilities is still "a possibility", though First Amendment issues around such a ban will be considered first, as well as what health and safety measures could counter concerns. One of the people behind the new task force set to review dance music events in the region is LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis, who said in a statement: "I want to emphasise that our efforts around this motion, above all, are about the health and safety of those attending these events"

 A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Fair Association, which runs Fairplex, told reporters: "Fairplex will continue to work with Live Nation, the board of supervisors and all public agencies to ensure the continued safety of all guests. We will work together to do everything we can".


Meanwhile, troubled EDM promoter SFX has also cancelled the One Tribe festival which was due to take place near LA on 25th and 26th September. This was as a result of poor ticket sales.

EDM worth $6.2 billion globally

The EDM business in North America is worth about $1.9 billion according to research presented at IMS Engage in LA. That figure includes recorded music sales and streams, DJ technology sales, and festival and club income. Kevin Watson of Danceonomics said that North America now accounts for about 30% of the wider EDM industry, which he values at $6.2 billion. Watson said that his research showed that dance track sales accounted for 4.6% of overall track sales in North America last year, an all time high, while EDM was now the fourth most popular genre on streaming platforms, accounting for 7% of streams in the US and 10% in Canada. You can download the report in return for an email address at www.danceonomics.com.

SFX to go back to private hands?

Entertainment industry veteran Robert FX Sillerman has revealed plans to take his latest venture SFX - the EDM-focused company with a core business in dance music festivals - back into private ownership, having only floated the firm in 2013. Sillerman has asked the SFX board to appoint a committee to consider his proposals, which would see the firm attempt to buy back as much of the company as possible at $4.75 a share, while offering those keen to retain equity in the business the option to do so as shareholders in a privately held concern. One investor told Forbes that Sillerman's offer was "a way low-ball bid", suggesting that it would expect an offer more than double the one currently on the table. Meanwhile an analyst called the proposal "an insult to investors"

SFX expand EDM reach

With it's shares at an all time low, SFX Entertainment has increased its reach into EDM by agreeing to acquire Netherlands based Monumental Productions which prodces events and a fetsival under the 'Awakening' banner and SFX will also acquire Brazil's Plus Talent - whose business includes production, promotion and a talent agency - Plus promotes Brasil's 60,000 capacity Tomorrowland.

FESTIVAL NEWS

Following its sold-out fifth edition in January 2014, the EUROPEAN FESTIVAL AWARDS, presented in association with YOUROPE and Eurosonic Noorderslag, will return in the New Year to celebrate the successes of Europe’s music festival industry. The gala award show will open Eurosonic Noorderslag in style on Wednesday January 14 2015 at De Oosterpoort in Groningen, The Netherlands, hosted by Ben Challis. Nominations are now open and will run until September 27, 2014, during which time festivals can put themselves forward to take part in the awards, which features categories including Best Major Festival, Artists’ Favourite Festival, Headliner Of The Year, the Health & Safety Innovation Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award. This year also sees the launch of a brand new Award For Excellence And Passion, dedicated to an individual whose exceptional passion and dedication has created a truly unique and magical entity in the marketplace much bigger than the sum of acts that perform there. Festivals can apply here  http://eu.festivalawards.com/apply . Decided by a combination of public vote and industry juries, the European Festival Awards are the only pan-European body solely dedicated to recognising the contributions and achievements of the event organisers and performing artists that generate billions of Euros for local economies and brighten up the summer for tens of millions of festival-goers each year. Last year’s European Festival Awards featured over 350 festivals from 32 different countries, with over 1 million votes cast. View last years winners here. Christof Huber, The General Secretary of Yourope and promoter of the Open Air St Gallen festival adds: “It’s been a very busy festival summer 2015 and we are looking forward to gather in Groningen to celebrate some of the best festivals and achievements in a friendly atmosphere“ Public voting in this year’s awards will run from October 6 – 27 2014. The final shortlists will be announced on November 10 with the winners revealed at the awards show on January 14. Tickets to the event are on-sale now. Platinum Tickets include a gala dinner are restricted to festival organisers (maximum 4 tickets per festival) until October 30, and can be purchased here http://eu.festivalawards.com/tickets. Previous special guests who have performed live have included Milky Chance, Kodaline, Jake Bugg and C2C

Festivals organisers can now use a free online tool to check their energy performance in less than a minute. Supported by the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), this simple tool asks a series of questions and provides the user with an energy rating based on industry benchmarks provided by the Julies Bicycle Industry Green Tool. The tool also provides carbon emissions attributable to fuel use, percentage of Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) biodiesel compared to industry averages, a print-out of your results to share with staff, and links to information about how to reduce fuel use and costs. Fuel tool here.

here's an interesting article that relates primarily to EDM festivals - The Problem With Overproduction At Music Festivals - which argues "By continuing to escalate the degree of overproduction, festivals will eventually become obsolete. Soaring ticket prices will only make people more wary of how much they are investing in a few days’ worth of fun, and those who were once fans of the music will resort to another means of enjoying it. Festivals are merely a setting where live music is facilitated, and if it becomes more important than the music itself, many of us who stay true to the sounds will move towards hearing it in an uninfluenced environment, underground". The thousands who went to the Insomniac promoted Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas and ID&T's Tommorrowland in Belgium may disagree!

The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) has restructured its senior board, and is promising "more fire than ever before".  Alison Wenham and Ben Turner are stepping down as chair and vice chair respectively, after six years each in the roles. Turner, who is one of the original co-founders of AIF, will remain an active member of AIF, and the organisation will continue as a subsidiary of the Association of Independent Music (AIM).  “We are incredibly proud of how fair AIF has come,” said Turner. “We now have a platform that promotes creativity, focuses on breaking new talent, and which cares about the future of our business united as one.  “This new structure will empower many others to have more of a say, and for AIF to have more firepower than ever before,” he continued. Turner is stepping down because of a move to the States. Jim Mawdsley, CEO of music development agency Generator, replaces Wenham as Chair, with John Rostron, founder of Swn Festival, taking on the position of vice chair.  Mawdsley and Rostron began their tenure on 1 September. 

Virtual Festivals reports that OxfordOxford has been cancelled by organisers. The three day event, due to take place at South Park, Oxford from Friday 26 - Sunday 28 September 2014, has been cancelled due, in part, to poor local ticket sales. Gaz Coombes, Klaxons, Katy B, Christian Gregory and Celeste were all scheduled to play.

Police are looking into claims made by traders at Galtres Festival that they have been left £125,000 out of pocket, after the event's organiser appointed administrators. North Yorkshire Police confirmed with The York Press that they’re investigating claims made by traders at the Galtres Festival, , held at Duncombe Park, Helmsley, that they have been left up to £125,000 out of pocket, in the aim of establishing whether any crime has been committed. Around 40 traders estimate they face shortfalls totalling £125,000 and they are unhappy that plans are underway for next year’s event, while they await money for this year’s event. A statement from The Nationwide Caterers Association last week linked the complaints with the implementation of a cashless payment system at the festival. The NCASS statement claimed the payment system “resulted in traders at the event receiving no money whatsoever for four 16 hour days of work." A statement on the festival website said Galtres Festival Trading Ltd had now been placed in administration and a meeting of creditors was being organised to formalise voluntary liquidation. It said the company had significant liabilities, namely loans to the company, trade creditors including caterers and stallholders, and sums owed to staff and performers.

Festival Republic's Melvin Benn has told Radio 6 Music's Steve Lamacq show that the 2014 the summer had been a good one and gave him reason for optimism.  Benn, who is responsible for Reading and Leeds Festivals, Latitude and Electric Picnic, joined Kendal Calling's Andy Smith and The Great Escape's Kat Morris for a special festival discussion and added “There have been two or three relatively high profile casualties of festivals closing, or not being able to pay the bills, that sort of stuff. Guilfest just found itself in that position recently, Jabberwocky closed before it happened, you know Camden Crawl, there have been a few relatively high profile casualties, but from my experience and, I think probably the experience of Andy [Smith] and Kat [Morris] as well, we’ve all had particularly good years really". 

Andy Smith, Director of Cumbria’s Kendal Calling, was asked ahead of his festival’s tenth anniversary, if organising it had got harder or easier as they got larger? “It was a lot harder when we were starting out because we didn’t have the budget to get the talent that we wanted, we didn't have the budget to get the decor or the nice site. So the larger we’ve got the more resources we’ve had.”  Benn also commented on the increased costs involved in booking artists and headline acts and confirmed that the rise in headliner fees from 2004 to 2014 has been 400 per cent.” Morris commented on The Great Escape's city based festival experience and the challenge of mounting them every year saying  “You have to work within the constraints of the city, so to speak. Lots of the venues that we use might close or change hands between each year and then there’s council restrictions, local residents, etectra, so working within the constraints of the city is a challenge and obviously the landscape of a city changes which we can’t control.” More here.

Steve Lamacq’s festival special also listed the five acts to play the most festivals this summer who are:

1) Clean Bandit (24)
2) Wilkinson (18)
3) Foxes (17)
4) The Wytches (15)
5) Dreadzone (14)

And finally, promoting The Fall's forthcoming appearance at Salford Festival, frontman Mark E Smith has slammed festivals for becoming 'totally over-priced'. He added “The Fall aren’t really a festival band” and “We’re a city group, and we prefer to perform in cities. Festivals have become totally over-priced; they’re all about charging 900 quid a ticket so these rich parents can send Jemima and Tarquin for a nice weekend away." 

EDM surge continues

Sales of dance music single tracks  were up nearly 20% in the first six months of 2013, while dance music albums were up nearly 34%. Dance music accounted for one in six of the singles sold in the UK in the first half of this year, or 16.3% compared to 14.1% in the same period in 2012 and EDM is now the third most popular genre behind pop and rock. Releases from Rudimental, David Guetta, Armin Van Buuren, Disclosure, Duke Dumont, Calvin Harris and, Daft Punk  all helped dance remain a strong genre in terms of record sales in the UK this year. 

Live Nation buy half share in Electric Daisy parent

In another move into the USA's EDM market, Live Nation will take a 50% stake in dance music promoter Insomnia Events, best known for the Electric Daisy Carnival festival. The WSJ values the deal at around $50 million.

PRS reaches out to EDM community

Collection society PRS For Music has launched a new initiative Amplify aimed at the dance music community after research showed that dance music producers and composers are often less connected to the rights body, meaning royalties they are due can't be paid out. PRS for Music found that while 15% of Radio 1 output in 2011 was 'electronic music', nearly half of the publishing royalties paid by the BBC for that output couldn't be distributed to the rightful copyright owner, either because incomplete information had been provided when the track was registered with the society, or because the composer or rights owner simply hadn't joined PRS. Dance acts may also be losing out from live events as DJs are less likely to submit set lists than their guitar-playing counterparts. Only 35% of set lists were completed at Creamfields and 15% at Glade in 2011. By comparison, at Reading Festival, a predominantly guitar-based event, 90% of set lists were completed. An average set list for a major electronic music festival such as Glade or Creamfields (approx 171 sets) can be worth £250 per set. This means a potential £85,500 is not being paid to the correct writers from these two events alone.