Challis For Reeperbahn Keynote

UK entertainment lawyer Ben Challis will tackle the topical and contentious subject of mergers and acquisitions and their effect on the music industry at this year’s Reeperbahn Festival.

Challis, who’s general counsel for Glastonbury Festival and a co-founder of A Greener Festival, will open the annual conference a couple of weeks after the European Commission is due to rule on Universal’s $1.9 billion takeover of EMI’s recorded music business.

Apart from talking about the merger of major record companies and concert promoters, he’ll also touch on how the ticketing business and the global digital media are impacted by such deals.

Challis, whose keynote is titled “Diversity At Risk?” is also a visiting professor at Bucks New University, where he lectures on monopolies law among other subjects.

Other subjects already confirmed for the agenda at Reeperbahn, which is in Hamburg Sept. 20-22, include a comparison of Europe’s major music markets, such as Germany, France and the UK.