Features
‘There Isn’t A Blueprint On How To Break An Act’: Q’s With Ben Coles, Music Agent, CAA
For Pollstar’s inaugural UK Focus, we reached out to a selection of agents working out of London, to talk about everything from booking trends, and ticket prices to regional differences across the country, and business philosophies. We also asked them about current artists to watch. Here’s what Ben Coles, Music Agent at CAA UK, had to say.
Pollstar: What’s the most important quality to display as a music agent in 2024, and why?
Ben ColesI believe that artists and managers are looking for honesty, passion and a solid strategy from their agents. It is so important to be well informed in the genre and markets that you are working in and to be able to come to your clients with a plan to take them to the next level of their career. Sometimes you might need to deliver bad news but if you’ve taken the time to build a real connection with the artists and managers that you’re working with, then you should be able to move past whatever the issue is and that relationship will only grow stronger over time. This business is all about relationships, so be nice to each other out there!
Are you booking shows and locking in dates earlier and earlier in order to get avails these days? And are there certain music genres enjoying a renaissance, or just stand out in terms of demand and popularity?
We seem to be booking earlier and earlier to make sure we secure the right rooms and a geographically pleasing routing. In terms of genres, pop seems to be selling very well in the UK right now in the large indoor theatre and arena spaces. CAA has gone up with multiple tours in the last 12 months, which have all done incredibly strong business selling out across the board, including Madison Beer, Conan Gray, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, Becky Hill, James Arthur, Niall Horan, Tate McRae, Fletcher, Jason Derulo, Maisie Peters, and Busted, to name a few..
Is there need and room to raise ticket prices? Maybe only in certain customer segments/VIP tiers? Do you find any price resistance in any UK demographic these days?
This is something that we talk about a lot in our agents meetings. We need to be mindful to the fans during this cost-of-living crisis, but at the same time it is becoming harder and harder for artists to make touring work financially, and many times increasing ticket prices is the only way of getting the guarantee increased to a point where it makes sense to do the show.
An £8 ticket price for a debut London headline show in a 200-cap venue might have been the norm five to seven years ago for some bands, but £8 will just about get you a pint of beer in London these days, so ticket prices clearly need to be adjusted accordingly! I have pushed to get ticket prices increased from what promoters initially proposed on my last five European tours and all have sold out quickly with no resistance from fans.
Aside from raising ticket prices, one way of ensuring a higher profit margin while touring in an inflationary economy would be to reduce production. How open are artists to that conversation in your experience?
Some career artists who rely nearly solely on live to make a living are open to it and for some it’s not even a conversation. It all depends on the type of artist, but I would defer this question to the managers and business managers, who are the ones putting the budgets together and needing to have the really hard conversations!
Does the UK have territorial differences if you look at the country on a market by market basis? Are there difference to the way you operate when crossing the Scottish, Irish or Welsh borders?
It seems to vary market by market and tour by tour. I’ve had an artist play two UK tours over a five-year period where Cardiff was the fastest show to sell out on the first tour and then was one of the slowest on the next tour, so you need to approach with caution in this post-COVID world. Scotland gets a lot more shows than Wales and Northern Ireland, but for my UK acts, I’m consciously trying to get them to Cardiff, and Belfast to grow their fanbase in those regions. A good example of this is Becky Hill. We had Becky play an outdoor 5,000-cap show in Belfast last year which blew out and we’ve followed that up with a headline show as part of Belsonic this summer, which is on track to sell over 15,000 tickets.
What’s your business strategy or philosophy for newcomers, in particular, in today’s world where it’s never been more expensive to tour?
We have a different strategy for every act we sign and all it will all depend on what sort of artist they are, what the release plan is and when it comes to playing live, what level of access they have to tour support etc. No two artists are the same, so there isn’t a blueprint on how to break an act! It’s important that the artist has a strong work ethic, and a long-term vision for what they want the project to be, as we can then go out, and really fight for the act, and put a plan together that makes sense.
Which artist(s) should everyone have on their radars right now?
The Last Dinner Party.