Sam Hunt, Windish Agency; Maria May, CAA; A-Trak, DJ/Fool's Gold; Lee Anderson, AM Only; Houston Powell, C3 Presents; Adam Russakoff, Ultra Muisc Festival; Brett Williams, Monotone.
REPORTING FROM BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. — The global market promised by the Internet is here. Emerging markets have emerged. Stops in South America or Asia are now showing up in the route book earlier and earlier and not just being tacked on to the end of a tour.
More than anything, what’s changed the game and made international live music shows possible, portable and profitable, is electronic dance music (EDM). “Dance music eliminates the language barrier,” said Lee Anderson, VP East Coast/agent, AM Only, who moderated a panel discussion called “Emerging Markets For Fun & Profit” at the Billboard Touring Conference & Awards, Nov. 10, held at the SLS Beverly Hills Hotel. “EDM has led the way toward the worldwide integration of music.”
“When my DJ career took off, there was very little musically in common between other parts of the world and North America,” said A-Trak, DJ/Producer and owner of Fool’s Gold Records. “There was a disconnect between what North American music fans listened to and their worldwide counterparts. EDM really changed that.”
“Asia is huge now and has become a focal point of EDM,” he said. “The internet, music blogs and ‘My Space’ era really homogenized the divide. Now I can fly across the world and the audience is listening to the same stuff we’re listening to here in the States.”
“The plan used to be North America and Europe, and then we’d find a way to fit in Asia or South America,” said Houston Powell, C3. “But now a lot of acts prioritize South America and Asia and they are not an afterthought. We now announce on an international level.”
“The more connected everyone has become and the more homogenized the markets have become, have turned the industry into a global world,” said agent Sam Hunt, Windish Agency. “There is no difference between a promoter in Korea and a promoter in Kansas. A promoter doing a good job in Bangladesh, India, is the same as a promoter doing a good job in Chicago.”
Today’s international landscape is quite different than it was just a few years ago. The advent of the internet and quick file-sharing has changed the way everyone in the music business is doing business.
“When I first started, I worked for Paul Oakenfold, who was one of the first superstar DJs,” said agent Maria May, Creative Artist Agency. “There was no internet then, no email, and everything had to be done by phone and fax. It was pretty crazy. Today I can contact someone on the other side of the world, shoot them an email and they’ll respond immediately. The technology advances have revolutionized the way I can do business with overseas partners.”
Rule one in traveling the tour to untapped and often untested international markets, is understanding that you don’t go into a foreign market without local help.
“You want to find the right local partners,” said Powell. “They know how to market there. They will help you pick out the best venue. Finding the right venue is critical.”
“With any market, it’s the promoter that’s instrumental,” said Hunt. “A show can happen anywhere with the right promoter. The local promoters know the local laws, know how to approach health and safety and know the terrain so there are no surprises.”
“When you have a partner you work well with, you want to further that partnership,” said Brett Williams, Monotone. “Tour cycles have grown. You now have to pencil in doing the U.S., doing the U.K., doing Asia; the tour cycle is now 18 months long. The international markets are as important as Los Angeles. Along the way these cities come along and say ‘come develop this market.’”
“Be careful who you work with,” said Powell. “It’s the worst when you show up, and it’s not what you were told. We send an advance team to every country.”
“Managing expectations is vital,” said Anderson. “Under promise, overproduce.”
Proof that electronic music travels well can be seen in Lollapalooza, said Powell. “We got the Lollapalooza brand in 2005. It had been a touring festival for some time, but we decided to make it a destination festival and have it play only in Chicago. Since we had the brand, and only wanted it to play one time a year in Chicago, we thought we’d look for opportunities around the world for it. Stuff translates across borders now, and there is a real thirst for international music.”
Because the brand was known in South America, they tried Chile first. It’s now in its seventh year there. “So we added Brazil, then Argentina, and once we got our feet on the ground in South America, we went into Europe,” Powell said. “We’ve done two years in Berlin and then the U.K. and Paris. Find the right market; find the right piece of real estate; find the right weekend on the calendar.”
The challenge in South America is that there are no tour buses. You fly everywhere.
“We had back-to-back shows in Chile and Argentina so we were loading out bands on a Friday in Buenos Aries (Argentina) on trucks, on pallets, into cargo planes and waiting for the last act to finish so we could load out that show,” he said. “The flight took off at 4:30 a.m. and landed in Santiago (Chile) at 7:30. We had to go through customs and get the show started at 11 a.m.”
Finding out the local customs and laws are critical. “In Japan it’s illegal to dance in certain places” Williams noted. “In South Africa there is a law that radio stations must play 90 percent South African artists. You really need to research this so you don’t plan for something that you can’t do.”
The panel agreed that Russia and the Mideast were places with so many restrictions that putting on an event there is nearly impossible.
Another big part of the new international live music business is merchandising. “Merchandising can happen anywhere,” said A-Trak. “I hate doing interviews, but if I do one, and I wear a Fool’s Gold T-shirt, I’ll get stores that want to carry that T-shirt for years after. That turns into quite a bit of revenue.”
“We look for first mover in markets,” said Adam Russakoff, Ultra Music Festival. “When we looked into expanding our brand, we decided we didn’t want to compete in the US market. We saw so much opportunity outside the US.”
Sometimes, the cost seems steep but is worth it down the road. “It’s rewarding to see the bands or DJs develop in these new markets,” Hunt said. “It’s expensive to go down there. Sometimes you have to convince the artist it’s better to make less money but develop the market.”
“You feel excitement in the air playing international to a crowd that usually doesn’t get American artists,” said A-Trak. “You can play one show which will set you up for the next 10 years.”
Booking local acts is crucial. “Local artists help promote the show,” said Williams.
“Sometimes we bring the future overseas,” said Hunt. “I’ll now bring a fresh artist to an international market before even trying to crack the U.S.; it’s a way to gauge how wide the artist’s appeal can be.”
As for finding the next big markets, Hunt said, “There are always more countries you can look at, but you need to ask yourself, ‘does it make sense and is it safe?’”
According to the panel, the next big market is India. “India is starting to pop,” said May. “It’s a huge market.” Despite the excitement over a huge untouched market, the panel cautioned anyone looking to break free from North America to be sure to do your homework and not dive into anything too quickly.
“You’ve got to look at limiting factors like your capacity to take on more work,” said Powell. “Gradual expansion where it makes sense is more important than breaking a new market. You want to make sure everything you do, you do well.”
In some ways, opening the international gates has made life a little harder for DJs. “It’s harder to get that special song because we all have the same internet” said A-Trak. “I’m going to the same place to look for new music as a kid in China.”
Interviewed for this story: A-Trak, (347) 294-4139; Lee Anderson, (718) 237-2428; Sam Hunt, (773) 489-3500; Maria May, (424) 288-2000; Houston Powell, (512) 478-7211; Adam Russakoff, (866) 433-4594