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It's all about the money...(and the marketing.)

The Hot Press Newsdesk, 03 Oct 2010

The second exclusive Music Show panel discussion of Sunday was entitled ‘Making Millions or Losing Your Shirt: The Publicity Machine and the Perils of Running Live Music and Other Events.’

Hosted by Hot press’ own Roisin Dwyer, the panel included Justin Green, Director of Publicity and Marketing for MCD; Ollie Jenings, founder of the Galway Arts Festival and manager of The Saw Doctors; John Spillane, one of Ireland’s most accomplished songwriters, and Frank Murray manager of the Mighty Stef and former manager of The Pogues and tour manager of Thin Lizzy.

The panel kicked off with a discussion of ticket pricing, a bone of contention here in Ireland, where big concerts often charge upwards of €75. Justin Green asserted that it was a concern, but that a balance needed to be struck.

“Like any business, it’s all to do with cost. An artist is always aware of the relationship they have with fans so they don’t want to have the ticket price too high, but they need to be able to pay for touring etc, so they have to cover these costs.”

Green explained that practical factors would always mean ticket prices in Ireland were higher than our UK counterparts.

“Due to geographical position of Ireland, artists lose a day coming to Ireland travelling, and are forced to spend a lot on shipping costs. Insurance is also four times more here than in Europe, and events like Oxygen can spend upwards of €2 million on policing the event, paying for security, medics, etc. For a lot of artists, it would be far easier to just do another date in the UK where you can travel for an hour and a half & have another 15 million audience members, without the hefty price tag, so it’s already an ask getting them to travel for concerts for a few thousand. Ticket prices need to cover costs and make the effort worthwhile.”

Ollie Jennings pointed out that bands can’t let this stop them form touring, however, as nowadays it’s a vital source of income. Importance of financial support of touring has changed. From mid 90s to turn of this century, it would have been one third CDs and two thirds touring, but because of downloads our CD revenue is almost zero, it’s nearly all touring.”



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