Music Cork: Panel Discussions from Day One

The first panel discussed ticketing, pricing, and promotion and was mediated by Phil Taggart, BBC Radio 1 DJ. The major topics at hand were ticket touting, sales, and tour scheduling. Brian Spollen from MCD Productions spoke of artists doing presales to fan clubs to get tickets sales out to dedicated fans and to avoid the ticket-touting industry. That seemed to be the main topic of debate. Josh Javor of X-ray Touring says it’s a nightmare but really everything these entities are doing is above board, unfortunately. Sarah Casey of the LPO Agency laid down the importance of gaining experience and knowledge of how prices should work and how to avoid a raw deal, be it for the artist, the manager, the promoter, the venue, or the fan. Steve Zapp of International Talent Booking (ITB) highlighted that promoters deal in very different rhetoric to the rest of the industry’s panoplies. “Promoters speak in historical data”, he said, when marketing artists. They speak of ticket sales of past gigs, in a pitching scenario. What stemmed from this was an excellent perspective, as United Talent Agency’s (UTA) Geoff Meall put it, “Familiarity breeds apathy” when it comes to playing gigs and promoting your bands. The entire panel couldn’t hammer it home enough that if you’re an act on the rise and you play the major venues consecutively or the same location regularly, it’s detrimental to you. Spread it out, take the time to hone in your craft, and really understand your fan base.
The second panel saw a host of administration officials in the industry speaking on the monetary side of things. This constituted of lawyer Willie Ryan, accountant Liam Murphy, Partner/Director ATC Management Ric Salmon, Director of Business Affairs at Universal Music UK Adam Barker, and Ollie Hodge from Columbia Records. This was mediated by Chief Executive Officer of the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) Victor Finn. Streaming was the big dog here. Spotify seemed to be a service that the panel said the music industry can benefit from greatly. YouTube is the elephant in the room, no doubt. How do artists get paid for hitting that million views without the likes of free uploading services exploiting the market? Adam really pointed out that certain areas of the world still value physical sales, such as Japan, where around 70% of sales can be attributed to tangible copy.
Once more, Brian Spollen and Josh Javor were on the bill for the third panel, which also including Shane Dunne of Indiependence fame, Mick Roe of Faction Records, and Co-founder of Kendall Calling, Andy Smith. Phil Taggart was interviewer extraordinaire once again for this festivals discussion. Booking festivals through garnering interest from agents was a key point, as well as making sure the act fits the bill seamlessly. And what was Spollen’s definition of a proper agent? One that looks for clashes on the festival bill: “Who’s playing at the same time as my act?” Sponsors, too, are key particularly for small-to-medium sized festivals, according to Dunne: “15 to 20% of our expenditure is related to sponsorship.” And without sponsors, ticket prices would increase damaging the smaller names.
The final session concluded with music composer Tom Belton, Dina Coughlan of music-publishing firm Tremolo, Marc Robinson of movie-music commissioning hub Globe, and Universal’s Sarah Desmond. Niall Byrne (Nialler9) was the interviewer for this one. Music for synchronisation and adapting music to suit different mediums such as movies, TV, and adverts was the central aspect of discussion, with the panel emphasising the need to develop and maintain good working relationships with agents, work closely with the relevant publishers, and research who your target audience really is.