2MusicWeek 05.10.12 NEWS EDITORIAL


Funny Favours


HANDS UP: who else thought (hoped?) the anger, propaganda and fearfulness surrounding competition issues would die down once Universal’s billion-plus bid for EMI Music had squeezed through the EC? Poor PIAS. They’re not even swallowing up a company from the


independent sector and they’re getting it in the neck for “restricting choice”. Let’s not forget that when it comes to Co- Op’s existing contracts, Kenny Gates and co. will still have to prove themselves on a case-by-case basis. I’m sure the firm’s rivals will be only too pleased to show Vincent Clery-Melin’s current clients just how much ‘choice’ remains for disgruntled mutineers. With the furious din of anti-merger concerns in mind, it was


fascinating to note this week that for all of the trade hoo-ha, media ink and – oh yes –millions of lobbying dollars still echoing around the industry from Universal’s historic deal, it was the oddly ignored publishing agreement of the century that began to bear its teeth.


“Interesting to note that it was the publishing agreement of the century – not Universal/EMI – which began to bear its teeth this week.”


You remember the one. It cost even more than Universal/EMI


(£1.4bn, to be exact). It involved an even greater swathe of classic music that tech types would kill to get on their services. And yet it attracted far, far less in the way of industry chagrin and regulatory market solicitude. News has emerged that Sony/ATV and Apple couldn’t agree on


a per-song rights fee for the iPhone giant’s planned streaming service, dubbed iStream. As a direct result, Sony/ATV walked away - and Apple apparently nixed plans to launch its unseen Spotify rival alongside the iPhone 5. On the one hand, Sony/ATV/EMI playing hardball with Apple is


a worrying precedent - especially for those who had greased the palm of the Cupertino beast and now have to sit and wait. But on another tack, it could serve to help prove Lucian


Grainge’s point: effectively, that there are bigger, more bullish commercial entities looking to profit from this market’s content than mere music companies - and that in order to force them into due recompense, you need a heck of a lot of leverage. Sony/ATV/EMI - which boasts a humdinger of a song repertoire


associated with (ready for this?) The Beatles, Michael Jackson, The Beach Boys, The Kinks, One Direction, Oasis, Elvis, Taylor Swift, Eminem and many more - certainly has it. If the music industry benefits at large from the publishing group’s surprise recent wrangling with Apple, there may yet be something to say for having a few goliaths hanging around. Not that everyone can necessarily take comfort, when you


consider the EC recently did the indie community a bizarre turn by banishing Most Favoured Nation clauses from contracts between Universal and new digital services. Rival labels now won’t automatically receive the same terms as UMG for any deal struck with the next Spotify. And somehow, according to the EC, that’s supposed to be good news for smaller indies. Oh well. Maybe a beefed-up PIAS might be able to do some commercial battle on their behalf instead.


Tim Ingham, Editor Do you have views on this column? Feel free to comment by emailing tim.ingham@intentmedia.co.uk SECONDARY TICKETING PETITION LAUNCHED BY AIF


up to anti-resale Charter LIVE n BY TIM INGHAM


Radiohead, Orbital sign


Radiohead: Band advocate paperless tickets - but some fans have complained


T


he Association of Independent Festivals has launched an anti-


secondary ticketing Charter that has been signed by more than 55 industry execs, artists, promoters and festivals. Those who have signed up to


the Charter have committed to certain processes to ‘protect fans’ until legislation is brought in to curb the secondary ticketing market. They pledge to “be transparent with the pricing and distribution of tickets for events that we control”; commit to “adopting ticketing processes and technologies which ensure tickets reach the hands of real fans rather than touts”; “call on secondary ticket sellers to cease and desist selling tickets for events we control”; and “call on consumers to boycott ticket touts”. The Charter comes eight


months after a Dispatches documentary aired in February, which showed leading promoters cordoning off primary tickets to sell at inflated prices directly on the secondary market through sites such as Viagogo. Signatories of AIF’s new


Charter include Radiohead, Orbital, Gotye, Portishead, the


Coda Agency, Hospital Records, Ninja Tune, Wildlife Entertainment (manager of Arctic Monkeys and Miles Kane) and WeGotTickets. Live events and festivals that have put their name to the Charter include Bearded Theory, Bestival, the Eden Sessions, Kendal Calling, Truck, Secret Garden Party and Green Man. Meanwhile The Fan Fair


Alliance – a group backed by anti-touting MP Sharon Hodgson – is soon to go public with strong views on the subject, and is fully supported by AIF. Rob da Bank, Bestival and


AIF co-founder, said: “The whole secondary ticketing situation does make me really angry, mostly because I just don’t feel many of the people paying vastly inflated prices actually understand the mechanics behind


it, and secondly because the people profiting are doing so driven by pure greed. “The festivals who say they’ve


sold out while blatantly putting hundreds or thousands of tickets on a secondary seller are just plain dishonest.” A quick look at an upcoming


gig from Mumford & Sons at LG Arena in Birmingham on December 7 shows the ongoing scale of secondary ticketing. All standing tickets for the gig have sold out through official channels, but hundreds are still available on the likes of StubHub, SeatWave and Viagogo. However, paperless ticketing –


which could in theory eradicate the secondary market – was this week criticised by some fans of Radiohead. Ticketmaster had operated a paperless system for Radiohead gigs at Manchester Arena on October 6 and The O2 on October 8-9, but fans have complained over finding it difficult to resell tickets. Ticketmaster claimed it was working on a case-by-case basis to placate fans. However, Seatwave CEO Joe Cohen said: “The fiasco around paperless tickets for the Radiohead gigs next week shows exactly why a safe and transparent secondary ticket market is vital.”


Festival sales still on rise at WeGotTickets


Despite a number of high-profile cancellations, the summer festival sector showed no signs of a decline in 2012. At least, that’s the story from


WeGotTickets, which has distilled figures from more than 700 of its festival partners. The firm sold the same


number of tickets for its top- selling festivals as last year, but said it worked harder through its marketing channels to do so. Breaking down the top tiers, the Top 10 festivals were up 22% by units on 2011, the Top 20 up 10% and the Top 30 flat. Sales of festivals outside the WeGotTickets’ top 100 sellers


were up by 32% in terms of sales. There were double the number of smaller festivals on the ticketing company’s books compared to 2011, ranging from spoken word, food and drink, comedy and arts festivals all the way through to the ubiquitous new music festival Said Dave Newton, co-


founder, WeGotTickets: “This has been a challenging year for much of the festival industry, but we’ve worked hard to combat this through engaging with our festival fans. By next festival season the WeGotTickets customer base will have grown by a further 14 million, offering a


very diverse audience for our festival clients to market to.” However, WeGotTickets


itself saw cancellations from 12 official event partners. Meanwhile, the group has


been named as the official ticketing partner for Oxjam for the fifth consecutive year, having raised almost £20,000 to date for the charity. WeGotTickets is looking to up the stakes this year with a record £8,000 contribution to Oxfam. This follows a successful two-


week campaign in which WeGotTickets raised £1914 (not including Gift Aid) for charity War Child Syria.


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