Organized by Ritholz Levy Sanders Chidekel & Fields LLPOnce upon a time, an artist went on a tour for an album cycle, promoting one album for as long as the charts or their label would support it. Along the way, they might play a handful of one off festival dates, mostly in Europe. Today, music festival season is a global, almost year round, industry. Artist, management, label and legal interests are still competing, but the forum for competition has changed. Multi-day, multi-stage events are now dominating the live music scene over tours, based on exposure to fans and potential for artist guarantee over what they’d receive for a regular concert date. Festivals can sell out before the artists are announced, giving the fests themselves a position of buying power that buyers didn’t have when live music was focused on touring alone. Artists can’t announce tours or certain dates, and have to contend with extensive radius clauses, in order to play the music festivals.
Live music is now a community-based, full-spectrum experience of entertainment, luxury listening, artist/fan relationships and social connectivity.
This CLE panel discussion to include: the legal deal points and how they are changing each year due to expansion and consolidation; force majeure clauses post Sugarland; the annual “additional insured” debate each festival seems destined to have with the artists; the impact of the recent bankruptcy of SFX and others; the independent festival promoters merging or staying solo; the deal points agents are using to balance touring business versus festival business; and how managers are managing with this much change to the industry at once.
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