(CelebrityAccess) Pitchfork has reported that Coachella’s radius clause “isn’t that hard to get around.”
The details of Goldenvoice’s radius clause for its flagship event were released recently during legal proceedings. The company is being sued by the Oregon promoters of the Soul’D Out Festival that accuse Goldenvoice of using a stringent clause that keeps artists from playing any festival in North America from Dec. 15 to May 1, from having any hard ticket concerts in Southern California during that period and to not allow them to “advertise, publicize or leak” any performances at competing festivals on the West Coast from May 1 to May 7, among other agreements.
However, one unnamed booking agent told Pitchfork the clause is “pretty standard” plus “everything is negotiable.” Up-and-coming artists who need to get their names out there can fight the clause and, besideds, Coachella marks the beginning of the summer festival season.
“I’m sure that festival in Oregon is affected by it, but that can also be a polite way of passing on the festival under the guise of Coachella’s radius clause,” the agent told Pitchfork. “Maybe, maybe not, but I don’t know how many bands this has truly affected.”
“Radius clauses are common in the concert business where promoters take great risk and spend huge sums to produce marquee festivals, tours and other shows,” an AEG rep told Variety in response to the lawsuit. “The producers of Coachella will vigorously defend against this lawsuit, which calls into question a long-standing industry practice that is crucial to our ability to continue offering fans the unrivaled experience for which Coachella has become known.”
The Pitchfork article is available here.
