Branson eyes expanding Virgin music festivals

NEW YORK (Reuters) - British billionaire Richard Branson said on Wednesday that he was looking to set up music festivals in several countries as rock stars take to the road to offset dwindling music sales.

Branson, the flamboyant chairman of the Virgin Group, launched V Fest in Britain about 10 years ago, a festival which now runs for two days a year with a list of top-ranking bands and musicians.

This month he branched out into North America, with the first Virgin Festivals in Canada and the United States and he plans to expand to Australia next year.

"We are also looking at Italy, at Spain, and South Africa. We will roll it out," he added.

With CD sales down and corporate ownership tightening radio play lists, concert tours have become the most dependable way for established acts to pay the bills and to give new acts the chance to gain some exposure.

"Tours will play a much greater part in the coming years. From a band's point of view, they make more out of playing live than out of music sales," Branson told Reuters in a telephone interview from Canada.

"The great thing about doing it in more than one country is that we can coordinate it so we get the bands moving around between countries and coordinating their schedules."

North American tours generated a record $3.1 billion in 2005, according to online industry watchdog Pollstar and the figure is expected to be higher this year.

This trend has seen the reemergence of some older bands and singers on the concert circuit.

British band The Who kicked off the U.S. leg of their first world tour for more than 20 years this week and will headline the Virgin Festival in Baltimore on September 23 alongside The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Branson said setting up these festivals was taking Virgin back to its roots -- as well as building on the increasingly tight relationship between mobile phone and music companies.

"We have gone into airlines, trains and other areas but our background was always to build a big music company," he said.

Reuters

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