Is the club scene dead? Have festivals killed it? Or are festivals themselves in terminal decline? Or is everything actually… View all

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!
-
00:00 Intro
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


Music Not Diving is supported by AC55ID... head over to https://www.acidnation.com to check out the fastest growing electronic music marketplace, a central hub for music discovery, streaming and purchasing!
And for artists and labels... use the code Scuba6 for six months free use of the platform!!

Listen to all 150+ of our podcast episodes: https://scubaofficial.io/podcast

Register FOR FREE at https://www.patreon.com/scubaofficial to have every episode and bonus content delivered to your inbox!

You can also donate to the show over at https://scubaofficial.io/support

Join our Discord server: https://www.hotflushrecordings.com/discord

Reddit going live shortly...

#podcast #musicindustry #techno View less