The New Bosses 2024: Cerys Vaughan, ATC Live
The 17th edition of IQ Magazine’s New Bosses, in association with Futures Forum, was revealed in IQ 129, recognising 20 of the most promising 30-and-unders in the international live music business.
To get to know this year’s class a little better, IQ conducted interviews with each one of 2024’s New Bosses, discovering their greatest inspirations and pinpointing the reasons for their success.
Cerys Vaughan began her career as a show rep in Leicester, as a teenager, running the shows at small venue, Firebug, while also stage managing at Handmade Festival in Leicester. While at the University of West London studying for a foundation degree in Events Management, she interned at the Association of Independent Festivals, helping to organise and run their Festival Congress event in Cardiff in 2014.
Post degree, she returned to Leicester, show repping once again, before landing a job as a promoter assistant at DHP Family, assisting Dan Ealam in London and working across acts like Ed Sheeran, Mystery Jets, The Growlers, and Calum Scott.
She moved to ATC Live six years ago, initially as agent assistant to Chris Meredith, but has since moved across lots of rosters to her current role as Will Church’s assistant working on a roster that includes Big Thief, Japanese Breakfast, Julia Holter, Snail Mail, Whitney and more. She also assists Alex Bruford on Fontaines D.C.
You’ve been involved in live music since you were a teenager – was someone else in your family involved in the business, or was there something or someone else who prompted your interest?
I grew up in a family that loved music, but no one in our family or life worked in the arts, so I had no connections to that world at all (and hadn’t even considered the potential of a career in it). I finished school and was trying to decide what I wanted to do with my life, deferred university for a year (Events Management at UWL), and was working in a bar in Leicester that had a venue attached. The venue booker, John Helps, asked one day if I’d like to try out show repping to get some events experience before going to university. It turned out that I loved it and ended up repping all the gigs and running the door before, during, and after university.
You were very successful at getting your foot in the door at the start of your career. What advice would you have for others who are looking to forge a career in the music industry?
Approach your local music venue and ask if they need anyone to run the door or if you could assist a show rep some nights – working on the ground at gigs is such valuable experience. You’ll learn so much about what it actually means to run a show, and it’s a great way to meet people in the industry and start to build a network.
You were on the promoting end of the business to start off with. What prompted you to move to the agency side?
I was still trying to work out what I wanted to do with my career, and a job coming up at ATC felt like a good opportunity to try something different. The idea of getting to work on shows taking place all across the world was really exciting, so I made the leap haven’t looked back since.
IFF, The Great Escape, and Futures Forum are great events to attend early in your career
In terms of expanding your network of contacts, are there any events, platforms or forums you attend that you would recommend to others?
IFF, The Great Escape, and Futures Forum (the young person’s day at ILMC) are great events to attend early in your career. Many of the international industry professionals travel to these, giving you the opportunity to put some faces to your ever-growing network of email addresses.
You work across quite a number of clients. What has been one of the biggest highlights of your career, so far?
I’ve worked with Fontaines D.C. for five years, and watching their growth has been incredible. A standout moment was at the end of their Hammersmith Apollo shows when they played ‘I Love You.’ Everyone was singing along, and red confetti with ‘I Love You’ written on it fell through the air. That moment was pretty magic, and I’ve kept a piece of that confetti on my dressing table ever since.
Is there anyone in your life that you see as a mentor, or who helped you learn the ropes?
Alex Bruford – he’s the busiest man I’ve ever known but he’ll always find the time to answer your questions, to guide you through a tricky problem or to give you a shout-out for doing a great job on something.
“It’s our duty to make sure every person along the way feels safe, comfortable and fully able to enjoy themselves”
As a new boss, what one thing would you change to try to improve the live music business?
We still need further diversity in the workforce across race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability and socio-economic backgrounds. Not only for the artists we are representing but also for the fans we are putting the shows on for. It’s our duty to make sure every person along the way feels safe, comfortable and fully able to enjoy themselves, and that’ll only be possible when all corners of society are represented in the planning.
Further understanding and care of mental health in the industry. It can be a highly stressful career, and even small improvements in employee care can prevent burnout and keep people feeling supported and valued. ATC Live provide an EAP (employee assistance program) that offers a 24/7 helpline, counselling sessions, and access to expert advice. Knowing that your employer is committed to providing this support feels incredibly reassuring.
What would you like to be doing in five years’ time?
Continuing to work alongside amazing artists and their teams, being a part of their journey as their careers grow feels very special. You never stop learning in this career so hopefully I’ll be wiser too.
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Loud and Proud 2024: IQ’s pride playlist now live
IQ Magazine’s fourth annual Pride takeover edition heralds the return of the Loud & Proud playlist, for which our partner agencies have spotlighted fast-emerging queer artists to note.
This year, IQ has extended the Loud & Proud profiles to include a dozen acts represented by ATC Live, CAA, Earth Agency, Midnight Mango, One Fiinix Live, Playbook Artists, Primary Talent, Pure Represents, Queer Artists Agency, Solo, UTA, and WME.
Artists included in Loud & Proud 2024, along with their agents, are:
Asbjørn (DK) Frederik Diness Ove, Queer Music Agency
Beth McCarthy (UK) Jess Kinn, One Fiinix Live
Brimheim (DK) Paul McGivern, Playbook Artists
Evangeline Gentle (CA) Rich Quarterman, Midnight Mango
Fletcher (US) Bilge Morden, CAA
Gia Ford (UK) Caitlin Ballard, ATC Live
Girlband! (UK), Charly Beedell-Tuck, Solo Agency
Liz Lawrence (UK) Hayley Morrison, Simon O’Neill & Angus Baskerville, Pure Represents
Lucky Love (FR) Christina Austin & Jules de Lattre, UTA
Reneé Rapp (US) Lucy Dickins, Ben Totis & Dvora Englefield, WME
She Drew The Gun (UK) Claire Courtney, Earth Agency
Tom Rasmussen (UK) Sally Dunstone, Primary Talent International
Listen to the full Loud & Proud playlist below:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5U1Wb37yhJT9XuYeLfO8cR?si=dc38b05ef6a346cc
The full Loud & Proud feature, including all 12 profiles, is available here for subscribers of IQ Magazine.
Click here to subscribe to IQ from just £8 a month – or check out what you’re missing out on with the limited preview below.
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ATC Group revenues soar 156% post Sandbag deal
London-based music company All Things Considered (ATC) Group has reported revenues of £24.1 million (€28.3m) for 2023.
The total, revealed in ATC’s newly released financial results, represents a year-on-year increase of 156% on 2022’s £9.4m, fuelled by a £16.2m contribution from its “transformative” acquisition of merchandise firm Sandbag in July last year.
ATC’s divisions include booking agency ATC Live, ATC Management, ATC Services, ATC Experience and livestreaming company Driift. Its artist representation segment was up slightly from £6.57m in 2022 to £6.65m in 2023.
ATC Live, which operates a strategic partnership with Arrival Artists in North America, saw a 4% decline in revenue during 2023, “with a small number of key clients between touring cycles”. Its roster includes acts such as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Fontaines D.C., PJ Harvey and Jungle.
“ATC Live’s relationship with Arrival Artists in North America continues to bear fruit as the combined offer of ‘global live representation’ assists in winning new clients,” says ATC Group CEO Adam Driscoll. “A number of ATC Live’s key clients are active in touring during 2024. Given the lead times involved in touring, ATC Live has already contracted 90% of its financial forecast for 2024 so we are encouraged about the likely financial outturn for the business for this year. One of the key clients, Fontaines D.C., for example, has recently announced a tour which has generated substantial ticket sales far in excess of the previous touring cycle.
“In an indication of the breadth of artists that are being attracted to ATC Live’s roster, two recent signings include legendary classic band Devo alongside brand new artist Good Neighbours, whose first single release has, with the aid of TikTok fan interaction, already delivered over 175 million Spotify plays.”
“This position will be reversed in 2024 with bigger clients out on the road again and a strengthened roster as a result of recruiting new agents and clients”
The division, which is said to be now ranked as the seventh largest agency globally, generated £2.14m of revenue in 2023, compared to £2.22m in 2022.
“This position will be reversed in 2024 with bigger clients out on the road again and a strengthened roster as a result of recruiting new agents and clients in 2023,” says the filing. “ATC Live is forecasting materially increased turnover for 2024 and has already contracted nearly 90% of its budgeted figure so we remain confident about the continuing pattern of growth for the business.”
ATC Group, which also has offices in New York and Los Angeles, declared a loss before tax of £3.04m for the year “substantially impacted by share of results of Driift, a minority interest, as expected”. Its operating EBITDA showed a loss of £0.46m (2022: Operating EBITDA loss of £0.10 million before profit of £0.83m from one-off services transaction), “reflecting continued investment in managers and agents”.
ATC Management’s recent acquisition of a 55% stake in Raw Power Management cost £1.41m, according to the filing, while it also acquired 50% of Mckeown Asset Management in February 2024, extending its revenue streams into festival management, live music promotion and venue assets. ATC raised £2.3m through a share subscription earlier this year.
“The material developments realised in 2023 following a period of strategic investment have substantially enhanced the Group’s position to capitalise on the multiple revenue opportunities within the disrupted and growing global music industry,” says Driscoll. “The value in the music market lies with the artists and the way in which they engage directly with their fanbases. We have put together a collection of assets that sit at the heart of that strategic shift.
“Following this year of consolidation, we believe we have the right building blocks in place, including a larger, more diversified client base, a broader service offerings and a robust financial position. This, together with positive trading momentum into 2024, leaves us excited about the remainder of the year and the opportunities that lie beyond.”
“I am delighted that we are in business with Modern Sky”
Yesterday (23 May), ATC Group announced a new cooperation agreement with leading Chinese independent music company Modern Sky. The deal seeks to expand the global presence of the Modern Sky brand and its talent and events portfolio worldwide, with the initial focus being on the UK market.
“I am delighted that we are in business with Modern Sky,” adds Driscoll. “As one of China’s leading independent music companies, they offer a significant opportunity for ATC to expand its reach into a growing market for the benefit of our clients. And we are excited to work with the team in Beijing to bring Modern Sky events and talent into the markets in which we operate.”
Modern Sky will help to cultivate the growth of artists from the ATC talent roster in China, with the companies to leverage their mutual resources across management, live representation, merchandising, marketing and digital, to drive artists’ business forward in their respective markets.
“I am very much looking forward to cooperating with ATC Group,” says Modern Sky founder and CEO Shen Lihui. “I hope that through this cooperation, we can open up the connection between the two markets and jointly provide more complete services and more development for talented artists around the world.”
ATC listed on the Aquis Growth Market in London in December 2021 after raising £4.15 million in its initial public offer.
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ATC’s Alex Bruford on Fontaines DC’s arena ascent
ATC Live founder and MD Alex Bruford has given IQ the inside track on Fontaines D.C.’s live progress ahead of their biggest run of shows to date.
The Irish post-punk band, who release their fourth album Romance on 23 August, have a packed summer in store, with slots at festivals including Sideways (Finland), Hurricane & Southside (Germany), Fuji Rock (Japan), Sziget (Hungary), Pukkelpop (Belgium), Glastonbury and Reading & Leeds (UK), among others.
They will then visit the US & Canada in the autumn, followed by a European tour in November/December, stopping at venues such as the WiZink Center in Madrid, Verti Music Hall in Berlin, two shows at Alexandra Palace in London, a three-night stand at The Factory in Manchester and arena dates in Cardiff, Nottingham, Leeds and Glasgow.
The outing will then conclude in their native Dublin, Ireland, with two concerts at 3Arena on 6 & 7 December.
In the following Q&A, Bruford, their agent, talks IQ through the story so far…
“Working with Fontaines D.C. has been a joy, primarily because of the bands remarkable drive, determination and prolific output”
How have you managed the band’s growth on the live scene up to this point?
“Working with Fontaines D.C. has been a joy, primarily because of the bands remarkable drive, determination and prolific output. The band released their first three albums in the space of three years – Dogrel in 2019, A Hero’s Death in 2020 and SkintyFia in 2022. Each album pushed the band forward musically and creatively, and the momentum they were able to build with this pace of releasing has been crucial to their growth live.
“Managing the growth has come down to long term planning, building of multiple territories simultaneously, reacting quickly when necessary and working with promoter partners who are as dedicated to ensuring the band achieve their goals as we are. In particular, Dan Roberts at Metropolis Music in the UK has been instrumental to the UK touring success.
“It’s not all been plain sailing – on the first album campaign the band’s career acceleration was so fast that there were too many demands on the band members, and we all had to learn what pace of touring worked best for them. Now we have a good balance and a fantastic production team, led by PM Marcus Haughton, who takes care of the band globally. Marcus and myself work closely together from the inception of tour plans to ensure all routings are as strategic and logistically efficient as they can be, whilst ensuring the necessary rest is built in for the guys to be at their best on the road.”
What is the strategy around the coming campaign?
“Working closely with the band’s management, Ian McAndrew, Emma Greengrass and Trevor Dietz, and Cerys Vaughan at ATC Live, we started working on the strategy for the Romance campaign two years ago.
“The band’s last show in Europe was 2022 so it feels like the right time to hit the stage again. The first shows back will be at select festivals in the summer of 2024 that don’t clash with our November headline tour plans, allowing us to announce the tour in April 2024 around the release of the new single Starburster.
“We’ll headline the Park Stage at Glastonbury and then release the album with XL records on 23 August, the day before the band hit the main stage at Reading & Leeds, two key media moments.
“We’ve added headline shows in markets we won’t get to on the album tour around the 2024 festivals”
“We’ve added headline shows in markets we won’t get to on the album tour around the 2024 festivals, including Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Slovenia, reaching more fans and further building the band’s touring footprint. The 2024 headline run will be the band’s biggest shows to date, and a springboard to extensive UK and European touring in summer 2025.
“The strategy laid out relied on one key factor – the band delivering the new record on time to release the first single in April and album by the end of August. Whilst we never want to put pressure on the creative process, the fact is that artists that can deliver music on time and in a planned window have a huge advantage over those that can’t.
“In the interim period [vocalist] Grian Chatten released an acclaimed solo record, which received much support at press and radio. Grian had the option to tour the record, but made the wise decision to focus on writing and recording the next Fontaines D.C. album, a decision which is paying dividends now.
“Knowing that we could rely on the band to make the timeline work enabled us to secure the best nights of the week for every key show – so we went up with Friday and Saturday in London, Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Manchester and Friday and Saturday in Dublin, crucial to the success of the tour launch. They hit the target, delivering their best record to date and on schedule.”
“Demand has exceeded expectations by some way – it’s clear that the band have made a major step forward”
There is a “reduced price ticket” option for certain tour dates, what was the thinking behind that?
“The band have always been keen to ensure there is an opportunity for those on lower incomes to come to the shows, and not be priced out, so we made sure some reduced price tickets were available for this purpose.”
What are your expectations for the group in 2024?
“Demand has exceeded expectations by some way – it’s clear that the band have made a major step forward. To sell out two Alexandra Palaces (20,000 tickets) in London and three Aviva Studios in Manchester (15,000) tickets in one weekend is phenomenal business.
“In addition, we sold out the band’s first arena show in Ireland at the 3 Arena Dublin in a day, with a second date immediately added. My expectation is that all 2024 headline shows in the UK and Europe will be sold out.”
How would you compare their live popularity in the UK & Ireland with the rest of Europe?
“The UK and Ireland are the biggest markets for the band, but thanks to their hard work touring internationally many markets are a close second. In Amsterdam we sold out one AFAS arena (6,000 tickets) and added a second the morning of onsale. We had strong starts at our first arena shows in Madrid, Brussels and Paris. In Rome we have already sold out our summer show at the iconic Auditorium Parco della Musica, and our two summer headline shows in Poland are sold out.
“Further afield, Australia is a strong market for the band, with a very successful tour around the Laneway Festivals in 2023, and the band will return to Japan to play Fuji Rock Festival this summer.”
“The number of markets we can play arenas will continue to grow”
What’s the plan for Fontaines D.C. from here?
“The band are already an arena band, playing arenas in many markets on the 2024 tour. The number of markets we can play arenas will continue to grow. After the headlining their first festival at Green Man in 2021, we will see more festival headline shows.
“With four albums of material and extensive touring experience to draw on, the band will take the show to another level in 2024. The exciting part of where we are at now is that we are only 1 single into the new album campaign, with a phenomenal record to come.
“Fontaines D.C. are not here to tick off achievements, but to consistently challenge themselves and their audiences, which I have no doubt they will continue to do. We look forward to seeing where that takes us!”
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Young execs place bets on 2024’s breaking acts
Young and emerging executives shared their predictions for 2024’s breaking acts, during last week’s Futures Forum.
Gurj Summan (Live Nation, UK), Kerem Turgut (All Things Live, UAE), Niklas Magedanz (Goodlive Artists, DE) and Caitlin-Finn Ballard (ATC Live, UK) swapped artist tips during the increasingly popular session, Now That’s What I Call 2024.
The panel, moderated by Midnight Mango’s Louise McGovern, shared three tracks each with the audience, as well as information on the artists’ journey, live careers and more. See a full breakdown below.
Double Back – Coco Jones
Gurj Summan, Live Nation, said: “I loved her voice. She came up through Disney and signed to Def Jam in 2022. This year she got nominated for five Grammy Awards and won Best R&B Performance over the likes of SZA and Victoria Monet, so she’s having a great year. We promoted a show for her at KOKO in Camden last year and it sold out.”
Poolside – Gia Ford
Caitlin-Finn Ballard, ATC Live, said: “I started working with Gia this year and she signed to Chrysalis a few months ago. That song is an allegorical story about a pool boy working in the Hollywood Hills and building up resentment against the people he works for… She’s taken a very cinematic direction, it’s very dark and broody. She’s an amazing live vocalist and is about to go on tour supporting Marika Hackman.”
Ainda Bern – Marisa Monte
Kerem Turgut, All Things Live, said: “In the UAE, we have over 200 nationalities and the Brazilian population is around 10,000. So we decided to book [Brazilian singer and composed] Marisa Monte. She’s going to play in Dubai at the end of November for two days because we are very confident she could sell over 2,000 tickets.”
www she hot – UCHE YARA
Niklas Magedanz, Goodlive Artists, said: “She is 20 years old, we started working with her when she was 19. She’s a talent that I have rarely seen… such an aura on stage and a unique sound. I describe her sound as Little Simz meets King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. We’re doing the Germany shows for her first headline tour, this spring all across Europe. The best is yet to come.”
N.L.S (Nach Le Soniye) – Raf Saperra
Gurj Summan, Live Nation, said: “He is UK-born, from Lewisham. British-Asian and represents the culture. He has had an enormous trajectory in the last year. We had a sold-out tour and he recently got signed to Mass Appeal which is Nas’s imprint. Releasing a new album next week. He’s a mixture of two worlds, hip hop and Bhangra. In the Asian scene, he’s one of the most exciting acts to come out of the UK, selling out shows pretty much everywhere; America, Canada and Australia.”
Candyman – Loverman
Caitlin-Finn Ballard, ATC Live, said: “This is one of my newest signings, an Anglo-Belgium artist. I got a tip from Live Nation Belgium, they told me he was selling out his first tour after releasing his debut album. He had two sold-out ABs in Brussels and they invited me along to one of them. I completely forgot I was there for work, I had hairs standing up on the back of my arms… he’s got one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen.”
The City Holds My Heart – Ghostly Kisses
Kerem Turgut, All Things Live, said: “She’s from Canada and I had a chance to work with her in 2019 before Covid in Istanbul. She sold almost 1,000 tickets in Turkey and 2,000 tickets in Egypt. In 2022, we brought her to Dubai Opera House and sold over 1,300 tickets which is an amazing number for this kind of emerging act. The following year, she visited Bahrain and Kuwait and did very well. In 2024, she’ll come back to the region again.”
Follow Don’t Follow – orbit
Niklas Magedanz, Goodlive Artists, said: “We are all very excited about him in our office. He’s a special and introverted artist who makes music with his childhood friends. All that started to develop well during the pandemic, he gained millions of streams on his first singles and did a DIY tour in people’s backyards all over Europe. We have him on 1,000-capacity level in Germany. His debut album hasn’t even been released yet. He has a very active and strong fanbase and makes electronic music for indie kids and vice verse. He currently doesn’t have an international agent in place!”
Normal – Skrapz
Gurj Summan, Live Nation, said: “Skrapz has been around for a while but he’s a solid rapper. We just announced his headline show a few weeks ago and it sold out pretty much on the day. His album is out today (Friday 1 March), it’s called Reflections. He’s signed to UTA and he’s doing really well… really excited future ahead.”
Backseat Baby – Cosmorat
Caitlin-Finn Ballard, ATC Live, said: “It’s the first single they’ve released. They’re two introverted, nerdy sound engineers who are geniuses when it comes to recording and writing. It’s been a heartening experience working with them; I’ve realised that word of mouth is still so powerful because they had no team or money behind them. Attention has picked up bit by bit to the point that we’re now doing a big festival summer. Now, they’ve got a team in place and we’ve got some fun shows lined up for their EP launch.”
Pasoori – Shae Gill, Ali Sethi
Kerem Turgut, All Things Live, said: “This video has more than 700 million views on YouTube. The artist is from Pakistan but he lives in New York. We had the chance to host him in 2023 in Dubai, which sold over 2,000 tickets. In Dubai, we have almost two million Indians, and one million Pakistanis, so the South Asian community is very strong. And then we put him on our programme and the show was great. We are going to bring him to the region again in January 2025. I think he’s a great artist and he’s very strong in our market.
Aspiration – Zaho de Sagazan
Niklas Magedanz, Goodlive Artists, said: “We booked her to Reeperbahn festival in Hamburg last fall and I have never received so many festival offers for an artist in the first year, especially in Germany. In France, it’s going even better for her. She’s playing the Zenith in Paris already. We really hope that this great potential comes over to Germany sometime soon.”
See the full playlist for Now That’s What I Call 2024 below.
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Alex Bruford: Transforming the industry landscape
Having toured globally with indie-electro headliners Infadels, Alex Bruford has first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to be a working musician and has used that experience to establish and develop ATC Live as an agency that puts its clients front and centre. Gordon Masson speaks to Bruford as he celebrates 20 years in music…
When ATC Live launched in 2011, its founder and managing director Alex Bruford set out to create an agency that would be markedly different from existing companies. And 12 years later, that goal continues to be central to the London-headquartered operation.
“Our number-one priority is delivering for our artists. That’s why this company started, and it will continue to be the case,” states Bruford. “We’re not interested in volume. We’re focused on ensuring we can provide our artists with everything they need to build the career they desire. We’ve proven that we can take artists from small clubs, like [London’s] The Shacklewell [Arms] or the Hoxton [Square] Bar & Kitchen and turn them into festival headliners.”
While the agency started out with one employee and just five client acts, today there are 35 staff across offices in London, Glasgow, and Paris, representing close to 500 acts. Bruford’s personal roster includes Amyl and The Sniffers, Baxter Dury, Black Pumas, Fontaines D.C., Metronomy, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Julia Jacklin, Sleaford Mods, and The Lumineers, among others.
“The goal is to continue to grow ATC Live but at the same time to make sure we have the infrastructure, capability and services we need to deliver for our artists,” adds Alex.
“When we created ATC Live, we wanted to do something different, and I think we’ve achieved that. Historically, a lot of the agency landscape was dominated by a small number of men who wanted to retain control over the industry, whereas I’m much more in favour of supporting the next generation to come through and be successful, as well as introducing more diversity into the music industry – diversity of thought, diversity of background, diversity of people – and just trying to make it a more representative place.”
“When you’re growing up going to big arenas and on American tours, it obviously has an influence on your path in life”
His journey to this point has been a storied one, but with his father, Bill Bruford, acknowledged as one of the world’s greatest drummers and percussionists, a career in the music business always seemed a likely path for Alex.
Early Years
Born in London, Alex grew up near Guildford in Surrey and from the cradle was surrounded by music, often being taken on the road to see his father performing with the likes of King Crimson and Yes.
“When you’re growing up going to big arenas and on American tours, it obviously has an influence on your path in life,” notes Alex. “At school, I was definitely into music – I did my piano theory and learned the drums. And in my early teen years I started getting into bands and playing outside of school.
“My parents very much tried to persuade me not to follow in Dad’s footsteps, but I specifically remember a day when I said to my dad, ‘I think I know what I want to do: Iwant to be a drummer,’ and him turning around and saying, ‘Well, you better start practising because you’re not very good.’”
Unperturbed, Alex threw himself into his music. “My first gig was in 1996 at the Rock Garden in Covent Garden,” he recalls. “But it took about seven years from then to get it right and for it to become something that I did professionally.”
“A lot of the festivals and promoters that I met through the band, I still work with today”
In 2003, Bruford found himself behind the skins for newly formed quintet Infadels. “Our first gig was at the Betsey Trotwood [pub] in London, and while we only got paid £40, it felt good – we knew we were onto something. We got signed to Wall of Sound and then PIAS and Sony fairly soon after that. We were championed by Eddy Temple-Morris who hosted XFM’s The Remix Show. Eddy was really the man – he put us on his club nights and played us on the radio all the time.
“It was an exciting time. […] We were going out on tour as support for bands like Prodigy, Faithless, Chemical Brothers, all those kinds of acts, which was great: we learned the ropes through them before eventually doing our own headline tours.”
As a group of lads in their mid-20s, Infadels made the most of their moment in the sun and enjoyed close to a decade of making music together. “We went everywhere,” says Bruford. “We toured around Europe multiple times, as well as America, China, Australia, Russia, South America. In total, we played about 500 gigs around the world.”
Bruford contends those experiences were a fundamental learning curve for his future career as an agent. “I understand what it’s like to be on the stage as an artist; what it feels like to be driving in the wrong direction on your day off, and things like that. These are the memories that I look back on and use every day to try to make life for my clients as easy and comfortable as possible.”
Being on the road with Infadels also introduced Alex to a wide range of industry personalities – many of whom he still works with in a professional capacity, two decades later. “A lot of the festivals and promoters that I met through the band, I still work with today. I remember Barnaby Harrod in Spain coming to meet us at the Moby Dick in Madrid, where he promoted our show – and I still work with Barnaby now. That goes for a bunch of other people as well.”
“I remember teching for Calvin Harris at V Festival when the backing track went down. The trauma of being partly responsible for that technical failure was absolutely horrendous”
Getting Behind
Recalling how he first became involved backstage, Bruford tells IQ, “The band was quite successful, and we had our own crew. But when things started on a downward spiral, we couldn’t afford the crew anymore, so I took over a lot of the tour managing side, and I’d be settling the shows. That’s how I met the network of promoters that sort of kicked off what I do now.
“Infadels did three albums – all great in their own right. The first record was when it was really hot and going really well. But by the time that we got to the third album, I was thinking, ‘Okay, what are we going to do next because I don’t think I’m going to be doing this in 15 years’ time.’”
Having tour-managed Infadels, Bruford explored that side of the business with a number of acts. However, he was soon looking for another avenue. “I remember teching for Calvin Harris at V Festival when the backing track went down. The trauma of being partly responsible for that technical failure was absolutely horrendous. So, I realised that was not the path for me. But as a result, I have huge respect for the production crew and professionals that put our shows together. Witnessing how they assemble and tear down shows with military precision is incredible.”
Looking back at his time in the band, he confesses, “I loved being on the road, to start off with anyway. The first time around, visiting all the cities and the festivals is incredibly exciting and a wonderful experience. But when you go around again and there’s a few less people at the gig than last time, then it doesn’t feel so great.”
Nonetheless, Infadels enjoyed some stellar highlights. “Playing Glastonbury, Coachella, playing shows in Moscow and then going straight to touring Australia. China was a highlight as well, as was playing great European festivals like Roskilde and Eurockéennes and those kinds of events. We were lucky that we got to do most of them.”
“I was an agent with no experience and no roster, and I worked at a DJ company, so persuading live acts to join my roster was a bit of a tough sell”
And it could have been even better but for the intervention of Belgian festival gremlins.
“We had a memorable show on the main stage at Pukkelpop, where it was the biggest show of our career – 40,000 or 50,000 people there to see us. And all the power went down in our second song. It was the show that was supposed to be the one to break us in Europe, but sadly, no. We managed to get the power back, but it took a long time and the momentum had gone.”
Special Agent
Searching for a long-term career solution, in 2010, Bruford applied for a role at Reprise Agency, which specialised in the electronic and DJ world. “I saw they had an admin position, and I needed a job and thought I could probably do music admin. The company founder, Howard Gray, gave me the job, but he pretty quickly asked if I’d like to work as an agent and try to bring some live acts to the roster.”
The switch was challenging. “I was an agent with no experience and no roster, and I worked at a DJ company, so persuading live acts to join my roster was a bit of a tough sell. But a couple of people took a bet on me: Johnny Pinchard, the founder of music collective Off Modern, was managing a band called Fiction. And Stephen Bass at Moshi Moshi had signed a band called Teeth. And for whatever reason they chose me as their agent, for which I will always be grateful. Years later, Stephen appointed me agent for Metronomy, and we’ve had a great time working with them over the last couple of records.
“But that’s how I started my journey as an agent. I managed to get a few acts on board, and then I signed an artist called Ali Love who was blowing up at the time. We did some good work together, and he was managed by Jean Coffey, who was at ATC management.”
“A number of established agents told me that it was impossible, but that only made me more determined”
Having impressed Coffey with his carefully crafted strategy for Ali Love, Bruford was invited to meet ATC founders Brian Message and Craig Newman, and that conversation planted the seed for an ATC agency division.
Bruford reveals, “It turns out that they had been trying to persuade established agents to join them in some capacity for a while, but no one was crazy enough to do it. However, I just thought, ‘What do I have to lose?’ So, in 2011, it was agreed that I would launch a new agency – ATC Live – in partnership with ATC.”
With an initial headcount of one and a roster of five acts – Ali Love, Fiction, Teeth, The Duke Spirit, and Treetop Flyers – Bruford set about creating and building the kind of agency that he, as a former artist, would like to have been represented by.
“It was interesting,” he notes. “A number of established agents told me that it was impossible, but that only made me more determined. Immediately after the deal was done, I got on a plane to South by Southwest to start telling as many people as I could that there was a new agency called ATC Live.”
One of the first new acts to enlist Bruford and ATC Live as his reps was Baxter Dury. “He was the first artist I signed up where I thought we could have a long-term relationship,” states Alex. “He is a brilliant artist, but he was such a rough diamond at the time and was not close to being fully formed. But we supported each other as we learned our respective trades, and now, 12 or 13 years later, he’s about to play a sold-out Roundhouse – his biggest show to date. It’s been a fantastic journey with him. Those are the kinds of relationships that I love and exactly what I wanted to achieve when we established ATC Live as a home for career artists.”
“I believed there was a space in the business for an agency that was focused on artists rather than volume”
Philosophy
Given a blank sheet to create the type of agency he perceived was missing from the industry landscape, Bruford tells IQ that his years of being a touring musician, coupled with his experience of working on the crew side of things, helped shape a doctrine that exists to this day at ATC Live.
“I believed there was a space in the business for an agency that was focused on artists rather than volume,” he states. “For me, the music and the artists are at the heart of everything that we do. They have to come first.
“An artist can walk onto a stage and deliver that unique, magic moment that you get from a brilliant live performance. The whole live music industry and its infrastructure exists because of artists who are able to create those incredible moments, but I think people sometimes forget that. A major part of our job is making sure that when the artist arrives on stage, they are in the best possible frame of mind to create something special.”
He continues, “I wanted to have an agency that wasn’t high volume, high turnover. I wanted it to be focused on artists that we really believe in and who we’re going to support over their entire careers. I also felt like there was a space for an agency that wanted to create collaborative relationships with promoters and managers and artists: relationships that were much more based on partnerships working together, rather than the traditional old-school agent/promoter power dynamic.”
Delving into detail, he adds, “I wanted to have partnerships with our promoters in a way that we could talk and collectively decide the best way forward for artists to build their careers.”
“Taking on-board local advice is really important for an artist’s career”
And the result? “It’s been good, because historically, agents just told people what to do and when to do it. But actually, taking on-board local advice is really important for an artist’s career.”
Developing Talent
While Alex’s ATC ethos was – and is – to target quality over quantity, in those early days, he was aware that his personal roster needed to grow. “I needed something that was going to really make a mark,” he admits. “At South by Southwest in 2012, Henning Ahrens, who was at Four Artists at the time, tipped me off about The Lumineers. I went to see them playing in a church, and it was an unbelievable show: the song writing, musicianship, everything about the performance – the way they engaged the crowd – it was knock-out.
“I knew that nobody in the UK really knew about The Lumineers, but they would very soon. So as soon as I got home, I jumped back on a plane to Boston to see them at a regional show where they were touring with the Kopecky Family Band. They were kind enough to give me some time backstage to chat, and I shared my vision for them. And soon after they joined the roster, which was a turning point because their album came out in April of that year, and it was just a rocket ship journey.”
Indeed, as The Lumineers’ popularity grew, Bruford had to upgrade venues four times on their debut record cycle. “Within 18 months, in London alone, we played Koko, Shepherd’s Bush, two nights at Brixton Academy, and Alexandra Palace. It was a real calling card for the agency,” he states.
“Since then, the band has gone from strength to strength and are now a stadium band: this summer they played their biggest-ever outdoor shows in Europe, headlining the 20,000-cap St Anne’s Park in Dublin and the 20,000-cap Crystal Palace Park in London.
“For a long time, it was just a case of working all the hours there were to keep up with the growth of our artists”
“It’s been a brilliant journey, but for a long time, it was just a case of working all the hours there were to keep up with the growth of our artists. When they played Alexandra Palace, I came back to the office, slept on the sofa, and got up a few hours later to crack on with the next day’s work because that’s what I had to do at the time.
“But after The Lumineers’ success, it was clear things were happening here. And that’s when other people started to get onboard and join ATC Live.”
Alex’s Army
Having taken his time to establish the agency as a bespoke home for talent, Bruford’s first employee was assistant Josh Adley. “He was really important in helping me to get things going,” says Bruford. “In 2013, we were joined by Colin Keenan and shortly afterwards Will Church, Stuart Kennedy, and Bertie Gibbon came along.
“The fact that Colin, Will, Stu and Bertie are still at ATC Live ten years later is testament to the way we all worked together to establish a new approach. They are cornerstones of what we do here: Colin brought Passenger with him, an established artist; Will had the experience of being at Elastic and Mainstage and had a cool electronic-leaning roster; Stu was assisting Colin and has since become an agent in his own right; and Bertie joined us to help shape the roster from an A&R perspective.
“We’ve since added agents Clemence Renaut, Sinan Ors, Alice Hogg, Marlon Burton, Skully Sullivan Kaplan, Graham Clews and Ed Thompson, and internally promoted Sarah Joy, Roxane Dumoulin and Caitlin Ballard to the role of agent.”
“It’s those people that pick up the phone and give you the support when nothing’s going on that really stick in your mind”
Key to those appointments was Bruford’s growing reputation among industry colleagues who supported the culture he was trying to establish at ATC Live. He tells IQ, “I put the word out that I was looking for the right people and promoters and other people connected the dots and said, ‘You should speak to Colin’ or ‘You should speak to Will.’ That’s the pattern of how things happened with everyone that joined in the early days of the agency.”
Among those early industry supporters, says Bruford, were the likes of agent Natasha Gregory and promoter Steve Tilley. “Natasha was always a big support to me. She helped me a lot when I didn’t know whether someone was trying to rip me off or not. Also, very early on, Steve Tilley came and met me for a cup of tea. It’s those people that pick up the phone and give you the support when nothing’s going on that really stick in your mind.”
Another tenet of the ATC Live philosophy has been to allow agents to work outside of the traditional agency locations. “We have offices in Glasgow and Paris, and we’ve been very keen to facilitate flexible working for people and allow them to live and work wherever they needed, even before Covid made that more common.
“My attitude has always been that as long as people can do the job and we can support what they need, then we can make things work no matter where they are based. For us, having people on the ground in Scotland and mainland Europe has been a bonus because they know about what’s going on in those scenes more than we ever would in London.”
Another expectation at ATC Live is that agents will not simply sign up as many acts as possible in the hope that one or two of them will break. “Having a personal roster with 100 acts doesn’t seem fair on the clients, to be honest,” says Bruford. “I don’t think you can effectively service an artist if you have that many acts on your roster.
“We want to ensure that we have the time to build unique touring plans for every artist”
“We want to ensure that we have the time to build unique touring plans for every artist: whatever is right for them, for their album, for their journey, their music, their career path. Some of our artists want to play 300 shows a year, others want to play one show a year. And others want to tour skate parks. We want to be able to facilitate all those different wishes, and our job is to help artists build something unique around them every time they play live.”
Positive Attitude
Regarded as one of the agency world’s deep thinkers, and described by peers variously as “level-headed,” “sensible,” “intelligent,” and “approachable,” Bruford himself states that when it comes to the bad times, he tries to focus on the positives.
“We all make mistakes, and of course I’ve had moments where negative things have happened, but I’ve always just tried to put that behind me, learn from it, and move on,” he tells IQ.
But he is still deeply affected by the 2019 death of ATC agent Chris Meredith, aged just 37. “Losing Chris was the toughest time that we’ve had here as a business. He was such an incredible agent and beloved friend and colleague. Losing Chris was hard on everyone at the company.”
Rivalry
Attention to detail has served Bruford well, as he can only recall losing one act from his roster over the years. “Unfortunately, it’s part of the job, and it just comes with the territory, but I would like to think that other agents are fairly respectful. But, of course, if there’s an opportunity, they’ll go for it,” he laughs.
“We’ve had a lot of knocks at the door, but we’ve been following our path for all this time, and we will continue to do so”
The ATC Live ethos, devised by Bruford, has also attracted acquisition interest from rival agencies. “We’ve had a lot of knocks at the door,” says Bruford, “but we’ve been following our path for all this time, and we will continue to do so.”
To that end, Bruford brokered a partnership deal with Arrival Artists when the latter launched as an agency in 2020. “Erik Selz, John Bongiorno, Ali Hedrick, Karl Morse, and Ethan Berlin all came out of Paradigm in America during Covid and were setting up an agency. Erik, in particular, wanted to find an international partner, and at the same time, we wanted to have a partner in North America as well.”
Reporting on the success of the tie-up, Bruford says, “It’s three years now, and it’s going really well. Collectively, we’re the only independent agency to be able to offer global booking, which is great for us and the acts we represent. We communicate clearly, and we just provide a very dedicated and experienced service with agents in each market. We’re able to offer a personalised approach to global booking, so it’s been very satisfying to have found the right people to work with and to whom we’re very aligned in terms of the roster.”
Looking to the future, he does not rule out ATC Live satellite offices in other continents, especially as he believes that music coming out of the likes of Africa and Asia will see the emergence of new artists from those regions.
“We’ve got people in the building that represent clients from all around the world, but I think having agents that are more specialised in some of those territories will be certainly something for the future,” he comments.
“I feel very strongly that the artists need to be paid a fair share of the gross of the show, rather than just the small portion that they’re getting at the moment”
Activism
As for personal plans, Bruford tells IQ, “I’m very ambitious to continue improving our industry. I really feel as though there needs to be more transparency. We’ve had an industry that [for] too long has revolved around backhanders and rebates, and I feel very strongly that the artists need to be paid a fair share of the gross of the show, rather than just the small portion that they’re getting at the moment.
“I’d like to see serious dialogue about how we divide the revenues associated with live performance. When you get into ticketing, F&B, merch, and all the different revenue streams, we need to find a way for that to be split more fairly.”
And Alex is confident others in the industry agree. “Generally speaking, people are moving towards a more transparent business,” he says. “We’re seeing that in the States, especially with ticketing, where people want to understand where the money is going. But there are also a lot of people who like things the way they are.”
Cutting the carbon footprint of live performance is also a personal goal for Bruford. “I sit on the board of an American environmental non-profit called Sound Future, which is focused on activating tech solutions and leveraging the influence of live events to accelerate climate action.”
As a result, ATC Live provides green riders that its clients can adopt, depending how far each act wants to pursue such matters. “We want to have the tools to be able to advise them on all the possible options,” notes Bruford.
“We have to be cognisant of the wider ecosystem: we have to remember that grassroots venues are struggling, and without those grassroots venues, the talent pipeline stops”
Back To Basics Going Forward
Having successfully steered ATC Live through the Covid years, Bruford reports that the 25% of its headcount who departed during the pandemic have since returned, and employee numbers now exceed those of 2019.
“Live music is definitely back, and it’s great to see people going to shows and willing to spend money. But I think we have to be really careful about how much we charge for our tickets,” he warns.
“Lots of people are very focused on their own shows and maximising the revenue for those shows. But we have to be cognisant of the wider ecosystem: we have to remember that grassroots venues are struggling, and without those grassroots venues, the talent pipeline stops.
“Ultimately, we need to figure out a way of not just syphoning off all the money at the top but making sure that some of it finds its way into the grassroots end of the spectrum.”
That support is fundamental to the ATC Live chief, who discloses that a lot of his job satisfaction derives from breaking new talent. “Seeing an artist play their first-ever festival headline show is such a thrill,” he says. “Two years ago, Fontaines D.C. stepped on stage to headline Green Man, and the set was blistering, making it clear to everyone involved that this is a band that is going to headline many more festivals.
“Some festivals are taking risks on the next generation of headliners. Artists are getting bigger faster than they ever have”
“That moment of when you’ve taken an artist who was playing 100-capacity rooms, and you help them develop their career – the likes of Julia Jacklin springs to mind, where she recently sold-out 3,000 tickets at the Roundhouse. I started with her with 100 tickets, so it was a super-emotional evening for everyone.”
Getting Nicked
The appreciation works both ways, too. Such is Bruford’s relationship with Nick Cave that at the completion of his 32 headline festival run across Europe last summer, the artist left a signed photo album on Bruford’s desk detailing his performances with a heartfelt personal message to Alex thanking him for all he had done.
Meanwhile, the agent is genuinely excited about younger acts being given the chance to shine. “Some festivals are taking risks on the next generation of headliners,” he observes. “Artists are getting bigger faster than they ever have. Look at the likes of Boygenius who’ve gone stratospheric. So, it’s important that festivals give those artists an opportunity to headline.”
But he acknowledges that other acts – and often career musicians – are having to work hard on creative campaigns with their agents in order to entice fans back through venue doors. “If you’re hot, exciting, and new, then everybody wants to see you. But if you’re in the mid-level, where you’re used to grinding out 1,000 tickets a night, then rising costs and simply retaining the attention of fans is making life a lot more difficult than it used to be.”
Nonetheless, Bruford and his ATC Live team relish such challenges, and he concludes that he cannot imagine working in any other sector.
“It’s been a brilliant 20 years,” he acknowledges. “The interesting thing about this job is it’s all relative – a highlight can be an artist playing to 40,000 people or it can be an artist selling out to 2,000 people if that artist has slugged their guts out for ten years to get there. It’s all relevant to what that artist’s ambitions and expectations and career goals are. And we’re here to deliver on those wishes.”
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IQ 123 out now: Alex Bruford, Louis Tomlinson, The Sphere
IQ 123, the latest issue of the international live music industry’s favourite magazine, is available to read online now.
The November 2023 edition sees Gordon Masson talk to Alex Bruford about his first 20 years in music and the philosophies behind his ATC Live agency and, elsewhere, the IQ editor goes behind the scenes of Louis Tomlinson’s Faith in the Future world tour.
In addition, the issue offers a deep dive into the growing live music cruise business, as well as a health check on the Danish market. Plus, the IQ team reflects on the recent International Festival Forum (IFF) and looks ahead to the ‘out-of-this-world’ 36th edition of ILMC.
For this edition’s comment and columns, IQ passes the mick to Nick Morgan for some key takeaways from a decade of producing and organising festivals, while Rachel Flaszczak explains how MVT’s Own Our Venues helped save her grassroots music venue for future generations.
As always, the majority of the magazine’s content will appear online in some form in the next four weeks.
However, if you can’t wait for your fix of essential live music industry features, opinion and analysis, click here to subscribe to IQ from just £8 a month – or check out what you’re missing out on with the limited preview below:
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IFF 2023: Festival heads grapple with fresh issues
Major agents and festival promoters at this week’s International Festival Forum (IFF) in London agreed that 2023 has given them much cause for optimism but have warned there are issues to overcome.
Last-minute artist cancellations, rising ticket and production costs, decreasing numbers of Generation Z attendees, and severe weather conditions remain huge hurdles to clear, as the industry looks ahead to 2024 and beyond.
The conversation went underway at IFF (International Festival Forum) during the event’s opening panel ‘The Festival Season’, which featured Alex Bruford (ATC Live, UK), Pavla Slivova (Colours of Ostrava, Czech Republic), and Stephan Thanscheidt (FKP Scorpio, Germany), with Yourope’s Christof Huber (Switzerland) moderating the discussion.
“Though 2022 brought about a lot of excitement with everything coming back to a semblance of normality, I’d say that there’s been a gap where we’ve seen a generation not accustomed to attending festivals due to the pandemic,” Slivova said, who has seen two out of the four headliners for this year’s Colours of Ostrava cancel their performances at the last minute. “In my opinion, there needs to be a change in marketing. What worked in 2019 or 2022 isn’t working this year, so we need to refocus our attention on what Gen Z finds attractive these days.”
While Bruford cited the consistent turnouts at the Reading & Leeds Festivals as examples of younger audiences still flocking towards such extravaganzas, he agreed with Slivova when it comes to thinking about what would appeal more to that particular demographic. “There were a number of festivals that struggled with attracting the Gen Z crowd, who aren’t gravitating towards more hedonistic activities than previous generations,” he said. “We need to have a collective think about what an actual festival means to them, and what’s appealing and appropriate to today’s young people.”
“What worked in 2019 or 2022 isn’t working this year, so we need to refocus our attention on what Gen Z finds attractive”
One big issue this year was the inevitable increase in production costs, causing a knock-on effect through the rise of ticket prices. Despite overseeing a successful year, Thanscheidt pointed out that festivals aren’t finding it easy these days to make any profit. “Costs are a major problem at the moment,” he explained. “There’s a limit that a lot of fans would pay to attend festivals nowadays, so we’ve had to advertise better camping and VIP experiences to entice more people into coming,” also adding that sponsorship backing isn’t the same as it was before the pandemic. “Keeping ticket prices under control while maintaining profit margins at the same time is proving extremely difficult right now.”
Despite the panel’s unanimous agreement that festivals need a more accessible approach when pricing tickets, Mojo Concerts’ Eric van Eerdenberg (Netherlands) — who was among today’s panel attendees — pointed out a potential issue that could arise from such measures. “I think that when you have a low ticket price, there will always be secondary markets pushing prices up again and making a profit,” he said. “It’s very difficult to get a grip on it.”
A major topic of discussion today was how severe weather has negatively impacted festivals across Europe, with Wacken Open Air suffering major losses after being forced to send nearly 20,000 fans home due to inhospitable surroundings. “The whole ground looked like Mordor from the Lord of the Rings movies,” said Wacken’s head booker Jan Quiel. “It was heartbreaking having to send so many people home. That was even worse than having to cancel due to COVID. We also incurred a heavy financial loss due to the additional costs we paid to have an extra campground to host more shows.”
While the panel agreed that more measures were needed to ensure safety in preparation for extreme weather conditions, Slivova added that festivals in the Czech Republic aren’t covered for such situations. “We have liability insurance for things like steady rain, for example, so it can cover some costs. But by and large, we aren’t insured for bad weather, unfortunately.”
Such concerns will always be in the back of agents and festival bookers’ minds, but 2023 has already proven to be a mostly successful post-COVID year in a lot of aspects. “Compared to last year, 2023 has seen more experienced crew and staff, logistics are a lot easier now than they were last year, and global headliners are combining their tours with festival performances,” Bruford said, with Thanscheidt adding that he’s relieved that people are having fun again after a hellacious 2022. “Nobody had fun last year, so seeing that people are having fun organising such immense projects has been great.”
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ATC Group revenue up 33% to £12.1m
UK-based music company ATC has beaten its own expectations to record a profit on revenue of £12.1 million (€13.9m) in its first full year as a a public company.
The London-headquartered group, which opened a New York office in February 2022, has posted its financial results for its first full year of trading since listing on the Aquis Growth Market in London in December 2021 after raising £4.15 million in its initial public offer (IPO).
Its divisions include booking agency ATC Live – which it says is now the sixth largest touring agency worldwide – ATC Management, ATC Services and livestreaming company Driift. In addition, it launched ATC Experience in 2022 to “create and distribute artist-led digital and in-person experiences for global audiences”.
Revenue was up 33% for the year ending 31 December 2022, contributing to an “ahead of expectations” pre-tax profit of £0.01m, compared to a loss of £2.69m in the pandemic-hit 2021. Artist representation contributed £6.57m of total revenue, up from £3.7m in the previous 12 months, while services accounted for £2.87m (2021: £778,502).
When taking into account streaming service Deezer’s acquisition of a minority stake in Driift, the group achieved an overall post tax profit of £2.44m for 2022. ATC, which previously owned 52% of Driift, retains a 32.5% interest.
“We are delighted with the progress we have made in our first year as a PLC, delivering 33% top line growth and profitability earlier than expected”
“We are delighted with the progress we have made in our first year as a PLC, delivering 33% top line growth and profitability earlier than expected, whilst also investing in a number of important strategic developments for the group,” says ATC Group plc CEO Adam Driscoll.
“Our performance has been driven by strong growth across our core artist representation businesses, supported by improved trading conditions as live touring resumed, together with progress within the group’s complementary services and livestreaming divisions. During the year we expanded the group’s geographic footprint, attracted new agents, managers, artist clients and key operational management into the group, and launched new innovative artist service lines.
“The new year has started with continued positive momentum and a pipeline of exciting projects and opportunities. As the music industry continues to undergo rapid change, we believe there is substantial opportunity to co-create, co-produce and deliver new IP via events and experiences, underpinned by our multi-service approach across artists’ commercial interests. We look ahead with confidence in the group’s growth prospects.”
ATC Live, led by Arthur Award-winning agent Alex Bruford, boasts a roster of more than 350 artists including Fontaines D.C, Georgia, Alma, Goat Girl, Mac Demarco, Metronomy and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and says it is on course to deliver 6,000 shows in 2023.
“The live music scene in 2022 has seen strong growth in live music activities and this has created a huge demand for ATC Live’s roster”
“The ATC Live business continues to perform in line with management expectations following a highly successful 2022 and we now represent over 500 clients,” adds Driscoll in the report. “New agents continue to join the business, the most recent being Ed Thompson whose clients include Jungle, a festival headlining act.
“Our relationship with North American agency Arrival Artists continues to deepen and prosper and we are excited about the opportunities to explore new markets together in the coming months and years.”
Driscoll continues: “The live music scene in 2022 has seen strong growth in live music activities and this has created a huge demand for ATC Live’s roster as evidenced by the 400% growth in revenue from £0.56 million in 2021 to £2.22 million in 2022. In a similar vein, ATC Management also achieved double digit revenue growth of 33% from £2.89 million in 2021 to £3.85 million.
“The group expanded its live and management businesses during the year and expects to reap the long-term benefits from these investments.”
“Driift is now poised to play a key role in the renewed growth of the livestreaming sector, which is forecast to become a multi-billion dollar segment over the next three to five years”
Driift, which was co-founded by Ric Salmon and Brian Message at ATC Management, has produced dozens of online shows for artists including The Smile, Westlife, Laura Marling, Nick Cave, Niall Horan, Andrea Bocelli, Kylie Minogue, Fontaines DC and Dita Von Teese, and produced the BAFTA Award-winning Glastonbury Festival: Live at Worthy Farm in cooperation with BBC Studios. It acquired technology and sales platform Dreamstage last year amid a fresh £4m investment from Deezer.
“Driift has had a positive start to 2023 as artists and managers look beyond traditional touring and ticketing and seek promotional and revenue-generating opportunities within the livestream market,” adds Driscoll. “Having weathered tougher trading conditions in 2022, and with strong end-to-end delivery capabilities and a solid balance sheet, Driift is now poised to play a key role in the renewed growth of the livestreaming sector, which is forecast to become a multi-billion dollar segment over the next three to five years.
“Having recently signed a number of deals for upcoming events alongside partnerships with the likes of IMAX, the prospects for the business are looking very good for the coming year.”
A statement from ATC co-chairs Brian Message and Craig Newman says that ATC “continues to cement its position as a leading independent music company at the forefront of a rapidly changing industry”.
“We continue to assess any implications from wider macroeconomic headwinds, including potential pressure on consumer budgets or rising production costs,” they conclude. “However, music and ticketing have often outperformed the wider market in difficult economic times and the livestream sector should improve for Driift as larger players cut expenditure on productions, opening opportunities from talent looking to expand revenue streams. We remain positive about our prospects.”
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‘India’s music landscape has seen meteoric growth’
India is fast becoming a global entertainment hub, according to some of the world’s leading executives.
Just as the pandemic hit, the country was on a promising upswing in its patchy live music history, having welcomed U2 to Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium in January 2020. The show was the latest in an intermittent stream of superstar visits to Indian soil – The Stones, Sheeran, and Beyoncé have all been down, though Bieber cancelled in October – and was a collaboration between Live Nation and local ticketing giant BookMyShow, which is increasingly positioning itself as India’s foremost international promoter.
In January, the two promoters teamed up on the first Indian Lollapalooza at Mumbai’s Mahalaxmi Racecourse, featuring Imagine Dragons, The Strokes, and Diplo alongside Indian-born rapper AP Dhillon, Delhi-based singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad and others. The event drew 60,000 fans over two days, with 40 artists performing across four stages on a 50-acre site.
James Craven, Live Nation president, Middle East, says Lollapalooza coming to Mumbai is a great example of the market’s growing importance.
“It’s really exciting to see global markets open up to music and artists from the Indian sub-continent, as well as seeing how the Indian market continues to open up for international acts,” says Craven in the IQ’s Global Promoters Report. “Expanding global touring routes for artists is key to their growth and that of the industry, and India will play a key role in that going forwards.”
“Expanding global touring routes for artists is key to their growth and that of the industry, and India will play a key role in that”
Kunal Khambhati, head of live events & IP at BookMyShow, says the entertainment and ticketing platform has worked hard to break down barriers to live shows, which included a 28% goods and services tax that now stands at 18%.
“India’s music landscape has witnessed meteoric growth in the past few years,” says Khambhati. “Slowly but steadily, the country has set the stage to become a keystone for some of the biggest music performances and markets in the world – from hosting acclaimed international and Indian independent artists at large concerts to smaller formats that are gradually shaping the music landscape in the country.
“BookMyShow’s work in this space has focused on creating exposure for both global talent to the Indian audience and Indian artists on the global stage,” he adds. “Lollapalooza is a global music phenomenon, an incomparable international experience, that will not only amplify this exposure in India but in all of Asia and put the spotlight on the country as a global entertainment hub.”
Elsewhere in the festival market, India’s biggest metal festival Bangalore Open Air sold out for the first time in its 10-year history.
“This will go down in the history books,” said Bangalore Open Air founder, Salman U Syed. “A heavy metal festival in Bangalore, India, is sold out. Thank you for your support. Ten years of hard work determination and patience.”
“The country has set the stage to become a keystone for some of the biggest music performances and markets in the world”
The 3,000-capacity event, which is produced in partnership with Germany’s marquee metal festival Wacken Open Air, will this year celebrate its 10th anniversary.
Mayhem, Pestilence, Kryptos, Godless, Born of Osiris, Dying Embrace and Amorphia will lead the celebrations at the 1 April event at Royal Orchid Resorts at Yelahanka.
It’s not just domestic executives that are touting India’s rapid growth. The likes of Wasserman Music’s Alex Hardee and ATC Live’s Alex Bruford testified to the market’s upward trajectory at the most recent International Live Music Conference (ILMC).
“I was just in India, where Lumineers headlined the NH7 Weekender and it was incredible,” said Bruford. “More than 20,000 people drove for about eight hours to get to the show – all completely local fans – and it was one of the band’s favourite gigs they’ve ever played.”
Hardee told ILMC delegates how Alan Walker (represented by Lee Anderson and Tom Schroeder at Wasserman) recently broke new ground in India: “He did ten shows in ten cities…I don’t think an international act has ever done that.”
“More than 20,000 people drove for about eight hours to get to the show”
While streaming rates point to a large pop market, challenging routing and a lack of infrastructure have hampered the development of an Indian circuit for rock and pop shows. Venues for shows typically have to be built from scratch on outdoor sites, and purpose-built venues are only a long-term prospect.
The EDM market is already creating circuits of its own. Percept Live’s three-day, 30,000-per-day Sunburn Festival in Goa returned in December, having brought many of the world’s top DJs down since 2007, and Percept has expanded into increasingly ambitious tours – including a six-city trek for DJ Snake in November, visiting Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore but also less-travelled spots such as Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.
“This is the first time we have done a six-city tour over two weekends with such a big artist,” says Percept Live COO Karan Singh, noting that DJ Snake drew anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 per city. “If you have eight or ten markets where the top international acts can play, that’s good for the industry overall.”
Other experienced electronic promoters include Mixtape Live, Submerge, and Mumbai’s Krunk Live, whose travelling Bass Camp Festival celebrated its tenth year in November. Another major player in the Indian business is payments provider Paytm, which bought OML’s ticketing arm Insider in 2017.
As well as presenting tours by artists such as Singh and Dosanjh, Paytm Insider is behind the Bacardi NH7 Weekender, which has featured Basement Jaxx, A.R. Rahman, and Megadeth and brought The Lumineers, Dirty Loops and J.I.D. back to its home city of Pune for its 11th edition in November.
This article contains excerpts from the Global Promoters Report, a first-of-its-kind resource that highlights the world’s leading promoters and the 40 top markets they operate in. The report is now available to subscribers of IQ.