Panel Report:
The Indie Promoter's Edge
Moderator
Frank Riley High Road Touring
Brad Garrett Police Productions
Arny Granat Jam Productions
Michael Gudinski Frontier Touring
Jon Stoll Fantasma Productions
Henning Toegel Moderne Welt

The independent promoters annual panel went global in 2007 with the addition of European and Aus-tralian colleagues, who increasingly face the same challenges as their American counterparts from inter-national companies like Live Nation and AEG.

Frontier Touring's Michael Gudinski and Moderne Welt's Henning Toegel brought a fresh perspective to a panel that sometimes suffers from a plethora of complaints about the gorillas of the business.

In fact, the tone of the group seemed to be one of acceptance that international promoters are here to stay and it's their job to maintain their natural edge and exploit it if they are going to compete with the big boys.

While there are territorial and other differences between promoting shows in the U.S. and Europe, Toegel and Gudinski showed that the independent edge is universal.

"Independents are more clever, flexible and creative with venues," the German promoter said. "The difference is being able to bring the artist to the audience instead of the audience to the artist. The independent can go to an agent or manager and say, `This act is better treated by me.'"

Gudinski also pointed out that while the advantages of being an indie are similar, so are some of the challenges created by worldwide touring.

"We do mostly national tours in Australia and New Zealand," Gudinski said. "We keep talking about Live Nation and AEG like petrol companies - the big guys will always be there. Loyalty is going away. Austrialia is used as a breaking market, but record companies no longer have the power they used to.

"We used to have to beg the record companies to get us interviews when an artist went on tour. Now they're begging us for interviews," he continued.

Gudinksi also talked about the promoter's role in artist development. "It's all about career and longevity. We've now done three tours with Snow Patrol - we're seeing three tours on a single album now. Maroon 5 broke that open."

As an agent, moderator Frank Riley of High Road Touring may have seemed the odd man out on a panel of promoters, but he pointed out one important similarity.

"I'm nothing but independent, that's for sure," Riley said. "The proliferation of bands, the number of people who are on the road and the pile of business that's out there and competition for those dollars affects me, too." That proliferation of bands also coincides with what Riley termed a "fragmentation of entertainment culture."

The task for Riley and other agents has become putting a coherent tour together in that fragmented environment. At the same time, there are new opportunites for promoters to influence artist development, routing tours and even deciding when to tour.

Police Productions' Brad Garrett warmed up to that suggestion. "Whenever I can, I like to have some input," he said. "My company does an awful lot of developmental artists. There's a lot of factors for the artists, down to the time frame they go out, the size of the venue, whether it's a tertiary or major market.

"Any number of things can screw up an emerging artist tour. As an indie, I try to have as much impact as i can, not just because it makes more money but because it's good for the artist."

Jam Productions' Arny Granat gave an example of where he would like promoters to have more influence: The onsale. "I'd like to be able to talk about onsale dates. All these dates go on sale on Saturday morning. Monday is better than Saturday. But unless we create an event, we don't have much influence when tickets go on sale."

One area of concern was commu-nication between managers, agents and promoters. Several panelists complained about tours aimed at the same market coming through a town within days of each other.

Fantasma Productions' Jon Stoll gave one specific example. "I was working The Killers and two days later AEG brings in My Chemical Romance. Then, Live Nation brings Fall Out Boy. Nobody checked the traffic.

"The Killers had onsales already, so we were OK. But if Fall Out Boy's managers knew My Chemical Romance and The Killers were all coming within a week, they would have thought twice," Stoll said.

All panelists agreed that regardless of the financial might their corporate cousins may have, independent promoters have the edge of simply being local and passionate. Having the extra motivation of digging into one's own wallet to promote a show doesn't hurt, either.

"One advantage we have is you, as an artist, know who you are dealing with," Granat emphasized. "You're not dealing with bean counters, ties or suits. We at Jam recently got involved in Nashville with Outback Productions. Michael Smardak got involved with country comedy and found a niche. Danny Zelisko is one of the the best promoters out there. These guys know their markets and they are usually right on the money. If you're dealing with Jam it will be me or Jerry. Local marketing, local knowledge. The personal touch."

Garrett summed it all up quite nicely.

"There's plenty of business for indies. If you you are creative, adapt your own model. The bottom line is, you can never discount that I'm risking my own capital. Wake up every morning knowing it's your capital. It gives you an edge. Indies will never go away."

Deborah Speer