netvibes.com Maureen Smith’s Music Industry Blog Presents — Follow up of Billboard Touring Conference and Awards 2008

Maureen Smith’s Music Industry Blog Presents — Follow up of Billboard Touring Conference and Awards 2008 maureensmithwe.blogspot.com/

Maureen Smith, Talent Agent, Music Industry Management Consultant and President/CEO of White Eagle Music Promotions presents coverage and story after attending the Billboard Touring Conference New York, New York as a Talent Agent and Concert Industry Delegate. She met with several key industry concert promoters, including Gene Simmons and Greg Allman of the Allman Brothers in addition to attending the panels,and awards. Heres what she had to say.

Toronto, Ontario (Billboard Publicity Wire) December 5, 2008 — While attending the 5th Annual Billboard Touring Conference, at the Roosevelt Hotel, in New York city, I met several people in the concert industry; concert promoters, buyers and venue owners , including the CEO’s from LIVE NATION, AEG LIVE. Also, I had the pleasure of meeting Gregg Allman from the Allman Brothers Band, and Gene Simmons, KISS co-founder, reality TV star , entrepreneur and the Keynote speaker at the conference after his presentation on November 20, 2008.

While I had initially only intended to stay for the first few minutes of Gene Simmons presentation, I ended up staying for the whole thing, literally sitting on the edge of my seat as he captured my non-stop attention with much laughter, respect and admiration for the entire presentation, and secondly meeting Gene Simmons for a brief meeting and discussion afterwards , much to my surprise.

Simmons commanded the respect and attention of his audience instantly,
with his gravitating powerful stage presence, voice, energy, humor, wit, legendary successes and history as co-founder with the KISS band.

He spoke to the concert industry at large on branding and marketing, what it takes to build an incredible tour, from thinking out of the box, being innovative and creative with regards to taking your band on tour, merchandising, creative licensing and marketing ideas, starting with a powerful DVD presentation.

Simmons talked of an upcoming future European tour with , possibly with KISS and QUEEN in the near future, and the value of business trade marks.

He warned the audience that it would not be wise to lower the price of concert tickets.

“You need to have the integrity and self-respect to respect the promoter who paid you the money in advance, the hall and the people who makes all our lives possible,” he continued. “Don’t do that, you’re training an entire generation of people to pay less for something and then more for something else,” he said. “They won’t know what the value is and they’d rather pay less every time.” He also referred to the decline in CD sales, and the low costs of CDs. “The record industry allowed that and people are shocked they’re out of business.”

Gene Simmons talked about commanding respect and integrity for your work, of which everyone deserves to be paid for their worth in business and work. In our meeting after the presentation, I personally asked him for his prices. He told me his consulting fees were $2,000,000 per year to work with a record label. I believe he is worth
what ever he charges, for the milestones he has achieved with the KISS band, sales of over 70 million CD’s, TV show, and entrepreneurial success! What an inspiration!

Maureen Smith, Talent Agent, president of White Eagle Music Promotions & Agency is now currently discussing with his management office, possibilities of booking him to speak to the Canadian Music Industry this upcoming March 2009, as the keynote speaker of Canadian Music Week.

TOURING INDUSTRY AWARDS
Allman Brothers
I also met with Gregg Allman, singer and band leader after the awards.
The Allman Brothers Band , won an award for the Legend of Live Band in the concert industry.

Other big winners were Bon Jovi, The Spice Girls, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Kenny Chesney and Miley Cyrus.