#012 WME Booking Agent on clubs, festivals, Ticketmaster, and Kneecap (Steve Hogan)

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Is the club scene dead? Have festivals killed it? Or are festivals themselves in terminal decline? Or is everything actually doing great in live music, humming along nicely with a rosy future?

These are questions inexpertly pondered in the usual morass of music discussion, but on this week’s episode we are graced with real expertise on the subject.

Steve Hogan is a partner and senior agent at one of the world’s biggest talent agencies - WME - who looks after acts including Pete Tong, Eric Prydz, and Groove Armada.

He's a twenty-year veteran at the company who has seen it all in the live sector and particularly the electronic side of it.

We address the aforementioned questions, as well as discussing the role of the agent in an artist’s career, ticketing and the role of Ticketmaster, and we also get into the topical question of politics in music and the specific example of Kneecap.

Strap in for some expert opinion!

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Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Music Not Diving Podcast Spotify playlist

Chapters:

00:00 Intro and how you can support the show

04:30 Big hitters

08:40 State of the club scene

12:22 Super clubs changing the landscape

16:05 Relationship between fans and artists

20:44 Growing organically

21:55 Keeping one foot in clubland

22:46 Clubs are the lifeblood of what we do

27:17 We’re all still clubbers at heart

29:27 Techno at 195bpm

30:16 On Keinemusik

31:27 Martin Garrix and fireworks

32:10 On UKG resurgence

34:46 London is the leader

35:51 The pros and cons of festivals

40:48 Cost of living crisis

45:30 Balancing the needs of the artist

46:26 Artist integrity

48:30 Politics and music

52:40 Ticket prices and hidden costs

01:02:36 Live bands vs. DJing

1:06:45 Fish56Octagon

1:08:48 TikTok in the industry

1:12:05 Nightmare scenarios

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