German Awards Avoid ILMC Clash

Although it didn’t seem to reduce the German event’s 2008 attendance, next February’s Live Entertainment Awards (LEAs) won’t be clashing with ILMC.

Some German promoters must have left this year’s ILMC March 7-9 as soon as it ended to make the Hamburg awards ceremony March 11. Next year’s LEAs ceremony is Feb. 26.

Jens Michow, head of promoting association IDKV and one of the leading lights on the LEA organising committee, says the 2008 clash was regrettable but it’s a case of selecting the best date the city’s Colorline Arena has available. The event has grown since it started in the much smaller Fliegende Bauten in 2006.

A recent trade survey conducted by IDKV and Musikmarkt magazine, which helps produce the LEAs, found Germans spent euro 2.8 billion ($4.02 billion) at musical events in 2007.

It accounted for 70 percent of the total amount spent on entertainment, and 42 percent of the $4.02 billion went to concert tickets.

IFPI figures indicate the amount spent on recorded music in the same period was euro 1.6 billion ($2.23 billion), about 70 percent of the live music total.

The survey also showed 53 percent of the population go to at least one show per year, paying an average of euro 44 ($63) for a ticket.