Splendour Promoter Claims Coldplay "Not A Festival Act"

Some of the industry's leading figures have spoken out about factors that drive up the price of high-profile artists in the Are Artists Getting Paid Too Much? panel at BIGSOUND this afternoon.

Jessica Ducrou's Splendour In The Grass and Ken West's Big Day Out festivals both suffered difficult years in 2011/2012 respectively and Ducrou put their disappointing sales down to a very simple point.

"We got a lot of criticism over our ticket price; the reason it was so high was because we paid a shitload to the talent," Ducrou said in today's session.

“[Coldplay] are not a festival band,” she added, explaining that the band just sold 45,000 tickets to a stadium show in Brisbane, yet couldn't get 25,000 to Splendour last year, even with the wealth of other talent on offer.

It was intimated that international artists recognise Australia as a leading music market and price themselves accordingly. West claiming: "Australia's considered to be a bit of a cash cow [to international agents],"

While Ducrou admitted that promoter wars may also be a part of the inflated price. She claimed: "There are promoters who are extremely competitive and they do try and nick acts from you while you're in negotiation."