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2 MusicWeek 15.06.12 NEWS EDITORIAL


Dormant Glastonbury flatters to deceive


THIS WEEK HERALDED that rarest of uplifting sights for the live music scene. Nope, not a mud-free glamourpuss at Download - but a press release announcing that a UK festival had sold out in record time. Congratulations go to Kendal Calling in the Lake District, whose


affordable ticket price and impressive line-up – including Dizzee Rascal, James and Maximo Park – did the business with a full seven weeks to go before the event kicks off. Sadly, Kendal is something of a UK festival anomaly this year,


with a litany of cancelled or corroded casualties coming to light. A quick count on MusicWeek.coma couple of weeks ago showed no fewer than 13 UK festivals had already gone to the wall already in 2012 - most blaming a mixture of cash-strapped punters and an over-saturated marketplace. The highest profile drop-outs, Sonisphere and The Big Chill, will no doubt be back trimmer and stronger next year – but such a secure future is surely not destined for all of their smaller counterparts. Oxfam’s WOWfest joined the growing cancellation list this week,


albeit at the hands of a less common enemy, “anti-festival lobbyists”. (According to organisers, the Isle Of Wight event suffered from sudden financial demands from the IoW Council related to the festival’s licence.)


“Perhaps mid-tier and giant festivals should ape arenas in 2013 - and match music events with sports, lifestyle and TV brand extensions. British Bake-Off at Bestival, anyone?”


Elsewhere, common excuses buzzing around festival promoters


for poor demand centre on the distraction of the Olympics, the Jubilee and the European Football Championships. But surely the return of Glastonbury in 2013 is a scarier prospect than all three? And besides, wasn’t its absence this year supposed to be a golden opportunity - following a 2011 that saw 30 festivals quashed as the much-loved Truck tumble into liquidation? At the time of writing, weekend tickets are still available for V


2012, Reading and Leeds, Wakestock, T In The Park, Latitude, Hop Farm and Isle Of Wight. The market has seen better days. The lack of new headline acts coming through is an obvious


culprit – and a direct descendant of A&R budgets being squeezed at piracy-hit labels. That leaves a limited pool of exemplary headliners, making exclusivity and prestige a tricky act to pull off. (That said, last weekend’s Download yet again managed to shift all of its weekend tickets – but its headline trio of Metallica, Black Sabbath and The Prodigy was inarguably golden.) Perhaps the answer for the mid-tier and giant festivals next year


will be to ape the UK’s arenas. Having seen less money coming from the pockets of music fans - and fewer stadium-filling acts emerging - the likes of the O2, the NEC and Wembley have put bums on seats by hosting sports, lifestyle days and TV brand extensions this year, as well as their usual rock/jazz/dance menu. Masterchef 2013 at Rockness? The Ideal Home Show at Hard


Rock? The Great British Bake-Off at Bestival? Stranger things have happened – and they might just have to if


the already wobbly UK festival circuit is to avoid implosion when the Great Glasto returns next summer. Tim Ingham, Editor


Do you have views on this column? Feel free to comment by emailing tim.ingham@intentmedia.co.uk WILL AMERICAN BROADCASTERS COMPENSATE LABELS?


PPL hopeful of US radio payday


ROYALTIES  BY PAUL WILLIAMS


P


PL says it is encouraged by a potential breakthrough in the


States in the long-running fight to secure performance royalties from traditional radio stations. Leading player Clear Channel


announced last week it had agreed to pay royalties to country label Big Machine for playing tracks by its artists such as Taylor Swift on its FM stations. This flies in the face of


convention in the States where analogue radio stations are not required to compensate labels and performers for playing their recordings, but has given hope to PPL and others who have been pressing for such payments to be made across US radio. PPL CEO Peter Leathem


said: “It is a very encouraging sign and at the moment we’re trying to work out as to what is the dynamics of that, what is causing that to happen, but it is interesting a deal has been done for rights they currently don’t have to pay for because they


are going to get inundated now by people.” PPL has played a prominent


role in trying to bring about a change in legislation, which would mean FM and AM stations in the States having to pay performance royalties in addition to continuing to reward the writers and publishers of the songs they broadcast. A further legislation call was


led last week by RIAA chairman Cary Sherman who, in light of the Clear Channel deal, told a Congress committee hearing into the future of radio that an industry-wide solution was needed, “not a label-by-label piecemeal solution”. Despite terrestrial stations


“It is interesting a deal has been done for rights they


currently don’t have to pay for because they are going to get inundated now by people” PETER LEATHEM, PPL


being exempt from performance royalties at present, the likes of satellite and online services in the US have to pay for them. This has helped to make the


States the biggest generator of income outside the UK for PPL’s members with £5.0m collected last year. “The likes of Sirius XM and


Pandora are generating enormous amounts of revenue and making quite large payments to [performance rights organisation] SoundExchange so ultimately SoundExchange is collecting more money,” said Leathem. “Pandora already has about


5% of the total radio market, which is a phenomenal achievement given the number of


radio stations in the US.”  Annual PPL Analysis: See pages 12 and 13


AIM Awards open for business


The AIM Independent Music Awards will be accepting entries for this year’s Awards from today (Thursday June 14). Entries will be accepted from


both AIM member labels and non AIM members. Application forms can be downloaded from www.musicindie.com/awards/ enternow and the deadline for entries will be Friday July 27. The categories open for entry


to the 2012 Awards are: Independent Album of the Year; Best ‘Difficult’ Second Album; Best Live Act (voted for by readers of The Fly); Golden Welly Award for Best Independent Festival (voted for


by readers of This is Fake DIY); Independent Breakthrough artist of the Year; Genre Spotlight Award (recognising a great release in a niche or specialist genre); Special Catalogue Release of the Year; Best Small Label ; and Hardest Working Band or Artist. Other awards categories


include: The PPL Award for Most Played Independent Act; the AIM Pioneer Award (recognising a visionary independent label founder); Outstanding Contribution to Music; Independent Label of the Year; Independent Entrepreneur of the Year; and the Indie Champion Award


(chosen by AIM members). The second


AIM Independent Music Awards’ ceremony will be held at The Brewery in Clerkenwell, London on October 29. Radio 1’s Huw Stephens and


6 Music’s Steve Lamacq will again take on hosting duties, dishing out 16 trophies to the independent music sector. Sponsors and partners of this


year’s show include The Fly, This is Fake DIY, Sound Performance, PPL, Nokia, The Orchard, Music Week, Bird & Bird and eMusic.


www.musicweek.com


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