FKP Scorpio UK to merge with Communion Events
UK promoters FKP Scorpio UK and Communion Presents have announced they are merging with immediate effect to form Communion ONE.
Communion ONE’s team has promoted artists such as Ed Sheeran, Noah Kahan, Sam Fender, Lewis Capaldi, Phoebe Bridgers, Mitski, TEMS, The War on Drugs and Laufey.
The merged firm will be led by a board including managing directors Daniel Ealam, Mazin Tappuni and Scott O’Neill. The non-executive leadership team is formed by Communion Music’s MD Jamie Emsell, Communion co-founders Kevin Jones and Ben Lovett, FKP Scorpio CEO and founder Folkert Koopmans, and promoter Carlo Scarampi as a partner.
In addition, the Communion ONE team will include Carly Rocket as head of operations, and Julie Morgan, Olly Goddard, Rich Cheetham, Mike Werbowy and Jack Dedman as heads of marketing, ticketing, production, finance and venue programming, respectively.
“We believe that Communion ONE is creating an even more compelling proposition for our existing and future clients”
“Bringing our two brilliant teams together and combining our shared experience, resources and perspectives, is the most natural thing in the world,” says a joint statement by Ealam, Tappuni and O’Neill. “In doing so, we believe that Communion ONE is creating an even more compelling proposition for our existing and future clients. We’ve all had amazing success so far, but in many ways, we’re only just getting started.”
Sam Laurence’s promoter imprint, Dollop, also joins the newly unified company, with Eve Thomas and Hayley Moss completing the promoter team.
Other acts to have worked with the two companies or Dollop include Michael Kiwanuka, Self Esteem, Maggie Rogers, Holly Humberstone, Ben Howard, Olivia Dean, Dermot Kennedy, Jamie xx, The Lumineers, Bastille, Maisie Peters, George Ezra, Gabriels, Hauser, Greentea Peng, Jungle, The Reytons, Kelela and Calum Scott.
Hamburg-headquartered FKP Scorpio, which sold four million tickets across Europe in 2023, hired concert promoters Ealam and O’Neill from DHP Family in 2020 to head up and grow its then nascent UK touring business.
Communion ONE will also produce a new three-night night event series at Bristol’s 15,000-cap Queen Square
Communion ONE will plug into FKP Scorpio’s European touring network, with offices in 11 European countries, and will also produce a new three-night night event series at Bristol’s 15,000-cap Queen Square from 2025.
It will also continue to book TVG Hospitality’s UK portfolio and affiliates Lafayette, Omeara, The Social, along with its new partnerships with Village Underground and EartH. The firm also plans to expand its outdoor portfolio over the coming year.
Exhibitions specialist FKP Scorpio Entertainment, led by James Cassidy and Barry Campbell, and Communion Presents’ sister companies, Communion Records and Communion Publishing, will continue to operate independently of Communion ONE.
PHOTO (L-R): Daniel Ealam, Mazin Tappuni, Scott O’Neill & Carlo Scarampi
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Jen Rubio joins TVG Hospitality board
Ben Lovett’s global venue group TVG Hospitality has added Jen Rubio, co-founder and CEO of luggage manufacturer and retailer Away, to its board of directors.
Rubio has raised more than $200 million in funding during her career and is also an active angel investor, having backed over 50 early-stage start-ups including brands such as Parade, Liquid Death and Madhappy.
Her appointment follows the hirings of Jayne Davis as COO and Katie Millar as general manager of the 8,000-cap Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama, earlier this year.
“I am thrilled to join the board of TVG,” says Rubio. “This team is passionate, talented and has already made impressive strides in the industry. The opportunity to lend my experience doing what I love – building lasting brands – in the quickly-evolving world of hospitality is exciting and inspiring.”
“Both myself and the wider leadership team at TVG look forward to learning from Jen’s insights and experiences”
TVG was founded by Mumford & Sons musician Lovett and his brother Greg Lovett, and boasts a growing venue portfolio also including Saturn in Birmingham, Alabama, alongside London’s Omeara, Goods Way and The Social, with additional projects underway across multiple cities.
All TVG venues feature elevated hospitality offerings with local character to enhance experiences for both artists and fans.
“I’ve been patiently waiting and hoping for Jen to join our board for a long time,” says Ben Lovett. “She is one of the most instinctive and talented entrepreneurs I’ve ever met, the success of Away is just the tip of the iceberg. Both myself and the wider leadership team at TVG look forward to learning from Jen’s insights and experiences as we continue to build towards operating some of the best venues in the world.”
TVG will also support Huntsville’s Tip Top Café with its reopening this year, further establishing its roots in the Alabama music scene.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Ben Lovett’s TVG acquires US venue Saturn
Ben Lovett’s TVG Hospitality has confirmed the acquisition of Birmingham, Alabama live music venue, Saturn.
The 500-cap venue has welcomed artists such as Phoebe Bridgers, Pussy Riot, Japanese Breakfast, Earl Sweatshirt, Animal Collective, Vince Staples, Waxahatchee, Beach House and Big Boi since opening in 2015.
In addition, Saturn’s Brian Teasley has joined TVG as senior operations manager for Huntsville Venue Group (HVG).
“I believe that having great music venues is a genuine cultural determinant for the quality of life in any city,” says Teasley. “I sincerely can’t think of a better example of a group bringing so much positive energy to a community than what HVG has accomplished in Huntsville.
“It has never been lost on me that we are ambassadors for the communities in which we exist and we are here to enrich the lives of the people who come into our spaces. Our mission at Saturn has always been to bring artists and patrons together in the best environment possible and I am incredibly excited to go even further on this journey with the HVG team.”
“The work that Brian Teasley has done for the underground music scene in Alabama has reverberated throughout the country”
The acquisition is the latest project for TVG in the US, following the opening of Huntsville’s 8,000-cap Orion Amphitheater last May.
“Throughout the years, the work that Brian Teasley has done for the underground music scene in Alabama has reverberated throughout the country,” says HVG MD Ryan Murphy. “Any project and venue that he has been part of has always been steeped with a reputation that puts tremendous emphasis on the artist experience, not cutting corners and always doing the right thing to make sure everyone has the best experience possible.
“For the last five years, Saturn has been the ‘must play’ venue of its size in Alabama and I couldn’t be prouder to be joining forces with Brian and the Saturn to do great things for music in this state.”
TVG, which was founded by Mumford & Sons’ Ben Lovett and his brother Greg Lovett, announced the appointment of Jayne Davis as chief operating officer and Katie Millar as general manager of the Orion Amphitheater last month.
Additional projects are also underway in Washington DC, Nashville, Detroit and Austin. In the UK, TVG operates grassroots venues Omeara, Lafayette and partners with The Social.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
TVG Hospitality expands US leadership team
TVG Hospitality has continued its rapid growth in the US with the hiring of two new female leaders to its operations team.
The company, which was founded by Mumford & Sons’ Ben Lovett and his brother Greg Lovett, has announced the appointment of Jayne Davis as chief operating officer and Katie Millar as general manager of the 8,000-cap Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama, which opened in May last year.
New York-based Davis has more than 14 years of leadership experience across the hospitality industry, including stints as SVP of operations development at OTG Management and head of opening operations at Soho House.
TVG is bidding to create the next generation of music venues alongside elevated hospitality offerings
Millar, who is originally from the Toronto area, has worked in the entertainment industry for more than 18 years. She worked in event production at Spectra Venue Management and Monumental Sports & Entertainment, oversaw multiple venues for the City of Mississauga, Ontario and was assistant general manager in Live Nation’s clubs & theatres division, where she set records for annual revenue.
TVG is bidding to create the next generation of music venues alongside elevated hospitality offerings in order to enhance the artist and fan experience and create gathering spaces as community assets.
The company’s current portfolio also includes London music venues, Omeara, Lafayette and the Social, and broader hospitality offerings at Flat Iron Square and Goods Way, with additional projects underway in Washington DC, Nashville, Tennessee, Detroit, Michigan and Austin, Texas.
Last February, TVG Hospitality announced the closing of $50 million in new funding to expand its team and venue portfolio in the UK and US, backed by a heavyweight list of investors.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Planet launches AAA digital pass for artists
Multi-channel D2F platform Planet has launched an Access-All-Areas (AAA) digital pass, enabling artists to create customised experiences for content, tickets, and merchandise.
Planet says AAA allows artists to give fans direct, immediate access to new music, tours, or exclusive drops before, during and after shows.
The platform has been working closely with music management companies such as Verdigris, East City, Modest Management and Everybody’s to develop their interactions with fans.
British band Hot Chip were one of the first acts to come on board and found that 10% of fans utilising their AAA pass had never seen them live before. And Planet claim that K-pop girl group Everglow were able to identify, within 24 hours, the top 20 cities where planet pass holders most wanted to see them live, giving insights to route future tours, as well as what the favourite tracks and preferences on merchandise were in each market.
“What this unlocks for artists is a very exciting innovation for the industry whilst being something fans can adopt easily”
“I have been highly impressed by what Planet is offering to artists and their fanbases,” says Hot Chip’s manager Sam Denniston, MD of Verdigris. “The directness of the platform is remarkable and what this unlocks for artists is a very exciting innovation for the industry whilst being something fans can adopt easily.”
Soft launched back in late 2021, the platform has previously securing funding from TVG’s Ben Lovett and ie:music ventures, which has recently expanded to include the likes of OVG International president Sam Piccione III and Dominic Joseph of Captify Technologies, who joins the board as chair.
The recent involvement takes the total raised to date to £1.5 million, enabling Planet to expand its team across Europe and US.
“For too long, artists have had restricted access to their own fans”
“For too long, artists have had restricted access to their own fans and as a result have had to settle for one-way transactional relationships, whereas other cutting-edge companies create higher value experiences through long term reciprocal relationships,” says Joseph. “This is a huge opportunity for artists to address given the level of fandom they have but right now don’t have the tools to do this. Planet is here to help them make this step into the future.”
Planet will be activating digital passes with a raft of established and emerging artists later this summer to provide them with actionable fan insights ahead of new releases, tour announcements or live shows this autumn.
The platform “hands back the ownership of the fan relationship to the artists” by providing them access to 100% of demand and full control of how this is activated.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Execs talk investment opportunities in live music
A trio of leading live music executives have shared their views on the areas of the business most ripe for investment.
With the market bouncing back internationally following the Covid shutdown, Mumford & Sons musician and venue boss Ben Lovett, Oak View Group (OVG) International’s Jessica Koravos and Jarred Arfa, COO of Artist Group International, weighed in on the biggest opportunities for the industry.
Speaking during the Industry Investment: Field notes panel at the recent ILMC in London, US-based Arfa suggested the concept of Live Nation’s upcoming “emo nostalgia” festival When We Were Young in Las Vegas, which has expanded to three days due to demand, pointed a way forward for the industry.
“There are obviously so many festivals out there, but we’re seeing a lot of success where they’re focusing on specific niches,” he said. “People want to be part of that moment in time and relive that, as opposed to, ‘Let’s give everyone a little flavour of everything.’ Those that are focusing on specific genres, or overfeeding one time period, are seeing some success and a point of distinction.”
“The pandemic has made people really appreciate those coming together moments that maybe they took for granted before”
Koravos, who is also president of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, which oversees some of the world’s biggest theatrical titles, said Covid-19 has prompted a change of mindset in the public when it comes to live shows.
“One thing that pandemic has absolutely done is made people really appreciate those coming together moments that maybe they took for granted before,” she said. “Flipping hats and talking about the West End and theatre for a second, what’s very interesting to me is that what’s very successful in the West End right now is the shows that have been there the longest.
“I see it with Phantom of the Opera, which has flipped its age demographic down by 10 years over the course of the pandemic, and I think it’s because of exactly that – you take for granted that something that’s always been there will keep being there. But I don’t think that’s the assumption anymore.
“People want to go see Billy Joel at [Madison Square] Garden. They want to go see Phantom of the Opera. They want to make sure they are appreciating the things that might not always be there.”
“There are just not enough good venues. It’s really that simple”
TVG Hospitality co-founder Lovett urged would-be investors to put their faith (and finances) in the independent sector.
“I would back indie promoters,” he said. “Everything’s getting so algorithmic, we could end up with pretty watered down creative inputs into our lives unless those indie promoters go and stick their neck out. So I would say, invest money into those indie promoters… If we can get some great promoters coming through, it’s going to be good for everyone.”
Earlier this year, TVG Hospitality announced the closing of $50 million in new funding to expand its team and venue portfolio in the UK and US, backed by a heavyweight list of investors including OVG, founded by Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff.
TVG is bidding to create the next generation of music venues alongside elevated hospitality offerings in order to enhance the artist and fan experience and create gathering spaces as community assets. The company’s current portfolio includes London music venues, Omeara, Lafayette and the Social, and broader hospitality offerings at Flat Iron Square and Goods Way.
“This is going to be the most exciting few years”
“Across the board, I think what Tim and Irving saw – and the same issue that we were trying to solve – is there are just not enough good venues. It’s really that simple,” said Lovett, whose latest project – the 8,000-cap Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama – opened earlier this month.
“For the last couple of decades there just hasn’t been enough investment into truly inspiring places,” continued Lovett. “There are people buying incredible bars and restaurants and hotels, and there’s lots of other things that are being constantly being reimagined and the envelope is being pushed. But when it comes to music venues it’s just stagnated. And this is going to be the most exciting few years where all of these new venues are going to [launch].”
OVG has already opened the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Moody Center in Austin and the UBS Arena in Long Island, New York, with schemes also on their way in Manchester, Baltimore, Coachella Valley and Cardiff.
“Venues are very expensive,” added Koravos. “The 2,000 seaters are expensive, the 20,000 seaters are super-expensive, so investment is a crucial part of getting those off the ground. But the whole point of Oak View Group is really just looking around at the fact that, around the world, the big music venues are actually all buildings that were built 20 years ago or more, for the most part.
“They were built for sports for the most part, not by anybody who knew anything about the content about what needed to go in them and what the fan needed to experience. So at Oak View, our whole reason for being is to build the best experience in the best markets.”
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Ben Lovett’s TVG raises $50m in new funding
Ben Lovett‘s TVG Hospitality has announced the closing of $50 million in new funding to expand its team and venue portfolio in the UK and US, backed by a heavyweight list of investors.
The financing round was led by Nat Zilkha and Gibson Brands, with music industry participants including C3 Presents, Irving Azoff and Oak View Group, Mike Luba and Don Sullivan, Justin Kalifowitz and Andrew Bergman, Coran Capshaw, Ron Laffitte, Lucy Dickins, Adam Tudhope and Tom Windish, and musicians Ryan Tedder, Maggie Rogers and Ted Dwane.
Founded by Mumford & Sons’ Lovett and his brother Greg Lovett, TVG currently operates three London venues, with multiple sites under development in the US, including the Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama.
“Our passion at TVG, our defining character, is a deep-rooted belief in the value of communal spaces, gathering places where we can be reminded of our common ground and all that makes us human,” says Ben Lovett. “Music is the ultimate leveller – somewhere between melody and lyric is a truth that calls us away from our phones and out of our living rooms to stand together and sing together.
“The plans we have in mind are rooted in elevating these experiences surrounding live music. I am incredibly grateful for the investments from so many of our industry leaders. It furthers cements our belief that our new thinking is going to be game changing for artists, fans and communities alike.”
“Ben and his team are approaching the venue space in exactly the right way”
TVG is bidding to create the next generation of music venues alongside elevated hospitality offerings in order to enhance the artist and fan experience and create gathering spaces as community assets. The company’s current portfolio includes London music venues, Omeara, Lafayette and the Social, and broader hospitality offerings at Flat Iron Square and Goods Way.
“We are thrilled to be working with TVG on this next chapter of their venues.” says Irving Azoff, chairman/CEO, The Azoff Company and co-founder, Oak View Group. “Ben and his team are approaching the venue space in exactly the right way – you have to put the artist and the fan at the centre of every thought process. That’s the key and TVG are both artists and fans whilst also knowing a thing or two about hospitality. We hope to support them on their mission in any way we can.”
Funding was also provided by leading entrepreneurs and hospitality industry leaders including Jen Rubio and Stewart Butterfield, Joe Gebbia, Olga Segura, Tom Kartsotis, Samantha Marquart, Brent Montgomery, Ann Berry, Bippy Siegal, and Dani Ricciardo, as well as investors such as LionTree, Goldman Sachs, John Howard, Pete Muller and multiple partners from KKR.
The company is partnering with the City of Huntsville, Alabama on the 8,000-cap Orion Amphitheater to be opened in May. TVG will also operate a food village next to the venue and another venue located in downtown Huntsville called Meridian Social Club at The Lumberyard, which will open this summer. TVG is also developing projects in Washington DC, London, Nashville, Austin, Detroit, New York and Los Angeles.
“We have purposefully built a leadership team with extensive experience across music, hospitality, real estate and finance”
In addition, the firm has expanded its leadership team, adding Jesse Mann (formerly SVP, strategy and operations, AC Entertainment/Live Nation), Dan Pine (ex-MD at Marathon Asset Management and development partner to the Related Companies), and Lisa Seelinger (formerly head of People for Bergdorf Goodman and Maybourne Hotel Group).
“We have purposefully built a leadership team with extensive experience across music, hospitality, real estate and finance,” adds chairman David Lovett, Ben and Greg’s father, and co-founder and former vice chairman of Alix Partners in Europe. “We are building our company like we create our venues, with intention, so that our assets and TVG become valuable and sustainable parts of each of the communities in which we operate.”
Speaking to IQ last year, Ben Lovett said: “One of the things that we learned was that you need to build a whole ecosystem. There’s no point having just one big venue so bands from out of town come and play a handful of times, you’ve got to nurture local grassroots talent.”
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Ben Lovett: Live biz ‘will come back stronger’
Ben Lovett says more than 250 shows are booked for each of his London venues in 2022 as the live business gears up to roar back from the Covid-19 crisis.
The Mumford & Sons musician has opened three grassroots sites in the UK – Omeara (320-cap), Lafayette (600-cap) and The Social (250-cap) – under his Venue Group umbrella since 2016.
And in the second and final part of his interview with IQ (see part one here), Lovett, who is about to make his first move into the US market with the opening of two new venues in Huntsville, Alabama, says the signs indicate the industry is “coming back strong” from the travails of the past two years.
“Our venues in London are already pretty much booked up for next year and that’s a great sign,” he says. “In terms of what other people are doing, I’m actually hearing stories about more venues being planned and opened than I’ve heard about in the last 10 years, so I do think there’s a general swing of the pendulum back to investing into the infrastructure of this industry again, rather than five years ago when every story was about another venue closing down.
“Equally, I’ve read stories about a new Cardiff arena coming; a new Manchester arena coming; Koko’s back with a crazy budget attached to it… So, on balance, you have to believe we’re building more venues than we’re losing, which is a great result.”
Lovett’s Lafayette project, which is set within the new Good Ways development in King’s Cross, opened with a special show by Dave in March 2020, only to be forced to close just 10 days after opening due to the pandemic.
We’re not going to hit a point with this pandemic where a light switch suddenly turns back on and everything’s fine again
“I wouldn’t have changed that Dave show for anything, because it was just amazing to be able to watch him perform in there the day after the BRITs,” reflects Lovett. “But I think for the team, it’s been a little bit strange, because we haven’t had that grand opening moment again. It’s been like a reopening, which isn’t quite the same.
“The general campus of King’s Cross is taking a minute to come back online – there are a lot of big companies there that haven’t had people come back to work fully yet, I think offices are 25 to 50% full, so it’s creeping back.”
The Communion co-founder continues: “I’m now of the mindset that we’re not going to hit a point with this pandemic where a light switch suddenly turns back on and everything’s fine again. It’s just going to muddle its way back to that point, which I think will reflect in the spaces that people are occupying as well.
“It’s not like, suddenly, everyone wakes up one day and says, ‘Right, I’m going to a gig again.’ I’ve been to some great gigs in the last couple of months, but I know other people who are like, ‘I’m just not quite there yet, mentally, I spent so many months being afraid to touch a door handle, that the idea of standing in a sweaty box with a bunch of strangers is a big call.’ They’re like, ‘I know I’ll get there,’ but it’s a little bit of a gradual re-entry.”
Omeara celebrated its fifth birthday last week with a night headlined by Gang of Youths. Lovett’s first venue, it has staged intimate gigs by artists including Kylie Minogue, Skepta, Beck and Biffy Clyro, along with a three-night stand by Sam Fender in November 2018.
“It obviously holds a very special place in my heart,” says Lovett. “Without that venue and the positive reaction towards it, and the conversations I’ve had with artists in the dressing room over the years – with Beck and Maggie Rogers, and certain artists I have vivid memories of talking to after their shows – I don’t think I would have been inspired to do the rest of it. It’s really that first child syndrome, and five years is both young and old.
“I really want to figure out how Omeara becomes a place like the Cavern or 100 Club, that people talk about decades later as being the place where such and such a band launched. We got Sam Fender’s first show in London. I think he’ll be around for a long time as an artist and it’d be pretty cool if, in 30 years’ time, Omeara is still standing and people are going into that room saying, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that Sam Fender once played here. Look how small it is, and now he’s doing stadiums.’
“Five years is an important mark on our way there, but there’s a lot more work to be done. I want us to continue to establish [Omeara] as a cornerstone of grassroots culture in London.”
This is a service industry to support people’s dreams and there’s something very beautiful about it
Lovett, whose London Venue Group received a £2.35m grant via the UK government’s Culture Recovery Fund to maintain the buildings during their Covid-imposed closure and explore streaming options in the future, was full of praise for the resilience displayed by the domestic venue sector.
“There’s a lot of creative adaptability in the DNA of the people that choose to get into this industry,” he says. “It’s a tough, resilient bunch that come up with ways in which they can make ends meet, even if it’s to tie over for as long a period as it’s been. But it’s always a little bit cyclical, we’re used to it, there are seasons of ebbs and flows.
“There was a fair amount of support given at the right times. Not comprehensive, but it definitely helped. I wouldn’t say that we’re fully back in terms of all the people that were there before, being there now, but the music industry in the UK is functional and it will build back stronger.
“In and amongst the pressure of it all, there’s been important conversations and collaboration; people opening up and breaking down some of those barriers that build up sometimes between theoretical competitors, and more of a sense of togetherness. And that’s more like the kind of culture and the personality of the whole industry in my mind. This is not like the stockmarket, this is a service industry to support people’s dreams and there’s something very beautiful about it. I think sometimes it just takes something shocking happening to remind people of that.”
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Ben Lovett talks Venue Group’s US ambitions
Mumford & Sons’ Ben Lovett has told IQ about his first move into the US market with the opening of two new venues in Huntsville, Alabama.
Lovett is CEO of Venue Group, which operates London’s Omeara (320-cap), Lafayette (600-cap) and The Social (250-cap). Last year, he announced plans to expand his independent empire with the 8,000-cap Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama, scheduled to open in May 2022.
“It probably seems quite an exotic shift from London at first glance, but there was a whole sequence of events that led me to Huntsville,” explains Lovett. “It actually started with the London mayor’s office, funnily enough, and Shain Shapiro from [music market development consultancy] Sound Diplomacy, who did the whole audit about the night-time economy and why we need to keep culture in the centre of our cities, so they don’t end up becoming just a big bunch of flats and offices.
“We met at the launch of Omeara five years ago, then [Shapiro] did a similar study for the city of Huntsville, which is now the biggest city in Alabama. They have lots of great jobs and lots of people live there, but there’s nothing to do, and the conclusion was that they wanted to build a big outdoor amphitheatre.
“They put a request for people to come in to present their vision – it was like an episode of X Factor. And we were like, ‘If you’re going to do this, you’ve got to build something remarkable.’ And they liked the sound of that, so they gave us the contracts and we’ve spent the last three years designing this thing.”
Details of its 13-15 May opening weekend celebration, The First Waltz, were confirmed earlier this week. Acts will include Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Emmylou Harris, John Paul White, St Paul and the Broken Bones, and Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes.
The idea is to build one of the best new venues in the world
The scheme is being managed by Huntsville Venue Group, a partnership between Lovett and industry veterans Ryan Murphy, Mike Luba, Don Sullivan, Jeff Kicklighter and Al Santos.
“The idea is to build one of the best new venues in the world,” declares Lovett, who reveals plans are afoot to complement the project with another ‘Omeara-sized’ venue in the city.
“One of the things that we learned was that you need to build a whole ecosystem,” he says. “There’s no point having just one big venue so bands from out of town come and play a handful of times, you’ve got to nurture local grassroots talent.”
The New York-based Brit suggests there is still much more to come on that front.
“We are going to try and figure out another venue in London before too long, and we’re having some interesting conversations with other cities in America,” he adds. “I’ve spent so much of my adult life touring America and I’m such a big fan of this country; I want to try and see where else we can build great venues here.”
Venue Group has offices in London, New York, Huntsville, Alabama and Austin. And the 35-year-old musician and Communion co-founder, who invested in D2F startup Planet over the summer, suggests the fallout from the cessation of touring during the pandemic has only strengthened his resolve.
“That hasn’t slowed us down,” he insists. “If anything, it’s actually made us more bullish – the reason being that we saw every man and his dog try and figure out a way to bring shows into people’s living rooms, and it just didn’t work. So if 18 months can’t break down the bond of the live music experience between fans and artists, then you better believe I’m going to go all in on this thing.”
Check out iq-mag.net next week for part two of our interview with Lovett.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Ben Lovett, IE Music invest in new D2F platform
Planet, a new direct-to-fan (D2F) live music platform, launches today (26 July) with investment from Ben Lovett, member of Mumford & Sons, co-founder of Communion and CEO of Venue Group, and IE Ventures, the investment arm of artist management company IE Music (Robbie Williams, Passenger, Cher Lloyd).
Founded in early 2020 by James Morrison, former senior director of global partnerships for AEG, Planet enables artists to sell tickets, products and fans directly to fans, who in turn can influence “everything from tour locations to support acts”, according to the company, which describes itself as a “crowd-powered community where artists and fans come together as a collective”.
“Now is the moment to put fans back at the beating heart of live music” says Lovett, whose Venue Group added its latest property, the Social in London, late last year. “Planet has been designed to bring music fans and artists closer together, providing a platform for artists to build a deeper understanding of their fans wants and needs.”
The new company’s website, planet.fans, is powered by an insights engine dubbed the Beat, which gathers and interprets data on consumer behaviour to provide artists with a greater understanding of their fans.
“As we emerge from lockdown … the opportunity for artists to reinvent and rewire their relationship with their biggest fans grows stronger”
Accoring to Morrison, the Beat engine helps artists plan what to ‘drop’, when to do it, and who to drop it to, “enabling artists to connect with fans more effectively and more directly in the biggest moments”.
“The more fans participate the better chance they have of getting more of what they want, like great-value tickets, backstage access and first-release drops, straight from the artist,” he explains. “As we emerge from lockdown and live events return, the demand of the crowd beats louder and the opportunity for artists to reinvent and rewire their relationship with their biggest fans grows stronger.”
The platform is starting to power artists’ early release presales from September 2021.
“We have long supported artists going directly to their fans”, says Stephen O’Reilly, managing director of IE Ventures, “largely because it improves the experience and creates new value from already captive audiences, and there’s none more so than live music fans right now, so we are looking forward to working with James and the team to understand the levels of demand for our artists as things open up.”
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.