[LINK] ICT and Artists

[Stephen Loosley]

Hands up who doesn't like Tina Arena?
We need better ICT systems for our artists ...

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/music/tina-arena-takes-financial-gamble-to-promote-her-own-australian-tour-in-august/story-e6frfn09-1226849537579

AFTER losing more money than she has made in a 38-year career as one of Australia’s highest selling artists, Tina Arena is taking on the biggest gamble of her career.

Arena boosted her popularity stakes last year with Dancing With The Stars and the platinum success of her Reset album and will now add concert promoter to her long list of credits.

She is financially backing her own Reset tour in August, joining the increasing number of artists trying to cut out the middle men as royalties from record sales and streaming services decline.

“The people who create the art, the content are in the least favourable position,” she said.

“I still have to put food on the table and I have been working for four decades to do that.

“I have lost more money than I have made in various adventures and in all of those adventures I completely assumed the responsibility of the successes or failures.”

While Arena has managed to post sold-out signs on her regular tours of Australia, she said it was always a struggle to get promoters to back her.

She respects what they do and wants to give it a go after 38 years in entertainment despite knowing the concert business is the riskiest to take on.

“I have never had promoters falling over themselves to do shows for me, a lot of them have needed convincing in the past. So now the only one who needs to be convinced is me,” she said.

“We realise how difficult it is but I know we can do it.”

The hands-on singer and songwriter was also motivated to take on the risk because of the impact piracy has had on her album sales.

She has calculated she has lost at least 10 per cent of her album sales in the past year to illegal downloads.

“Reset exceeded all my expectations and I never expected it to do those kind of numbers, selling 100,000 copies,” she said.

“If you think in terms of the 1990s, that’s not a lot of records but 100,000 people have respected me and done the right thing.

“Between 10,000 and 15,000 copies were illegally downloaded on the day of release and what those people don’t understand is they are literally taking food off your plate.”

Like Radiohead, Beck and The Black Keys, Arena believes streaming services will also have a negative impact on the ability of artists to make a living out of their music.

“What is terrifying is we now have these streaming services that are making extraordinary amounts of money and yet the distribution of royalties to the artist is virtually invisible, a fifth of a cent every time it’s played. Artist rights have regressed,” she said.

Tickets for the Reset tour go on sale on March 20. Arena performs at the Crown Theatre in Perth on August 15, Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide on August 18, Brisbane Convention Centre, August 24, The Star Event Centre, Sydney on September 11 and Palais Theatre, Melbourne on September 17.

For all dates, go to tinaarena.com