Music Futures forecast: Daryl Robinson

Generator’s Music Futures conference in Newcastle next week (Thursday 17 November), is set to feature the most innovative minds in the music business today. In the build up to the event, Paul Reed caught up with Daryl Robinson, MD of National Promotions at Mean Fiddler as part of the MAMA Group and also a live promoter in the North East at Eastside Events.

Drawing on over 20 years of experience in the live music industry, Daryl reflects on the changes that social media has brought to promoting shows: “Years ago, you would book a show, put it on-sale and stand on the streets handing flyers out. Now, with a Facebook update you can reach all of these people with one click. We’re in the middle of the change cycle. But the downside of this is that people are inundated, Facebook is set to become the next junk mail”.

As a result of such white noise on the Internet, he goes on to say that: “People are going to have to get more savvy about the Internet and where to advertise. Venue databases and e-flyers can sell tickets because they are targeted- you don’t get any targeting with Facebook”.

Daryl continues: “Relationships that promoters have with bands, managers and agents are getting more important. The band’s own website is important in selling to people already interested. The question is how to sell tickets to the non-converted. Are Reverb Nation and Songkick really engaging people in the same way that Myspace initially did, enabling artists to build careers?”

Does the future of artist development therefore depend on combining new media and more traditional ways of promoting?

“Yes. Look at an artist like Ed Sheeran. He was good at connecting with the fans online and linking to musical collaborations that he’d done. But crucially, he went out and played and played and played, building up in fanbase in a very traditional way. I’m more interested in artists like that. Enter Shikari have taken the DIY ethic a step further and dispensed with promoters entirely, they promote their own shows”.

So, has the role of live promoter been displaced by such developments?

“Not really. The events that I’ve done with bands like The Futureheads have involved the band and are essentially a co-promotion but bands can’t do everything- you can’t be doing a settlement whilst you’re onstage”.

Speaking about the inversion of the traditional album and tour cycle, Daryl says: “It’s the other way around now. Bands make an album in order to go on tour. Bands are reliant on touring and merchandise as a main source of income”.

So, how important are events such as Music Futures in giving advice and insight to start ups in the region?

“It's important in giving people an understanding of the industry. A lot of people think that they know and are going to become the next Simon Moran (MD of SJM Concerts) or whatever but if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it. And it is getting harder. So, it's important to give people encouragement but also for them to realise the limitations involved”.

He concludes: “The key is to know your market and come up with something unique. The thing that I really like about my team of promoters at Mean Fiddler is that they are all specialists and have unique knowledge of their markets”.

You can find out more about Eastside Events and forthcoming shows here.

Read all about Generator’s Music Futures here. BPI Chairman and Generator Board Member Tony Wadsworth will deliver the keynote at the event and Daryl will be speaking on the ‘Is Live Music Future Proof?’ panel.