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Business News Live Business
Global focuses on festivals as two live music execs move to Live Nation
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 7 September 2017
Global’s live entertainment division will be focusing on its festivals portfolio rather than touring activity following the departure of two execs, who are off to join rival Live Nation.
As previously reported, radio firm Global has been growing its music business operations for a few years now, initially dabbling in artist management and music publishing before moving into live. Transatlantic ambitions in the live space saw the hiring of former AEG Live boss Randy Phillips in 2015, but his tenure was short lived, and plans seemed to be scaled back somewhat following his departure.
Though that didn’t stop Global becoming the second biggest music festival owner in the UK. It initially bought into existing festival maker Broadwick Live, also in 2015, and has since bought up a number of other independent events to add to the Broadwick portfolio.
Confirming those festivals were currently the priority, a spokesperson told IQ: “Two years after we made our first move into the festivals business, we’re the second largest operator in the UK, and we’re seeing significant growth. We’ve therefore made the decision to focus on this part of the business, and while we will still do some touring, we’re prioritising growing our festivals business”.
The execs departing Global’s live unit are Sam Bush and Joe Schiavon, who have both moved over to Live Nation UK, which continues to expand at quite a pace. Bush and Schiavon aren’t the only new hires on the touring side of Live Nation’s UK business, with Kamran Haq and Sean Ryman also joining the firm.
