Goodlive Artists Austria (GAA) co-MD Silvio Huber has brought IQ up to speed on the industry’s fortunes since the resumption of touring.

The Vienna-based promoter belatedly kicked off its concert year in March with a concert by Yanya Nilüfer at 700-cap club Grelle Forelle in the capital, while recent successful shows have included Conan Gray at the city’s 3,000-cap Gasometer.

And while Huber, who was head of booking for Arcadia Live before switching to Goodlive’s newly launched Austrian office last year is delighted to be back in business, it has not all been plain sailing so far.

“First of all, it’s great that we are able to promote shows again, but I would call it a bumpy restart,” he says. “There are lots of different and new challenges we must adapt to. We started with the first shows when the country saw the highest infections numbers ever, which wasn’t really a solid argument to buy a ticket.”

“WE HAVE NOTICED A VERY LATE BUYING PATTERN, ESPECIALLY IN THE FIRST WEEKS AFTER REOPENING”

Huber says the natural enthusiasm from the public to see international artists for the first time in two years has been tempered by the market being “slightly overplayed”.

“Postponed shows compete with new ones and not everyone is feeling ready for indoor shows yet,” he observes. “We have noticed a very late buying pattern, especially in the first weeks after reopening. Sometimes almost 50% of total sales were in the last one to two weeks, followed by high no-show rates of 30% or similar.

“Currently those figures are better, but we do see a hesitant buying attitude for shows in the autumn and winter.”

GAA has forthcoming dates with the likes of George Ezra, Moderat and Macy Gray, and has just started working with Dice following the ticketing platform’s expansion to Germany.

“That will be an exciting journey for sure,” says Huber. “Additionally, it underlines our ambition to abandon the well-trodden paths and break new ground.”

“WE NEED TO FIND A WAY TO BALANCE OUT RISING COSTS, TICKET PRICES AND ARTIST FEES”

Though Huber admits to some trepidation with regards to the latter part of 2022, he believes that live music is well placed to overcome the obstacles of an increasingly challenging economy.

“This year’s cold season will be an unpredictable and tough challenge,” he advises. “Even if Covid isn’t an issue anymore and most of the current problems have been solved, we still have to deal with the impact of high inflation. Therefore we need to find a way to balance out rising costs, ticket prices and artist fees, but need to consider that people have less money to spend.

“On the other side, they will be looking for entertainment to get distracted. With this in mind our industry should be able to overcome another big challenge after the pandemic.”

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