The Agent by Joey Alvare – an international famous brand

Reporter: Who are you Mr Joey de Alvare and what about theagent.ro? On the cultural market, where it is the position of theagent.ro?

Joey Alvare: I think the first thing that has to be said about myself is that I am probably one of the oldest participants and the remaining music business since the times of after the so-called revolution of 1990. As a whole I would like to think of myself as an international celebrity booking agent, which can be translated to basically a booking agent for international musical stars primarily. In addition to this I have been also a promoter and I am also a promoter of international concerts in Romania. I don't really think that it's easy to explain what position one might have in the Romanian concert market or cultural market. I would like to think that I have always been a defender of quality music and high-class International concerts. There are probably bigger and more important experts as there are bigger and more important promoters but I have always tried to be very good and what I have done.    

Reporter: This year, The agent.ro is preparing to bring  some of the most famous singers: Charles Aznavour, Alessandro Safina, Julio Iglesias....for these performances/concerts, from the Romanian audiance, what are your expectations?

Joey Alvare: My expectations for these concerts are high.  I can however say that it is becoming more and more difficult to promote shows in Romania in particular Bucharest as the competition is much more numerous than before. I am proud of the fact that after over 22 years in the business I am still working with what I consider to be the top echelon of artists

Reporter: The selection of the artists invited to perform in Romania is based on which criterias? Are these criterias the same for the others countries where you organized concerts?

Joey Alvare: At this point in my career I am proud to be able to say that the most important criteria in choosing artists is number one, my desire to work with that particular artist and number two, the success I think that artist will have among the more cultured remaining in public.

Reporter: What do you need to be an artistic agent or/and a concert manager?

Joey Alvare: In order to be a good artistic agent the main quality you must have is very good communication skills and the ability to be able to effectively reach and convince all sorts of very difficult people.

To be a good promoter the main quality you must have is a fantastic feeling for street promotion and modern age mass communication channels. You must also be a good Guesser as in the business of concert promotion you lose money a lot easier than you make it

Reporter: How do you feel the show-biz market now?

Joey Alvare: In Romania the businesses has become complicated. It is still my opinion that the local market is dominated by the compromises that record companies made after the authors rights law was implemented in 1996. What I mean by that is the fact that In my opinion a lot of valuable composers have been left behind and are not being promoted.  It still seems to me as if to have a musical education Rumania is a disadvantage to being promoted in the business. On an international level the artistic act has gone through an extremely inflationary period. This is mainly due to the fact that the main earning vehicle of the Music business has changed. Up until the late 90s the main vehicle of earnings was record sales or CD sales and due to its decline, artists have concentrated their earnings in concerts and similar activities. This has brought about the birth of huge musical multinationals such as live nation. The fees of artists have therefore grown fantastically with the development of new live markets new venues and new ideas in the development of music.

Reporter: It is the music role only for entertainement  or should make education and put  people into direction to think deeply?

Joey Alvare: In my opinion music should have both an entertainment role as well as cultural role.

Reporter: What were the main arguments of theagent.ro to convince the famous singer to come in Romania this year?

Joey Alvare: Every time an artist is contracted to come and do a concert in a country or city it is based on an offer which has a financial component which must be supported by numbers illustrating a revenue and how both the artist and the promoter are to make money. It goes without saying that the artist will try and make as much money as possible while the promoter will try and make as much money as he can also while not making too much 'noise 'in front of the artist. There is not a lot of science in this. The basic concept is to buy cheap and sell as expensive as possible. Now that Romania is a more developed market it becomes more and more difficult to obtain good deals as top-quality artists are convince that they will sell out their shows. There is also a factor of charm and history as well as reputation on the part of the promoter and the person negotiating. Here it's clear that some of us old people have certain advantage (smile).