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Gints Putnins of key regional promoter L Tips Agency says Latvia is a “tough” market where “the big shows roll and other market segments aren’t as easy.” Apart from L Tips, he estimated there are only two or three promoters capable of handling tours of the Baltics for international acts.
Given the challenges, he says it is almost impossible for new players to enter, gain a sufficient foothold, and last the distance.
He does feel, however, that international perception of the market needs to change and hopes his promotion of stadium shows by Ed Sheeran over the border in Lithuania will contribute significantly to that shift in perspective. “We are still considered as beginners, but this is no longer true,” he says.
Cost barriers to promote acts in the market are falling away, and he believes this should encourage more acts to play there. “In general, it seems that big-budget advertising campaigns no longer work,” he says.
“In general, it seems that big-budget advertising campaigns no longer work”
“If enough information is provided on the Internet, fans learn about future shows, and they spread the information further. Our three markets [in the Baltics] are small. Start from club level and grow gradually.”
He is hugely positive about the potential for the Baltics as a whole, and Latvia in particular, but that could be unevenly distributed as major names will likely account for the bulk of ticket sales in the short-to-medium term. “I assume that more and more stadium-level artists will visit the Baltics,” he says. “I do not foresee any growth for the shows of club- and medium-arena-level artists.”
He also notes that family shows “have been struggling in recent years” and, while there is potential for touring exhibitions, this cannot properly take off due to the lack of suitable venues.
Of the three Baltic nations, he suggests Latvia has, in genre terms, the most potential for a wider range of acts to tour. “Although we are small countries and nations that live close to each other, we are still very different,” he explains. “Estonians are more rock-oriented, Lithuanians [like] alternative and pop, while Latvia is somewhere in the middle.”