Leading independent Earth Agency has added Matthew Cooper and Harvey Dent from Candy Artists to its growing team.

The move follows the recent arrival of Eleanor McGuinness, Duncan Smith and Arthur Janssen to Earth from Playbook.

“It’s been a busy but exciting time welcoming these brilliant independent agents on board and we are incredibly excited about the synergy and artist rosters they bring with them,” says Earth Agency co-founder Claire Courtney.

Cooper began his agency career at 13 Artists nearly 15 years ago before co-founding Candy Artists in May 2020. He brings a client roster including Dry Cleaning, The Orielles, Bodega, Protomartyr, The Bug Club and Honesty.

“I’m delighted to be joining such a future-facing agency that champions diversity and innovation across its roster,” says Cooper. “I’m excited to build something meaningful here, working with some great people who approach music and the industry in a way that aligns with my thinking.

“The team here are working on some incredible artists, and I look forward to helping them develop as much as building my own roster. I believe Earth can offer a genuine alternative for those artists looking for independent representation.”

“We have always been a very broad agency in terms of the types of artists we represent”

Candy Artists will continue to operate as an artist and producer management company.

“I am incredibly proud of what we built at Candy and look forward to seeing how Helena Watmuff, co-founder of Candy, develops the company over the next few years,” adds Cooper. “The management roster is in a strong place, and I know it will continue to grow and push boundaries. I’m thrilled to have that roster welcomed as part of the Earth family.”

London-based Earth Agency, which celebrated a decade in business last year, represents over 450 artists, spanning a broad spectrum of genres. It was co-founded by four female agents: Courtney, Isla Angus, Naomi Palmer and Rebecca Prochnik, alongside head of operations Luke Williamson in 2014.

“We have always been a very broad agency in terms of the types of artists we represent, and it really feels as though the energy and investment we have funnelled over the years into talent at both artist and agent level is gathering momentum” says Palmer.

Williamson adds: “We are incredibly proud to provide a strong agency platform for these well-respected agents.”

Revisit IQ‘s anniversary feature on ten years of Earth Agency here.

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London, Dublin and Berlin-based Booking agency PlayBook Artists is to close after its three co-founders announced they will be moving on to separate agencies.

Eleanor McGuinness, Nikita Lavrinenko and Paul McGivern set up PlayBook in 2021, having previously worked for Pitch & Smith (P&S). McGuinness will be joining the team at Earth Agency, McGivern is returning to P&S, while Lavrinenko is launching new agency Signal & Wave.

“Over the last four years we’ve built something really great together but now felt like the right time to join forces with other agencies and wrap up things on a high note at PlayBook,” says McGuinness, who started her career in the Dublin music scene in the early 2000s.

PlayBook agents Duncan Smith and Arthur Janssen will join her in making the switch to Earth Agency, with their respective clients joining each agent at their new homes.

“We have long admired Eleanor, Duncan, and Arthur’s work at PlayBook Artists,” says Earth co-founder Claire Courtney. “They are tasteful, principled, and professional agents and we are honoured they’ve decided that Earth Agency is the best home for them.”

“While we all embark on exciting new ventures that are the right next steps individually for each of us, we will carry the spirit of what we built”

McGivern who works with artists such as Cut Copy, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, GOOSE, Lambchop, The Magic Numbers and This Is the Kit, says: “It’s been exciting to create an agency from scratch with such talented people, and while we all embark on exciting new ventures that are the right next steps individually for each of us, we will carry the spirit of what we built.”

Stefan Juhlin of P&S hails McGivern’s “unparalleled work ethos, experience and strong roster”, adding that it makes him a “fantastic addition to the Pitch & Smith team”.

“We have known him for a very long time and have always loved working with him, so we are confident he will make a fantastic impact,” says Juhlin.

Lavrinenko’s current roster includes Angel Olsen, Rodrigo Amarante, The Weather Station, Jenny Hval, Lido Pimienta and Clarissa Connelly.

“My time at PlayBook has been an incredible experience, and I’m deeply grateful for everything we’ve accomplished together,” he says. “As I look ahead, I’m excited to embrace new opportunities, explore fresh ideas, and create something new.”

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ATC Live has announced the appointment of agent Lucy Atkinson and the promotion of Alice Hogg to a newly created role.

Having started as an assistant at Earth Agency in 2015, Atkinson has built her reputation from the ground up, developing several globally influential acts.

Her 30-strong roster of artists includes Sega Bodega, Erika de Casier, Alice Glass, Debby Friday, Soo Joo and Ecco2k, all of whom will move with her to ATC.

ATC says it will also benefit from Atkinson’s “forward-thinking approach to talent development, encouraging her clients to break new ground beyond live performance”. She has helped broker several innovative brand campaigns, including Ecco2k with Bella Hadid for Marc Jacobs eyewear, Deijuvhs for Versace Jeans Couture, and a collaboration between sim0ne, ASOS and Mixmag at East London’s Colour Factory.

“We’re delighted to welcome Lucy and her artists to the company,” says ATC chief Alex Bruford. “Lucy shares our commitment to deliver the best possible results for artists while maintaining respect for all involved. She has developed an outstanding roster through her tenacious yet personable approach, and the entire team are all incredibly excited to work with her.”

Atkinson adds: “I am super excited to begin this new chapter with my roster at ATC Live. I am really energised by the environment and shared ethos, providing me a place where I can continue to work with groundbreaking artists.”

“I am really energised by the environment and shared ethos”

Meanwhile, former agent Hogg has been promoted to a newly created role as head of tour marketing.

The new department will maximise fan engagement, with tailored marketing strategies across pricing, ticketing and all promotional activities.

Hogg has 15 years of experience across all facets of the live music industry, from event production to talent booking. After stints at Live Nation and UTA, Hogg joined ATC in 2020 and developed a diverse roster of artists including Aaron Frazer, Black Pumas, Cassandra Jenkins, Durand Jones & The Indications, Joshua Idehen and Yuuf. Her roster will continue to be represented by ATC Live.

Commenting on Hogg’s “much deserved” promotion, Bruford says: “The decision to increase our resources around tour marketing is also significant and indicative of the growing range of services that ATC Live can offer our clients. With her wide ranging experience, Alice is the perfect candidate to launch the department and I am delighted we can help her progress in the next stage of her career.”

“In a digital age, tour marketing is one of the key components of a tour’s success”

Hogg comments: “I am thrilled to be stepping up to the position of head of tour marketing at ATC Live. In a digital age, tour marketing is one of the key components of a tour’s success and ensuring we have a proactive and tailored approach for our artists is absolutely paramount. I’m delighted to have found a position that supports our talented roster, and enables us to find even more creative ways to connect our artists with their fans.”

Founded in London in 2011, ATC Live is one of the world’s largest independent agencies, working with over 570 acts such as Amyl & The Sniffers, Adrianne Lenker, Big Thief, Black Country, New Road, Black Pumas, English Teacher, Faye Webster, Fontaines D.C., Good Neighbours, Jamie Webster, Jungle, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, Royel Otis, Squid, Sleaford Mods, The Lumineers and Yard Act.

ATC Live is part of the ATC Group of companies, alongside divisions in artist management and artist services including merchandising, e-commerce, live streaming, event promotion and experiences.

Alice Hogg will moderate the Tour Marketing: The Industry’s Secret Weapon at next week’s ILMC Futures Forum, while Alex Bruford will moderate Festival Focus: Survive & Thrive.

Tickets for ILMC Futures Forum are still available here.

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At its heart, the story of the first decade of Earth Agency is one of a forward-thinking business consistently ahead of the curve. It is now ten years since four female agents – Claire Courtney, Isla Angus, Naomi Palmer, and Rebecca Prochnik – united with Luke Williamson to form the company, which has managed to stay on the cutting edge every step of the way.

“We’re not a small major, but neither are we a big boutique agency,” muses Williamson over lunch with IQ in London. “We have 400 artists, 18 agents, and we do eight-figure sales on behalf of artists, so we’re not at the scale of a UTA or WME or Wasserman, but we have headliners, we have people capable of doing 20,000-cap tours, and a lot of emerging acts. If you ask around the industry, you’ll get different opinions, but I think we’re known as an agency that curates talent.”

Williamson, Palmer, and Prochnik decided to branch off on their own after growing disillusioned in their previous workplace at the now defunct Elastic Artists.

“It was slowly becoming clear that the company that Rebecca and I had been at for ten years wasn’t moving progressively and helping us to address the way in which the live booking landscape was changing,” remembers Palmer.

“We felt like it wasn’t being managed in a way that was good for agents – particularly as agents became more senior,” adds Williamson. “During that whole process, it became evident that we needed to go and start our own thing. It was pretty rapid after that.”

Fleshing out the point, Earth Agency had already been up and running for 18 months when the founders’ worst fears about their former employer were realised, as Elastic Artists fell into administration in late 2015.

“We’re not financially targeted; it’s for agents to find their own financial targets”

“Ultimately, we left two years before it collapsed, so we were proven correct, and events conspired to accelerate the process of starting Earth,” says Williamson. “There was no one moment; there were a series of moments, and it was more of an evolutionary process.”

When Planets Align
The trio became a quintet after enlisting Courtney and Angus from Nomanis to officially launch Earth in May 2014.

“We got a call one day from Rebecca, Luke, and Naomi, who asked if we wanted to form a company with them,” explains Courtney. “We all shared the same values of wanting to remain independent and trying to find a nice balance between not being stuck in the office all hours that god sends but still being able to deliver a really good service for our artists. We went from it just being the five of us, to eight, to 12, to 20-something now, which I still find quite astounding.”

Attaining that work-life balance was central to Earth’s pledge to offer a “fresh agency environment for both artists and agents.”

“The industry talks a lot about mental health issues but doesn’t necessarily address its own role in that,” opines Williamson. “So we’re not financially targeted; it’s for agents to find their own financial targets. If we think an agent is dynamic but isn’t necessarily making a huge amount of money, we’ll try and create a deal that works for them.”

“At the time, larger agencies were not keen on remote working,” says Palmer, who worked as an actors’ agent for eight years before switching to music. “We all had very young children and had a culture of remote working at our previous company, which worked really well, and we wanted to continue that.

“A lot of the companies we met wanted us in the office from 10-6 or 9-5, but that just wasn’t an option. We were doing great business with our model, and we knew we could continue to do great business that way. We’ve had people working from all over the world – and successfully – in the last 10 years.”

“We just steamed in and did what we needed to do”

In certain respects, ignorance was bliss when it came to getting Earth off the ground.

“It wasn’t hugely complicated – because we didn’t know what we were doing,” laughs Williamson, a former musician turned ops specialist. “It’s that Dunning-Kruger [effect] of when you don’t know how complicated something is, you approach it with quite high levels of confidence. We just steamed in and did what we needed to do.

“We were carrying a lot of ongoing bookings. It’s like a moving train: the booking process doesn’t stop, so you’re essentially taking your bookings off one train and moving them onto another while both trains are moving. But I think we were so busy with that that the rest of it just kind of had to happen around us.”

Earthlings
Palmer reels off a list of common characteristics she believes runs through the team.

“They are very independently minded, driven by elevating the culture, self-starters, usually a real specialist in one particular area, and very ambitious,” she says. “And quite quirky!”

The name, incidentally, was Palmer’s choice. “I just wanted something universal but really simple, and I really liked ‘Earth’ because people read into it what they want,” she says. “It’s a place where creatives can thrive.”

“I loved the fact that it was founded by four women”

Setting off with a mission statement of targeting “exciting and interesting” independent artists who “sit outside the mainstream channels,” Earth’s opening address referenced the “somewhat outside-the-box” tastes of its creators. Be that as it may, the agency found itself at the forefront of the grime phenomenon in the latter half of the 2010s.

“A lot of people think of Earth Agency and think of Skepta because his meteoric rise in our early years – out of a scene that was as explosive as that one was – is not seen often,” reflects Palmer. “Maybe that overshadowed a lot of the other work that was being done, but that’s always the case when something is very explosive like that.”

“When we started, there were only seven or eight of us and four agents in relatively distinct genres. We’re a much broader church than that now,” offers Williamson. “In some cases, Earth is going to offer a platform for developing agents that other agencies just won’t, because they don’t have the required roster value. A significant subset of our agents are people who’ve come through from being assistants in the beginning.”

Lucy Atkinson, who started out at Earth in 2015 as Palmer’s assistant and is now agent for the likes of Erika de Casier and Sega Bodega, is one of many to have taken that route.

Lass-tronauts
“I loved the fact that it was founded by four women, and I harassed them for about six months before getting a job there,” reminisces Atkinson. “Eventually, I got an email; I remember it said, ‘Earth calling’ from Luke. He was like, ‘I think we’ve got a job for you,’ and I was stoked. When I moved to Earth, it was always with the intention that I would be released as a full agent, and I really felt like they gave me a lot of space to grow and to do that.

“When I approach new artists, I always let them know that we are independent to the core, and that’s not changing. We’re one of the largest independents with a good infrastructure. I don’t know how it’s perceived from the outside, maybe that we’re a little bit rebellious? We’re definitely a bit rebellious and off the beaten path. The artists that we work with might not have fitted elsewhere, but we give them somewhere where they can be themselves and thrive.”

“We have headliners, but they’re a reasonably fractional part of our business”

The current Earth roster includes acts such as Sega Bodega, Death in Vegas, Bad Gyal, Buzzcocks, Gilles Peterson, James Holden, The Zombies, WSTRN, MJ Cole, M1llionz, BNXN, Lisa O’Neill, Aluna, Balmorhea, and KRS-ONE. Williamson, however, prefers to focus on the collective.

“We have headliners, but they’re a reasonably fractional part of our business,” he emphasises. “Most of the work we do is with people who are a little bit underneath that tier but are creatives with successful touring portfolios. They might not be playing 20,000 to 30,000-cap venues, but they might consistently be playing 500 to 3,000- caps – and that’s kind of the point. There has to be an agency that is available to that part of the ecosystem. So to focus on individual artist successes would be to miss the point slightly.”

Its ways of thrashing out deals can occasionally be unorthodox, as detailed by a memorable encounter between Earth agents Sam Gill and Ben Haslett and The Great Escape team.

“We’re based in Somerset House, so in the summer, there’s gigs, and in the winter, there’s an ice rink,” says Haslett. “We had a meeting with The Great Escape, so you had Adam Ryan, the head booker, on the ice.

Obviously, no one was great at skating, but we were trying to go around in circles and slow down next to him while he was holding onto the side.”

“While we were pitching artists,” chips in Gill. “Definitely out-of-the-box pitching, that.”

And did the unique approach have the desired result?

“Always,” grins Gill. “One hundred percent success rate.”

“People stay with Earth because we offer something bespoke in terms of both agents and artists, and I see that in action on a daily basis”

The Solar System
Haslett came up through the Earth system after being involved in his local DIY music scene, while Gill returned to independence following a spell with UTA.

“Becoming a dad, moving out of London and the rat race, and getting that work-life balance was something that I may have struggled with earlier in my career,” says Gill. “Earth has given me that creative freedom to take that into my own hands, and I appreciate that more than anything.”

Isla Angus became the first Earth founding partner to fly the nest, exiting for ATC Live in 2016. She has since left the agency world entirely and now works for environmental charity ClientEarth. In general, though, Williamson considers the prospect of key agents and artists moving on to be simply “part of the game.”

“I think that our retention of agents is largely very good,” he counters. “When the more senior agents leave, it tends to be because their roster is coming under pressure from the larger agencies. For me, that’s just part of the game – people move.

“People stay with Earth because we offer something bespoke in terms of both agents and artists, and I see that in action on a daily basis. I see senior agents being able to do things with their lives that they would not be able to do at one of the more corporate agencies, and loving it: taking two months out to finish the draft of their book and going to Portugal to do it; having a baby and not having to compromise their position with their roster; deciding that they want to move to another town or another country, and supporting them to do that.”

Un-Earthed
Nevertheless, Williamson describes the departure of Prochnik, who left for UTA in the autumn of 2021 (she has since switched to Wasserman Music), as “seismic.”

“I’ve been friends with her for a very long time,” he says. “It wasn’t entirely unexpected, and I guess the logic of it was understandable. It’s a shame it happened, but it happened. And like I say, Earth is about allowing people to define their own work-life balances. And if it wasn’t working for her within Earth, then it was right that she went.

“For the company, of course, it meant a regrouping. But this all happened in the context of the end of Covid. There were people leaving, but there were also people arriving at the same time, so two steps forward, one step back. Sometimes it is just about grinding it out.”

“We’re very open and very actively wanting to play a part in changing the future look of the executive level in the music industry”

While Williamson attests that Covid was a “nightmare” for the entire live music industry, Palmer can at least take one significant positive from the dark period.

“I think what sums up what Earth is all about is the fact that we came through that pandemic and didn’t have to lay anybody off,” she contends. “We survived and thrived after major changes to the structure of the company in terms of agents and personnel. Even through all of those challenges, we kept at the forefront of our raison d’être to keep pushing our artists and young professionals forward.”

Diversity is another central tenet, with Palmer stressing Earth has always strived to employ a “very diverse workforce.” Furthermore, it invests in company-wide schemes to encourage diverse potential candidates to join the team.

“We’re keen to give people from all different backgrounds a chance to progress and grow,” says Palmer. “We have our own activation, where we hold a brunch and put together an equal number of professionals from each part of the live music ecosystem and an even number of Black participants. Out of that, a mentor-mentee relationship may come, but everyone who takes part is then available to those participants, ad infinitum, for questions, advice, recommendations, and connections.

“We’re very open and very actively wanting to play a part in changing the future look of the executive level in the music industry.”

“Within our company, we always wanted to make sure it had balance,” agrees Courtney. “And not only around gender, but different cultures and backgrounds as well.”

“There’s still a bit of a boys’ club mentality out there, which we’re still cracking away at trying to break”

Having completed its first decade, Courtney is proud of Earth’s impact on the business, even if its work is far from done.

“A lot has changed, but there’s still quite a long way to go,” she says. “Obviously, there are more successful female agents now than there have ever been and that is great to see, but it’s still nowhere near the level that it is on the male scale. There’s still a bit of a boys’ club mentality out there, which we’re still cracking away at trying to break.”

The Blue Planet
And there are other areas where the industry has much to learn on the human side, with Palmer bringing up a recent example.

“I felt quite sad when one of our agents had a baby and two of her female artists left her because she wasn’t doing her job as well as they would have liked, when actually she was still on her email with a one-month-old baby,” she sighs. “Rebecca and I took no maternity leave whatsoever – I was back on that email and so was she, because she could not take the foot off the gas – and I feel like the industry is so aggressive now, they’ll use anything to go after your roster.

“We’ve been through it all: personal tragedy and grief, and you have to keep going. I found it kind of entertaining to go on those online panels during the pandemic. I remember one very well-known agent saying he now had a newfound respect for single, working parents because he was trying to work at home with his kids around, and it was an absolute nightmare.

“I don’t feel like any concessions are ever made for personal circumstances, but that’s probably true of all business, and certainly that ‘we’re all in this together,’ finished the second that venue diaries and festival bookings were back open [after the pandemic].”

“We don’t really think of people as working for us; they work with us”

Williamson considers Earth’s relationship with other agencies to be “largely friendly,” but laments that people tend to work in isolation within the sector.

“That’s a strange quirk of our industry,” he observes. “There’s a subtle, unspoken competition that seems to make people not want to talk to each other very much.”

Overall, Williamson considers there to be “real positives” and “relatively perennial negatives” to working as an independent.

“It’s just about finding the balance between those things,” he asserts. “We work for ourselves – that’s a really important thing to point out – and we allow the people who we work with also to work for themselves. We don’t really think of people as working for us; they work with us.

“For me, independence is also about respecting the ecosystem that you work in and trying to take a slightly longer-term view of the talent that is maturing within that, rather than trying to leverage it up to the maximum earning potential that you can, and then what happens next year? Who cares?”

If anything, Williamson believes it is slightly easier to operate as an independent now than when Earth first started out.

“There are more independents around, so I think it’s more acceptable,” he reckons. “The way that we operate probably seems less unusual than it did at the beginning.”

“Many artists and creatives just want to make a living out of doing things the way they want to do it, and we provide a home where that’s okay”

He continues: “We were traditionally a bit sceptical about making statements and took the view that an agency was a background entity. People were interested in artists, and who cares who dresses the shop window? But the next period is about taking our place a little bit more.

“I think that we offer a reasonably unique position within the ecosystem and have some things to say. Sometimes there’s a real lack of leadership in the music industry, so we’d like to come out from under our rock a little bit.”

Gravitational Pull
Palmer’s priorities revolve around “attracting more people with likeminded views and continuing to grow and retain headline artists down to grassroots artists.

“We also have an appreciation that it’s not every artist’s goal to be the massive touring headliner,” she adds. “Many artists and creatives just want to make a living out of doing things the way they want to do it, and we provide a home where that’s okay.”

With the final word, Courtney views Earth Agency still being around for its 10th anniversary as cause for celebration in itself.

“I don’t think people ever expected us to still be here,” she adds. “I know there was some negativity that we heard when we started, but we ignored all of that and had the drive, ambition, and goal to be a great place for people to work, without applying pressure to deliver. I never had any doubt in the fact we would still be here in 10 years’ time.”

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The founders of Earth Agency have reflected on the challenges of independence in 2024 in an interview with IQ.

Four female agents – Claire Courtney, Isla Angus, Naomi Palmer and Rebecca Prochnik – formed the London-based company with head of operations Luke Williamson in 2014.

A decade on, the company is still going strong and is profiled as part of IQ Magazine’s first indie special.

“I don’t think people ever expected us to still be here,” says Courtney. “There was some negativity that we heard when we started, but we ignored all of that and had the drive, ambition and goal to be a great place for people to work, without applying pressure to deliver.”

Williamson sums up Earth’s MO as “an agency that curates talent”.

“We work for ourselves – that’s a really important thing to point out – and we allow the people who we work with also to work for themselves,” he says. “We don’t really think of people as working for us; they work with us.

“For me, independence is also about respecting the ecosystem that you work in and trying to take a slightly longer-term view of the talent that is maturing within that, rather than trying to leverage it up to the maximum earning potential that you can.”

“The way that we operate probably seems less unusual than it did at the beginning”

Williamson sees “real positives” and “relatively perennial negatives” to independent life, and contends it is slightly easier to operate as an independent now than when Earth started out a decade ago.

“There are more independents around, so I think it’s more acceptable,” he says. “The way that we operate probably seems less unusual than it did at the beginning.”

Palmer suggests a common theme runs through the 18-strong agent team.

“They are very independently minded, driven by elevating the culture, self-starters, usually a real specialist in one particular area, and very ambitious,” she says. “And quite quirky!”

Earth invests in company-wide schemes to encourage diverse potential candidates to join the firm.

“Within our company, we always wanted to make sure it had balance,” notes Courtney. “And not only around gender, but different cultures and backgrounds as well.

“A lot has changed, but there’s still quite a long way to go. Obviously, there are more successful female agents now than there have ever been and that is great to see, but it’s still nowhere near the level that it is on the male scale. There’s still a bit of a boys’ club mentality out there, which we’re still cracking away at trying to break.”

“People stay with Earth because we offer something bespoke in terms of both agents and artists”

Of the founding partners, Prochnik is now with Wasserman Music, while Angus works for environmental charity ClientEarth. Although Williamson considers key agents and clients moving on as simply “part of the game”, he points out the company’s retention rate is “largely very good”.

“People stay with Earth because we offer something bespoke in terms of both agents and artists, and I see that in action on a daily basis,” he stresses.

In its early years, the agency found itself at the forefront of the grime phenomenon when it represented the likes of Skepta. Earth’s current roster includes acts such as Sega Bodega, Death in Vegas, Bad Gyal, Buzzcocks, Gilles Peterson, James Holden, The Zombies, WSTRN, MJ Cole, M1llionz, BNXN, Lisa O’Neill, Aluna, Balmorhea and KRS-ONE, but Williamson is keen to stress its strength is in the collective.

“We have headliners, but they’re a reasonably fractional part of our business,” he says. “Most of the work we do is with people who are a little bit underneath that tier but are creatives with successful touring portfolios. They might not be playing 20,000 to 30,000-cap venues, but they might consistently be playing 500 to 3,000- caps – and that’s kind of the point. There has to be an agency that is available to that part of the ecosystem. So to focus on individual artist successes would be to miss the point slightly.”

Indeed, Palmer points out that it is not every artist’s goal to be a “massive touring headliner”.

“Many artists and creatives just want to make a living out of doing things the way they want to do it, and we provide a home where that’s okay,” she concludes.

The full 10th anniversary interview with Earth Agency appears in issue 131 of IQ, out now. The feature will also be published online next week.

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IQ 131, the latest issue of the international live music industry’s leading magazine, is available to read online now.

The November issue marks our first annual indie issue, celebrating the companies forging their own path in today’s live music business.

This edition launches the Indie Champions 2024 list (revealed tomorrow on IQ), examines the realities of running an indie company, and celebrates the anniversaries of Earth Agency and DHP’s George Akins.

Elsewhere, we bid farewell to the 10th edition of the International Festival Forum (IFF) and welcome you aboard the 37th instalment of the International Live Music Conference (aka ILM-Sea).

Meanwhile, this issue spotlights the live music business in Paris and Norway, and inspects the growing demand for festive family fun.

For this edition’s columns, Natasha Gregory (Mother Artists) examines the different ways in which people gauge success and Rob Sealy (Openstage) encourages artists to utilise data in order to make sure fans are not left disappointed during ticket on-sales.

A selection of magazine content will appear online in the next four weeks but to ensure your fix of essential live music industry features, opinion and analysis, click here to subscribe to IQ – or check out what you’re missing out on with the limited preview below:

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IQ Magazine’s fourth annual Pride takeover edition heralds the return of the Loud & Proud playlist, for which our partner agencies have spotlighted fast-emerging queer artists to note.

This year, IQ has extended the Loud & Proud profiles to include a dozen acts represented by ATC Live, CAA, Earth Agency, Midnight Mango, One Fiinix Live, Playbook Artists, Primary Talent, Pure Represents, Queer Artists Agency, Solo, UTA, and WME.

Artists included in Loud & Proud 2024, along with their agents, are:

Asbjørn (DK) Frederik Diness Ove, Queer Music Agency
Beth McCarthy (UK) Jess Kinn, One Fiinix Live
Brimheim (DK) Paul McGivern, Playbook Artists
Evangeline Gentle (CA) Rich Quarterman, Midnight Mango
Fletcher (US) Bilge Morden, CAA
Gia Ford (UK) Caitlin Ballard, ATC Live
Girlband! (UK), Charly Beedell-Tuck, Solo Agency
Liz Lawrence (UK) Hayley Morrison, Simon O’Neill & Angus Baskerville, Pure Represents
Lucky Love (FR) Christina Austin & Jules de Lattre, UTA
Reneé Rapp (US) Lucy Dickins, Ben Totis & Dvora Englefield, WME
She Drew The Gun (UK) Claire Courtney, Earth Agency
Tom Rasmussen (UK) Sally Dunstone, Primary Talent International

Listen to the full Loud & Proud playlist below:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5U1Wb37yhJT9XuYeLfO8cR?si=dc38b05ef6a346cc

The full Loud & Proud feature, including all 12 profiles, is available here for subscribers of IQ Magazine.

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The 16th edition of IQ Magazine’s New Bosses was published in IQ 121 this month, revealing 20 of the most promising 30-and-unders in the international live music business.

To get to know this year’s cohort a little better, IQ conducted interviews with each one of 2023’s New Bosses, discovering their greatest inspirations and pinpointing the reasons for their success.

Catch up on the previous interview with Chloé Abrahams-Duperry, artist & promoter relations manager at Ticketmaster, UK, here. The series continues with Daniel Turner, an agent at Earth Agency (UK).

After completing his mathematics undergrad, Daniel Turner jumped head-first into the music industry. After some experience on the ground at the newly opened Phonox in Brixton, London, he landed a role at Earth Agency as an accounts assistant. It swiftly became clear that his meticulous attention to detail and fluency with numbers could be combined with his desire to work more closely with artists in an agent’s assistant role.

Working with experienced agents Claire Courtney, Mike Deane, Naomi Palmer and Lucy Atkinson over a three-year period brought with it swathes of eclecticism, experience and an understanding of the many aspects of agenting. Now representing a wide-ranging roster of artists himself, including Amaliah, Coco Em, JADALAREIGN and Jordss, Turner champions the more underrepresented intersections of the industry, placing them in positions to thrive and disrupt.

You studied maths at university. Does that background help you at all in your day-to-day work as an agent?
Most definitely. Statistics and interpreting data are things I do every day as an agent so there’s definitely crossover.

Before you started in music, did you know about the roles of agents? If so, how did you find out? And if not, likewise, how did you discover that such jobs existed?
I didn’t know specifically what being a booking agent would entail before getting into the industry but I could hazard a guess. Once I left university, I sent out hundreds of CVs and cover letters to anyone in the industry who would accept them just to get a foot in the door – not thinking specifically about the job that I wanted. The concept of agenting wasn’t something I thought about until I joined Earth initially.

You’re obviously enjoying learning about the business a your career progresses. How would you encourage the next generation to choose the live music sector for their chosen career path?
If you’re passionate about music then there are so many roles within the industry where you can feel like you’re playing a part in something that you love. When I left education, I wasn’t 100% sure about the career that I wanted so I chose something that I had a real passion for in music and went all in on trying to make something work. It ended up being a great decision.

“I sent out hundreds of CVs and cover letters to anyone in the industry who would accept them just to get a foot in the door”

As a New Boss, what one thing would you change to make the live entertainment industry a better place?
We need to continue the progression of, and the conversations around, representation in the industry. Change is happening slowly but there are still not enough faces that look like mine or womxn of colour, represented generally or in positions of power. It’s deflating going to industry events and only seeing a handful of people that look like me. Every facet of life is enriched by diversity. The music industry is no different.

Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
I just want to see the amazing artists that I work with progress and stay happy in their careers. As well as bringing in new and exciting artists who buy into what I want to do as an agent and the strategies I have for them. As long as my roster and I are progressing, year on year, I’ll be happy.

What ambitions do you have for your artists over the next 12 months – and who should we all be looking out for?
My ambition for my artists is to put them in the best possible positions to thrive and shine. Not wanting to single out names as everyone has exciting things coming…but Amaliah, Coco Em & Tom VR all have new music coming out in the next six months or so!

“I only work with artists that I would like to see live as a punter”

You represent artists that other agents might turn down. How do you go about creating strategies for them to expand their fanbases?
Well firstly, I only work with artists that I would like to see live as a punter. It definitely makes it an easier job working with people you actually enjoy their music! When I speak with prospective artists, strategy is key. I speak with them about the best places for them to be positioned to prosper, the network that I’ve created to get them there and link it with their own aspirations as an artist.

Do you have a mentor, or anyone you rely on to bounce ideas off?
I don’t have a specific mentor to shout out but there have been lots of colleagues at Earth throughout the years, some that have moved on and some that are still here now, that have helped me tremendously. There are people that I work closely with that I know would give up their time to help me with any issue and that’s a really valuable thing to have and one that I’m really grateful for.

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With less than a month to go until kick-off, the International Festival Forum (IFF) – the invitation-only event for festival professionals and booking agents – has revealed the first partner agency showcases. The announcement comes as the programme for the event is finalised, with over 800 attendees expected from 40 countries.

Wasserman Music, X-Ray Touring, UTA and Earth Agency are among the world-class booking agencies that will be showcasing festival-ready talent at this year’s IFF in Camden, London.

Following the 27 September opening parties, X-Ray Touring will kick off IFF’s daytime showcase schedule at PowerHaus in Camden on 28 September, presenting Gigi Moss, Psymon Spine, The Native and Zheani.

The following afternoon, Wasserman Music will present Dead Pony, Debbie, flowerovlove, and Piri & Tommy , and Earth Agency showcases Deijuvhs and Haviah Mighty.

Capping off IFF’s showcase schedule later that night, United Talent Agency will present three artists – FAT DOG, Panic Shack and ZAND – under its up-and-coming music brand, Hear This.

The Roskilde team is inviting all IFF delegates to raise a glass at a special birthday celebration in IFF’s host hotel

With a schedule of events that includes daytime conference sessions, pop up agency office spaces around Camden, the eighth edition of IFF “must be the most involved, and wide-reaching yet,” says co-founder Ruud Berends.

As part of this year’s programme, IFF has also announced 50th-anniversary celebrations for Denmark’s marquee festival, Roskilde. On 28 September, at 12:00, IFF will host a unique conversation with the Roskilde team that will cover everything from its 70s roots, to how it thrives today as an organisation linked to the latest trends and ideologies.

Later that day, between 21:00–23:00, the Roskilde team is inviting all IFF delegates to raise a glass at a special birthday celebration in the Glasshouse of IFF’s host hotel, the Holiday Inn in Camden (more details here).

Agencies still to announce showcasing artists over the coming weeks include Primary Talent, ATC Live, Solo and One Fiinix Live. Meanwhile, supporters of this year’s IFF include Ticketmaster, Universe, Tysers, Vatom, eps, Oooosh! Tours, Music Venue Trust, John Henry’s and the UK’s Department for International Trade.

View the full artists’ lineup here, and listen to all the showcasing artists via the official IFF 2022 playlist here. For more information on the IFF’s 2022 schedule, click here.

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The eighth edition of the International Festival Forum (IFF), ILMC’s invitation-only event for festivals and bookers, is now live.

More than 800 delegates are expected to attend this year’s gathering of the international music festival business, with many of the world’s leading booking agencies signed up as partners.

Wasserman Music, WME, CAA, UTA, ICM Partners/Primary Talent, ATC Live, X-Ray Touring, One Finiix Live and Earth Agency are among the first to back the 2022 edition and many of whom will present showcases featuring the hottest new talent.

Alongside the showcases, IFF 2022 will offer the usual plethora of networking, showcases, panels, and parties – all taking place between 27 and 29 September in London.

In addition, IFF has announced a new central hub, the Holiday Inn in Camden, which will be transformed into IFF Central for three days.

IFF has announced a new central hub, the Holiday Inn in Camden, which will be transformed into IFF Central

IFF Central will be exclusive to delegates and will host all conference sessions, complimentary delegate lunches, a late-night bar that’s open until the early hours, and ample space for private meetings.

The hotel also features 100 rooms for delegates in a range of categories, which can be booked at the same time as registering your pass. Room rates are discounted for IFF delegates but there’s a limited number available. Click here for more details.

Since launching in 2015, IFF has gained a reputation for showcasing the most talented emerging artists at early stages of their careers, including Idles, Slaves, Loyle Carner, Public Service Broadcasting, Lewis Capaldi and Shame.

Last year, IFF enjoyed a successful return to a physical event, with a programme that featured a double keynote interview with Melvin Benn and Folkert Koopmans.

More details of IFF 2022, including the provisional schedule, will be announced in due course. If you have an idea for a panel topic, speaker or presentation, please email Ruud Berends.

A limited number of super discounted earlybird passes are now available for just £345 (saving £150 on the full rate). Each pass includes access to all sessions and showcases, lunches, dinners, and some drinks. Click here to register.

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