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IQ 117 out now: Lewis Capaldi, Schueremans, France

IQ 117, the latest issue of the international live music industry’s favourite magazine, is available to read online now.

The March 2023 issue sees Belgian promoter Herman Schueremans look back on 50 years in the live music industry, while Lewis Capaldi’s team discuss what made the singer’s latest tour such a success.

Elsewhere, the full agenda for the 35th edition of the International Live Music Conference is revealed and the New Tech panel is previewed.

Plus, IQ editor James Hanley examines the current state of the live event insurance market and Adam Woods puts the French business under le microscope.

For this edition’s double header of columns and comments, Marcel Hunziker talks up the benefits of developing a presence on TikTok and Sheryl Pinckney-Maas outlines the reasons to consider crowdsourced data to enhance event security.

In addition, Joe Hastings highlights the work of Help Musicians in tackling mental health issues in the music industry and Chris Bray explains how the ILMC scheme to introduce young professionals to the conference fits with ASM Global’s own future leadership plans.

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 £6.25 a month – or check out what you’re missing out on with the limited preview below:

Hearby announced as final associate sponsor for ILMC

Concert discovery app Hearby is the final associate sponsor of this year’s virtual International Live Music Conference (ILMC), the leading global gathering of live music professionals.

Hearby, produced by Area4 Labs, is an AI-driven live music tracker which helps users find – and safely enjoy – live music as it returns.

The app allows users across 100 cities in North America and the UK to filter both in-person and livestreamed events by genre, time period, postcode and artist.

This year, Hearby plans to expand to a further 100 European and global cities with a goal to “get a few more people to a lot more shows” by widely distributing and licensing the app’s live music show calendar widgets to news, travel and entertainment companies.

“We are very excited to partner with ILMC and support venues and artists across the globe,” says Ian Condry, chief anthropologist for Area4 Labs and professor of cultural anthropology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“We want to remove the friction for people finding live music events in the community”

“We want to remove the friction for people finding live music events in the community,” he added.

Hearby will be showcasing the product from a virtual exhibition area at ILMC, which delegates will be able to visit.

This year’s conference, dubbed ‘Virtually Live’, will welcome more than 1,000 registered delegates and host more speakers and meetings than ever before thanks to its limitless virtual format.

ILMC 33’s new features include video speed meetings, a digital trade exhibition, ‘watch again’ conference sessions, and live voting and polling. And for the first time in our history, non-members will be invited to attend ILMC, pointing to the busiest live music conference ever staged.

Irving Azoff, Bob Lefsetz, Sam Kirby Yoh, Emma Banks, Tim Leiweke and Klaus-Peter Schulenberg are among the confirmed speakers.

Browse the speakers and sessions online and register for ILMC here.

 


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Paula Mattheus first artist to release on Clubhouse

Spanish singer-songwriter Paula Mattheus will reportedly be the first artist to release a single on Clubhouse, a new invitation-only social networking app that revolves around audio conversations in chat rooms.

The app, launched in March last year by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Paul Davidson and Rohan Seth, burst onto the mainstream in the last week after Tesla CEO Elon Musk hosted an audio-chat with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev about the Gamestop controversy.

As of 1 February, Clubhouse now boasts more than two million users including Serena Williams, Zendaya, Mark Zuckerburg and Lindsay Lohan and is valued at US$1 billion after a recent funding round, giving the startup ‘Unicorn’ status.

Mattheus may be the first artist to take advantage of the burgeoning platform by giving Clubhouse the exclusive premiere of her new single ‘Journey Without Return’ featuring Pol314, days before its standard release on 18 February.

 

 

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A post shared by Paula Mattheus (@paulamattheusoficial)

The track will debut on Clubhouse at 9 pm on 16 February alongside a live audio chat between Mattheus, Pol314 and journalist Xavi Martinez about the continuous evolution of the music industry and its promotional tools.

During the last few months, actors, musicians and entrepreneurs have offered talks through the voice platform, which recommends chat rooms based on the user’s interests. Each room has moderators, speakers, and listeners.

The app is currently in beta, though in a recent blog post, the founders announced that their 2021 goal is to “open up Clubhouse to the whole world”.

The founders have also pledged to invest in creators, revealing that over the next few months Clubhouse will launch the first tests to allow creators to get paid directly through features like tipping, tickets or subscriptions.

Interested in the intersection of technology and live entertainment? Register for ILMC to get access to all-new conference and content platform PULSE and the sessions: New Technology PitchesSweet Streams – Best in ClassThe Livestreamers Guide to Live MusicThe New Fan ExperienceThe Business of Live Tech.

 


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Creative Passport appoints new CEO, board members

The organisation behind the Creative Passport, a blockchain-based, data-collection tool for those working in the music industry, has appointed a new CEO and board of advisors.

Founded by Grammy-winning artist Imogen Heap, who is also the creator of wearable tech product Mi.Mu gloves and an advisor to music industry blockchain specialist Viberate, the Creative Passport enables users to update, manage and share information easily and quickly, acting as a digital identification tool.

The platform, which is launching in beta mode next week, was presented at the International Live Music Conference’s (ILMC) New Technology panel in 2018.

Carlotta De Ninni is serving as the new CEO of the company, having worked on the project since its inception and previously holding positions at the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) and think tank Mycelia.

Tech and music industry veterans Cliff Fluet, founder and managing director of business advisory Eleven; Eva Kaili, chair of the future of science and technology panel of the European Parliament; Jeremy Silver, CEO of technology innovation centre Digital Catapult; and Zoe Keating, a cellist and composer known for her use of technology, make up the organisation’s board of advisors.

“I am very much looking forward to making this the industry-leading premium digital identity tool for creatives”

“It is rare that you get the opportunity to jump into the driving seat of an organisation like The Creative Passport which is totally changing the game in the music industry in terms of how people manage and own their data,” comments De Ninni.

“I am very much looking forward to both leveraging my experience and know-how and to working with our new Board of Advisors, to make this the industry-leading premium digital identity tool for creatives.”

“Carlotta has tended the first seeds of the Creative Passport and heard directly from hundreds of music makers around the world why this needs to happen – there is no better person to head up the organisation,” adds Heap.

“Alongside Carlotta, I’m delighted and honoured to have these four outstanding humans as our first Board of Advisors.”

Companies presenting at the new technology panel at this year’s ILMC include festival travel portal Festicket, virtual reality company MelodyVR and augmented audio specialist Peex. ILMC is taking place from 3 to 6 March at the Royal Garden Hotel in London.

 


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Techno Files: New technology for July 2019

Crystal Interactive

We’ve all stared agog at clips of Coldplay’s audience lighting up stadiums thanks to their LED Xylobands, a riot of choreographed flashes and patterns that enhance the excitement going on onstage. But while those wristbands were simply about creating visual effects, Crystal Interactive’s wearables go one step further and offer genuine interaction.

Powered by PixMob’s Klik – an event engagement platform – their badges, buttons and wristbands offer registration, interaction, attendee tracking, gamification and even paging (ask your parents), not to mention a dedicated app to manage profiles, services, and information.

Naturally, all three options are reusable and recyclable, have a multi-day battery life and are completely brandable – the badge even comes with its own printer for making stickers. The company also offers post-event analytics, allowing organisers deep insight into attendee behaviour and rich data maps.

 


Sphero Specdrums

First there was Oddball, the drum machine in a ball. Then there was KAiKU, the music glove with built-in gyroscope and accelerometer. And now we have Specdrums, the app-enabled ring that turns colours into music with a simple tap.

“Make the world your instrument,” says the website, and the promo video is full of shiny, happy people merrily making beats and tunes while skateboarding, doing graffiti art and riding the bus downtown. As you do.

But there is some serious tech behind the novelty: the ring can mimic the function of digital drums and MIDI pads, and can be set to trigger an infinite number of sounds, even ones you’ve recorded yourself. They also connect to any Bluetooth MIDI application on mobile or desktop, meaning they can be patched into the likes of GarageBand or even Logic. Not bad for something that looks like a Fisher Price toy.

 


VRJAM

The mooted 5G rollout that’s coming soon will, it is claimed, lead to all sorts of exciting and innovative new services and platforms for content creators and music fans. Things like VRJAM, for example – the latest piece of digital wizardry that’s a solution to a problem you didn’t know existed.

The premise is simple: it’s a real-time streaming platform for live VR and AR content, an immersive, interactive app that allows users to “experience artists’ performances in new and undreamt of ways.” Basically, it functions like an interactive Holodeck on your phone, with artists able to visualise shows on the fly, inside a computer-animated world populated by CGI avatars.

It all seems very impressive, and with backing from the likes of Google and Samsung, the tech is expected to have far-reaching applications – sporting and business events, or any type of conference, can be digitally reimagined and broadcast to the world.

 


Exposure Analytics

Analytics are all the rage, it seems, and with good reason. Aside from providing feedback for ROI and various other KPIs, it makes sense for any large-scale event to track footfall and flows – particularly from a safety and comfort standpoint – and Exposure Analytics have come up with a unique set of digital services for doing precisely that.

Using three different types of sensor – each optimised to record specific sets of data – they can provide real-time reporting on any number of metrics such as heat maps, dwell time, audience distribution, capacity and even mood detection from their customised API and dashboard.

Having worked on more than 3,000 events worldwide, and with brands such as Canon and Mercedes-Benz, their award-winning tech is clearly another useful tool for event professionals and organisers, and takes analytical insight to the next level.

 


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AI creates “digital twins” for entertainment industry

Oben, a company specialising in personal artificial intelligence (PAI) technology, has created the first-ever AI entertainment hosts, who presented Chinese New Year programming together with their human counterparts.

On 28 January, the well-known television hosts Beining Sa, Xun Zhu, Bo Gao and Yang Long hosted China Central Television’s (CCTV) Network Spring Festival Gala alongside their “digital twins”, courtesy of Oben’s PAI technology.

An accompanying WeChat mini-app allowed viewers to use any of the four PAI hosts to send personalised new year’s greetings to friends and family. The celebrity PAIs delivered video messages to recipients, much in the way that human celebrities record personalised voicemails or Instagram videos for fans.

“The ‘digital twins’ facilitate new ways to engage viewers and fans in more personalised and unique experiences”

The PAIs created by Oben can look and sound like anyone in the world, constituting believable digital replicas of famous human figures. Using AI, the avatars can be taught to sing in another’s voice, perform specific dances and interact with fans through mobile devices.

The “digital twins” facilitate new ways to engage viewers and fans in more personalised and unique experiences. The technology has proved popular in the entertainment industry and Oben has worked on several celebrity partnerships.

The company is expanding into the music industry too. Oben recently released a human/ PAI duet music video with popular Chinese female idol group SNH48. The “digital twins” join their human counterparts in the video to sing, dance and interact with the band.

 


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First Ticketing Professionals Conference in 2016

A new ticketing business event will make its debut in early 2016 when the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Birmingham, UK, hosts the first Ticketing Professionals Conference.

The 25-26 February gathering is being organised by Ticketing Professionals Limited (TPL), whose board consists of Andrew Thomas (The Ticketing Institute), Peter Monks (The Ambassador Theatre Group/ATG Tickets), Jamie Snelgrove (See Tickets), Jenny Gower (Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club) and Peter I’anson (TopTix).

The event’s educational programme will be designed to provide a forum to support industry professionals and ensure the success of their organisation by discovering and sharing new ideas, through presentations and round-table discussion.

The ICC venue will be used to showcase new technologies, alongside an already sold-out exhibition and marketplace of ticketing products and services, delivered by innovative industry suppliers. The event’s educational programme will be designed to provide a forum to support industry professionals and ensure the success of their organisation by discovering and sharing new ideas, through presentations and round-table discussion.

TPL director Andrew Thomas explains that the not-for-profit event is being launched because of a gap in the market for such a forum. “For the last five years, I have been attending the International Ticketing Association Annual Conference in the United States,” he says. “It’s amazing – around 1,000 ticket and data geeks in one place! There is a small European contingent that goes and every year we say ‘why isn’t there something like this in the UK?’ – well, in January 2015 in Denver, a number of colleagues from the industry asked me to try to create one, so here we are.”