BST Hyde Park 2020 cancelled
AEG Presents’ British Summer Time (BST) Hyde Park will not take place this year, as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic claims another UK summer staple.
The festival, which was to take place over two weeks from 2 to 12 July, was set to feature headline acts including Post Malone, Little Mix, Kendrick Lamar, Pearl Jam, Taylor Swift and Duran Duran.
The cancellation follows that of All Points East festival, which was called off at the end of March.
“It is with great sadness that we have made the difficult decision to cancel BST Hyde Park 2020,” reads a statement from organisers.
“After closely following government actions and statements during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as consulting with our partners The Royal Parks and wider agencies, we have concluded that this is the only possible outcome.”
“It is with great sadness that we have made the difficult decision to cancel BST Hyde Park 2020”
Ticketholders will contacted by ticketing agencies by 6 May with information on the refund process.
“We look forward to welcoming you back in 2021 and will be in touch about plans soon. In the meantime, please follow the advice and stay safe,” state organisers.
This year was to be the eighth outing for BST Hyde Park, combining two weekend of music with free-to-access midweek events. Over the years, BST has seen performances from acts including the Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Celine Dion, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, the Cure, Black Sabbath and Barbra Streisand.
Other UK events to be called off this summer due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic include Glastonbury Festival, Isle of Wight Festival, Download, Lovebox, Parklife, Womad, Cambridge Folk Festival, Country to Country Festival, Radio One’s Big Weekend and Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as industry conferences including The Great Escape and the Ticketing Professionals Conference.
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TGE 2020 adds more acts ahead of live launch
Fourteen more acts have been added to the Great Escape 2020 line-up, ahead of the showcase festival’s ‘First Fifty’ live launch in London this week.
A total of 50 artists are now on the bill for 2020 event, which will host over 450 acts in total across more than 30 venues.
Newly announced acts include GoGo Penguin, Velvet Negroni, Larry Pink The Human and Evie Irie, joining previously confirmed artists such as Master Peace, Do Nothing, House of Pharaohs and Sons of Raphael.
Many of the TGE 2020 acts are performing tonight (Wednesday 13 November) and tomorrow in ‘First Fifty’ gigs at six venues in East London: Sebright Arms (150-cap.), the Old Blue Last (60-cap.), Colours (300-cap.), the Courtyard Theatre (150-cap.), the Macbeth (300-cap.) and the Curtain – LP Room (160-cap.).
A full list of concerts can be found here, with tickets available for £5 each.
The 15th edition of the Great Escape takes place from 13 to 16 May in Brighton, UK, with South Korea as lead country partner and core conference topics of education, media and global markets. Delegate passes are available here.
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The Great Escape unveils 2020 conference details
Showcase festival and convention the Great Escape (TGE) has announced that music education, music media and global markets will form the key themes of its 2020 conference in Brighton, UK.
TGE 2020 will take place from 13 to 16 May in venues across the seaside city of Brighton, with the conference hub located at the Jury’s Inn Brighton Waterfront hotel.
The music education conference will take place on the first day of the 2020 event, with music educators and employers coming together to discuss how music education, the music industry and the music community can better support early-career artists and musicians.
Day two will see the music media conference, which will put the spotlight on how consumers interact with media and influencers. Alongside the sessions will explore who is influencing artists’ fanbases, aside from the music press and radio, exploring options such as social media, playlists, gaming platforms and podcasters.
Finally, the global markets conference will provide an overview of the major trends, developments, challenges and opportunities in each key music market, identifying the strongest revenue streams, services, social media and genres in each region. The conference will also highlight emerging markets including India, China, Brazil, Nigeria and South Korea.
Organisers of the event also confirmed South Korea as lead country partner, following Australia last year and the Netherlands in 2018. Brighton-based charity Grassroots Suicide Prevention is the event’s named charity partner.
“The impact Korean artists are having within the music industry today is very exciting”
Alternative K-pop band Balming Tiger will perform at TGE 2020’s showcase festival, alongside Sons of Raphael, Lazarus Kane and Boy Scouts. More acts are to be confirmed in the run up to the festival.
Last year’s festival saw performances from Lewis Capaldi, Foals, Shame, Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, Friendly Fires and more.
“We are very excited to be back for another year bringing together top industry professionals and creative minds under one roof,” comments Rory Bett, CEO of TGE promoter MAMA Festivals.
“The impact Korean artists are having within the music industry today is very exciting and it’s important for The Great Escape to put the spotlight on and to celebrate that fact.”
A spokesperson for the music industry team at the Korea Creative Content Agency, Kocca, says it is an “honour” to team up with TGE.
“It will be our fourth year working with the festival and to be named lead country partner for 2020 is a great privilege. It is a very exciting time for the Korean music market and we are looking forward to bringing our new wave of artists to the Brighton shoreline next year.”
Early bird delegate passes for TGE 2020 are available here, priced at £180.
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EMMA launches EU music managers mentorship scheme
The European Music Managers Alliance (EMMA) announced the launch of the first-ever pan-European mentorship programme for music managers today (20 September), at Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival.
The European Music Managers Mentorship Activation (EMMMA – note the extra ‘M’) aims to foster knowledge sharing and increased commercial opportunities by linking managers across the European Union.
The EMMMA programme is spearheaded by pan-European artist managers’ body EMMA, which launched in London last year, comprising managers’ associations from the UK, France, Holland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Poland. The European Commission’s Music Moves Europe initiative is providing funding for the mentorship scheme.
EMMMA will team up emerging European managers with experienced mentors from each participating country. The programme will provide a combination of face-to-face meetings at MaMA Festival in France, Oslo’s by:Larm, Tallinn Music Week in Estonia and the Great Escape in the UK, with bi-monthly Skype sessions and workshops on areas including live music, touring and taxation, streaming data and making a business out of a band.
After completion of EMMMA, participants will be responsible for providing a one-year business plan for at least one of their artist, songwriter or producer clients.
“This much-needed programme will enable managers to share expertise and build their artists’ careers across borders”
“Diversification and fragmentation of the traditional music industry has undoubtedly elevated the role of music managers, who are now required to be experts in all aspects of their clients’ business – from songwriting and recording deals, to live touring, brand sponsorship, online marketing and a host of other areas,” said Per Kviman, chair Music Managers Forum (MMF) Sweden and chair of EMMA, speaking at the launch at Reeperbahn Festival.
“This much-needed programme will enable managers to share expertise and build their artists’ careers across borders. We hope it will grow over time and help build a strong network of managers across the EU. This is a big win for the future of European music.”
Virpi Immonen, vice chair of EMMA and chair of MMF Finland added: “MMF Finland is proud to be the project coordinator of this groundbreaking pan-European mentoring programme.
“Management can be a tough and stressful gig, in what is often a solitary career, and so our aim with EMMMA, and with support from the European Commission, is to start pooling and sharing the vast knowledge base that exists across the continent, and to help upcoming managers to successfully grow their business. In turn, that will offer even greater opportunities to support the careers of our artists, our songwriters and our composers.”
Applications for EMMMA will open soon. More information about the programme is available here.
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TGE announces initial speakers and more for 2019
The Great Escape (TGE) has announced details regarding this year’s conference programme, including initial speakers, daily itineraries and music industry partners. The event will take place from 8 to 11 May in Brighton, UK.
Speakers will share insights, case studies and opinions related to the festival’s three key themes for 2019: music education, digital dollars and music marketing. The first 40 speakers include Virgin EMI Records’ Andy Knox, Insanity Group founder and chief executive Andy Varley, Fuga founder Dorothee Imhoff, Live Nation’s Jackie Wilgar and Warner Music’s Tim Fraser-Harding.
CMU Insights will launch three pieces of original research during TGE, including the first report from the ‘Redefining Music Education’ project, a ‘Song Royalties Guide’ explaining how artists are paid by streaming platforms and ‘Rethinking Music Marketing’, a new report examining the evolution of music marketing companies in the streaming era.
Speakers will share insights related to three key themes: music education, digital dollars and music marketing
At the heart of the conference are three full-day strands, each one focused on a different key theme and ending with a one-on-one interview. TGE has announced that Cassandra Gracey, president of Sony Music’s 4th Floor Creative division, will conclude the strand on music marketing.
TGE have confirmed 68 music industry partners, including BBC Music, AIM, The Box Fresh Network, Clash and Dork. Two of the partners, Believe and Julie’s Bicycle, have teamed up with TGE to stage a charity bike ride from London to Brighton this year.
The bike ride will raise money for London-based NGO Julie’s Bicycle, empowering the creative community to take action on climate change and environmental sustainability. The money raised will go towards their Green Rider initiative; a campaign that helps touring artists to work alongside venues, festivals, labels and promoters to become more sustainable.
All 2019 core conference sessions and networking events will take place at TGE’s new home at the Jury’s Inn Brighton Waterfromt, the official delegate portal and hotel. Early bird delegate passes are now available, along with hotel packages and conference only options.
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TGE reveals conference themes for 2019
Following last week’s First Fifty artist announcement, the Great Escape (TGE) has announced the key themes for the 2019 conference, which takes place in Brighton, UK, from 8 to 11 May.
Australia has also been announced as lead country partner for the event, following the Netherlands this year and Switzerland in 2017.
The 2019 themes, with descriptions courtesy of TGE, are:
- Music Education: Building Bridges not Walls (Wednesday 8 May)
The Great Escape Conference on music education in 2018 started a movement. In 2019 The Great Escape will regroup with new research and new ideas. How can music educators and the music business more closely align to ensure the future of the industry’s talent pipeline? - Digital Dollars: Getting Paid as well as Played (Thursday 9 May)
Streaming is now the biggest and fastest-growing revenue stream for the record industry, but issues with the business model remain. The Great Escape Conference will track every dollar generated by the streaming services and explain where it ends up. And then ask: why is it so complicated? - Music Marketing: Make Sure People Give a Shit (Friday 9 May)
Music marketing is changing fast. The influencers are changing. The messages are changing. Campaigns are getting longer. How do you keep up and cope when budgets remain the same? And how can marketers at labels and in the live music sector better collaborate?
Initial speakers will be announced in early 2019.
Rory Betts, CEO of organiser MAMA Festivals, comments: “We’re really proud to have a truly distinct conference programme at the Great Escape by ensuring that we have the time to dig deep into the key issues and trends of the day. When we put the focus on education in 2018, it really felt like we started a movement to more closely align music education with the music industry, so it’s great to be able to further that debate in 2019.
Meanwhile, I think we can all agree that for new artists, the big two challenges are getting noticed and getting paid – two things that will be at the fore with our full-day conferences on digital dollars and music marketing.”
All 2019 core conference sessions and networking events will take place at the Jury’s Inn Brighton Waterfront, the official delegate portal and hotel. Delegates passes are on sale now.
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Dutch set to make an Impact at TGE 2018
The Netherlands has been announced as The Great Escape’s lead international partner for 2018.
Partnering with export office Dutch Music Export (DME), the 13th edition of the British conference and showcase festival will highlight some of the Netherlands’ most prominent rising stars, including Dutch-Kurdish artist Naaz and Amsterdam-based singer Pitou. DME’s Dutch Impact party has long been a mainstay of The Great Escape (TGE), having brought Jameszoo, Klangstof, Amber Arcades, Dope DOD and Jacco Gardner to the event in the past.
Dutch Music Export producer Ruud Berends comments: “Dutch Music Export is proud to be the focus country at TGE 2018. Our country has supported and attended TGE from year one with both the Dutch Impact party and through various promotional support for our artists and industry.
“The UK is one of the most important countries for us to present the best the Lowlands has to offer and The Great Escape provides the best platform to showcase, support and promote Dutch musical talent to not only the UK but international music industries and audiences.”
“2018 is the perfect time to put the very best the Netherlands has to offer at the forefront of our festival”
Previous international partners include Switzerland (2017), Latvia and Lithuania (2016), New Zealand (2009), France (2007) and Canada (2006).
“At last we are thrilled to shine a spotlight on one of our strongest, most longstanding partners, the Netherlands,” adds Rory Bett, CEO of festival organiser Mama. “Since the birth of TGE in 2006, DME has worked alongside us to bring the best Dutch artists to the festival; our convention and line-up has grown from strength to strength with their support and incredible music scene.
“Twenty-eighteen is the perfect time to put the very best the Netherlands has to offer at the forefront of our festival.”
TGE returns to Brighton from 17 to 19 May 2018.
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MMF UK publishes mental health guide for managers
The UK’s Music Managers Forum (MMF), in partnership with Andy Frank’s new Music Support charity, has published the Music Managers’ Guide to Mental Health, a free publication that aims to provide artist managers with advice to better protect both their own mental health and that of their acts.
Divided into three topics – anxiety and depression; alcoholism and drug addiction; and work balance and boundaries – the guide forms part of MMF’s ongoing commitment to raising awareness of mental illness in the music industry among its 500-strong membership.
Poor mental health is a growing concern in the international music business, with recent studies in Australia, Britain, Norway and more showing musicians and other industry professionals are more likely to suffer with depression, anxiety and other psychiatric problems than the general population.
Speaking at the guide’s launch at The Great Escape yesterday, MMF’s UK general manager, Fiona McGugan, said: “The modern music business is a rewarding environment in which to work, but it is no secret that it can also be tough and isolating – and particularly so for managers. Our members frequently play an all-encompassing role, and must protect their client’s emotional, mental and physical state as passionately as their business interests.
“MMF has created something that will effect great change and pushes the conversation around managers’ mental health wide open”
“At times this is a 24-hour role, and, combined with our ‘always-on’ digital culture, it is quite easy for such support to become stretched to breaking point. If that occurs, it is vital that artist managers can turn to someone in confidence, whether that’s the MMF as their trade body, Music Support, Help Musicians UK or a medical professional.
“All this information is provided in our guide, as well as advice from managers with first-hand experience of dealing with mental health problems and addiction. We hope it will make a positive contribution to tackling this important issue and the development of preventative strategies that will benefit all in the wider music business.”
Ellie Giles of Various Artist Management (The Libertines, Charlie XCX, Spiritualized) adds: “This guide is an incredibly useful and practical document for all artist managers, big or small. It details some hugely complex issues in a very concise manner, and provides links to experts and organisations who can help. The MMF have created something that will effect great change and pushes the conversation around managers’ mental health wide open.”
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IQ’s five live picks of The Great Escape 2017
The Great Escape (TGE), MAMA Festivals’ long-running Brighton showcase festival and industry conference, returns for its 12th outing today, welcoming more than 3,500 industry delegates to the English seaside resort for three days of networking and new music.
The first panel discussion – Drugs: A Recent History of Getting High, looking at drug-taking trends at festivals, shows and in clubs – kicks off at 10.45 in the Dukes at Komedia cinema; in the meantime, here are IQ’s picks of the must-attend TGE shows, panels and parties…
Brighton rocks
Stripped of the panels, parties and spotlight shows by established artists, The Great Escape is still, at its core, a festival for new music: a place for bookers, A&Rs and everyone in between to discover the festival headliners of the future.
However, with more than 450 acts playing across 30+ Brighton venues, it’s nigh-on impossible to see everything, but by crunching the numbers – specifically Facebook likes, Shazam discoveries, Spotify streams and Songkick charts – we’ve discovered the three acts creating the most buzz are:
- Yellow Days
Seventeen-year-old singer-songwriter “bringing a slow-moving, jazz-flecked brand of indie rock which revolves around his gruff, scratchy vocals and languorous guitar playing” - Sigrid
Bergen-based pop singer making waves on Norwegian radio. “Signing to Island ahead of her first Vill Vill Vest performance left a lot of labels wailing and gnashing their teeth,” reckons The Line of Best Fit - The Moonlandingz
Fat While Family psych-pop spin-off “put together by Sheffield’s practical electronics wizards and analogue taxidermists, The Eccentronic Research Council”
Drugs and royalties and Brexit, oh my!
Provided they’re not already all Eurosonic/FastForward/ILMC-ed out, TGE delegates are likely going to want to sit in on at least a few panels. While discussions about the state of music journalism may be of limited interest to IQ readers, the other three conference strands – which focus on drugs, royalties/collective licensing and music export – all touch on some of the most pressing issues affecting the international live business.
Highlights include Drugs, Clubs & Music: How to Actually Save Lives (11.15am, Thursday 18 May), which sees Fabric’s Andy Blackett, The Warehouse Project’s Sacha Lord and campaigner Nathalie Wainwright tackle the thorny issue of keeping patrons safe while keeping local authorities on side; Getting the Most from Showcase Festivals (moderated by IQ’s own Gordon Masson) and A Beginners’ Guide to Brexit; and Direct Licensing in Live, exploring the rise of directly licensing performance royalties with Maria Forte and PACE’s Adam Elfin.
A hole lot of Switzerland
As previously reported, Switzerland is TGE’s country partner for 2017 – and that means Swiss Swiss Music Export will be taking to Brighton a whole host of Swiss delicacies, including showcases, networking and – of course – plenty of cheese.
Swiss acts performing across on Friday include Zeal & Ardor, Sophie Hunger, Buvette, Debrah Scarlett and Baba Shrimps (the Zurich three-piece last seen at ILMC’s Swiss Session in March), while plenty of Helvetic networking can be had at the delegate reception at 5pm on Thursday (Swiss wine, beer and raclette!) and the Swiss Festivals Drink Reception at the same time on Friday.
For a taste of what to expect, a Spotify playlist of all Swiss performers is below:
Extra-curricular activities
As is tradition, most of the big agencies, promoters, ticketers and the like at TGE will be hosting their own (private) dos, but there are also plenty of open-invitation parties well worth checking out.
The always-fun Dutch Impact party (12–4pm on Friday) is open to all delegates, as is Wide Days’ Scottish Networking Party (who could say no to “deep-fried confectionary, soft drinks made from girders and whisky in a smugglers’ cellar”?) and Berklee and Ascap’s networking brunch. The annual Drinks Party hosted by UK collection societies PPL and PRS also returns – it’s first-come, first-served, so get there early – while recording studio Metropolis is staging a one-hour ‘Metropolis Mixer’ at My Hotel at 1pm on Friday.
Intelligent networking
And as always, Team IQ will be out in force on Thursday and Friday. Want to set up a meeting or a casual pint? Drop us an email!
See you in Brighton…
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TGE Convention reveals 2017 themes
UK showcase festival The Great Escape has announced the first details of its convention programme for 2017.
Taking place over two venues in Brighton over two days, the convention – held in association with CMU Insights – will be divided into four themes, as follows:
The Media Conference – The crisis in music journalism
Is it still possible to make money out of music media in the digital age? Will music journalism be the preserve of brands in the future? And is music radio ready for its impending collision with the streaming platforms?
The Drugs Conference – Let’s actually save some lives
Can artists embrace the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle without damaging their career and their health? And, following the battle for Fabric, what can and what should clubs, promoters, law enforcement and licensing officials be doing to prevent drugs deaths at live music events?
The Export Conference – Breaking out beyond Brexit
A guide to taking new artists global in 2017 featuring tips on going global, acts who have benefited from the Music Export Growth Scheme. Plus, how will Brexit impact music in Europe? Presented in partnership with BPI.
The Royalties Conference – Where’s my fucking money?
Tracking the money from sale, sync and stream to artist and songwriter. How does collective licensing work worldwide? Why are some artists licensing direct? And where is all of that Spotify money going?
The Great Escape 2017 runs from 18 to 20 May. The first fifty acts for its music programme were announced in September.
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