Involved Festivals are: Benicàssim (Spain), Forestglade (Austria), Frequency (Austria), Glastonbury (UK), Groovequake (Austria), Guilford festival (UK), Gurten (Switzerland), Haldern Open Air (Germany), Hultsfred (Sweden), Hurricane (Germany), Les Mediterraneennes (France), Lowlands (Holland), Marktrock Leuven (Belgium), Open Air St. Gallen (Switzerland), Parkpop (Holland), Pinkpop (Holland), Provinssirock (Finland), Pukkelpop (Belgium), Quart (Norway), Rheinkultur (Germany), Rock Sound Tuborg (Italy), Rock Werchter (Belgium), Roskilde (Denmark), Sziget (Hungary), The Summer Sundae (UK).

Last year, besides other festivals, lots of other professionals joined the Festival Forum, including of course a lot of agents keen to offer their artists. The main topics of the Festival Forum were the 'Growing European Market' and the European Talent Exchange Program project, which was created by the Eurosonic Festival in Groningen, Holland, covered extensively by VIP-News with more information to follow), the EBU and Yourope, the European Festivals Association. Ruud Berends of Conamus made a presentation about the progress of ETEP.

"This little idea seems to be working," was how Ruud Berends played down the undoubted success of the European Talent Exchange Programme (ETEP) as more festivals came forward to confirm acts they'd seen at January's Noorderslag Festival.

After a month's chart success around Europe, and something like a Top Five residency in the U.K. singles chart for six weeks, it's hardly surprising to see Junior Senior confirmed for Norway's Quart Festival and this country's Pinkpop although the country isn't responding to the Danes as fast as the rest of Scandinavia but other bands with much less media exposure are also getting a look in.

Neither is it a surprise to see Dutch semi-star Anouk, more a headline club act than emerging Noorderslag act, pick up appearances at Germany's Hurricane Festival, Belgium's Rock Werchter and Gurten in Switzerland. But Ojos de Brujo from Spain (three confirmed shows), Germany's Patrice and the Norwegian Kaiser's Orchestra they've got a couple each are also clocking up shows.

The idea now is for Berends to confirm as many as he can of the 45 pencilled festival shows, and then hope the booking agents from The Network can help to put in club shows around them.
"I need a particular date for this act that's on its way to Denmark to play Roskilde Festival," sounds as if it could be the sales pitch.

Of the pencilled shows, Germany's Bizarre Festival has five. Xploding Plastic, Ska-P, Green Lizard, Spoiler, and Zuco 103 would be wise not to hold their breath.

Next year's Noorderslag-Eurosonic is slotted for January 8-10, while the Amsterdam Dance Event has confirmed that this year's bash will be October 30 to November 1.


Copyright © 2003 Pollstar. All Rights Reserved

Bernard Batzen is the managing director of Azimuth in Paris and the promoter of Les Mediterraneennes-Festival. Rob Behrend is the managing director of Paperclip Agency, who is also the founder and president of The Network. Christof Huber is the artistic director of the Open Air San Gallen in Switzerland and also a board member of Yourope.

VIP-News: What is your general opinion of the ETEP-Programme?
Bernard Batzen: This is a good initiative for which I thank Conamus and I think they should be joined by other author rights societies in Europe.

Rob Berends: It's an excellent initiative based on thoughts and wishes uttered by many people in the European live music business for years now.

Christof Huber: It's a concrete project, which was realized within one year of preparation. The positive thing is that three associations are involved and hopefully more can join so that ETEP becomes more effective. After all the ideas and discussions at forums and meetings, it's nice to see an initiative that moves ahead in a certain way.

VIP-News: Do you appreciate the political aims of ETEP?
Bernard Batzen: Activating the circulation of artists throughout Europe will benefit the whole industry and it is about time that the European Union starts supporting popular music. Behrend: What are the political aims? You mean the promotion of non-Anglo-American musicians? I'm all for it.

Christof Huber: I hope that ETEP gets the necessary support from the European Commission to go on with the project. It's a network that makes sense and a project which can open the minds of a lot of promoters to book more European talent.

VIP-News: Do you expect that ETEP will meet the needs of professionals within the live music business?
Batzen: I am glad to see that major European Festivals are involved through Yourope. Such a collaboration between festivals and bodies like Conamus are a step in the right direction

Rob Berends: This indeed remains to be seen. However, a lethargic or 'consumer' attitude from said professionals will not help the program. It requires support from all those who could benefit from it.

Huber: We'll see that after one year, but if every festival is working with the record companies and radios in their countries to promote the chosen act in the best way possible, it might have an effect for some acts.

VIP-News: What do you think about the quality of the first selection of bands?
Bernard Batzen: The problem is not the quality - there were quality acts, but the problem is the quantity. It is physically impossible to check so many acts. There should be a way to be informed before the Eurosonic event takes place just to be able to make a pre-selection.

Rob Berends: I only know a few of these acts. From these, most are a good choice, and some are debatable. But that's a matter of taste isn't it?

Christof Huber: I was able to see more than 10 acts at the Noorderslag Weekend and I thought that the quality gets better year-by-year. I would book fewer bands than this year and I think, that sometimes the appearance in Groningen comes too early for a band. I would only propose the best acts of Switzerland that already have good background support.

Belgium's An Pierle she sings and plays piano while sitting on a skippy ball heads a list of acts that have been offered slots on summer festivals following appearances at the January 10 Eurosonic showcases.

Those showcases were part of the European Talent Exchange Programme (ETEP), partially funded by the Dutch government, which aims to give emerging acts a bigger platform outside of their own countries. The basic premise is that any festival that pays 1,000 euros to join the scheme can book any act that appeared at Eurosonic-Noorderslag and get the 1,000 euros returned and another 500 as well. The extra comes from the Dutch government subsidy. European festival organisation Yourope is backing this.

Any promoter running more than one festival would have to pay for each of them, so someone like Folkert Koopmans of Germany's Scorpio Concerts, for example, wouldn't be able to register once and then take an act for each of his six festivals.
The festivals still have to negotiate with the acts, who are obviously aware that the promoters are sitting on 500 euros of Dutch government handout, so none of this will happen unless a deal can be done between the events and the agents.
The participating festivals include Denmark's Roskilde, Italy's Arezzo Wave, Spain's Benicassim, Holland's Pinkpop, and the U.K.'s Glastonbury among the 32 taking part. Acts that have made the cut after the first round include Norway's Kaiser's Orchestra, U.K. acts The Libertines and Miss Black America, Germany's Patrice, Spain's Ska-P, and Denmark's Superheroes.

Another (sort of) talent contest that was more Eurovision than Eurosonic was the demo panel on which the acts appearing live over the course of the weekend had a track judged by Kees de Koning, an A&R manager for Virgin in Holland, Stefan Reichmann from Germany's Haldern Festival, Carlos Fleischmann of Deutsche Entertainment AG in Germany and Chiara Papaccio of Italy's Rockstar magazine.
In the contest, billed as "Brilliant Or Bollocks," a 30-second clip of each artist was played and the "judges" each gave a mark of between one and 12, thus avoiding a situation where anyone could mimic Eurovision marks and give "nil points."
The first four acts were Junior Senior from Denmark, Console from Germany, Holland's Beef, and Parker from Sweden. Later in the session, Holland's Spinvis struck a blow for local talent by getting the thumbs-up from everyone and taking the prize.
Fleischmann said three of the first four acts sucked and marked them low. Even though he gave maximum points to Parker, he said they sucked as well.
Console definitely got the thumbs-down from Virgin's de Koning, but that won't bother the act as it already has a deal in Germany with Virgin!

The European Talent Exchange Program (ETEP) was launched during the Noorderslag/Eurosonic Seminar. ETEP is a program dedicated to opening up possibilities for European talent. The core of ETEP is a pool of bands and artists from all over Europe. On the basis of this framework members of organisations such as Yourope or the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) could make choices and pick up one of the bands for their purposes. The main idea of ETEP is to offer European bands the opportunity to play at European Festivals in order to increase the popularity of domestic talents abroad.

The initiators for ETEP are Peter Smidt and Ruud Berends of the Dutch organisation Conamus. They were surprised that the program had been so enthusiastically welcomed by representatives of Yourope, the EBU, The Network and the Dutch members of the IMMF (International Music Managers Forum.)
>From the beginning onwards Yourope and the EBU became actively involved partners. During the Seminar festival promoters were able to take a look at many of the bands elected for the first pool of the ETEP in 2003 performing at the Noorderslag/Eurosonic concerts. The first selection of bands included 23 artists from 10 different European countries.

Festival promoters are now able to offer one or even more acts the opportunity to play at their events. Radio programmers who belong to one of the EBU-Stations could jump on the band wagon and help to promote the particular act giving air time or even a concert recording of the selected artist. The regulations regarding taking part in the program are, according to the inventors, informal and flexible. For 2003 the Netherlands Culture Fund committed to the financial support of ETEP.
The overall reaction to the ETEP program for the majority of visitors to the Seminar could be described as very interested. At least one Festival promoter already has said that he intended to book 3 bands from the pool. But there were also a few sceptical voices to be heard.

The first pool include the following bands
An Pierlé (b), Apparat Organ Quartet (ice), Blasted Mechanism (por), Caesar (nl),
Console (d), David and the Citizens (s), Dionysos (f), Fifty Foot Combo (b), Fingathing (uk), Green Lizard (nl), Kaizers Orchestra (n), Libertines (uk), Miss Black America (uk), Ojos de Brujo (e), Patrice (d), Sidonie (e), Ska-P (e), Slovo (uk), Slut (d), Spoiler (nl), Superheroes (dk), Xploding Plastics (n), and Zuco 1203 (nl).

Stefan Reichman, Promoter of the Halder Pop Festival gave VIP-News his opinion of the concept:

"I can not really comment on ETEP at such an early stage. On the one hand it seems to be pretty efficient and we are going to test the program this year and then we will see. But on the other hand, I believe, it is not good for rock music if it is too organized". In reference to the quality of the bands Reichman is more convinced and says: "I am very surprised. I did not know many of the bands before, but I just listened to bands from Norway and Spain and I am very impressed. In previous years when I went to Noorderslag many more bands were already familiar to me, but the quality of some the bands I heard and that are in the pool is very good".

Anderz Nielsen of Gearbox Agency says: "Well it all seems very, very interesting and I think it good be a very good thing. But then again, we have to see how it all takes off.

VIP-News: Would you like to participate in ETEP, and do you like the idea?
Anderz Nielsen: Sure, as long as it can be kept as they said to a strictly informal way of choosing bands, without too much politics involved, or talking about too much money, it should be very good.

VIP-News: What do you think of the quality of the selected bands?
Anderz Nielsen: Well, I haven't seen all of them, but I have seen a lot, and I think the ones I know and I have seen are a good choice.

By Eric de Fontenay

Best Buy's announcement that sales at Musicland were down 15% last year and plans to close over 110 stores attest to the gravity of the situation.

The Noorderslag Weekend, which I was privileged to participate in as a co-moderator, provided the first hint that 2003 may yet be a turning point for the music industry, though certainly not at the level of CD sales.

This (sold out!) music conference was one of the most active ones I had attended in literally years, with attendees being turned away from certain packed panels, discussions & networking galore, and packed lines in freezing weather to see bands ranging from Mouse to Dionysos.

As Miles Copeland noted in his keynote speech (more on that in my MusicDish coverage), 2002 was something of a car wreak for the music industry. The announcement by Best Buy that sales at Musicland were down 15% last year and plans to close over 110 stores attest to the gravity of the situation. The good news though are the changes that they will engender. At its center is a redefining of the relationship between artists and major labels based on the Robbie Williams deal with EMI.

But perhaps most interesting is a new program launched at the event called the European Talent Exchange Program (ETEP) which would unite European festivals, European Broadcast Union radio stations and other media platforms to support "to raise consciousness of new music, thereby securing exposure to new bands never before established." This clear, coherent cross-media program is what has been sorely missing in the US.

The easiest thing I ever did was to make The Police happen because those guys wanted success and they were prepared to make sacrifices," Miles Copeland told the Eurosonic-Noorderslag conference January 11 as he explained the problems facing artists and managers in a rapidly changing music business.

His keynote speech detailed how acts now face the challenge of taking far greater responsibility for their careers, and warned that the days of the record company providing and paying for everything are confined to the dustbin of history.
During the "Ticket Prices Up Share Prices Down" debate a day earlier, Robert Brimson of Propeller Media who authorises record company tour support for Universal Music said budgets are running at around 10 percent of what they were five years ago, although he did expect there would be some increase in that for the new financial year.

After the address, Copeland told POLLSTAR, "The acts have to look at it as more of a partnership. The days of record companies being just record companies are over. Now, they have to look at the idea of being music companies," a statement that nodded toward the recent Robbie Williams deal and the coupling of higher advances with the artists having to share the profit of such ancillary incomes as touring and merchandise. "To own the record is no longer enough. This will be the year when the train wreck happens," he said as he described how investments are disproportionally high compared to the revenue potential.
According to Copeland, "That's why the share prices are what they are and why the markets are moving away from investing in the major companies.
"In truth, EMI, Sony, Universal and all are up for sale, but nobody really wants to buy them." He said the changing face of the business is reflected in his split with Steve Tannett following a working relationship that's lasted close to a quarter of a century. He said, "I can't justify the expense of having a London office and someone looking for acts when I don't sign acts and pay advances anymore.

"If someone brings me a record, I'll put it out and market it and we'll share the profits that's more like being a bank. "I sat down with Steve and said, 'You're my best mate and my best employee, but you're also my most expensive one.' "We wracked our brains to find a way of going forward together, but Steve needs to draw the sort of salary he's been getting and I can understand that."
Copeland added that his own Arc 21 label wouldn't be putting out more than a couple of international releases this year, while Tannett has now set up his own management company. Among the acts he's representing is DoD (John Kermode), which he says "is an MOR act that doesn't sing in a tenor voice! Just plain old great songs with a great voice." He also manages a singer/songwriter called Chris Sheehan and said he's got the "inevitable lots of interest, but in this case its true!"
The question and answer session that followed Copeland's keynote speech developed the theme of the music industry's new economic order, although it was hard to see why anyone working in it should need an explanation on why EMI-Virgin paid close to œ30 million to dump Mariah Carey.
Faced with stating the patently obvious, Copeland gave a lucid explanation of the need to "get her off the books" by totting up the massive loss potential of the company fulfilling its five- album obligation to the act.
He rounded it off by telling how the stock markets would look at a company that has a flagship act who just had disastrous record sales and was apparently haunted by more than a few of her own personal demons.
The "at least one a month for the next three months" seminar season began in the university city of Groningen as Eurosonic-Noorderslag (January 9-11) began a run of conferences that includes Concert Industry Consortium (CIC) in Los Angeles (February 6-8) and International Live Music Conference (ILMC) in London March 7-9. Although it's aimed more toward recorded music and publishing, Midem (January 19-23) falls in the same period, as does Marseilles's Strictly Mundial (February 26 to March 1).
At last year's ILMC, Klaus Maack of Contour Music and Andrew Leighton-Pope of the Leighton Pope Organisation (LPO) headed a panel called The Real Life Music Industry and Noorderslag, a conference-cum-festival, is refreshingly similar in topic and tone. It's not dominated by the noise of the big guns or such topics as the price of a Madonna ticket or a Clear Channel share, but is more about how delegates and their countries' governments can develop their national talent beyond their own borders.
Now expanded to a three-day event, it's successfully combined more than 50 panels and break-out meetings with live performances by more than 150 acts from at least a dozen European countries.
It's obviously impossible to see and hear everything, but it's equally hard to imagine anyone feeling short changed on the euro 155 registration fee.
Although 75 percent of the delegates are from Holland, that cut is coming down as more and more countries are sending delegates.
As conference coordinator Pieter van Adrichem explained, "There's more international participants than ever before, so my guess is that the percentage of internationals is slowly rising. More important is that the quality of international participants is very good; we get the people who matter."
Much of the action takes place in De Oosterpoort, a multifunctional venue surrounded by a network of now frozen canals, with the distinctive Dutch barges locked in by the ice.
On the third day, it houses the Noorderslag seminar and festival about 50 Dutch acts spread across seven stages while the second day's Eurosonic showcase has talent from Europe and Scandinavia playing in 11 venues that are all within a couple of square miles centred on Groningen's market square.
Having so many workable rooms within strolling distance of each other is a throwback to the '70s, when the local authority would grant a 5 a.m. licence to venues that had live music.
The handbook has a piece by creative director Peter Smidt headed "What the f*** are we doing here?" which explains that representatives come to the "rock city" of Groningen to work their acts and to work Europe together.
"It's not the price on the ticket, it's the name on the ticket," was the one-liner that should have earned Ron Euser of Clear Channel-Mojo Concerts "Quote Of The Conference," as there could hardly be a more succinct way of summing up why punters will pay top dollars to see top acts.
He was on a panel headed by VIP News editor Alan McGowan called "Ticket Prices Up Share Prices Down" and, along with Petri Lunden of Sweden's Talent Trust, Gunter Linnartz from Karsten Jahnke's Cologne office, Mads Sorensen of DKB-Motor in Denmark, Robert Brimson who looks at tour support for Universal Music and Paul Debnam from Austria's Wiesen Festivals, fielded questions on whether the high ticket prices charged by some top acts are resulting in less people going to shows at the club level.
Several of those speaking from the floor felt this was the case although, when it came to questioning the panel on the matter, none of them could provide any evidence to show there's any sort of cogent correlation whatsoever between high ticket prices for the top acts and poor club level attendances.
Nevertheless, so many tried so long and hard that the clock ran out before the second part of the panel's title the bit about share prices was ever reached.
Many of those asking questions tried to base their arguments on the premise that if a euro 100 ticket was reduced to a euro 80 ticket, then the euro 20 saved could be used to buy a couple of tickets for club shows.
However, there's a counter-argument that says the euro 20 savings would be spent on food and drink on the night of the now-euro 80 ticket show, thereby leading to what the marketing people would describe as an "enhanced consumer experience."
Having seen that some floor speakers had failed to show a connection between the highly priced ticket and falling club show attendances, others settled for the line that the high ticket price is just a rip-off, anyway.
In an interview in the national daily De Volkskrant (January 2), Mojo chief Leon Ramakers (Euser's boss) made the very valid point that the acts dictate the ticket price and whether he likes it or not that's the way the industry has changed over the last few years.
Ramakers cut his teeth in the business when an artist's live performance was almost like a "thank you" to the fans for buying the music but, with CD sales on the decline, it's now become just another way of making one hell of a lot of money.
Lunden, who manages The Cardigans among others, expressed similar sentiments when he agreed that ultimately it is the act that fixes the ticket price, but he expanded on that by saying it's part of a manager's "responsibility" to ensure that his clients are fully briefed before they make decisions on pricing or any other matter.
Sorensen said he feels it's important for a national promoter to canvass the opinions of his local partners before fixing a ticket price, and said that price is the place to start when costing tours and making offers. Debnam agreed it makes sense to talk abut ticket prices before talking about fees and Brimson conceded he'd listen to any act who needed a little more tour support in order to go with a lower price as long as they could make a valid case for it.
There was some number crunching and comparisons on increased costs, such as cinema tickets going up 22 percent while concert tickets have gone up by 200 percent, but the proverbial bottom line is that a ticket price is no more than an invitation to trade and really no different from a tag on a pair of trousers or a dress in a fashion shop window.
The punters are left with the consumer choice of either taking it or leaving it and, at the top end of the market, there's no evidence to say they're baulking at prices.
Euser gave an example of how the Dutch press told fans coming out of a Tom Waits show US$80 and US$90 for an intimate theatre sized venue that they had been ripped off. The general response from the punters was, "We've never had a better night in our lives.

"How can you walk away from something that is so exciting?" was how Ruud Berends explained why he's accepted an offer to stay with Dutch music organisation Conamus apparently, there were other offers on the table and return full time to a music industry that he quit a year ago for "personal reasons."
One of his contributions to Eurosonic-Noorderslag (and it was a major one), was running the European Talent Exchange Programme (ETEP), an initiative that's subsidised by the Dutch government and aimed at making it easier for acts to raise their profiles outside of their own countries. The basic premise is that any festival that pays 1,000 euros to join the scheme and European festival organisation Yourope is backing this can book any act that appeared at Noorderslag and get the 1,000 euros returned and another 500 as well. The extra comes from the Dutch government subsidy.

There's a glitch that needs to be ironed out as it's not clear if a promoter with more than one festival (Scorpio Concerts in Germany, for example, now has six) should register once as a promoter or six times for each festival. It has to be unlikely that Scorpio boss Folkert Koopmans could pay euro 1,000 to register himself, book a band for each of his festivals and then collect euro 9,000 (six times euro 1,500) in return. There's no doubt Koopmans would find this an attractive proposition, but whomever is holding the Dutch government's purse strings probably wouldn't share his enthusiasm. The festivals still have to negotiate with the acts who are obviously aware that the promoters are sitting on 500 euros of Dutch government handout so none of this will happen unless a deal can be done between the events and the agents. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has joined Yourope in supporting the scheme, given that a radio station in any country agrees with its national festival's choice of act, and Network has weighed in by offering to help the act get club shows en route to the festival and on the way back home.

For example, a Swiss band chosen to play a U.K. festival may also find Network delivering shows in Germany, Holland and Belgium to create a sort of mini tour.
A January 11 European Magazines Meeting chaired by Robbert Till of Conamus, Holland's National Pop Institute, was less successful when it came to getting music magazine journalists on board. Till, who has written for Billboard and In Music & Media, did as much as he could to persuade them, but the scribes seemed to have the idea that they were being railroaded into it. Although they'd no doubt have the same chance as the EBU to approve or disapprove an act, the journalists weren't keen because they seemed to feel someone was telling them what to write. Journalists tend to dig in against that sort of thing unless, of course, it's their editors that are doing the telling.

Once again, the Eurosonic-Noorderslag weekend played host to Network Europe, with almost 60 of its member promoters and agents meeting up to compare notes.
They decided to follow European festivals organisation Yourope and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in getting actively involved in the European Talent Exchange Programme. Hilde Spille from Paperclip in Holland said, "We feel that there is need for promoters and agents to join in to add our experiences in the live club circuit to make the organisation work even better." The weekend also drew representatives from 28 festivals from 14 different countries.

The European Talent Exchange Program (ETEP) was launched during the Noorderslag/Eurosonic Seminar. ETEP is a program dedicated to opening up possibilities for European talent. The core of ETEP is a pool of bands and artists from all over Europe. On the basis of this framework members of organisations such as Yourope or the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) could make choices and pick up one of the bands for their purposes. The main idea of ETEP is to offer European bands the opportunity to play at European Festivals in order to increase the popularity of domestic talents abroad.

The initiators for ETEP are Peter Smidt and Ruud Berends of the Dutch organisation Conamus. They were surprised that the program had been so enthusiastically welcomed by representatives of Yourope, the EBU, The Network and the Dutch members of the IMMF (International Music Managers Forum.)
>From the beginning onwards Yourope and the EBU became actively involved partners. During the Seminar festival promoters were able to take a look at many of the bands elected for the first pool of the ETEP in 2003 performing at the Noorderslag/Eurosonic concerts. The first selection of bands included 23 artists from 10 different European countries.

Festival promoters are now able to offer one or even more acts the opportunity to play at their events. Radio programmers who belong to one of the EBU-Stations could jump on the band wagon and help to promote the particular act giving air time or even a concert recording of the selected artist. The regulations regarding taking part in the program are, according to the inventors, informal and flexible. For 2003 the Netherlands Culture Fund committed to the financial support of ETEP.
The overall reaction to the ETEP program for the majority of visitors to the Seminar could be described as very interested. At least one Festival promoter already has said that he intended to book 3 bands from the pool. But there were also a few sceptical voices to be heard.

The first pool include the following bands
An Pierlé (b), Apparat Organ Quartet (ice), Blasted Mechanism (por), Caesar (nl),
Console (d), David and the Citizens (s), Dionysos (f), Fifty Foot Combo (b), Fingathing (uk), Green Lizard (nl), Kaizers Orchestra (n), Libertines (uk), Miss Black America (uk), Ojos de Brujo (e), Patrice (d), Sidonie (e), Ska-P (e), Slovo (uk), Slut (d), Spoiler (nl), Superheroes (dk), Xploding Plastics (n), and Zuco 1203 (nl).

Stefan Reichman, Promoter of the Halder Pop Festival gave VIP-News his opinion of the concept:

"I can not really comment on ETEP at such an early stage. On the one hand it seems to be pretty efficient and we are going to test the program this year and then we will see. But on the other hand, I believe, it is not good for rock music if it is too organized". In reference to the quality of the bands Reichman is more convinced and says: "I am very surprised. I did not know many of the bands before, but I just listened to bands from Norway and Spain and I am very impressed. In previous years when I went to Noorderslag many more bands were already familiar to me, but the quality of some the bands I heard and that are in the pool is very good".

Anderz Nielsen of Gearbox Agency says: "Well it all seems very, very interesting and I think it good be a very good thing. But then again, we have to see how it all takes off.

VIP-News: Would you like to participate in ETEP, and do you like the idea?
Anderz Nielsen: Sure, as long as it can be kept as they said to a strictly informal way of choosing bands, without too much politics involved, or talking about too much money, it should be very good.

VIP-News: What do you think of the quality of the selected bands?
Anderz Nielsen: Well, I haven't seen all of them, but I have seen a lot, and I think the ones I know and I have seen are a good choice.

by Manfred Tari

Eine Woche vor der MIDEM ging in Groningen im Norden Hollands das 17. Noorderslag/Eurosonic-Seminar über die Bühne und war- wie jedesmal - ausverkauft.

300 Teilnehmer aus dem Ausland sowie 1.000 Fachbesucher aus den Niederlanden fanden sich am zweiten Januar-Wochenende in Groningen zum Besuch des Noorderslag/Eurosonic-Seminars ein. Und wie jede interessante Fachveranstaltung dieser Art präsentierte die Konferenz eine Reihe von neuen Erkenntnissen, die für Gesprächsstoff über den aktuellen Zustand der Branche sorgen.
Zündstoff lieferte vor allem die so genannte Keynote-Rede von Miles Copeland, dem Manager von Sting. Copeland rief das Zeitalter der Manager aus, und erläuterte, warum aus seiner Sicht Tonträgerlabels nur noch bedingt für ihn von Bedeutung sind. Ferner beschwörte er die Wirksamkeit gemeinsamer Strategien für eine effiziente Vermarktung von Bands und Solokünstlern. Zudem propagierte Copeland mehrfach Thesen wie "Getting used to less" oder "Ask for less". In diesem Zusammenhang machte er auch ein Fass auf, das fast ein Jahr zuvor auch Peter Caruso, ein Analyst von Merrill Lynch, jede Menge Publicity beschert hatte. Caruso, der mittlerweile von dem Finanzdienstleister geschasst wurde, prognostizierte, dass der Preis für CDs auf dem amerikanischen Markt künftig nur noch 10 US-Dollar betragen würde. Copeland, der für seinen Geschäftssinn berühmt ist, bezifferte den CD-Preis der Zukunft auf dann lediglich 5 US-Dollar, damit eine Trendwende zum Guten angesichts sinkender Verkaufszahlen überhaupt möglich sei …

Eine weitere Prognose lautete: "The live act is going to be the future", mit der Folge, dass "Studio Animals" darüber ins Hintertreffen geraten würden. Da ein nicht unerheblicher Teil der Fachbesucher des Noorderslag/Eurosonic-Seminars nicht zuletzt durch die jährlichen Treffen von Yourope (dem europäischen Verband der großen etablierten Festivals) und The Network (dem paneuropäischen Verband für Konzertagenturen & Veranstalter) dem Konzertwesen beruflich verbunden ist, wurde jene Aussage nur allzu gerne von vielen Teilnehmern zur Kenntnis genommen.

Ein weiterer Höhepunkt für die Konzertbranche war die Verabschiedung des ETEP-Programms. ETEP steht für "European Talent Exchange Program" und beinhaltet ein loses Joint Venture verschiedener Interessensverbände und Gruppen mit dem Ziel, ein Förderprogramm für europäische Bands zu schaffen. So soll ihnen z. B. ermöglicht werden, auf europäischen Festivals aufzutreten und darüber hinaus entsprechende mediale Zusatzmaßnahmen jenseits des Heimatlandes in Anspruch zu nehmen. Das ETEP-Programm 2003 wird unterstützt vom Niederländischen Kulturfond und ist eine Initiative des Noorderslag/Eurosonic-Seminars. Als Partner wurden die bereits genannten Organisationen Yourope und The Network sowie die niederländische Gruppe des IMMF (International Music Managers Forum) und die EBU (European Broadcasting Union) ins Boot geholt. Im Zentrum des Förderprogramms steht ein Pool ausgewählter Bands und Künstler. Teilnehmende Festivals, die Yourope angehören, verpflichten sich, jeweils einen Auftritt einer Band aus dem Pool im Rahmen ihrer Veranstaltung zu realisieren.

Dafür erhält das Festival eine entsprechende Vergütung. Zuvor aber muss der Festivalveranstalter eine entsprechende Summe in ETEP einbringen, um anschließend von ETEP Unterstützung für die Band in Anspruch nehmen zu können. Die der EBU angeschlossenen Sender unterstützen die in Frage kommenden Bands durch die Aufzeichnung eines Konzertmitschnitts beziehungsweise durch Werbung für die Künstler. Aus Deutschland wurden die Bands Console und Slut bereits für den Bandpool berücksichtigt. Das Interesse seitens der Veranstalter war bereits während des Noorderslag/Eurosonic-Seminars äußerst groß und es gibt Veranstalter, die auf Anhieb bis zu drei Bands aus dem Pool für ihr diesjähriges Festival gebucht haben.

Alles in allem markiert dass Noorderslag/Eurosonic-Seminar die Auftaktveranstaltung für den alljährlichen Messereigen. Insgesamt gaben mehr als 100 Bands ein Gastspiel und fast alle Veranstaltungen erfreuten sich großen Zuspruchs. Die norwegische Band Kaizers Orchestra darf getrost als interessantester Tipp gewertet werden, da sich zahlreiche Fachbesucher begeistert über den Auftritt der Band zeigten. Gewinner des alljährlichen verliehenen holländischen Popprijs war der Trance- und Progressive-DJ Tiesto aus Breda, der bereits nach Einschätzung des britischen "DJ-Magazine" zum "weltbesten DJ 2002" ausgelobt wurde.

Eurosonic has now become the European showcase festival for up-and-coming bands and artists, and the EBU is at the heart of it.

The European pop music scene is absolutely buoyant these days, and "border breakers" are becoming something to be reckoned with on the music scene. The Festival offers the perfect opportunity to give audiences access to promising European new talent, thanks to the pivotal support of EBU broadcasters.

On Friday, 10 January 2003, 20 EBU stations will support 24 acts to perform at the Festival: BBC Radio 1 (United Kingdom), RTBF Radio21 (Belgium), SR P3 (Sweden), SER Los 40 Principales (Spain), ARD/MDR Sputnik (Germany), VRT Studio Brussel (Belgium), Radio France Le Mouv' (France), NRK Petre (Norway), RAI Radio 2 (Italy), YLE Radiomafia (Finland), NPB 3FM (Netherlands), DR P3 (Denmark), RDP Antena 3 (Portugal), RUV RAS2 (Iceland), ERSL 100.7 (Luxemburg), RSR Couleur3 (Switzerland), SR Radio Rock FM (Slovakia), ORF FM4 (Austria), Magyar Radio (Hungary), Teleradio Moldova (Moldova).

NPB/Netherlands, VRT/Belgium, ARD-NDR/Germany and SR/Sweden will collaborate technically for the production and the broadcast of the event on the EBU satellite. The transmisision will begin at 19h00 GMT (20h00 CET) and will finish at 02h00 GMT (03H00 CET) on Ravel channel.

All involved believe that there is a great deal of good music coming out of European countries and that it is not heard enough. Thanks to this unique collaboration among broadcasters, organizers, artists and record companies, the Eurosonic Festival is the ideal platform to discover new talent.

Broadcasters and artists
ORF/FM4 (Austria) - GARISH
VRT/STUDIO BRUSSELS (Belgium) - NEEKA, SUKILOVE
- RTBF/RADIO 21 (Belgium) - PERRY ROSE
DR/P3 (Denmark) - THE RAVEONETTES, JUNIOR SENIOR
MDR/SPUTNIK (Germany) - SLUT
YLE/RADIOMAFIA (Finland) - THE FLAMING SIDEBURNS
RADIO FRANCE/LE MOUV' (France) - DIONYSOS
MR (Hungary) - NYERS
RUV/RAS2 (Iceland) - APPARAT ORGAN QUARTET
RAI/RADIO DUE (Italy) - VERDENA
100.7 (Luxembourg) - ZAPZOO
TELERADIO-MOLDOVA (Moldova) - CHAIR
NPB/NOS3FM (Netherlands) - LAIDBACK LUKE
NRK/P3 (Norway) - XPLODING PLASTIX
RDP/ANTENA 3 (Portugal) - BLASTED MECHANISM
SK/RADIO ROCK FM (Slovakia) - SONIA
SER/LOS 40 PRINCIPALES (Spain) - SIDONIE, OJOS DE BRUJO
SR/P3 (Sweden) - PARKER, MANDO DIAO
RSR/COULEUR3 (Switzerland) - MAGIC RAYS
BBC/RADIO 1 (United Kingdom) - MISS BLACK AMERICA